‘In the beginning was the Word... and the Word was God' My name is J. Finbarr and I am a publisher of literature on selfhelp psychology and the esoteric, having published over 300 titles. In 1985 I published ‘The Lost Word of Power' by Frater E. L. Francis who claimed that the Word was previously known only to initiates of certain mystical societies. I had certainly never heard of it until then. However, I never spoke or ‘used' the Word myself, for I cannot try or experiment with every concept presented to me, otherwise I would have no time to live my life or run my business. Besides, I am not an occultist nor esoterist per se. What made me pay attention was when shortly after I received a letter from a man who I knew to be unhappy with his purchase of such books. Nothing had ever worked for him. I knew from his previous correspondence that he was a reasonable and intelligent person and I felt uncomfortable that money he spent seemed to have been wasted. Imagine therefore my surprise when in this letter he explained that in the Word he found what he ‘had been looking for'. ‘With the Lost Word I actually got aid', he said, ‘and I'm still getting it. ' It marked a turning point in his life, he claimed. I figured that if it could work so convincingly for him then this had to be something special, so I began my own experiment. J. Finbarr