How to Strengthen and Protect Your Spiritual Magnetism
From Awaken to Superconsciousness by Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters)

We affect others by our magnetism. They in return, by their magnetism, affect us. It is vitally important to understand the principles of magnetism, how they can be used for our own and others' benefit, how to benefit from others' magnetism, and how to protect ourselves against harmful magnetism in others.

Sat-sanga (good company) is almost as important on the path as meditation itself. Mix more with spiritually minded people. Tune in consciously to their vibrations. As you draw from others, so give love and appreciation in return. By thus closing the energy circuit, you will help bring about a mutual increase of magnetism. (To draw on others like a sponge is to drain their energy without in any way increasing your own. For your energy increases only if you raise your vibrations, never if you lower them.)

A negative human magnet can actually sap the power of a positive magnet, if the latter is inattentive, and especially if the negative magnetism is the stronger. On the other hand, if the positive magnet is the stronger it won't be deeply affected, especially if it is attentive and consciously maintains a magnetic shield. If it is much stronger, it may actually succeed in converting the negative flow in the other person to a positive one. Here is an earnest suggestion, however: Don't, in the name of loving all, take chances with your own magnetism.

You will grow faster spiritually if you try to serve others. Don't serve them, however, beyond a realistic appraisal of your own magnetic strength.

Sat-sanga is important for another reason also: When spiritually inclined people get together, especially for meditation, they increase the magnetism of everyone involved. Yogananda called this phenomenon "the law of invisible vibratory exchange."

There are ways of protecting yourself from negative magnetism, and ways also of developing positive magnetism. Beware, however, of using spiritual power for ego-gratification… Yes, there are words of power (mantras they are called) by which you can affect objective reality. You can also, by concentrating at the point between the eyebrows and rotating the will powerfully around the thought of self, learn to send powerful thoughts from your own spiritual center to that center in others whom you want to affect. But beware of hurting anyone. In such cases there is a boomerang effect. The action must be for their welfare, and must proceed from higher consciousness. Beware, above all, of reawakening the delusion in your own subconscious that an outward direction of energy is desirable.

If you are faced with negative influences, and can't avoid them, here are a few helpful suggestions for how to cope with them:

1. If those influences come to you unsolicited, remember: They may have been sent to help you grow stronger in yourself. A hothouse plant grows larger and more luxuriant than its cousins out of doors, exposed as they are to wind, rain, and cold, but it has less stamina. What I am saying about magnetism, then, mustn't make you cowardly. Take it only as a reminder to be prudent.
2. If you know you are going to be exposed to tamasic [darkening, heavy] vibrations, take the time to meditate beforehand. Then harmonize the vibrations of your heart. Next, consciously emanate peaceful vibrations outward from your heart center to your environment. For human energy has two modes of expression; one of them is giving, the other, receiving or absorbing. If you can consciously enter the giving mode, you will find yourself much less affected by outside influences, whether good or bad.
3. Mentally chant, according to the sincere call of your heart: for example, "I am Thine. Be Thou mine," or, less personally, "I am light. I am love. I am a fountain of unending peace!"
4. Send the heart's energy upward to the point between the eyebrows. Feel yourself surrounded and embraced by the divine light.
5. In the privacy of your meditation room, place your arms down at your side. Then, mentally chanting AUM, bring them upward, straight out to the side, with your palms up, until you join the palms high above the head. Mentally create an aura of upward-moving light around your body.
6. Extend your arms before you, your palms touching. Then move them out and around your body in a broad circle until the palms or fingers touch once again behind your back. Mentally, while repeating this process, chant, "AUM-TAT-SAT." (The as in TAT-SAT are pronounced short, with an "uh" sound: "TUT-SUT.") [This mantra is the Hindu equivalent of the Christian Trinity: AUM means the Cosmic Sound or Holy Ghost; TAT, the Kutashtha Chaitanya or Christ Consciousness; and SAT, the Father aspect of God, the Spirit beyond all vibration.] Repeat this process at least three times. After you've finished it, feel yourself surrounded by that protective vibration.
7. Try not to look into the eyes of, or shake hands with, people whose vibrations are negative. This avoidance may prove a little socially awkward at times so I don't insist on it, but I should state that these are two of the strongest ways by which magnetism is exchanged between people. (This is one little-known reason for the palms-folded greeting, the namaskar, which Indians customarily use in place of the handshake.)
8. When you find that you must enter a disharmonious environment, keep a spiritual "bodyguard" with you: someone who is on the same spiritual wavelength as you, to help keep your magnetism strong.
9. If you feel yourself under psychic attack from anyone, use your thumb to place a cross of blue light mentally on the attacker. Do it with sufficient will power, and harmful energy will be unable to reach you, but will return to its sender. Direct good energy along with the blocking energy, that your attacker be cured of his anger. A mantra to repeat in such circumstances is "AUM hreeng kleeng Krishnaya namaha." (The first a in Krishnaya is pronounced as in our "ah." The other as are pronounced as in "uh.")

Good company, as I said, is extremely important on the spiritual path. Seek out the company of others of like mind. Mix with them lovingly. If you know someone whose spiritual magnetism is particularly strong, spend time with that person. If outward good company is not available, keep good company mentally.

One of the best ways of surrounding yourself with good vibrations is to listen to uplifting music.

Most important of all, try to keep the company of saints. They will help you, even from a distance, by their subtle magnetic influence. If you know no such people, read their lives; visit places where they have lived; mix with those who knew them. If possible, listen to recordings of their voices.

Be conscious, above all, of your own developing magnetism. Feel it surrounding you as you walk, flowing through you as you converse with others. Expand it to the people in your vicinity; include them in your aura.

The more you act as a channel of blessing to others, the more you yourself will be blessed. Your magnetism will be enhanced, and your efforts to reach God greatly accelerated.

Meditation Exercise Set the photograph of some great saint or master before you. Not a painting, merely: a photograph. Gaze intently into his or her eyes. Attune yourself to the magnetism you feel there. After some time, close your eyes in meditation and try to feel a response in your heart. Feel yourself bathed and uplifted by that person's superconsciousness. Then pray deeply: "Draw me closer to God."

Also See:

• Letter from Jyotish and Devi Novak
• Pray for Planetary Healing by Mary Kretzmann. How to pray effectively during times of polarization and war.
• A Visualization for Planetary Healing
• Searchlight of Love: A Visualization from Metaphysical Meditations by Paramhansa Yogananda, and read by Swami Kriyananda.
• How Ananda Members Are Responding to the War in Iraq