B. K. (London).
8 January, 1922.
Another lady writes:
"Our cook's little niece, aged 23 months—the one we cured of bronchitis—gave herself a horrid blow on the head yesterday. Instead of crying she began to smile, passed her hand over the place and said sweetly, 'ça passe.' Hasn't she been well brought up?"
All these methods are extremely simple and involve little expenditure of time and none of money. They have proved their efficacy over and over again in Nancy, and there is no reason why a mother of average intelligence and conscientiousness should not obtain equally good results. Naturally, first attempts will be a little awkward, but there is no need for discouragement on that account. Even supposing that through the introduction of effort some slight harm were done—and the chance is comparatively remote—this need cause no alarm. The right autosuggestion will soon counteract it and produce positive good in its place. But any mother who has practised autosuggestion for herself will be able correctly to apply it to her child.
At first glance the procedure may seem revolutionary, but think it over for a moment and you will see that it is as old as the hills. It is merely a systematisation on a scientific basis of the method mothers have intuitively practised since the world began. "Sleep, baby, sleep. Angels are watching o'er thee,"—what is this but a particular suggestion? How does a wise mother proceed when her little one falls and grazes its hand? She says something of this kind: "Let me kiss it and then it will be well." She kisses it, and with her assurance that the pain has gone the child runs happily back to its play. This is only a charming variation of the method of the caress.
CHAPTER XI
CONCLUSION
Induced Autosuggestion is not a substitute for medical practice. It will not make us live for ever, neither will it free us completely from the common ills of life. What it may do in the future, when all its implications have been realised, all its resources exploited, we cannot say. There is no doubt that a generation brought up by its canons would differ profoundly from the disease-ridden population of to-day. But our immediate interest is with the present.
The adult of to-day carries in his Unconscious a memory clogged with a mass of adverse suggestions which have been accumulating since childhood. The first task of Induced Autosuggestion will be to clear away this mass of mental lumber. Not until this has been accomplished can the real man appear and the creative powers of autosuggestion begin to manifest themselves.