the elbow, and will that all feeling shall disappear. In from
one to three minutes, take a needle, and you can stick it
through the skin on the back of the hand without pain. You
may have to try it a dozen times, but persistence will bring
success. Having mastered the sense of feeling, take up that
of hearing.

(2) It may seem impossible at first thought, but you have
seen people so absorbed in what they were reading or thinking
that they heard nothing, although you addressed them
directly. They are simply abstracted from all else, and are
thinking of one thing--to the exclusion of everything else.
They entered this state of abstractedness unconsciously. To
do so intentionally, you go by the law of indirectness. For
instance, take sight; concentrate your vision and your whole
attention upon some object, real or imaginary, until soon the
sense of HEARING becomes dormant. A little practice will
enable you to study, think or sleep, regardless of noise.

(3) Having mastered hearing, begin on SIGHT. You have known
people who walked on the street, looked at you and passed by
without recognition, although they knew you well. A person
deeply thinking on some subject, neither sees nor hears, but
uses the mental sense entirely. The method is to let the eyes
be open, but concentrate the thoughts on hearing or feeling.

(4) After getting control of your sight, take up the TASTE.
Take some tasteless thing on the tongue, abstract the mind to
something else until the taste becomes dormant. Then take
something with more taste to it, abstracting the taste, until