At the outset the sittings should not last longer than at most half-an-hour, but it is important that they should be regular, both as to time and place. We are already informed from a number of observations that every action tends to repeat itself under similar conditions. Habits of life and mind are thus formed so that in time they become quite involuntary and automatic. A cumulative effect is obtained by attention to this matter of periodicity, while the use of the same place for the same purpose tends to dispose the mind to the performance of particular functions. In striving for psychic development of any sort we shall do well not to disregard these facts. For since all actions tend to repeat themselves and to become automatic, to pass from the domain of the purposive into the habitual, the psychic faculties will similarly, if actuated at any set time and place, tend to bestir themselves to the same effects as those to which they were first moved by the conscious will and intention of the seer. Until the clairvoyant faculty is fully assured and satisfactory results obtained without any inconvenience to the seer, not more than two persons should be present at the sittings. These should be in close sympathy with the seer and with each other.
When the sitting is over it will be found useful to repair to another place and fully discuss the results obtained, the impressions and feelings of the seer during the seance, and matters which appear to have a bearing on the facts observed.
A person should not be disheartened if at the first few sittings nothing of any moment takes place, but should persevere with patience and self-control. Indeed, if we consider the fact that for hundreds of generations the psychic faculties latent in man have lain in absolute neglect, that perhaps the faculty of clear vision has not been brought into activity by any of our ancestors since remote ages, it should not be thought remarkable that so few find the faculty in them to be practically dormant. It should rather be a matter of surprise that the faculty is still with us, that it is not wholly irresponsive to the behests of the soul. While in the course of physical evolution many important functions have undergone remarkable changes, and organs, once active and useful, have become stunted, impotent, and in some cases extinct, yet on the other hand we see that seeds which have lain dormant in arid soil for hundreds of years can spring into leaf and flower under the influence of a suitable climate.