A favorite mental picture of some of these men (who have been instructed by teachers of occultism), is that of themselves as the centre of a great psychic whirlpool, drawing to themselves the persons, things and circumstances calculated to bring success and realization to them. Others picture their thought-vibrations flowing from them like the rings in a pond into which a stone had been dropped, influencing a constantly widening circle of other persons; then they picture the persons being drawn to them in the manner just mentioned. They persist in this practice day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year--is it any wonder that they draw to themselves that which they desire? Other persons of lesser caliber take similar advantage of the law in the same way, but on a smaller scale. In every community there are certain persons who seem to draw to themselves the patronage and custom of the community, in some peculiar way. In most cases this may be traced back to some form of psychic influence. I do not mean that these persons consciously and deliberately set these forces into operation. On the contrary, many of them do so more or less unconsciously, and without a knowledge of the underlying psychic principles involved. Such persons have stumbled on a portion of the psychic laws, and have used them more or less unconsciously and without understanding the real reason of the happening. They found out that certain mental states and certain mental pictures tended to produce certain results--that they "worked out"--and so they continued them. Some of these men think of the whole thing as something supernatural, and get to believe that they are being helped by some supernatural power; whereas, they are simply operating under a universal psychic law of cause and effect. In America a number of teachers and writers have devoted much attention to this phase of the general subject of psychic influence. Cults have been formed upon this general basis, the main idea of their followers being that of attracting financial and other success by means of this phase of psychic force. One of the leading writers along this line, says: "An individual who has cultivated the faculty of concentration, and has acquired the art of creating sharp, clear, strong, mental images, and who when engaged in an undertaking will so charge his mind with the idea of success, will be bound to become an attracting centre. And if such an individual will keep his mental picture ever in his mind, even though it be in the background of his mind, when he is attending to the details and planning of his affairs--if he will give his mental picture a prominent place in his mental gallery, taking a frequent glance at it, and using his will upon it to create new scenes of actual success, he will create for himself a centre of radiating thought that will surely be felt by those coming within its field of influence.