I mentioned in The Quest of the Overself that radiations from a photograph had been discovered by a scientist I met long ago, Mr. Shrapnell-Smith, and also by another English investigator at that time whose name I can not now remember. Many readers of the book have since then sought for photographs of their gurus and used them as objects for concentration. Not only so, but somewhat later the idea was adopted by healers who used photographs of patients living at a distance to give them absent treatment at a fixed time of the day, the patient himself putting himself in tune with the healer passively and receptively. In connection with these usages of photographs by disciples of gurus and healers of patients, it ought to be pointed out that more effective than using the material object of the photograph is the implantation of the picture in the mind, the mental image itself. In other words, the thought of the guru without any external physical aid or the thought of the patient gives a better connection for the purpose desired. Centuries ago, before photography was invented, gurus knew this principle and many of them told their disciples that wherever they were living the remembrance of the guru would give a link and that the emotional attitude, devotion, reverence, and so forth, linked with the remembrance, would bring back some benefit from the guru.
-- Notebooks Category 4: Elementary Meditation > Chapter 5 : Visualizations, Symbols > # 27
