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OCCULT POWERS
81 Unless the machinery is pure and in good condition, no work can be done through it and if we try to do work with it some parts will be broken. All the parts must therefore be clean and free from obstacles. The human body does not exist merely on the physical plane. These powers will, when the soul is pure, become part and parcel of its nature. These powers are found among the monks and the Yogis of India and among the hermits. A Bengali gentleman had arrived in Bombay, as I have been informed in a recent letter from one of my friends there, and it was thought by his friends that he would die in a short time. As he was passing through the City one day, he met a person who in America would not be considered respectable, as he was clad in very poor and even dirty clothes. This poor person said to him, " What is the matter ?” and was told that the gentleman was not at all well and that it was not thought that he would live long. Then this man, who was apparently a beggar and very insignificant, said, “ There is no necessity for saying that; you will be well in a short time," and he took a pinch of dirt from the ground and using it as a sort of salve, cured the disease, and the man has entirely recovered. This was told me by a gentleman who has been converted to Christianity and he said that it was true, and this testimony from a Christian, who could not certainly be predisposed to believe the story, has a great deal of weight. These powers come, not from reciting anything, not from merely breathing in a certain way or gazing at anything, but by actually
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