We all know of the stories of the apprentice of the wizard who overheard the ‘magic word’ the wizard used to achieve some great result and then tried it out himself with less than satisfactory results.

I will explain why this happens and how you can use the principle to make up your own magic words that actually do work... on you.

Magic has many definitions and the one that I am dealing with at the moment is: "Magic involves the ability to change a state of consciousness at will." And you can learn to do that with your own magic words. And you know that your state affects other people. A miserable person in a group pulls down everyone’s vibrations. A joyful person raises them. Common knowledge. Well if you can change your state at will you can decide how other people besides you are going to be affected.

First, why doesn’t the apprentice get the same results as the wizard if it’s the magic word that does the job? The question contains the answer. It isn’t the magic word that does the job. It’s the work done to make the word magic that does the job.

Here is the principle that always works, the basic rule behind the magic of changing consciousness, going into trance, getting into alpha or theta, or self hypnosis to change some habitual attitude. Add a word, or part of a word to your ritual, or prayer or judo form, whatever it is you are practicing. Always say it before you start and say the rest of it after you finish.

Suppose for example you are a Sylvan Mind Control devotee and use counting backwards to get into alpha. Now this method undoubtedly works. Let’s speed it up with a magic word. Any word will do that is not in current use on radio or TV or in common speech. Let’s go with Xanthera. You don’t hear many people saying that.

Maybe you are at the stage of counting backwards from 25 to 1 to get into the alpha state where much more of your mental abilities are available on tap, so to speak. Say Xan before you start counting down and thera after you get to one. You will still go into alpha and after about 21 repetitions your subconscious will associate Xan with the beginning of your little ritual and thera with the end.

There is no time in your subconscious. We often see adults whose button as a two year old is pushed and the defense or offence that worked then is used by the adult, often totally inappropriately. So when after the practice period you say Xanthera, the subconscious acts as though you have gone through the whole procedure. That single word acts like magic to put you immediately into the alpha state, or whatever you were practicing. But someone who just heard you say it could repeat it until the National Debt is paid off, without result, because it was the work you did to make Xanthera a magic word that made it work.

Maybe you lift weights or stretch cables regularly. Before every workout say a word. After the workout say another. After about 21 sessions you can say the whole word while you are changing and your body will switch into ‘ready to work’ mode in an instant. Don’t forget to say one before your workout, and one after even then. You will have a word that acts like magic to get you into a physically alert condition. Someone who is impressed at the gym by the way you get straight into your schedule might hear you say it if you are a natural loud mouth, but they won’t get any result because your work produced the magic of the word, and they haven’t done the work. I used the words Fiat potens for years when I was a judo instructor and a weight training coach, and did a lot of athletic work. They mean "Let there be power."

I used Latin because not many people use Latin in everyday life. You might use your magic work to get into a trance state quickly. You don’t want some disc jockey or radio announcer to say it and snap you into a trance without your willing it. This is the reason the magicians of centuries ago used Arabic or even Aramaic. So many people knew Latin and Greek that they didn’t risk using them in their personal programming. The Aramaic phrase Avara Kedavra means roughly "what I speak is created" Over the years it became a music hall phrase Abracadabra. Rowlings, who knows a lot of things, uses the opposite spell in her books as Avada Kedavra … one letter difference … "What I speak is destroyed." It’s the killing spell. The other is the Making spell.

Use this principle widely. I have used the split word Re and Lax for years and now I can relax physically in a moment by just mentally saying Relax. It used to involve saying Re and then going from toes to head deliberately breathing properly and tensing and relaxing all the muscles. Then I would say Lax. This is not a dangerous state if someone else says it so I didn’t use Latin or another language.

Maybe you want to remember something you are studying. Use the principle. You are totally in charge of what you put into your subconscious, and you can put in words or pictures that change the current laws of your life. Relax as you look at the book. As your eyes skim over the pages without any attempt to read every word, you’re an adult not a third grader, just say Retain. Your eyes are picking up everything no matter how fast you do it. Do this rapidly two or three times and then close the book and say Recall. Used frequently these words can become magic words for the student. Practice and repetition are required of course, these aren’t Harry Potter spells, they are real spells and they take longer to learn, and sometimes longer to perform. But when you sit down to study something with the armamentarium of Relax, Retain and Recall you, and other people will be astonished at your amazing memory, which becomes photographic using this method.

Maybe you have to study something that you have already programmed yourself to hate, because you loathe the instructor. Giving up on essential knowledge for someone you don’t even like is pretty dumb, but the program must be changed before you can study the hated book. You have realized already I expect that what I have said about magic words is a form of programming where you are in charge of it, unlike the years of programming that people call ‘raising a child.’ All the programs are made of concentrations of energy. So to change a program you have to be able to change the energy.

Fortunately in the case of the hated book that is easy to do. Follow these instructions completely, don’t try out your own version at first. It will almost certainly be based on avoiding the book and your ego satisfaction program will trick you into thinking you actually tried something and it didn’t work.

Put the book on the table and relax. Now imagine you have never seen a book before, not too hard for some students I know. Pick it up as if it were something you have just dug out of the ground on an archaeological dig. Look at it as if you’ve never seen it before. Notice everything you can about the binding, the paper, the colors, without labelling them. You can't label them because you don't know whatit is. Put it down on the table. Pick it up again and look at it again for the first time. Put it down. Do this at least six times and you will find that the energy from the past has run off and the book is here in the present without that burden of stuff from the past programming. Then do your relax, retain, recall and you will get the guts of the material with an ease that you could hardly credit if you hadn’t done the little bit of energy magic.

Some people cannot meditate without their minds going into crazy spins, thinking about dozens of totally unrelated subjects, pulling up pictures, making plans. These same people can meditate without problems if they are walking a labyrinth, or just walking, because the energy that they normally use to enturbulate themselves is run off by the mindless act of walking. That’s the secret of reaching for the book and then withdrawing from it. The enturbulating energy is drained away and you and the book are now in present time. The history behind your attitude is no longer available. Only the book and you. Much more optimum study circumstances.

You can use the same principle to change depression into joy. After all you probably already know how to change joy into depression, but you’ve never looked at how you did it. It was magic but you didn't know it. It isn’t always possible to be happy, but by using this principle you can always be cheerful, and that is sometimes the only and best thing you can do for those around you to keep them in a higher state than they would otherwise attain. Using this simple programming principle will enable you to make dozens of programs to change your energy or attitude at will, just like flicking a switch. It works like magic and it is magic without the fireworks that Hollywood needs because its work is mainly visual.

When a journalist interviews a yogi the only way he can think of photographing him or her is doing a headstand or some complex pose. He can’t photograph the infinite space inside a meditator. When Einstein was working very hard to think through his theory of relativity no journalist or Hollywood photographer could have put across what he was doing with a photograph. He would have looked like he was doing nothing. No entertainment value in a thinker. Your programming is invisible. Only the effects can be seen. Using these principles in EVERY area of your life is possible with a little contemplation. Do it and become a real magician.