No particular ceremony is anticipated today in the Celestial Sanctum. I have participated in the period dedicated to prayer, and I have fulfilled the duties which are my daily responsibility at the level of the Celestial Sanctum. After my usual activities on the objective plane, I return for a period of contact and, this ended, I feel the need to retire for some moments into my private sanctuary (in the Cosmic). On the way I notice that some of the twelve sanctuaries of 'my' aisle are occupied and that those who are there are meditating or working. I sit down immediately at my desk and, abandoning myself to reverie, I contemplate, through the little window, in the distance, the highest Mountain of Illumination where the greatest of all the Masters reside. A little lower, in the compact mass of this unique spiritual mountain, I perceive other summits; here is the permanent retreat of the 'Brothers in White'; there, a little farther on, the Akasha Mountain. Farther yet, toward infinity, my thought flies from one valley to another, recognizing truth and unity in the many paths climbed by an innumerable throng of people who do not know that the goal is near and that it will be 'one' stage. Nor do they understand how those who they think are mistaken will attain, by different paths, summits as high, and that all will be reunited in the final path leading to the crowning height.... Then my glance comes back toward the Mountain of Illumination where the Sublime Ones work. My heart intones AUM, filled with hope that the particular Master, he who gives aid, will recognize it and respond to the particular need of my soul.

In the Celestial Sanctum, which for me is the cathedral which I have described, the call is always heard, and, as a result, in a more powerful AUM which reverberates throughout space, striking the stained glass window near me with its extraordinary vibrations, and enveloping me in an elating perfume of the purest incense, the Master enters my private sanctuary. After making a benediction with his hand and accompanying it with a look of his dark eyes, he sits down before me. I know immediately that I must take my pen and prepare before me the fresh pages of my memory. I am going to write these notes under the dictation of the Mater. I am ready, and he speaks::

Today it is again to me that the duty falls to enlighten you further on one of the great principles which you have had the privilege of learning through the Hermetic teachings. I have already dealt with it, but I want to review it, since it is fundamental in the mystic quest. It is about visualization that I want to speak again.

"The mistake which the seeker generally makes, and which tragically impedes his inner development, is dissipation of effort in his search, even though it is conducted with the best intentions. Now, dissipation is the exact opposite of concentration and, consequently different from visualization. Anyone who dissipates his efforts in many ways, such as thoughtless reading, or the study of various techniques, is certain to get no result except the illusion of an over-burdened mind and the disappointment of repeated setbacks in practice. That does not mean that he must adopt only one way of knowledge, although this is evidently the ideal solution for effectiveness and success. Knowledge may be obtained from many authentic sources, provided that these sources do not teach different techniques, valuable in themselves, but generating inner conflict and unproductive confusion if they are mixed. 

Contrary to appearances, they are never complete and are radically different even if, in the end, a similar result seems to have been attained. Consequently the first step toward effectiveness in the initiatory life and, I repeat, today I am considering this in the practical phase exclusively is the careful and definitive choice of a specific technique. Thus will be avoided the danger which I have just stressed that of dissipation. How many people are there yet who err in psychic matters! They are not able to free themselves from the matrix of their dreams. The emotions which they seek are imprinted with vague sentimentality and they take pleasure in a paralyzing sentimentality. What they call 'knowledge' is made up of the fantasies of an intellectual or emotional satisfaction in which all sorts of obscure sentiments are mixed in their ignorance. And in an illusion which they believe to be truth, they search for similar illusions, sometimes from disciples whom they would make pontiffs, the veneration of whom will easily fill the consciousness submerged in false wisdom. Alas! How many disciples having passed an important stage, are pushed by some childish nostalgia to return to this stage of illusion, and how serious is their responsibility when the knowledge acquired and misunderstood gives a false glow to the way supposedly traversed, and catches unawares the guilelessness of an imprudent soul! In all this are found illusion and the ineffectiveness of dissipation. Visualization, on the contrary, assumes that a choice is made and a technique definitely adopted.