In this connection there is an illustrative story of a man who was highly intelligent and who wanted to know from personal experience what it feels like for a man to be suffocated by being hung. An illustrative story He was not content merely with imagining what it would be like, but wanted to experience it himself. So he asked a friend to help him perform the experiment. He said that he would be hanged by a rope and would signal to his friend when the feeling of suffocation reached the danger limit. He further asked his friend not to relieve him from the gallows before he received the intended signal. His friend agreed to all this, and the man was hung by tying a rope round his own neck. But when he got suffocated he became unconscious, and therefore he could not give his friend the promised signal. The friend, however, was wise, and finding that the suffocation of the man had really reached the dangerous point, he went beyond the limits of his agreement and relieved the man just in time to save his life. The man could be saved not through his own thoughtfulness and precautions, but through the wise discretion of his friend. In the same way, it is safer for the aspirant to rely upon the Master than upon any provisions of his own making.