The Candle Exercise

Psychic Maria Duval says that the candle exercise is excellent for achieving the level of concentration conducive to good visualisation. Settle yourself down comfortably and steady your breathing so it is calm and relaxed. Close your eyes and, behind the ʻscreenʼ of your closed eyelids, at a point located between the eyebrows, just above the bridge of your nose (third eye), visualise a candle, with strength and determination.

Create a mental image of a candle, first the base in white or coloured wax, the wick, then the blue, gas-like flame and finally the yellow-orange flame, which flickers gently, as if in a light breeze. Keep the image of the object firmly in your mind, without losing your concentration…donʼt allow other thoughts to invade your mind… Once you can manage to maintain a clear image for several minutes, without losing yourself in parasitic thoughts that dissolve the image, you can consider the exercise complete. You have to be able to ʻseeʼ the candle, in as much detail as possible, with your eyes closed.

Maria Duval confirms that this exercise will teach you to create thought-forms and to develop your ʻpsychic visionʼ.

If necessary, you can go through a preliminary stage before you do the exercise. This involves lighting a candle and focusing all your attention on it (at a distance of around 40 centimetres from your face), keeping your eyes open, without blinking. Try to memorise every last detail faithfully. Then close your eyes (before they start watering!): youʼll notice how the image of the candle remains fixed for a moment on the retina of your eye, before gradually dissolving. Before the image totally disappears, recreate the thought-form of that candle using a mental image… In other words, from that point onwards, focus your concentration on the internalized image of the candle within you and visualise it. Imagine a beautiful halo of golden light completely surrounding this candle. Hold this perception for as long as possible.

Persevere with your training: after several attempts, youʼll find youʼre able to hold clearer, more detailed images, for longer and longer periods.

Maria Duval's exercise to improve Concentration

Maria Duval suggests to me to do this exercise to improve my concentration level.

Take a sheet of cardboard and draw a black dot in the centre. The size of the dot doesn't matter as the main thing is that you can see it clearly.

Next, sit down comfortably and place the card board in front of you and look at the black dot.

For a minute or so, just look at the dot without making any kind of effort. Let your gaze rest on the black surface of the dot and stick to it. Don't think of anything. If a thought comes into your mind, don't "fight" it. let it drift away and dissipate.

Maria Duval continues and says now look at the black dot but focus on its centre, as if you wanted to see what it contained. Try not to blink and do this for 2 minutes.

Now you are in the perfect pose to get acquainted with the black dot. If asked to, you would have no difficulty in drawing it.

Put the cardboard to one side and close your eyes. Try to see the dot in your mind's eye. All you have to do is to reconstruct the image as you have just seen it. In only a few seconds you will have the impression that the black dot is floating in your head and becomes fixed in the region of your forehead.

You may end this concentration exercise from Maria Duval once you have "found" this "floating" image.

Focus your attention

Maria Duval tells me that concentration is an important ability to focus and fix your attention of an idea or object to the extent that no external influences may even affect your mental focal point.

"Being able to concentrate" means having the power to focus all your mental energy on a single thing at a time, without allowing youself to be completely distracted by events that occur around you.

One good example Maria Duval gives is the magnifying glass that is under focus of sunlight on a hot day. The glass will focus the sunlight into an even more powerful ray of light that can cause burnt marks. In the same way, by concentrating your mind, all your mental energy can be focused to produce an energy that can bring you to a higher level in life.

Maria Duval assures you that concentration is one of the more important elements to success.

if you want to achieve any form of success in life, you must learn to focus your attention, thoughts, emotions, desires and determination. Focus them like the sun's rays, on a single point.

Observe the top sports men and sports women. Aren't they all possess the highest possible of level when they are in their game? Same level of intense concentration applies to many outstanding personalities in their respective field of excellence.

Maria Duval on Tarot and Crystal Ball Divinations

One particular kind of clairvoyance which Maria Duval excels at is Tarot divinations. As there are a few kinds of tarot cards, what Maria does in this instance varies from person to person, as some people prefer a particular form of tarot, while others prefer other tarot cards.

There are magic tarots, and there are tarots which are more suitable to a particular person. Maria Duval personally likes her Belline tarot cards, and during consultation, she draws the tarot cards for the clients and read for them.

A simple example of tarot card psychic consultation session is that, when a person visits Maria Duval, a tarot card will be picked with their left hand, and well, that tarot card says to Maria: "you are a lonely woman". Maria Duval will go into more depth afterwards, but the first tarot card has already told her. If it’s a men, the card says "you are going to have a problem with a woman", or, "the woman in your life is going to present you with a problem". However, a problem isn’t necessarily something that’s impossible to resolve.

Then, for people who are rather more intellectual, who are more cerebral, shall we say, or who are seeking a certain intellectualism. Maria Duval will use the "ink stain" divination. The client will write the question here on a piece of paper without showing to Maria who will use to ink stains 13 times, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and then she would focus intently on the question asked. Next, the paper will be folded into half and Maria will seek the client to reveal the question. It’s a very pretty picture, and you can see it’s divided into sections, with very good bits and bits that are not so good.

This is how Maria interprets it. I know it is is not clearly written as I do not have a full picture of a psychic session.

Sometimes, the interpretation just would not arrive and it is frustrating in such cases. If this happens, another method has to be used, like crystal ball. This requires intense concentration from the psychic who will focus on the ball and try to see a picture, like in a film, sequences of life, but it take up a lot of energy.

Keep Up Your Concentration

When you have identified and fixed on your objectives, divide them into short term, long term or even mid term. To convert your objectives into projects you will have planned a certain number of stages. You can picture the whole of your dream, clarified by your objectives and given shape by your projects.

Now you need to focus on your immediate objective. Do not allow your mind to wander on to the next few steps until you have achieved your initial aim.

The important ting is not to devote more time to a task, but to focus all your attention on the activity in questions

It's much more efficient to work with time than against it. For example, by putting in the most effort at the time of the day when you feel most alert. For people, this most efficient time varies, some in the morning while some in the afternoon or evening.

Maria Duval - body posture for good concentration

The third point from Maria Duval for achieving good level of concentration is - Body Posture. Body posture will help you to concentrate because it was developed by men in possession of esoteric secrets from the Far East who have a profound knowledge of how energy circulates round the human body.

You can choose the one that seems to suit you best, remembering that the position you adopt should be a steady and comfortable zone.

Steady does not mean stiff or heavy. Comfortable does not mean soft or languid. You need to be straight without being rigid, firm without being tense, relaxed without being floppy.

If you don't need to use a cushion, simply sit down on a blanket folded in four, or on a mat.

Never wear tight clothes; find ones that are loose and good energy conductors like cotton, silk or wool.

To help you to find your centre of balance in a sitting position, it might be useful to rock your upper body backwards and forwards a few times. Then sway round in circles from the waist, slowly and attentively, first in one direction and then the other.

Take the greatest care over settling into the right posture, because successful concentration depends on it.

Achieving good level of concentration

We shall continue from yesterday's post about concentration by Maria Duval.

Once you have started the practice, for a while, you will then condition yourself, but in the positive sense of the word, and you will look forward with pleasure, if not impatience, to the same time each day when you will be alone with yourself. You will be giving yourself a treat: some space and time that will be all yours for recharging your batteries.

You can regard this routine as a discipline if you want to, but one which nevertheless offers the pleasure of perpetual discovery.

It's a matter of getting into a habit, just like a musician doing piano practice every morning, or a gardener watering his vegetable patch, pr perhaps someone brushing their teeth after every meal.

Once this habit has become ingrained through practise, it will get easier and easier for you to concentrate at will.

The energy you need to concentrate will come to you automatically and concentrating will be just as natural and spontaneous a thing as a flower exhaling its perfume.

Tomorrow I will post about the next factor taught by Maria Duval for achieving good concentration.

How to achieve a good level of concentration

Maria Duval states that the first important thing to note in order to achieve good concentration is your most precious asset - Time.

You need to train yourself regularly and step by step so that you can learn to use your mind, your psychic power, like a tool that is wholly reliable and permanently available.

Any time is favourable, as long as you sure that you are not going to be disturbed for a quarter of an hour, half an hour, an hour, by any noise, visitors, telephone calls and so on.

Choose a time when you feel really fresh and alert to work on your concentration. This might be in the morning, the afternoon, the evening or the night, depending on your temperament. Once you have chosen your time, stick to it. At least for a while: a few weeks if you are a beginner.

To be continued....

Maria Duval: more about concentration

Today, I will discuss more about concentration.

Maria Duval uses this example as a concentration. If you use a magnifying glass to direct ray of sunlight, the light will be sharply focused at a certain focal length and the piece of paper being shone will be burned. Similarly, if you mind can concentrate like a magnifying glass, the issues you are focusing on will be burned as a flash of enlightenment. When you are in this state of concentration, problems can be easily solved in minutes.

Concentration is the faculty that makes people great. If you want to be successful, to do something worthwhile and reach the highest rungs of your life, you must learn to channel your attention, your thoughts, your feelings, your desires and your will. People are highly successful are also people who are capable of concentrating their mind.

Maria Duval says there are two aspects of concentration.

1. Concentration that involves regular practice sessions, performed using specific places, times and body postures and breathing technique.

2. Another aspect is brought to bear on life itself, as it happens, with its obvious repetition, but with all its variations and surprises too.

Concentration skills can be exercised and reinforced for these two aspects of concentration as linked by a law called law of complementarity. Understanding and observing this phenomenon is one of the keys to success.

Maria Duval: Concentration and focus

Psychic Maria Duval says that for most of the time, we are barely conscious of what we are about, because there are so many projects, memories, words and images chasing each other rapidly through our brains, overlapping and interlacing in a totally free and chaotic manner.

There are not many people who can decide to devote their attention wholeheartedly to
something, even for a short frame, without getting their thoughts confused or distracted. We disperse and dissipate our mental energy all the time and our mental concentration fails us repeatedly when we are supposed to produce the goods.

Do you know that some of the most successful people perform well because they can focus their mind effectively? Concentration is nothing but the power to focus all your psychic forces on a single point at a time without being distracted by surrounding events.

I'll post more about concentration and focus as I read more of Maria Duval's book on this subject.