The best authorities on the subject of crystal-gazing insist that all experiments along the said lines should be conducted in a serious, earnest manner, and that all frivolity or trifling should be avoided if the best results are wished for. This, of course, is true concerning all phases of psychic investigation, as all true students of the subject know. All the authorities agree that the crystal gazer should sit with the light behind his back, and never in front of him. While an earnest steady gaze is desirable, there should be no straining of the eyes. As one writer has said: "Gaze calmly at the crystal, but do not strain your eyes. Do not try to avoid winking your eyes--there is a difference between 'gazing' and 'staring,' remember." Some authorities advise that the crystal gazer should make funnels of his hands, using them as he would a pair of opera-glasses. The "Milky Mist." While some experimenters obtain results almost from the time of the first trial, others find that it requires a number of sittings before they begin to obtain even faint results. The psychic picture in the crystal usually begins by the appearance of a cloudy "milky mist," succeeding the former transparent appearance of the crystal. The milky cloud becomes more dense, and finally there appears in its midst a faint form, outline, face, or scene of some kind. Some have compared this gradual emergence of the picture to the gradual development of the picture of the photographic plate when the latter is subjected to the action of the developing fluid. Classes of Psychic Pictures. An English writer on the subject furnishes the following general classification of the psychic pictures manifested in the process of crystal gazing. The said authority might well have added that each and every form of clairvoyant picturing is possible in crystal gazing; for crystal gazing is merely one particular form or method of inducing clairvoyant or psychic vision, and is not a distinct branch of psychic phenomena in itself. The classification of the English authority, however, is as follows: "1. Images of something unconsciously observed. New reproductions, voluntary or spontaneous, and bringing no fresh knowledge to the mind. "2. Images of ideas unconsciously acquired from others. Some memory or imaginative effort which does not come from the gazer's ordinary self. Revivals of memory. Illustrations of thought. "3. Images, clairvoyant or prophetic. Pictures giving information as to something past, present, or future, which the gazer has no other chance of knowing." General Directions for Crystal Gazing.