In the sixth stage where the effort is made to meditate definitely upon a form of words, veiling a truth, there should be nothing automatic in the process. It is quite easy to induce in oneself an hypnotic condition by the rhythmic repetition of certain words. We are told that Tennyson induced in himself a heightened state of consciousness by the repetition of his own name. This is not our object. The trance or automatic condition is dangerous. The safe way is that of an intense mental activity, confined within the field of ideas opened up by any particular "seed-thought" or object in meditation. This activity excludes all extraneous thoughts, except those which the words under consideration arouse. The words taken in this particular form can illustrate [230] this, and the process depicts a sequence of thought as follows:

Thou God seest me.
This God is the divine in me, the indwelling Christ, the Soul.
For long ages this soul has perceived and observed me.
Now for the first time I am in a position to see God.
Up till now, I have been negative to this divine Reality.
The positive relation is becoming possible.
But - this seems to involve the idea of duality.

But I and God are one.
I am God, and have been all the time.
Therefore I have been seen by my Self.
I am that Self, That Self am I.

This is easily written down, but if the mind is kept actively intent upon the sense and meaning, much hard and focused thinking will have to be done, and much difficulty will be found to eliminate all thoughts other than those having a bearing upon the subject. Sometimes I have found it helpful to say to the puzzled beginner, who is discouraged by his inability to think when and as he chooses: "Imagine you have to give a lecture upon these words to an audience. Picture yourself as formulating the notes upon which you will later speak. Carry your mind on from stage to stage and you will find that five minutes [231] will have gone by without your attention wavering, so great will have been your interest."

"I believe that such meditations as 'be still and know I am God,' if strenuously indulged in may prove disastrous. More than one unripe personality has opened within itself receptivity to power which played upon its unfulfilments, arousing secret passions and ambitions beyond his power to cope with. The meditation 'I am God' might therefore, be said to be almost too direct and efficacious until such time as the workman knows exactly what he is about. One cannot play up to the Ego and continue long to act the part before men. The end of that is disease and desperate fatigue and loss of the way while shouting it to others. This is not a matter of getting something to show men. It is a matter of understanding what we are made of as personalities; of sensing the Key to a new potency altogether and of rendering with ardent entirety the whole human nature to the game of reaching and turning that Key. I realize that this paragraph touching the 'I am God' meditation contains a lure as well as a warning. It is quite true that the time must come for all of us when we shall operate from the office of the Ego, instead of from the personality, [232] but a fine integrity of the personality must be established before we can carry the power."
- Comfort, Will Levington, Letters.