You know very well that you can be depleted of magnetism. You know that you can be full of magnetism. You know that there are some people who exercise an extraordinary magnetic attraction for you and there are some people who really charge you with energy by their being. There are people who rob you of your energy.

You know that there are different levels of magnetism. There's the magnetism of the body; there's the magnetism of the mind; there's the magnetism of the heart; there's the magnetism of the soul; and there's the magnetism of the Spirit.

Physical Magnetism

Now, the magnetism of the body you find in a person who is very vital, generally amongst younger people. In old age one loses this magnetism. Hopefully it is replaced by another form of magnetism, otherwise one is a very empty receptacle. This magnetism does depend upon quite a number of factors.

It depends upon first of all knowing how to replenish this magnetism. There are some very simple things, like the proper food, which seems very elementary; but it is only just these last decades that people are beginning to learn how to eat. It also includes the knowledge of being able to draw the magnetism of the different elements in one. It is the reason why in the purification practice Murshid talks about how he teaches one how to be able to

breathe in the magnetism of the earth as you are walking on the earth, and
breathe in the magnetism of the water as you are standing by a stream, and
the magnetism of the fire as, for example, by looking into the sun, of course, and
drawing the magnetism of the air in by walking in the wind, experiencing the vitality of the wind, and also
the magnetism of the ether when you look into outer space.

There are breathing practices corresponding to it: In through the nose and out through the mouth is Water; in through the mouth and out through the nose is Fire; in through the mouth and out through the mouth is Air. The other breath is the breath which becomes so light that it is hardly perceptible at all, when it is your magnetic field that is breathing instead of your physical body.

We are living absolutely the wrong way, there's no doubt about it. That's why one of the aspects of the New Age is communes, because (it allows people) to get back to nature. Living in boxes as we do, houses, is alright, as long as we still have contact with nature. In the cities we live the wrong way, and therefore it is not surprising that people are ill. Then people go on holidays, and what do they do? They go to beaches, which are crowded, and build themselves protection against the sun. I spoke yesterday about this rishi who sits in the snow. Of course it is no use for you to go out and sit on the ground all night if you haven't got yourself used to it. If you can gradually strengthen yourself you will have the strength to be able to withstand conditions which you would be surprised that you are ever able to do; and it is because of our weakening of our resistance that we are ill. We blame it on microbes, but if we are strong enough we can overcome the germs and microbes.

So first thing, harden yourselves, like, sleep on a hard bed. Get up and shake yourself and go into the cold air and do your breathing practices. Wash in cold water. Don't always try to protect yourself and be in a comfortable, protected atmosphere. Expose yourself to hardship. That's what will give you vitality. All of these people dying of heart attacks: no exercise! They are also eating the wrong foods. Millions of people are dying of heart attacks, and it is simply the result of not understanding the most basic principles of life.

Especially in middle-age, one has subjected one's body to so much strain, at that time you begin to feel the strain of it. Then you realize that one needs oxygen, one needs exercise. So keep yourself trim all the time, because you need Brother Ass in order to live on the planet.

It is very unfair to that lump of flesh that you inherited from the planet to treat it so badly. After all, it is the temple of God. So strain yourself a little bit beyond your means. Not too much, but increase the strain all the time. That's the thing to do! For all of us have a whim of overdoing it, and then you can spoil your health for good.

Now the other thing is evacuation, cleaning the tubes. There was a time that I always had colds. It has been a long time since I've had one. The reason is because the thing to do is wash the tongue every morning. I mean brush your tongue real hard with a brush, right to the back. That's a yoga technique, you wash the back of your throat. This is part of those tubes that get clogged up. One of the things I suffer from most is the bad breath of people. It is terribly annoying! You are speaking to people and you feel that bad breath and you know that they can't be healthy if they are entertaining all this poison in the mouth, which is the instrument of the Divine force of Breath.

The same applies to the nose. You can wash your nose every morning with water. There are tubes that you can buy in the health food stores that you can pour the water in one nostril and bring it out in the other.

You should know how to fast from time to time, and to take an enema. Fasting without an enema is a most dangerous thing. A lot of people do it. Clear your system out completely. There are finer channels which have to be unclogged. Of course, by running, the blood rushes through your veins and it unclogs quite a number of veins that are clogged up.

Breathing practices will do it. The very fine breath will reach into finer tubes in the body that Hazrat Inayat Khan speaks about and which are in fact the nerves.

The prana, well actually, even physically speaking, the oxygen that passes through the lungs, is brought into the blood stream, but after passing through the blood stream it passes into every cell of the body, including the nerves. There are certain asanas in yoga that are absolutely essential to bring vitality in the different nerves, that means in the whole network of nerves, and in the centers. And many of the practices that we've been doing in the seminars are to develop the chakras, which are the centers of the whole nervous system.

We have to take into account the action of the mind upon the body and the action of the body upon the mind. Remember that death is always produced when the body is unable to hold the soul. It has lost the magnetism to hold the soul. Between these two is the mind. When the body is unable to hold the mind, the mind is functioning without the body and doesn't need the body; and the body desperately tries to hang onto it, and it doesn't have enough magnetism to hold it. So it is the magnetism of the body that keeps you in life, and one has to know how to draw this magnetism in. Food is one means of drawing in that kind of energy that manifests itself finally in magnetism. You could say that the body is a transformer of energy. Food that is a substance of the earth has passed through the process of your body and been transformed into a magnetic field.

The magnetic field is what holds your body together. In fact, the magnetic field is the womb of your body. It existed before your body was formed. Inside the womb of the mother the magnetic field is drawing the cells of nourishment into a pattern. It is the magnetic field that is the mold. After the body has been formed the magnetic field unfolds as a consequence of the unfoldment of the body. After the death of the body the magnetic field will continue to live. So it is very important to know how to keep your magnetic field in a good state. Remember that consciousness of the magnetic field will increase it.

First of all, feel your magnetic field. Identify yourself with the magnetic field and breathe through the magnetic field. When you exhale feel the expansion of the magnetic field, and as you inhale feel the contraction and, at the same time the, packing-in of all that energy that seems to be compressed. You know how you can go about the world being so conscious of your magnetic field that you hesitate passing through a door because it is not big enough to let your magnetic field pass through it. That's when it is really effective. When you are really conscious, your consciousness is not here but there. That's where you are: there. That will give you a lot of strength. You have to watch your magnetic field. See what situations are robbing you of your magnetism. You felt fine until you met that person, and now it's all gone. The reciprocal is true, that you can rob people of their magnetic field. When you find that people are trying to run away from you, that's what it is. It is you robbing them of their magnetism. It might not be the physical magnetic field, it might be another at some level, but still that is what's happening. So you can test your magnetism by seeing how people react to you, because it is a give-and-take of magnetism between one battery to another. That's what people are, they are batteries of energy; and the greatest thing that you can do to a person is to give him energy, to give him life. So don't rob people of their magnetic field.

But on the other hand it is in the nature of life that energy is communicated from one being to another, and there are some beings whose magnetism is so great and who desire to give you their magnetism and therefore it is perfectly alright for you to take their magnetism in. It is something that you have to feel, but there is a law here which Hazrat Inayat Khan talked about, and that is that the extent of your physical magnetism is rather limited. Once it is been expended, well, then it is been expended, Whereas the magnetism of the mind, and the magnetism of the heart, and the magnetism of the soul, each one of these is wider. Let's say that your store of magnetism is greater. So you can have, like I said, in old age very little magnetism of the body but much more magnetism on the other levels. The fact is, how much physical magnetism can you give to a person is very little. Then, soon you are exhausted. But the store of magnetism of your soul is so great that you can give them a lot and you won't be depleted. So people will try to draw upon your physical magnetism and you have to know how to prevent them from drawing upon your physical magnetism and give them of your soul magnetism. That's where you must avoid letting them draw you into your physical consciousness but maintain yourself in your soul consciousness. Then you can give them the magnetism of your soul instead of the magnetism of your body.

Mental Magnetism

The magnetism of the mind is a form of life which is communicated by people. For example, people are in a room and there is a dull person there and everybody feels very dull and all of a sudden a bright person comes in with a lot of wit and in no time everybody feels better. That's the miracle of the magnetism of the mind. It is magnetism, you see. It is something that manifests itself in speech, but it can even manifest itself in the glance of a person. You can see right away those who are quick to pick up things and communicate meaningfulness to another person. There are those who have a kind of electricity in their minds, and just immediately it gives you life again. Whereas the mind itself can be depleted of its energy by boredom. Challenging thoughts will immediately give vitality to the mind.

The same thing with the body. You think that you need a lot of sleep, but might find that you can deplete your body by too much sleep, and develop the ability of going into deep sleep fast. I said the other day that there's a curve of sleep, like the first few minutes or hours it takes until one goes right down into deep sleep, and then the curve comes back again. The most precious time is that period, which might be just one hour or two hours of deep sleep in the night. So if you can get into just that deep sleep right away and stay in deep sleep a little longer, then you are able to sleep less long, whereas there are people who sleep superficially and don't get the proper rest. It isn't necessarily so that physical sleep is a help to you, but you have to know how to sleep.

The same is true of the mind. The mind can develop a kind of boredom which is very depleting of your energy, and you have to know how to stimulate your mind by perhaps reading a book if you are home, something that really gives you impetus; and it will give you magnetism. And remember that the magnetism of each plane can be communicated to the next plane, and so the magnetism of the mind will communicate itself, for example, to the physical body. The same thing is true, of course, that it can communicate itself higher.

Heart Magnetism

The magnetism of the heart you find among persons who are just so full of love and kindness. They come in a room and everybody's hearts open, and another person just can't do it. You wonder what is the difference? Well, the difference is because this person has killed his ego and really cares for people, and the other person might try to be loving but isn't really because he doesn't really care in the bottom of his soul, it is just a sort of superficial thing. It is much more worthwhile than the magnetism of the mind.

There is a story of Abdul Qader Jilani. He was a very great Sufi, and people would have followed him to death because he just entered into their hearts. His son was a scholar. He came back from the university and they thought, "Let's hear the son give a talk." Well, nobody smiled. It was a very scholarly talk. Nobody was very impressed, and people seemed to be a little bit bored. Then somebody [else] asked if he would speak. He said something about a chicken and an egg and an egg and a chicken, and everybody was in tears. So it was just his being that opened the hearts of all beings.

This is the magnetism of the heart. Remember that you can only hold this magnetism if you really don't wish anything for yourself. The person who calculates, "What am I getting out of this?", has lost the magnetism of the heart. You can have another magnetism maybe, but you can't have the magnetism of the heart. So maybe you think, "Well, after all, I've done all this work; now if only I could just have an ice cream!", even that will take it away from you! Just the thought, this kind of self-pity: "I wish I could have something", that will do it. The person who has given himself absolutely in dedication to service, that's the one who is loved by all, and people feel it! Don't think that they don't! Oh yes, people can put on a show. There are gurus today who travel in Rolls Royces and have a golden throne. For a time people are impressed by it. But in the end it is the heart that will win.

Soul Magnetism

Then there is the magnetism of the Soul. That magnetism is such a powerful magnetism. It will heal much more than the physical magnetism. That's why I'm stressing these different forms of magnetism, instead of just speaking about healing with physical magnetism, or the magnetism of the body; because that will reach so far and no further, whereas the magnetism of the soul will immediately have an effect upon people. The magnetism of the soul comes from the sincerity of the heart. When you have awakened and you are conscious of being a soul and not being a body and a mind, that's when this magnetism develops. In other words, realization gives you magnetism. So if you want to know how to develop this particular magnetism -- it is not the highest of all magnetisms, but it is the next highest of all -- the way to do it is through realization of your real being, by not allowing yourself to be taken into the disillusion of the personal self. In other words, by being God-conscious. It is God realization. It is this God realization that will make a person able to perform miracles.

I already told you the story of when Murshid went and healed this baby, where actually he gave a blessing to the mother and the child was cured.

There's the story of al-Hallaj, who was invited to the court of the king. The son of the king was dying. They were desperately in search of someone who could heal him. The king ordered them to find someone who can heal him or resurrect him, or something. Then they found this dervish, Al Hallaj, who was lost in Divine contemplation, and they said, "Come along quickly, come to the palace! The son of the king has died!"

And he said, "Bismillah! In the name of God, arise!" And nothing happened. So then he said: "In my name, arise!" and the boy stood up.

Then, of course, the orthodox of Islam were furious that he should have said such a thing that is absolutely contrary to the law of Islam, challenging the will of God by his will. So they beat him to death.

The fact is that when he said, "In my name," he was conscious of the Divine Being. That is why it was effective. Otherwise he couldn't have healed. One is conscious of being God. That's the reason that Al Hallaj was crucified, for saying that. You can say "I am God" only when your "I" does not mean "me." I mean, it does not mean the individual person, then you can say it, whoever it is in you that says it.

This is the secret of healing. One says that to heal, one should be an instrument of the Divine Power of healing. That's the first stage. But the second stage is that one has to be the Divine Power of healing.

The same is true of the teachings of Ibn al-Arabi. So many people these days have been absolutely thrilled by the discovery of Ibn al-Arabi because his philosophy just the most exciting metaphysics you could possibly come across:

"I am the eyes through which God sees." "God can only see as much through me as I am able to see of myself through Him." "In contemplating me, He contemplates Himself."

All of these far-out views of the mind which express a vision of reality seen from different angles at the same time: that's Ibn al-Arabi.

Then you come to Al Hallaj, and he says,

"I am not the eyes through which God sees. I am the Divine Glance."

It is a matter of realization. It is like the different stages that we talked about. At one stage you are still in the maqam when you I are conscious of your being. If you are conscious of your being, at least think of yourself as being the instrument. When you are not conscious of your being, then it is the Divine Consciousness that comes through. That's when you can heal.

There is so much about how to develop healing in your hands, and in your eyes, and in the water, and things like that, those are techniques, and we'll be speaking about them. They are all important, but it is your state of consciousness that will make all the difference in your healing.

You may have some physical magnetism in your hands. You can adopt techniques that will bring the magnetism right down into your fingertips. A violinist has all this magnetism in the ends of his fingers; that's how he's able to play. But how long will the cure be able to operate that you have been able to, the transfusion, let's say, of energy from your finger tips, how long is that going to be able to hold out? You would have to be there all the time with the patient to keep the patient in a good state, whereas, the magnetism of the soul performs miracles. That's the reason Jesus could heal, because he wasn't a healer, it was just because he had reached that consciousness that enables one to heal. It is a communication of life; it is the ability to communicate life.