OPHIEL : THE SPHERE OF AVAILABILITY

We now come to the law listed as number 4 on our list. I have
named this law The Sphere of Avail ability. This name
designates one of the most important occult laws ever given. All
the work you will ever do now, or in the future, along the lines of
creative-visualization hangs on the knowledge-theorybase of The
Sphere of Availability.

Now I sure hate to keep on saying, "Give this next subject your
utmost attention, etc." But in this case, it is more true than
otherwise, and a lack of knowledge of the Sphere of Availability is
fatal when it comes to accomplishing anything through creative
visualization. The one big reason why mental visualizations fail
to "come true," or do not reach physical consummation, is a
failure to know. about, understand, and allow for the existence of
the Law of the Sphere of Availability. Once this law is clearly
understood, it explains why some students' visualizations
succeed easily while other students' visualizations never
succeed, no matter what they do, or how hard they visualize. In
the examples that follow, look for the ones where creative
visualization work was done naturally.

For the technique I am about to explain to you (as you have no
doubt guessed by now) I have coined the name The Sphere of
Availability (I did this coining of names even after I complained
about others doing it, so I feel guilty!

The concept of the law is so subtle that I have decided the best
way to teach an understanding of this law is by means of case
histories. I will now give a number of case histories about
people who have succeeded in creative visualization work and
then point out the correct use of the law in these cases. I am
going to tell the very first story I ever heard about creative
visualization work. The following is from a book written by a Mr.
Richard Ingalese. Mr. Ingalese was a lecturer and occult teacher
in this country at the turn of the century. He apparently died in Los
Angeles about 1930 as near as I can find out. He and his wife
wrote some books about esoteric study and these books are still
quite good for beginners in this line, although they are a little
outdated now.

In one of his books, Mr. Ingalese - talking about the Law of
Opulence which was his name

(I feel that I should mention here that it was my repeated failure
to achieve success with visualization that led to my discovery of
the law of The Sphere of Availability.)

for creative visualization - tells a story about a young man who
lived in Paris many years ago. This young man came from a
family of rag pickers. That is, he made a living by picking over the
piles of Paris rubbish and salvaging anything usable; but from
what I know of the French, and their thrifty habits, I would say that
the pickings were slim, indeed.

This young man attracted the attention of a person who was
versed in the secret traditions, and this person decided to help
the young man. He gave the young man a manuscript and told
him to practice the knowledge contained therein. And this the
young man did. The manuscript contained directions explaining
the art of creative visualization, or, as it was called in the
manuscript, getting things through thinking.

After studying the manuscript, the young man decided he would
attempt to practice the great art. (The following is very important.)

The young man decided, for his first visualization attempt, that
the first thing he really needed was a small piece of carpet to put
beside his bed to protect his feet from the cold stone floor when
he got out of bed in the mornings. He proceeded to visualize for
a piece of carpet and in a short course of time a woman gave
him a piece of carpet!

This simple demonstration so convinced him of the value and
power of the art of creative visualization that he proceeded to
practice it for the rest of his life, and when he passed on he had
many hundreds of thousands of francs, and francs were francs
in those days.

We will now consider a case that I know about personally. Many
years ago I lived in La Jolla, California, and I used to attend a
little Theosophical meeting that was held each week. As is
somewhat common in Theosophical circles, the people who
attended came from different backgrounds and had many
different kinds of ideas about the esoteric study.

I recall one lady who was active in semiesoteric work. She used
to teach, in some kind of a WPA group in San Diego, how to
make Treasure Charts (as we will study later) such as are taught
by the Unity people in their work. She adapted her own ideas to
these Treasure Charts and then taught them as a kind of
creative visualization system of her own to a mixed group of
people in her classes.

The people in the class, having nothing better to do for the
moment, used the idea in jest, and one man made up a chart for
a bottle of whiskey, while another made a chart for a beautiful
woman!

It turned out that shortly afterward, someone gave one man a
bottle of whiskey and the other was introduced to a beautiful
woman! The two men were so frightened by these happenings
that they fled the classes and refused to have anything more to
do with this stuff!

At one time I owned a small rooming house that I had gone to a
lot of trouble to fix up very nicely. I did not seem to be able to get
any income out of it. I made up a chart and decided that I would
be satisfied with a certain income per month for the time being
and I soon had it!

At another time, I needed a small hand punch for some work that
I was doing but I was not able to buy one. I did some
visualization work for a punch (frankly, without much hope, as I
was new to the game). A few days later, I was accosted by a
drunken man who offered me a punch for a small sum of money.
I did not like the idea of the man being drunk and selling
something for less than it was worth, so I refused to buy the
punch, whereupon the man threw the punch down at my feet and
stalked off in high dudgeon! You certainly could not ask for more
of a miracle than that!

I am not sure where I heard the next story; I don't think I read it
anywhere. So if I am using anyone else's story I apologize in
advance. A lady saw, in a large department store, a very beautiful
hat that she decided she wanted. She could not afford the hat, so
she decided to get it through creative visualization. In order to get
the creative visualization picture correct in her mind, she went
into the store and, leaving her old hat on the counter, put on the
desired hat and went to a mirror to see how she looked. She
wanted to get the visualization picture absolutely correct in her
mind. When she was through viewing the hat, she returned to
the counter and, looking about, could not find her old hat! After
searching for a time she called a clerk who called the
department manager, and learned that another clerk had sold
her old hat! The manager said she could have any hat she
wanted in the department, so she walked out of the store with
the hat she wanted and visualized for!

What is the most outstanding feature of these stories? What is
the one thing they all had in common? Other than the obvious
fact that they all got what they wanted through a visualization
process, is not the hidden fact that the desired thing was within
the normal reasonable reach of the person? Shall we say that all
these things were "gotten" by these people within their normal
sphere of availability?

These people did not ask for Rolls Royces, mansions, huge
bags of gold, or the Moon with a fence around it. No! The things
they asked for were a small piece of carpet, a bottle of whiskey, a
beautiful woman, a hand punch, a woman's hat. Things that are
there now.

My research has convinced me that the main reason why
visualizations do not work for us all the time, as we want them to
work, is that we ask amiss. That is, we do not get the things we
want, not because God does not want us to have them, but
because those things are not in our sphere of availability at the
time.

The truths of divine metaphysics are so grand, and divine, and
sound so right, that new students, hearing and reading about
them for the first time, are greatly tempted to throw caution, and
reason, out the window and imagine that they can work miracles
easily, especially after reading a few pages of a creative
visualization book.

New students then proceed to visualize for large things. Big
things. Valuable things. Things that are far beyond their
ability - not to visualize-imagine-desire, but far beyond their
present ability to demonstrate. And all this is especially so if
these new students have champagne appetites with a beer
income. A champagne appetite and a beer income is no joke to
those who have it.

To reinforce your understanding of the law of The Sphere of
Availability, I am going back to the story of the young French rag
picker to compare his story with another story I will give.

You will recall that the first thing the young rag picker visualized
for was a piece of carpet to protect his feet from the cold stone
floor in the mornings. This young man had nothing, but
absolutely nothing. (In his case having nothing was a great
blessing.) He did not have something that he could have traded
for a carpet. He did not have a little money so he could have
bought himself a piece of carpet - he had nothing.

So therefore, having no resources at all, he was able to decide
on the piece of carpet as what he needed and wanted most, and
he concentrated on the creative visualization for this piece of
carpet. And as the carpet came to him soon, through his work, it
proved, among other things, that the carpet was within his
sphere of availability.

Now I will tell you another story. It concerns a man who had a
positive genius for running large department stores. He had a
terrific ability to sell goods and to manage efficiently such a
business. He was employed in a very large store, but not in the
top capacity. The store was family run, so the top jobs were held
by family men who were content to use our man's ability without
giving him the appropriate title and salary.

Under these circumstances, this man was not able to move into
the position he wanted, no matter how much he tried to get
ahead where he was. He came into contact with a metaphysical
worker whom he allowed to do some work for him, and through
this metaphysical work, the man secured a position in one of the
largest stores in the world, where he was soon at the very top
spot and made a terrific success of everything he touched.

Now I want you to think: do these two cases have anything in
common, and, if so, what is it? At first there seems to be no
connection between these two cases, but a closer look shows
that they have one very important thing in common. Both people
had the things desired, or were ready for the thing desired, or
creatively visualized for, in their sphere of availability.

Please read this several times: The things the two men desired
and which were creatively visualized for - one doing the work
himself and the other having it done for him, but meaning the
same thing - those two different things were in their sphere of
availability.

In order to make absolutely clear what I am driving at, let us
assume that the young rag picker, instead of visualizing for a
piece of carpet, visualized for the top manager's job of the largest
department store in Paris! Now, although everything taught
about creative visualization is true, and the work is very powerful
to bring us what we visualize for, common sense (the law of the
physical plane) will tell you that the young man would not get the
job easily, or if he did get it, he could not hold it.

Again, no matter how powerful the magical creative visualization
work was, the fact remains that he is, was not, fitted for the job!
For this reason, and this reason only, the job is definitely not
within his sphere of availability.

It would not be the creative visualization work that would be at
fault, but the complete lack of common sense, and the complete
lack of obedience to the laws of the physical plane. If the young
man was not fitted for the job, he could not do the work, even if
the creative visualization forces brought him the job.

Or, to put it another way, we can say truthfully that before creative
visualization work can bring a job successfully, a tremendous
amount of work would have to have been done to prepare for the
successful holding of such a job. This kind of work would take
no end of time, no matter how you look at it. Mr. Ingalese speaks
of people who visualized for things beyond their present sphere
of availability and did not get the things until their next
reincarnation on earth; and at that time they did not want the
former things anymore, but wanted something entirely different,
and so life went on in a vicious circle.

So now you can ask another natural question: "How did the
creative visualization process work for the young man so that he
became so rich?"

Very important. Study the following very hard. What happened in
his case was, as said before, that the first successful
demonstration so encouraged him and convinced him of the
workability of creative visualization powers that he determined to
practice this art for the rest of his life. The next thing he did was
to select another object he needed or wanted, which happened
to be in his Sphere of Availability, and when that thing was
demonstrated, he went on to another and still another. Each
successful demonstration added something material to his life,
and thus enlarged his Sphere of Availability.

As the Sphere of Availability enlarged in size, other things
formerly not possible became possible, or, as should be said,
the Sphere of Availability increased in size until formerly
impossible things became easily available and were on hand
almost automatically. For heavens sake, and your sake, read
this over until you understand it completely and absolutely.

The following subject is so important that I am going to risk
boring you to tears and repeat it, some of it, in another slightly
different form. Please absorb it and successfully use it for your
benefit.

To sum up the foregoing case history: the young rag picker,
having no money or resources at all, and having decided to
practice the art of creative visualization, picked out, with good
common sense, an article he needed - a piece of carpet.

The young man did not do creative visualization work for a
palace, or for a million francs, or for a yacht, or for any of those
things that people sometimes try for the first time they use the
creative visualization process. (Oh yes, we are all guilty of this
sort of thing.) All the young man asked for was a simple thing
that he really needed. A palace, for example, was not needed,
and because this thing he needed was within his Sphere of
Availability he got it in a relatively short time.*

The second step the young rag picker took is equally important.
He did not, upon completion of his first successful
demonstration, jump to palaces and millions of francs, or other
big things. He proceeded to select another object that he needed
for his immediate comfort and well being, and proceeded to
demonstrate for that thing.

Mr. Ingalese does not tell, in his book, what the next article
actually was, but I am assuming, from the nature of the first
article selected, that it was something simple and necessary,
and very probably of the same nature as the piece of carpet. The
young man continued this process for the rest of his life, and his
life became a process of gradual growth and acquirement: the
possibilities of further acquirement increasing with each new
asset acquired.

Now what about you and I, and our use of creative visualization?
We should have a reasonable belief that the system does work,
if for no other reason than we use it wrongly all the time. Now we
want to use it right, so how do we, you and I, go about using it?

Let us go back to the rag picker. Now I do not want to use this
system to get a piece of carpet. I do not need a piece of carpet. I
do not need to use this system to get a piece of carpet. I have
lots of pieces of carpet about me now. I have some extra money
available so I can buy many pieces of carpet if I want them. So
pieces of carpet are not my problem as it was to the rag picker.

However, while I do have some things now, I am not completely
satisfied with what I now possess, and I do want to use this
system of creative visualization to get the
things-circumstances-situations-possessions that I would like
to have, or do want, or think I want.

On the other hand, from what I learned about the Sphere of
Availability, I do know that many of the big things I would like to
have are not in my Sphere of Availability, let's face it, at this
time.

Also let us face the fact that we are dealing with definite planes
of manifestation, each of which has definite laws, and each law
of each plane must be obeyed. There is, in addition, the law of
the last plane, the physical plane of matter, and that plane is very
hard to move, to understand, and to operate on.

What should I do, and what must I do - and what you must do,
too - in order to make the creative visualization process work for
us? Clearly it would seem that the very first thing we "middle
class" (whatever that is) people must do is to discover exactly
where we stand and where we are in regard to what we want on
the physical plane. We have to pinpoint our exact position and
know where we stand exactly. We must find exactly the things we
want and find out exactly where they are in regard to our Sphere
of Availability. We must find out exactly what things are missing
in our lives and how these things stand in relation to our Sphere
of Availability.

To sum this up: the intelligent and accurate appraisal of your
present life's position in regard to your wants, needs, and
desires is the first step in the right use of creative visualization.
The second step is the accurate appraisal and understanding of
these things in relation to your Sphere of Availability.

It can be said, quite truthfully, that we middle class people are
the most difficult subjects for creative visualization work. We have
many things on hand now and many other things automatically
coming to us. If we should start creative visualizations for
something that is automatically coming to us, it would be a
waste of time and effort. In all esoteric work you have to look out
for a situation wherein you use these powers to accomplish
something that could be accomplished in another, more natural,
way. For example, by using ordinary planning you might find that
you could trade something you no longer want for something you
do want and need. To have done otherwise than this natural
method would have been a waste of the art of creative
visualization, and a waste of time and effort.

We must use common sense and think about what we should
work for. We must consider the state of growth we are in, and the
state of growth our Sphere of Availability is in. Few people will
demand too much of a beginner. So don't demand too much of
yourself in the early stages of your work. Later on, when you have
achieved some success you will guide yourself by the
development of your Sphere of Availability. What is wrong with
attaining your goal in several easy steps instead of one big hard
jump?

I will refer again to Mr. Ingalese and his book. Mr. Ingalese is the
only teacher I have ever found that taught, in connection with
creative visualization, a system of gradual growth. He called his
idea creating a "center" from which to draw the things you want
and need. Every other teacher that I read always strongly
stressed the idea that in your visualization work, under no
circumstance, must or should you designate from what source
your desired things should come. That idea never did appeal to
me because I am a natural planner, and I like to know at all
times where I stand, and what I am doing.

Mr. Ingalese tells a story about a woman who built up a center
gradually. She is supposed to have come to San Francisco a
long time ago. In some way, not explained in the story, this
woman acquired a facility in the art of creative visualization and
used it from the start to BUILD UP A GRADUAL GROWTH
CENTER. She first got a job by visualizing it. Then she got
several promotions in the same place. Then she visualized
herself going into metaphysical work, and after that she
visualized herself receiving compensation worthy of the effort
she spent doing work for others, and someone gave her a large
sum of money in gratitude for work she did, etc.

I will admit that this story does not follow the pattern as laid out
by many other teachers, but it seems to me that this system of
gradual growth is far more sensible than doing a lot of general
visualizing without any idea of anything definite and not knowing
if the thing desired is in your Sphere of Availability or not.

I will also admit that you should not, for example, concentrate
thoughts on some person with the idea of forcing the person to
give you a chunk of money. Nor does it seem sensible to
concentrate on getting things that belong to other people. Nor
should you visualize your rich uncle being dead so that you could
have his money, etc. I really believe that these are the sort of
things other teachers were thinking of when they said you should
not designate where the visualized objects should come from.

It would seem rather foolish today to designate where your
supply should come from because there are so many ways in
existence and more are coming every day. And again it would be
silly to want the same things others have. There is nothing that
cannot be improved: why should you want someone's car when
a newer model would be better?

So I cannot find anything basically wrong with building up a
center of supply, according to approved visualization methods,
as long as you leave the channels open so things can flow into
your center of supply from what source they may. I would
suggest that you do not picture yourself doing work in exchange
for things as you might find yourself working more than you
would like. You can start out by doing some kind of work, but you
should shift your pattern quickly to doing work that you know you
will like to do.*

For God's sake combine inner spiritual knowledge with earthly
common sense. The two are needed to make a good whole.

The creative visualization mental operation is a true magical
operation. True magical operations are things that are not too
well known and understood. I learned these things through my
own work; after years of striving, and meditation, and study, I can
give them freely because I am under obligation to no one.
Therefore I am able to give you secret knowledge and teachings.
For Heaven's sake, use it.