The Practice of Autosuggestion

by C. Harry Brooks

By the use of this method each one of us should be able to look forward to a life in which disease is a diminishing factor. But how great a part it will play depends upon the conditions we start from and the regularity and correctness of our practice. Should disease befall us we possess within a potent means of expelling it, but this does not invalidate the complementary method of destroying it from without. Autosuggestion and the usual medical practice should go hand in hand, each supplementing the other. If you are ill, call in your doctor as before, but enlist the resources of Induced Autosuggestion to reinforce and extend his treatment.

In this connection it must be insisted on that autosuggestion should be utilised for every ailment, whatever its nature, and whether its inroads be grave or slight. Every disease is either strengthened or weakened by the action of the mind. We cannot take up an attitude of neutrality. Either we must aid the disease to destroy us by allowing our minds to dwell on it, or we must oppose it and destroy it by a stream of healthful dynamic thought. Too frequently we spontaneously adopt the former course.

The general opinion that functional and nervous diseases alone are susceptible to suggestive treatment is at variance with the facts. During Coué's thirty years of practice, in which many thousands of cases have been treated, he has found that organic troubles yield as easily as functional, that bodily derangements are even easier to cure than nervous and mental. He makes no such distinctions; an illness is an illness whatever its nature. As such Coué attacks it, and in 98 per cent. of cases he attains in greater or less degree a positive result.

Apart from the permanently insane, in whose minds the machinery of autosuggestion is itself deranged, there are only two classes of patient with whom Induced Autosuggestion seems to fail. One consists of persons whose intelligence is so low that the directions given are never comprehended; the other of those who lack the power of voluntary attention and cannot devote their minds to an idea even for a few consecutive seconds. These two classes, however, are numerically insignificant, together making up not much more than 2 per cent. of the population.

Autosuggestion is equally valuable as an aid to surgical practice. A broken bone—the sceptic's last resource—cannot of course be treated by autosuggestion alone. A surgeon must be called in to mend it. But when the limb has been rightly set and the necessary mechanical precautions have been taken, autosuggestion will provide the best possible conditions for recovery. It can prevent lameness, stiffness, unsightly deformity and the other evils which a broken limb is apt to entail, and it will shorten considerably the normal period of convalescence.

It is sometimes stated that the results obtained by autosuggestion are not permanent. This objection is really artificial, arising from the fact that we ignore the true nature of autosuggestion and regard it merely as a remedy. When we employ autosuggestion to heal a malady our aim is so to leaven the Unconscious with healthful thoughts, that not only will that specific malady be excluded, but all others with it. Autosuggestion should not only remove a particular form of disease, but the tendency to all disease.

If after an ailment has been removed we allow our mind to revert to unhealthy thoughts, they will tend to realise themselves in the same way as any others, and we may again fall a victim to ill-health. Our sickness may take the same form as on the preceding occasion, or it may not. That will depend on the nature of our thought. But by the regular employment of the general formula we can prevent any such recurrence. Instead of reverting to unhealthy states of mind we shall progressively strengthen the healthy and creative thought that has already given us health, so that with each succeeding day our defence will be more impenetrable. Not only do we thus avoid a relapse into former ailments but we clear out of our path those which lie in wait for us in the future.

We saw that in the Nancy clinic some of the cures effected are almost instantaneous. It would be a mistake, however, to embark on the practice of Induced Autosuggestion with the impression that we are going to be miraculously healed in the space of a few days. Granted sufficient faith, such a result would undoubtedly ensue; nay, more, we have records of quite a number of such cases, even where the help of a second person has not been called in. Here is an example. A friend of mine, M. Albert P., of Bordeaux, had suffered for more than ten years with neuralgia of the face. Hearing of Coué, he wrote to him, and received instructions to repeat the general formula. He did so, and on the second day the neuralgia had vanished and has never since returned. But such faith is not common. Immediate cures are the exception, and it will be safer for us to look forward to a gradual and progressive improvement. In this way we shall guard against disappointment. It may be added that Coué prefers the gradual cure, finding it more stable and less likely to be disturbed by adverse conditions.

We should approach autosuggestion in the same reasonable manner as we approach any other scientific discovery. There is no hocus-pocus about it, nor are any statements made here which experience cannot verify. But the attitude we should beware most of is that of the intellectual amateur, who makes the vital things of life small coin to exchange with his neighbour of the dinner-table. Like religion, autosuggestion is a thing to practise. A man may be conversant with all the creeds in Christendom and be none the better for it; while some simple soul, loving God and his fellows, may combine the high principles of Christianity in his life without any acquaintance with theology. So it is with autosuggestion.

Autosuggestion is just as effective in the treatment of moral delinquencies as in that of physical ills. Drunkenness, kleptomania, the drug habit, uncontrolled or perverted sexual desires, as well as minor failings of character, are all susceptible to its action. It is as powerful in small things as in great. By particular suggestions we can modify our tastes. We can acquire a relish for the dishes we naturally dislike, and make disagreeable medicine taste pleasant. So encouraging has been its application to the field of morals that Coué is trying to gain admittance to the French state reformatories. So far, the official dislike for innovations has proved a barrier, but there is good reason to hope that in the near future the application of this method to the treatment of the criminal will be greatly extended.