"To purge the veins
Of melancholy, and clear the heart
Of those black fumes that make it smart;
And clear the brain of misty fogs
Which dull our senses, our souls clog."
—Burton.
Hypnosis and suggestion have suffered from those people who put back every reform many years—quacks and cranks—for while science, with open mind, was testing this new treatment, the quacks exploited it up hill and down dale.
Yet there is nothing supernatural in suggestion, for we employ it on ourselves and others every hour we live. Conscience consists only of the countless stored-up suggestions of our education, which by opposing any contrary suggestions, cause uneasiness.
Many of us conform through life to the suggestions of others, affection, awe, hero-worship and fear taking the place of reason.
The most resolute of men are influenced by tactful suggestions, which quietly "tip-toe" on to the margin of consciousness, awaken ideas which link up more and more associations, until an avalanche is started which forces itself on to the field of consciousness, the subject thinking the idea is his own.