Chapter 3
Suggestion
I n the previous lesson, we learned the meaning of autosuggestion and the principles through which it may be
used. Auto-suggestion means self-suggestion. We now come to our next principle of psychology, which is as follows:
Suggestion is a principle of psychology through the correct use of which we may influence, direct, and control the minds of others. It is the chief principle used in advertising and salesmanship. It is the principle through which Mark Antony swayed the Roman mob in that wonderful speech outlined in ‘‘The Psychology of Salesmanship’’ (by Napoleon Hill). Suggestion differs from auto-suggestion in only one way—we use it to influence the minds of others, while we use auto-suggestion in influencing our own minds.
Suggestion is one of the most subtle and powerful principles
of psychology. Science has proved that through the destructive use of this principle, life may be actually extinguished, while all manner of disease may be eliminated through its constructive use. On numerous occasions, I have demonstrated the remarkable power of suggestion in the following manner, before my classes in applied psychology:
Taking a two-ounce bottle labeled ‘‘Oil of Peppermint,’’ I make a brief explanation that I wish to demonstrate the power of smell. Then, holding the bottle in front of my class so all may see it, I explain that it contains oil of peppermint, and that a few drops of it poured on a handkerchief which I hold in my hand will penetrate the farthest end of the room in about forty seconds. I then uncork the bottle and pour a few drops on my handkerchief, at the same time turning my
face out of shape to indicate that I have had too strong a draught of the odor. I then request the members of the class to hold up their hands as fast as they get the first whiff of the odor of the peppermint.
The hands begin to go up rapidly until, in some instances, seventy five percent of the class have their hands up. I then take the bottle, drink the contents slowly and complacently, and explain that it contained pure water! No one smelled any peppermint at all! It was an olfactory illusion, produced entirely through the principle of suggestion. In the little town where I was raised there lived an old lady who constantly complained that she feared death from cancer. As long as I can remember, she nursed this habit. She was sure that every little imaginary ache or pain was the beginning of her long-expected cancer.
I have seen her place her hand on her breast and have heard her say, ‘‘Oh, I am sure I have cancer growing here.’’ When complaining of this imaginary disease, she always placed her hand
on her left breast, the spot where she believed the cancer would attack her. As I write this lesson, news comes that this old lady has died of cancer on the left breast, in the very spot where she placed her hand when she complained of her fears! If suggestion will actually turn healthy body cells into parasites out of which a cancer grows, can you not imagine what it will do in
eliminating diseased body cells and replacing them with healthy ones?
If an audience of people can be made to smell oil of peppermint when a bottle of plain water is uncorked, through the principle of suggestion, can you not see what remarkable possibilities there are for constructively using this principle in every legitimate task you perform?
Some years ago, a criminal was condemned to death. Before his execution, an experiment was performed on him which conclusively proved that through the principle of suggestion, death could actually be produced. This criminal was brought to the guillotine, his head placed under the knife after he had been blindfolded, and a heavy board was dropped on his neck, producing a shock similar to that of the knife of the guillotine.Warm water was poured gently and allowed
to trickle slowly down his neck, to imitate warm blood. In seven minutes, the doctors pronounced the criminal dead. His imagination, through the principle of suggestion, had actually turned the sharp edged board into a guillotine blade and stopped his heart from beating.
Every single case of the healing of disease by practitioners of ‘‘mental healing’’ is accomplished through the principle of suggestion. We learn from good authority that many physicians are using fewer drugs and more mental suggestion in their practice. Two physicians who are members of my own family supplied me with the information that they use more ‘‘bread pills’’ than they did a few years ago. One of these physicians told me of a case in which one of
his patients was relieved of a violent headache in a very few minutes by taking what the patient believed to be aspirin, but which was, in reality, a white flour tablet.
Hypnotism operates entirely through the principle of suggestion. Quite contrary to the general belief, a person cannot be hypnotized without his consent. The truth is that it is the subject’s own mind and not the mind of the operator or hypnotist that produces the phenomenon which we call hypnotism. All the operator can possibly do toward hypnotizing a person is to ‘‘neutralize’’ the subject’s conscious mind and then place in his subconscious mind whatever suggestions are desired. By ‘‘neutralizing’’ the mind, we have reference to the performance of overcoming or rendering powerless the conscious mind of the subject. We will come back to this subject again, and explain some of the methods through which the conscious mind may be rendered impotent or inoperative, but first let us understand the method through which
hypnotism is produced, as described in the words of a hypnotist, as follows:
After talking sympathetically with the subject, sometimes for an hour or two, in regard to the
failing he wishes removed, thoroughly acquainting myself with his dominant propensities or
controlling thought, and, above all, securing his confidence, I ask him to assume a comfortable
reclining position on a lounge, and then continue a soothing conversation along lines like the
following with a view to producing a monotonous impression on eye and ear. ‘‘I wish you would look at this diamond (or select any convenient object in line of vision) in a dreamy, listless manner and a blank, expressionless stare, thinking of nothing, not concentrating your mind or focusing your eye upon it, but relaxing the ocular muscles so that it has a confused outline.
Abstain from that effort with the eyes that you are accustomed to make in order to see a near object distinctly. Rather, look through the stone and past it, as you look at a dead tree standing between you and a distant view you are contemplating. ‘‘Make no effort, for there is nothing you can do to encourage the approach of the favorable mind state. Do not wonder what is going to happen, for nothing is going to happen. Do not be apprehensive, or suspicious, or distrustful. Do not desire that anything shall take place, nor watch to see what may occur—nor seek to analyze what is going on in your mind. You are as negative, indolent, and indifferent as you can be without trying to be.
‘‘You are to expect the familiar signs of the approach of sleep, and they are all associated with
the failure of the senses and the standstill of the brain—heavy eyelids, reluctant ears, muscles and skin indifferent to stimuli of temperature, humidity, penetrability, etc. Already that delightful sensation of ‘drowsiness’ weights your eyelids down and steeps your senses in ‘forgetfulness,’ and you yield to the impulse as the curtains are dropped between you and the outside world of color and light.
‘‘And your ear seeks to share in the rest of the senses. As darkness is the sleep of the eye, so is
silence that of the ear; and your ear secures silence by deadening itself to sound impressions. The sound of my voice loses interest for you, and force and decisiveness seem to be receding into a mysterious remoteness. A grateful sense of surrender to some pleasing influence which you cannot resist, and would not if you could, descends upon you and enwraps your whole body in its beneficent embrace, and you are physically happy.
Refreshing sleep has come to you.’’ From the foregoing, you have clearly seen that the hypnotist’s first task is to render impotent the conscious mind. (By ‘‘conscious mind,’’ we have reference to that division of the mind which we use when we are awake.) After the conscious mind has been ‘‘neutralized’’ or rendered inoperative, partly or in whole, the hypnotist manipulates his subject through suggestions direct to the subject’s subconscious mind. The subconscious mind does whatever it is told. It asks no questions, but acts upon the sense impressions which reach it through the five senses. Reason, operating through the conscious mind, stands a sentinel during the waking hours, guarding the gateways of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing, but the moment we go to sleep or become semi-conscious from any cause, this guard becomes inoperative.
There are varying degrees of hypnotism to which a person may be subjected, through the principle of suggestion. The professional hypnotist, performing on the stage, usually gains complete control of his subjects’ minds, causing them to engage in all sorts of undignified
and inconsistent antics. There is a much slighter degree of hypnotism to which a person may be subjected, and through which he may be controlled without his being conscious of the fact. It is to this mor ‘‘invisible’’ or unnoticeable degree of hypnotism that we wish to direct your attention, because it is the degree most commonly practiced by the nonprofessional on those whom he chooses to control or influence.
Whether the subject is under complete hypnotic control or only partly influenced, there is one condition which must exist in his mind, and that is credulousness. The hypnotist, whether he is of the professional or nonprofessional type, must first place this subject in a state of abnormal credulousness before he can direct or control his mind.
In other words, before any mind can be influenced through suggestion, it must first be ‘‘neutralized.’’ This brings us back to the question of describing the methods through which the mind may be ‘‘neutralized.’’
In other words, we shall now show you how to make practical application of the principle of suggestion, first warning you, however, that it will bring you success or failure, happiness or woe, according to the use which you make of it! I can best describe what is meant by ‘‘neutralizing’’ the mind by relating a case which covers the meaning very concretely. A few years ago, the police arrested a gang of notorious crooks who were operating ‘‘clairvoyant’’ or ‘‘fortune telling’’ parlors in the city of Chicago. The head of this chain of fake shops was a man by the name of Bertsche. The scheme was to meet superstitious, credulous people of means who came to these shops to have their fortunes told and, by a series of mind manipulations which I will describe, to defraud them out of their money.
The ‘‘seeress’’ or woman in charge of one of these fake fortune telling shops would learn the secrets of her patrons, the extent of their finances, of what their wealth consisted, and all other necessary data. Getting this information was a simple matter since the business of the
fortune telling shop is to advise people in matters of business, love, health, etc. Suitable victims were located in this manner and the information gathered and passed on to the head of the ‘‘clairvoyant trust,’’ Mr. Bertsche.
At the most opportune time, the ‘‘seeress’’ would advise her victim to consult with some businessman who could be trusted to be free from prejudices that attach to ‘‘scheming blood relations,’’ at the same time saying that the victim would soon meet such a man. Sure enough, pretty soon Mr. Bertsche ‘‘happens’’ to be in the fake fortune telling shop consulting ‘‘Madam Seeress’’ on matters of investment and business in general, and, by ‘‘mere accident,’’ the
victim is introduced to him.
‘‘He is a man of great wealth,’’ so the victim is told in confidence by the ‘‘seeress.’’ She further confides the information that he is a ‘‘bighearted’’ man who loves to help other people succeed in business. Mr. Bertsche is faultlessly dressed and looks the part of wealth and prosperity. He meets the victim, chats pleasantly, and hurries away to meet an important engagement with ‘‘Mr. Morganbilt.’’
The next time the victim comes to the fake fortune telling shop, he or she (they duped both sexes with equal success) will likely see Mr. Bertsche ‘‘just leaving to keep another appointment with rich Mr. Vandermorgan.’’ He hurries right on out, apparently showing but little deference to the victim. This performance is repeated several times, until the victim gets over his or her ‘‘gun-shyness’’ and begins to feel that Mr. Bertsche is a busy man, and that he has but little time to devote to others.
Finally, after the victim has been carried through the first degree of mind manipulation and made to feel that a dinner invitation from Mr. Bertsche would be a highly honored privilege, like as not such an invitation will be extended. The victim will be escorted to the most exclusive club, or the finest cafe´, and treated to a dinner that will cost more than a whole week’s living expenses would ordinarily cost. The bill is paid by the host, Mr. Bertsche, who has been introduced as ‘‘Judge’’ somebody or other, and who apparently is rolling in money and running to get away from its accumulation. In Mr. Bertsche’s inside pocket is a card index showing in detail every weakness, every eccentricity, every peculiarity of the victim, who has been accurately analyzed and charged. If he is a dog fancier, that fact is ascertained and charged. If he loves horses, that, too, is known.
The game has commenced! If, for example, the victim likes horseback riding, the affable, rich, and well-kept Mr. Bertsche will see to it that one of his thoroughbreds is placed at the victim’s
disposal. If the victim likes automobiling, affable Mr. Bertsche’s Packard will be waiting at the door ready to accommodate. The form of entertainment will vary according to the tastes of the
victim, and the expense of it is always borne by the now ‘‘trusted friend,’’ Mr. Bertsche. This line of procedure is kept up until the victim’s mind is completely neutralized ! In other words, until the victim entirely ceases to feel suspicious of anything that may happen or anything that may be said or even suggested.
The affable Mr. Bertsche has completely wormed himself into his victim’s confidence, all this coming about by the merest ‘‘accidental meeting,’’ of course. In some cases, Mr. Bertsche would ‘‘play his victim’’ for six months before reaching the opportune moment at which to strike, and often the cost of the entertainment and the ‘‘settings of the stage’’ would mount up into the hundreds and even into the thousands of dollars.
According to the reports of the cases which came to light, some of Bertsche’s victims gave up as much as $50,000 by ‘‘investing’’ funds in worthless enterprises, upon his recommendation, or upon his ‘‘casual’’ remark that he had funds invested in such and such a proposition that were paying him handsome returns. On one occasion, he casually displayed a ‘‘dividend’’ check for $10,000 which he had just received from an investment of only $20,000 in some fake corporation. Mind you, he was too clever to try to persuade his victims to invest in one of these fake enterprises—he knew human nature too well for that—he merely was a bit ‘‘careless’’ in letting information out now and then which the victim could easily pick up and make use of.
Suggestion is more effective than out-and-out demand or request. Subtle suggestion is a wonderful power, and ‘‘wealthy’’ Mr. Bertsche knew exactly how to apply it. On one occasion, it is said that his victim, an old woman, became so credulous that she actually drew a large sum of money out of the bank, took it to Mr. Bertsche, and tried vainly to get him to take it and invest it for her. He turned her away, telling her that he had surplus money of his own which he
would like to put to work, and there was no opening just at that time. The reason the affable Mr. Bertsche turned the lady away was that he was playing her for larger stakes. He knew how much money she had, and he intended to get it all, so the lady was agreeably surprised a few
days later when Mr. Bertsche telephoned her that, through a very special friend of his, she ‘‘might possibly get the chance’’ to invest in a certain block of very valuable stock, provided that she could take the whole block. He couldn’t guarantee that she could get it, but she
might try. She did! Her money was reposing in Bertsche’s inside pocket an hour afterward.
We have gone into these details to show you exactly what is meant by rendering the mind ‘‘neutral.’’ All that is needed to neutralize the mind and prepare it to accept and act under any suggestion is extreme credulousness, or credulousness greater than that normally exercised
by the subject. Obviously, there are thousands of ways of neutralizing a person’s mind and preparing it to receive any seed which we wish to plant there through suggestion. It is not necessary to try to enumerate them, because you can draw from your own experience all that you will need to give you a practical working knowledge of the principle and its method of application.In some cases, it may require months in which to prepare a person’s mind to receive that which you wish to place there, through suggestion. In other cases, a few minutes or even a few seconds may be sufficient. You may as well accept it as a positive fact, however, that you cannot influence the mind of a person who is antagonistic toward you, or who has not implicit faith and confidence in you.
The very first step to be taken, therefore, whether you are preaching a sermon, selling merchandise, or pleading a case before a jury, is to gain the confidence of whomever you wish to influence. Read that remarkable speech of Marc Antony at the burial of Caesar, in Shakespeare’s works, and you will see how a hostile mob was completely disarmed by Marc Antony through the use of the very same principle that we are describing in this lesson.
Let us analyze the beginning of this wonderful speech, for herein may be found a lesson in applied psychology that is second to none. The mob has heard Brutus state his reason for killing Caesar and has been swayed by him. Marc Antony, Caesar’s friend, now comes onstage to present his side of the case. The mob is against him to start with. Furthermore, it is expecting him to attack Brutus. But Marc Antony, the clever psychologist that he is, does nothing of the sort. Says he, ‘‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.’’
The mob had expected that he had come to praise his friend Caesar (which he had), but he had no notion of trying to do so until the minds of the mob had been neutralized and prepared to receive favorably that which he intended to say. Had the plan upon which Marc Antony’s speech was built been reversed, and had he referred sneeringly to Brutus as being an ‘‘honorable’’ man in the beginning, he would likely have been assassinated by the mob.
One of the most able and successful lawyers I ever saw makes use of the same psychology that Marc Antony employed, in addressing a jury. I once heard him address a jury with words which led me to believe, for a few minutes, that he was either drunk or that he had suddenly lost his reason.
He began by extolling the virtues of his opponents, and apparently he was helping them establish their case against his own client. He began by saying, ‘‘Now, gentlemen of the jury, I do not wish to startle you, but there are many points in connection with this case that are
against my client,’’ and he proceeded to call attention to every one of them. (These points, of course, had been brought out by opposing counsel anyway.)
After he had gone along this line for a time, he suddenly stopped and, with deep dramatic effect, said, ‘‘But—that is what the other side says about this case. Now that we know what their contentions are, let us turn to the other side of the case.’’ From that point on, this lawyer
played upon the minds of that jury as a violinist would play upon the strings of his instrument, and within fifteen minutes, he had half of them in tears. At the end of his speech, he dropped into his seat, apparently overcome with emotion. The jury filed out and, in less than half an hour, returned with a verdict for his client.
Had this lawyer started out by stating the weak side of his opponent’s case and urging upon the jury the merits of his own case too soon, he would undoubtedly have suffered defeat. But, as I
afterwards learned, this lawyer was a close student of Shakespeare. He made use of the Marc Antony psychology in nearly all of his cases, and it is said that he lost fewer cases than any other lawyer in the community in which he practiced.
This same principle is used by the successful salesman, who not only refrains from ‘‘knocking’’ his competitor, but actually goes out of his way to speak highly of him. No person ought to consider himself a finished salesman until he has mastered the Marc Antony psychology and learned how to apply it. This speech is one of the greatest lessons in salesmanship ever written. If a salesman loses a sale, the chances are about ninety-nine to one that he lost it because of
lack of proper preparation of the prospective buyer’s mind. He spent too much time trying to ‘‘close’’ the sale and not enough time ‘‘preparing’’ the buyer’s mind. He tried to reach his climax to soon. The successful salesman must prepare the buyer’s mind to receive suggestions without either questioning or resisting them!
The human mind is an intricate affair. One of its characteristics is the fact that all impressions which reach the subconscious division are recorded in groups which harmonize and which are apparently closely related. When one of these impressions is called into the conscious mind, there is a tendency to recall all of the others with it. For example, one single act or word that causes a feeling of doubt to arise in a person’s mind is sufficient to call into his conscious mind all of his experiences which caused him to be doubtful. Through the law of association, all similar emotions, experiences, or sense impressions which reach the mind are recorded together, so that the recalling of one has a tendency to bring out the others.
Just as a small pebble will, when thrown into the water, start a chain of ripples that will rapidly multiply, the subconscious mind has a tendency to bring into consciousness all of the associated or closely related emotions or sense impressions which it has stored, when one of them is aroused. To arouse a feeling of doubt in a person’s mind has a tendency to bring to the surface every doubt-building experience that person ever had. That is why successful salesmen
endeavor to keep away from subjects that may arouse the buyer’s ‘‘chain of doubt impressions.’’ The able salesman has long since learned that to ‘‘knock’’ a competitor may result in bringing to the buyer’s conscious mind certain negative emotions which may make it impossible for the salesman to ‘‘neutralize’’ his mind.
This principle applies to and controls every emotion and every sense impression that is lodged in the human mind. Take the feeling of fear, for example; the moment we permit one single emotion that is related to fear to reach the conscious mind, it calls with it all of its unsavory
relations. A feeling of courage cannot claim the attention of our conscious mind while a feeling of fear is there. One must supplant the other. They cannot become roommates, because they do not harmonize. Every thought held in the conscious mind has a tendency to draw to it every other harmonious or related thought. You see, therefore, that those feelings, thoughts, and emotions which claim the attention of the conscious mind are backed by a regular army of
supporting soldiers who stand ready to aid them in their work.
Place in a man’s mind, through the principle of suggestion, the ambition to succeed in any undertaking, and you will see that man’s latent ability aroused and his powers automatically increased. Plant in your boy’s mind, through the principle of suggestion, the ambition to
become a successful lawyer, doctor, engineer, or businessman, and if you keep away all counter-influences, you will see that boy reach the desired goal.
It is much easier to influence a child through suggestion than it is an adult, for the reason that in the mind of a child, there are not so many opposing influences to break down in the process of ‘‘neutralizing’’the mind, and he is naturally more credulous than an older person.
the principle of suggestion lies the great roadway to success in the organization and management of men. The superintendent, foreman, manager, or president of an organization who fails to understand and use this principle is depriving himself of the most powerful force through which to influence his men. One of the most able and efficient managers that I ever knew was a man who never criticized one of his men. To the contrary, he constantly reminded them of how well they were doing! He made a practice of going among his men, stopping here and there to lay a hand on a man’s shoulder and compliment him on the manner in which he was improving. It made no difference how poor a man’s work was, this manager never reprimanded him. By constantly placing in the minds of his men, through the principle of suggestion, the thought that ‘‘they are improving,’’ they caught the suggestion and were promptly and effectively influenced by it.
One day, this manager stopped by the workbench of a man whose record showed that his work was decreasing in quantity. The man was working on piecework. Laying his hand on this man’s shoulder, he said, ‘‘Jim, I believe you are doing much better work than you were last week. You seem to be setting the other boys a lively pace. I’m glad to see this. Go to it, my boy, I’m with you to the end!’’ This happened about one o’clock in the afternoon. That night, Jim’s tally sheet showed that he had actually turned out twenty-five percent more work than he had done the day before!
If any man doubts that wonders can be performed through the principle of suggestion, it is because he has not given enough time to the study of the principle to understand it. Have you not noticed that the friendly, enthusiastic, ‘‘breezy,’’ talkative, ‘‘hail fellow well met’’ type of person gets along better than the more sedate as a leader of men in any undertaking? Surely you must have noticed that the grouchy, sullen, non communicative sort of person never succeeds in attracting people to him or in influencing them to do his bidding. The principle of suggestion is at work constantly whether we are aware of it or not. Through this principle,
which is as immutable as the law of gravitation, we are constantly influencing those around us and causing them to absorb the spirit which we radiate and to reflect this spirit in everything they do.
Surely you have noticed how one disgruntled person will cast a shadow of discontent over those with whom he associates. One agitator or troublemaker can disrupt a whole force of workmen and soon render their services worthless. On the other hand, one cheerful, optimistic, loyal, and enthusiastic person will influence a whole organization and inoculate it with the spirit which he manifests. Whether we know it or not, we are constantly passing on to others our own emotions, feelings, and thoughts. In most instances, we are doing this unconsciously. In our next lesson, we shall show you how to make conscious use of this great principle of suggestion, through
the law of retaliation.
In the next lesson, we shall show you how to ‘‘neutralize’’ the mind and how to get people to work in complete harmony with you, through application of the principle of suggestion.
In this lesson, you have learned something about one of the major principles of psychology, which is suggestion. You have learned that there are two steps to be taken in manipulating this principle, as follows:
First, you must ‘‘neutralize’’ the subject’s mind before you can influence it through thoughts which you wish to plant there, through suggestion.
Second, to ‘‘neutralize’’ a mind, you must produce in it a state of credulousness greater than that normally maintained by the subject.
Fortunate is the person who controls his egotism and his desire for self-expression to the extent that he is willing to pass his own ideas on to others without insisting on reminding them as to the source of those ideas. The man who begins his statement with ‘‘As you of course know, Mr. Smith,’’ instead of ‘‘Let me tell you something you do not know, Mr. Smith,’’ is a salesman who knows how to make use of the principle of suggestion.
One of the cleverest and most able salesmen I ever knew was a man who rarely took credit for any information that he passed on to his prospective buyers. It was always, ‘‘As you of course already know, so and so.’’ The very effort which some people make to impress us with their superior knowledge acts as a negative barrier that is hard to overcome in the process of rendering our minds ‘‘neutral.’’ Instead of ‘‘neutralizing’’ our minds, such people antagonize us and make impossible the operation of the principle of suggestion in influencing us.
a befitting climax for this lesson, I shall quote an article written by Dr. Henry R. Rose, entitled ‘‘The Mind Doctor at Work.’’ This is the clearest elucidation on the subject of suggestion that I have ever seen, and fully substantiates all that I have discovered in my research on this subject. This article, within itself, constitutes the finest lesson on suggestion that I have ever seen:
‘‘If my wife dies, I will not believe there is a God.’’ His wife was ill of pneumonia. This is the way he greeted me when I reached his home. She had sent for me. The doctor had told her she could not recover. She had called her husband and two sons to her bedside and bidden them goodbye. Then he asked that I, her minister, be sent for. I found the husband in the front room sobbing and the sons doing their best to brace him up. I went in to see his wife. She was breathing with difficulty, and the trained nurse told me she was very low. I soon found that Mrs. N had sent for me to look after her two sons after she was gone. Then I said to her,
‘‘You mustn’t give up. You are not going to die. You have always been a strong and healthy woman, and I do not believe God wants you to die and leave your boys to me or anyone else.’’
I talked to her along this line and then read the 103rd Psalm and made a prayer in which I
prepared her to get well rather than to enter eternity. I told her to put her faith in God and
throw her mind and will against every thought of dying. Then I left her, saying that I would come again after the church service. This was on a Sunday morning. I called that afternoon. Her husband met me with a smile. He said that the moment I had gone, his wife called him and the boys into the room and said, ‘‘Dr. Rose says that I am going to get well, and I am.’’
She did get well. But what did it? Two things: suggestion on my part and confidence on her part. I came in the nick of time, and so great was her faith in me, that I was able to inspire faith in herself. It was that faith that tipped the scales and brought her through the pneumonia. No medicine can cure pneumonia. The physicians admit it. There are cases of pneumonia that nothing can cure. We all sadly agree to that. But there are times, as in this case, when the mind, if worked upon and worked in just the right way, will turn the tide. While there is life, there is hope; but hope must be supreme and do the good that hope was created to do.
Another remarkable case: A physician asked me to see Mrs. H. He said there was nothing organically wrong with her, but she just wouldn’t eat. Having made up her mind that she could not retain anything on her stomach, she had quit eating and was slowly starving herself to death. I went to see her and found, first, that she had no religious belief. She had lost her faith in God. I also found that she had no confidence in her power to retain food. My first effort was to restore her faith in the
Almighty and to get her to believe that He was with her and would give her power. Then I told her that she could eat anything. True, her confidence in me was great, and my statement impressed her. She began to eat from that day! She was out of her bed in three days, for the first time in weeks. She is a normal woman today. What did it? The same forces as in the preceding case—outside suggestion and inward confidence.
There are times when the mind is sick, and it makes the body sick. At such times, it needs a stronger mind to heal it by giving it direction and especially by giving it confidence in itself. This is called suggestion. It is transmitting your confidence and power to another, and with such force as to make the other believe as you wish and do as you will. It need not be hypnotism. You can get wonderful results with the patient wide awake and perfectly rational. He must believe in you, and you must know the workings of the human mind in order to
meet his arguments and questionings completely and banish them utterly from his thoughts. Each one of us can be healers of this sort and, thus, help our fellow men.
It is now the duty of men and woman to read some of the best books on the force of the mind and learn what amazing and glorious things the mind can do to keep people well or to restore their health. We see the terrible things that wrong thinking does to people, even going to such lengths as to make them positively insane. Is it now high time we found out the good things that right thinking can do, and its power to cure not only mental disorders, but physical diseases as well?
I do not say that the mind can do everything. There is no reliable evidence that certain forms of
real cancer have been cured by thinking or faith or any mental or religious process. If you would be cured of cancer, you must take it at the very beginning and treat it surgically. There is no other way, and I would feel myself a criminal if I led any reader to neglect the first symptoms of this awful malady by thinking to overcome them by mental suggestion. But the mind can do so much with so many, many types of human indisposition and disease that we ought to rely upon it more than we do.
Napoleon during his campaign in Egypt went among his soldiers who were dying by the
hundreds of the black plague. He touched one of them and lifted a second, to inspire the others not to be afraid, for the awful disease seemed to be spread as much by the imagination as in any other way. Goethe tells us that he himself went where there was malignant fever and never contracted it because he put forth his will. These giants among men knew something we are slowly beginning to find out—the power of auto-suggestion. This means the influence we have upon ourselves by believing we cannot catch a disease or be sick.
There is something about the operation of the automatic mind by which it rises above disease
germs and bids defiance to them when we resolve not to let the thought of them frighten us or when we go in and out among the sick, even the contagiously sick, without thinking anything
about it.
Imagination . . . certainly will kill a man. There are authentic cases on record of men having actually died because they imagined they were cut with a knife across the jugular vein, when in reality, a piece of ice was used and water was allowed to drop so that they could hear it and imagine their blood was running out. They had been blindfolded before the experiment was begun. No matter how well you may be when you start for work in the morning, if everybody you meet should say to you, ‘‘How ill you look,’’ it will not be long before you begin to feel ill,
and if that thing keeps up all day, you will arrive home at night as limp as a rag and ready for a
doctor. Such is the fatal power of imagination or auto-suggestion.
The first thing, then, is to remember what pranks your imagination can play upon you, and be on your guard. Do not allow yourself to think that awful things are the matter with you or are going to be the matter with you. If you do, you will suffer. Young medical students not infrequently think they have every disease they hear discussed or analyzed in the classroom. Some of them have imaginations so vivid that they actually come down with the disease. Yes, an imagined disease is perfectly possible and may be just as painful as a disease gotten in some other way. An imaginary pain is just as painful as any other kind of pain. No medicine can cure it. It must be removed by imagining it away.
Dr. Schofield describes the case of a woman who had a tumor. They put her on the operating table and gave her anesthetics. Lo and behold, the tumor immediately disappeared. No operation was necessary. But when she came back to consciousness, the tumor returned! The physician then learned that she had been living with a relative who had a real tumor, and her imagination was so great that she had imagined this one upon herself. She was put on the operating table again, given anesthetics, and then she was strapped around the middle so that the tumor could not artificially return. When she revived, she was told that a successful operation had been performed, but that it would be necessary to wear the bandage for several days. She believed the doctor, and when the bandage was finally removed, the tumor did not return.
No operation whatever had been performed. He had simply relieved her subconscious mind, and the imagination had nothing to work upon save the idea of health, and as she had never been really sick, of course she became normal. If what you think and brood upon can go so far as to produce an imitation tumor, do you not see how careful you should be never to imagine you have a disease of any kind?
The very best way to cure your imagination is at night, just as you go to bed. In the night season, the automatic (subconscious) mind has everything its own way, and the thoughts you give it before your day’s mind (conscious mind) goes to sleep will go on working it all through the night. This may seem a foolish statement, but prove it a true one by the following test. You want to get up at seven o’clock in the morning or, say, some other hour than your regular one for rising. Now say to yourself on going to bed, ‘‘I must rise at seven o’clock.’’ Turn that thought over to your automatic mind with absolute confidence, and you will waken at seven o’clock.
This thing is done over and over again, and it is done because the subconscious self is awake all
night, and when seven o’clock comes, it taps you on the shoulder, so to speak, and wakes you up. But you must trust it. If you have the least doubt that you will not wake up, it is likely to interfere with the whole process. Faith in your automatic mechanism causes it to operate just as you direct it before you fall asleep.
Here is a great secret, and it will help you overcome many a fault and deplorable habit. Tell yourself that you are through worrying, through drinking, through stammering, or whatever else you wish to quit, and then leave the job to the subconscious mind at night. Do this night after night, and mark, you will win.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon