Proem
A Lesson in Soul Culture
So shall some Thought of mine yet encircle earth,
And puff away thy crumbling altars, Jove.
—Lowell
Logic and Sermons never convince,
The damp of night drives deeper into my Soul.
—Walt Whitman
A man for success must have ideas, must obey ideas, or he might as well be the horse he rides on. Of no use are the men who study to do exactly as was done before, who never understand that today is a new day.
—Emerson
To the two young disciples of soul culture who made “NOW” FOLK possible.
YOU!
Were you to learn that in a certain vault was untold treasure, and that, could you find the KEY, it would be yours, what would you do?
Did you know that beneath your acres lie valuable mines of precious ore and only a certain form of dynamite would rift the hills and expose it, what would you do?
Did some expert convince you that wells of oil lie under your field and only a certain drill would bore to it, what would you do?
Did you ascertain that a certain book held all the information to make you wise in your dealings with men; that it would make each waking hour happy and each sleeping one peaceful, and that only by a great sacrifice could you obtain it, what would you do?
You would sacrifice all you at present possessed, for you would know that, possessing these, millions more would be yours. You possess now all these treasures. You are able to pay for their revelation. Will you?
I.
I possess the Power that will bring the realization of your possession. It is the only Power that can give this to you. All that gold is yours. I have the KEY. All those mines are yours. I have the POWDER. All those wells are yours. I have the DRILL. All that information is yours. I have the BOOK. It is yours by birthright. You did not know it. It lies deep WITHIN. Knowledge is POWER. It unlocks the treasure. That Knowledge so long sought is found. Its name is WISDOM. That KEY, that POWDER, that DRILL, that BOOK, is SUGGESTION.
Introduction
Phenomena, under the name “Hypnotism,” draw increased and deserved attention. For nearly one hundred and fifty years it has been known and, under various names, produced for amusement, mystifying, study, or physical benefit. It has been best known as “Mesmerism” and “Animal Magnetism.” It now has a literature of its own and occupies much attention in the secular press. Its friends are in every walk of life. Schools and mail courses of study are plentiful. It is destined to be a most powerful factor in the therapeutic, educational and reformatory growth of the new century. That these phenomena exist is now no longer doubted. Their importance is admitted by all who give the subject even a casual study.
The author believes that the principle involved in this phenomena is the most important man has yet discovered, that it is destined to produce greater changes in man and his environments than any previous discovery. Believing this, he is devoting his energies in assisting the development of a proper understanding of this Principle in popular mind. He believes it to be the one Thought needed to bring in the age foretold by prophet and priest.
His intention is to explain these phenomena, to show their harmony with all other perceptions of Truth, to make from them a basis, through philosophy for the soon-to-be, “Science of Life” and an “Art of Living.” Knowledge that is easily obtained from this so long neglected field of research, will enable any person to attain this Art. The Law that underlies these phenomena is more practical than the multiplication table.
But the author wishes to say, first of all, that he uses the word “Hypnotism” under a protest. The name is a misnomer. It comes from “hypnosis,” meaning sleep. Sleep is not necessary to the phenomena nor to receive benefits from the use. In but few experiments is sleep necessary. Besides, the word carries with it the misconceptions of a false theory. There is no such thing as “hypnotic power” or “hypnotic phenomena.” The phenomena occur, but they are not hypnotic. They are not the effect of a power that the operator possesses, but are the effect of the subject’s own mind. All the phenomena produced by an “hypnotic” subject are as honest as those produced by him in school, home or workshop and are as natural and normal as those are really identical in origin. The phenomena exist as a part of the daily life of all persons. In a subject, they are artificially reproduced and exaggerated.
The only power the operator has is that which teacher, merchant, preacher, mother or friend possesses over others. It is what, in ordinary speech, is termed “Influence.” The only difference between the “Hypnotic Professor” and men in other walks of life is that he understands and uses consciously the same power that other men in other phases of life use unconsciously and instinctively. These phenomena contain more knowledge within them for the upbuilding of manhood and the reformation of society than can be obtained from all phenomena with which physical science deals.
It is the object of this book to remove all mystery from Hypnotism, to cause these phenomena to be considered as natural and as normal as the functions of every day labor and, by so doing, to prepare mental conditions for a clear understanding of the Principle of Suggestion, in accord with which all phenomena of life occur, and to prepare the way for its application in daily life. It is the thought, born in ignorance of Cause, that gives birth to the belief that hypnotic phenomena are caused by one person’s having the will of another in thrall. No person can thus enslave another. No person ever did so enslave. These phenomena are the work of the individuals who manifest them.
As I write this introduction, there comes to my exchange table a valued journal showing that its otherwise very intelligent editor has still this misconception. He says: “We are individuals and refuse to surrender the control of ourselves or our mentality to anyone.” When one shall understand what Suggestion is, he will see that, instead of a surrender of individuality, it is a development of individuality. It places him in full control of himself. Suggestion is the road to self-control. It is only putting into practice the law which it is man’s province to bend to his Will, the law of Concentration.
To learn our powers and how to use them, is the province of education. There is no other way equal to a knowledge of Suggestion. The end of this knowledge is self-control and self-control is the acme of character. Those who oppose hypnotism do so only through a misunderstanding of the law of Suggestion. “If one can thus destroy another’s will,” it is said, “then he can influence to evil and crime.” This I deny and deal with it at some length in this book.
I write from over thirty years’ experience as teacher, lecturer, subject and operator, and, therefore, as an expert, I declare that man has found no law of so much importance to his well-being as that explained in this book.
—Henry Harrison Brown
San Francisco, Cal., January, 1902.
I Hold the Key
I hold the KEY
To Health, Success, and Happiness.
Study me and find it.
Meditation will reveal it.
Apply it in Living,
Then all THINGS desired are thine.
Not Hypnotism, But Suggestion
The Key to Wisdom, the Inlet to Power, And the road to Success, are all found In the Principle of Suggestion.
Truth and Unity
Truth is a fixed quantity. Man perceives but does not create Truth. Truth and the Universe are Co-extensive.
It is not Truth and error; it is only more or less Truth. The Universe is One. This Universe is divided, by my Consciousness, into myself and that which is not myself. This division is purely a mental one; I make it when I say, “I AM”; this means there is a manifestation of the Universe which I am not. That which I am not is named variously: God, Energy, Force, Nature, etc. Names cannot change IT. They are names, and names are symbols only for that which is. I am in the Universe, not a portion of it, but I am a manifestation of IT. Thus my recognition of Self divides the Universe, to my consciousness, into what I call “I,” which is the Within, and what I call “Not I,” which is the Without. This is the simplest of all philosophy. It is as simple as Cause and Effect.
“I” and “Not I.”
Between the “I” and that which is not “Not I,” lies that which makes a dividing line in the Universe, between the Absolute and the Individual, which I call “I,” namely Sensation. Consciousness abides in the power to sense that which is the Me, and distinguish it from the Non-Me. Sensation is differentiated into five special senses. By means of these senses, I know that I am not that which I sense. I am the “I” which senses. Because I sense, that is because I feel, I think. I am something that feels and thinks. What is this “I”? It is not that which is felt and is thought about. We name it Ego, Soul, Spirit, Self. This is simply naming the “I AM.” It names but does not explain. Now that “I AM,” because I feel and think, the questions rise: Can I feel what I choose to feel? Can I think what I choose to think? It is with these questions that this book deals. If I can thus choose, I am a free man. If I cannot, I am a slave.
Power of Choice
Can I control the Non-Me so that it will make me feel and think as I choose? This is the most important question man has ever considered. Is he an instrument in the hands of the Non-Me, or is he an independent individuality in a Universe where he can use, at will, the forces of that Universe? Heretofore the answer has been, “No!” But the twentieth century opens with the answer, “Yes.”
Sensation
How? To teach “how,” is the object of this book.* Briefly the answer is this: The phenomena called Hypnotic, but which are the daily phenomena of Suggestion, when once their significance is known, contain this needed knowledge. To understand this significance, we must look, through the demonstrations of science, into the phenomena of sensation. Sensation is recognition by the Ego of that which is without itself. Sensation arises from contact of the Within and the Without. What contacts? To science, all is motion. The Ego is a form of motion.
*NOTE: This “How” is still further elucidated in my pamphlet “How to Control Fate through Suggestion.”
The Without is a form of motion. All contact is through radiation from centers. These radiations are called, when passing through space, Vibrations. All contact is that of some vibration upon the Ego. The body does not feel; it is only the channel through which vibrations impinge upon the Ego. A body which the Ego has left does not feel. Dead bodies have no sensation. Vibrations differ in speed. Pitch is the better word. Vibrations of different pitch produce different sensations. We call one sensation taste, one odor, one sound, one light, but these are only differentiations of the one sense of touch.
Emotion
The beginning of consciousness lies in Feeling. By it we are kept in touch with Unity, of which we are simply a manifestation. Unity is indivisible. Thus I, the Ego, am a necessity to Unity, for without an Ego there would be neither sensation nor thought. Individuality is manifest in Unity, through Thought, born of Feeling. Whatever I sense, be it pleasure or pain, joy or sorrow, beauty or goodness, music or love, is produced in me as a response of the Ego to some vibration. This response we call an emotion. “E” means out; thus we have an out-motion to meet the “in”-motion; an involution and an evolution. When the Ego does not respond to the Vibration, as in very young children; in the blind, and in the deaf; there is in these neither light nor sound. But the vibrations from without, which would cause these sensations, were they received, still exist. Thus does the individual make his own world. The blind lives in a world of darkness, and the deaf in a soundless one.
Key to Wisdom
Can the individual who sees and hears refuse to see and hear? This is a question of more import than wireless telegraphy or aerial navigation. When one does so choose, or so refuse, he will see and hear only the pleasant. Happiness is ever his who shall achieve this power of conscious choice. To know how to choose and how to live in the world of chosen sensation, is the knowledge above all other knowledge. To possess it is to have the Key to Wisdom. This it is to be Self-Controlled, to be the Master of Fate. This is to create each day the conditions we wish. That it can be done, thousands today, in their self-created conditions of health and prosperity, testify. Conditions may be as consciously determined and wrought out as are the statues and paintings in the galleries. This knowledge comes as all other comes from Mother Nature herself; from observing the phenomena of daily life.
Responsibility of Choice
Each person now, in ignorance of his power and of the laws of mind (and foremost among them is the Law of Suggestion), creates his body and his surroundings without being conscious of so doing, from his choice. Each day’s conditions are the result of choices made without knowledge of results. These are common expressions: “If I had known more last year;” “Had I chosen differently;” “Had I forgiven;” “Had I bought or sold, how different my life would be.” And one is condemned for his intemperance, his crime, his poverty, or his ignorance, “because he could do better,” thus implying a belief, at least in a limited power of choice, and a limited responsibility for the conditions of life. Every one realizes that his life would be very different today had he made a different decision on certain matters a year ago. Thus do we shape destiny according to our intelligence. This proves the point I wish to emphasize: each one, whether he is conscious of it or not, creates his own conditions of life. Seeing this clearly in a few cases, we are compelled to say that it is the same in cases where we cannot understand the law. The cause of conditions is located within. Each person has this power of choice. When he knows how to choose, and will so choose, he need not be unhappy, sick, or poor.
Where Lies Choice
We have now only to apply the wisdom the facts of daily life teach us. All choice comes from the one Law of Suggestion. Where lies choice? Not in sensation, the primal recognition of the Ego, of Self and of that which is not Self; it lies in sensation when, by that portion of the nervous system which the Ego created for that purpose, it is transformed into thought. It is in Thought that men differ. All feel alike. Sensation is one. The vibrations that make light in one cannot make sound in another. The sound once made, each person thinks his own thought, born of it. The car whistle causes the engineer and the traveler, the boy and the farmer, to think differently. In the wife of the engineer it may awaken emotions of fear; in that of the passenger, emotions of joy. Yet the sensation, caused by vibration on the ear, is one in all. But over sensations presides the individual Ego, and it decides how sensations shall affect him. He is king in his domain, the world of Thought. “The kingdom of God is within YOU!” said Jesus. Thus is Thought the creator of that real world in which the Ego lives. Thought-created are all the conditions of life.
Unlikeness
Universal Energy is One. It manifests as Life. It is One in all men. Life manifests first as Sensation which is the same in all. But sensation is transmuted into thought, where all are unlike; they become individuals. The Indian, the Californian, the Mexican and the Chinaman have all had the same sun, soil, wind and water in California. How different the thought each has used. How different the conditions of the four. Where lies the creative power?
Results of Thinking
“Whatsoever a man thinketh in his heart, so is he,” says an ancient book. So the Dhammapada, said to be the word of Buddha, says: “Whatsoever a man thinks, the result follows him like a shadow.” Thinking determines the effect of natural conditions upon the man. Thinking determines how vibrations from the Without shall affect the Ego. Therefore, no matter what the sensation, man has the power to say of it: “It is good thus to feel.”
Fate Can Be Controlled
“All is Good!” This Affirmation will change pain to pleasure; grief to joy; despair to peace. When feeling badly, dear reader, did you ever have some friend or some unexpected good come to you and thus change your thought and send all bad conditions from you? Once from your mind, they went from your body. Did you ever have a pain and have it leave when your attention was turned to something else? A common case is the departure of a toothache when the dentist’s tools are seen. This is the principle of hypnotism and all there is in the schools of Mental Healing. By Suggestion, one is caused to think of something else and, when pain is forgotten, it does not exist. The strongest Suggestion for the time rules the individual. Can we think pain, can we think health, whenever we choose? Yes.
Each person has power, when he knows himself, to say what he shall feel and think. Otherwise, he is a leaf in an infinite stream called “Fate;” a machine wrought upon by some outside power. Within a certain limit, this power of choice and control is admitted. We now remove all limitations, realizing that they are self-imposed. Limitations are the direct results of ignorance. Man has the power of Self-Control. All one needs is to learn to use this power in the same way he has learned to us other forms of power, viz: by experience.
That one may realize this power, it is necessary for him intelligently and consciously to apply the Law of Suggestion. He ignorantly and instinctively applies it all the time. He should use it intelligently and manifest the same self-control the platform subject does when he sleeps at the word of the operator.
A Definition
What is Suggestion? And what is A Suggestion?
SUGGESTION IS THAT WHICH CAUSES A SENSATION OR A THOUGHT. A SUGGESTION IS ANYTHING USED WITH AN UNDERSTANDING OF ITS POWER TO PRODUCE A CERTAIN MENTAL RESULT WHEN ACCEPTED BY ANOTHER PERSON.
Suggestion is the objective side of life. The subjective is Affirmation. An Affirmation is a statement of Truth. Each person is controlled by his convictions of Truth. He cannot get away from these convictions. On arising in the morning, he sees a fog. He looks at the thermometer and sees it 20 above zero. These are Suggestions and he says: “It is cold.” This decision is an Affirmation born of the Suggestion. The Suggestion produced a feeling which was transmuted in the brain to the Affirmation of Truth, “It is cold.” But the rugged schoolboy in New England would say as he saw the thermometer, “Oh, a jolly morning!” and off he would go for a December skate. Each makes his own world. The same Suggestion awakens different thoughts in each; different emotions in each.
Suggestion being anything from without coming to the consciousness, it follows that, when a person acquires power over himself so that he ignores unpleasant Suggestions and receives only those he wishes, he has acquired the power of making his life what he chooses it to be. He then rules the “Kingdom” within. Like a king, he receives from without only that which he chooses and that which comes with the credentials of pleasure and health.
Possession
Subjectively, as a manifestation of Unity, man is potential power in every direction. In the objective life he is unfolding that which he is in the subjective. Being all potential power, why should he not affirm that power? Why limit the manifestation of the subjective “I AM” to the little power he has heretofore manifested? There is no reason, except habit. Let him say henceforth:
“I possess, and, since, by thinking I have power to direct the manifestations of the subjective life I am, I affirm that I am power to do that which I desire to do!” He who will so affirm, will do.
Power of Thought
This Affirmation is Suggestion transmuted into Auto-Suggestion. This is the power by which the conscious man through desire and reason, controls the manifestations of his life, when he wills. Thought is power. It is the power, the only power, the Individual uses to direct the Absolute power in which he lives and moves as an Ego, an individualized being.*
*The reader is referred to the author’s work, “Man’s Greatest Discovery,” 25c, for a discussion of this fact.
In Self-Suggestion, Auto-Suggestion or Affirmation (for they are all one), lies the Diamond Drill, the Powder, the Key, and the Book promised in the “Proem.”
Self Assertion
Through the use of Affirmation, life can be made to one’s desires, because all conditions, whether of good or ill, come from Affirmation. It is the only power any person possesses. It is the power the hypnotist uses. Self-assertion is the key to character Affirmation, to lift one from conditions not desirable must rest upon that arch of character whose key is Self-assertion. Without that mental characteristic, there can be no success in any direction. Therefore this Affirmation includes all others—”I AM!” Affirmations that follow this, that mean the victory of Self over Fate are, “I Can” and “I Do!” The Will that uses these is a cultivated and concentrated one. Will that is scattered over several Affirmations at the same time means constant failure.
The “Open Sesame.”
We have now reached the word of power, have found the “Sesame” to the hidden treasure of the Soul. It is the word, CONCENTRATION; one thought at a time. Pay attention to what you are thinking.
Yes! This is the recognized key to success. But it is also the key to the failures in health, business and happiness. Worry, anxiety, fear, grief, doubt, are all evidences of concentration. The question turns on the kind of thoughts for concentration. Concentration upon the wrong thoughts produces all the evil. Evil is the evidence of an uncontrolled mind. The business man in business concentration has awakened genii that make him a slave. Such concentration is not the key to Peace and Victory. Concentration is the “Open Sesame,” but the treasure is not his until he learns not only to open but also to close the cave, not only to release the genii, but to imprison them at will. The opposite of Concentration is as important as concentration. This is the “Letting Go,” the Giving up, the Relaxing, the Changing, at will, the thought upon which one has concentrated. This is the secret of success. This is the power the hypnotic subject possesses. The subject has learned that, which when learned and practiced by any one, will relieve him of worry, fear, pain and disease, and will open to him, while in the flesh, the door to Paradise.
All the possibility of this lies in those phenomena which have been used, heretofore, generally to amuse or at best by physician to relieve pain. The application of the Law of Suggestion is as limitless as human experience.
Philosopher’s Stone
Voluntary Concentration upon a chosen thought is the long sought “Philosopher’s Stone.” He who has acquired it, is Master. It is the secret of the power of hypnotic subject, of “Christian Scientist,” and “Hindu Fakir;” it underlies all occult phenomena of every name and is the secret of the success of men in every rank and walk of life. Is it worth attaining? Is it worth the time and effort? Can you afford to learn it? These are not questions for a wise man to consider. Can you afford not to have it? Remember, all possible power lies within the Ego, awaiting expression. The only safe ways of manifestation are those directed by Self. The more faith in Self, the more power. They who have influenced the world have been those who had faith in themselves. Self-Assertion led to CONCENTRATION. The Affirmation of success has ever been, “I CAN!”
Here is the quatrain worth memorizing for the Philosophy of Life it contains. It is from Mrs. Helen Wilmans:
“He who dares assert the I,
May calmly wait,
While hurrying Fate,
Meets his demand with sure Supply.”
Outside Emerson’s essay on “Self Reliance,” no better words than these have been uttered. To that essay I recommend the reader as we turn to another phase of the subject.
Prof. Gates’ Evidence
“But what has this to do with Hypnotism?” will again be asked. Everything. The phenomena under that name demonstrate the truth of all this philosophy. My words are as true, based upon these phenomena, as are those in the works of physics in our schools. Like the physical scientist, I go to nature for my facts. Telepathy has as clearly demonstrated Thought to be Force, as have the experiments in the laboratory demonstrated electricity to be a mode of motion. Prof. Elmer Gates has demonstrated by chemistry that thoughts of envy, jealousy, hate, anger and all others we call evil, produce a poison in the system which ultimately causes disease. Thought controls bodily conditions. This again demonstrates the efficacy of Mental Healing. Study the stage performance. Learn how to do it and then repeat it in your parlor, go farther and experiment upon yourself. Remove sensation from your body. Pierce your arm with a needle without pain. Watch the patient in the hospital as he submits to a surgical operation with only Suggestion as an anesthetic and thus learn the meaning of Suggestion in daily life. If the boy on the stage, the patient in the hospital, can at a word concentrate upon the thought of painlessness, what is impossible through intelligent use of concentration in daily life? The boy on the stage throws away the cold coin, saying, “Hot.” Later you can see the blister upon his hand. Disease is created in the same way by thinking of it. Have not these phenomena a meaning for each person? Have they for you? What is the power that produces such marvelous results? Merely the thought, the Affirmation, of the person: “It does not pain me;” “I do not feel it;” “It is hot;” “It burns me.”
Primal Manifestation
Thoughts are equal in power. They are all from one source. The difference lies in the individual’s power of concentration. All power comes from the subconscious. Whether it shall be directed upon one thought or diffused over many, is for each individual to determine, and that determination controls the conditions of this life.
Remember, Suggestion is, WHATEVER CAUSES AN EMOTION OR A THOUGHT; it will then be seen that it is an ever-present factor in life. No intellect is possible where Suggestion is not. No conscious manifestation of mind until Suggestion calls its latent faculties into expression. The primal manifestation of consciousness is a recognition of Suggestion. Affirmation is a primal manifestation of self-consciousness. This is why Affirmations, or, what is the same thing, convictions of truth, govern life. Truth is the Affirmation of existence as interpreted by the individual who affirms. Each individual is therefore subject to Suggestions from without, until he shall learn, by experience, his power of choice. The power of choice can be developed only through doing, and this doing we call experience. Each one has the power of Affirmation; and in the power of choosing Affirmations, lies the power of creating Destiny as desired. Destiny ceases where choice begins. Desire, through choice, becomes master of life.
Objective Life
All things center in the simple fact of sensation I FEEL and its corollary, BECAUSE I FEEL, I THINK. Now affirm, would you be master, “I have learned what to think that I may feel what I choose, and I have learned not to feel or think that which I do not wish to feel or think.” In this development is seen the necessity of the objective life. It awakens the Ego into a consciousness of itself. Without the objective, no manifestation of life; there would be only the possibility of life. Thus are the subjective and the objective one. They cannot be separated. And without argument, it is here affirmed that they are one forever.
It has already been asserted that each person has the power of choosing and of ignoring Suggestions. One can at will determine his life. At will is used understandingly. These two words are mighty. When this statement is seen to be truth, it will also be seen that this is the most important fact mankind has yet found. Its significance cannot be measured for a century. This is the statement:
WHEN MAN KNOWS HIS POWER, HE WILL NEVER MORE BE THE SLAVE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. HE WILL MOULD CIRCUMSTANCES TO HIS WILL.
Demonstration
This is demonstrated by the simple phenomenon of the hypnotist’s suggestion to his subjects, “You cannot open your hand.” The hand remains fast because the Suggestion, taken as truth, becomes in him an Affirmation. He says: “I cannot open my hand.” His saying so makes it impossible for him to open the hand until he shall say: “I can.” This demonstrates the power of concentration. The subject concentrates his mind upon the thought, “I can’t open my hand.” Since Thought is power, Thought holds his hand fast. He simply concentrates upon the thought and lets Thought, as a vibration from the Infinite One, have its way with his hand. It is a scientific demonstration of the Affirmation, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” It also demonstrates something else equally as important, that which makes the Principles underlying the fact practical: A MAN CAN THINK WHATEVER HE WISHES, AND CAN MAKE THAT THOUGHT A REALITY IN THE OBJECTIVE LIFE.
Source of Power
This is the key to human destiny. This is the most important fact man has ever discovered. It means the evolution of all that now is into something beyond the dream of poet or the vision of seer. Each man can affirm and be that which he wishes to be. All he has to do is to follow the lead of the hypnotic subject and choose, at will, the view of Truth that is to him most desirous, and then hold the chosen view in concentrated attention as the subject does i.e., he is to let the Suggestion control him. The power of Thought is limitless.
All Power Comes From the Subconscious
This subconscious is the Human Soul, the Ego. It does nothing that is not willed by the Conscious mind. The Subconscious is to the Conscious man the only fountain of power, intelligence, and love. The conscious man controls the expression of this fountain by his Will. To learn how to Will is the most important thing in education. When one has so trained his Will that it will seize upon a chosen thought with the same tenacity that it seizes in ordinary men upon a thought born of chance Suggestion, and will hold that chosen thought as long and as persistently as does he whose body fails under the unwelcome strain of worry, anxiety, fear, sorrow, remorse, and kindred conditions, then is that individual Self-Centered, Self-Poised, Self-Controlled. He will then hold closely thoughts of pleasure, success and health as realities; be the master of conditions. This is the condition temporarily of the hypnotic subject. It can be the permanent condition in life, and will be his who chooses determinedly what Affirmation to make and what sensations shall be born of the Suggestions that come to him from the objective life. The hypnotic subject has this power; he can accept or reject Suggestions. When the operator says “hot!’ he can laugh or can say “cold;” and what he says is so to him. He has then, and ever has, his choice. He chooses to accept the Suggestion of operator as Truth, and so choosing, he affirms that this dollar is hot and the thought produces the sensation of burning, and will, if persisted in, raise a blister.
The Law of Life
This is the real, constant condition of every man. He accepts the Suggestions of the weather, business, social life, of economic, political, bodily and financial conditions and says “Yes” to them and affirms that he is cold or hot, prosperous or unlucky, well or ill, happy or miserable, lonesome or contented, that times are good or hard, and they are as he affirms. Life is to him only a list of Affirmations born in the Suggestions of the external world or from experiences which, by Affirmation, become again objective realities. These conditions are produced in him just as they are produced in the hypnotic subject. The Law is one, just as the flash of the electric spark in the laboratory is one with the lightning’s flash. But there is this difference. The flash in the laboratory is under control of an intelligent Will and does a predetermined work. That in the bolt from the cloud has no conscious Will to guide it but follows the law of the Absolute, and it may destroy. So with Thought in the ordinary affairs of life. It works its way without being understood and directed; it tears down as well as builds up. When one shall learn to choose and to direct, as the subject on the platform has learned to do, then all Thought will be chosen to build up and to make happy.
Suggestion itself is merely a blind vibration. Feeling is a blind, unintelligent response; but Affirmation is the act of a soul, is the choice of an individual. To the extent that one exercises consciously this power of choice in his Affirmations, does he develop the one feature that distinguishes him from the brute and which makes him man and that is the power of Self-control.
Self Protection
That the subject has done this for one hour; that one man has; proves it possible to every one. As the subject can, by his Will, make his body insensible to the prick of a pin, so may every person become insensible to pain. As one person can master, through necessity, a condition of weakness by an Affirmation, as in case of a mother when sick but recovering when her child is injured, so may all become immune to disease by refusing to receive a Suggestion that will result in disease.
One’s body is his castle. No vibration can enter it unless it comes by neglect on his part or by an invitation. Vibrations affect only body; they have no power over the Soul. Nothing touches the Soul that is willed out by the conscious man. When anything is felt, he should refuse to think of it and should call the Will into activity and hold a pleasant thought instead. Then has the vibration done its work of creating happiness. Allow it to awaken a thought of pain, and allow the Will to hold that thought of pain and disease results.
The Unity of Power
To attain this condition of power, study the conditions necessary for the subject to receive his Suggestions and cultivate them in yourself until you can suggest and affirm that which you desire. All vibrations are merely vibrations until, through sensation, they are converted into Thought, just as vibrations of light that do not reach the eye are only vibrations. As we can close the eye to light vibrations, so we can close sensation to those which produce pain or sorrow; then they are not. Thus is life made one continual round of peace. Study these phenomena labeled “Hypnotic” just as the phenomena of lightning have been studied, and the results will be, to him who studies and demonstrates, similar to those that have followed the wake of “Spiritualism,” “Christian,” “Divine,” and “Mental” Science and the various schools of magnetic healing and metaphysics. All these are demonstrating some of the infinite possibilities, that lie in Suggestion and its counterpart, Affirmation.
Not Operator’s Will
Whatever may have been the past opinion, or whatever be that of many now to the contrary, it is not the Will of the operator that produces the phenomena of hypnotism. It is the concentrated Will of the subject. This fact is one that will, when its significance is understood, revolutionize all thinking and living and lift this study, now ignored by the cultured, into the first place in the Philosophy and the Art of Living.
The only Principle concerned in the phenomena is the constant one of Concentration; fixing the WILL upon an Affirmation that is the result of a chosen Suggestion. Three words form the Shibboleth of the New Thought (which means the New Civilization), viz: SUGGESTION, AFFIRMATION, and CONCENTRATION. Understanding these, forms the true Science of Mind’, properly using them, constitutes the Art of Living. Power of The study of Suggestion removes from Will. the mind all fear of evil results from the control of one mind over another, for such control is impossible. The Will can be used only by the individual upon himself. This is an important fact in this study. The person of the cultivated Will, the person of Concentration, always has the advantage of the one of diffused Will.
Leaders, commanders, bosses, masters, operators in Suggestion, all owe their position to the fact that they use their Will upon themselves and give the Suggestions that will produce, when accepted by those of less concentration, the desired mental conditions. It is not a question of “can” or “cannot” in the battle of life; it is the “will” and “will not.” The healthful and successful WILL health and success. The others do not use what they possess in like proportion. All have equal power to do. It is the difference between doing and not doing. The subject has learned to choose and to will himself into acceptance of the Suggestion for the time being, knowing that he can, at any time, will himself not to accept it. Having accepted it, it rules him. He has learned to lay it aside at will.
Untrained Will
But accepted Suggestions in the businessman become worry. Why? Because he is in the condition of every person who does not develop latent power. He has never brought his Will into obedience to his thought. When once his Will has fastened to an Affirmation, it does not readily let go and take another because he has, by neglect, taught it to cling until, by some external Suggestion, he is compelled to change his Affirmation. I trust that this is so clearly seen that no reader of this book will hereafter claim that one person acts under the will of another, but that each reader will affirm that every person acts that which he wills to act. He has willed either to neglect training his Will or has willed to cultivate it. The man who is, under the circumstances, obliged to obey the mandate of another is no more under the Will of that other than is the boy who does not wish to learn to skate under the Will of him who, by physical power, forces him to put on the skates; he learns obedience under fear; he wills obedience through choice of one of two unpleasant conditions.
Hypnotism Innocuous
This fact understood, away goes the fear of hypnotism and all belief that one person can hypnotize another to commit crime. This is a groundless fear, a fear that arises in ignorance. The editor of the Suggester and Thinker in an editorial in his magazine, says of this belief in the evil of hypnotism: “It originated in fancy alone and belongs to the age of superstition, darkness and witchcraft and cannot exist today upon any legitimate grounds.”
Every Suggestion that is repugnant to a person is by him rejected. This principle of Self-Protection is the most deep-seated of any in our lives. Ever alert to protect against danger are all the instincts of man. In this Art of Suggestion the reason is never appealed to. Should one attempt to reason with the subject to induce him to accept a Suggestion, every condition of acceptance would be destroyed. Perfect tranquility of mind is the necessity of hypnosis. This tranquility can be obtained only through consent of the subject. Consequently, whenever a Suggestion given antagonizes the Will or Conscience of the subject, he passes out of the condition of the subject, and is under the control of some Auto-Suggestion. It is utterly impossible for one person to suggest to another the commission of an act which he would not do without the Suggestion. This fact is well known to every practitioner in Suggestion and to all careful investigators. Each person controls his own life at all times. He does nothing that he does not will to do. The only way one can be brought to do that which he has willed against is not by using hypnosis, but by using Suggestion in persuasion, argument or command. Either of these is powerless in hypnosis.
Safety of Hypnosis
In hypnosis, the frontal brain of the subject is, to a greater or less degree, inactive, and that portion of the brain, the cerebellum most closely connected with the Ego, is most active. When conversing with a person in hypnosis, that is, with a somnambular, it is with the Ego, through the sympathetic nervous system, that all our conversation is carried on. One converses thus with the spirit of the man. He talks to the seat of moral consciousness. Conscience is supreme. Any Suggestion given to the Ego that runs counter to conscience is immediately repelled.
An antagonistic Suggestion insisted upon will awaken the subject. A person in hypnosis is in the state most safe from evil Suggestions, for here all the external glamour is removed and only the enormity of such a Suggestion is present to the soul. Here lie the great possibilities of this Art in the redemption of man. From this source come the cures in all the fields of healing. The Soul is stimulated on the way it desires to go. The operator, the teacher and the healer are helping the evolution of the Ego by opening to it the possibilities of the objective life. Illustrations of this fact frequently occur in my classes. I had a fine subject and, causing him to see a lizard, told him to take it up. He would not. I insisted. This caused him to awaken with a start. Another fine fellow was asleep. I suggested that, as we were on the street, we go in a saloon and get a glass of beer. “No, sir! I don’t drink beer.” “But come, you must.’ He awoke with a start. “What awakened you?” I asked. “I don’t know, but some one hit me,” was the reply.
Degrees of Self-Hypnosis
Now that Suggestion is being made the excuse for wrong doing, when the press is telling of persons marrying, stealing and committing all sorts of evil because they were hypnotized, it is well to dwell upon the impossibility of this, so that all may feel hereafter that it offers no excuse for any evil. None can hide under this cloak. All these reported cases, if they are facts, are cases of Auto-Suggestion of Self-Hypnotism. This is the condition in which all persons are whenever an abnormal condition is encouraged. If a woman thought a man was hypnotizing her and concentrated her mind upon that thought, she would pass into this condition through self-hypnotism. The press, by telling these stories, creates these imagined conditions in susceptible persons. Past education has developed a feeling of non-responsibility and of fear in the individual, which prepares him to receive these Suggestions from the press and convert them into Auto-Suggestions and thus give them control over his life. Here is the great evil of press reports of crime.
From this self weakness, comes the present reliance upon Authority. No person of self-reliance will claim to be hypnotized to do a foolish or an evil thing. The weak and the silly, the very ones that have not concentration enough to be hypnotized by an operator, are the ones constantly susceptible to self-hypnotism. They are constantly receiving Suggestions from the crowd they are in. They thus become the tool of the fashions, fads and follies of the day. They are the ones who need most to place themselves under the care of a good operator and, through his instructions, learn to concentrate and to protect themselves from the consequences of their willing but ignorant acceptance of Suggestions. Involuntary Suggestion, involuntary concentration, involuntary and unconscious choice, are to be avoided. When one has learned the Art of Suggestion, he knows too well the power of a Suggestion of evil; for, whether it is accepted by the subject or not, if he has given it with a desire to work evil, that evil as surely follows him as does his shadow. No person is so chary of Suggestions which are not of good, as one who has practiced the Art.
Press Libels
The daily press is scattering broadcast the seeds of this belief and fear in stories born in the brain of the reporter. They are his solution of facts. They are never sustained by the opinions of experts. When the reported cases of evil are investigated, they are not sustained by evidence. It has been reported that hypnotism has been made the plea of extenuation in courts. Never has a criminal been condemned, or a person acquitted, in this country upon the plea of hypnotism. Never has any judge considered such a plea. I will only cite one typical case. It goes its rounds in the press several times a year. Concerning it, I give as high an authority as exists upon the matter. Chief Justice Albert H. Horton, of the Kansas Supreme Court, in an address reported in the State Journal (Topeka) , for April the 6th, 1895, says: “In affirming the conviction of Gray, no new doctrine was announced, no new rule of evidence established. Hypnotism was not considered nor ruled upon in any way. The reports are therefore wholly unfounded.” But Judge Horton’s statement is ignored, and the lie of a reporter is made the basis for creating fear by teacher, preacher and editor.
Evil Advertisements
But more injurious than the press reports are some of the advertisements of the teachers and schools where the words, “secret power,” “subtle power,” and others are used to convey the idea that they have something mysterious and hidden and that the possession of this something will enable its possessor to influence any person to do his will, and will enable a graduate of their school to win everything he wishes in the battle of life. These claims are false. They mislead. NO such power exists. All persons may cultivate and attain all that is claimed for “Hypnotism” and “Personal Magnetism” by a simple application of this Law of Suggestion.
The Soul of man is perfect. All Souls are alike. Each contains a spark of Infinity. All that any one needs is to let the god in him (the good in him) manifest. Suggestion opens the way. There is no patent right held by any person, or any class of persons, upon any method of this unfoldment. No method is universal. No limitations are possible. All is one Principle. The Principle of Suggestion is limitless and will make and adapt its method to the time and place. Once understand the Law of Suggestion, the Principle of Concentration, and you have entered the Holy of Holies; have the key to all the ancient mysteries; have knowledge of the way to the Occult Powers of the Soul.
“Protection” against evil influences is claimed by some of these schools and teachers. Especially is this promised by those teachers who gather the press reports of the evils of hypnotism with which they induce people to become their pupils. “Protection” from what? The Ego is all powerful. The only evil is ignorance. The only safeguard is knowledge.
Knowledge of what? Of Self. No person can be protected from his thoughts. He must protect himself. All the possible evils there are in Suggestion are those that lie in thinking. A person must think. Now think no evil and none is possible.
Personal Responsibility
Thought is creative. It creates every condition in life. What shall he think? is the question that concerns him. What are the results of thoughts and how are thoughts controlled? should be his questions. No power, no statute law can protect man from himself. Neither can they change him or cause him to think to order. As long as he fears, he must suffer the effects of fear; as long as he thinks pain, he must suffer pain; as long as he thinks he must be protected, he will be weak and will not protect himself from self-created evils.
Each person is responsible to himself for the thoughts he encourages. He cannot escape the results of his own thinking. If he will not keep harmful thoughts, “tramp thoughts,” from his mind, he must take the consequences of such company.
The School of Suggestion is the University of the Soul. All other schools are of the intellect. This school opens the door through which to reach the Ego itself. None other is equal to it.
Misrepresentation
Telepathy is now brought in as a factor of fear and people are warned in advertisements to go to certain teachers of hypnotism that they may learn to protect themselves from the evil thoughts of others. Promises are made that “this subtle power of thought” will be taught them so that they may succeed in their selfish purposes. “This mysterious silent power,” one advertisement reads. I affirm positively that it is more difficult to influence one silently to do what is not in harmony with his own thought than it is by oral Suggestion. A Suggestion is at all times a Suggestion. Its effect is the same whether given orally or telepathically. Those that do not conflict with desire, will or conscience, will be readily received when silently given. It then does not meet with the intellectual limitations that are often put upon it when conveyed orally. But positively I repeat: no Suggestion repugnant to a person will be received telepathically. It falls as unnoticed, as harmless, as buckshot on an iron-clad.
Thought
When a thought is sent that meets Harmony, with acceptance in the person to whom directed, then it will, if conditions adhere, be responded to in action. A case in illustration: A friend and I were riding in the streetcar and, as we were about to pass the home of a lady friend, my companion remarked: “I wonder if Mrs. B. will see us?” I thought it not likely. But, as the car stopped at the crossing, she came to the window and recognized us. Later we inquired why she came and she said: “While standing overseeing my dinner, I felt to go to the window.” Our thought had reached her and, being a pleasant one, and her mind not being concentrated upon anything in particular, she was ready to respond. Had her mind been occupied with some necessary thought, or had our thought been unpleasant, she would not have responded.
Authorities
Modern operators in Hypnotism are unanimous in the opinion that no evils result from it. Earlier authorities think it “possible,” but give no instances. Later ones do not think it possible. T. J. Hudson, the author of “The Law of Psychic Phenomena,” says in a magazine article: “That hypnotism and its chief handmaiden, Suggestion, have been proven to be an unalloyed blessing to millions of the human race, cannot be successfully controverted.” Hudson Tut tie, as good an authority as there is in the ranks of Spiritualism, says of the trance which he calls “The Hypnotic State”: “There is nothing in the trance which affects the physical senses; on the contrary, it gives them rest similar to normal sleep.” Amid all the European and American authorities that I have been able to find, none reports any instance of evil results. American operators who have hypnotized thousands and have seen some persons used as subjects for many years are most positive as to its harmlessness. The best authorities are those who, from the platform, give exhibitions, for they meet all classes and have the most extended practice. I have never conversed with one whose experience has not been that of my own, which is, that we cannot, cause a subject to do that which he wills not to do nor that which is morally repellent to him.
Testimonies
Professor A. E. Carpenter, who probably has had as large an experience in this line as any living operator, told me twenty years ago that such was his experience. Professor Caldwell, one of the well known operators twenty years ago, told me the same. Professor Connet so taught his pupils. His law was: “You cannot cause a pupil to work against his will, against his conscience, nor to injure his person or property.” H. L. Flint, as well known upon the hypnotic stage as any person in the Mississippi Valley, in a late interview reported in the press, said, in reply to the question as to whether or not a man can be hypnotized to commit crime, “I should say unconditionally, ‘No!’ When under hypnotic influence, the subject’s moral sensibilities are more acute than in the normal state and often, when in hypnosis, he cannot be made to do those little peccadilloes that he will do when normal. It is correct to say that he will never do anything that he will not do at any other time, as far as his moral nature is concerned.”
Thomas L. Adkin, dean of the New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons, says in an article in Practical Psychology: “I have hypnotized in public and in private about 15,000 people. I have seen fully 25,000 people under hypnosis in the past fourteen years. I have never seen the slightest harmful results. Anyone who has had any practical experience with the subject is well aware that no harm can be done by hypnotic Suggestion…I was a subject myself for five years; was hypnotized thousands of times and, if any harmful results were produced, I am not aware of it…I know a subject who has been hypnotized twenty or thirty times every night by different public hypnotists for the past twenty-five years, and he is just as sound mentally and physically as he ever was …. To hypnotize a man, you ask him to think a certain way; or, in other, words, ask him to concentrate his mind upon a certain subject. Now, then, if it does not injure one to think, it does not injure one to be hypnotized.” This is the testimony of experts and will close the case with every reader of this book.
Self-Suggestion
Another phase of Suggestion, intensifying the position I have already taken, is that reported of several who have acquired a development of Autosuggestion, so that, without operator, they can throw themselves at will into all the conditions they have seen or heard of subjects doing. The papers have recently told of a man who will permit his flesh to be pierced without feeling pain. Any person can do this when he has overcome the fear of pain. Many of my students do it. By Self-Suggestion, they can produce any chosen phenomenon by simply thinking, “It is so!” thus demonstrating that it is the subject, not the operator, that does the work.
This power, when developed and rightly applied, lifts one out of any undesirable condition and enables him to make life each day, in body and in estate, to his order; for he so first makes it in thought and concentrates upon it and what is so made and held must manifest objectively. This is a Universal law; The One Law. I AM THAT WHICH I THINK I AM. Thought IS power. We are so to realize this as to build to desire and not to let Thought run riot as we now do. Where now it is harmful, we shall Will that it bless.
Post Hypnotic
Very convincing of the truth of our theory, is the phenomenon called “Post-Hypnotic.” While in hypnosis, a Suggestion is given the subject that he will, at a certain future time, do a certain thing. This also, through misunderstanding, has given rise to fears so that the great lessons to be learned from it are not perceived. For illustration: A young man while asleep in my class was told that when he awoke he would find an unnamed article which the gentleman who gave the Suggestion had hidden. The young man awoke, took part in the exercises of the class for over an hour. Suddenly he went to a lady and asked her for the nickel she had. “What nickel?” Looking very stupid, he said, “I don’t know. I only felt to ask you.” She gave him the nickel which the gentleman had previously given her.
A Deeper Lesson
Post-Hypnotic Suggestions cannot be carried out on the plane of the intelligence or the conscience of the maker, for the intelligence and character of the subject are the ever-present factors with which he deals. It is impossible to execute a post-hypnotic Suggestion which conflicts with the intelligence, prejudices, will or conscience of the subject. But a deeper lesson is here. No good thought is ever dropped into a mind that does not remain there to influence future conduct. The words of the teacher, the admonition of the mother, the advice of the father, the loving greeting of a friend, all fall into the subconscious storehouse to influence future conduct. Let no person be discouraged because it seems the efforts for good are lost. No word that is upward tending is ever lost because the tendencies of humanity are upward. Each person is an unfolding soul and the test of unfoldment is virtue. The desires are for goodness; therefore each good thought is a seed-thought of power sown in the soul. Sleeping or waking, words of love or truth react upon the Ego and bring forth fruit. “My word shall not return to me void,” said the old prophet. By the use of Post-Hypnotic Suggestion, every latent faculty of the mind can be stimulated. Because of this, it is one of the most potent and successful methods of education. The retention by the mind of Suggestions given it, and the ability to intensify this impression by first rendering the intellect non-resistant by repose, offer the teacher his opportunity by making to his pupils Suggestions in the line of the ideal, such as is found is no other system of education.
Thought Seeds
Suggestions given in sleep are retained. Like seeds in the ground awaiting spring, rains and sun, they lie in the subconscious, ready to spring into activity at the first opportunity. This is the reason why Mental Healing is so successful. This explains the cures by Suggestive Therapeutics. Post-Hypnotic Suggestion is the best method to cure all such vices as intemperance, profanity, worry, fear and licentiousness. All life, health and power within the Soul lie open to Suggestions given in sleep. To utilize this knowledge with children will hasten the “New Day.” The healing power of Suggestion during sleep is well known to practitioners of Suggestive Therapeutics.
Its possibilities in the cure of habits are beginning to be known. The mother has, in the Law of Suggestion, power to wield for the intellectual and moral development of her child while it lies sleeping. By its use, she can then sow in the sub-consciousness of her child the germ-thoughts of any study, can correct any habit, can awaken any slumbering faculty and can lead it in the way of her ideal. She has only to use this Art to make her home an Eden.
Incidents
A young man, one of my subjects, was complaining that he could not perform his problems in mathematics. When he was asleep, I suggested to him that he was now in the Divine Mind and could learn and master the Law of Numbers and that he would do so. Before he awoke, he solved the problems and had no further trouble in the study. Had he dreamed this out in his sleep, it would have been a somewhat common occurrence. He did in hypnosis, at will, only what others are doing without the knowledge of the Law.
I asked a lady to go to sleep and find a lost article. She did so. Others go to sleep and dream of finding lost articles. In her case, advantage was taken of the Law of Suggestion and at will she slept and found. A young man said that he was trying to invent a certain machine that puzzled him. I placed him in Hypnosis and said: “Now you are in the Divine Mind where all machines lie. Find that which you wish. If it is possible, you can find it.” In a few minutes he said: “How simple that is.” “Remember it when you are awake,” was my command. He did so; it was a success.
“A dream,” one says. Yes, but a dream induced at will. A lady was puzzling over an essay. In hypnosis she found and on awaking, wrote what she found. A lady was to take part in a concert but was full of fear. In hypnosis I suggested that she was confident of success and would, in the joy of the occasion, lose all fear. She enjoyed the evening. This condition can be readily cultivated so that one can bring from the subconscious, at will, any desired manifestation of Truth. A student of mine suggested that he would awaken in the morning with the material of a sketch that he had for some time wished to write. The morning brought the sketch. A student who had never written a poem thought that he would try Suggestion. Upon retiring at night, he concentrated upon the affirmation: “I will awaken and write a poem in the morning.” Earlier than usual, he arose and the poem wrote itself. Thus will a knowledge of Suggestion lead the Conscious man to direct the manifestation of the Ego in his daily life.
Occultism
This understanding of Suggestion explains the phenomena called “occult” and “spiritual.” It explains the wonders of the Hindu Fakir and Buddhist priest, of Egyptian Hierophant and Grecian Sybil, of Roman Seer and Mohammedan Sheik, of Mediaeval Occultist and modern evangelist, of medium and clairvoyant, of Psychometrist and Hypnotic subject, of Christian Science, of Mental Science, and of the Magnetic Healer. All these find, in Concentration under the Law of Suggestion, their power. In this Law and the understanding of it, lies the future evolution of man. Some idea of what lies within the possibilities of Suggestion may be obtained from the consideration of the fact that the two greatest reform movements during the last century, if not for several centuries, arose from its application, namely: “Modern Spiritualism” and “Christian Science.”
Spiritualism
Andrew Jackson Davis, more than any other person, is responsible for that philosophy which has ramified into so many movements, all of which may be classified as branches of the New Thought. While a little boy, having never read through a single book, Davis became a hypnotic subject and from this he developed into a wonderful teacher. Through the hypnotic trance, subconsciousness was awakened and, in this state, he gave the lectures published under the title, “Nature’s Divine Revelations.”
Davis soon grew independent of his operators and developed what he calls the “Superior Condition,” a better name than the phrase now in common use: “In the Silence.”
Christian Science
Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy was, in her early career, a Spiritualist Medium. Dr. Quimby, of Maine, had, from his studies in Suggestion then called “Animal Magnetism,” discovered that disease is a belief. He developed a system of mental treatment. Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Baker, was a patient and a student under Dr. Quimby. This was her start. To the philosophy of Dr. Quimby, she applied an original Biblical interpretation. Rightly does she claim the name of “Christian Science” for the philosophy and Art founded upon her interpretation of the Bible. But she has no claim to originality in the Principle for the beginnings of this stream were, like that of Spiritualism, in the spring of Suggestion. Such movements, resulting in such blessing, affecting every avenue of modern thought and activity, are only prophecies of what shall be when Suggestion is generally understood. Enough has been accomplished to warrant all the assertions made in this book of its future use. We have now only to learn the Law and its mode of operation and then to take the same advantage of it that has been taken of other Laws, to make living a Fine Art.
Life and Art (Focus and Concentration Equal Love)
To live conscious of one’s power; to understand the principle of Concentration and apply it; to understand the Law of Suggestion and make it a servant of Will; to affirm each day that which is desired as the only reality; this it is to be an artist in life. To all who do this, Living has become A FINE ART. It is the object of this book to help its readers to become such artists. The whole secret lies in DOING.
Many read New Thought literature and think that, as the schoolboy attains knowledge of letters and memorizes geographical names, they can attain this power of self-control. Not so! It comes, as comes the ability of the artist to handle the chisel and hammer in bringing the statue from the marble; as comes the power of the architect to place on paper the structure already in his mind; the power of the mechanic to build a machine that he sees only in possibility; the power of expression that enables the poet to place in ever living words the bright ideal of beauty that haunts him. All these grasped the principles, first intellectually, then they practiced until they made the channel within themselves for Thought to manifest under the direction of their Will. When they were ready, the statue carved itself; the palace drew its own design; the machine built itself; the poem forced itself into expression. The way had been prepared by doing at it, not trying, but by doing each day the very best possible, and thus each day coming nearer to the real, which is eternally within the mind.
Materialized Will
The piano player teaches all persons how to build a nervous structure to order. He begins awkwardly and bunglingly to fumble the keys. Each day his fingers learn better to obey his Will. After a long practice, they have learned to play what is in the mind. They find the keys and strike them without the conscious direction of the player. The Will has been materialized in them; the nerve cells are thoughts that have, by conscious direction, been transformed into them. After the nerves have thus been reconstructed under the direction of the Will, the player forgets his fingers, lets them do the mechanical part, while he plays mentally only. He listens to the internal music while the fingers play.
John Fiske says: “This result is possible only because of a bodily change which has taken place in him. Countless molecular alterations have been wrought in the structure of sundry nerves and muscles, especially in the grey matter of sundry ganglia and nerve centers. Every ganglion concerned in the needful adjustment of eyes, fingers, wrists, or in the repetitions of musical sounds, has undergone a change more or less profound. It is enough for us to know there is such a registration of experiences.” In relation to this “registration,” he says: “Any creature’s ability to perceive and act depends upon the registration of experiences in his nerve centers. It is either individual or ancestral experience that is thus registered; strictly speaking, it is both.” Here we have all the physiological evidence necessary to demonstrate scientifically the facts of mental healing and to prove our theory as to the place and power of Suggestion. Experiences register themselves in brain and nerve changes.
Mastery of Fate
Each Suggestion affects the nerve tissue. It builds itself into bodily expression. The body is the materialized experiences, of the individual. The only experiences are those of thinking and feeling. The body is therefore materialized feeling and thought. This is the greatest discovery man has made of his power over Nature. He can, by the conscious use of his Will, mold her into the semblance of his own ideal. He does now, as far as his body is concerned, mold her unconsciously. He is learning consciously to build not only body but environment to his ideal, through the use of his Will. Nature’s side of the expression is in the building of the external man, the babe. The director of the finer forces is Suggestion. Man’s side is Auto-Suggestion, or the better word is Affirmation. We have found in this word, Affirmation, the Key to Power. Science found it for us. But she never opened the treasure-house. Now the key is placed in the lock. Will you turn it and possess? In this book are the necessary directions.
They have been found by the effects of Thought conditions artificially produced by Suggestion. Experiments have taught us how to become receptive to Suggestion. Now become to yourself both subject and suggestor. You have learned the Law. All you need now is practice. Practice leads, through Demonstration, to Realization. This won, you are the Master of Fate.
The Manifest Ideal
No knowledge is superior to this. This is all that any healer, seer or conqueror ever learned. The pass-word is CONCENTRATION. With this word, the portals of sense may be passed. Its word of power is AFFIRMATION. Its bugle call is SUGGESTION. To all who enlist under this banner, there is nothing but victory. Victory means Health, Success, Prosperity and Blessedness. The Way:
AFFIRM THE IDEAL. HOLD TO IT THROUGH CONCENTRATION. LET THE IDEAL MANIFEST. Faith in self must give birth to the Affirmation, I AM! The end is Self-Control.
Formulas For Self-Hypnotism
Affirmations
The benefit of this book lies in the fact that it has stimulated you to right thinking and right living. To think and to live rightly, you must constantly practice the principle of Self-suggestion. By practice, you are to make conditions to your desire. By CONSCIOUS WILL, you are to master Fate. If you find it difficult to hold the thought silently, it is a good plan to talk aloud to yourself. Treat the conscious man as subject and the “I” as operator. Persist until you yield to the Affirmation as the subject yields to the command of operator. Use these thoughts in any language to suit. Remember: According to the amount of Will that you put into your thought is the benefit received. Therefore, when affirming, throw back the shoulders, hold head erect, sit or stand firm, and feel the spirit of the Affirmation, then relax and let the power of the Affirmation manifest in you. Use your own name in place of John Smith.
For Pain, say:
Now, sir, you are Life! You cannot have pain. All pain has left you. Now go about your work. Attend to your business, John Smith, and I will attend to mine. I (Mind) built this body and I will restore it when you let me alone.
For Nervous Conditions:
Now, sir, sit down in that chair and relax. Let go! Let go, sir, of old thoughts! Let go of your body. Forget you have one. Imitate the baby, the cat and the dog when they rest. There now, you feel better already. There, sir, how much relaxed you are. You are rested already. Now keep peace in your mind and go to work. You are Peace.
For Insomnia:
During the day, when you think of the night, say: “I shall sleep well tonight.” When bedtime comes, say: “Oh, how sleepy I am. I already yawning.” Now yawn, whether you feel to or not. Keep yawning till you do feel, then let it yawn itself and continue to say, “I’m sleepy,” till you lose yourself in sleep.
For any Kind of Sickness:
NOW, John Smith, you are Spirit, for I am Spirit and I made you. Spirit cannot be sick. Therefore, this condition is purely a mental one and you are to change it. Ever remember that I am not sick. I am Life. Life manifests just as perfectly as you, John Smith, let it. If you will repress it by thinking disease and pain, then you will have them. Now you have forgotten them and only remember that I am LIFE. This you will repeat till I have made your body over anew: I AM LIFE! I AM LIFE!
For Discontent:
Now, sir. you have everything you desire. Life is yours and Life contains all. You are Contentment
For Poverty:
Well, sir, you have all that is. You have Life and all that Life needs. God is within you. God is all! Let God manifest as He will. Let Life manifest. Polarize yourself and draw what you desire. Stop saying, “I am poor.” Say, “I have all. I am rich, for I have all I can use.” Stop this economy. It will lead you to the poorhouse. I cannot lead you to things you wish when you fill your mind with these thoughts of poverty. Hereafter, keep full of Faith in the Good. Call your own to you by this Affirmation. I am with you and I am Power. Attend to your business of using to your desire what you have. Use it now. It is my business to bring more when this is gone.
The Affirmation, MY SUPPLY IS INFINITE, will cure all poverty when it becomes Faith.
For Bad Habits:
To cure any bad habit, say to yourself whenever you treat yourself or whenever you think of the habit:
You are the Master of Self. You do just what you desire. Tobacco has no power over you. (Or beer, or worry, or anger, or gossip, or fault-finding, or argument, or talking of your pains or troubles. Use any one that fits the case.) You are temperate in all things, for I, the Soul, now guide you. Tell yourself, sir: “I am Master.” Affirm: “This old habit has passed from me. I love the good. Good fills me so full that there is in me no place for anything else. I am happy for old things are passed away.”
For Fear:
Fear is the one cause of all the evils of life. Use this formula in its thought, changing the words to suit:
I am fearless. All is good. No evil can come to me. I am courage. I am guided from within. I can make no mistake. I have banished all fear. I trust myself. I have confidence in myself. I rely upon myself. I am equal to any emergency. There is for me protection at all times. No evil can come near my dwelling. I am fearless.
Post-Hypnotic Self-Suggestions:
Have you forgotten something? Then say: “I know. Be still. It will come to me.” Then forget that you wish to know and LET it fall into the mind. There is something you wish to decide upon or wish to think of; say: “When I awaken in the morning I shall know what to do; I shall know what to say; I shall know what to write; I shall have the solution in my mind.”
By these Post-Hypnotic Suggestions, you may call up from the subconscious anything you desire.
L’Envoi.
For the present, we part company. The subject is only opened. We have much to learn, much to Demonstrate. I promised to do a part. It is done. I have given you the Key. It is yours to use. I know the treasure that awaits you. Congratulating you on your POSSESSION, I leave you to the joy of Self-Control attained through Self-Suggestion.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 21, 1902.
Addenda
Personal Liberty Includes Personal Responsibility
Two tendencies in Man demonstrate in the realm of mind the same action and reaction, the same balance, that we find in the mechanical forces. And since Thought is Power we must find every so-called natural, mechanical and chemical law, to be merely laws of Mind. We shall see them exemplified in the thoughts and actions of mankind, as we have heretofore found them in the cruder vibrations, termed matter.
Since we deal with Thought as a form of Eternal Energy we look for its Laws and its directive power in Man only, where it is manifest. We study the laws of mechanics in machines; of chemistry in chemicals; of gravity in the forms about us. In like manner we are to study the laws of Thought in ourselves. When I say “ourselves,” I mean that I must study myself, and you must study yourself. The only way to arrive at truth is to study in the present tense, indicative mode, the personal pronoun “I.” The teacher of “NOW” PHILOSOPHY teaches this way. He reasons from these Affirmations: I AM THOUGHT. I STUDY THOUGHT WHEN I STUDY MYSELF. I KNOW ONLY MYSELF. IN STUDYING MYSELF I AM STUDYING ALL THAT IS. WHEN I KNOW MYSELF I KNOW ALL THAT IS.
Only those who understand and live in this thought have arrived at Self-Control. Those who live after this Philosophy have conquered Fate.
The boasted personal liberty of which we hear so much, is at present largely a myth, a dream. When it comes, it comes through a study of Eternal Energy. As long as one studies external forces only, he finds them power, and thinking he must, he submits to them. But deeper study teaches that there is a force in Man, that can, through direction, control external forces. Circumstances control him who does not know how to control them.
Here we have the thought, and the word the world is seeking CHOICE. Can we choose in any degree? Certainly. Each person realizes and exercises very early in life the power of choice. Is it limited? By what? If limited, I am not free and personal liberty is a myth; I am like plant and bird subject to Law and am in the hands of a Fate inexorable and merciless. If choice is not limited, then I am free to the extent that I exercise that choice. Nay, if choice is limitless, can I avoid its exercise?
One or the other of these positions each one must take. The masses do claim limitations. They prate of independence, personal liberty and individuality, but they do this from the narrow thought of freedom from governmental, priestly or industrial and personal interference. They carry not the thought into the real realm of Cause; into the real world of Power. They stop in the world of effects as manifest in civil and social laws; business and economic methods. This is no more liberty, than the condition of the freed Russian serf is liberty. These serfs are still clamoring for liberty.
My writings under name of “Soul Culture” and “Now Philosophy,” are written from the affirmation that each individual is absolutely free to choose, and is because of this freedom, absolutely responsible for his life. No circumstance or person, or power, is responsible for his health, happiness or success, but himself. I know this is denied consciously constantly by the great majority, and this is the main reason why I proclaim it. That it is also denied unconsciously in practice, denied by many who hold to it in theory, I also know. Few even of New Thought teachers have reached the point of sticking to the freedom they affirm.
This cry for liberty, this boast of independence, is the cry of the Unfolding Soul for larger expression. The excuse, reason, or apology for not manifesting our desire is Nature’s ratchet, which holds us from slipping back when we have in liberty gained a notch. But are we to stop where we are? Restlessness and pain of circumstances soon send us forward a notch because we CHOOSE to go on, rather than to suffer under limitations. What Man wills not to endure, he cures. Choosing, he moves in the line of least resistance and ever toward liberty. Liberty, the only possible liberty, is opportunity to express that which he chooses to express. Through such expression he unfolds into consciousness of himself; into consciousness of his power to be and to do.
Man excuses his failures in any line by laying it to some circumstance, person, law, lack, or place. Some excuse is found, and rarely is the true one given. This fact I would deeply impress on the mind of my reader, Never as long as a person gives an excuse for not doing will he ever find the power to do. An excuse is the recognition of a Power somewhere manifesting in circumstances, which is more powerful than the person, and to which he must submit. To say, “I could not because circumstances would not admit,” or “Because I could not conquer circumstances,” is to say, “I am slave. I am not powerful enough to do as I choose.” But the fact is one always does as he chooses to do. He chose to submit. Choice he cannot avoid. He chose to be a slave because he thinks there is a power too strong to conquer. It is easier to submit than to contend. The true reason one should give himself for any lack of expression is “I realized that I had not developed my consciousness of power so as to overcome at this time, and simply retired to learn more of myself as the overcoming power!” No one thought is more needed today than this of a personal realization of the connection between the individual and the Universal, which leads one to hold self responsible for conduct.
The realization that “each person is an inlet to the Divine mind and to the whole of that mind” is the key to Power. The only reason for unhappiness and the failure it produces, is that one does not choose to exercise this power, which he is by Divine right. “I can’t!” is the prison of millions. Self-hypnotized through the Auto-Suggestion of a belief in Power outside themselves; by the fear of and submission to circumstances.
There is but One Power and each person is IT. This desire to excuse oneself for submission to an external power that is greater than interior power, leads to the creation of the gods and devils in all theologies; leads to philosophies that weaken and encourage the non-doing of millions; giving them excuses to languish in conditions they could throw off, would they affirm Power, and thus enjoy the blessing of liberty.
But a caution here. Your business is NOT to direct or save your neighbor; is not to go out and reform the world; is not revolution. You are to recognize within yourself the power to direct your own life; to make through your thought a personal evolution; that others seeing what you do for yourself, may learn also to do for themselves.
Personal gods and personal devils have disappeared from the thought of liberal teachers and thinkers, but the Principle which created them still remains, in the desire and tendency to lay blame for conditions and conduct on some external cause. This tendency finds expression even among some of our foremost New Thought teachers. Humanity has not yet reached the plane of Self-Reliance. No teaching is more needed today than self-assertion. Beyond all other books, in the great mass of New Thought literature, is Emerson’s essay on “Self-Reliance,” in its power to awaken the individual to a consciousness of personal power and of personal responsibility. “Never strike sail to a fear!” is one of his strong and needed admonitions. Out of our fears all limitations come. Fear shapes all the devils, and creates all the evils.
The disappearance of devils has given us much that is worse, because it is more subtle, and is the creation of a more developed intellect.
Devils have become “evil spirits,” millions of individuals where once one only was prowling about, and obsession is an excuse for lack of personal expression, lack of self-control. Evil spirits however were too crude for many so we have this modified into “malignant magnetism.” This is the excuse among a large class of people who repeat “All is good! There is no evil!” Such have not reached the place where they accept personal responsibility; must have some scape-goat for their illness and failures. We have another still more subtle excuse and one that because of the fact of telepathy is harder to remove. That is “Evil thoughts!” So convenient is it, to excuse any ill doing by saying, “Somebody sent me an evil thought! A friend saw a lady slip on the ice one morning. Several days later he met her and asked, “Did it hurt you when you slipped the other morning?” He was startled by the reply, “O, I knew some one sent me an evil thought.” Another large class of believers have a standing excuse when they suffer any ill condition in this expression: “I am working out my Karma!” A thought far more repulsive to a freeman and thinker, than the old excuse, “The devil made me do it!” Very many of our New Thought books otherwise very fine, are so vitiated with this negative and self-destructive thought, that I cannot recommend them. What, I a child of the Divine limited to re-birth after rebirth and suffering in one incarnation for what I did long ages ago? Too puerile, and would make one laugh if the consequences did not make one weep. Self-respect, self-reliance and self-conquest are impossible under such a thought. No wonder India has submitted to English tyranny under this dominion. The American people would never rise from control of trusts and monopolies did they believe in Karma; a theory of a primitive and early people who carried with it also the thought of transmigration of souls, which seems too repugnant to a twentieth century theosophist to teach. The sense of self-responsibility, the present most needed development, is hindered by all these theories, which are used as excuses for lack of self-control.
Out of this desire, belief and fear arises the cry against hypnotism. Strange is the fact, that otherwise fine teachers along New Thought lines, both in journals and books, are warning their readers against hypnotism. They repeat statements like these, “To yield your will to another is dangerous!” “To give up one’s self to the control of another is an evil!” Such statements tend to keep alive this old thought of excuse and to increase the old fears and weakness. Such statements are not Truth. They are born in the old thought. No one who has ever experimented with Suggestion, no one who feels it his sacred duty to his fellows to teach only what he knows by personal experience, will ever repeat the folly of teaching “the possibility of yielding the control of one’s life or one’s thought to another;” will ever talk of “putting a person under control of another’s will.” Only the will of the individual can influence his life. I can obey my will. Another’s will can become mine only by my choice. I can make it mine, or I can refuse. (See p. 24.) I have the same power of choice in regard to every person that the miss has to accept or decline a proposal of marriage. Nowadays she often claims she was hypnotized.
She acted, as every person always does, under her own choice. She decided, and all the influence any person can possibly have over another and no more, the young man ad over her, and that is, he presented inducements, and she equally influenced him.
Recently a young doctor used to bet on a horse race the money entrusted to him by a friend, and lost; he then claimed he was influenced to do so by two sharpers. The excuse is worse than the loss of money, because it is an admission of lack of manhood; tells us that he has not developed power of self-control. Loss of money, or friends, or anything is not equal to this cowardice.
The operator has no power to will his subjects. Hypnotism is no excuse for any action. In Kansas I had a fine subject, and one evening when he was taking from a glass of water anything I suggested, I said, “There is beer in the glass;” he would not touch it. When I insisted he woke with a start as though he had been hit. I tried to make some good subjects pick some pockets. Three refused, saying, “I won’t steal;” I could not make them. The fourth took the watch from the man’s pocket, and when fully awake I asked him what he did and he replied: “I took the watch!” Why? “Because you told me to, and I knew it was only a trick!” He was under control of the thought, but not unconscious. Dr. Albert Moll of Berlin, one of the best of European authorities, when in this country said in an interview published in the Kansas City, Mo., Star: “It is doubtful if any serious crime was ever done while under this influence. The weight of authority is against it!” Later students deny its possibility.
Certainly were it one thousandth part as baneful as even some New Thought teachers think, were there a shadow of fact that would warrant the charge of evil, it would be easy to prove its harmfulness. There are those who say it would be an evil were one to yield himself to the will of another. True! But can one so yield? Does one ever so yield?
Have you any cases of such yielding? Not one. In his work upon “Suggestive Therapeutics,” Dr. Schrenck-Notzing of Germany, gives the results of his investigations among the hospitals of Europe, and though he reports the results of many thousand experiments, he has never found a single case of the harmfulness of Suggestion, even when carried to hypnosis (which is merely sleep under Suggestion) even when it is many times practiced upon the same individual. It will be noticed that among the authorities he quotes as thinking “it possible” that it may be used for harm, he gives not one instance where it has so been used. All positive evidence is to its safety. Any evil effects are hypothetical; merely “may be”; are but opinions, and not demonstrations.
That Suggestion, even to complete hypnosis, ever wrought harm to a single person, is yet to be proved. There has never yet been such a case reported. The conscious use of this power, cannot work evil. On the contrary every person should learn voluntarily and consciously to receive Suggestions, as this is the only road to Self-Control. Till one can do this, he, or she, is liable to receive Suggestions from the outside and accept them as his own, unconscious of their origin. New Thought teachers who are so afraid of Hypnotism, are themselves working under the one phase of Suggestion which is dangerous to happiness, i. e., Self-Suggestion of fear and ignorance, which imposes limitations upon the Human Soul and is the one danger to avoid. Suggestion is an ever present factor in life. Hypnosis is but one of millions of phenomena resulting from Suggestion; it is but sleep under the influence of the Suggestion of sleep. There is but one guard against any evil effects through Suggestions whether one is sleeping or waking, and that guard is CONSCIENCE. What is right, is the decision of the reasoning faculties from experience of training.
Conscience says, “DO RIGHT!” Only the individual himself can violate conscience and because he wills to do so.
Who is false to conscience is never safe anywhere. Who is true to conscience, who always does what he considers right, can never be led astray. There is absolutely no possibility of any person doing wrong save under his, or her, own Auto-Suggestion. Note this well No one ever does anything save under his own Auto-Suggestion and he can receive no Suggestion to convert into an Auto-Suggestion, which is antagonistic to Conscience, for Conscience is not amenable either to reason or will. It is “The Voice of God in the Soul.” We can will ourselves to accept for a time a thought that is not reasonable at the request of another, but can never accept a thought that is repellent to conscience. Every New Thought teacher and healer should know this. Experience should teach them, that till Conscience assents to their instruction, there is no action, no recovery.
That it is impossible to cause a person, even in the deepest hypnosis, to violate his conscience, or to do that against which he has set his will, is demonstrated in the experience of every practical hypnotist.
All experts tell us this. Teachers who fear the influence of Hypnotism, are as far off their base as are the clergy who prate of the evils of the theater, having never seen one. Not knowing the real evils, imaginary ones are preached against. Men of straw are built up and pulled down by them. They see evils of hypnotism where there are none, and the real dangers of the involuntary, unconscious hypnotism of authority, personal influence, money, dress, fashion, public opinion and fear are ignored.
I have so many times come up against the will, or the moral standard of a subject, that without hesitation, I declare that under no circumstance can one person so influence another that he will do anything he thinks is wrong, or against which he has willed.
Unity of wills is an absolute necessity to the success of the Suggestionist. He is compelled to move in the line of the moral standard of his subject. The evils of false education are laid at the door of Circumstances. Parents and teachers neglect to fix moral Principles in a child; he goes out into the world without Principle. He has had a lot of “dont’s,” and a lot of arbitrary rules, but no fixed Principle of Right. He is taught in many cases what to do, but is not taught Self-Control, which alone is temperance, and when he becomes drunk it is laid to the saloon keeper. It is as easy to do right as it is to do wrong to one who has been taught to hold himself to blame; who has been taught that he HAS POWER to say, “NO!”
False are all the reports in the press of hypnotized persons coming to evil. Hypnotism cannot become the scapegoat for the weak. The criminal cannot excuse himself by claiming he was hypnotized. These are subterfuges and when accepted destroy character. What is done is in line with one’s moral development, or it would never have been done. He wished to.
This doctrine is not relished by society. But it is Truth. The philosophy I teach allows no person to shirk the responsibility of Character; of controlling by choice his own life. “Thou art the man!” thunders “Soul Culture!” You can! You will whatever you do! You ARE POWER to will, and to do, whatever you desire to will and to do. From a long experience I assert that a knowledge of Suggestion and its power is the ONE knowledge that will bring redemption from the tyranny of so-called evil. Freedom comes alone when one FEELS, that he or she, is superior to any and all conditions of life.
I have dealt with these questions on pp 31, 32, of this book. Because of the widespread report in the daily press of the evils of hypnotism, I use this space in this new edition to emphasize what I have already said. I will give a few more authorities and incidents.
Prof. A. E. Carpenter told me that one of his best subjects would not remove his coat one evening. He made repeated trials and failed. After the entertainment was over, he asked the young man why he would not remove his coat.
The reply was, “I had no time to change my shirt before I came to the hall. My over-shirt was torn and I decided that I would not take my coat off and show the red flannel shirt through the tears!” Professor Carpenter has probably as extensive experience as any living person; he says in his “Plain Instructions,”—”The operator should remember that it is the subject’s condition that determines the success of the experiment, and not any peculiar magnetic or cult power that he, the operator, possesses. That is, if the sitter is in a subjective condition he will respond to the suggestion, and further, that the sitter goes into this condition himself, the operator does not put him into it.” Dr. Schrenck-Notzing in speaking of the results of his investigations among the practitioners of Europe, gives his opinion in the following extracts:
“The evidence mentioned is augmented by the wide experience of Forel, Moll and numerous other experimenters, all of which leads to the conclusion that with proper individualization of hypnotism for therapeutic purposes it is devoid of any disadvantage.”
He gives this conclusion as the result of his investigations in the “Introduction” to his work on “Suggestive Therapeutics,” quoting these authorities:
“Ringer says, after reviewing 210 cases in his practice, that he has never seen hypnosis have an injurious effect. “Van Renterghem and Von Eeden, whose clinic I visited, likewise testify to the innocuousness of therapeutic hypnosis, and were able to add nearly 1,000 cases to the 414 cases cited.
“Wetterstrand, according to his work, has subjected 3,200 persons to hypnotic procedure, and induced hypnosis 60,000 times without observing any injurious results. “Von Corval gives from his own, as well as from the experience of others in general, his conclusion that hypnosis, correctly employed, is unaccompanied by any danger.
“Minde thinks all dangers may be avoided by proper care. “Craft-Ebing says: Treatment by hypnotic suggestion is innocuous when it is scientifically employed.’
“Preyer says:’It can have no injurious effect when skillfully used.’
“Liebeault of Nancy, who during thirty years has hypnotized 10,000 persons, some of them more than 100 times, says with proper precautions he has never observed untoward effects follow hypnotism.
“Professor Bernheim, from his observations on several thousand patients, has lately expressed himself as follows:
‘Suggestion often cures; when it does not cure it ameliorates; and if it does not benefit it is still harmless.’ “Grossman found the legend of its dangers unconfirmed. “Professor Hirt of Breslau, made in eight months, experiments for therapeutic purposes on 598 persons. More than 4,000 sittings have proven to him that hypnosis is never accompanied by harmful effects, even when frequently induced in the same individual.”
Von Notzing himself in his “Introduction” says: “Observations of hypnotism on more than 300 persons, of whom many were hypnotized more than 100 times and some 200 or 300 times, leads me to believe in the harmlessness of therapeutic suggestion.”
And in the body of his book, he says:
“If other means are not successful, then failure to use suggestive therapeutics out of prejudice and ignorance must be regarded as inexcusable negligence on the part of the physician toward his patients.”
At the International Medical Congress held at Moscow, Russia, in August, 1897, Prof. Lombroso, of Turin, read a paper that created great enthusiasm. In it he declared that:
“We ought to study carefully all physical states, including hypnosis, for discoveries which this may lead to are incalculable in their importance, and the benefits to the human race beyond our power to foresee or imagine.”
I condense some statements of Bernheim, one of Europe’s leading scientists, along psychical lines: He says he has seen Hypnotic Suggestion used in the same case for several years, seances and treatments being given each successive day and no harm resulting; on the contrary, he found that each and every case had greatly improved during that long and constant subjection to Hypnotism. Hypnotic Suggestion has been very successfully used for years in the alms houses, orphan asylums and penal institutions of France in correction of diseases and habits in adults and the vices and habits of children. There is the best evidence and greatest need in the world for the use of Hypnotism and suggestion in the capacity of curative, moral and educational agents.
Prof. T. J. Hudsen, author of “The Law of Psychic Phenomena” in a magazine article said:
“That hypnotism and its chief hand-maiden, suggestion, have been proved to be an unalloyed blessing to millions of the human race cannot be successfully controverted. No intelligent observer of the subject who has made an honest and unprejudiced investigation of it will deny its value as a therapeutic agent or gainsay the fact that it has been the means of restoring to health untold numbers of otherwise incurable sufferers from physical and mental maladies. Its value as an anesthetic in surgery has been demonstrated by the profession in many notable instances, and it is thought that when its laws are better understood it will be found to be an agent of universal application for the inhibition of pain in surgical operations. Its value as a means for the eradication of habits of drunkenness, as well as of many other habits equally destructive to health and reason, no one who has given the subject the slightest attention will seriously question. Its availability as an auxiliary to the usual process of education is rapidly becoming known throughout the world. And so is its value as a means of training children to correct habits of mind and body, and above all of eradicating from the human mind the tendency to immorality and crime.”
It would be easy to extend this list of authorities many pages, but to one who has gripped its Principle of Suggestion as laid down in this book, there is little need, and I will close with some paragraphs from expert authority: the article in the Encyclopedia Americana, written by Hamilton Osgood, M. D. See how closely his thought, printed in 1905, tallies with that of this book, printed two years before:
“The word hypnotism is generally and largely misunderstood and misused. For example, if a person seems to be wholly influenced by another, it is commonly said that he has been hypnotized. This is a great error. The word hypnotism means putting a person to sleep and means nothing else. If an individual seems to be subjected to another in the waking state it should be said that he is unduly influenced. He is not hypnotized. That would mean that he was asleep. The means by which hypnotism is used is “suggestion.” A person may be influenced by suggestion in the waking state, for suggestion is a great force in daily life. As connected with hypnotism, however, suggestion is the expression of an idea or combination of ideas which becomes impressed upon the mind of the somnolent subject to whom it is addressed. Conscious or unconscious results are sure to follow. This explanation sums up the meaning, use, and results of suggestion as applied to hypnotism and the hypnotic state. If a subject be awake he can, according to the strength of his will and desire, control to a greater or lesser degree the effect of a suggestion which he has received.
“In the popular mind exists the belief that this form of treatment is attended by danger, that the patient once hypnotized is thereafter under control of the operator, even at a distance, that the will is weakened, etc. This is all a mistake. No person can be hypnotized unless he is willing. No person can be hypnotized at a distance, unless by telephone, or if he be a good and willing subject, by letter; and the patient must first have been hypnotized by the operator at some previous time. Otherwise the operator cannot influence him at a distance in the slightest degree.
The will is not only not weakened, but there is no other existing treatment which can so strengthen the will as can hypnotic suggestion.
“It is an absolutely safe and beneficent form of aid. It may not always bring relief, but never in the hands of a competent operator has it done harm. The patient will always choose the operator as he would choose a surgeon. The object of all reliable operators in the use of hypnotic suggestion is the relief of the patient, and to the operator the treatment is a sacred thing.
“The hypnotic sleep is a natural sleep. Those who claim that it is not natural are not intelligent in the matter, and their opinions are based upon pure and uninformed theory. “As has been shown by scores of thousands of cases, treated by brilliant and educated physicians, the treatment is absolutely innocuous. It either relieves or produces a neutral effect, and is useful in a multitude of ailments which baffle ordinary means of relief.”
This testimony of Dr. Osgood should be sufficient to settle the matter, and to more than balance, in an unprejudiced mind, all possible negative testimony. But I will add the testimony of the greatest medical authority in the United States, Dr. William Osier, formerly of the John Hopkins Medical School and now of Oxford, England. In the article on “Medicine” in the “Encyclopedia Americana,” after enumerating ameliorating influences upon health, he says: “To these might be added a fourth, which in some sense is the most natural of all; for it has been practiced in ages more remote by many thousands of years, than the suspicion of either of the others, and by savages almost at the bottom of the human scale; that is, some form of suggestion or hypnosis. Yet after all, the psychical method has always played an important though unrecognized part in therapeutics. It is from faith, which buoys up the spirits, sets the nerves playing their parts without disturbance, that a large part of all cures arise. Despondency, or lack of faith, will often sink the stoutest constitution almost to death’s door; faith will enable a bread-pill or a spoonful of clear water to do almost miracles of healing, when the best medicines have been given over in despair. The basis of the entire profession of medicine is faith in the doctor and his drugs and his methods. “Its (hypnotism) possibilities have been greatly exaggerated, not so much by the claims of persons using it, as by the eager credulity of the public. It seems not to create a new condition of sensitiveness to suggestion, as to increase what normally exists. Its great service has been found to be in various affections which may all be classed as of the nervous system: Hysteria, spasmodic functional complaints, children’s vicious habits, and the victims of the drug and alcohol habits; occasionally in childbirth and surgery.”
I feel that my purpose in this book which is to show the student that there are no occult or hidden or mysterious powers in all these phenomena has been accomplished. That the one Law of Suggestion is at work in them all. That the old ideas and theories of hypnotism are false. It is not Hypnotism but Suggestion that is cause. We are through this Law learning to control our fate. This knowledge will bless mankind by removing from it the fear which now prevents the universal application of Suggestion and Hypnosis for the cure of all ills of “body, mind and estate.”
Knowing that this book has not only instructed but has stimulated and given courage to thousands already for the overcoming of Life’s unpleasant conditions, I gladly send forth this new edition to continue the good work its predecessors have begun. This consciousness that I have a place in the thought and love of so many encourages me still to write and work. In Love and Truth I am your friend,
HENRY HARRISON BROWN.
San Francisco, March 15th, 1906.
The End