The mind should be exercised in all healthy channels.
Do not “introspect” or reflect too much on your own inner, mental conditions. You must learn to live outside your head, so to speak, in the outer world. Do not constantly wonder what is going on within your own brain. If you do, you will surely lead yourself into difficulties later on. In short, you should lead a healthy, active life, and, between those times when you experience phenomena, you should think about them, as applied to yourself, as little as possible.
If you desire to obtain certain manifestations, it is not advisable to sit for them or try and obtain them for longer than twenty (20) minutes to half an hour each day. At first five or ten minutes would suffice, and this time can gradually be lengthened as you progress. This is especially important; and the neglect of this rule is one of the great reasons for the dangers which mediums experience later on in their development. Suppose, for example, that some one appeared to you and gave you certain advice as to your course of action. It would certainly be unwise for you to follow this advice in every ease, without inquiring whether or not it would be just and sensible, and without using your own judgment when the advice was given.
Even supposing that the person who appeared to you were really the spirit it claimed to he, there is always the possibility that this spirit may be mistaken, and the further possibility that some malicious and lying spirit was coming to you, pretending to give advice, while in reality it was only leading you astray. There is this further possibility that the figure you saw was not really a spirit at all, but merely the product of your own subconscious imagination. Often this is the case, and yet the figure has given true and sound advice I All that we are stating now is that the judgment of the individual who receives such messages, or advice, must always be exercised upon the message received. If you do not cultivate this habit, you will find that messages often become more and more insistent, when they are not followed, and I will sometimes give untrue or lying information.
They may even urge you to do certain things which are against your own welfare. All this can only be settled by the exercise of right judgment, and by asking the advice of those who know how much to believe in these messages.
It is for this reason that the counsel and help of one who has had long training and experience in this subject is most desirable, during these early stages of mediumship.