,,the ,,practice ,,of ,,autosuggestion ,,by ,,the ,,method of ,,emile ,,cou ,revised ,edition ,,by ,c4 ,,harry ,,brooks ,,with ,a ,,foreword ,,by ,,emile ,,cou ,for what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of the man which is in him8 #a ,,corinthians ii4 #aa4 ,,new ,,york ,,dodd1 ,,mead ,,and ,,company #aibb ,,copyright #aibb ,,by ,,dodd1 ,,mead ,,and ,,company1 ,,inc4 ,first ,printing1 ,may1 #aibb ,second ,printing1 ,june1 #aibb ,third ,printing1 ,june1 #aibb ,fourth ,printing1 ,july1 #aibb ,fifth ,printing1 ,july1 #aibb ,sixth ,printing1 ,aug41 #aibb ,seventh ,printing1 ,aug41 #aibb ,eighth ,printing1 ,aug41 #aibb ,ninth ,printing1 ,sept41 #aibb ,tenth ,printing1 ,sept41 #aibb ,eleventh ,printing1 ,nov41 #aibb ,twelfth ,printing1 ,nov41 #aibb ,thirteenth ,printing1 ,dec41 #aibb ,fourteenth ,printing1 ,jan41 #aibc ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,u4 ,s4 ,a4 ,,by ,the ,quinn ,boden ,company ,,book ,,manufacturers ,,rahway ,,new ,,jersey ,,to ,,all ,,in ,,conflict ,,with ,,their ,,own ,,imperfections ,,this ,,little ,,book ,,is ,,dedicated ,,preface ,,to ,,the ,,american ,,edition ,to my ,american readers a special word of gratitude is due for their generosity to this little book4 ,i hope that it has given them as much encouragement and help as they have given me4 ,in ,america1 the home of so many systems of mental healing1 it is perhaps even more necessary than in ,europe to insist on the distinctive features of ,m4 ,cou's teaching4 ,it is based1 not on transcendental or mystical postulates1 but on the simple and acknowledged facts of psychology4 ,this does not mean that it has no relation to religion4 ,on the contrary it has a very close one4 ,indeed ,i hope in a future volume to point out its deep significance for the ,christian churches4 ,but that relationship remains in ,m4 ,cou's teaching unexpressed4 ,the powers he has revealed are part of the natural endowment of the human mind4 ,therefore they are available to all men1 independently of adherence or non-adherence to any sect or creed4 ,the method of ,m4 ,cou is in no sense opposed to the ordinary practice of medicine4 ,it is not intended to supplant it but to supplement it4 ,it is a new ally1 bringing valuable reinforcements to the common crusade against disease and unhappiness4 ,induced ,autosuggestion does not involve1 as several hasty critics have assumed1 an attack upon the ,will4 ,it simply teaches that during the actual formulation of suggestions1 that is for a few minutes daily1 the ,will should be quiescent4 ,at other times the exercise of the ,will is encouraged2 indeed we are shown how to use it properly1 that is without friction or waste of energy4 ,c4 ,h4 ,b4 #ai ,october1 #aibb4 ,,author',s ,,preface ,the discoveries of ,emile ,cou are of such moment for the happiness and efficiency of the individual life that it is the duty of anyone acquainted with them to pass them on to his fellows4 ,the lives of many men and women are robbed of their true value by twists and flaws of character and temperament1 which1 while defying the efforts of the will1 would yield rapidly to the influence of autosuggestion4 ,unfortunately1 the knowledge of this method has hitherto been available in ,england only in the somewhat detailed and technical work of ,professor ,charles ,baudouin1 and in a small pamphlet1 printed privately by ,m4 ,cou1 which has not been publicly exposed for sale4 ,to fill this gap is the aim of the following pages4 ,they are designed to present to the layman in non-technical form the information necessary to enable him to practise autosuggestion for himself4 ,all readers who wish to obtain a deeper insight into the theoretical basis of autosuggestion are recommended to study ,professor ,baudouin's fascinating work1 ,suggestion and ,autosuggestion4 ,although in these pages there are occasional divergences from ,professor ,baudouin's views1 his book remains beyond question the authoritative statement on the subject2 indeed it is hardly possible without it to form an adequate idea of the scope of autosuggestion4 ,my own indebtedness to it in writing this little volume is very great4 ,my thanks are due for innumerable kindnesses to ,m4 ,cou himself4 ,that he is the embodiment of patience everyone knows who has been in contact with him4 ,i am also indebted to the ,rev4 ,ernest ,charles1 of ,malvern ,link1 who1 though disclaiming responsibility for some of the views expressed here1 has made many extremely valuable suggestions4 ,c4 ,h4 ,b4 ,,malvern ,,link1 #ba ,february1 #aibb4 ,,foreword ,the materials for this little book were collected by ,mr4 ,brooks during a visit he paid me in the summer of #aiba4 ,he was1 ,i think1 the first ,englishman to come to ,nancy with the express purpose of studying my method of conscious autosuggestion4 ,in the course of daily visits extending over some weeks1 by attending my consultations1 and by private conversations with myself1 he obtained a full mastery of the method1 and we threshed out a good deal of the theory on which it rests4 ,the results of this study are contained in the following pages4 ,mr4 ,brooks has skilfully seized on the essentials and put them forward in a manner that seems to me both simple and clear4 ,the instructions given are amply sufficient to enable anyone to practise autosuggestion for him or herself1 without seeking the help of any other person4 ,it is a method which everyone should follow--the sick to obtain healing1 the healthy to prevent the coming of disease in the future4 ,by its practice we can insure for ourselves1 all our lives long1 an excellent state of health1 both of the mind and the body4 ,e4 ,,cou4 ,,nancy4 ,,contents ,,preface ,,foreword ,i ,,cou',s ,,nancy ,,practice ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,clinic ,,of ,,emile ,,cou ,,ii ,a ,,few ,,of ,,cou',s ,,cures ,,iii ,,the ,,children',s ,,clinic ,,ii ,,the ,,nature ,,of ,,autosuggestion ,,iv ,,thought ,,is ,a ,,force ,v ,,thought ,,and ,,the ,,will ,,iii ,,the ,,practice ,,of ,,autosuggestion ,,vi ,,general ,,rules ,,vii ,,the ,,general ,,formula ,,viii ,,particular ,,suggestions ,,ix ,,how ,,to ,,deal ,,with ,,pain ,x ,,autosuggestion ,,and ,,the ,,child ,,xi ,,conclusion ,i ,,cou',s ,,nancy ,,practice ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,clinic ,,of ,,emile ,,cou ,the clinic of ,emile ,cou1 where ,induced ,autosuggestion is applied to the treatment of disease1 is situated in a pleasant garden attached to his house at the quiet end of the rue ,jeanne d',arc in ,nancy4 ,it was here that ,i visited him in the early summer of #aiba1 and had the pleasure for the first time of witnessing one of his consultations4 ,we entered the garden from his house a little before nine o'clock4 ,in one corner was a brick building of two stories1 with its windows thrown wide to let in the air and sunshine--this was the clinic2 a few yards away was a smaller one-storied construction which served as a waiting-room4 ,under the plum and cherry trees1 now laden with fruit1 little groups of patients were sitting on the garden seats1 chatting amicably together and enjoying the morning sunshine while others wandered in twos and threes among the flowers and strawberry beds4 ,the room reserved for the treatments was already crowded1 but in spite of that eager newcomers constantly tried to gain entrance4 ,the window-sills on the ground floor were beset1 and a dense knot had formed in the doorway4 ,inside1 the patients had first occupied the seats which surrounded the walls1 and then covered the available floor-space1 sitting on camp-stools and folding-chairs4 ,cou with some difficulty found me a seat1 and the treatment immediately began4 ,the first patient he addressed was a frail1 middle-aged man who1 accompanied by his daughter1 had just arrived from ,paris to consult him4 ,the man was a bad case of nervous trouble4 ,he walked with difficulty1 and his head1 arms and legs were afflicted with a continual tremor4 ,he explained that if he encountered a stranger when walking in the street the idea that the latter would remark his infirmity completely paralysed him1 and he had to cling to whatever support was at hand to save himself from falling4 ,at ,cou's invitation he rose from his seat and took a few steps across the floor4 ,he walked slowly1 leaning on a stick2 his knees were half bent1 and his feet dragged heavily along the ground4 ,cou encouraged him with the promise of improvement4 ,you have been sowing bad seed in your ,unconscious2 now you will sow good seed4 ,the power by which you have produced these ill effects will in future produce equally good ones4 ,the next patient was an excitable1 over-worked woman of the artisan class4 ,when ,cou inquired the nature of her trouble1 she broke into a flood of complaint1 describing each symptom with a voluble minuteness4 ,madame1 he interrupted1 you think too much about your ailments1 and in thinking of them you create fresh ones4 ,next came a girl with headaches1 a youth with inflamed eyes1 and a farm-labourer incapacitated by varicose veins4 ,in each case ,cou stated that autosuggestion should bring complete relief4 ,then it was the turn of a business man who complained of nervousness1 lack of self-confidence and haunting fears4 ,when you know the method1 said ,cou1 you will not allow yourself to harbour such ideas4 ,i work terribly hard to get rid of them1 the patient answered4 ,you fatigue yourself4 ,the greater the efforts you make1 the more the ideas return4 ,you will change all that easily1 simply1 and above all1 without effort4 ,i want to1 the man interjected4 ,that's just where you're wrong1 ,cou told him4 ,if you say ',i want to do something1' your imagination replies ',oh1 but you can't4' ,you must say ',i am going to do it1' and if it is in the region of the possible you will succeed4 ,a little further on was another neurasthenic--a girl4 ,this was her third visit to the clinic1 and for ten days she had been practising the method at home4 ,with a happy smile1 and a little pardonable self-importance1 she declared that she already felt a considerable improvement4 ,she had more energy1 was beginning to enjoy life1 ate heartily and slept more soundly4 ,her sincerity and nave delight helped to strengthen the faith of her fellow-patients4 ,they looked on her as a living proof of the healing which should come to themselves4 ,cou continued his questions4 ,those who were unable1 whether through rheumatism or some paralytic affection1 to make use of a limb were called on1 as a criterion of future progress1 to put out their maximum efforts4 ,in addition to the visitor from ,paris there were present a man and a woman who could not walk without support1 and a burly peasant1 formerly a blacksmith1 who for nearly ten years had not succeeded in lifting his right arm above the level of his shoulder4 ,in each case ,cou predicted a complete cure4 ,during this preliminary stage of the treatment1 the words he spoke were not in the nature of suggestions4 ,they were sober expressions of opinion1 based on years of experience4 ,not once did he reject the possibility of cure1 though with several patients suffering from organic disease in an advanced stage1 he admitted its unlikelihood4 ,to these he promised1 however1 a cessation of pain1 an improvement of morale1 and at least a retardment of the progress of the disease4 ,meanwhile1 he added1 the limits of the power of autosuggestion are not yet known2 final recovery is possible4 ,in all cases of functional and nervous disorders1 as well as the less serious ones of an organic nature1 he stated that autosuggestion1 conscientiously applied1 was capable of removing the trouble completely4 ,it took ,cou nearly forty minutes to complete his interrogation4 ,other patients bore witness to the benefits the treatment had already conferred on them4 ,a woman with a painful swelling in her breast1 which a doctor had diagnosed 7in ,cou's opinion wrongly71 as of a cancerous nature1 had found complete relief after less than three weeks' treatment4 ,another woman had enriched her impoverished blood1 and increased her weight by over nine pounds4 ,a man had been cured of a varicose ulcer1 another in a single sitting had rid himself of a lifelong habit of stammering4 ,only one of the former patients failed to report an improvement4 ,monsieur1 said ,cou1 you have been making efforts4 ,you must put your trust in the imagination1 not in the will4 ,think you are better and you will become so4 ,cou now proceeded to outline the theory given in the pages which follow4 ,it is sufficient here to state his main conclusions1 which were these3 7#a7 ,every idea which exclusively occupies the mind is transformed into an actual physical or mental state4 7#b7 ,the efforts we make to conquer an idea by exerting the will only serve to make that idea more powerful4 ,to demonstrate these truths he requested one of his patients1 a young anaemic-looking woman1 to carry out a small experiment4 ,she extended her arms in front of her1 and clasped the hands firmly together with the fingers interlaced1 increasing the force of her grip until a slight tremor set in4 ,look at your hands1 said ,cou1 and think you would like to open them but you cannot4 ,now try and pull them apart4 ,pull hard4 ,you find that the more you try the more tightly they become clasped together4 ,the girl made little convulsive movements of her wrists1 really doing her best by physical force to separate her hands1 but the harder she tried the more her grip increased in strength1 until the knuckles turned white with the pressure4 ,her hands seemed locked together by a force outside her own control4 ,now think1 said ,cone1 ',i can open my hands4' ,slowly her grasp relaxed and1 in response to a little pull1 the cramped fingers came apart4 ,she smiled shyly at the attention she had attracted1 and sat down4 ,cou pointed out that the two main points of his theory were thus demonstrated simultaneously3 when the patient's mind was filled with the thought ,i cannot1 she could not in very fact unclasp her hands4 ,further1 the efforts she made to wrench them apart by exerting her will only fixed them more firmly together4 ,each patient was now called on in turn to perform the same experiment4 ,the more imaginative among them--notably the women--were at once successful4 ,one old lady was so absorbed in the thought ,i cannot as not to heed the request to think ,i can4 ,with her face ruefully puckered up she sat staring fixedly at her interlocked fingers1 as though contemplating an act of fate4 ,voil1 said ,cou1 smiling1 if ,madame persists in her present idea1 she will never open her hands again as long as she lives4 ,several of the men1 however1 were not at once successful4 ,the whilom blacksmith with the disabled arm1 when told to think ,i should like to open my hands but ,i cannot1 proceeded without difficulty to open them4 ,you see1 said ,cou1 with a smile1 it depends not on what ,i say but on what you think4 ,what were you thinking then8 ,he hesitated4 ,i thought perhaps ,i could open them after all4 ,exactly4 ,and therefore you could4 ,now clasp your hands again4 ,press them together4 ,when the right degree of pressure had been reached1 ,cou told him to repeat the words ,i cannot1 ,i cannot4444 ,as he repeated this phrase the contracture increased1 and all his efforts failed to release his grip4 ,voil1 said ,cou4 ,now listen4 ,for ten years you have been thinking you could not lift your arm above your shoulder1 consequently you have not been able to do so1 for whatever we think becomes true for us4 ,now think ',i can lift it4' ,the patient looked at him doubtfully4 ,quick6 ,cou said in a tone of authority4 ,think ',i can1 ,i can6' ,i can1 said the man4 ,he made a half-hearted attempt and complained of a pain in his shoulder4 ,bon1 said ,cou4 ,don't lower your arm4 ,close your eyes and repeat with me as fast as you can1 ',ca passe1 a passe4' ,for half a minute they repeated this phrase together1 speaking so fast as to produce a sound like the whirr of a rapidly revolving machine4 ,meanwhile ,cou quickly stroked the man's shoulder4 ,at the end of that time the patient admitted that his pain had left him4 ,now think well that you can lift your arm1 ,cou said4 ,the departure of the pain had given the patient faith4 ,his face1 which before had been perplexed and incredulous1 brightened as the thought of power took possession of him4 ,i can1 he said in a tone of finality1 and without effort he calmly lifted his arm to its full height above his head4 ,he held it there triumphantly for a moment while the whole company applauded and encouraged him4 ,cou reached for his hand and shook it4 ,my friend1 you are cured4 ,c'est merveilleux1 the man answered4 ,i believe ,i am4 ,prove it1 said ,cou4 ,hit me on the shoulder4 ,the patient laughed1 and dealt him a gentle rap4 ,harder1 ,cou encouraged him4 ,hit me harder--as hard as you can4 ,his arm began to rise and fall in regular blows1 increasing in force until ,cou was compelled to call on him to stop4 ,voil1 mon ami1 you can go back to your anvil4 ,the man resumed his seat1 still hardly able to comprehend what had occurred4 ,now and then he lifted his arm as if to reassure himself1 whispering to himself in an awed voice1 ,i can1 ,i can4 ,a little further on was seated a woman who had complained of violent neuralgia4 ,under the influence of the repeated phrase a passe 7it's going7 the pain was dispelled in less than thirty seconds4 ,then it was the turn of the visitor from ,paris4 ,what he had seen had inspired him with confidence2 he was sitting more erect1 there was a little patch of colour in his cheeks1 and his trembling seemed less violent4 ,he performed the experiment with immediate success4 ,now1 said ,cou1 you are cultivated ground4 ,i can throw out the seed in handfuls4 ,he caused the sufferer first to stand erect with his back and knees straightened4 ,then he asked him1 constantly thinking ,i can1 to place his entire weight on each foot in turn1 slowly performing the exercise known as marking time4 ,a space was then cleared of chairs1 and having discarded his stick1 the man was made to walk to and fro4 ,when his gait became slovenly ,cou stopped him1 pointed out his fault1 and1 renewing the thought ,i can1 caused him to correct it4 ,progressive improvement kindled the man's imagination4 ,he took himself in his own hands4 ,his bearing became more and more confident1 he walked more easily1 more quickly4 ,his little daughter1 all smiles and happy self-forgetfulness1 stood beside him uttering expressions of delight1 admiration and encouragement4 ,the whole company laughed and clapped their hands4 ,after the sitting1 said ,cou1 you shall come for a run in my garden4 ,thus ,cou continued his round of the clinic4 ,each patient suffering from pain was given complete or partial relief2 those with useless limbs had a varying measure of use restored to them4 ,cou's manner was always quietly inspiring4 ,there was no formality1 no attitude of the superior person2 he treated everyone1 whether rich or poor1 with the same friendly solicitude4 ,but within these limits he varied his tone to suit the temperament of the patient4 ,sometimes he was firm1 sometimes gently bantering4 ,he seized every opportunity for a little humorous by-play4 ,one might almost say that he tactfully teased some of his patients1 giving them an idea that their ailment was absurd1 and a little unworthy2 that to be ill was a quaint but reprehensible weakness1 which they should quickly get rid of4 ,indeed1 this denial of the dignity of disease is one of the characteristics of the place4 ,no homage is paid to it as a ,dread ,monarch4 ,it is gently ridiculed1 its terrors are made to appear second-rate1 and its victims end by laughing at it4 ,cou now passed on to the formulation of specific suggestions4 ,the patients closed their eyes1 and he proceeded in a low1 monotonous voice1 to evoke before their minds the states of health1 mental and physical1 they were seeking4 ,as they listened to him their alertness ebbed away1 they were lulled into a drowsy state1 peopled only by the vivid images he called up before the eyes of the mind4 ,the faint rustle of the trees1 the songs of the birds1 the low voices of those waiting in the garden1 merged into a pleasant background1 on which his words stood out powerfully4 ,this is what he said3 ,say to yourself that all the words ,i am about to utter will be fixed1 imprinted and engraven in your minds2 that they will remain fixed1 imprinted and engraven there1 so that without your will and knowledge1 without your being in any way aware of what is taking place1 you yourself and your whole organism will obey them4 ,i tell you first that every day1 three times a day1 morning1 noon and evening1 at mealtimes1 you will be hungry2 that is to say you will feel that pleasant sensation which makes us think and say3 ',how ,i should like something to eat6' ,you will then eat with excellent appetite1 enjoying your food1 but you will never eat too much4 ,you will eat the right amount1 neither too much nor too little1 and you will know intuitively when you have had sufficient4 ,you will masticate your food thoroughly1 transforming it into a smooth paste before swallowing it4 ,in these conditions you will digest it well1 and so feel no discomfort of any kind either in the stomach or the intestines4 ,assimilation will be perfectly performed1 and your organism will make the best possible use of the food to create blood1 muscle1 strength1 energy1 in a word--,life4 ,since you have digested your food properly1 the excretory functions will be normally performed4 ,this will take place every morning immediately on rising1 and without your having recourse to any laxative medicine or artificial means of any kind4 ,every night you will fall asleep at the hour you wish1 and will continue to sleep until the hour at which you desire to wake next morning4 ,your sleep will be calm1 peaceful and profound1 untroubled by bad dreams or undesirable states of body4 ,you may dream1 but your dreams will be pleasant ones4 ,on waking you will feel well1 bright1 alert1 eager for the day's tasks4 ,if in the past you have been subject to depression1 gloom and melancholy forebodings1 you will henceforward be free from such troubles4 ,instead of being moody1 anxious and depressed1 you will be cheerful and happy4 ,you will be happy even if you have no particular reason for being so1 just as in the past you were1 without good reason1 unhappy4 ,i tell you even that if you have serious cause to be worried or depressed1 you will not be so4 ,if you have been impatient or ill-tempered1 you will no longer be anything of the kind2 on the contrary1 you will always be patient and self-controlled4 ,the happenings which used to irritate you will leave you entirely calm and unmoved4 ,if you have sometimes been haunted by evil and unwholesome ideas1 by fears or phobias1 these ideas will gradually cease to occupy your mind4 ,they will melt away like a cloud4 ,as a dream vanishes when we wake1 so will these vain images disappear4 ,i add that all your organs do their work perfectly4 ,your heart beats normally and the circulation of the blood takes place as it should4 ,the lungs do their work well4 ,the stomach1 the intestines1 the liver1 the biliary duct1 the kidneys and the bladder1 all carry out their functions correctly4 ,if at present any of the organs named is out of order1 the disturbance will grow less day by day1 so that within a short space of time it will have entirely disappeared1 and the organ will have resumed its normal function4 ,further1 if in any organ there is a structural lesion1 it will from this day be gradually repaired1 and in a short period will be completely restored4 ,this will be so even if you are unaware that the trouble exists4 ,i must also add--and it is extremely important--that if in the past you have lacked confidence in yourself1 this self-distrust will gradually disappear4 ,you will have confidence in yourself2 ,i repeat1 you will have confidence4 ,your confidence will be based on the knowledge of the immense power which is within you1 by which you can accomplish any task of which your reason approves4 ,with this confidence you will be able to do anything you wish to do1 provided it is reasonable1 and anything it is your duty to do4 ,when you have any task to perform you will always think that it is easy4 ,such words as 'difficult1' 'impossible1' ',i cannot' will disappear from your vocabulary4 ,their place will be taken by this phrase3 ',it is easy and ,i can4' ,so1 considering your work easy1 even if it is difficult to others1 it will become easy to you4 ,you will do it easily1 without effort and without fatigue4 ,these general suggestions were succeeded by particular suggestions referring to the special ailments from which ,cou's patients were suffering4 ,taking each case in turn1 he allowed his hand to rest lightly on the heads of the sufferers1 while picturing to their minds the health and vigour with which they would soon be endowed4 ,thus to a woman with an ulcerated leg he spoke as follows3 ,henceforth your organism will do all that is necessary to restore your leg to perfect health4 ,it will rapidly heal2 the tissues will regain their tone2 the skin will be soft and healthy4 ,in a short space of time your leg will be vigorous and strong and will in future always remain so4 ,each special complaint was thus treated with a few appropriate phrases4 ,when he had finished1 and the patients were called on to open their eyes1 a faint sigh went round the room1 as if they were awaking reluctantly from a delicious dream4 ,cou now explained to his patients that he possessed no healing powers1 and had never healed a person in his life4 ,they carried in themselves the instrument of their own well-being4 ,the results they had seen were due to the realisation of each patient's own thought4 ,he had been merely an agent calling the ideas of health into their minds4 ,henceforth they could1 and must1 be the pilots of their own destiny4 ,he then requested them to repeat1 under conditions which will be later defined1 the phrase with which his name is associated3 ,day by day1 in every way1 ,i'm getting better and better4#a ,the sitting was at an end4 ,the patients rose and crowded round ,cou1 asking questions1 thanking him1 shaking him by the hand4 ,some declared they were already cured1 some that they were much better1 others that they were confident of cure in the future4 ,it was as if a burden of depression had fallen from their minds4 ,those who had entered with minds crushed and oppressed went out with hope and optimism shining in their faces4 ,but ,cou waved aside these too insistent admirers1 and1 beckoning to the three patients who could not walk1 led them to a corner of the garden where there was a stretch of gravel path running beneath the boughs of fruit trees4 ,once more impressing on their minds the thought of strength and power1 he induced each one to walk without support down this path4 ,he now invited them to run4 ,they hesitated1 but he insisted1 telling them that they could run1 that they ought to run1 that they had but to believe in their own power1 and their thought would be manifested in action4 ,they started rather uncertainly1 but ,cou followed them with persistent encouragements4 ,they began to raise their heads1 to lift their feet from the ground and run with greater freedom and confidence4 ,turning at the end of the path they came back at a fair pace4 ,their movements were not elegant1 but people on the further side of fifty are rarely elegant runners4 ,it was a surprising sight to see these three sufferers who had hobbled to the clinic on sticks now covering the ground at a full five miles an hour1 and laughing heartily at themselves as they ran4 ,the crowd of patients who had collected broke into a spontaneous cheer1 and ,cou1 slipping modestly away1 returned to the fresh company of sufferers who awaited him within4 #a ,the translation given here of ,cou's formula differs slightly from that popularised in ,england during his visit of ,november1 #aiba4 ,the above1 however1 is the ,english version which he considers most suitable4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,a ,,few ,,of ,,cou',s ,,cures ,to give the reader a better idea of the results which ,induced ,autosuggestion is yielding1 ,i shall here describe a few further cases of which ,i was myself in some part a witness1 and thereafter let some of ,cou's patients speak for themselves through the medium of their letters4 ,at one of the morning consultations which ,i subsequently attended was a woman who had suffered for five years with dyspepsia4 ,the trouble had recently become so acute that even the milk diet to which she was now reduced caused her extreme discomfort4 ,consequently she had become extremely thin and anaemic1 was listless1 easily tired1 and suffered from depression4 ,early in the proceedings the accounts given by several patients of the relief they had obtained seemed to appeal to her imagination4 ,she followed ,cou's remarks with keen interest1 answered his questions vivaciously1 and laughed very heartily at the amusing incidents with which the proceedings were interspersed4 ,about five o'clock on the same afternoon ,i happened to be sitting with ,cou when this woman asked to see him4 ,beaming with satisfaction1 she was shown into the room4 ,she reported that on leaving the clinic she had gone to a restaurant in the town and ordered a table d'hte luncheon4 ,conscientiously she had partaken of every course from the hors d'oeuvres to the caf noir4 ,the meal had been concluded at #a4cj1 and she had so far experienced no trace of discomfort4 ,a few days later this woman returned to the clinic to report that the dyspepsia had shown no signs of reappearing2 that her health and spirits were improving1 and that she looked upon herself as cured4 ,on another occasion one of the patients complained of asthma4 ,the paroxysms destroyed his sleep at night and prevented him from performing any task which entailed exertion4 ,walking upstairs was a slow process attended by considerable distress4 ,the experiment with the hands was so successfully performed that ,cou assured him of immediate relief4 ,before you go1 he said1 you will run up and down those stairs without suffering any inconvenience4 ,at the close of the consultation1 under the influence of the suggestion ,i can1 the patient did this without difficulty4 ,that night the trouble recurred in a mild form1 but he continued to attend the clinic and to practise the exercises at home1 and within a fortnight the asthma had finally left him4 ,among other patients with whom ,i conversed was a young man suffering from curvature of the spine4 ,he had been attending the clinic for four months and practising the method at home4 ,his doctor assured him that the spine was gradually resuming its normal position4 ,a girl of twenty-two had suffered from childhood with epileptic fits1 recurring at intervals of a few weeks4 ,since her first visit to the clinic six months previously the fits had ceased4 ,but the soundest testimony to the power of ,induced ,autosuggestion is that borne by the patients themselves4 ,here are a few extracts from letters received by ,cou3 ,at the age of sixty-three1 attacked for more than thirty years by asthma and all the complications attendant upon it1 ,i spent three-quarters of the night sitting on my bed inhaling the smoke of anti-asthma powders4 ,afflicted with almost daily attacks1 especially during the cold and damp seasons1 ,i was unable to walk--,i could not even go down hill4 ,nowadays ,i have splendid nights1 and have put the powders in a drawer4 ,without the slightest hesitation ,i can go upstairs to the first floor4 ,d4 7,mont de ,marsan47 #ae ,december1 #aiba4 ,yesterday ,i felt really better1 that is to say1 of my fever1 so ,i decided to go back to my doctor1 whom ,i had not seen since the summer4 ,the examination showed a normal appendix4 ,on the other hand1 the bladder is still painful1 but is better4 ,at any rate1 there is at present no question of the operation which had worried me so much4 ,i am convinced that ,i shall cure myself completely4 ,m4 ,d4 7,mulhouse47 #bd ,september1 #aiba4 ,i have very good news to give you of your dipsomaniac--she is cured1 and asserts it herself to all who will listen4 ,she told me yesterday that for fourteen years she had not been so long without drink as she has been lately1 and what surprises her so much is that she has not had to struggle against a desire2 she has simply not felt the need of drink4 ,further1 her sleep continues to be splendid4 ,she is getting more and more calm1 in spite of the fact that on several occasions her sang-froid has been severely tested4 ,to put the matter in a nutshell1 she is a changed woman4 ,but what impresses me most is the fact that when she took to your method she thought herself at the end of her tether1 and in the event of its doing her no good had decided to kill herself 7she had already attempted it once74 ,p4 7a ,paris doctor47 #a ,february1 #aibb4 ,for eight years ,i suffered with prolapse of the uterus4 ,i have used your method of ,autosuggestion for the last five months1 and am now completely cured1 for which ,i do not know how to thank you enough4 ,s4 7,toul74#a ,i have a son who came back from ,germany very anaemic and suffering from terrible depression4 ,he went to see you for a short time1 and now is as well as possible4 ,please accept my best thanks4 ,i have also a little cousin whom you have cured4 ,he had a nervous illness1 and had become1 so to speak1 unconscious of what was going on around him4 ,he is now completely cured4 ,s4 ,e4 7,circourt1 ,vosges47 #ai ,october1 #aiba4 ,my wife and ,i have waited nearly a year to thank you for the marvellous cure which your method has accomplished4 ,the very violent attacks of asthma from which my wife suffered have completely disappeared since the visit you paid us last spring4 ,the first few weeks my wife experienced temporary oppression and even the beginnings of an attack1 which1 however1 she was able to ward off within a few minutes by practising ,autosuggestion4 ,in spite of her great desire to thank you sooner my wife wished to add more weight to her testimony by waiting for nearly a year4 ,but the bad time for asthma has not brought the slightest hint of the terrible attacks from which you saved her4 ,j4 ,h4 7,saarbruck47 #bc ,december1 #aiba4 ,all the morbid symptoms from which ,i used to suffer have disappeared4 ,i used to feel as though ,i had a band of iron across my brain which seemed to be red-hot2 added to this ,i had heartburn and bad nights with fearful dreams2 further1 ,i was subject to severe nervous attacks which went on for months4 ,i felt as though pegs were being driven into the sides of my head and nape of my neck1 and when ,i felt ,i could not endure these agonies any longer a feeling would come as if my brain were being smothered in a blanket4 ,all these pains came and went4 ,i had sometimes one1 sometimes others4 ,there were occasions when ,i wanted to die--my sufferings were so acute1 and ,i had to struggle against the idea with great firmness4 ,at last1 having spent five weeks at ,nancy attending your kindly sittings1 ,i have profited so well as to be able to return home in a state of normal health4 ,n4 7,pithiviviers le ,vieil47 #af ,august1 #aiba4 ,after having undergone four operations on the left leg for local tuberculosis ,i fell a victim once more to the same trouble on #a ,september1 #aibj4 ,several doctors whom ,i consulted declared a new operation necessary4 ,my leg was to be opened from the knee to the ankle1 and if the operation failed nothing remained but an amputation4 ,having heard of your cures1 ,i came to see you for the first time on #f ,november1 #aibj4 ,after the sitting ,i felt at once a little better4 ,i followed your instructions exactly1 visiting you three times4 ,at the third time ,i was able to tell you that ,i was completely cured4 ,l4 7,herny1 ,lorraine47 ,i am happy to tell you that a bunion that ,i had on my foot1 which grew to a considerable size and gave me the most acute pain for over fifteen years1 has gone4 ,l4 ,g4 7,caudran1 ,gironde47 ,i cannot leave ,france without letting you know how grateful ,i feel for the immense service you have rendered me and mine4 ,i only wish ,i had met you years ago4 ,practically throughout my career my curse has been a lack of continuous self-control4 ,i have been accused of being almost brilliant at times1 only to be followed by periodic relapses into a condition of semi-imbecility and self-indulgence4 ,i have done my best to ruin a magnificent constitution1 and have wasted the abilities bestowed upon me4 ,in a few short days you have made me--and ,i feel permanently--master of myself4 ,how can ,i thank you sufficiently8 ,the rapidity of my complete cure may have been due to what at the time ,i regarded as an unfortunate accident4 ,slipping on the snow-covered steps of the train when alighting1 ,i sprained my right knee badly4 ,at the breakfast table1 before paying you my first visit1 a fellow-guest said to me3 ',tell ,monsieur ,cou about it4 ,he will put it all right4' ,i laughed and said ',umph6' to myself1 and more for the fun of the thing than anything else did tell you4 ,i remember you remarking ',that's nothing1' and passing on to the more serious part of our conversation1 preliminary to commencing your lecture to the assembled patients4 ,i became more than interested1 and when at the conclusion you suddenly turned round and asked me3 ',how's your knee8' 7not having alluded to knees in particular71 and ,i discovered there wasn't a knee1 ,i laughed again1 as did those who saw me hobble into your room2 but ,i laughed this time from a sense of bewildered surprise and dawning belief4 ,this belief you very soon firmly implanted in me4 ,g4 ,h4 7,london47 #aa ,january1 #aibb4 #a ,this letter1 together with the two quoted on page #cd1 is reprinted from the ,bulletin de la ,socit ,lorraine de ,psychologie ,applique of ,april1 #aiba4 ,they were received by ,cou during the preceding three months4 ,the other letters were communicated to me privately by ,cou and bear their original dates4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,the ,,children',s ,,clinic ,in different parts of ,france a little band of workers1 recruited almost exclusively from the ranks of former patients1 is propagating the ideas of ,emile ,cou with a success which almost rivals that of their master4 ,among these helpers none is more devoted or more eminently successful than ,mlle4 ,kauffmant4 ,she it is who1 at the time of my visit1 was managing the children's department of the ,nancy clinic4#a ,while ,cou was holding his consultations on the ground floor1 young mothers in twos and threes1 with their babies in their arms1 could be seen ascending to the upper story1 where a little drama was performed of a very different nature from that going on below4 ,in a large room1 decorated with bright pictures and equipped with toys1 a number of silent young women were seated in a wide circle4 ,their sick children lay in their arms or played at their feet4 ,here was a child whose life was choked at the source by hereditary disease--a small bundle of skin and bone with limbs like bamboo canes4 ,another lay motionless with closed eyes and a deathly face1 as if pining to return to the world it came from4 ,a little cripple dragged behind it a deformed leg as it tried to crawl1 and near by a child of five was beating the air with its thin arms in an exhausting nervous storm4 ,older children were also present1 suffering from eye and ear trouble1 epilepsy1 rickets1 any one of the ailments1 grave or slight1 to which growing life is subjected4 ,in the centre of this circle sat a young woman with dark hair and a kindly keen face4 ,on her lap was a little boy of four years with a club foot4 ,as she gently caressed the foot1 from which the clumsy boot had been removed1 she told in a crooning tone1 mingled with endearing phrases1 of the rapid improvement which had already begun and would soon be complete4 ,the foot was getting better2 the joints were more supple and bent with greater ease2 the muscles were developing1 the tendons were drawing the foot into the right shape and making it straight and strong4 ,soon it would be perfectly normal2 the little one would walk and run1 play with other children1 skip and bowl hoops4 ,he would go to school and learn his lessons1 would be intelligent and receptive4 ,she told him too that he was growing obedient1 cheerful1 kind to others1 truthful and courageous4 ,the little boy had put one arm round her neck and was listening with a placid smile4 ,his face was quite contented2 he was enjoying himself4 ,while ,mlle4 ,kauffmant was thus engaged1 the women sat silent watching her intently1 each perhaps mentally seeing her own little one endowed with the qualities depicted4 ,the children were quiet1 some dreamily listening1 some tranquilly playing with a toy4 ,except for an occasional word of advice ,mademoiselle was quite indifferent to them4 ,her whole attention was given to the child on her knee2 her thought went out to him in a continual stream1 borne along by a current of love and compassion1 for she has devoted her life to the children and loves them as if they were her own4 ,the atmosphere of the room was more like that of a church than a hospital4 ,the mothers seemed to have left their sorrows outside4 ,their faces showed in varying degrees an expression of quiet confidence4 ,when this treatment had continued for about ten minutes1 ,mlle4 ,kauffmant returned the child to its mother and1 after giving her a few words of advice1 turned to her next patient4 ,this was an infant of less than twelve months4 ,while suffering from no specific disease it was continually ailing4 ,it was below normal weight1 various foods had been tried unsuccessfully1 and medical advice had failed to bring about an improvement4 ,mademoiselle resumed her seat with the child on her lap4 ,for some time the caresses1 which were applied to the child's head and body1 continued in silence4 ,then she began to talk to it4 ,her talk did not consist of connected sentences1 as with the elder child who had learned to speak1 but of murmured assurances1 as if her thoughts were taking unconsciously the form of words4 ,these suggestions were more general than in the previous case1 bearing on appetite1 digestion1 assimilation1 and on desirable mental and moral qualities4 ,the caress continued for about ten minutes1 the speech was intermittent1 then the infant was returned to its mother and ,mademoiselle turned her attention to another little sufferer4 ,with patients who are not yet old enough to speak ,mlle4 ,kauffmant sometimes trusts to the caress alone4 ,it seems to transmit the thoughts of health quite strongly enough to turn the balance in the child's mind on the side of health4 ,but all mothers talk to their children long before the words they use are understood1 and ,mlle4 ,kauffmant1 whose attitude is essentially maternal1 reserves to herself the same right4 ,she adheres to no rigid rule2 if she wishes to speak aloud she does so1 even when the child cannot grasp the meaning of her words4 ,this is perhaps the secret of her success3 her method is plastic like the minds she works on4 ,cou's material--the adult mind--is more stable4 ,it demands a clear-cut1 distinct method1 and leaves less room for adaptation2 but the aim of ,mlle4 ,kauffmant is to fill the child within and enwrap it without with the creative thoughts of health and joy4 ,to this end she enlists any and every means within her power4 ,the child itself1 as soon as it is old enough to speak1 is required to say1 morning and night1 the general formula3 ,day by day1 in every way1 ,i'm getting better and better4 ,if it is confined to its bed1 it is encouraged to repeat this at any time and to make suggestions of health similar to those formulated in the sittings4 ,no special directions are given as to how this should be done4 ,elaborate instructions would only introduce hindersome complications4 ,imagination1 the power to pretend1 is naturally strong and active in all children1 and intuitively they make use of it in their autosuggestions4 ,moreover1 they unconsciously imitate the tone and manner of their instructress4 ,but the centre of the child's universe is the mother4 ,any system which did not utilise her influence would be losing its most powerful ally4 ,the mother is encouraged during the day to set an example of cheerfulness and confidence1 to allude to the malady only in terms of encouragement--so renewing in the child's mind the prospect of recovery--and to exclude as far as possible all depressing influences from its vicinity4 ,at night she is required to enter the child's bedchamber without waking the little one and to whisper good suggestions into its sleeping ear4 ,thus ,mlle4 ,kauffmant concentrates a multiplicity of means to bring about the same result4 ,in this she is aided by the extreme acceptivity of the child's mind1 and by the absence of that mass of pernicious spontaneous suggestions which in the adult mind have to be neutralised and transformed4 ,it is in children1 then1 that the most encouraging results may be expected4 ,i will quote three cases which ,i myself investigated to show the kind of results ,mlle4 ,kauffmant obtains3 ,a little girl was born without the power of sight4 ,the visual organs were intact1 but she was incapable of lifting her eye-lids and so remained blind to all intents and purposes up to her seventh year4 ,she was then brought by the mother to ,mlle4 ,kauffmant4 ,after a fortnight's treatment the child began to blink2 gradually this action became more frequent1 and a month after the treatment began she could see well enough to find her way unaided about the streets4 ,when ,i saw her she had learnt to distinguish colours--as my own experiments proved--and was actually playing ball4 ,the details supplied by ,mlle4 ,kauffmant were confirmed by the mother4 ,a child was born whose tuberculous father had died during the mother's pregnancy4 ,of five brothers and sisters none had survived the first year4 ,the doctors to whom the child was taken held out no hope for its life4 ,it survived1 however1 to the age of two1 but was crippled and nearly blind1 in addition to internal weaknesses4 ,it was then brought to ,mlle4 ,kauffmant4 ,three months later1 when ,i saw it1 nothing remained of its troubles but a slight squint and a stiffness in one of its knee-joints4 ,these conditions1 too1 were rapidly diminishing4 ,another child1 about nine years of age1 also of tuberculous parents1 was placed under her treatment4 ,one leg was an inch and a half shorter than the other4 ,after a few months' treatment this disparity had almost disappeared4 ,the same child had a wound1 also of tuberculous origin1 on the small of the back1 which healed over in a few weeks and had completely disappeared when ,i saw her4 ,in each of the above cases the general state of health showed a great improvement4 ,the child put on weight1 was cheerful and bright even under the trying conditions of convalescence in a poverty-stricken home1 and in character and disposition fully realised the suggestions formulated to it4 ,since the suggestions of ,mlle4 ,kauffmant are applied individually1 the mothers were permitted to enter and leave the clinic at any time they wished4 ,mademoiselle was present on certain days every week1 but this was not the sum of her labours4 ,the greater part of her spare time was spent in visiting the little ones in their own homes4 ,she penetrated into the dingiest tenements1 the poorest slums1 on this errand of mercy4 ,i was able to accompany her on several of these visits1 and saw her everywhere received not only with welcome1 but with a respect akin to awe4 ,she was regarded1 almost as much as ,cou himself1 as a worker of miracles4 ,but the reputation of both ,cou and ,mlle4 ,kauffmant rests on a broader basis even than autosuggestion1 namely on their great goodness of heart4 ,they have placed not only their private means1 but their whole life at the service of others4 ,neither ever accepts a penny-piece for the treatments they give1 and ,i have never seen ,cou refuse to give a treatment at however awkward an hour the subject may have asked it4 ,the fame of the school has now spread to all parts not only of ,france1 but of ,europe and ,america4 ,cou's work has assumed such proportions that his time is taken up often to the extent of fifteen or sixteen hours a day4 ,he is now nearing his seventieth year1 but thanks to the health-giving powers of his own method he is able to keep abreast of his work without any sign of fatigue and without the clouding of his habitual cheerfulness by even the shadow of a complaint4 ,in fact1 he is a living monument to the efficacy of ,induced ,autosuggestion4 ,it will be seen that ,induced ,autosuggestion is a method by which the mind can act directly upon itself and upon the body to produce whatever improvements1 in reason1 we desire4 ,that it is efficient and successful should be manifest from what has gone before4 ,of all the questions which arise1 the most urgent from the viewpoint of the average man seems to be this--,is a suggester necessary8 ,must one submit oneself to the influence of some other person1 or can one in the privacy of one's own chamber exercise with equal success this potent instrument of health8 ,cou's own opinion has already been quoted4 ,induced ,autosuggestion is not dependent upon the mediation of another person4 ,we can practise it for ourselves without others being even aware of what we are doing1 and without devoting to it more than a few minutes of each day4 ,here are a few quotations from letters written by those who have thus practised it for themselves4 ,for a good many years now a rheumatic right shoulder has made it impossible for me to sleep on my right side and it seriously affected1 and increasingly so1 the use of my right arm4 ,a masseuse told me she could effect no permanent improvement as there was granulation of the joints and a lesion4 ,i suddenly realised two days ago that this shoulder no longer troubled me and that ,i was sleeping on that side without any pain4 ,i have now lost any sensation of rheumatism in this shoulder and can get my right arm back as far as the other without the slightest twinge or discomfort4 ,i have not applied any remedy or done anything that could possibly have worked these results except my practise of ,cou4 ,l4 ,s4 7,sidmouth1 ,devon74 #a ,january1 #aibb4 ,at my suggestion a lady friend of mine who had been ill for a good ten years read ,la ,matrise de soi-meme4 ,i encouraged her as well as ,i could1 and in a month she was transformed4 ,her husband1 returning from a long journey1 could not believe his eyes4 ,this woman who never got up till midday1 who never left the fire-side1 whom the doctors had given up1 now goes out at #aj a4m4 even in the greatest cold4 ,other friends are anxiously waiting to read your pamphlet4 ,l4 ,c4 7,paris74 #ag ,december1 #aiba4 ,i am very much interested in your method1 and since your lecture ,i have1 every night and morning1 repeated your little phrase4 ,i used to have to take a pill every night1 but now my constipation is cured and the pills are no longer necessary4 ,my wife is also much better in every way4 ,we've both got the bit of string with twenty knots4 ,h4 7a ,london doctor74 #g ,january1 #aibb4 ,your method is doing me more good every day4 ,i don't know how to thank you for the happiness ,i now experience4 ,i shall never give up repeating the little phrase4 ,e4 ,b4 ,guivain 7,belgium74 #bc ,november1 #aiba4 ,i have followed your principles for several months and freed myself from a terrible state of neurasthenia which was the despair of my three doctors4 ,g4 7,angoulme74 #bc ,january1 #aibb4 ,my friend ,miss ,c4 completely cured herself of a rheumatic shoulder and knee in a very short time1 and then proceeded to turn her attention to her eyesight4 ,she had worn spectacles for #cj years and her left eye was much more short-sighted than her right4 ,when she began she could only read 7without her glasses and with her left eye7 when the book was almost touching her face4 ,in six weeks she had extended the limit of vision so that she saw as far with the left as formerly with the right4 ,meanwhile the right had improved equally4 ,she measured the distances every week1 and when she was here a few days ago she told me she had in three days gained #d centimetres with her left and #f centimetres with her right eye4 ,she had done this on her own4 ,g4 7,london74 #e ,january1 #aibb4 #a ,since this time 7,july1 #aiba71 the clinic has been in some respects reorganized and ,mlle4 ,kauffmant is now pursuing her work independently4 ,,ii ,,the ,,nature ,,of ,,autosuggestion ,,chapter ,,iv ,,thought ,,is ,a ,,force ,autosuggestion is not a pseudo-religion like ,christian ,science or ,new ,thought4 ,it is a scientific method based on the discoveries of psychology4 ,the traditional psychology was regarded by the layman1 not without some cause1 as a dull and seemingly useless classification of our conscious faculties4 ,but within the past twenty-five years the science has undergone a great change4 ,a revolution has taken place in it which seems likely to provoke a revolution equally profound in the wider limits of our common life4 ,from a preoccupation with the conscious it has turned to the ,unconscious 7or subconscious71 to the vast area of mental activity which exists outside the circle of our awareness4 ,in doing so it has grasped at the very roots of life itself1 has groped down to the depths where the life-force1 the lan vital1 touches our individual being4 ,what this may entail in the future we can only dimly guess4 ,just as the discovery of ,america altered the balance of the ,old ,world1 shifting it westward to the shores of the ,atlantic1 so the discovery and investigation of the ,unconscious seems destined to shift the balance of human life4 ,obviously1 this is no place to embark on the discussion of a subject of such extreme complexity4 ,the investigation of the ,unconscious is a science in itself1 in which different schools of thought are seeking to disengage a basis of fact from conflicting and daily changing theories4 ,but there is a certain body of fact1 experimentally proven1 on which the authorities agree1 and of this we quote a few features which directly interest us as students of autosuggestion4 ,the ,unconscious is the storehouse of memory1 where every impression we receive from earliest infancy to the last hour of life is recorded with the minutest accuracy4 ,these memories1 however1 are not inert and quiescent1 like the marks on the vulcanite records of a gramophone2 they are vitally active1 each one forming a thread in the texture of our personality4 ,the sum of all these impressions is the man himself1 the ego1 the form through which the general life is individualised4 ,the outer man is but a mask2 the real self dwells behind the veil of the ,unconscious4 ,the ,unconscious is also a power-house4 ,it is dominated by feeling1 and feeling is the force which impels our lives4 ,it provides the energy for conscious thought and action1 and for the performance of the vital processes of the body4 ,finally the ,unconscious plays the part of supervisor over our physical processes4 ,digestion1 assimilation1 the circulation of the blood1 the action of the lungs1 the kidneys and all the vital organs are controlled by its agency4 ,our organism is not a clockwork machine which once wound up will run of itself4 ,its processes in all their complexity are supervised by mind4 ,it is not the intellect1 however1 which does this work1 but the ,unconscious4 ,the intellect still stands aghast before the problem of the human body1 lost like ,pascal in the profundities of analysis1 each discovery only revealing new depths of mystery4 ,but the ,unconscious seems to be familiar with it in every detail4 ,it may be added that the ,unconscious never sleeps2 during the sleep of the conscious it seems to be more vigilant than during our waking hours4 ,in comparison with these1 the powers of the conscious mind seem almost insignificant4 ,derived from the ,unconscious during the process of evolution1 the conscious is1 as it were1 the antechamber where the crude energies of the ,unconscious are selected and adapted for action on the world outside us4 ,in the past we have unduly exaggerated the importance of the conscious intellect4 ,to claim for it the discoveries of civilisation is to confuse the instrument with the agent1 to attribute sight to the field-glass instead of to the eye behind it4 ,the value of the conscious mind must not be underrated1 however4 ,it is a machine of the greatest value1 the seat of reason1 the social instincts and moral concepts4 ,but it is a machine and not the engine1 nor yet the engineer4 ,it provides neither material nor power4 ,these are furnished by the ,unconscious4 ,these two strata of mental life are in perpetual interaction one with the other4 ,just as everything conscious has its preliminary step in the ,unconscious1 so every conscious thought passes down into the lower stratum and there becomes an element in our being1 partaking of the ,unconscious energy1 and playing its part in supervising and determining our mental and bodily states4 ,if it is a healthful thought we are so much the better2 if it is a diseased one we are so much the worse4 ,it is this transformation of a thought into an element of our life that we call ,autosuggestion4 ,since this is a normal part of the mind's action we shall have no difficulty in finding evidence of it in our daily experiences4 ,walking down the street in a gloomy frame of mind you meet a buoyant1 cheery acquaintance4 ,the mere sight of his genial smile acts on you like a tonic1 and when you have chatted with him for a few minutes your gloom has disappeared1 giving place to cheerfulness and confidence4 ,what has effected this change8--,nothing other than the idea in your own mind4 ,as you watched his face1 listened to his good-natured voice1 noticed the play of his smile1 your conscious mind was occupied by the idea of cheerfulness4 ,this idea on being transferred to the ,unconscious became a reality1 so that without any logical grounds you became cheerful4 ,few people1 especially young people1 are unacquainted with the effects produced by hearing or reading ghost-stories4 ,you have spent the evening1 let us say1 at a friend's house1 listening to terrifying tales of apparitions4 ,at a late hour you leave the fireside circle to make your way home4 ,the states of fear imaged before your mind have realised themselves in your ,unconscious4 ,you tread gingerly in the dark places1 hurry past the churchyard and feel a distinct relief when the lights of home come into view4 ,it is the old road you have so often traversed with perfect equanimity1 but its cheerful associations are overlooked and the commonest objects tinged with the colour of your subjective states4 ,autosuggestion cannot change a post into a spectre1 but if you are very impressionable it will so distort your sensory impressions that common sounds seem charged with supernatural significance and every-day objects take on terrifying shapes4 ,in each of the above examples the idea of a mental state--cheerfulness or fear--was presented to the mind4 ,the idea on reaching the ,unconscious became a reality2 that is to say1 you actually became cheerful or frightened4 ,the same process is much easier to recognise where the resultant is not a mental but a bodily state4 ,one often meets people who take a delight in describing with a wealth of detail the disorders with which they or their friends are afflicted4 ,a sensitive person is condemned by social usage to listen to a harrowing account of some grave malady4 ,as detail succeeds detail the listener feels a chilly discomfort stealing over him4 ,he turns pale1 breaks into a cold perspiration1 and is aware of an unpleasant sensation at the pit of the stomach4 ,sometimes1 generally where the listener is a child1 actual vomiting or a fainting fit may ensue4 ,these effects are undeniably physical2 to produce them the organic processes must have been sensibly disturbed4 ,yet their cause lies entirely in the idea of illness1 which1 ruthlessly impressed upon the mind1 realises itself in the ,unconscious4 ,this effect may be so precise as to reproduce the actual symptoms of the disease described4 ,medical students engaged in the study of some particular malady frequently develop its characteristic symptoms4 ,everyone is acquainted with the experience known as stage fright4 ,the victim may be a normal person1 healthy both in mind and body4 ,he may possess in private life a good voice1 a mind fertile in ideas and a gift of fluent expression4 ,he may know quite surely that his audience is friendly and sympathetic to the ideas he wishes to unfold4 ,but let him mount the steps of a platform4 ,immediately his knees begin to tremble and his heart to palpitate2 his mind becomes a blank or a chaos1 his tongue and lips refuse to frame coherent sounds1 and after a few stammerings he is forced to make a ludicrous withdrawal4 ,the cause of this baffling experience lay in the thoughts which occupied the subject's mind before his public appearance4 ,he was afraid of making himself ridiculous4 ,he expected to feel uncomfortable1 feared that he would forget his speech or be unable to express himself4 ,these negative ideas1 penetrating to the ,unconscious1 realised themselves and precisely what he feared took place4 ,if you live in a town you have probably seen people who1 in carelessly crossing the street1 find themselves in danger of being run down by a vehicle4 ,in this position they sometimes stand for an appreciable time rooted1 as we say1 to the spot4 ,this is because the danger seems so close that they imagine themselves powerless to elude it4 ,as soon as this idea gives place to that of escape they get out of the way as fast as they can4 ,if their first idea persisted1 however1 the actual powerlessness resulting from it would likewise persist1 and unless the vehicle stopped or turned aside they would infallibly be run over4 ,one occasionally meets people suffering from a nervous complaint known as ,st4 ,vitus' ,dance4 ,they have a disconcerting habit of contorting their faces1 screwing round their necks or twitching their shoulders4 ,it is a well known fact that those who come into close contact with them1 living in the same house or working in the same office1 are liable to contract the same habit1 often performing the action without themselves being aware of it4 ,this is due to the operation of the same law4 ,the idea of the habit1 being repeatedly presented to their minds1 realises itself1 and they begin to perform a similar movement in their own persons4 ,examples of this law present themselves at every turn4 ,have you ever asked yourself why some people faint at the sight of blood1 or why most of us turn giddy when we look down from a great height8 ,if we turn to the sufferers from neurosis we find some who have lost their powers of speech or of vision2 some1 like the blacksmith we saw in ,cou's clinic1 who have lost the use of their limbs2 others suffering from a functional disturbance of one of the vital organs4 ,the cause in each case is nothing more tangible than an idea which has become realised in the ,unconscious mind4 ,these instances show clearly enough that the thoughts we think do actually become realities in the ,unconscious4 ,but is this a universal law1 operating in every life1 or merely something contingent and occasional8 ,sometimes irrelevant cheerfulness seems only to make despondency more deep4 ,certain types of individual are only irritated by the performance of a stage comedy4 ,physicians listen to the circumstantial accounts of their patients' ailments without being in the least upset4 ,these facts seem at first sight at variance with the rule4 ,but they are only apparent exceptions which serve to test and verify it4 ,the physical or mental effect invariably corresponds with the idea present in the mind1 but this need not be identical with the thought communicated from without4 ,sometimes a judgment interposes itself1 or it may be that the idea calls up an associated idea which possesses greater vitality and therefore dislodges it4 ,a gloomy person who meets a cheerful acquaintance may mentally contrast himself with the latter1 setting his own troubles beside the other's good fortune1 his own grounds for sadness beside the other's grounds for satisfaction4 ,thus the idea of his own unhappiness is strengthened and sinking into the ,unconscious makes still deeper the despondency he experienced before4 ,in the same way the doctor1 listening to the symptoms of a patient1 does not allow these distressful ideas to dwell in his conscious mind4 ,his thought passes on immediately to the remedy1 to the idea of the help he must give4 ,not only does he manifest this helpfulness in reasoned action1 but also1 by ,unconscious realisation1 in his very bearing and manner4 ,or his mind may be concentrated on the scientific bearings of the case1 so that he will involuntarily treat the patient as a specimen on which to pursue his researches4 ,the steeplejack experiences no giddiness or fear in scaling a church spire because the thought of danger is immediately replaced by the knowledge of his own clear head and sure foot4 ,this brings us to a point which is of great practical importance in the performance of curative autosuggestion4 ,no idea presented to the mind can realise itself unless the mind accepts it4 ,most of the errors made hitherto in this field have been due to the neglect of this fundamental fact4 ,if a patient is suffering from severe toothache it is not of the slightest use to say to him3 ,you have no pain4 ,the statement is so grossly opposed to the fact that acceptation is impossible4 ,the patient will reject the suggestion1 affirm the fact of his suffering1 and so1 by allowing his conscious mind to dwell on it1 probably make it more intense4 ,we are now in a position to formulate the basic law of autosuggestion as follows3-- ,every idea which enters the conscious mind1 if it is accepted by the ,unconscious1 is transformed by it into a reality and forms henceforth a permanent element in our life4 ,this is the process called ,spontaneous ,autosuggestion4 ,it is a law by which the mind of man has always worked1 and by which all our minds are working daily4 ,the reader will see from the examples cited and from others which he will constantly meet that the thoughts we think determine not only our mental states1 our sentiments and emotions1 but the delicate actions and adjustments of our physical bodies4 ,trembling1 palpitation1 stammering1 blushing--not to speak of the pathological states which occur in neurosis--are due to modifications and changes in the blood-flow1 in muscular action and in the working of the vital organs4 ,these changes are not voluntary and conscious ones1 they are determined by the ,unconscious and come to us often with a shock of surprise4 ,it must be evident that if we fill our conscious minds with ideas of health1 joy1 goodness1 efficiency1 and can ensure their acceptation by the ,unconscious1 these ideas too will become realities1 capable of lifting us on to a new plane of being4 ,the difficulty which has hitherto so frequently brought these hopes to naught is that of ensuring acceptation4 ,this will be treated in the next chapter4 ,to sum up1 the whole process of ,autosuggestion consists of two steps3 7#a7 ,the acceptation of an idea4 7#b7 ,its transformation into a reality4 ,both these operations are performed by the ,unconscious4 ,whether the idea is originated in the mind of the subject or is presented from without by the agency of another person is a matter of indifference4 ,in both cases it undergoes the same process3 it is submitted to the ,unconscious1 accepted or rejected1 and so either realised or ignored4 ,thus the distinction between ,autosuggestion and ,heterosuggestion is seen to be both arbitrary and superficial4 ,in essentials all suggestion is ,autosuggestion4 ,the only distinction we need make is between ,spontaneous ,autosuggestion1 which takes place independently of our will and choice1 and ,induced ,autosuggestion1 in which we consciously select the ideas we wish to realise and purposely convey them to the ,unconscious4 ,,chapter ,v ,,thought ,,and ,,the ,,will ,if we can get the ,unconscious to accept an idea1 realisation follows automatically4 ,the only difficulty which confronts us in the practice of ,induced ,autosuggestion is to ensure acceptation1 and that is a difficulty which no method prior to that of ,emile ,cou has satisfactorily surmounted4 ,every idea which enters the mind is charged1 to a greater or less extent1 with emotion4 ,this emotional charge may be imperceptible1 as with ideas to which we are indifferent1 or it may be very great1 as when the idea is closely related to our personal interests4 ,all the ideas we are likely to make the subjects of ,induced ,autosuggestion are of the latter class1 since they refer to health1 energy1 success or some goal equally dear to our hearts4 ,the greater the degree of emotion accompanying an idea1 the more potent is the autosuggestion resulting from it4 ,thus a moment of violent fright may give rise to effects which last a lifetime4 ,this emotional factor also plays a large part in securing acceptation4 ,so far as one can see1 the acceptation or rejection of an idea by the ,unconscious depends on the associations with which it is connected4 ,thus1 an idea is accepted when it evokes similar ideas charged with emotion of the same quality4 ,it is rejected when it is associated with contrary ideas1 which are1 therefore1 contrary in their emotional charge4 ,in the latter case1 the original idea is neutralised by its associations1 somewhat in the same way as an acid is neutralised by an alkali4 ,an example will serve to make this clearer4 ,you are on a cross-channel boat on a roughish passage4 ,you go up to a sailor and say to him in a sympathetic tone3 ,my dear fellow1 you're looking very ill4 ,aren't you going to be sea-sick8 ,according to his temperament he either laughs at your joke or expresses a pardonable irritation4 ,but he does not become sick because the associations called up are contrary ones4 ,sea-sickness is associated in his mind with his own immunity from it1 and therefore evokes not fear but self-confidence4 ,pursuing your somewhat inhumane experiment you approach a timid-looking passenger4 ,my dear sir1 how ill you look6 ,i feel sure you are going to be sea-sick4 ,let me help you down below4 ,he turns pale4 ,the word sea-sickness associates itself with his own fears and forebodings4 ,he accepts your aid down to his berth and there the pernicious autosuggestion is realised4 ,in the first case the idea was refused1 because it was overwhelmed by a contrary association2 in the second the ,unconscious accepted it1 since it was reinforced by similar ideas from within4 ,but supposing to a sick mind1 permeated with thoughts of disease1 a thought of health is presented4 ,how can we avoid the malassociation which tends to neutralise it8 ,we can think of the ,unconscious as a tide which ebbs and flows4 ,in sleep it seems to submerge the conscious altogether1 while at our moments of full wakefulness1 when the attention and will are both at work1 the tide is at its lowest ebb4 ,between these two extremes are any number of intermediary levels4 ,when we are drowsy1 dreamy1 lulled into a gentle reverie by music or by a picture or a poem1 the ,unconscious tide is high2 the more wakeful and alert we become the lower it sinks4 ,this submersion of the conscious mind is called by ,baudouin the ,outcropping of the ,subconscious4 ,the highest degree of outcropping1 compatible with the conscious direction of our thoughts1 occurs just before we fall asleep and just after we wake4 ,it is fairly obvious that the greater the outcropping the more accessible these dynamic strata of the mind become1 and the easier it is to implant there any idea we wish to realise4 ,as the ,unconscious tide rises the active levels of the mind are overflowed2 thought is released from its task of serving our conscious aims in the real world of matter1 and moves among the more primal wishes and desires which people the ,unconscious1 like a diver walking the strange world beneath the sea4 ,but the laws by which thought is governed on this sub-surface level are not those of our ordinary waking consciousness4 ,during outcropping association by contraries does not seem readily to take place4 ,thus the mal-association1 which neutralised the desired idea and so prevented acceptation1 no longer presents itself4 ,we all know what happens during a day-dream or brown-study1 when the ,unconscious tide is high4 ,a succession of bright images glides smoothly through the mind4 ,the original thought spins itself on and on2 no obstacles seem to stop it1 no questions of probability arise2 we are cut off from the actual conditions of life and live in a world where all things are possible4 ,these day-dreams cause very potent autosuggestions1 and one should take care that they are wholesome and innocent2 but the important point is that on this level of consciousness association seems to operate by similarity1 and emotion is comparatively intense4 ,these conditions are highly favourable to acceptation4 ,if1 on getting into bed at night1 we assume a comfortable posture1 relax our muscles and close our eyes1 we fall naturally into a stage of semi-consciousness akin to that of day-dreaming4 ,if now we introduce into the mind any desired idea1 it is freed from the inhibiting associations of daily life1 associates itself by similarity1 and attracts emotion of the same quality as its own charge4 ,the ,unconscious is thus caused to accept it1 and inevitably it is turned into an autosuggestion4 ,every time we repeat this process the associative power of the idea is increased1 its emotional value grows greater1 and the autosuggestion resulting from it is more powerful4 ,by this means we can induce the ,unconscious to accept an idea1 the normal associations of which are contrary and unfavourable4 ,the person with a disease-soaked mind can gradually implant ideas of health1 filling his ,unconscious daily with healing thoughts4 ,the instrument we use is ,thought1 and the condition essential to success is that the conscious mind shall be lulled to rest4 ,systems which hitherto have tried to make use of autosuggestion have failed to secure reliable results because they did not place their reliance on ,thought1 but tried to compel the ,unconscious to accept an idea by exercising the ,will4 ,obviously1 such attempts are doomed to failure4 ,by using the will we automatically wake ourselves up1 suppress the encroaching tide of the ,unconscious1 and thereby destroy the condition by which alone we can succeed4 ,it is worth our while to note more closely how this happens4 ,a sufferer1 whose mind is filled with thoughts of ill-health1 sits down to compel himself to accept a good suggestion4 ,he calls up a thought of health and makes an effort of the will to impress it on the ,unconscious4 ,this effort restores him to full wakefulness and so evokes the customary association--disease4 ,consequently1 he finds himself contemplating the exact opposite of what he desired4 ,he summons his will again and recalls the healthful thought1 but since he is now wider awake than ever1 association is even more rapid and powerful than before4 ,the disease-thought is now in full possession of his mind and all the efforts of his will fail to dislodge it4 ,indeed the harder he struggles the more fully the evil thought possesses him4 ,this gives us a glimpse of the new and startling discovery to which ,cou's uniform success is due2 namely1 that when the will is in conflict with an idea1 the idea invariably gains the day4 ,this is true1 of course1 not only of ,induced ,autosuggestion1 but also of the spontaneous suggestions which occur in daily life4 ,a few examples will make this clear4 ,most of us know how1 when we have some difficult duty to perform1 a chance word of discouragement will dwell in the mind1 eating away our self-confidence and attuning our minds to failure4 ,all the efforts of our will fail to throw it off2 indeed1 the more we struggle against it the more we become obsessed with it4 ,very similar to this is the state of mind of the person suffering from stage-fright4 ,he is obsessed with ideas of failure and all the efforts of his will are powerless to overcome them4 ,indeed1 it is the state of effort and tension which makes his discomfiture so complete4 ,sport offers many examples of the working of this law4 ,a tennis-player is engaged to play in an important match4 ,he wishes1 of course1 to win1 but fears that he will lose4 ,even before the day of the game his fears begin to realise themselves4 ,he is nervy and out of sorts4 ,in fact1 the ,unconscious is creating the conditions best suited to realise the thought in his mind--failure4 ,when the game begins his skill seems to have deserted him4 ,he summons the resources of his will and tries to compel himself to play well1 straining every nerve to recapture the old dexterity4 ,but all his efforts only make him play worse and worse4 ,the harder he tries the more signally he fails4 ,the energy he calls up obeys not his will but the idea in his mind1 not the desire to win but the dominant thought of failure4 ,the fatal attraction of the bunker for the nervous golfer is due to the same cause4 ,with his mind's eye he sees his ball alighting in the most unfavourable spot4 ,he may use any club he likes1 he may make a long drive or a short2 as long as the thought of the bunker dominates his mind1 the ball will inevitably find its way into it4 ,the more he calls on his will to help him1 the worse his plight is likely to be4 ,success is not gained by effort but by right thinking4 ,the champion golfer or tennis-player is not a person of herculean frame and immense will-power4 ,his whole life has been dominated by the thought of success in the game at which he excels4 ,young persons sitting for an examination sometimes undergo this painful experience4 ,on reading through their papers they find that all their knowledge has suddenly deserted them4 ,their mind is an appalling blank and not one relevant thought can they recall4 ,the more they grit their teeth and summon the powers of the will1 the further the desired ideas flee4 ,but when they have left the examination-room and the tension relaxes1 the ideas they were seeking flow tantalisingly back into the mind4 ,their forgetfulness was due to thoughts of failure previously nourished in the mind4 ,the application of the will only made the disaster more complete4 ,this explains the baffling experience of the drug-taker1 the drunkard1 the victim of some vicious craving4 ,his mind is obsessed by the desire for satisfaction4 ,the efforts of the will to restrain it only make it more overmastering4 ,repeated failures convince him at length that he is powerless to control himself1 and this idea1 operating as an autosuggestion1 increases his impotence4 ,so in despair1 he abandons himself to his obsession1 and his life ends in wreckage4 ,we can now see1 not only that the ,will is incapable of vanquishing a thought1 but that as fast as the ,will brings up its big guns1 ,thought captures them and turns them against it4 ,this truth1 which ,baudouin calls the ,law of ,reversed ,effort1 is thus stated by ,cou3 ,when the ,imagination and the ,will are in conflict the ,imagination invariably gains the day4 ,in the conflict between the ,will and the ,imagination1 the force of the ,imagination is in direct ratio to the square of the ,will4 ,the mathematical terms are used1 of course1 only metaphorically4 ,thus the ,will turns out to be1 not the commanding monarch of life1 as many people would have it1 but a blind ,samson1 capable either of turning the mill or of pulling down the pillars4 ,autosuggestion succeeds by avoiding conflict4 ,it replaces wrong thought by right1 literally applying in the sphere of science the principle enunciated in the ,new ,testament3 ,resist not evil1 but overcome evil with good4 ,this doctrine is in no sense a negation of the will4 ,it simply puts it in its right place1 subordinates it to a higher power4 ,a moment's reflection will suffice to show that the will cannot be more than the servant of thought4 ,we are incapable of exercising the will unless the imagination has first furnished it with a goal4 ,we cannot simply will1 we must will something1 and that something exists in our minds as an idea4 ,the will acts rightly when it is in harmony with the idea in the mind4 ,but what happens when1 in the smooth execution of our idea1 we are confronted with an obstacle8 ,this obstacle may exist outside us1 as did the golfer's bunker1 but it must also exist as an idea in our minds or we should not be aware of it4 ,as long as we allow this mental image to stay there1 the efforts of our will to overcome it only make it more irresistible4 ,we run our heads against it like a goat butting a brick wall4 ,indeed1 in this way we can magnify the smallest difficulty until it becomes insurmountable--we can make mole-hills into mountains4 ,this is precisely what the neurasthenic does4 ,the idea of a difficulty dwells unchanged in his mind1 and all his efforts to overcome it only increase its dimensions1 until it overpowers him and he faints in the effort to cross a street4 ,but as soon as we change the idea our troubles vanish4 ,by means of the intellect we can substitute for the blank idea of the obstacle that of the means to overcome it4 ,immediately1 the will is brought into harmony again with thought1 and we go forward to the triumphant attainment of our end4 ,it may be that the means adopted consist of a frontal attack1 the overcoming of an obstacle by force4 ,but before we bring this force into play1 the mind must have approved it--must have entertained the idea of its probable success4 ,we must1 in fact1 have thought of the obstacle as already smashed down and flattened out by our attack4 ,otherwise1 we should involve ourselves in the conflict depicted above1 and our force would be exhausted in a futile internal battle4 ,in a frontal attack against an obstacle we use effort1 and effort1 to be effective1 must be approved by the reason and preceded1 to some extent1 by the idea of success4 ,thus1 even in our dealings with the outside world1 ,thought is always master of the will4 ,how much more so when our action is turned inward6 ,when practising autosuggestion we are living in the mind1 where thoughts are the only realities4 ,we can meet with no obstacle other than that of ,thought itself4 ,obviously then1 the frontal attack1 the exertion of effort1 can never be admissible1 for it sets the will and the thought at once in opposition4 ,the turning of our thoughts from the mere recognition of an obstacle to the idea of the means to overcome it1 is no longer a preliminary1 as in the case of outward action4 ,in itself it clears away the obstacle4 ,by procuring the right idea our end is already attained4 ,in applying effort during the practice of ,induced ,autosuggestion1 we use in the world of mind an instrument fashioned for use in the world of matter4 ,it is as if we tried to solve a mathematical problem by mauling the book with a tin-opener4 ,for two reasons then1 effort must never be allowed to intrude during the practice of autosuggestion3 first because it wakes us up and so suppresses the tide of the ,unconscious1 secondly because it causes conflict between ,thought and the will4 ,one other interesting fact emerges from an examination of the foregoing examples4 ,in each case we find that the idea which occupied the mind was of a final state1 an accomplished fact4 ,the golfer was thinking of his ball dropping into the bunker1 the tennis-player of his defeat1 the examinee of his failure4 ,in each case the ,unconscious realised the thought in its own way1 chose inevitably the means best suited to arrive at its end--the realisation of the idea4 ,in the case of the golfer the most delicate physical adjustments were necessary4 ,stance1 grip and swing all contributed their quota1 but these physical adjustments were performed unconsciously1 the conscious mind being unaware of them4 ,from this we see that we need not suggest the way in which our aim is to be accomplished4 ,if we fill our minds with the thought of the desired end1 provided that end is possible1 the ,unconscious will lead us to it by the easiest1 most direct path4 ,here we catch a glimpse of the truth behind what is called luck4 ,we are told that everything comes to him who waits1 and this is literally true1 provided he waits in the right frame of mind4 ,some men are notoriously lucky in business2 whatever they touch seems to turn to gold4 ,the secret of their success lies in the fact that they confidently expect to succeed4 ,there is no need to go so far as the writers of the school of ,new ,thought1 and claim that suggestion can set in motion transcendental laws outside man's own nature4 ,it is quite clear that the man who expects success1 of whatever kind it may be1 will unconsciously take up the right attitude to his environment2 will involuntarily close with fleeting opportunity1 and by his inner fitness command the circumstances without4 ,man has often been likened to a ship navigating the seas of life4 ,of that ship the engine is the will and ,thought is the helm4 ,if we are being directed out of our true course it is worse than useless to call for full steam ahead2 our only hope lies in changing the direction of the helm4 ,,iii ,,the ,,practice ,,of ,,autosuggestion ,,chapter ,,vi ,,general ,,rules ,with our knowledge of the powerful effect which an idea produces1 we shall see the importance of exercising a more careful censorship over the thoughts which enter our minds4 ,thought is the legislative power in our lives1 just as the will is the executive4 ,we should not think it wise to permit the inmates of prisons and asylums to occupy the legislative posts in the state1 yet when we harbour ideas of passion and disease1 we allow the criminals and lunatics of thought to usurp the governing power in the commonwealth of our being4 ,in future1 then1 we shall seek ideas of health1 success1 and goodness2 we shall treat warily all depressing subjects of conversation1 the daily list of crimes and disasters which fill the newspapers1 and those novels1 plays and films which harrow our feelings1 without transmuting by the magic of art the sadness into beauty4 ,this does not mean that we should be always self-consciously studying ourselves1 ready to nip the pernicious idea in the bud2 nor yet that we should adopt the ostrich's policy of sticking our heads in the sand and declaring that disease and evil have no real existence4 ,the one leads to egotism and the other to callousness4 ,duty sometimes requires us to give our attention to things in themselves evil and depressing4 ,the demands of friendship and human sympathy are imperious1 and we cannot ignore them without moral loss4 ,but there is a positive and a negative way of approaching such subjects4 ,sympathy is too often regarded as a passive process by which we allow ourselves to be infected by the gloom1 the weakness1 the mental ill-health of other people4 ,this is sympathy perverted4 ,if a friend is suffering from small-pox or scarlet fever you do not seek to prove your sympathy by infecting yourself with his disease4 ,you would recognize this to be a crime against the community4 ,yet many people submit themselves to infection by unhealthy ideas as if it were an act of charity--part of their duty towards their neighbours4 ,in the same way people deliver their minds to harrowing stories of famine and pestilence1 as if the mental depression thus produced were of some value to the far-away victims4 ,this is obviously false--the only result is to cause gloom and ill-health in the reader and so make him a burden to his family4 ,that such disasters should be known is beyond question1 but we should react to them in the manner indicated in the last chapter4 ,we should replace the blank recognition of the evil by the quest of the means best suited to overcome it2 then we can look forward to an inspiring end and place the powers of our will in the service of its attainment4 ,oh1 human soul1 as long as thou canst so1 ,set up a mark of everlasting light ,above the heaving senses' ebb and flow 444 ,not with lost toil thou labourest through the night1 ,thou mak'st the heaven thou hop'st indeed thy home4 ,autosuggestion1 far from producing callousness1 dictates the method and supplies the means by which the truest sympathy can be practised4 ,in every case our aim must be to remove the suffering as soon as possible1 and this is facilitated by refusing acceptation to the bad ideas and maintaining our own mental and moral balance4 ,whenever gloomy thoughts come to us1 whether from without or within1 we should quietly transfer our attention to something brighter4 ,even if we are afflicted by some actual malady1 we should keep our thought from resting on it as far as we have the power to do so4 ,an organic disease may be increased a hundredfold by allowing the mind to brood on it1 for in so doing we place at its disposal all the resources of our organism1 and direct our life-force to our own destruction4 ,on the other hand1 by denying it our attention and opposing it with curative autosuggestions1 we reduce its power to the minimum and should succeed in overcoming it entirely4 ,even in the most serious organic diseases the element contributed by wrong thought is infinitely greater than that which is purely physical4 ,there are times when temperamental failings1 or the gravity of our affliction1 places our imagination beyond our ordinary control4 ,the suggestion operates in spite of us2 we do not seem to possess the power to rid our minds of the adverse thought4 ,under these conditions we should never struggle to throw off the obsessing idea by force4 ,our exertions only bring into play the law of reversed effort1 and we flounder deeper into the slough4 ,cou's technique1 however1 which will be outlined in succeeding chapters1 will give us the means of mastering ourselves1 even under the most trying conditions4 ,of all the destructive suggestions we must learn to shun1 none is more dangerous than fear4 ,in fearing something the mind is not only dwelling on a negative idea1 but it is establishing the closest personal connection between the idea and ourselves4 ,moreover1 the idea is surrounded by an aura of emotion1 which considerably intensifies its effect4 ,fear combines every element necessary to give to an autosuggestion its maximum power4 ,but happily fear1 too1 is susceptible to the controlling power of autosuggestion4 ,it is one of the first things which a person cognisant of the means to be applied should seek to eradicate from his mind4 ,for our own sakes1 too1 we should avoid dwelling on the faults and frailties of our neighbours4 ,if ideas of selfishness1 greed1 vanity1 are continually before our minds there is great danger that we shall subconsciously accept them1 and so realise them in our own character4 ,the petty gossip and backbiting1 so common in a small town1 produce the very faults they seem to condemn4 ,but by allowing our minds to rest upon the virtues of our neighbours1 we reproduce the same virtues in ourselves4 ,but if we should avoid negative ideas for our own sakes1 much more should we do so for the sake of other people4 ,gloomy and despondent men and women are centres of mental contagion1 damaging all with whom they come in contact4 ,sometimes such people seem involuntarily to exert themselves to quench the cheerfulness of brighter natures1 as if their ,unconscious strove to reduce all others to its own low level4 ,but even healthy1 well-intentioned people scatter evil suggestions broadcast1 without the least suspicion of the harm they do4 ,every time we remark to an acquaintance that he is looking ill1 we actually damage his health2 the effect may be extremely slight1 but by repetition it grows powerful4 ,a man who accepts in the course of a day fifteen or twenty suggestions that he is ill1 has gone a considerable part of the way towards actual illness4 ,similarly1 when we thoughtlessly commiserate with a friend on the difficulty of his daily work1 or represent it as irksome and uncongenial1 we make it a little harder for him to accomplish1 and thereby slightly diminish his chances of success4 ,if we must supervise our speech in contact with adults1 with children we should exercise still greater foresight4 ,the child's ,unconscious is far more accessible than that of the adult2 the selective power exercised by the conscious mind is much feebler1 and consequently the impressions received realise themselves with greater power4 ,these impressions are the material from which the child's growing life is constructed1 and if we supply faulty material the resultant structure will be unstable4 ,yet the most attentive and well-meaning mothers are engaged daily in sowing the seeds of weakness in their children's minds4 ,the little ones are constantly told they will take cold1 will be sick1 will fall down1 or will suffer some other misfortune4 ,the more delicate the child's health1 the more likely it is to be subjected to adverse suggestions4 ,it is too often saturated with the idea of bad health1 and comes to look on disease as the normal state of existence and health as exceptional4 ,the same is equally true of the child's mental and moral upbringing4 ,how often do foolish parents tell their children that they are naughty1 disobedient1 stupid1 idle or vicious8 ,if these suggestions were accepted1 which1 thank ,heaven1 is not always the case1 the little ones would in very fact develop just these qualities4 ,but even when no word is spoken1 a look or a gesture can initiate an undesirable autosuggestion4 ,the same child1 visited by two strangers1 will immediately make friends with the one and avoid the other4 ,why is this8--,because the one carries with him a healthful atmosphere1 while the other sends out waves of irritability or gloom4 ,men imagine1 says ,emerson1 that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions1 and do not see that virtue and vice emit a breath every moment4 ,with children1 above all1 it is not sufficient to refrain from the expression of negative ideas2 we must avoid harbouring them altogether4 ,unless we possess a bright positive mind the suggestions derived from us will be of little value4 ,the idea is gaining ground that a great deal of what is called hereditary disease is transmitted from parent to child1 not physically but mentally--that is to say1 by means of adverse suggestions continually renewed in the child's mind4 ,thus if one of the parents has a tendency to tuberculosis1 the child often lives in an atmosphere laden with tuberculous thoughts4 ,the little one is continually advised to take care of its lungs1 to keep its chest warm1 to beware of colds1 etc41 etc4 ,in other words1 the idea is repeatedly presented to its mind that it possesses second-rate lungs4 ,the realisation of these ideas1 the actual production of pulmonary tuberculosis is thus almost assured4 ,but all this is no more than crystallised common-sense4 ,everyone knows that a cheerful mind suffuses health1 while a gloomy one produces conditions favourable to disease4 ,a merry heart doeth good like a medicine1 says the writer of the ,book of ,proverbs1 but a broken spirit drieth the bones4 ,but this knowledge1 since it lacked a scientific basis1 has never been systematically applied4 ,we have regarded our feelings far too much as effects and not sufficiently as causes4 ,we are happy because we are well2 we do not recognise that the process will work equally well in the reverse direction--that we shall be well because we are happy4 ,happiness is not only the result of our conditions of life2 it is also the creator of those conditions4 ,autosuggestion lays weight upon this latter view4 ,happiness must come first4 ,it is only when the mind is ordered1 balanced1 filled with the light of sweet and joyous thought1 that it can work with its maximum efficiency4 ,when we are habitually happy our powers and capabilities come to their full blossom1 and we are able to work with the utmost effect on the shaping of what lies without4 ,happiness1 you say1 cannot be ordered like a chop in a restaurant4 ,like love1 its very essence is freedom4 ,this is true2 but like love1 it can be wooed and won4 ,it is a condition which everyone experiences at some time in life4 ,it is native to the mind4 ,by the systematic practice of ,induced ,autosuggestion we can make it1 not a fleeting visitant1 but a regular tenant of the mind1 which storms and stresses from without cannot dislodge4 ,this idea of the indwelling happiness1 inwardly conditioned1 is as ancient as thought4 ,by autosuggestion we can realise it in our own lives4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,the ,,general ,,formula ,we saw that an unskilled golfer1 who imagines his ball is going to alight in a bunker1 unconsciously performs just those physical movements needful to realise his idea in the actual4 ,in realising this idea his ,unconscious displays ingenuity and skill none the less admirable because opposed to his desire4 ,from this and other examples we concluded that if the mind dwells on the idea of an accomplished fact1 a realised state1 the ,unconscious will produce this state4 ,if this is true of our spontaneous autosuggestions it is equally true of the self-induced ones4 ,it follows that if we consistently think of happiness we become happy2 if we think of health we become healthy2 if we think of goodness we become good4 ,whatever thought we continually think1 provided it is reasonable1 tends to become an actual condition of our life4 ,traditionally we rely too much on the conscious mind4 ,if a man suffers from headaches he searches out1 with the help of his physician1 their cause2 discovers whether they come from his eyes1 his digestion or his nerves1 and purchases the drugs best suited to repair the fault4 ,if he wishes to improve a bad memory he practises one of the various methods of memory-training4 ,if he is the victim of a pernicious habit he is left to counter it by efforts of the will1 which too often exhaust his strength1 undermine his self-respect1 and only lead him deeper into the mire4 ,how simple in comparison is the method of ,induced ,autosuggestion6 ,he need merely think the end--a head free from pain1 a good memory1 a mode of life in which his bad habit has no part1 and these states are gradually evolved without his being aware of the operation performed by the ,unconscious4 ,but even so1 if each individual difficulty required a fresh treatment--one for the headache1 one for the memory1 one for the bad habit and so on--then the time needful to practise autosuggestion would form a considerable part of our waking life4 ,happily the researches of the ,nancy ,school have revealed a further simplification4 ,this is obtained by the use of a general formula which sets before the mind the idea of a daily improvement in every respect1 mental1 physical and moral4 ,in the original ,french this formula runs as follows3 ,tous les jours1 tous points de vue1 je vais de mieux en mieux4 ,the ,english version which ,cou considers most satisfactory is this3 ,day by day1 in every way1 ,i'm getting better and better4 ,this is very easy to say1 the youngest child can understand it1 and it possesses a rudimentary rhythm1 which exerts a lulling effect on the mind and so aids in calling up the ,unconscious4 ,but if you are accustomed to any other version1 such as that recommended by the translators of ,baudouin1 it would be better to continue to use it4 ,religious minds who wish to associate the formula with ,god's care and protection might do so after this fashion3 ,day by day1 in every way1 by the help of ,god1 ,i'm getting better and better4 ,it is possible that the attention of the ,unconscious will thus be turned to moral and spiritual improvements to a greater extent than by the ordinary formula4 ,but this general formula possesses definite advantages other than mere terseness and convenience4 ,the ,unconscious1 in its character of surveyor over our mental and physical functions1 knows far better than the conscious the precise failings and weaknesses which have the greatest need of attention4 ,the general formula supplies it with a fund of healing1 strengthening power1 and leaves it to apply this at the points where the need is most urgent4 ,it is a matter of common experience that people's ideals of manhood and womanhood vary considerably4 ,the hardened materialist pictures perfection solely in terms of wealth1 the butterfly-woman wants little but physical beauty1 charm1 and the qualities that attract4 ,the sensitive man is apt to depreciate the powers he possesses and exaggerate those he lacks2 while his self-satisfied neighbour can see no good in any virtues but his own4 ,it is quite conceivable that a person left free to determine the nature of his autosuggestions by the light of his conscious desire might use this power to realise a quality not in itself admirable1 or even one which1 judged by higher standards1 appeared pernicious4 ,even supposing that his choice was good he would be in danger of over-developing a few characteristics to the detriment of others and so destroying the balance of his personality4 ,the use of the general formula guards against this4 ,it saves a man in spite of himself4 ,it avoids the pitfalls into which the conscious mind may lead us by appealing to a more competent authority4 ,just as we leave the distribution of our bodily food to the choice of the ,unconscious1 so we may safely leave that of our mental food1 our ,induced ,autosuggestions4 ,the fear that the universal use of this formula would have a standardising effect1 modifying its users to a uniform pattern1 is unfounded4 ,a rigid system of particular suggestions might tend towards such a result1 but the general formula leaves every mind free to unfold and develop in the manner most natural to itself4 ,the eternal diversity of men's minds can only be increased by the free impulse thus administered4 ,we have previously seen that the ,unconscious tide rises to its highest point compatible with conscious thought just before sleep and just after awaking1 and that the suggestions formulated then are almost assured acceptation4 ,it is these moments that we select for the repetition of the formula4 ,but before we pass on to the precise method1 a word of warning is necessary4 ,even the most superficial attempt to analyse intellectually a living act is bound to make it appear complex and difficult4 ,so our consideration of the processes of outcropping and acceptation has inevitably invested them with a false appearance of difficulty4 ,autosuggestion is above all things easy4 ,its greatest enemy is effort4 ,the more simple and unforced the manner of its performance the more potently and profoundly it works4 ,this is shown by the fact that its most remarkable results have been secured by children and by simple ,french peasants4 ,it is here that ,cou's directions for the practice differ considerably from those of ,baudouin4 ,cou insists upon its easiness1 ,baudouin complicates it4 ,the four chapters devoted by the latter to relaxation1 collection1 contention1 and concentration1 produce in the reader an adverse suggestion of no mean power4 ,they leave the impression that autosuggestion is a perplexing business which only the greatest foresight and supervision can render successful4 ,nothing could be more calculated to throw the beginner off the track4 ,we have seen that ,autosuggestion is a function of the mind which we spontaneously perform every day of our lives4 ,the more our induced autosuggestions approximate to this spontaneous prototype the more potent they are likely to be4 ,baudouin warns us against the danger of setting the intellect to do the work of intuition1 yet this is precisely what he himself does4 ,a patient trying by his rules to attain outcropping and implant therein an autosuggestion is so vigilantly attentive to what he is doing that outcropping is rendered almost impossible4 ,these artificial aids are1 in ,cou's opinion1 not only unnecessary but hindersome4 ,autosuggestion succeeds when ,conscious and ,unconscious co-operate in the acceptance of an idea4 ,cou's long practice has shown that we must leave the ,unconscious1 as senior partner in the concern1 to bring about the right conditions in its own way4 ,the fussy attempts of the intellect to dictate the method of processes which lie outside its sphere will only produce conflict1 and so condemn our attempt to failure4 ,the directions given here are amply sufficient1 if conscientiously applied1 to secure the fullest benefits of which the method is capable4 ,take a piece of string and tie in it twenty knots4 ,by this means you can count with a minimum expenditure of attention1 as a devout ,catholic counts his prayers on a rosary4 ,the number twenty has no intrinsic virtue2 it is merely adopted as a suitable round number4 ,on getting into bed close your eyes1 relax your muscles and take up a comfortable posture4 ,these are no more than the ordinary preliminaries of slumber4 ,now repeat twenty times1 counting by means of the knots1 the general formula3 ,day by day1 in every way1 ,i'm getting better and better4 ,the words should be uttered aloud2 that is1 loud enough to be audible to your own ears4 ,in this way the idea is reinforced by the movements of lips and tongue and by the auditory impressions conveyed through the ear4 ,say it simply1 without effort1 like a child absently murmuring a nursery rhyme4 ,thus you avoid an appeal to the critical faculties of the conscious which would lessen the outcropping4 ,when you have got used to this exercise and can say it quite unself-consciously1 begin to let your voice rise or fall--it does not matter which--on the phrase in every way4 ,this is perhaps the most important part of the formula1 and is thus given a gentle emphasis4 ,but at first do not attempt this accentuation2 it will only needlessly complicate and1 by requiring more conscious attention1 may introduce effort4 ,do not try to think of what you are saying4 ,on the contrary1 let the mind wander whither it will2 if it rests on the formula all the better1 if it strays elsewhere do not recall it4 ,as long as your repetition does not come to a full-stop your mind-wandering will be less disturbing than would be the effort to recall your thoughts4 ,baudouin differs from ,cou as to the manner in which the formula should be repeated4 ,his advice is to say it piously1 with all the words separately stressed4 ,no doubt it has its value when thus spoken1 but the attitude of mind to which the word pious can be applied is unfortunately not habitual with everyone4 ,the average man in trying to be pious might end by being merely artificial4 ,but the child still exists in the most mature of men4 ,the infantile mode of repeating the formula puts one in touch with deep levels of the ,unconscious where the child-mind still survives4 ,cou's remarkable successes have been obtained by this means1 and ,baudouin advances no cogent reason for changing it4 ,these instructions no doubt fall somewhat short of our ideal of a thought entirely occupying the mind4 ,but they are sufficient for a beginning4 ,the sovereign rule is to make no effort1 and if this is observed you will intuitively fall into the right attitude4 ,this process of ,unconscious adaptation may be hastened by a simple suggestion before beginning4 ,say to yourself1 ,i shall repeat the formula in such a manner as to secure its maximum effect4 ,this will bring about the required conditions much more effectively than any conscious exercise of thought4 ,on waking in the morning1 before you rise1 repeat the formula in exactly the same manner4 ,its regular repetition is the foundation stone of the ,nancy method and should never be neglected4 ,in times of health it may be regarded as an envoy going before to clear the path of whatever evils may lurk in the future4 ,but we must look on it chiefly as an educator1 as a means of leavening the mass of adverse spontaneous suggestions which clog the ,unconscious and rob our lives of their true significance4 ,say it with faith4 ,when you have said it your conscious part of the process is completed4 ,leave the ,unconscious to do its work undisturbed4 ,do not be anxious about it1 continually scanning yourself for signs of improvement4 ,the farmer does not turn over the clods every morning to see if his seed is sprouting4 ,once sown it is left till the green blade appears4 ,so it should be with suggestion4 ,sow the seed1 and be sure the ,unconscious powers of the mind will bring it to fruition1 and all the sooner if your conscious ego is content to let it rest4 ,say it with faith6 ,you can only rob ,induced ,autosuggestion of its power in one way--by believing that it is powerless4 ,if you believe this it becomes ipso facto powerless for you4 ,the greater your faith the more radical and the more rapid will be your results2 though if you have only sufficient faith to repeat the formula twenty times night and morning the results will soon give you in your own person the proof you desire1 and facts and faith will go on mutually augmenting each other4 ,faith reposes on reason and must have its grounds4 ,what grounds can we adduce for faith in ,induced ,autosuggestion8 ,the examples of cures already cited are outside your experience and you may be tempted to pooh-pooh them4 ,the experiment of ,chevreul's pendulum1 however1 will show in a simple manner the power possessed by a thought to transform itself into an action4 ,take a piece of white paper and draw on it a circle of about five inches' radius4 ,draw two diameters ,,ab and ,,cd at right angles to each other and intersecting at ,o4 ,the more distinctly the lines stand out the better--they should be thickly drawn in black ink4 ,now take a lead pencil or a light ruler and tie to one end a piece of cotton about eight inches long2 to the lower end of the cotton fasten a heavy metal button1 of the sort used on a soldier's tunic4 ,place the paper on a table so that the diameter ,,ab seems to be horizontal and ,,cd to be vertical1 thus3 ,illustration3 ,autosuggestion diagram ,stand upright before the table with your miniature fishing-rod held firmly in both hands and the button suspended above the point ,o4 ,take care not to press the elbows nervously against the sides4 ,look at the line ,,ab1 think of it1 follow it with your eyes from side to side4 ,presently the button will begin to swing along the line you are thinking of4 ,the more your mind dwells easily upon the idea of the line the greater this swing becomes4 ,your efforts to try to hold the pendulum still1 by bringing into action the law of reversed effort1 only make its oscillations more pronounced4 ,now fix your eyes on the line ,,cd4 ,the button will gradually change the direction of its movement1 taking up that of ,,cd4 ,when you have allowed it to swing thus for a few moments transfer your attention to the circle1 follow the circumference round and round with your eyes4 ,once more the swinging button will follow you1 adopting either a clock-wise or a counter clock-wise direction according to your thought4 ,after a little practice you should produce a circular swing with a diameter of at least eight inches2 but your success will be directly proportional to the exclusiveness of your thought and to your efforts to hold the pencil still4 ,lastly think of the point ,o4 ,gradually the radius of the swing will diminish until the button comes to rest4 ,is it necessary to point out how these movements are caused8 ,your thought of the line1 passing into the ,unconscious1 is there realised1 so that without knowing it you execute with your hands the imperceptible movements which set the button in motion4 ,the ,unconscious automatically realises your thought through the nerves and muscles of your arms and hands4 ,what is this but ,induced ,autosuggestion8 ,the first time you perform this little experiment it is best to be alone4 ,this enables you to approach it quite objectively4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,particular ,,suggestions ,the use of particular suggestions outlined in this chapter is of minor importance compared with that of the general formula--,day by day1 in every way1 ,i'm getting better and better4 ,the more deeply ,cou pursues his investigations1 the more fully he becomes convinced that all else is secondary to this4 ,it is not difficult to make a guess as to why this should be4 ,in the general formula the attention is fully absorbed by the idea of betterment4 ,the mind is directed away from all that hinders and impedes and fixed on a positive goal4 ,in formulating particular suggestions1 however1 we are always skating on the thin ice round our faults and ailments1 always touching on subjects which have the most painful associations4 ,so that our ideas have not the same creative positiveness4 ,however that may be1 it is a matter of experience that the general formula is the basis of the whole method1 and that all else is merely an adjuvant1 an auxiliary--useful1 but inessential to the main object4 ,we have seen that a partial outcropping of the ,unconscious takes place whenever we relax our mental and physical control1 and let the mind wander2 in popular language1 when we fall into a brown study or a day-dream4 ,this outcropping should be sought before the special suggestions are formulated4 ,but again we must beware of making simple things seem hard4 ,baudouin would have us perform a number of elaborate preparatives1 which1 however valuable to the student of psychology1 serve with the layman only to distract the mind1 and by fixing the attention on the mechanism impair the power of the creative idea4 ,moreover1 they cause the subject to exert efforts to attain a state the very essence of which is effortlessness1 like the victim of insomnia who tries his hardest to fall asleep4 ,in order to formulate particular suggestions1 go to a room where you will be free from interruption1 sit down in a comfortable chair1 close your eyes1 and let your muscles relax4 ,in other words1 act precisely as if you were going to take a siesta4 ,in doing so you allow the ,unconscious tide to rise to a sufficient height to make your particular suggestions effective4 ,now call up the desired ideas through the medium of speech4 ,tell yourself that such and such ameliorations are going to occur4 ,but here we must give a few hints as to the form these suggestions should take4 ,we should never set our faith a greater task than it can accomplish4 ,a patient suffering from deafness would be ill-advised to make the suggestion3 ,i can hear perfectly4 ,in the partial state of outcropping association is not entirely cut off1 and such an idea would certainly call up its contrary4 ,thus we should initiate a suggestion antagonistic to the one we desired4 ,in this way we only court disappointment and by losing faith in our instrument rob it of its efficacy4 ,further1 we should avoid as far as possible all mention of the ailment or difficulty against which the suggestion is aimed4 ,indeed1 our own attention should be directed not so much to getting rid of wrong conditions as to cultivating the opposite right ones in their place4 ,if you are inclined to be neurasthenic your mind is frequently occupied with fear4 ,this fear haunts you because some thwarted element in your personality1 surviving in the ,unconscious1 gains through it a perverse satisfaction4 ,in other words1 your ,unconscious enjoys the morbid emotional condition which fear brings with it4 ,should you succeed in banishing your fears you would probably feel dissatisfied1 life would seem empty4 ,the old ideas would beckon you with promises1 not of happiness truly1 but of emotion and excitement4 ,but if your suggestions take a positive form1 if you fill your mind with thoughts of self-confidence1 courage1 outward activity1 and interest in the glowing and vital things of life1 the morbid ideas will be turned out of doors and there will be no vacant spot to which they can return4 ,whatever the disorder may be1 we should refer to it as little as possible1 letting the whole attention go out to the contrary state of health4 ,we must dwell on the ,yes-idea1 affirming with faith the realisation of our hopes1 seeing ourselves endowed with the triumphant qualities we lack4 ,for a similar reason we should never employ a form of words which connotes doubt4 ,the phrases1 ,i should like to1 ,i am going to try1 if realised by the ,unconscious1 can only produce a state of longing or desire1 very different from the actual physical and mental modifications we are seeking4 ,finally1 we should not speak of the desired improvement entirely as a thing of the future4 ,we should affirm that the change has already begun1 and will continue to operate more and more rapidly until our end is fully attained4 ,here are a few examples of special suggestions which may prove useful4 ,for deafness3 ,having closed the eyes and relaxed body and mind1 say to yourself something of this nature3 ,from this day forth my hearing will gradually improve4 ,each day ,i shall hear a little better4 ,gradually this improvement will become more and more rapid until1 in a comparatively short space of time1 ,i shall hear quite well and ,i shall continue to do so until the end of my life4 ,a person suffering from unfounded fears and forebodings might proceed as follows3 ,from to-day onward ,i shall become more and more conscious of all that is happy1 positive and cheerful4 ,the thoughts which enter my mind will be strong and healthful ones4 ,i shall gain daily in self-confidence1 shall believe in my own powers1 which indeed at the same time will manifest themselves in greater strength4 ,my life is growing smoother1 easier1 brighter4 ,these changes become from day to day more profound2 in a short space of time ,i shall have risen to a new plane of life1 and all the troubles which used to perplex me will have vanished and will never return4 ,a bad memory might be treated in some such terms as these3 ,my memory from to-day on will improve in every department4 ,the impressions received will be clearer and more definite2 ,i shall retain them automatically and without any effort on my part1 and when ,i wish to recall them they will immediately present themselves in their correct form to my mind4 ,this improvement will be accomplished rapidly1 and very soon my memory will be better than it has ever been before4 ,irritability and bad temper are very susceptible to autosuggestion and might be thus treated3 ,henceforth ,i shall daily grow more good-humoured4 ,equanimity and cheerfulness will become my normal states of mind1 and in a short time all the little happenings of life will be received in this spirit4 ,i shall be a centre of cheer and helpfulness to those about me1 infecting them with my own good humour1 and this cheerful mood will become so habitual that nothing can rob me of it4 ,asthma is a disease which has always baffled and still baffles the ordinary methods of medicine4 ,it has shown itself1 however1 in ,cou's experience1 pre-eminently susceptible to autosuggestive treatment4 ,particular suggestions for its removal might take this form3 ,from this day forward my breathing will become rapidly easier4 ,quite without my knowledge1 and without any effort on my part1 my organism will do all that is necessary to restore perfect health to my lungs and bronchial passages4 ,i shall be able to undergo any exertion without inconvenience4 ,my breathing will be free1 deep1 delightful4 ,i shall draw in all the pure health-giving air ,i need1 and thus my whole system will be invigorated and strengthened4 ,moreover1 ,i shall sleep calmly and peacefully1 with the maximum of refreshment and repose1 so that ,i awake cheerful and looking forward with pleasure to the day's tasks4 ,this process has this day begun and in a short time ,i shall be wholly and permanently restored to health4 ,it will be noticed that each of these suggestions comprises three stages3 7#a7 ,immediate commencement of the amelioration4 7#b7 ,rapid progress4 7#c7 ,complete and permanent cure4 ,while this scheme is not essential1 it is a convenient one and should be utilised whenever applicable4 ,the examples are framed as the first autosuggestions of persons new to the method4 ,on succeeding occasions the phrase from this day forth1 or its variants1 should be replaced by a statement that the amelioration has already begun4 ,thus1 in the case of the asthmatic1 ,my breathing is already becoming easier1 etc4 ,particular suggestions1 though subsidiary in value to the general formula1 are at times of very great service4 ,the general formula looks after the foundations of our life1 building in the depths where eye cannot see or ear hear4 ,particular suggestions are useful on the surface4 ,by their means we can deal with individual difficulties as they arise4 ,the two methods are complementary4 ,particular suggestions prove very valuable in reinforcing and rendering permanent the effects obtained by the technique for overcoming pain1 which will be outlined in the next chapter4 ,before commencing the attack we should sit down1 close our eyes and say calmly and confidently to ourselves3 ,i am now going to rid myself of this pain4 ,when the desired result has been obtained1 we should suggest that the state of ease and painlessness now re-established will be permanent1 that the affected part will rapidly be toned up into a condition of normal health1 and will remain always in that desirable state4 ,should we have obtained only a lessening of the trouble without its complete removal our suggestion should take this form3 ,i have obtained a considerable degree of relief1 and in the next few minutes it will become complete4 ,i shall be restored to my normal condition of health and shall continue so for the future4 ,thus our assault upon the pain is made under the best conditions1 and should in every case prove successful4 ,we should employ particular suggestions also for overcoming the difficulties which confront us from time to time in our daily lives1 and for securing the full success of any task we take in hand4 ,the use of the general suggestion will gradually strengthen our self-confidence1 until we shall expect success in any enterprise of which the reason approves4 ,but until this consummation is reached1 until our balance of self-confidence is adequate for all our needs1 we can obtain an overdraft for immediate use by means of particular suggestion4 ,we have already seen that the dimensions of any obstacle depend at least as much upon our mental attitude towards it as upon its intrinsic difficulty4 ,the neurasthenic1 who imagines he cannot rise from his bed1 cannot do so because this simple operation is endowed by his mind with immense difficulty4 ,the great mass of normal people commit the same fault in a less degree4 ,their energy is expended partly in doing their daily work1 and partly in overcoming the resistance in their own minds4 ,by the action of the law of reversed effort the negative idea they foster frequently brings their efforts to naught1 and the very exertions they make condemn their activities to failure4 ,for this reason it is necessary1 before undertaking any task which seems to us difficult1 to suggest that it is in fact easy4 ,we close our eyes and say quietly to ourselves1 ,the work ,i have to do is easy1 quite easy4 ,since it is easy ,i can do it1 and ,i shall do it efficiently and successfully4 ,moreover1 ,i shall enjoy doing it2 it will give me pleasure1 my whole personality will apply itself harmoniously to the task1 and the results will be even beyond my expectation4 ,we should dwell on these ideas1 repeating them tranquilly and effortlessly4 ,soon our mind will become serene1 full of hope and confidence4 ,then we can begin to think out our method of procedure1 to let the mind dwell on the means best suited to attain our object4 ,since the impediments created by fear and anxiety are now removed our ideas will flow freely1 our plans will construct themselves in the quiet of the mind1 and we shall come to the actual work with a creative vigour and singleness of purpose4 ,by a similar procedure the problems of conduct which defy solution by conscious thought will frequently yield to autosuggestion4 ,when we are at our wits' ends1 as the saying goes1 to discover the best path out of a dilemma1 when choice between conflicting possibilities seems impossible1 it is worse than useless to continue the struggle4 ,the law of reversed effort is at work paralysing our mental faculties4 ,we should put it aside1 let the waves of effort subside1 and suggest to ourselves that at a particular point of time the solution will come to us of its own accord4 ,if we can conveniently do so1 it is well to let a period of sleep intervene1 to suggest that the solution will come to us on the morrow2 for during sleep the ,unconscious is left undisturbed to realise in its own way the end we have consciously set before it4 ,this operation often takes place spontaneously1 as when a problem left unsolved the night before yields its solution apparently by an inspiration when we arise in the morning4 ,sleep on it still remains the best counsel for those in perplexity1 but they should preface their slumbers by the positive autosuggestion that on waking they will find the difficulty resolved4 ,in this connection it is interesting to note that autosuggestion is already widely made use of as a means of waking at a particular hour4 ,a person who falls asleep with the idea in his mind of the time at which he wishes to wake1 will wake at that time4 ,it may be added that wherever sleep is utilised for the realisation of particular suggestions1 these suggestions should be made in addition to the general formula1 either immediately before or immediately after2 they should never be substituted for it4 ,with some afflictions1 such as fits1 the attack is often so sudden and unexpected that the patient is smitten down before he has a chance to defend himself4 ,particular suggestions should be aimed first of all at securing due warning of the approaching attack4 ,we should employ such terms as these3 ,in future ,i shall always know well in advance when a fit is coming on4 ,i shall be amply warned of its approach4 ,when these warnings occur ,i shall feel no fear or anxiety4 ,i shall be quite confident of my power to avert it4 ,as soon as the warning comes--as it will come1 quite unmistakably--the sufferer should isolate himself and use a particular suggestion to prevent the fit from developing4 ,he should first suggest calm and self-control1 then affirm repeatedly1 but of course without effort1 that the normal state of health is reasserting itself1 that the mind is fully under control1 and that nothing can disturb its balance4 ,all sudden paroxysms1 liable to take us unexpectedly1 should be treated by the same method1 which in ,cou's experience has amply justified itself4 ,nervous troubles and violent emotions1 such as fear and anger1 often express themselves by physical movements4 ,fear may cause trembling1 palpitation1 chattering of the teeth2 anger a violent clenching of the fists4 ,baudouin advises that particular suggestions in these cases should be directed rather against the motor expression than against the psychic cause1 that our aim should be to cultivate a state of physical impassibility4 ,but since a positive suggestion possesses greater force than a negative1 it would seem better to attack simultaneously both the cause and the effect4 ,instead of anger1 suggest that you will feel sympathy1 patience1 good-humour1 and consequently that your bodily state will be easy and unconstrained4 ,a form of particular suggestion which possesses distinct advantages of its own is the quiet repetition of a single word4 ,if your mind is distracted and confused1 sit down1 close your eyes1 and murmur slowly and reflectively the single word ,calm4 ,say it reverently1 drawing it out to its full length and pausing after each repetition4 ,gradually your mind will be stilled and quietened1 and you will be filled with a sense of harmony and peace4 ,this method seems most applicable to the attainment of moral qualities4 ,an evil passion can be quelled by the use of the word denoting the contrary virtue4 ,the power of the word depends largely upon its aesthetic and moral associations4 ,words like joy1 strength1 love1 purity1 denoting the highest ideals of the human mind1 possess great potency and are capable1 thus used1 of dispelling mental states in which their opposites predominate4 ,the name ,reflective ,suggestion1 which ,baudouin applies indifferently to all autosuggestions induced by the subject's own choice1 might well be reserved for this specific form of particular suggestion4 ,the field for the exercise of particular suggestions is practically limitless4 ,whenever you feel a need for betterment1 of whatever nature it may be1 a particular suggestion will help you4 ,but it must once more be repeated that these particular suggestions are merely aids and auxiliaries1 which may1 if leisure is scant1 be neglected4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,how ,,to ,,deal ,,with ,,pain ,pain1 whether of mind or body1 introduces a new element for which we have hitherto made no provision4 ,by monopolising the attention it keeps the conscious mind fully alert and so prevents one from attaining the measure of outcropping needful to initiate successfully an autosuggestion4 ,thus if we introduce the no-pain idea into the conscious1 it is overwhelmed by its contrary--pain1 and the patient's condition becomes1 if anything1 worse4 ,to overcome this difficulty quite a new method is required4 ,if we speak a thought1 that thought1 while we speak it1 must occupy our minds4 ,we could not speak it unless we thought it4 ,by continually repeating ,i have no pain the sufferer constantly renews that thought in his mind4 ,unfortunately1 after each repetition the pain-thought insinuates itself1 so that the mind oscillates between ,i have no pain and ,i have some pain1 or ,i have a bad pain4 ,but if we repeat our phrase so rapidly that the contrary association has no time to insert itself1 we compel the mind willy-nilly to dwell on it4 ,thus by a fresh path we reach the same goal as that attained by induced outcropping2 we cause an idea to remain in occupation of the mind without calling up a contrary association4 ,this we found to be the prime condition of acceptation1 and in fact by this means we can compel the ,unconscious to realise the no-pain thought and so put an end to the pain4 ,but the sentence ,i have no pain does not lend itself to rapid repetition4 ,the physical difficulties are too great2 the tongue and lips become entangled in the syllables and we have to stop to restore order4 ,even if we were dexterous enough to articulate the words successfully1 we should only meet with a new difficulty4 ,the most emphatic word in the phrase is pain2 involuntarily we should find ourself stressing this word with particular force1 so strengthening in our minds the very idea we are trying to dislodge4 ,we shall do best to copy as closely as we can ,cou's own procedure4 ,the phrase he uses1 a passe1 makes no mention of the hurt2 it is extremely easy to say1 and it produces an unbroken stream of sound1 like the whirr of a machine or the magnified buzz of an insect1 which1 as it were1 carries the mind off its feet4 ,the phrase recommended by ,baudouin1 ,it is passing off1 produces no such effect1 and in fact defies all our attempts to repeat it quickly4 ,on the whole1 the most suitable ,english version seems to be ,it's going4 ,only the word going should be repeated1 and the treatment should conclude with the emphatic statement gone6 ,the word going1 rapidly gabbled1 gives the impression of a mechanical drill1 biting its way irresistibly into some hard substance4 ,we can think of it as drilling the desired thought into the mind4 ,if you are suffering from any severe pain1 such as toothache or headache1 sit down1 close your eyes and assure yourself calmly that you are going to get rid of it4 ,now gently stroke with your hand the affected part and repeat at the same time as fast as you can1 producing a continuous stream of sound1 the words3 ,it's going1 going1 going 444 gone6 ,keep it up for about a minute1 pausing only to take a deep breath when necessary1 and using the word gone only at the conclusion of the whole proceeding4 ,at the end of this time the pain will either have entirely ceased or at least sensibly abated4 ,in either case apply the particular suggestions recommended in the previous chapter4 ,if the pain has ceased suggest that it will not return2 if it has only diminished suggest that it will shortly pass away altogether4 ,now return to whatever employment you were engaged in when the pain began4 ,let other interests occupy your attention4 ,if in a reasonable space1 say half an hour1 the pain still troubles you1 isolate yourself again2 suggest once more that you are going to master it1 and repeat the procedure4 ,it is no exaggeration to say that by this process any pain can be conquered4 ,it may be1 in extreme cases1 that you will have to return several times to the attack4 ,this will generally occur when you have been foolish enough to supply the pain with a cause--a decayed tooth1 a draught of cold air1 etc4--and so justify it to your reason1 and give it1 so to speak1 an intellectual sanction4 ,or it may be that it will cease only to return again4 ,but do not be discouraged2 attack it firmly and you are bound to succeed4 ,the same procedure is equally effective with distressing states of mind1 worry1 fear1 despondency4 ,in such cases the stroking movement of the hand should be applied to the forehead4 ,even in this exercise no more effort should be used than is necessary4 ,simply repeat rapidly the word which informs you that the trouble is going1 and let this1 with the stroking movement of the hand1 which1 as it were1 fixes the attention to that particular spot1 be the sum and substance of your effort4 ,with practice it will become easier1 you will drop into it2 that is to say1 the ,unconscious will perform the adaptations necessary to make it more effective4 ,after a time you should be able to obtain relief in twenty to twenty-five seconds4 ,but the effect is still more far-reaching2 you will be delivered from the fear of pain4 ,regarding yourself as its master1 you will be able with the mere threat of treatment to prevent it from developing4 ,you will hang up a card1 ,no admittance1 on the doors of your conscious mind4 ,it may be that the pain attacks you in the street or in a workshop2 in some public place where the audible repetition of the phrase would attract attention4 ,in that case it is best to close the eyes for a moment and formulate this particular suggestion3 ,i shall not add to this trouble by thinking about it2 my mind will be occupied by other things2 but on the first opportunity ,i shall make it pass away1 ,then as soon as you can conveniently do so make use of the phrase ,it's going4 ,when you have become expert in the use of this form of suggestion you will be able to exorcise the trouble by repeating the phrase mentally--at any rate if the words are outlined with the lips and tongue4 ,but the beginner should rely for a time entirely on audible treatment4 ,by dropping it too soon he will only court disappointment4 ,it sometimes happens that a patient is so prostrated by pain or misery that he has not the energy to undertake even the repetition of the word going4 ,the pain-thought so obsesses the mind that the state of painlessness seems too remote even to contemplate4 ,under these circumstances it seems best to employ this strategy4 ,lie down on a bed1 sofa1 or arm-chair and relax both mind and body4 ,cease from all effort--which can only make things worse--and let the pain-thought have its way4 ,after a time your energies will begin to collect themselves1 your mind to reassert its control4 ,now make a firm suggestion of success and apply the method4 ,get another person to help you1 as ,cou helps his patients1 by performing the passes with the hand and repeating the phrase with you4 ,by this means you can make quite sure of success4 ,this seemingly contradictory proceeding is analogous to that of the angler playing a fish4 ,he waits till it has run its course before bringing his positive resources into play4 ,baudouin recommends an analogous proceeding as a weapon against insomnia4 ,the patient1 he says1 should rapidly repeat the phrase1 ,i am going to sleep1 letting his mind be swept away by a torrent of words4 ,once more the objection arises that the phrase ,i am going to sleep is not such as we can rapidly repeat4 ,but even if we substitute for it some simple phrase which can be easily articulated it is doubtful whether it will succeed in more than a small percentage of cases4 ,success is more likely to attend us if we avail ourselves of the method of reflective repetition mentioned in the last chapter4 ,we should take up the position most favourable to slumber and then repeat slowly and contemplatively the word ,sleep4 ,the more impersonal our attitude towards the idea the more rapidly it will be realised in our own slumbers4 ,,chapter ,x ,,autosuggestion ,,and ,,the ,,child ,in treating children it should be remembered that autosuggestion is primarily not a remedy but a means of insuring healthy growth4 ,it should not be reserved for times when the child is sick1 but provided daily1 with the same regularity as meals4 ,children grow up weakly not from lack of energy1 but because of a waste and misapplication of it4 ,the inner conflict1 necessitated by the continual process of adaptation which we call growth1 is often of quite unnecessary violence1 not only making a great temporary demand on the child's vital energy1 but even locking it up in the ,unconscious in the form of complexes1 so that its future life is deprived of a portion of its due vitality4 ,a wise use of autosuggestion will preclude these disasters4 ,growth will be ordered and controlled4 ,the necessary conflicts will be brought to a successful issue1 the unnecessary ones avoided4 ,autosuggestion may very well begin before the child is born4 ,it is a matter of common knowledge that a mother must be shielded during pregnancy from any experience involving shock or fright1 since these exert a harmful effect on the developing embryo1 and may in extreme cases result in abortion1 or in physical deformity or mental weakness in the child4 ,instances of this ill-effect are comparatively common1 and the link between cause and effect is often unmistakable4 ,there is no need to point out that these cases are nothing more than spontaneous autosuggestions operating in the maternal ,unconscious2 since during pregnancy the mother moulds her little one not only by the food she eats but also by the thoughts she thinks4 ,the heightened emotionality characteristic of this state bespeaks an increased tendency to outcropping1 and so an increased suggestibility4 ,thus spontaneous autosuggestions are far more potent than in the normal course of life4 ,but1 happily1 induced autosuggestions are aided by the same conditions1 so that the mother awake to her powers and duties can do as much good as the ignorant may do harm4 ,without going into debatable questions1 such as the possibility of predetermining the sex of the child to be born1 one can find many helpful ways of aiding and benefiting the growing life by autosuggestive means4 ,the mother should avoid with more than ordinary care all subjects1 whether in reading or conversation1 which bear on evil in any form1 and she should seek whatever uplifts the mind and furnishes it with beautiful and joyous thought4 ,but the technical methods of autosuggestion can also be brought into action4 ,the mother should suggest to herself that her organism is furnishing the growing life with all it needs1 and that the child will be strong and healthy in mind1 in body1 and in character4 ,these suggestions should be in general terms bearing on qualities of undoubted good1 for obviously it is not desirable to define an independent life too narrowly4 ,they need consist only of a few sentences1 and should be formulated night and morning immediately before or after the general formula4 ,furthermore1 when the mother's thoughts during the day stray to the subject of her child1 she can take this opportunity to repeat the whole or some part of the particular suggestion she has chosen4 ,these few simple measures will amply suffice4 ,any undue tendency of the mind to dwell on the thought of the child1 even in the form of good suggestions1 should not be encouraged4 ,a normal mental life is in itself the best of conditions for the welfare of both mother and child4 ,for her own sake however the mother might well suggest that the delivery will be painless and easy4 ,the only direct means of autosuggestion applicable to the child for some months after birth is that of the caress1 though it must be remembered that the mental states of mother and nurse are already stamping themselves on the little mind1 forming it inevitably for better or worse4 ,should any specific trouble arise1 the method of ,mlle4 ,kauffmant should be applied by the mother4 ,taking the child on her knee she should gently caress the affected part1 thinking the while of its reinstatement in perfect health4 ,it seems generally advisable to express these thoughts in words4 ,obviously1 the words themselves will mean nothing to an infant of two or three months1 but they will hold the mother's thought in the right channel1 and this thought1 by the tone of her voice1 the touch of her hand1 will be communicated to the child4 ,whether telepathy plays any part in this process we need not inquire1 but the baby is psychically as well as physically so dependent on the mother that her mental states are communicated by means quite ineffective with adults4 ,love in itself exerts a suggestive power of the highest order4 ,when the child shows signs of understanding what is said to it1 before it begins itself to speak1 the following method should be applied4 ,after the little one has fallen asleep at night the mother enters the room1 taking care not to awaken it1 and stands about a yard from the head of the cot4 ,she proceeds then to formulate in a whisper such suggestions as seem necessary4 ,if the child is ailing the suggestion might take the form of the phrase ,you are getting better repeated twenty times4 ,if it is in health the general formula will suffice4 ,particular suggestions may also be formulated bearing on the child's health1 character1 intellectual development1 etc4 ,these of course should be in accordance with the instructions given in the chapter devoted to particular suggestions4 ,on withdrawing1 the mother should again be careful not to awaken the little one4 ,should it show signs of waking1 the whispered command sleep1 repeated several times1 will lull it again to rest4 ,baudouin recommends that during these suggestions the mother should lay her hand on the child's forehead4 ,the above1 however1 is the method preferred by ,cou4 ,this nightly practice is the most effective means of conveying autosuggestions to the child-mind4 ,it should be made a regular habit which nothing is allowed to interrupt4 ,if for any reason the mother is unable to perform it1 her place may be taken by the father1 the nurse1 or some relative4 ,but for obvious reasons the duty belongs by right to the mother1 and1 when a few weeks' practice has revealed its beneficent power1 few mothers will be willing to delegate it to a less suitable agent4 ,this practice1 as stated above1 may well begin before the child has actually learned to speak1 for its ,unconscious will already be forming a scheme more or less distinct of the significance of the sounds that reach it1 and will not fail to gather the general tenor of the words spoken4 ,the date at which it should be discontinued is less easy to specify4 ,growth1 to be healthy1 must carry with it a gradual increase in independence and self-sufficiency4 ,there seems to be some slight danger that the practice of nightly suggestions1 if continued too long1 might prolong unduly the state of dependence upon parental support4 ,reliable indications on this point are furnished1 however1 by the child itself4 ,as soon as it is able to face its daily problems for itself1 when it no longer runs to the parent for help and advice in every little difficulty1 the time will have arrived for the parental suggestions to cease4 ,as soon as a child is able to speak it should be taught to repeat the general formula night and morning in the same way as an adult4 ,thus when the time comes to discontinue the parent's suggestions their effect will be carried on by those the child formulates itself4 ,there is one thing more to add3 in the case of boys it would seem better at the age of seven or eight for the father to replace the mother in the rle of suggester1 while the mother1 of course1 performs the office throughout for her girls4 ,should any signs appear that the period of puberty is bringing with it undue difficulties or perils1 the nightly practice might be resumed in the form of particular suggestions bearing on the specific difficulties4 ,it must be remembered1 however1 that the child's sexual problem is essentially different from that of the adult1 and the suggestions must therefore be in the most general terms4 ,here as elsewhere the end alone should be suggested1 the ,unconscious being left free to choose its own means4 ,as soon as the child has learnt to speak it should not be allowed to suffer pain4 ,the best method to adopt is that practised by ,cou in his consultations4 ,let the child close its eyes and repeat with the parent1 ,it's going1 going 444 gone6 while the latter gently strokes the affected part4 ,but as soon as possible the child should be encouraged to overcome smaller difficulties for itself1 until the parent's help is eventually almost dispensed with4 ,this is a powerful means of developing self-reliance and fostering the sense of superiority to difficulties which will be invaluable in later life4 ,that children readily take to the practice is shown by these examples1 which are again quoted from letters received by ,cou4 ,your youngest disciple is our little ,david4 ,the poor little chap had an accident to-day4 ,going up in the lift with his father1 when quite four feet up1 he fell out on his head and on to a hard stone floor4 ,he was badly bruised and shocked1 and when put to bed lay still and kept saying3 'a passe1 a passe1' over and over again1 and then looked up and said1 'no1 not gone away4' ,to-night he said again 'a passe' and then added1 'nearly gone4' ,so he is better4 ,b4 ,k4 7,london74 #h ,january1 #aibb4 ,another lady writes3 ,our cook's little niece1 aged #bc months--the one we cured of bronchitis--gave herself a horrid blow on the head yesterday4 ,instead of crying she began to smile1 passed her hand over the place and said sweetly1 'a passe4' ,hasn't she been well brought up8 ,all these methods are extremely simple and involve little expenditure of time and none of money4 ,they have proved their efficacy over and over again in ,nancy1 and there is no reason why a mother of average intelligence and conscientiousness should not obtain equally good results4 ,naturally1 first attempts will be a little awkward1 but there is no need for discouragement on that account4 ,even supposing that through the introduction of effort some slight harm were done--and the chance is comparatively remote--this need cause no alarm4 ,the right autosuggestion will soon counteract it and produce positive good in its place4 ,but any mother who has practised autosuggestion for herself will be able correctly to apply it to her child4 ,at first glance the procedure may seem revolutionary1 but think it over for a moment and you will see that it is as old as the hills4 ,it is merely a systematisation on a scientific basis of the method mothers have intuitively practised since the world began4 ,sleep1 baby1 sleep4 ,angels are watching o'er thee1--what is this but a particular suggestion8 ,how does a wise mother proceed when her little one falls and grazes its hand8 ,she says something of this kind3 ,let me kiss it and then it will be well4 ,she kisses it1 and with her assurance that the pain has gone the child runs happily back to its play4 ,this is only a charming variation of the method of the caress4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,conclusion ,induced ,autosuggestion is not a substitute for medical practice4 ,it will not make us live for ever1 neither will it free us completely from the common ills of life4 ,what it may do in the future1 when all its implications have been realised1 all its resources exploited1 we cannot say4 ,there is no doubt that a generation brought up by its canons would differ profoundly from the disease-ridden population of to-day4 ,but our immediate interest is with the present4 ,the adult of to-day carries in his ,unconscious a memory clogged with a mass of adverse suggestions which have been accumulating since childhood4 ,the first task of ,induced ,autosuggestion will be to clear away this mass of mental lumber4 ,not until this has been accomplished can the real man appear and the creative powers of autosuggestion begin to manifest themselves4 ,by the use of this method each one of us should be able to look forward to a life in which disease is a diminishing factor4 ,but how great a part it will play depends upon the conditions we start from and the regularity and correctness of our practice4 ,should disease befall us we possess within a potent means of expelling it1 but this does not invalidate the complementary method of destroying it from without4 ,autosuggestion and the usual medical practice should go hand in hand1 each supplementing the other4 ,if you are ill1 call in your doctor as before1 but enlist the resources of ,induced ,autosuggestion to reinforce and extend his treatment4 ,in this connection it must be insisted on that autosuggestion should be utilised for every ailment1 whatever its nature1 and whether its inroads be grave or slight4 ,every disease is either strengthened or weakened by the action of the mind4 ,we cannot take up an attitude of neutrality4 ,either we must aid the disease to destroy us by allowing our minds to dwell on it1 or we must oppose it and destroy it by a stream of healthful dynamic thought4 ,too frequently we spontaneously adopt the former course4 ,the general opinion that functional and nervous diseases alone are susceptible to suggestive treatment is at variance with the facts4 ,during ,cou's thirty years of practice1 in which many thousands of cases have been treated1 he has found that organic troubles yield as easily as functional1 that bodily derangements are even easier to cure than nervous and mental4 ,he makes no such distinctions2 an illness is an illness whatever its nature4 ,as such ,cou attacks it1 and in #ih per cent4 of cases he attains in greater or less degree a positive result4 ,apart from the permanently insane1 in whose minds the machinery of autosuggestion is itself deranged1 there are only two classes of patient with whom ,induced ,autosuggestion seems to fail4 ,one consists of persons whose intelligence is so low that the directions given are never comprehended2 the other of those who lack the power of voluntary attention and cannot devote their minds to an idea even for a few consecutive seconds4 ,these two classes1 however1 are numerically insignificant1 together making up not much more than #b per cent4 of the population4 ,autosuggestion is equally valuable as an aid to surgical practice4 ,a broken bone--the sceptic's last resource--cannot of course be treated by autosuggestion alone4 ,a surgeon must be called in to mend it4 ,but when the limb has been rightly set and the necessary mechanical precautions have been taken1 autosuggestion will provide the best possible conditions for recovery4 ,it can prevent lameness1 stiffness1 unsightly deformity and the other evils which a broken limb is apt to entail1 and it will shorten considerably the normal period of convalescence4 ,it is sometimes stated that the results obtained by autosuggestion are not permanent4 ,this objection is really artificial1 arising from the fact that we ignore the true nature of autosuggestion and regard it merely as a remedy4 ,when we employ autosuggestion to heal a malady our aim is so to leaven the ,unconscious with healthful thoughts1 that not only will that specific malady be excluded1 but all others with it4 ,autosuggestion should not only remove a particular form of disease1 but the tendency to all disease4 ,if after an ailment has been removed we allow our mind to revert to unhealthy thoughts1 they will tend to realise themselves in the same way as any others1 and we may again fall a victim to ill-health4 ,our sickness may take the same form as on the preceding occasion1 or it may not4 ,that will depend on the nature of our thought4 ,but by the regular employment of the general formula we can prevent any such recurrence4 ,instead of reverting to unhealthy states of mind we shall progressively strengthen the healthy and creative thought that has already given us health1 so that with each succeeding day our defence will be more impenetrable4 ,not only do we thus avoid a relapse into former ailments but we clear out of our path those which lie in wait for us in the future4 ,we saw that in the ,nancy clinic some of the cures effected are almost instantaneous4 ,it would be a mistake1 however1 to embark on the practice of ,induced ,autosuggestion with the impression that we are going to be miraculously healed in the space of a few days4 ,granted sufficient faith1 such a result would undoubtedly ensue2 nay1 more1 we have records of quite a number of such cases1 even where the help of a second person has not been called in4 ,here is an example4 ,a friend of mine1 ,m4 ,albert ,p41 of ,bordeaux1 had suffered for more than ten years with neuralgia of the face4 ,hearing of ,cou1 he wrote to him1 and received instructions to repeat the general formula4 ,he did so1 and on the second day the neuralgia had vanished and has never since returned4 ,but such faith is not common4 ,immediate cures are the exception1 and it will be safer for us to look forward to a gradual and progressive improvement4 ,in this way we shall guard against disappointment4 ,it may be added that ,cou prefers the gradual cure1 finding it more stable and less likely to be disturbed by adverse conditions4 ,we should approach autosuggestion in the same reasonable manner as we approach any other scientific discovery4 ,there is no hocus-pocus about it1 nor are any statements made here which experience cannot verify4 ,but the attitude we should beware most of is that of the intellectual amateur1 who makes the vital things of life small coin to exchange with his neighbour of the dinner-table4 ,like religion1 autosuggestion is a thing to practise4 ,a man may be conversant with all the creeds in ,christendom and be none the better for it2 while some simple soul1 loving ,god and his fellows1 may combine the high principles of ,christianity in his life without any acquaintance with theology4 ,so it is with autosuggestion4 ,autosuggestion is just as effective in the treatment of moral delinquencies as in that of physical ills4 ,drunkenness1 kleptomania1 the drug habit1 uncontrolled or perverted sexual desires1 as well as minor failings of character1 are all susceptible to its action4 ,it is as powerful in small things as in great4 ,by particular suggestions we can modify our tastes4 ,we can acquire a relish for the dishes we naturally dislike1 and make disagreeable medicine taste pleasant4 ,so encouraging has been its application to the field of morals that ,cou is trying to gain admittance to the ,french state reformatories4 ,so far1 the official dislike for innovations has proved a barrier1 but there is good reason to hope that in the near future the application of this method to the treatment of the criminal will be greatly extended4 ,by way of anticipating an objection it may be stated that the ,cou method of ,induced ,autosuggestion is in no sense inferior to hypnotic suggestion4 ,cou himself began his career as a hypnotist1 but being dissatisfied with the results1 set out in quest of a method more simple and universal4 ,conscious autosuggestion1 apart from its convenience1 can boast one great advantage over its rival4 ,the effects of hypnotic suggestion are often lost within a few hours of the treatment4 ,whereas by the use of the general formula the results of ,induced ,autosuggestion go on progressively augmenting4 ,here we touch again the question of the suggester4 ,we have already seen that a suggester is not needed1 that autosuggestion can yield its fullest fruits to those who practise it unaided4 ,but some persons cannot be prevailed on to accept this fact4 ,they feel a sense of insufficiency2 the mass of old wrong suggestions has risen so mountain-high that they imagine themselves incapable of removing it4 ,with such the presence of a suggester is an undoubted help4 ,they have nothing to do but lie passive and receive the ideas he evokes4 ,even so1 however1 they will get little good unless they consent to repeat the general formula4 ,but as long as we look on autosuggestion as a remedy we miss its true significance4 ,primarily it is a means of self-culture1 and one far more potent than any we have hitherto possessed4 ,it enables us to develop the mental qualities we lack3 efficiency1 judgment1 creative imagination1 all that will help us to bring our life's enterprise to a successful end4 ,most of us are aware of thwarted abilities1 powers undeveloped1 impulses checked in their growth4 ,these are present in our ,unconscious like trees in a forest1 which1 overshadowed by their neighbours1 are stunted for lack of air and sunshine4 ,by means of autosuggestion we can supply them with the power needed for growth and bring them to fruition in our conscious lives4 ,however old1 however infirm1 however selfish1 weak or vicious we may be1 autosuggestion will do something for us4 ,it gives us a new means of culture and discipline by which the accents immature1 the purposes unsure can be nursed into strength1 and the evil impulses attacked at the root4 ,it is essentially an individual practice1 an individual attitude of mind4 ,only a narrow view would split it up into categories1 debating its application to this thing or to that4 ,it touches our being in its wholeness4 ,below the fussy perturbed little ego1 with its local habitation1 its name1 its habits and views and oddities is an ocean of power1 as serene as the depths below the troubled surface of the sea4 ,whatever is of you comes eventually thence1 however perverted by the prism of self-consciousness4 ,autosuggestion is a channel by which the tranquil powers of this ultimate being are raised to the level of our life here and now4 ,what prospects does autosuggestion open to us in the future8 ,it teaches us that the burdens of life are1 at least in large measure1 of our own creating4 ,we reproduce in ourselves and in our circumstances the thoughts of our minds4 ,it goes further4 ,it offers us a means by which we can change these thoughts when they are evil and foster them when they are good1 so producing a corresponding betterment in our individual life4 ,but the process does not end with the individual4 ,the thoughts of society are realised in social conditions1 the thoughts of humanity in world conditions4 ,what would be the attitude towards our social and international problems of a generation nurtured from infancy in the knowledge and practice of autosuggestion8 ,if fear and disease were banned from the individual life1 could they persist in the life of the nation8 ,if each person found happiness in his own heart would the illusory greed for possession survive8 ,the acceptance of autosuggestion entails a change of attitude1 a revaluation of life4 ,if we stand with our faces westward we see nothing but clouds and darkness1 yet by a simple turn of the head we bring the wide panorama of the sunrise into view4 ,that ,cou's discoveries may profoundly affect our educational methods is beyond question4 ,hitherto we have been dealing directly only with the conscious mind1 feeding it with information1 grafting on to it useful accomplishments4 ,what has been done for the development of character has been incidental and secondary4 ,this was inevitable so long as the ,unconscious remained undiscovered1 but now we have the means of reaching profounder depths1 of endowing the child not only with reading and arithmetic1 but with health1 character and personality4 ,but perhaps it is in our treatment of the criminal that the greatest revolution may be expected4 ,the acts for which he is immured result from nothing more than twists and tangles of the threads of thought in the ,unconscious mind4 ,this is the view of eminent authorities4 ,but autosuggestion takes us a long step further4 ,it shows how these discords of character may be resolved4 ,since ,cou has succeeded in restoring to moral health a youth of homicidal tendencies1 why should not the same method succeed with many of the outcasts who fill our prisons8 ,at least the younger delinquents should prove susceptible4 ,but the idea underlying this attitude entails a revolution in our penal procedure4 ,it means little less than this3 that crime is a disease and should be treated as such2 that the idea of punishment must give place to that of cure2 the vindictive attitude to one of pity4 ,this brings us near to the ideals of the ,new ,testament1 and indeed1 autosuggestion1 as a force making for goodness1 is bound to touch closely on religion4 ,it teaches the doctrine of the inner life which saints and sages have proclaimed through all ages4 ,it asserts that within are the sources of calm1 of power and of courage1 and that the man who has once attained mastery of this inner sphere is secure in the face of all that may befall him4 ,this truth is apparent in the lives of great men4 ,martyrs could sing at the stake because their eyes were turned within on the vision of glory which filled their hearts4 ,great achievements have been wrought by men who had the fortitude to follow the directions of an inner voice1 even in contradiction to the massed voices they heard without4 ,suppose we find that the power ,christ gave to his disciples to work miracles of healing was not a gift conferred on a few selected individuals1 but was the heritage of all men2 that the kingdom of heaven within us to which ,he alluded was available in a simple way for the purging and elevation of our common life1 for procuring sounder health and sweeter minds4 ,is not the affirmation contained in ,cou's formula a kind of prayer8 ,does it not appeal to something beyond the self-life1 to the infinite power lying behind us8 ,autosuggestion is no substitute for religion2 it is rather a new weapon added to the religious armoury4 ,if as a mere scientific technique it can yield such results1 what might it not do as the expression of those high yearnings for perfection which religion incorporates8