36 Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard
the other person, locking eyes briefly with them. Usu-
ally they will blink and look elsewhere almost instantly
just to avoid your gaze. And as soon as they do, drop
your eyes and turn away, and you will become invis-
ible to them. They simply will have erased you from
their mind.
The second trick of invisibility is just the oppo-
site, though it also works best in a crowd—like at a
party. If there is someone who knows you whom you
don’t want to see you, the most important thing is to
not let him or her catch your eye. Look anywhere else,
but avoid looking at them, or even closely enough
where they can see your eyes. With your cloaking field
up, you can slip right past them and they’ll never no-
tice you were there.Lesson 5: Psychokinesis
When I was a boy, I read about people who could
move things around by the power of their minds
(called psychokinesis) and I determined that I was
going to learn to do this, too. I practiced over and
over with flipping coins and tossing dice. I would hold
the coin or die with the face I wanted up, and stare
hard at it until that face was burned into my mind. I
always chose the “head” on the coin, and the six on
the die. Then, I would hold that image focused in my
mind, and repeat the word heads or sixes silently to
myself as I tossed the coin or die. Eventually, over
several years, I got quite good at this. So good, in
fact, that my younger brother and sister refused to
toss a coin or play any games involving dice with me!
They insisted I “cheated.” But I’d practiced long and
hard to develop this skill, just like my brother prac-
ticed shooting baskets.
However, there is great wisdom in the Hogwarts
prohibition against using Magick around Muggles—
especially to gain an advantage over them. If you do,
they may come to resent you and make life difficult
for you. This sort of behavior has gotten people burned
at the stake! For many beginners, the impulse to “be
powerful” often interferes with ever getting a true
handle on what power actually is, and how to use it
wisely or well. Never forget the super-hero’s credo:
“With great power comes great responsibility” (—Stan
Lee, Spiderman).Magickal Exercises:
PsychokinesisHere are a few more little exercises you can try to
develop your psychokinetic abilities. Remember:
Practice is everything!Spinners: Spinners are very easily made. Take a
small piece of paper, about two inches square, and
fold it in half both ways, so it is only one inch square.Then unfold it, and refold it diagonally from corner-
to-corner both ways. Open it out and re-shape it along
the folds with the diagonal folds high and the cross
folds low, like this:Now get a bottle with a cork in it (like a wine
bottle), and stick a sewing needle eye-end into the
cork, with the point up. Balance your folded paper on
the point of the needle so it spins freely. This is your
spinner.
Set your spinner up on a table in front of you,
and concentrate on making it spin by the force of your
mind alone. Be careful not to blow on it; breathe
through your nose only! Concentrate long enough and
hard enough, and you should be able to get it moving.
See how fast you can make it spin. Then make it stop
and spin in the opposite direction.Plasma Generators: These are high-voltage gen-
erators used to create electrical sparks. Plasma—
which consists of ionized gas (in which the atoms have
been stripped of electrons)—is the fourth state of
matter (the other three being solid, liquid, and gas).
This is the same stuff as in the Earth’s auroras and the
Sun’s corona. Plasma generators are used in plasma
balls—those clear globes that house little electrical
storms and are often found in trendy gadget stores. I
highly recommend getting one of these things—they
are both very cool Wizard balls (like a palantir) and
useful devices for developing and honing your psy-
chic skills. Make sure the one you get has a sliding
scale for variable settings.
In a darkened room, set
your plasma ball on a table,
at a low enough setting
that there are no light-
ning bolts—just a
faint glowing cloud of
sparkling octarene-
colored plasma. Now
bring one finger
slowly up to the glass
until a single electrical
bolt arcs from the gen-
erator to the glass. This
will indicate that you
have the right setting.
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