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diff --git a/27203-h/27203-h.htm b/27203-h/27203-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..73378f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/27203-h/27203-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3318 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Self Mastery Through Conscious +Autosuggestion, by Emile Coué</title> +<style type="text/css"> + body {margin-top:100px; + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align:justify} + hr { width: 100%; + height: 5px; } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 75%;} +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Self Mastery Through Conscious +Autosuggestion, by Emile Coué + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion + +Author: Emile Coué + +Release Date: November 8, 2008 [EBook #27203] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELF MASTERY *** + + + + +Produced by Ruth Hart + + + + + +</pre> + +<p>[Note: many of the people quoted in this text are identified only by their +initials along with either a dash or three periods. For consistency's sake, I have +used four dashes for each person instead of periods. I have also added +quotation marks where appropriate. Finally, I have made the following +spelling change: I congraulate you to I congratulate you. ]</p> + +<center> +<br> +<br> + +<p>SELF MASTERY THROUGH CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION</p> + +<p>by</p> + +<p>EMILE COUÉ</p><br> + +<p>AMERICAN LIBRARY SERVICE<br> +PUBLISHERS<br> +500 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK</p><br> + +<p>Copyright 1922<br> +<i>by</i><br> +AMERICAN LIBRARY SERVICE<br> +<i>All Translation Rights Reserved</i></p><br> +<br> +CONTENTS<br> +<br> + +<table> +<tr> +<td><a href="#1">Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, by <i>Emile +Coué</i></a></td> + +<td align="right"> 5</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#2">Thoughts and Precepts, by <i>Emile Coué</i></a></td> + +<td align="right"> 36</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#3">Observations on What Autosuggestion Can Do, by <i>Emile +Coué</i></a></td> + +<td align="right"> 43</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#4">Education As It Ought To Be, by <i>Emile Coué</i></a></td> + +<td align="right"> 50</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#5">A Survey of the "Séances" at M. Emile Coué's</a></td> + +<td align="right"> 55</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#6">Letters from Patients Treated by the Coué Method</a></td> + +<td align="right"> 62, 72, 75</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#7">The Miracle Within, by <i>M. Burnet-Provins</i></a></td> + +<td align="right"> 80</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#8">Some Notes on the Journey of M. Coué to Paris in October, +1919</a></td> + +<td align="right"> 85</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td><a href="#9">Everything for Everyone! by Mme. Emile Leon</a></td> + +<td align="right"> 88</td> +</tr> +</table><br> +<br> +<img src="Images/coue.png" width="361" height="534" alt="[Illustration: coue]"> +</center><br> +<a name="1"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>SELF MASTERY THROUGH CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION</p> + +<p>Suggestion, or rather Autosuggestion, is quite a new subject, and yet at the same time +it is as old as the world.</p> + +<p>It is new in the sense that until now it has been wrongly studied and in consequence +wrongly understood; it is old because it dates from the appearance of man on the earth. +In fact autosuggestion is an instrument that we possess at birth, and in this instrument, +or rather in this force, resides a marvelous and incalculable power, which according to +circumstances produces the best or the worst results. Knowledge of this force is useful +to each one of us, but it is peculiarly indispensable to doctors, magistrates, lawyers, +and to those engaged in the work of education.</p> + +<p>By knowing how to practise it <i>consciously</i> it is possible in the first place to +avoid provoking in others bad autosuggestions which may have disastrous consequences, and +secondly, consciously to provoke good ones instead, thus bringing physical health to the +sick, and moral health to the neurotic and the erring, the unconscious victims of +anterior autosuggestions, and to guide into the right path those who had a tendency to +take the wrong one.</p><br> + +<p>THE CONSCIOUS SELF AND THE UNCONSCIOUS SELF</p> + +<p>In order to understand properly the phenomena of suggestion, or to speak more +correctly of autosuggestion, it is necessary to know that two absolutely distinct selves +exist within us. Both are intelligent, but while one is conscious the other is +unconscious. For this reason the existence of the latter generally escapes notice. It is +however easy to prove its existence if one merely takes the trouble to examine certain +phenomena and to reflect a few moments upon them. Let us take for instance the following +examples:</p> + +<p>Every one has heard of somnambulism; every one knows that a somnambulist gets up at +night <i>without waking</i>, leaves his room after either dressing himself or not, goes +downstairs, walks along corridors, and after having executed certain acts or accomplished +certain work, returns to his room, goes to bed again, and shows next day the greatest +astonishment at finding work finished which he had left unfinished the day before.</p> + +<p>It is however he himself who has done it without being aware of it. What force has his +body obeyed if it is not an unconscious force, in fact his unconscious self?</p> + +<p>Let us now examine the alas, too frequent case of a drunkard attacked by <i>delirium +tremens</i>. As though seized with madness he picks up the nearest weapon, knife, hammer, +or hatchet, as the case may be, and strikes furiously those who are unlucky enough to be +in his vicinity. Once the attack is over, he recovers his senses and contemplates with +horror the scene of carnage around him, without realizing that he himself is the author +of it. Here again is it not the unconscious self which has caused the unhappy man to act +in this way? [*]</p> + +<p>[*] And what aversions, what ills we create for ourselves, everyone of us and in every +domain by not "immediately" bringing into play "good conscious autosuggestions" against +our "bad unconscious autosuggestions," thus bringing about the disappearance of all +unjust suffering.</p> + +<p>If we compare the conscious with the unconscious self we see that the conscious self +is often possessed of a very unreliable memory while the unconscious self on the contrary +is provided with a marvelous and impeccable memory which registers without our knowledge +the smallest events, the least important acts of our existence. Further, it is credulous +and accepts with unreasoning docility what it is told. Thus, as it is the unconscious +that is responsible for the functioning of all our organs but the intermediary of the +brain, a result is produced which may seem rather paradoxical to you: that is, if it +believes that a certain organ functions well or ill or that we feel such and such an +impression, the organ in question does indeed function well or ill, or we do feel that +impression.</p> + +<p>Not only does the unconscious self preside over the functions of our organism, but +also over <i>all our actions whatever they are</i>. It is this that we call imagination, +and it is this which, contrary to accepted opinion, <i>always</i> makes us act even, and +<i>above all</i>, against <i>our will</i> when there is antagonism between these two +forces.</p><br> + +<p>WILL AND IMAGINATION</p> + +<p>If we open a dictionary and look up the word "will", we find this definition: "The +faculty of freely determining certain acts". We accept this definition as true and +unattackable, although nothing could be more false. This will that we claim so proudly, +always <i>yields</i> to the imagination. It is an <i>absolute</i> rule that admits of no +<i>exception</i>.</p> + +<p>"Blasphemy! Paradox!" you will exclaim. "Not at all! On the contrary, it is the purest +truth," I shall reply.</p> + +<p>In order to convince yourself of it, open your eyes, look round you and try to +understand what you see. You will then come to the conclusion that what I tell you is not +an idle theory, offspring of a sick brain but the simple expression of a <i>fact</i>.</p> + +<p>Suppose that we place on the ground a plank 30 feet long by 1 foot wide. It is evident +that everybody will be capable of going from one end to the other of this plank without +stepping over the edge. But now change the conditions of the experiment, and imagine this +plank placed at the height of the towers of a cathedral. Who then will be capable of +advancing even a few feet along this narrow path? Could you hear me speak? Probably not. +Before you had taken two steps you would begin to tremble, and <i>in spite of every +effort of your will</i> you would be certain to fall to the ground.</p> + +<p>Why is it then that you would not fall if the plank is on the ground, and why should +you fall if it is raised to a height above the ground? Simply because in the first case +you imagine that it is easy to go to the end of this plank, while in the second case you +<i>imagine</i> that you <i>cannot</i> do so.</p> + +<p>Notice that your will is powerless to make you advance; if you <i>imagine</i> that you +<i>cannot</i>, it is <i>absolutely</i> impossible for you to do so. If tilers and +carpenters are able to accomplish this feat, it is because they think they can do it.</p> + +<p>Vertigo is entirely caused by the picture we make in our minds that we are going to +fall. This picture transforms itself immediately into fact <i>in spite of all the efforts +of our will</i>, and the more violent these efforts are, the quicker is the opposite to +the desired result brought about.</p> + +<p>Let us now consider the case of a person suffering from insomnia. If he does not make +any effort to sleep, he will lie quietly in bed. If on the contrary he tries to force +himself to sleep by his <i>will</i>, the more efforts he makes, the more restless he +becomes.</p> + +<p>Have you not noticed that the more you try to remember the name of a person which you +have forgotten, the more it eludes you, until, substituting in your mind the idea "I +shall remember in a minute" to the idea "I have forgotten", the name comes back to you of +its own accord without the least effort?</p> + +<p>Let those of you who are cyclists remember the days when you were learning to ride. +You went along clutching the handle bars and frightened of falling. Suddenly catching +sight of the smallest obstacle in the road you tried to avoid it, and the more efforts +you made to do so, the more surely you rushed upon it.</p> + +<p>Who has not suffered from an attack of uncontrollable laughter, which bursts out more +violently the more one tries to control it?</p> + +<p>What was the state of mind of each person in these different circumstances? "<i>I do +not want</i> to fall but I <i>cannot help</i> doing so"; "I <i>want</i> to sleep but I +<i>cannot</i>"; "I <i>want</i> to remember the name of Mrs. So and So, but I +<i>cannot</i>"; "I <i>want</i> to avoid the obstacle, but I <i>cannot</i>"; "I +<i>want</i> to stop laughing, but I <i>cannot</i>."</p> + +<p>As you see, in each of these conflicts it is always the <i>imagination</i> which gains +the victory over the <i>will</i>, without any exception.</p> + +<p>To the same order of ideas belongs the case of the leader who rushes forward at the +head of his troops and always carries them along with him, while the cry "Each man for +himself!" is almost certain to cause a defeat. Why is this? It is because in the first +case the men <i>imagine</i> that they must go <i>forward</i>, and in the second they +<i>imagine</i> that they are conquered and must fly for their lives.</p> + +<p>Panurge was quite aware of the contagion of example, that is to say the action of the +imagination, when, to avenge himself upon a merchant on board the same boat, he bought +his biggest sheep and threw it into the sea, certain beforehand that the entire flock +would follow, which indeed happened.</p> + +<p>We human beings have a certain resemblance to sheep, and involuntarily, we are +irresistibly impelled to follow other people's examples, <i>imagining</i> that we cannot +do otherwise.</p> + +<p>I could quote a thousand other examples but I should fear to bore you by such an +enumeration. I cannot however pass by in silence this fact which shows the enormous power +of the imagination, or in other words of the unconscious in its struggle against the +<i>will</i>.</p> + +<p>There are certain drunkards who wish to give up drinking, but who cannot do so. Ask +them, and they will reply in all sincerity that they desire to be sober, that drink +disgusts them, but that they are irresistibly impelled to drink against their +<i>will</i>, in spite of the harm they know it will do them.</p> + +<p>In the same way certain criminals commit crimes <i>in spite of themselves</i>, and +when they are asked why they acted so, they answer "I could not help it, something +impelled me, it was stronger than I."</p> + +<p>And the drunkard and the criminal speak the truth; they are forced to do what they do, +for the simple reason they imagine they cannot prevent themselves from doing so. Thus we +who are so proud of our will, who believe that we are free to act as we like, are in +reality nothing but wretched puppets of which our imagination holds all the strings. We +only cease to be puppets when we have learned to guide our imagination.</p><br> + +<p>SUGGESTION AND AUTOSUGGESTION</p> + +<p>According to the preceding remarks we can compare the imagination to a torrent which +fatally sweeps away the poor wretch who has fallen into it, in spite of his efforts to +gain the bank. This torrent seems indomitable; but if you know how, you can turn it from +its course and conduct it to the factory, and there you can transform its force into +movement, heat, and electricity.</p> + +<p>If this simile is not enough, we may compare the imagination--"the madman at home" as +it has been called--to an unbroken horse which has neither bridle nor reins. What can the +rider do except let himself go wherever the horse wishes to take him? And often if the +latter runs away, his mad career only comes to end in the ditch. If however the rider +succeeds in putting a bridle on the horse, the parts are reversed. It is no longer the +horse who goes where he likes, it is the rider who obliges the horse to take him wherever +he wishes to go.</p> + +<p>Now that we have learned to realize the enormous power of the unconscious or +imaginative being, I am going to show how this self, hitherto considered indomitable, can +be as easily controlled as a torrent or an unbroken horse. But before going any further +it is necessary to define carefully two words that are often used without being properly +understood. These are the words <i>suggestion</i> and <i>autosuggestion</i>.</p> + +<p>What then is suggestion? It may be defined as "the act of imposing an idea on the +brain of another". Does this action really exist? Properly speaking, no. Suggestion does +not indeed exist by itself. It does not and cannot exist except on the <i>sine qua +non</i> condition of transforming itself into <i>autosuggestion</i> in the subject. This +latter word may be defined as "the implanting of an idea in oneself by oneself."</p> + +<p>You may make a suggestion to someone; if the unconscious of the latter does not accept +the suggestion, if it has not, as it were, digested it, in order to transform it into +<i>autosuggestion</i>, it produces no result. I have myself occasionally made a more or +less commonplace suggestion to ordinarily very obedient subjects quite unsuccessfully. +The reason is that the unconscious of the subject refused to accept it and did not +transform it into <i>autosuggestion</i>.</p><br> + +<p>THE USE OF AUTOSUGGESTION</p> + +<p>Let us now return to the point where I said that we can control and lead our +imagination, just as a torrent or an unbroken horse can be controlled. To do so, it is +enough in the first place to know that this is possible (of which fact almost everyone is +ignorant) and secondly, to know by what means it can be done. Well, the means is very +simple; it is that which we have used every day since we came into the world, without +wishing or knowing it and absolutely unconsciously, but which unfortunately for us, we +often use wrongly and to our own detriment. This means is <i>autosuggestion</i>.</p> + +<p>Whereas we constantly give ourselves unconscious autosuggestions, all we have to do is +to give ourselves conscious ones, and the process consists in this: first, to weigh +carefully in one's mind the things which are to be the object of the autosuggestion, and +according as they require the answer "yes" or "no" to repeat several times without +thinking of anything else: "This thing is coming", or "this thing is going away"; "this +thing will, or will not happen, etc., etc. . . ." [*] If the unconscious accepts this +suggestion and transforms it into an autosuggestion, the thing or things are realized in +every particular.</p> + +<p>[*] Of course the thing must be in our power.</p> + +<p>Thus understood, <i>autosuggestion</i> is nothing but hypnotism as I see it, and I +would define it in these simple words: <i>The influence of the imagination upon the moral +and physical being of mankind</i>. Now this influence is undeniable, and without +returning to previous examples, I will quote a few others.</p> + +<p>If you persuade yourself that you can do a certain thing, provided this thing be +<i>possible</i>, you will do it however difficult it may be. If on the contrary you +<i>imagine</i> that you cannot do the simplest thing in the world, it is impossible for +you to do it, and molehills become for you unscalable mountains.</p> + +<p>Such is the case of neurasthenics, who, believing themselves incapable of the least +effort, often find it impossible even to walk a few steps without being exhausted. And +these same neurasthenics sink more deeply into their depression, the more efforts they +make to throw it off, like the poor wretch in the quicksands who sinks in all the deeper +the more he tries to struggle out.</p> + +<p>In the same way it is sufficient to think a pain is going, to feel it indeed disappear +little by little, and inversely, it is enough to think that one suffers in order to feel +the pain begin to come immediately.</p> + +<p>I know certain people who predict in advance that they will have a sick headache on a +certain day, in certain circumstances, and on that day, in the given circumstances, sure +enough, they feel it. They brought their illness on themselves, just as others cure +theirs by <i>conscious autosuggestion</i>.</p> + +<p>I know that one generally passes for mad in the eyes of the world if one dares to put +forward ideas which it is not accustomed to hear. Well, at the risk of being thought so, +I say that if certain people are ill mentally and physically, it is that they +<i>imagine</i> themselves to be ill mentally or physically. If certain others are +paralytic without having any lesion to account for it, it is that they <i>imagine</i> +themselves to be paralyzed, and it is among such persons that the most extraordinary +cures are produced. If others again are happy or unhappy, it is that they imagine +themselves to be so, for it is possible for two people in exactly the same circumstances +to be, the one <i>perfectly happy</i>, the other <i>absolutely wretched</i>.</p> + +<p>Neurasthenia, stammering, aversions, kleptomania, certain cases of paralysis, are +nothing but the result of unconscious autosuggestion, that is to say the result of the +action of the <i>unconscious</i> upon the physical and moral being.</p> + +<p>But if our unconscious is the source of many of our ills, it can also bring about the +cure of our physical and mental ailments. It can not only repair the ill it has done, but +cure real illnesses, so strong is its action upon our organism.</p> + +<p>Shut yourself up alone in a room, seat yourself in an armchair, close your eyes to +avoid any distraction, and concentrate your mind for a few moments on thinking: "Such and +such a thing is going to disappear", or "Such and such a thing is coming to pass."</p> + +<p>If you have really made the autosuggestion, that is to say, if your unconscious has +assimilated the idea that you have presented to it, you are astonished to see the thing +you have thought come to pass. (Note that it is the property of ideas autosuggested to +exist within us unrecognized, and we can only know of their existence by the effect they +produce.) But above all, and this is an essential point, the <b>will must not be brought +into play in practising autosuggestion</b>; for, if it is not in agreement with the +imagination, if one thinks: "I will make such and such a thing happen", and the +imagination says: "You are willing it, but it is not going to be", not only does one not +obtain what one wants, but even exactly the reverse is brought about.</p> + +<p>This remark is of <b>capital</b> importance, and explains why results are so +unsatisfactory when, in treating moral ailments, one strives to <i>re-educate</i> the +will. It is the <i>training of the imagination</i> which is necessary, and it is thanks +to this shade of difference that my method has often succeeded where others--and those +not the least considered--have failed. From the numerous experiments that I have made +daily for twenty years, and which I have examined with minute care, I have been able to +deduct the following conclusions which I have summed up as laws:</p> + +<p>1. When the will and the imagination are antagonistic, it is always the imagination +which wins, <i>without any exception</i>.</p> + +<p>2. In the conflict between the will and the imagination, the force of the imagination +is in <i>direct ratio to the square of the will</i>.</p> + +<p>3. When the will and the imagination are in agreement, one does not add to the other, +but one is multiplied by the other.</p> + +<p>4. The imagination can be directed.</p> + +<p>(The expressions "In direct ratio to the square of the will" and "Is multiplied by" +are not rigorously exact. They are simply illustrations destined to make my meaning +clearer.)</p> + +<p>After what has just been said it would seem that nobody ought to be ill. That is quite +true. Every illness, whatever it may be, <i>can</i> yield to <i>autosuggestion</i>, +daring and unlikely as my statement may seem; I do not say <i>does always yield</i>, but +<i>can yield</i>, which is a different thing.</p> + +<p>But in order to lead people to practise conscious autosuggestion they must be taught +how, just as they are taught to read or write or play the piano.</p> + +<p><i>Autosuggestion</i> is, as I said above, an instrument that we possess at birth, and +with which we play unconsciously all our life, as a baby plays with its rattle. It is +however a dangerous instrument; it can wound or even kill you if you handle it +imprudently and unconsciously. It can on the contrary save your life when you know how to +employ it <i>consciously</i>. One can say of it as Aesop said of the tongue: "It is at +the same time the best and the worst thing in the world".</p> + +<p>I am now going to show you how everyone can profit by the beneficent action of +<i>autosuggestion</i> consciously applied. In saying "every one", I exaggerate a little, +for there are two classes of persons in whom it is difficult to arouse conscious +autosuggestion:</p> + +<p>1. The mentally undeveloped who are not capable of understanding what you say to +them.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Those who are unwilling to understand</i>.</p><br> + +<p>HOW TO TEACH PATIENTS TO MAKE AUTOSUGGESTIONS</p> + +<p>The principle of the method may be summed up in these few words: <i>It is impossible +to think of two things at once</i>, that is to say that two ideas may be in +juxtaposition, but they cannot be superimposed in our mind.</p> + +<p><i>Every thought entirely filling our mind becomes true for us and tends to transform +itself into action</i>.</p> + +<p>Thus if you can make a sick person think that her trouble is getting better, it will +disappear; if you succeed in making a kleptomaniac think that he will not steal any more, +he will cease to steal, etc., etc.</p> + +<p>This training which perhaps seems to you an impossibility, is, however, the simplest +thing in the world. It is enough, by a series of appropriate and graduated experiments, +to teach the subject, as it were the A. B. C. of conscious thought, and here is the +series: by following it to the letter one can be absolutely sure of obtaining a good +result, except with the two categories of persons mentioned above.</p> + +<p><i>First experiment</i>.[*] <i>Preparatory</i>.--Ask the subject to stand upright, +with the body as stiff as an iron bar, the feet close together from toe to heel, while +keeping the ankles flexible as if they were hinges. Tell him to make himself like a plank +with hinges at its base, which is balanced on the ground. Make him notice that if one +pushes the plank slightly either way it falls as a mass without any resistance, in the +direction in which it is pushed. Tell him that you are going to pull him back by the +shoulders and that he must let himself fall in your arms without the slightest +resistance, turning on his ankles as on hinges, that is to say keeping the feet fixed to +the ground. Then pull him back by the shoulders and if the experiment does not succeed, +repeat it until it does, or nearly so.</p> + +<p>[*] These experiments are those of Sage of Rochester.</p> + +<p><i>Second experiment</i>.--Begin by explaining to the subject that in order to +demonstrate the action of the imagination upon us, you are going to ask him in a moment +to think: "I am falling backwards, I am falling backwards. . . ." Tell him that he must +have no thought but this in his mind, that he must not reflect or wonder if he is going +to fall or not, or think that if he falls he may hurt himself, etc., or fall back +purposely to please you, but that if he really feels something impelling him to fall +backwards, he must not resist but obey the impulse.</p> + +<p>Then ask your subject to raise the head high and to shut his eyes, and place your +right fist on the back of his neck, and your left hand on his forehead, and say to him: +"Now think: I am falling backwards, I am falling backwards, etc., etc. . ." and, indeed, +"You are falling backwards, You . . . are . . . fall . . . ing . . . back . . . wards, +etc." At the same time slide the left hand lightly backwards to the left temple, above +the ear, and remove very slowly but with a continuous movement the right fist.</p> + +<p>The subject is immediately felt to make a slight movement backwards, and either to +stop himself from falling or else to fall completely. In the first case, tell him that he +has resisted, and that he did not think just that he was falling, but that he might hurt +himself if he did fall. That is true, for if he had not thought the latter, he would have +fallen like a block. Repeat the experiment using a tone of command as if you would force +the subject to obey you. Go on with it until it is completely successful or very nearly +so. The operator should stand a little behind the subject, the left leg forward and the +right leg well behind him, so as not to be knocked over by the subject when he falls. +Neglect of this precaution might result in a double fall if the person is heavy.</p> + +<p><i>Third experiment</i>.--Place the subject facing you, the body still stiff, the +ankles flexible, and the feet joined and parallel. Put your two hands on his temples +without any pressure, look fixedly, without moving the eyelids, at the root of his nose, +and tell him to think: "I am falling forward, I am falling forward . . ." and repeat to +him, stressing the syllables, "You are fall . . . ing . . . for . . . ward, You are fall +. . . ing . . . for . . . ward . . ." without ceasing to look fixedly at him.</p> + +<p><i>Fourth experiment</i>.--Ask the subject to clasp his hands as tight as possible, +that is to say, until the fingers tremble slightly, look at him in the same way as in the +preceding experiment and keep your hands on his as though to squeeze them together still +more tightly. Tell him to think that he cannot unclasp his fingers, that you are going to +count three, and that when you say "three" he is to try to separate his hands while +thinking all the time: "I cannot do it, I cannot do it . . ." and he will find it +impossible. Then count very slowly, "one, two, three", and add immediately, detaching the +syllables: "You . . . can . . . not . . . do . . . it. . . . You . . . can . . . not . . +. do . . . it. . . ." If the subject is thinking properly, "I cannot do it", not only is +he unable to separate his fingers, but the latter clasp themselves all the more tightly +together the more efforts he makes to separate them. He obtains in fact exactly the +contrary to what he wants. In a few moments say to him: "Now think: 'I can do it,'" and +his fingers will separate themselves.</p> + +<p>Be careful always to keep your eyes fixed on the root of the subject's nose, and do +not allow him to turn his eyes away from yours for a single moment. If he is able to +unclasp his hands, do not think it is your own fault, it is the subject's, he has not +properly thought: "I cannot". Assure him firmly of this, and begin the experiment +again.</p> + +<p>Always use a tone of command which suffers no disobedience. I do not mean that it is +necessary to raise your voice; on the contrary it is preferable to employ the ordinary +pitch, but stress every word in a dry and imperative tone.</p> + +<p>When these experiments have been successful, all the others succeed equally well and +can be easily obtained by carrying out to the letter the instructions given above.</p> + +<p>Some subjects are very sensitive, and it is easy to recognize them by the fact that +the contraction of their fingers and limbs is easily produced. After two or three +successful experiments, it is no longer necessary to say to them: "Think this", or "think +that"; You need only, for example, say to them simply--but in the imperative tone +employed by all good suggestionists--"Close your hands; now you cannot open them". "Shut +your eyes; now you cannot open them," and the subject finds it absolutely impossible to +open the hands or the eyes in spite of all his efforts. Tell him in a few moments: "You +can do it now," and the de-contraction takes place instantaneously.</p> + +<p>These experiments can be varied to infinity. Here are a few more: Make the subject +join his hands, and suggest that they are welded together; make him put his hand on the +table, and suggest that it is stuck to it; tell him that he is fixed to his chair and +cannot rise; make him rise, and tell him he cannot walk; put a penholder on the table and +tell him that it weighs a hundredweight, and that he cannot lift it, etc., etc.</p> + +<p>In all these experiments, I cannot repeat too often, it is not <i>suggestion</i> +properly so-called which produces the phenomena, but the <i>autosuggestion</i> which is +consecutive to the suggestion of the operator.</p><br> + +<p>METHOD OF PROCEDURE IN CURATIVE SUGGESTION</p> + +<p>When the subject has passed through the preceding experiments and has understood them, +he is ripe for curative suggestion. He is like a cultivated field in which the seed can +germinate and develop, whereas before it was but rough earth in which it would have +perished.</p> + +<p>Whatever ailment the subject suffers from, whether it is physical or mental, it is +important to proceed always in the same way, and to use the same words with a few +variations according to the case.</p> + +<p>Say to the subject: Sit down and close your eyes. I am not going to try and put you +to sleep as it is quite unnecessary. I ask you to close your eyes simply in order that +your attention may not be distracted by the objects around you. Now tell yourself that +every word I say is going to fix itself in your mind, and be printed, engraved, and +encrusted in it, that, there, it is going to stay fixed, imprinted, and encrusted, and +that without your will or knowledge, in fact perfectly unconsciously on your part, you +yourself and your whole organism are going to obey. In the first place I say that every +day, three times a day, in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, at the usual meal +times, you will feel hungry, that is to say, you will experience the agreeable sensation +which makes you think and say: "Oh! how nice it will be to have something to eat!" You +will then eat and enjoy your food, without of course overeating. You will also be careful +to masticate it properly so as to transform it into a sort of soft paste before +swallowing it. In these conditions you will digest it properly, and so feel no +discomfort, inconvenience, or pain of any kind either in the stomach or intestines. You +will assimilate what you eat and your organism will make use of it to make blood, muscle, +strength and energy, in a word: Life.</p> + +<p>Since you will have digested your food properly, the function of excretion will be +normal, and every morning, on rising, you will feel the need of evacuating the bowels, +and without ever being obliged to take medicine or to use any artifice, you will obtain a +normal and satisfactory result.</p> + +<p>Further, every night from the time you wish to go to sleep till the time you wish to +wake next morning, you will sleep deeply, calmly, and quietly, without nightmares, and on +waking you will feel perfectly well, cheerful, and active.</p> + +<p>Likewise, if you occasionally suffer from depression, if you are gloomy and prone to +worry and look on the dark side of things, from now onwards you will cease to do so, and, +instead of worrying and being depressed and looking on the dark side of things, you are +going to feel perfectly cheerful, possibly without any special reason for it, just as you +used to feel depressed for no particular reason. I say further still, that even if you +have real reason to be worried and depressed you are not going to be so.</p> + +<p>If you are also subject to occasional fits of impatience or ill-temper you will cease +to have them: on the contrary you will be always patient and master of yourself, and the +things which worried, annoyed, or irritated you, will henceforth leave you absolutely +indifferent and perfectly calm.</p> + +<p>If you are sometimes attacked, pursued, haunted, by bad and unwholesome ideas, by +apprehensions, fears, aversions, temptations, or grudges against other people, all that +will be gradually lost sight of by your imagination, and will melt away and lose itself +as though in a distant cloud where it will finally disappear completely. As a dream +vanishes when we wake, so will all these vain images disappear.</p> + +<p>To this I add that all your organs are performing their functions properly. The heart +beats in a normal way and the circulation of the blood takes place as it should; the +lungs are carrying out their functions, as also the stomach, the intestines, the liver, +the biliary duct, the kidneys and the bladder. If at the present moment any of them is +acting abnormally, that abnormality is becoming less every day, so that quite soon it +will have vanished completely, and the organ will have recovered its normal function. +Further, if there should be any lesions in any of these organs, they will get better from +day to day and will soon be entirely healed. (With regard to this, I may say that it is +not necessary to know which organ is affected for it to be cured. Under the influence of +the autosuggestion "Every day, in every respect, I am getting better and better", the +unconscious acts upon the organ which it can pick out itself.)</p> + +<p>I must also add--and it is extremely important--that if up to the present you have +lacked confidence in yourself, I tell you that this self-distrust will disappear little +by little and give place to self-confidence, based on the knowledge of this force of +incalculable power which is in each one of us. It is absolutely necessary for every human +being to have this confidence. Without it one can accomplish nothing, with it one can +accomplish whatever one likes, (within reason, of course). You are then going to have +confidence in yourself, and this confidence gives you the assurance that you are capable +of accomplishing perfectly well whatever you wish to do,--<i>on condition that it is +reasonable</i>,--and whatever it is your duty to do.</p> + +<p>So when you wish to do something reasonable, or when you have a duty to perform, +always think that it is <i>easy</i>, and make the words <i>difficult, impossible, I +cannot, it is stronger than I, I cannot prevent myself from</i> . . . , disappear from +your vocabulary; they are not English. What is English is: "<i>It is easy and I can</i>". +By considering the thing easy it becomes so for you, although it might seem difficult to +others. You will do it quickly and well, and without fatigue, because you do it without +effort, whereas if you had considered it as difficult or impossible it would have become +so for you, simply because you would have thought it so.</p> + +<p>To these general suggestions which will perhaps seem long and even childish to some of +you, but which are necessary, must be added those which apply to the particular case of +the patient you are dealing with.</p> + +<p>All these suggestions must be made in a monotonous and soothing voice (always +emphasizing the essential words), which although it does not actually send the subject to +sleep, at least makes him feel drowsy, and think of nothing in particular.</p> + +<p>When you have come to the end of the series of suggestions you address the subject in +these terms: "In short, I mean that from every point of view, physical as well as mental, +you are going to enjoy excellent health, better health than that you have been able to +enjoy up to the present. Now I am going to count three, and when I say 'Three', you will +open your eyes and come out of the passive state in which you are now. You will come out +of it quite naturally, without feeling in the least drowsy or tired, on the contrary, you +will feel strong, vigorous, alert, active, full of life; further still, you will feel +very cheerful and fit in every way. 'ONE--TWO--THREE--' At the word 'three' the subject +opens his eyes, always with a smile and an expression of well-being and contentment on +his face."</p> + +<p>Sometimes,--though rarely,--the patient is cured on the spot; at other times, and this +is more generally the case, he finds himself relieved, his pain or his depression has +partially or totally disappeared, though only for a certain lapse of time.</p> + +<p>In every case it is necessary to renew the suggestions more or less frequently +according to your subject, being careful always to space them out at longer and longer +intervals, according to the progress obtained until they are no longer necessary,--that +is to say when the cure is complete.</p> + +<p>Before sending away your patient, you must tell him that he carries within him the +instrument by which he can cure himself, and that you are, as it were, only a professor +teaching him to use this instrument, and that he must help you in your task. Thus, every +morning before rising, and every night on getting into bed, he must shut his eyes and in +thought transport himself into your presence, and then repeat twenty times consecutively +in a monotonous voice, counting by means of a string with twenty knots in it, this little +phrase:</p> + +<p>"EVERY DAY, IN EVERY RESPECT, I AM GETTING BETTER AND BETTER." In his mind he should +emphasize the words "<i>in every respect</i>" which applies to every need, mental or +physical. This general suggestion is more efficacious than special ones.</p> + +<p>Thus it is easy to realize the part played by the giver of the suggestions. He is not +a master who gives orders, but a friend, a guide, who leads the patient step by step on +the road to health. As all the suggestions are given in the interest of the patient, the +unconscious of the latter asks nothing better than to assimilate them and transform them +into autosuggestions. When this has been done, the cure is obtained more or less rapidly +according to circumstances.</p><br> + +<p>THE SUPERIORITY OF THIS METHOD</p> + +<p>This method gives absolutely marvelous results, and it is easy to understand why. +Indeed, by following out my advice, it is impossible to fail, except with the two classes +of persons mentioned above, who fortunately represent barely 3 per cent of the whole. If, +however, you try to put your subjects to sleep right away, without the explanations and +preliminary experiments necessary to bring them to accept the suggestions and to +transform them into autosuggestions you cannot and will not succeed except with +peculiarly sensitive subjects, and these are rare. Everybody may become so by training, +but very few are so sufficiently without the preliminary instruction that I recommend, +which can be done in a few minutes.</p> + +<p>Formerly, imagining that suggestions could only be given during sleep, I always tried +to put my patient to sleep; but on discovering that it was not indispensable, I left off +doing it in order to spare him the dread and uneasiness he almost always experiences when +he is told that he is going to be sent to sleep, and which often makes him offer, in +spite of himself, an involuntary resistance. If, on the contrary, you tell him that you +are not going to put him to sleep as there is no need to do so, you gain his confidence. +He listens to you without fear or any ulterior thought, and it often happens--if not the +first time, anyhow very soon--that, soothed by the monotonous sound of your voice, he +falls into a deep sleep from which he awakes astonished at having slept at all.</p> + +<p>If there are sceptics among you--as I am quite sure there are--all I have to say to +them is: "Come to my house and see what is being done, and you will be convinced by +fact."</p> + +<p>You must not however run away with the idea that autosuggestion can only be brought +about in the way I have described. It is possible to make suggestions to people without +their knowledge and without any preparation. For instance, if a doctor who by his title +alone has a suggestive influence on his patient, tells him that he can do nothing for +him, and that his illness is incurable, he provokes in the mind of the latter an +autosuggestion which may have the most disastrous consequences; if however he tells him +that his illness is a serious one, it is true, but that with care, time, and patience, he +can be cured, he sometimes and even often obtains results which will surprise him.</p> + +<p>Here is another example: if a doctor after examining his patient, writes a +prescription and gives it to him without any comment, the remedies prescribed will not +have much chance of succeeding; if, on the other hand, he explains to his patient that +such and such medicines must be taken in such and such conditions and that they will +produce certain results, those results are practically certain to be brought about.</p> + +<p>If in this hall there are medical men or brother chemists, I hope they will not think +me their enemy. I am on the contrary their best friend. On the one hand I should like to +see the theoretical and practical study of suggestion on the syllabus of the medical +schools for the great benefit of the sick and of the doctors themselves; and on the other +hand, in my opinion, every time that a patient goes to see his doctor, the latter should +order him one or even several medicines, even if they are not necessary. As a matter of +fact, when a patient visits his doctor, it is in order to be told what medicine will cure +him. He does not realize that it is the hygiene and regimen which do this, and he +attaches little importance to them. It is a medicine that he wants.</p> + +<p>In my opinion, if the doctor only prescribes a regimen without any medicine, his +patient will be dissatisfied; he will say that he took the trouble to consult him for +nothing, and often goes to another doctor. It seems to me then that the doctor should +always prescribe medicines to his patient, and, as much as possible, medicines made up by +himself rather than the standard remedies so much advertised and which owe their only +value to the advertisement. The doctor's own prescriptions will inspire infinitely more +confidence than So and So's pills which anyone can procure easily at the nearest drug +store without any need of a prescription.</p><br> + +<p>HOW SUGGESTION WORKS</p> + +<p>In order to understand properly the part played by suggestion or rather by +autosuggestion, it is enough to know that the <i>unconscious self is the grand director +of all our functions</i>. Make this believed, as I said above, that a certain organ which +does not function well must perform its function, and instantly the order is transmitted. +The organ obeys with docility, and either at once or little by little performs its +functions in a normal manner. This explains simply and clearly how by means of suggestion +one can stop haemorrhages, cure constipation, cause fibrous tumours to disappear, cure +paralysis, tubercular lesions, varicose, ulcers, etc.</p> + +<p>Let us take for example, a case of dental haemorrhage which I had the opportunity of +observing in the consulting room of M. Gauthé, a dentist at Troyes. A young lady +whom I had helped to cure herself of asthma from which she had suffered for eight years, +told me one day that she wanted to have a tooth out. As I knew her to be very sensitive, +I offered to make her feel nothing of the operation. She naturally accepted with pleasure +and we made an appointment with the dentist. On the day we had arranged we presented +ourselves at the dentist's and, standing opposite my patient, I looked fixedly at her, +saying: "You feel nothing, you feel nothing, etc., etc." and then while still continuing +the suggestion I made a sign to the dentist. In an instant the tooth was out without +Mlle. D---- turning a hair. As fairly often happens, a haemorrhage followed, but I told +the dentist that I would try suggestion without his using a haemostatic, without knowing +beforehand what would happen. I then asked Mlle. D---- to look at me fixedly, and I +suggested to her that in two minutes the haemorrhage would cease of its own accord, and +we waited. The patient spat blood again once or twice, and then ceased. I told her to +open her mouth, and we both looked and found that a clot of blood had formed in the +dental cavity.</p> + +<p>How is this phenomenon to be explained? In the simplest way. Under the influence of +the idea: "The haemorrhage is to stop", the unconscious had sent to the small arteries +and veins the order to stop the flow of blood, and, obediently, they contracted +<i>naturally</i>, as they would have done artificially at the contact of a haemostatic +like adrenalin, for example.</p> + +<p>The same reasoning explains how a fibrous tumour can be made to disappear. The +unconscious having accepted the idea "It is to go" the brain orders the arteries which +nourish it, to contract. They do so, refusing their services, and ceasing to nourish the +tumour which, deprived of nourishment, dies, dries up, is reabsorbed and +disappears.</p><br> + +<p>THE USE OF SUGGESTION FOR THE CURE OF MORAL AILMENTS AND TAINTS EITHER CONGENITAL OR +ACQUIRED</p> + +<p>Neurasthenia, so common nowadays, generally yields to suggestion constantly practised +in the way I have indicated. I have had the happiness of contributing to the cure of a +large number of neurasthenics with whom every other treatment had failed. One of them had +even spent a month in a special establishment at Luxemburg without obtaining any +improvement. In six weeks he was completely cured, and he is now the happiest man one +would wish to find, after having thought himself the most miserable. Neither is he ever +likely to fall ill again in the same way, for I showed him how to make use of conscious +autosuggestion and he does it marvelously well.</p> + +<p>But if suggestion is useful in treating moral complaints and physical ailments, may it +not render still greater services to society, in turning into honest folks the wretched +children who people our reformatories and who only leave them to enter the army of crime. +Let no one tell me it is impossible. The remedy exists and I can prove it.</p> + +<p>I will quote the two following cases which are very characteristic, but here I must +insert a few remarks in parenthesis. To make you understand the way in which suggestion +acts in the treatment of moral taints I will use the following comparison. Suppose our +brain is a plank in which are driven nails which represent the ideas, habits, and +instincts, which determine our actions. If we find that there exists in a subject a bad +idea, a bad habit, a bad instinct,--as it were, a bad nail, we take another which is the +good idea, habit, or instinct, place it on top of the bad one and give a tap with a +hammer--in other words we make a suggestion. The new nail will be driven in perhaps a +fraction of an inch, while the old one will come out to the same extent. At each fresh +blow with the hammer, that is to say at each fresh suggestion, the one will be driven in +a fraction further and the other will be driven out the same amount, until, after a +certain number of blows, the old nail will come out completely and be replaced by the new +one. When this substitution has been made, the individual obeys it.</p> + +<p>Let us return to our examples. Little M----, a child of eleven living at Troyes, was +subject night and day to certain accidents inherent to early infancy. He was also a +kleptomaniac, and, of course, untruthful into the bargain. At his mother's request I +treated him by suggestion. After the first visit the accidents ceased by day, but +continued at night. Little by little they became less frequent, and finally, a few months +afterwards, the child was completely cured. In the same period his thieving propensities +lessened, and in six months they had entirely ceased.</p> + +<p>This child's brother, aged eighteen, had conceived a violent hatred against another of +his brothers. Every time that he had taken a little too much wine, he felt impelled to +draw a knife and stab his brother. He felt that one day or other he would end by doing +so, and he knew at the same time that having done so he would be inconsolable. I treated +him also by suggestion, and the result was marvelous. After the first treatment he was +cured. His hatred for his brother had disappeared, and they have since become good +friends and got on capitally together. I followed up the case for a long time, and the +cure was permanent.</p> + +<p>Since such results are to be obtained by suggestion, would it not be beneficial--I +might even say <i>indispensable</i>--to take up this method and introduce it into our +reformatories? I am absolutely convinced that if suggestion were daily applied to vicious +children, more than 50 per cent could be reclaimed. Would it not be an immense service to +render society, to bring back to it sane and well members of it who were formerly +corroded by moral decay?</p> + +<p>Perhaps I shall be told that suggestion is a dangerous thing, and that it can be used +for evil purposes. This is no valid objection, first because the practice of suggestion +would only be confided [by the patient] to reliable and honest people,--to the +reformatory doctors, for instance,--and on the other hand, those who seek to use it for +evil ask no one's permission.</p> + +<p>But even admitting that it offers some danger (which is not so) I should like to ask +whoever proffers the objection, to tell me what thing we use that is not dangerous? Is it +steam? gunpowder? railways? ships? electricity? automobiles? aeroplanes? Are the poisons +not dangerous which we, doctors and chemists, use daily in minute doses, and which might +easily destroy the patient if, in a moment's carelessness, we unfortunately made a +mistake in weighing them out?</p><br> + +<p>A FEW TYPICAL CURES</p> + +<p>This little work would be incomplete if it did not include a few examples of the cures +obtained. It would take too long, and would also perhaps be somewhat tiring if I were to +relate all those in which I have taken part. I will therefore content myself by quoting a +few of the most remarkable.</p> + +<p>Mlle. M---- D----, of Troyes, had suffered for eight years from asthma which obliged +her to sit up in bed nearly all night, fighting for breath. Preliminary experiments show +that she is a very sensitive subject. She sleeps immediately, and the suggestion is +given. From the first treatment there is an enormous improvement. The patient has a good +night, only interrupted by one attack of asthma which only lasts a quarter of an hour. In +a very short time the asthma disappears completely and there is no relapse later on.</p> + +<p>M. M----, a working hosier living at Sainte-Savine near Troyes, paralyzed for two +years as the result of injuries at the junction of the spinal column and the pelvis. The +paralysis is only in the lower limbs, in which the circulation of the blood has +practically ceased, making them swollen, congested, and discolored. Several treatments, +including the antisyphilitic, have been tried without success. Preliminary experiments +successful; suggestion applied by me, and autosuggestion by the patient for eight days. +At the end of this time there is an almost imperceptible but still appreciable movement +of the left leg. Renewed suggestion. In eight days the improvement is noticeable. Every +week or fortnight there is an increased improvement with progressive lessening of the +swelling, and so on. Eleven months afterwards, on the first of November, 1906, the +patient goes downstairs alone and walks 800 yards, and in the month of July, 1907, goes +back to the factory where he has continued to work since that time, with no trace of +paralysis.</p> + +<p>M. A---- G----, living at Troyes, has long suffered from enteritis, for which +different treatments have been tried in vain. He is also in a very bad state mentally, +being depressed, gloomy, unsociable, and obsessed by thoughts of suicide. Preliminary +experiments easy, followed by suggestion which produces an appreciable result from the +very day. For three months, daily suggestions to begin with, then at increasingly longer +intervals. At the end of this time, the cure is complete, the enteritis has disappeared, +and his <i>morals</i> have become excellent. As the cure dates back twelve years without +the shadow of a relapse, it may be considered as permanent. M. G----, is a striking +example of the effects that can be produced by suggestion, or rather by autosuggestion. +At the same time as I made suggestions to him from the physical point of view, I also did +so from the mental, and he accepted both suggestions equally well. Every day his +confidence in himself increased, and as he was an excellent workman, in order to earn +more, he looked out for a machine which would enable him to work at home for his +employer. A little later a factory owner having seen with his own eyes what a good +workman he was, entrusted him with the very machine he desired. Thanks to his skill he +was able to turn out much more than an ordinary workman, and his employer, delighted with +the result, gave him another and yet another machine, until M. G----, who, but for +suggestion, would have remained an ordinary workman, is now in charge of six machines +which bring him a very hand some profit.</p> + +<p>Mme. D----, at Troyes, about 30 years of age. She is in the last stages of +consumption, and grows thinner daily in spite of special nourishment. She suffers from +coughing and spitting, and has difficulty in breathing; in fact, from all appearances she +has only a few months to live. Preliminary experiments show great sensitiveness, and +suggestion is followed by immediate improvement. From the next day the morbid symptoms +begin to lessen. Every day the improvement becomes more marked, the patient rapidly puts +on flesh, although she no longer takes special nourishment. In a few months the cure is +apparently complete. This person wrote to me on the 1st of January, 1911, that is to say +eight months after I had left Troyes, to thank me and to tell me that, although pregnant, +she was perfectly well.</p> + +<p>I have purposely chosen these cases dating some time back, in order to show that the +cures are permanent, but I should like to add a few more recent ones.</p> + +<p>M. X----, Post Office clerk at Luneville. Having lost one of his children in January, +1910, the trouble produces in him a cerebral disturbance which manifests itself by +uncontrollable nervous trembling. His uncle brings him to me in the month of June. +Preliminary experiments followed by suggestion. Four days afterwards the patient returns +to tell me that the trembling has disappeared. I renew the suggestion and tell him to +return in eight days. A week, then a fortnight, then three weeks, then a month, pass by +without my hearing any more of him. Shortly afterwards his uncle comes and tells me that +he has just had a letter from his nephew, who is perfectly well. He has taken on again +his work as telegraphist which he had been obliged to give up, and the day before, he had +sent off a telegram of 170 words without the least difficulty. He could easily, he added +in his letter, have sent off an even longer one. Since then he has had no relapse.</p> + +<p>M. Y----, of Nancy, has suffered from neurasthenia for several years. He has +aversions, nervous fears, and disorders of the stomach and intestines. He sleeps badly, +is gloomy and is haunted by ideas of suicide; he staggers when he walks like a drunken +man, and can think of nothing but his trouble. All treatments have failed and he gets +worse and worse; a stay in a special nursing home for such cases has no effect whatever. +M. Y---- comes to see me at the beginning of October, 1910. Preliminary experiments +comparatively easy. I explain to the patient the principles of autosuggestion, and the +existence within us of the conscious and the unconscious self, and then make the required +suggestion. For two or three days M. Y---- has a little difficulty with the explanations +I have given him. In a short time light breaks in upon his mind, and he grasps the whole +thing. I renew the suggestion, and he makes it himself too every day. The improvement, +which is at first slow, becomes more and more rapid, and in a month and a half the cure +is complete. The ex-invalid who had lately considered himself the most wretched of men, +now thinks himself the happiest.</p> + +<p>M. E----, of Troyes. An attack of gout; the right ankle is inflamed and painful, and +he is unable to walk. The preliminary experiments show him to be a very sensitive +subject. After the first treatment he is able to regain, without the help of his stick, +the carriage which brought him, and the pain has ceased. The next day he does not return +as I had told him to do. Afterwards his wife comes alone and tells me that that morning +her husband had got up, put on his shoes, and gone off on his bicycle to visit his yards +(he is a painter). It is needless to tell you my utter astonishment. I was not able to +follow up this case, as the patient never deigned to come and see me again, but some time +afterward I heard that he had had no relapse.</p> + +<p>Mme. T----, of Nancy. Neurasthenia, dyspepsia, gastralgia, enteritis, and pains in +different parts of the body. She has treated herself for several years with a negative +result. I treat her by suggestion, and she makes autosuggestions for herself every day. +From the first day there is a noticeable improvement which continues without +interruption. At the present moment this person has long been cured mentally and +physically, and follows no regimen. She thinks that she still has perhaps a slight touch +of enteritis, but she is not sure.</p> + +<p>Mme. X----, a sister of Mme. T----. Acute neurasthenia; she stays in bed a fortnight +every month, as it is totally impossible for her to move or work; she suffers from lack +of appetite, depression, and digestive disorders. She is cured by one visit, and the cure +seems to be permanent as she has had no relapse.</p> + +<p>Mme. H----, at Maxéville. General eczema, which is particularly severe on the +left leg. Both legs are inflamed, above all at the ankles; walking is difficult and +painful. I treat her by suggestion. That same evening Mme. H---- is able to walk several +hundred yards without fatigue. The day after the feet and ankles are no longer swollen +and have not been swollen again since. The eczema disappears rapidly.</p> + +<p>Mme. F----, at Laneuveville. Pains in the kidneys and the knees. The illness dates +from ten years back and is becoming worse every day. Suggestion from me, and +autosuggestion from herself. The improvement is immediate and increases progressively. +The cure is obtained rapidly, and is a permanent one.</p> + +<p>Mme. Z----, of Nancy, felt ill in January, 1910, with congestion of the lungs, from +which she had not recovered two months later. She suffers from general weakness, loss of +appetite, bad digestive trouble, rare and difficult bowel action, insomnia, copious +night-sweats. After the first suggestion, the patient feels much better, and two days +later she returns and tells me that she feels quite well. Every trace of illness has +disappeared, and all the organs are functioning normally. Three or four times she had +been on the point of sweating, but each time prevented it by the use of conscious +autosuggestion. From this time Mme. Z---- has enjoyed perfectly good health.</p> + +<p>M. X----, at Belfort, cannot talk for more than ten minutes or a quarter of an hour +without becoming completely aphonous. Different doctors consulted find no lesion in the +vocal organs, but one of them says that M. X---- suffers from senility of the larynx, and +this conclusion confirms him in the belief that he is incurable. He comes to spend his +holidays at Nancy, and a lady of my acquaintance advises him to come and see me. He +refuses at first, but eventually consents in spite of his absolute disbelief in the +effects of suggestion. I treat him in this way nevertheless, and ask him to return two +days afterwards. He comes back on the appointed day, and tells me that the day before he +was able to converse the whole afternoon without becoming aphonous. Two days later he +returns again to say that his trouble had not reappeared, although he had not only +conversed a great deal but even sung the day before. The cure still holds good and I am +convinced that it will always do so.</p> + +<p>Before closing, I should like to say a few words on the application of my method to +the training and correction of children by their parents.</p> + +<p>The latter should wait until the child is asleep, and then one of them should enter +his room with precaution, stop a yard from his bed, and repeat 15 or 20 times in a murmur +all the things they wish to obtain from the child, from the point of view of health, +work, sleep, application, conduct, etc. He should then retire as he came, taking great +care not to awake the child. This extremely simple process gives the best possible +results, and it is easy to understand why. When the child is asleep his body and his +conscious self are at rest and, as it were, annihilated; his unconscious self however is +awake; it is then to the latter alone that one speaks, and as it is very credulous it +accepts what one says to it without dispute, so that, little by little, the child arrives +at making of himself what his parents desire him to be.</p> <p>CONCLUSION</p> + +<p>What conclusion is to be drawn from all this?</p> + +<p>The conclusion is very simple and can be expressed in a few words: We possess within +us a force of incalculable power, which, when we handle it unconsciously is often +prejudicial to us. If on the contrary we direct it in a conscious and wise manner, it +gives us the mastery of ourselves and allows us not only to escape and to aid others to +escape, from physical and mental ills, but also to live in relative happiness, whatever +the conditions in which we may find ourselves.</p> + +<p>Lastly, and above all, it should be applied to the moral regeneration of those who +have wandered from the right path.</p><br> +<a name="2"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>THOUGHTS AND PRECEPTS OF EMILE COUÉ</p> + +<p><i>taken down literally by Mme. Emile Leon, his disciple.</i></p> + +<p>Do not spend your time in thinking of illness you might have, for if you have no real +ones you will create artificial ones.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>When you make conscious autosuggestions, do it naturally, simply, with conviction, and +above all <i>without any effort.</i> If unconscious and bad autosuggestions are so often +realized, it is because they are made without effort.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Be sure that you will obtain what you want, and you will obtain it, so long as it is +within reason.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>To become master of oneself it is enough to think that one is becoming so. . . . Your +hands tremble, your steps falter, tell yourself that all that is going to cease, and +little by little it will disappear. It is not in me but in yourself that you must have +confidence, for it is in yourself alone that dwells the force which can cure you. My part +simply consists in teaching you to make use of that force.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Never discuss things you know nothing about, or you will only make yourself +ridiculous.</p> + +<p>Things which seem miraculous to you have a perfectly natural cause; if they seem +extraordinary it is only because the cause escapes you. When you know that, you realize +that nothing could be more natural.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>When the will and the imagination are in conflict, it is always the imagination which +wins. Such a case is only too frequent, and then not only do we not do what we want, but +just the contrary of what we want. For example: the more we try to go to sleep, the more +we try to remember the name of some one, the more we try to stop laughing, the more we +try to avoid an obstacle, while <i>thinking that we cannot do so,</i> the more excited we +become, the less we can remember the name, the more uncontrollable our laughter becomes, +and the more surely we rush upon the obstacle.</p> + +<p>It is then the imagination and not the will which is the most important faculty of +man; and thus it is a serious mistake to advise people to train their wills, it is the +training of their imaginations which they ought to set about.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Things are not for us what they are, but what they seem; this explains the +contradictory evidence of persons speaking in all good faith.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>By believing oneself to be the master of one's thoughts one becomes so.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Everyone of our thoughts, good or bad, becomes concrete, materializes, and becomes in +short a reality.</p> + +<p>We are what we make ourselves and not what circumstances make us.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Whoever starts off in life with the idea: "I shall succeed", always does succeed +because he does what is necessary to bring about this result. If only one opportunity +presents itself to him, and if this opportunity has, as it were, only one hair on its +head, he seizes it by that one hair. Further, he often brings about unconsciously or not, +propitious circumstances.</p> + +<p>He who on the contrary always doubts himself, never succeeds in doing anything. He +might find himself in the midst of an army of opportunities with heads of hair like +Absalom, and yet he would not see them and could not seize a single one, even if he had +only to stretch out his hand in order to do so. And if he brings about circumstances, +they are generally unfavorable ones. Do not then blame fate, you have only yourself to +blame.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>People are always preaching the doctrine of effort, but this idea must be repudiated. +Effort means will, and will means the possible entrance of the imagination in opposition, +and the bringing about of the exactly contrary result to the desired one.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Always think that what you have to do is easy, if possible. In this state of mind you +will not spend more of your strength than just what is necessary; if you consider it +difficult, you will spend ten, twenty times more strength than you need; in other words +you will waste it.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Autosuggestion is an instrument which you have to learn how to use just as you would +for any other instrument. An excellent gun in inexperienced hands only gives wretched +results, but the more skilled the same hands become, the more easily they place the +bullets in the target.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Conscious autosuggestion, made with confidence, with faith, with perseverance, +realizes itself mathematically, within reason.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>When certain people do not obtain satisfactory results with autosuggestion, it is +either because they lack confidence, or because they make efforts, which is the more +frequent case. To make good suggestions it is absolutely necessary to do it <i>without +effort.</i> The latter implies the use of the <i>will,</i> which must be entirely put +aside. One must have recourse <i>exclusively</i> to the imagination.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Many people who have taken care of their health all their life in vain, imagine that +they can be immediately cured by autosuggestion. It is a mistake, for it is not +reasonable to think so. It is no use expecting from suggestion more than it can normally +produce, that is to say, a progressive improvement which little by little transforms +itself into a complete cure, when that is possible.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>The means employed by the healers all go back to autosuggestion, that is to say that +these methods, whatever they are, words, incantations, gestures, staging, all produce in +the patient the autosuggestion of recovery.</p> + +<p>Every illness has two aspects unless it is exclusively a mental one. Indeed, on every +physical illness a mental one comes and attaches itself. If we give to the physical +illness the coefficient 1, the mental illness may have the coefficient 1, 2, 10, 20, 50, +100, and more. In many cases this can disappear instantaneously, and if its coefficient +is a very high one, 100 for instance, while that of the physical ailment is 1, only this +latter is left, a 101st of the total illness; such a thing is called a miracle, and yet +there is nothing miraculous about it.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Contrary to common opinion, physical diseases are generally far more easily cured than +mental ones.</p> + +<p>Buffon used to say: "Style is the man." We would put in that: "Man is what he thinks". +The fear of failure is almost certain to cause failure, in the same way as the idea of +success brings success, and enables one always to surmount the obstacles that may be met +with.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Conviction is as necessary to the suggester as to his subject. It is this conviction, +this faith, which enables him to obtain results where all other means have failed.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>It is not the person who acts, it is the method.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . Contrary to general opinion, suggestion, or autosuggestion can bring about the +cure of organic lesions.</p> + +<p>Formerly it was believed that hypnotism could only be applied to the treatment of +nervous illnesses; its domain is far greater than that. It is true that hypnotism acts +through the intermediary of the nervous system; but the nervous system dominates the +whole organism. The muscles are set in movement by the nerves; the nerves regulate the +circulation by their direct action on the heart, and by their action on the blood vessels +which they dilate or contract. The nerves act then on all the organs, and by their +intermediation all the unhealthy organs may be affected.</p> + +<p>Docteur Paul Joire, <i>Président of the Societe universelle d'Etudes +psychiques</i> (Bull. No. 4 of the S. L. P.)</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . Moral influence has a considerable value as a help in healing. It is a factor of +the first order which it would be very wrong to neglect, since in medicine as in every +branch of human activity it is the <i>spiritual forces</i> which lead the world.</p> + +<p>Docteur Louis Renon, <i>Lecturing professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, and +doctor at the Necker Hospital.</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . Never lose sight of the great principle of autosuggestion: <i>Optimism always +and in spite of everything, even when events do not seem to justify it.</i></p> + +<p>René de Drabois, (Bull. 11 of the S. L. P. A.)</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Suggestion sustained by faith is a formidable force.</p> + +<p>Docteur A. L., Paris, (July, 1920.)</p> + +<p>To have and to inspire unalterable confidence, one must walk with the assurance of +perfect sincerity, and in order to possess this assurance and sincerity, one must wish +for <i>the good of others</i> more than one's own.</p> + +<p>"Culture de la Force Morale", by C. Baudouin.</p><a name="3"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>OBSERVATIONS ON WHAT AUTOSUGGESTION CAN DO</p> + +<p>Young B----, 13 years old, enters the hospital in January 1912. He has a very serious +heart complaint characterized by a peculiarity in the respiration; he has such difficulty +in breathing that he can only take very slow and short steps. The doctor who attends him, +one of our best practitioners, predicts a rapid and fatal issue. The invalid leaves the +hospital in February, <i>no better.</i> A friend of his family brings him to me and when +I see him I regard him as a hopeless case, but nevertheless I make him pass through the +preliminary experiments which are marvelously successful. After having made him a +suggestion and advised him to do the same thing for himself, I tell him to come back in +two days. When he does so I notice to my astonishment a <i>remarkable</i> improvement in +his respiration and his walking. I renew the suggestion and two days afterwards, when he +returns the improvement has continued, and so it is at every visit. So rapid is the +progress that he makes that, three weeks after the first visit, my little patient is able +to go <i>on foot</i> with his mother to the plateau of Villers. He can breathe with ease +and almost normally, he can walk without getting out of breath, and can mount the stairs, +which was impossible for him before. As the improvement is steadily maintained, little +B---- asks me if he can go and stay with his grandmother at Carignan. As he seems well I +advise him to do so, and he goes off, but sends me news of himself from time to time. His +health is becoming better and better, he has a good appetite, digests and assimilates his +food well, and the feeling of oppression has entirely disappeared. Not only can he walk +like everybody else, but he even runs and chases butterflies.</p> + +<p>He returns in October, and I can hardly recognize him, for the bent and puny little +fellow who had left me in May has become a tall upright boy, whose face beams with +health. He has grown 12 centimeters and gained 19 lbs. in weight. Since then he has lived +a perfectly normal life; he runs up and down stairs, rides a bicycle, and plays football +with his comrades.</p> + +<p>Mlle. X----, of Geneva, aged 13. Sore on the temple considered by several doctors as +being of tubercular origin; for a year and a half it has refused to yield to the +different treatments ordered. She is taken to M. Baudouin, a follower of M. Coué +at Geneva, who treats her by suggestion and tells her to return in a week. When she comes +back the sore has healed.</p> + +<p>Mlle. Z----, also of Geneva. Has had the right leg drawn up for 17 years, owing to an +abscess above the knee which had had to be operated upon. She asks M. Baudouin to treat +her by suggestion, and hardly has he begun when the leg can be bent and unbent in a +normal manner. (There was of course a psychological cause in this case.)</p> + +<p>Mme. Urbain Marie, aged 55, at Maxéville. Varicose nicer, dating from more than +a year and a half. First visit in September, 1915, and a second one a week later. In a +fortnight the cure is complete.</p> + +<p>Emile Chenu, 10 years old, Grande-Rue, 19 (a refugee from Metz). Some unknown heart +complaint with vegetations. Every night loses blood by the mouth. Comes first in July, +1915, and after a few visits the loss of blood diminishes, and continues to do so until +by the end of November it has ceased completely. The vegetations also seem to be no +longer there, and by August, 1916, there had been no relapse.</p> + +<p>M. Hazot, aged 48, living at Brin. Invalided the 15th of January, 1915, with +<i>specific</i> chronic bronchitis, which is getting worse every day. He comes in to me +in October, 1915. The improvement is immediate, and has been maintained since. At the +present moment, although he is not completely cured, he is very much better.</p> + +<p>M. B----, has suffered for 24 years from frontal sinus, which had necessitated eleven +operations!! In spite of all that had been done the sinus persisted, accompanied by +intolerable pains. The physical state of the patient was pitiable in the extreme; he had +violent and almost continuous pain, extreme weakness; lack of appetite, could neither +walk, read nor sleep, etc. His nerves were in nearly as bad a state as his body, and in +spite of the treatment of such men as Bernheim of Nancy, Dejerine of Paris, Dubois of +Bern, X---- of Strasburg, his ill health not only continued but even grew worse every +day. The patient comes to me in September, 1915, on the advice of one of my other +patients. From that moment he made rapid progress and at the present time (1921) he is +perfectly well. It is a real resurrection.</p> + +<p>M. Nagengast, aged 18, rue Sellier, 39. Suffering from Pott's disease. Comes to me in +the beginning of 1914, having been encased for six months in a plaster corset. Comes +regularly twice a week to the "séances," and makes for himself the usual +suggestion morning and evening. Improvement soon shows itself, and in a short time the +patient is able to do without his plaster casing. I saw him again in April, 1916. He was +completely cured, and was carrying on his duties as postman, after having been assistant +to an ambulance at Nancy, where he had stayed until it was done away with.</p> + +<p>M. D----, at Jarville. Paralysis of the left upper eyelid. Goes to the hospital where +he receives injections, as a result of which the eyelid is raised. The left eye was, +however, deflected outwards for more than 45 degrees, and an operation seemed to be +necessary. It was at this moment that he came to me, and thanks to autosuggestion the eye +went back little by little to its normal position.</p> + +<p>Mme. L----, of Nancy. Continuous pain in the right side of the face, which had gone on +for 10 years. She has consulted many doctors whose prescriptions seemed of no use, and an +operation is judged to be necessary. The patient comes to me on the 25th of July, 1916, +and there is an immediate improvement. In about ten days' time the pain has entirely +vanished, and up to the 20th of December, there had been no recurrence.</p> + +<p>T---- Maurice, aged 8 and a half, at Nancy: club feet. A first operation cures, or +nearly so, the left foot, while the right one still remains crippled. Two subsequent +operations do no good. The child is brought to me for the first time in February, 1915; +he walks pretty well, thanks to two contrivances which hold his feet straight. The first +visit is followed by an immediate improvement, and after the second, the child is able to +walk in ordinary boots. The improvement becomes more and more marked, by the 17th +of April the child is quite well. The right foot, however, is not now quite so strong as +it was, owing to a sprain which he gave it in February, 1916.</p> + +<p>Mlle X----, at Blainville. A sore on the left foot, probably of specific origin. A +slight sprain has brought about a swelling of the foot accompanied by acute pains. +Different treatments have only had a negative effect, and in a little while a suppurating +sore appears which seems to indicate caries of the bone. Walking becomes more and more +painful and difficult in spite of the treatment. On the advice of a former patient who +had been cured, she comes to me, and there is noticeable relief after the first visits. +Little by little the swelling goes down, the pain becomes less intense, the suppuration +lessens, and finally the sore heals over. The process has taken a few months. At present +the foot is practically normal, but although the pain and swelling have entirely +disappeared, the back flexion of the foot is not yet perfect, which makes the patient +limp slightly.</p> + +<p>Mme. R----, of Chavigny. Metritis dating from 10 years back. Comes at the end of July, +1916. Improvement is immediate, the pain and loss of blood diminish rapidly, and by the +following 29th of September both have disappeared. The monthly period, which lasted from +eight to ten days, is now over in four.</p> + +<p>Mme. H----, rue Guilbert-de-Pivérécourt, at Nancy, aged 49. Suffers from +a varicose ulcer dating from September, 1914, which has treated according to her doctor's +advice, but without success. The lower part of the leg is enormous (the ulcer, which is +as large as a two franc piece and goes right down to the bone, is situated above the +ankle). The inflammation is very intense, the suppuration copious, and the pains +extremely violent. The patient comes for the first time in April, 1916, and the +improvement which is visible after the first treatment, continues without interruption. +By the 18th of February, 1917, the swelling has <i>entirely subsided,</i> and the pain +and irritation have disappeared. The sore is still there, but it is no larger than a pea +and it is only a few millimeters in depth; it still discharges very slightly. By 1920 the +cure has long been complete.</p> + +<p>Mlle. D----, at Mirecourt, 16 years of age. Has suffered from attacks of nerves for +three years. The attacks, at first infrequent, have gradually come at closer intervals. +When she comes to see me on the 1st of April, 1917, she has had three attacks in the +preceding fortnight. Up to the 18th of April she did not have any at all. I may add that +this young lady, from the time she began the treatment, was no longer troubled by the bad +headaches from which she had suffered almost constantly.</p> + +<p>Mme. M----, aged 43, rue d'Amance, 2, Malzéville. Comes at the end of 1916 for +violent pains in the head from which she has suffered all her life. After a few visits +they vanish completely. Two months afterwards she realized that she was also cured of a +prolapse of the uterus which she had not mentioned to me, and of which she was not +thinking when she made her autosuggestion. (This result is due to the words: <i>"in every +respect"</i> contained in the formula used morning and evening.)</p> + +<p>Mme. D----, Choisy-le-Roi. Only one general suggestion from me in July, 1916, and +autosuggestion on her part morning and evening. In October of the same year this lady +tells me that she is cured of a prolapse of the uterus from which she had suffered for +more than twenty years. Up to April, 1920, the cure is still holding good. (Same remark +as in the preceding case.)</p> + +<p>Mme. Jousselin, aged 60, rue des Dominicains, 6. Comes on the 20th of July, 1917, for +a violent pain in the right leg, accompanied by considerable swelling of the whole limb. +She can only drag herself along with groans, but after the "séance," to her great +astonishment, she can walk <i>normally</i> without feeling the least pain. When she comes +back four days afterwards, she has had no return of the pain and the swelling has +subsided. This patient tells me that since she has attended the "séances" she has +also been cured of white discharges, and of enteritis from which she had long suffered. +(Same remark as above.) In November the cure is still holding good.</p> + +<p>Mlle. G. L.----, aged 15, rue du Montet, 88. Has stammered from infancy. Comes on the +20th of July, 1917, and the stammering ceases instantly. A month after I saw her again +and she had had no recurrence.</p> + +<p>M. Ferry (Eugène), aged 60, rue de la Côte, 56. For five years has +suffered from rheumatic pains in the shoulders and in the left leg. Walks with difficulty +leaning on a stick, and cannot lift the arms higher than the shoulders. Comes on the 17th +of September, 1917. After the first "séance," the pains vanish completely and the +patient can not only take long strides but even <i>run.</i> Still more, he can whirl both +arms like a windmill. In November the cure is still holding good.</p> + +<p>Mme. Lacour, aged 63, chemin des Sables. Pains in the face dating from more than +twenty years back. All treatments have failed. An operation is advised, but the patient +refuses to undergo it. She comes for the first time on July 25th, 1916, and four days +later the pain ceases. The cure has held good to this day.</p> + +<p>Mme. Martin, Grande-Rue (Ville-Vieille), 105. Inflammation of the uterus of 13 years +standing, accompanied by pains and white and red discharges. The period, which is very +painful, recurs every 22 or 23 days and lasts 10-12 days. Comes for the first time on the +15th of November, 1917, and returns regularly every week. There is visible improvement +after the first visit, which continues rapidly until at the beginning of January, 1918, +the inflammation has entirely disappeared; the period comes at more regular intervals and +without the slightest pain. A pain in the knee which the patient had had for 13 years was +also cured.</p> + +<p>Mme. Castelli, aged 41, living at Einville (M.-et M.). Has suffered from intermittent +rheumatic pains in the right knee for 13 years. Five years ago she had a more violent +attack than usual, the leg swells as well as the knee, then the lower part of the limb +atrophies, and the patient is reduced to walking very painfully with the aid of a stick +or crutch. She comes for the first time on the 5th of November, 1917. She goes away +<i>without the help of either crutch or stick.</i> Since then she no longer uses her +crutch at all, but occasionally makes use of her stick. The pain in the knee comes back +from time to time, but only very slightly.</p> + +<p>Mme. Meder, aged 52, at Einville. For six months has suffered from pain in the right +knee accompanied by swelling, which makes it impossible to bend the leg. Comes for the +first time on Dec. 7th, 1917. Returns on Jan. 4th, 1918, saying that she has almost +ceased to suffer and that she can walk normally. After that visit of the 4th, the pain +ceases entirely, and the patient walks like other people.</p> + +<p>EMILE COUÉ.</p><a name="4"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>EDUCATION AS IT OUGHT TO BE</p> + +<p>It may seem paradoxical but, nevertheless, the Education of a child ought to begin +before its birth.</p> + +<p>In sober truth, if a woman, a few weeks after conception, makes a mental picture of +the sex of the child she is going to bring forth into the world, of the physical and +moral qualities with which she desires to see it endowed and if she will continue during +the time of gestation to impress on herself the same mental image, the child will have +the sex and qualities desired.</p> + +<p>Spartan women only brought forth robust children, who grew to be redoubtable warriors, +because their strongest desire was to give such heroes to their country; whilst, at +Athens, mothers had intellectual children whose mental qualities were a hundredfold +greater than their physical attributes.</p> + +<p>The child thus engendered will be apt to accept readily good suggestions which may be +made to him and to transform them into autosuggestion which later, will influence the +course of his life. For you must know that all our words, all our acts, are only the +result of autosuggestions caused, for the most part, by the suggestion of example or +speech.</p> + +<p>How then should parents, and those entrusted with the education of children avoid +provoking bad autosuggestions and, on the other hand, influence good autosuggestions?</p> + +<p>In dealing with children, always be even-tempered and speak in a gentle but firm tone. +In this way they will become obedient without ever having the slightest desire to resist +authority.</p> + +<p>Above all--above all, avoid harshness and brutality, for there the risk is incurred of +influencing an autosuggestion of cruelty accompanied by hate.</p> + +<p>Moreover, avoid carefully, in their presence, saying evil of anyone, as too often +happens, when, without any deliberate intention, the absent nurse is picked to pieces in +the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>Inevitably this fatal example will be followed, and may produce later a real +catastrophe.</p> + +<p>Awaken in them a desire to know the reason of things and a love of Nature, and +endeavor to interest them by giving all possible explanations very clearly, in a +cheerful, good-tempered tone. You must answer their questions pleasantly, instead of +checking them with--"What a bother you are, do be quiet, you will learn that later."</p> + +<p>Never on any account say to a child, "You are lazy and good for nothing" because that +gives birth in him to the very faults of which you accuse him.</p> + +<p>If a child is lazy and does his tasks badly, you should say to him one day, even if it +is not true, "There this time your work is much better than it generally is. Well done". +The child, flattered by the unaccustomed commendation, will certainly work better the +next time, and, little by little, thanks to judicious encouragement, will succeed in +becoming a real worker.</p> + +<p>At all costs avoid speaking of illness before children, as it will certainly create in +them bad autosuggestions. Teach them, on the contrary, that health is the normal state of +man, and that sickness is an anomaly, a sort of backsliding which may be avoided by +living in a temperate, regular way.</p> + +<p>Do not create defects in them by teaching them to fear this or that, cold or heat, +rain or wind, etc. Man is created to endure such variations without injury and should do +so without grumbling.</p> + +<p>Do not make the child nervous by filling his mind with stories of hob-goblins and +were-wolves, for there is always the risk that timidity contracted in childhood will +persist later.</p> + +<p>It is necessary that those who do not bring up then children themselves should choose +carefully those to whom they are entrusted. To love them is not sufficient, they must +have the qualities you desire your children to possess.</p> + +<p>Awaken in them the love of work and of study, making it easier by explaining things +carefully and in a pleasant fashion, and by introducing in the explanation some anecdote +which will make the child eager for the following lesson.</p> + +<p>Above all impress on them that Work is essential for man, and that he who does not +work in some fashion or another, is a worthless, useless creature, and that all work +produces in the man who engages in it a healthy and profound satisfaction; whilst +idleness, so longed for and desired by some, produces weariness, neurasthenia, disgust of +life, and leads those who do not possess the means of satisfying the passions created by +idleness, to debauchery and even to crime.</p> + +<p>Teach children to be always polite and kind to all, and particularly to those whom the +chance of birth has placed in a lower class than their own, and also to respect age, and +never to mock at the physical or moral defects that age often produces.</p> + +<p>Teach them to love all mankind, without distinction of caste. That one must always be +ready to succor those who are in need of help, and that one must never be afraid of +spending time and money for those who are in need; in short, that they must think more of +others than of themselves.</p> + +<p>In so doing an inner satisfaction is experienced that the egoist ever seeks and never +finds.</p> + +<p>Develop in them self-confidence, and teach that, before embarking upon any +undertaking, it should be submitted to the control of reason, thus avoiding acting +impulsively, and, after having reasoned the matter out, one should form a decision by +which one abides, unless, indeed, some fresh fact proves you may have been mistaken.</p> + +<p>Teach them above all that every one must set out in life with a very definite idea +that he will succeed, and that, under the influence of this idea he will inevitably +succeed. Not indeed, that he should quietly remain expecting events to happen, but +because, impelled by this idea, he will do what is necessary to make it come true.</p> + +<p>He will know how to take advantage of opportunities, or even perhaps of the single +opportunity which may present itself, it may be only a single thread or hair, whilst he +who distrusts himself is a Constant Guignard with whom nothing succeeds, because his +efforts are all directed to that end.</p> + +<p>Such a one may indeed swim in an ocean of opportunities, provided with heads of hair +like Absalom himself, and he will be unable to seize a single hair, and often determines +himself the causes which make him fail; whilst he, who has the idea of success in +himself, often gives birth, in an unconscious fashion, to the very circumstances which +produce that same success.</p> + +<p>But above all, let parents and masters preach by example. A child is extremely +suggestive, let something turn up that he wishes to do, and he does it.</p> + +<p>As soon as children can speak, make them repeat morning and evening, twenty times +consecutively:</p> + +<p>"Day by day, in all respects, I grow better", which will produce in them an excellent +physical, moral and healthy atmosphere.</p> + +<p>If you make the following suggestion you will help the child enormously to eliminate +his faults, and to awaken in him the corresponding desirable qualities.</p> + +<p>Every night when the child is asleep, approach quietly, so as not to awaken him, to +within about three or four feet from his bed. Stand there, murmuring in a low monotonous +voice the thing or things you wish him to do.</p> + +<p>Finally, it is desirable that all teachers should, every morning, make suggestions to +their pupils, somewhat in the following fashion.</p> + +<p>Telling them to shut their eyes, they should say: "Children, I expect you always to be +polite and kind to everyone, obedient to your parents and teachers, when they give you an +order, or tell you anything; you will always listen to the order given or the fact told +without thinking it tiresome; you used to think it tiresome when you were reminded of +anything, but now you understand very well that it is for your good that you are told +things, and consequently, instead of being cross with those who speak to you, you will +now be grateful to them.</p> + +<p>"Moreover you will now love your work, whatever it may be; in your lessons you will +always enjoy those things you may have to learn, especially whatever you may not till now +have cared for.</p> + +<p>"Moreover when the teacher is giving a lesson in class, you will now devote all your +attention, solely and entirely to what he says, instead of attending to any silly things +said or done by your companions, and without doing or saying anything silly yourself.</p> + +<p>"Under these conditions as you are all intelligent, for, children, you are all +intelligent, you will understand easily and remember easily what you have learned. It +will remain embedded in your memory, ready to be at your service, and you will be able to +make use of it as soon as you need it.</p> + +<p>"In the same way when you are working at your lessons alone, or at home, when you are +accomplishing a task or studying a lesson, you will fix your attention solely on the work +you are doing, and you will always obtain good marks for your lessons."</p> + +<p>This is the Counsel, which, if followed faithfully and truly from henceforth, will +produce a race endowed with the highest physical and moral qualities.</p> + +<p>Emile Coué.</p><a name="5"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>A SURVEY OF THE "SÉANCES" AT M. COUÉ'S</p> + +<p>The town thrills at this name, for from every rank of society people come to him and +everyone is welcomed with the same benevolence, which already goes for a good deal. But +what is extremely poignant is at the end of the séance to see the people who came +in gloomy, bent, almost hostile (they were in pain), go away like everybody else; +unconstrained, cheerful, sometimes radiant (they are no longer in pain!!). With a strong +and smiling goodness of which he has the secret, M. Coué, as it were, holds the +hearts of those who consult him in his hand; he addresses himself in turn to the numerous +persons who come to consult him, and speaks to them in these terms:</p> + +<p>"Well, Madame, and what is your trouble? . . ."</p> + +<p>Oh, you are looking for two many whys and wherefores; what does the cause of your pain +matter to you? You are in pain, that is enough . . . I will teach you to get rid of that. +. . .</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>And you, Monsieur, your varicose ulcer is already better. That is good, very good +indeed, do you know, considering you have only been here twice; I congratulate you on the +result you have obtained. If you go on doing your autosuggestions properly, you will very +soon be cured. . . . You have had this ulcer for ten years, you say? What does that matter? +You might have had it twenty and more, and it could be cured just the same.</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>And you say that you have not obtained any improvement? . . . Do you know why? . . . +Simply because you lack confidence in yourself. When I tell you that you are better, you +feel better at once, don't you? Why? Because you have faith in me. Just believe in +yourself and you will obtain the same result.</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>Oh, Madame not so many details, I beg you! By looking out for the details you create +them, and you would want a list a yard long to contain all your maladies. As a matter of +fact, with you it is the mental outlook which is wrong. Well, make up your mind that it +is going to get better and it will be so. It's as simple as the Gospel. . . .</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>You tell me you have attacks of nerves every week. . . . Well, from to-day you are going +to do what I tell you and you will cease to have them. . . .</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>You have suffered from constipation for a long time? . . . What does it matter how +long it is? . . . You say it is forty years? Yes, I heard what you said, but it is none +the less true that you can be cured to-morrow; you hear, to-morrow, on condition, +naturally, of your doing exactly what I tell you to do, in the way I tell you to do it. . +. .</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>Ah! you have glaucoma, Madame. I cannot absolutely promise to cure you of that, for I +am not sure that I can. That does not mean that you cannot be cured, for I have known it +to happen in the case of a lady of Chalon-sur-Saône and another of Lorraine.</p> + +<p>Well, Mademoiselle, as you have not had your nervous attacks since you came here, +whereas you used to have them every day, you are cured. Come back sometimes all the same, +so that I may keep you going along the right lines.</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>The feeling of oppression will disappear with the lesions which will +disappear when you assimilate properly; that will come all in good time, but you +mustn't put the cart before the horse . . . it is the same with oppression as with heart trouble, it generally +diminishes very quickly. . . .</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>Suggestion does not prevent you from going on with your usual treatment. . . +. As for +the blemish you have on your eye, and which is lessening almost daily, the opacity and +the size are both growing less every day.</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>To a child (in a clear and commanding voice): "Shut your eyes, I am not going to talk +to you about lesions or anything else, you would not understand; the pain in your chest +is going away, and you won't want to cough any more."</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p><i>Observation.--</i>It is curious to notice that all those suffering from chronic +bronchitis are immediately relieved and their morbid symptoms rapidly disappear. . . +. Children, are very easy and very obedient subjects; their organism almost always obeys +immediately to suggestion.</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>To a person who complains of fatigue: Well, so do I. There are also days when it +tires me to receive people, but I receive them all the same and all day long. Do not say: +<i>"I cannot help it." "One can always overcome oneself."</i></p> + +<p><i>Observation.--</i>The idea of fatigue necessarily brings fatigue, and the idea that +we have a duty to accomplish always gives us the necessary strength to fulfill it. The +mind can and must remain master of the animal side of our nature.</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>The cause which prevents you from walking, whatever it is, is going to disappear +little by little every day: you know the proverb: <i>Heaven helps those who help +themselves.</i> Stand up two or three times a day supporting yourself on two persons, and +say to yourself firmly: <i>My kidneys are not so weak that I cannot do it, on the +contrary I can. . . .</i></p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>After having said: "Every day, in every respect, I am getting better and better," add: +"The people who are pursuing me <i>cannot</i> pursue me any more, they are not pursuing +me. . . ."</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>What I told you is quite true; it was enough to think that you had no more pain for +the pain to disappear; <i>do not think then that it may come back or it will come back. . +. .</i></p> + +<p>(A woman, sotto voice, "What patience he has! What a wonderfully painstaking +man!")</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>ALL THAT WE THINK BECOMES TRUE FOR US. WE MUST NOT THEN ALLOW OURSELVES TO THINK +WRONGLY.</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>THINK "MY TROUBLE IS GOING AWAY," JUST AS YOU THINK YOU CANNOT OPEN YOUR HANDS.</p> + +<p>The more you say: <i>"I will not,"</i> the more surely the contrary comes about. You +must say: <i>"It's going away,"</i> and think it. Close your hand and think properly: +"Now I cannot open it." Try! (she cannot), you see that your will is not much good to +you.</p> + +<p><i>Observation.--This is the essential point of the method.</i> In order to make +auto-suggestions, you must eliminate the <i>will</i> completely and only address yourself +to the <i>imagination,</i> so as to avoid a conflict between them in which the will would +be vanquished.</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>To become stronger as one becomes older seems paradoxical, but it is true.</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>For diabetes: Continue to use therapeutic treatments; I am quite willing to make +suggestions to you, but I cannot promise to cure you.</p> + +<p><i>Observation.</i>--I have seen diabetes completely cured several times, and what is +still more extraordinary, the albumen diminish and even disappear from the urine of +certain patients.</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>This obsession must be a real nightmare. The people you used to detest are becoming +your friends, you like them and they like you.</p> + +<p>Ah, but to <i>will</i> and to <i>desire</i> is not the <i>same</i> thing.</p> + +<p>---</p> + +<p>Then, after having asked them to close their eyes, M. Coué gives to his +patients the little suggestive discourse which is to be found in "Self Mastery." When +this is over, he again addresses himself to each one separately, saying to each a few +words on his case:</p> + +<p>To the first: "You, Monsieur, are in pain, but I tell you that, from to-day, the cause +of this pain whether it is called arthritis or anything else, is going to disappear with +the help of your unconscious, and the cause having disappeared, the pain will gradually +become less and less, and in a short time it will be nothing but a moment."</p> + +<p>To the second person: "Your stomach does not function properly, it is more or less +dilated. Well, as I told you just now, your digestive functions are going to work better +and better, and I add that the dilatation of the stomach is going to disappear little by +little. Your organism is going to give back progressively to your stomach the force and +elasticity it had lost, and by degrees as this phenomenon is produced, the stomach will +return to its primitive form and will carry out more and more easily the necessary +movements to pass into the intestine the nourishment it contains. At the same time the +pouch formed by the relaxed stomach will diminish in size, the nutriment will not longer +stagnate in this pouch, and in consequence the fermentation set up will end by totally +disappearing."</p> + +<p>To the third: "To you, Mademoiselle, I say that whatever lesions you may have in your +liver, your organism is doing what is necessary to make the lesions disappear every day, +and by degrees as they heal over, the symptoms from which you suffer will go on lessening +and disappearing. Your liver then functions in a more and more normal way, the bile it +secretes is alcaline and no longer acid, in the right quantity and quality, so that it +passes naturally into the intestines and helps intestinal digestion."</p> + +<p>To the fourth: "My child, you hear what I say; every time you feel you are going to +have an attack, you will hear my voice telling you as quick as lightning: 'No, no! my +friend, you are not going to have that attack, and it is going to disappear before it +comes. . . .'"</p> + +<p>To the fifth, etc., etc.</p> + +<p>When everyone has been attended to, M. Coué tells those present to open their +eyes, and adds: "You have heard the advice I have just given you. Well, to transform it +into reality, what you must do is this: <i>As long as you live,</i> every morning before +getting up, and every evening as soon as you are in bed, you must shut your eyes, so as +to concentrate your attention, and repeat twenty times following, moving your <i>lips</i> +(that is indispensable) and counting <i>mechanically</i> on a string with twenty knots in +it the following phrase: <i>'Every day, in every respect, I am getting better and +better.'"</i></p> + +<p>There is no need to think of anything in particular, as the words <i>"in every +respect"</i> apply to everything. This autosuggestion must be made with confidence, with +faith, with the certainty of obtaining what is desired. The greater the conviction of the +person, the greater and the more rapid will be the results obtained.</p> + +<p>Further, every time that in the course of the day or night you feel any physical or +mental discomfort, <i>affirm</i> to yourself that you will not consciously contribute to +it, and that you are going to make it vanish; then isolate yourself as much as possible, +and passing your hand over your forehead if it is something mental, or on whatever part +that is painful if it is something physical, repeat <i>very quickly,</i> moving the lips, +the words: "It is going, it is going . . ., etc., etc." as long as it is necessary. With a +little practice, the mental or physical discomfort will disappear in about 20 to 25 +seconds. Begin again every time it is necessary.</p> + +<p>For this as for the other autosuggestions it is necessary to act with the +same confidence, the same conviction, the same faith, and above all without +effort.</p> + +<p>M. Coué also adds what follows: "If you formerly allowed yourself to make bad +autosuggestions because you did it unconsciously, now that you know what I have just +taught you, you must no longer let this happen. And if, in spite of all, you still do it, +you must only accuse yourself, and say <i>'Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.'"</i></p> + +<p>And now, if a grateful admirer of the work and of the founder of the method may be +allowed to say a few words, I will say. "Monsieur Coué shows us luminously that +the power to get health and happiness is within us: we have indeed received this +gift."</p> + +<p>Therefore, suppressing, first of all, every cause of suffering <i>created or +encouraged by ourselves,</i> then putting into practice the favorite maxim of Socrates: +"Know thyself," and the advice of Pope: "That I may reject none of the benefits that Thy +goodness bestows upon me," let us take possession of the entire benefit of +autosuggestion, let us become this very day members of the "Lorraine Society of applied +Psychology;" let us make members of it those who may be in our care (it is a good deed to +do to them).</p> + +<p>By this means we shall follow first of all the great movement of the future of which +M. E. Coué is the originator (he devotes to it his days, his nights, his worldly +goods, and refuses to accept . . . but hush; no more of this! lest his modesty refuses to +allow these lines to be published without alteration), but above all by this means we +shall know exactly the days and hours of his lectures at Paris, Nancy and other towns, +where he devotedly goes to sow the good seed, and where we can go too to see him, and +hear him and consult him personally, and with his help awake or stir up in ourselves the +personal power that everyone of us has received of becoming happy and well.</p> + +<p>May I be allowed to add that when M. Coué has charged an entrance fee for his +lectures, they have brought in thousands of francs for the Disabled and others who have +suffered through the war.</p> + +<p>E. Vs----oer.</p> + +<p><i>Note.</i>--Entrance is free to the members of the Lorraine Society of applied +Psychology.</p><a name="6"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS ADDRESSED TO M. COUÉ</p> + +<p>The final results of the English secondary Certificate have only been posted up these +two hours, and I hasten to tell you about it, at least in so far as it concerns myself. I +passed the viva voce <i>with flying colors,</i> and scarcely felt a trace of the +nervousness which used to cause me such an intolerable sensation of nausea before the +tests. During the latter I was astonished at my own calm, which gave those who listened +to me the impression of perfect self-possession on my part. In short, it was just the +tests I dreaded most which contributed most to my success. The jury placed me Second, and +I am infinitely grateful to you for help, which undoubtedly gave me an advantage over the +other candidates . . ., etc. (The case is that of a young lady, who, on account of +excessive nervousness, had failed in 1915. The nervousness having vanished under the +influence of autosuggestion, she passed successfully, being-placed 2nd out of more than +200 competitors.)</p> + +<p> Mlle. V----, <i><br> + Schoolmistress, August,</i> 1916.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>It is with very great pleasure that I write to thank you most sincerely for the great +benefit I have received from your method. Before I went to you I had the greatest +difficulty in walking 100 yards, without being out of breath, whereas now I can go miles +without fatigue. Several times a day and quite easily, I am able to walk in 40 minutes +from the rue du Bord-de-l'Eau to the rue des Glacis, that is to say, nearly four +kilometers. The asthma from which I suffered has almost entirely disappeared.</p> + +<p>Yours most gratefully.</p> + +<p> Paul Chenot, <i><br> + Rue de Strasbourg,</i> 141 <i>Nancy, Aug.,</i> 1917.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>I do not know how to thank you. Thanks to you I can say that I am almost entirely +cured, and I was only waiting to be so in order to express my gratitude. I was suffering +from two varicose ulcers, one on each foot. That on the right foot, which was <i>as big +as my hand,</i> is entirely <i>cured.</i> It seemed to disappear by magic. For weeks I +had been confined to my bed, but almost immediately after I received your letter the +ulcer healed over so that I could get up. That on the left foot is not yet absolutely +healed, but will soon be so. Night and morning I do, and always shall, recite the +prescribed formula, in which I have entire confidence. I may say also that my legs were +as hard as a stone and I could not bear the slightest touch. Now I can press them without +the least pain, and I can walk once more, which is the greatest joy.</p> + +<p> Mme. Ligny,<i><br> + Mailleroncourt-Charette (Haute Saône), May,</i> 1918.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>N. B.--It is worthy of remark that this lady never saw M. Coué, and that it is +only thanks to a letter he wrote her on April 15th, that she obtained the result +announced in her letter of May 3rd.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>I am writing to express my gratitude, for thanks to you I have escaped the risk of an +operation which is always a very dangerous one. I can say more: you have saved my life, +for your method of autosuggestion has done alone what all the medicines and treatments +ordered for the terrible intestinal obstruction from which I suffered for 19 days, had +failed to do. From the moment when I followed your instructions and applied your +excellent principles, my functions have accomplished themselves quite naturally.</p> + +<p> Mme. S----, <i><br> + Pont à Mousson, Feb.,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>I do not know how to thank you for my happiness in being cured. For more than 15 years +I had suffered from attacks of asthma, which caused the most painful suffocations every +night. Thanks to your splendid method, and above all, since I was present at one of your +séances, the attacks have disappeared as if by magic. It is a real miracle, for +the various doctors who attended me all declared that there was no cure for asthma.</p> + +<p> Mme. V----,<i><br> + Saint-Dié, Feb.,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>I am writing to thank you with all my heart for having brought to my knowledge, a new +therapeutic method, a marvellous instrument which seems to act like the magic wand of a +fairy, since, thanks to the simplest means, it brings about the most extraordinary +results. From the first I was extremely interested in your experiments, and after my own +personal success with your method, I began ardently to apply it, as I have become an +enthusiastic supporter of it.</p> + +<p> Docteur Vachet,<i><br> + Vincennes, May,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>For 8 years I have suffered from prolapse of the uterus. I have used your method of +autosuggestion for the last five months, and am now completely cured, for which I do not +know how to thank you enough.</p> + +<p> Mme. Soulier,<i><br> + Place du Marchè Toul, May,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>I have suffered terribly for 11 years without respite. Every night I had attacks of +asthma, and suffered also from insomnia and general weakness which prevented any +occupation. Mentally, I was depressed, restless, worried, and was inclined to make +mountains out of mole hills. I had followed many treatments without success, having even +undergone in Switzerland the removal of the turbinate bone of the nose without obtaining +any relief. In Nov., 1918, I became worse in consequence of a great sorrow. While my +husband was at Corfu (he was an officer on a warship), I lost our only son in six days +from influenza. He was a delightful child of ten, who was the joy of our life; alone and +overwhelmed with sorrow, I reproached myself bitterly for not having been able to protect +and save our treasure. I wanted to lose my reason or to die. . . . When my husband returned +(which was not until February), he took me to a new doctor who ordered me various +remedies and the waters of Mont-Dore. I spent the month of August in that station, but on +my return I had a recurrence of the asthma, and I realized with despair that <i>"in every +respect"</i> I was getting worse and worse. It was then that I had the pleasure of +meeting you. Without expecting much good from it, I must say, I went to your October +lectures, and I am happy to tell you that by the end of November I was cured. Insomnia, +feelings of oppression, gloomy thoughts, disappeared as though by magic, and I am now +well and strong and full of courage. With physical health I have recovered my mental +equilibrium, and but for the ineffaceable wound caused by my child's loss, I could say +that I am perfectly happy. Why did I not meet you before? My child would have known a +cheerful and courageous mother. Thank you again and again, M. Coué.</p> + +<p>Yours most gratefully,</p> + +<p> E. Itier,<i><br> + Rue de Lille, Paris, April,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>I can now take up again the struggle I have sustained for 30 years, and which had +exhausted me.</p> + +<p>I found in you last August a wonderful and providential help. Coming home to Lorraine +for a few days, ill, and with my heart full of sorrow, I dreaded the shock which I should +feel at the sight of the ruins and distress . . . and went away comforted and in good +health. I was at the end of my tether, and unfortunately I am not religious. I longed to +find some one who could help me, and meeting you by chance at my cousin's house you gave +me the very help I sought. I can now work in a new spirit, I suggest to my unconscious to +re-establish my physical equilibrium, and I do not doubt that I shall regain my former +good health. A very noticeable improvement has already shown itself, and you will better +understand my gratitude when I tell you that, suffering from diabetes with a renal +complication, I have had several attacks of glaucoma, but my eyes are now recovering +their suppleness. Since then my sight has become almost normal, and my general health has +much improved.</p> + +<p> Mlle. Th----,<i><br> + Professor at the Young Ladies' College at Ch----, Jan.,</i> +1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>I read my thesis with success, and was awarded the highest mark and the +congratulations of the jury. Of all these "honours" a large share belongs to you, and I +do not forget it. I only regretted that you were not present to hear your name referred +to with warm and sympathetic interest by the distinguished Jury. You can consider that +the doors of the University have been flung wide open to your teaching. Do not thank me +for it, for I owe you far more than you can owe me.</p> + +<p> Ch. Baudouin,<i><br> + Professor at the Institut. J.-J. Rousseau, Geneva.</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . I admire your courageousness, and am quite sure that it will help to turn many +friends into a useful and intelligent direction. I confess that I have personally +benefited by your teaching, and have made my patients do so too.</p> + +<p>At the Nursing Home we try to apply your method collectively, and have already +obtained visible results in this way.</p> + +<p> Docteur Berillon,<i><br> + Paris, March,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . I have received your kind letter as well as your very interesting lecture.</p> + +<p>I am glad to see that you make a rational connection between hetero and +autosuggestion, and I note particularly the passage in which you say that the will must +not intervene in autosuggestion. That is what a great number of professors of +autosuggestion, unfortunately including a large number of medical men, do not realize at +all. I also think that an absolute distinction should be established between +autosuggestion and the training of the will.</p> + +<p> Docteur Van Velsen,<i><br> + Brussels, March,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>What must you think of me? That I have forgotten you? Oh, no, I assure you that I +think of you with the most grateful affection, and I wish to repeat that your teachings +are more and more efficacious; I never spend a day without using autosuggestion with +increased success, and I bless you every day, for your method is the true one. Thanks to +it, I am assimilating your excellent directions, and am able to control myself better +every day, and I feel that I am <i>stronger. . .</i> . I am sure that you would find it +difficult to recognize in this woman, so active in spite of her 66 years, the poor +creature who was so often ailing, and who only began to be well, thanks to you and your +guidance. May you be blessed for this, for the sweetest thing in the world is to do good +to those around us. You do much, and do a little, for which I thank God.</p> + +<p> Mme. M----,<i><br> + Cesson-Saint-Brieuc.</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>As I am feeling better and better since I began to follow your method of +autosuggestion, I should like to offer you my sincere thanks. The lesion in the lungs has +disappeared, my heart is better. I have no more albumen, in short I am quite well.</p> + +<p> Mme. Lemaitre, <i><br> + Richemont, June,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Your booklet and lecture interested us very much. It would be desirable for the good +of humanity that they should be published in several languages, so that they might +penetrate to every race and country, and thus reach a greater number of unfortunate +people who suffer from the wrong use of that all-powerful (and almost divine) faculty, +the most important to man, as you affirm and prove so luminously and judiciously, which +we call the Imagination. I had already read many books on the will, and had quite an +arsenal of formulae, thoughts, aphorisms, etc. Your phrases are conclusive. I do not +think that ever before have "compressed tablets of self confidence."--as I call your +healing phrases--been condensed into typical formulae in such an intelligent manner.</p> + +<p> Don Enrique C----,<br> +<i> Madrid.</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Your pamphlet on "the self-control" contains very strong arguments and very striking +examples. I think that the substitution of imagination for the power of the will is a +great progress. It is milder and more persuasive.</p> + +<p> A. F----, <i><br> + Reimiremont.</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . I am happy to be able to tell you that my stomach is going on well. My metritis +is also much better. My little boy had a gland in his thigh as big as an egg which is +gradually disappearing.</p> + +<p> E. L----, <i><br> + Saint-Clément (M-et-M.)</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>After I had undergone three operations in my left leg on account of a local +tuberculosis, that leg became ill again in September, 1920. Several doctors declared that +a new operation was necessary. They were about to open my leg from the knee to the ankle, +and if the operation had failed, they would have had to perform an amputation.</p> + +<p>As I had heard of your wondrous cures I came and saw you for the first time on the 6th +of November, 1920. After the séance, I felt immediately a little better. I exactly +followed your instructions and went three times to you. At the third time, I could tell +you that I was completely cured.</p> + +<p> Mme. L----, <i><br> + Henry (Lorraine).</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . I will not wait any longer to thank you heartily for all the good I owe you. +Autosuggestion has positively transformed me and I am now getting much better than I have +been these many years. The symptoms of illness have disappeared little by little, the +morbid symptoms have become rarer and rarer, and all the functions of the body work now +normally. The result is that, after having become thinner and thinner during several +years I have regained several kilos in a few months.</p> + +<p>I cannot do otherwise than bless the Coué system.</p> + +<p> L----, <i><br> + Cannes (A. M.).</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Since 1917, my little girl has been suffering from epileptic crises. Several doctors +had told me that about the age of 14 or 15 they would disappear or become worse. Having +heard of you, I sent her to you from the end of December till May. Now her cure is +complete, for during six months she has had no relapse.</p> + +<p> Perrin (Charles),<i><br> + Essey-les Nancy.</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>For eight years, I had suffered from a sinking of the uterus. After having practiced +your autosuggestion for five months, I have been radically cured. I don't know how to +express my deep gratitude.</p> + +<p> Mme. Soulie,<br> + 6, <i>Place du Marchè, Toul.</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . Having suffered from a glaucoma since 1917, I have consulted two oculists who +told me that only an operation would put an end to my sufferings, but unfortunately +neither of them would assure me of a good result.</p> + +<p>In the month of June, 1920, after having attended one of your séances I felt +much better. In September I ceased to use the drops of pilocarpine which were the daily +bread of my eye, and since then I have felt no more pain. My pupil is no more dilated, my +eyes are normal; it is a real miracle.</p> + +<p> Mme. M----, <i><br> + à Soulosse.</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>A dedication to M. Coué by the author of a medical treatise:</p> + +<p>To M. Coué who knew how to dissect the human soul and to extract from it a +psychologic method founded on conscious autosuggestion.</p> + +<p>The master is entitled to the thanks of all; he has cleverly succeeded in disciplining +the vagrant (Imagination) and in associating it usefully with the will.</p> + +<p>Thus he has given man the means of increasing tenfold his moral force by giving him +confidence in himself.</p> + +<p> Docteur P. R., <i><br> + Francfort.</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . It is difficult to speak of the profound influence exercised on me by your so +kindly allowing me to view so often your work. Seeing it day by day, as I have done, it +has impressed me more and more, and as you yourself said, there seems no limits to the +possibilities and future scope of the principles you enunciate, not only in the physical +life of children but also in possibilities for changing the ideas now prevalent in +punishment of crime, in government, in fact, in all the relations of life. . . .</p> + +<p> Miss Josephine M. Richardson.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . When I came, I expected a great deal, but what I have seen, thanks to your great +kindness, exceeds greatly my expectation.</p> + +<p> Montagu S. Monier-Williams, M. +D., <i><br> + London.</i></p><br> + +<p>FRAGMENTS FROM LETTERS<br> +Addressed to Mme. Emile Leon, Disciple of M. Coué</p><br> + +<p>For some time I have been wanting to write and thank you most sincerely for having +made known to me this method of autosuggestion. Thanks to your good advice the attacks of +nerves to which I was subject, have entirely disappeared, and I am certain that I am +quite cured. Further, I feel myself surrounded by a superior force which is an +unfaltering guide, and by whose aid I surmount with ease the difficulties of life.</p> + +<p> Mme. F----,<i><br> + Rue de Bougainville,</i> 4, <i>Paris.</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>Amazed at the results obtained by the autosuggestion which you made known to me, I +thank you with all my heart.</p> + +<p>For a year I have been entirely cured of articular rheumatism of the right shoulder +from which I had suffered for eight years, and from chronic bronchitis which I had had +still longer. The numerous doctors I had consulted declared me incurable, but thanks to +you and to your treatment, I have found with perfect health the conviction that I possess +the power to keep it.</p> + +<p> Mme. L. T----,<i><br> + +Rue du Laos,</i> 4, <i>Paris.</i></p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>I want to tell you what excellent results M. Coué's wonderful method has +produced in my case, and to express my deep gratitude for your valuable help. I have +always been anaemic, and have had poor health, but after my husband's death I became much +worse. I suffered with my kidneys, I could not stand upright, I also suffered from +nervousness and aversions. All that has gone and I am a different person. I no longer +suffer, I have more endurance, and I am more cheerful. My friends hardly recognize me, +and I feel a new woman. I intend to spread the news of this wonderful method, so clear, +so simple, so beneficent, and to continue to get from it the best results for myself as +well.</p> + +<p> M. L. D----, <i><br> + Paris, June,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>I cannot find words to thank you for teaching me your good method. What happiness you +have brought to me! I thank God who led me to make your acquaintance, for you have +entirely transformed my life. Formerly I suffered terribly at each monthly period and was +obliged to lie in bed. Now all is quite regular and painless. It is the same with my +digestion, and I am no longer obliged to live on milk as I used, and I have no more pain, +which is a joy. My husband is astonished to find that when I travel I have no more +headaches, whereas before I was always taking tablets. Now, thanks to you, I need no +remedies at all, but I do not forget to repeat 20 times morning and evening, the phrase +you taught me: "Every day, in every respect, I am getting better and better."</p> + +<p> B. P----, <i><br> + Paris, October,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>In re-reading the method I find it more and more superior to all the developments +inspired by it. It surpasses all that has been invented of so-called scientific systems, +themselves based on the uncertain results of an uncertain science, which feels its way +and deceives itself, and of which the means of observation are also fairly precarious in +spite of what the learned say, M. Coué, on the other hand, suffices for +everything, goes straight to the aim, attains it with certainty and in freeing his +patient carries generosity and knowledge to its highest point, since he leaves to the +patient himself the merit of this freedom, and the use of a marvellous power. No, really, +there is nothing to alter in this method. It is as you so strikingly say: a Gospel. To +report faithfully his acts and words and spread his method, that is what must be done, +and what I shall do myself as far as is in any way possible.</p> + +<p> P. C.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>I am amazed at the results that I have obtained and continue to obtain daily, by the +use of the excellent method you have taught me of conscious autosuggestion. I was ill +mentally and physically. Now I am well and am also nearly always cheerful. That is to say +that my depression has given way to cheerfulness, and certainly I do not complain of the +change, for it is very preferable, I assure you. How wretched I used to be! I could +digest nothing; now I digest perfectly well and the intestines act naturally. I also used +to sleep so badly, whereas now the nights are not long enough; I could not work, but now +I am able to work hard. Of all my ailments nothing is left but an occasional touch of +rheumatism, which I feel sure will disappear like the rest by continuing your good +method. I cannot find words to express my deep gratitude to you.</p> + +<p> Mme. Friry, <i><br> + Boulevard Malesherbes, Paris.</i></p><br> + +<p>EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS<br> +<i>Addressed to Mlle. Kaufmant, Disciple of M. Coué</i></p><br> + +<p>As I have been feeling better and better since following the method of autosuggestion +which you taught me, I feel I owe you the sincerest thanks, I am now qualified to speak +of the great and undeniable advantages of this method, as to it alone I owe my recovery. +I had a lesion in the lungs which caused me to spit blood. I suffered from lack of +appetite, daily vomiting, loss of flesh, and obstinate constipation. The spitting of +blood, lessened at once and soon entirely disappeared. The vomiting ceased, the +constipation no longer exists, I have got back my appetite, and in two months I have +gained nearly a stone in weight. In the face of such results observed, not only by +parents and friends, but also by the doctor who has been attending me for several months, +it is impossible to deny the good effect of autosuggestion and not to declare openly that +it is to your method that I owe my return to life. I authorize you to publish my name if +it is likely to be of service to others, and I beg you to believe me.</p> + +<p>Yours most gratefully.</p> + +<p> Jeanne Gilli,<br> + 15, <i>Av. Borriglione, Nice, March,</i> 1918.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>I consider it a duty to tell you how grateful I am to you for acquainting me with the +benefits of autosuggestion. Thanks to you, I no longer suffer from those agonizing and +frequent heart stoppages, and I have regained my appetite which I had lost for months. +Still more, as a hospital nurse, I must thank you from my heart for the almost miraculous +recovery of one of my patients, seriously ill with tuberculosis, which caused him to +vomit blood constantly and copiously. His family and myself were very anxious when heaven +sent you to him. After your first visit the spitting of blood ceased, his appetite +returned, and after a few more visits made by you to his sick bed, all the organs little +by little resumed their normal functions. At last one day we had the pleasant surprise +and joy of seeing him arrive at your private séance, where, before those present, +he himself made the declaration of his cure, due to your kind intervention. Thank you +with all my heart.</p> + +<p>Yours gratefully and sympathetically,</p> + +<p> A. Kettner,<br> + 26, <i>Av. Borriglione, Nice, March,</i> 1918.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . From day to day I have put off writing to you to thank you for the cure of my +little Sylvain. I was in despair, the doctors telling me that there was nothing more to +be done but to try the sanitorium of Arcachon or Juicoot, near Dunkirk. I was going to do +so when Mine. Collard advised me to go and see you. I hesitated, as I felt sceptical +about it; but I now have the proof of your skill, for Sylvain has completely recovered. +His appetite is good, his pimples and his glands are completely cured, and what is still +more extraordinary, since the first time that we went to see you he has not coughed any +more, not even once; the result is, that since the month of June he has gained 6 lbs.; I +can never thank you enough and I proclaim to everyone the benefits we have received.</p> + +<p> Mme. Poirson, <i><br> + Liverdun, August,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>How can I prove to you my deep gratitude? You have saved my life. I had a displaced +heart, which caused terrible attacks of suffocation, which went on continually; in fact +they were so violent that I had no rest day or night, in spite of daily injections of +morphia. I could eat nothing without instant vomiting. I had violent pains in the head +which became all swollen, and as a result I lost my sight. I was in a lamentable state +and my whole organism suffered from it. I had abscesses on the liver. The doctor +despaired of me after having tried everything; blood letting, cupping and scarifying, +poultices, ice, and every possible remedy, without any improvement. I had recourse to +your kindness on the doctor's advice.</p> + +<p>After your first visits the attacks became less violent and less frequent, and soon +disappeared completely. The bad and troubled nights became calmer, until I was able to +sleep the whole night through without waking. The pains I had in the liver ceased +completely. I could begin to take my food again, digesting it perfectly well, and I again +experienced the feeling of hunger which I had not known for months. My headaches ceased, +and my eyes, which had troubled me so much, are quite cured, since I am now able to +occupy myself with a little manual work.</p> + +<p>At each visit that you paid me, I felt that my organs were resuming their natural +functions. I was not the only one to observe it, for the doctor who came to see me every +week found me much better, and finally there came recovery, since I could get up after +having been in bed eleven months. I got up without any discomfort, not even the least +giddiness, and in a fortnight I could go out. It is indeed thanks to you that I am cured, +for the doctor says that for all that the medicines did me, I might just as well have +taken none.</p> + +<p>After having been given up by two doctors who held out no hope of cure, here I am +cured all the same, and it is indeed a complete cure, for now I can eat meat, and I eat a +pound of bread every day. How can I thank you, for I repeat, it is thanks to the +suggestion you taught me that I owe my life.</p> + +<p> Jeanne Grosjean,<i><br> + Nancy, Nov.,</i> 1920.</p> + +<p>***</p> + +<p>. . . Personally the science of autosuggestion--for I consider it as entirely a +<i>science--</i>has rendered me great services; but truth compels me to declare that if I +continue to interest myself particularly in it, it is because I find in it the means of +exercising true charity.</p> + +<p>In 1915 when I was present for the first time at M. Coué's lectures, I confess +that I was entirely sceptical. Before facts a <i>hundred times</i> repeated in my +presence, I was obliged to surrender to evidence, and recognize that autosuggestion +always acted, though naturally in different degrees, on organic diseases. The only cases +(and those were very rare) in which I have seen it fail are nervous cases, neurasthenia +or imaginary illness.</p> + +<p>There is no need to tell you again that M. Coué, like yourself, but even more +strongly, insists on this point: "that he never performs a miracle or cures +anybody, but that he shows people how to cure themselves." I confess that on +this point I still remain a trifle incredulous, for if M. Coué does not actually +cure people, he is a powerful aid to their recovery, in "giving heart" to the +sick, in teaching them never to despair, in uplifting them, in leading them . . +. higher than themselves into moral spheres +that the majority of humanity, plunged in materialism, has never reached.</p> + +<p>The more I study autosuggestion, the better I understand the divine law of confidence +and love that Christ preached us: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor" and by giving a little +of one's heart and of one's moral force to help him to rise if he has fallen and to cure +himself if he is ill. Here also from my Christian point of view, is the application of +autosuggestion which I consider as a beneficial and comforting science which helps us to +understand that as the children of God, we all have within us forces whose existence we +did not suspect, which properly directed, serve to elevate us morally and to heal us +physically.</p> + +<p>Those who do not know your science, or who only know it imperfectly, should not judge +it without having seen the results it gives and the good it does. Believe me to be your +faithful admirer.</p> + +<p> M. L. D----, <i><br> + Nancy, November,</i> 1920.</p><a name="7"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>THE MIRACLE WITHIN</p> + +<p><i>(Reprinted from the "Renaissance politique, littéraire et artistique" of the +18th of December,</i> 1920)</p> + +<p>HOMAGE TO EMILE COUÉ</p> + +<p>In the course of the month of September, 1920, I opened for the first time the book of +Charles Baudouin, of Geneva, professor at the Institute J. J. Rousseau in that town.</p> + +<p>This work, published by the firm of Delachaux and Niestle, 26, rue Saint-Dominique, +Paris, is called: "Suggestion et Autosuggestion". The author has dedicated it: <i>"To +Emile Coué, the initiator and benefactor, with deep gratitude".</i></p> + +<p>I read it and did not put down the book until I had reached the end.</p> + +<p>The fact is that it contains the very simple exposition of a magnificently +humanitarian work, founded on a theory which may appear childish just because it is +within the scope of everyone. And if everyone puts it into practice, the greatest good +will proceed from it.</p> + +<p>After more than twenty years of indefatigable work, Emile Coué who at the +present time lives at Nancy, where he lately followed the work and experiments of +Liébault, the father of the doctrine of suggestions, for more than twenty years, I +say, Coué has been occupied exclusively with this question, but particularly in +order to bring his fellow creatures to cultivate <i>autosuggestion.</i></p> + +<p>At the beginning of the century Coué had attained the object of his researches, +and had disengaged the general and immense force of autosuggestion. After innumerable +experiments on thousands of subjects, <i>he showed the action of the unconscious in +organic cases.</i> This is new, and the great merit of this profoundly, modest learned +man, is to have found a remedy for terrible ills, reputed incurable or terribly painful, +without any hope of relief.</p> + +<p>As I cannot enter here into long scientific details I will content myself by saying +how the learned man of Nancy practises his method.</p> + +<p>The chiselled epitome of a whole life of patient researches and of ceaseless +observations, is a brief formula which is to be repeated morning and evening.</p> + +<p>It must be said in a low voice, with the eyes closed, in a position favourable to the +relaxing of the muscular system, it may be in bed, or it may be in an easy chair, and in +a tone of voice as if one were reciting a litany.</p> + +<p>Here are the magic words: <i>"Every day, in every respect, I am getting better and +better".</i></p> + +<p>They must be said twenty times following, with the help of a string with twenty knots +in it, which serves as a rosary. This material detail has its importance; it ensures +mechanical recitation, which is essential.</p> + +<p>While articulating these words, <i>which are registered by the unconscious,</i> one +must not think of anything particular, neither of one's illness nor of one's troubles, +one must be passive, just with the desire that all may be for the best. The formula +<i>"in every respect"</i> has a general effect.</p> + +<p>This desire must be expressed without passion, without will, with gentleness, <i>but +with absolute confidence.</i></p> + +<p>For Emile Coué at the moment of autosuggestion, <i>does not call in the will in +any way, on the contrary;</i> there must be no question of the will at that moment, but +the <i>imagination,</i> the great motive force infinitely more active than that which is +usually invoked, the imagination alone must be brought into play.</p> + +<p>"Have confidence in yourself," says this good counsellor, "believe firmly that all +will be well". And indeed all is well for those who have faith, fortified by +perseverance.</p> + +<p>As deeds talk louder than words, I will tell you what happened to myself before I had +ever seen M. Coué.</p> + +<p>I must go back then to the month of September when I opened M. Charles Baudouin's +volume. At the end of a substantial exposition, the author enumerates the cure of +illnesses such as enteritis, eczema, stammering, dumbness, a sinus dating from twenty +years back which had necessitated eleven operations, metritis, salpingitis, fibrous +tumours, varicose veins, etc., lastly and above all, deep tubercular sores, and the last +stages of phthisis (case of Mme. D----, of Troyes, aged 30 years, who has become a mother +since her cure; case was followed up, but there was no relapse). All this is often +testified to by doctors in attendance on the patients.</p> + +<p>These examples impressed me profoundly; <i>there</i> was the miracle. It was not a +question of nerves, but of ills which medicine attacks without success. This cure of +tuberculosis was a revelation to me.</p> + +<p>Having suffered for two years from acute neuritis in the face, I was in horrible pain. +Four doctors, two of them specialists, had pronounced the sentence which would be enough, +of itself alone, to increase the trouble by its fatal influence on the mind: "Nothing to +be done!" This "nothing to be done" had been for me the worst of autosuggestions.</p> + +<p>In possession of the formula: "Every day, in every respect . . .", etc., I recited it +with a faith which, although it had come suddenly, was none the less capable of removing +mountains, and throwing down shawls and scarves, bareheaded, I went into the garden in +the rain and wind repeating gently <i>"I am going to be cured,</i> I shall have no more +neuritis, it is going away, it will not come back, etc. . . ." The next day I was cured +and never any more since have I suffered from this abominable complaint, which did not +allow me to take a step out of doors and made life unbearable. It was an immense joy. The +incredulous will say: "It was all nervous." Obviously, and I give them this first point. +But, delighted with the result, I tried the Coué Method for an oedema of the left +ankle, resulting from an affection of the kidneys reputed incurable. In two days the +oedema had disappeared. I then treated fatigue and mental depression, etc., and +extraordinary improvement was produced, and I had but one idea: to go to Nancy to thank +my benefactor.</p> + +<p>I went there and found the excellent man, attractive by his goodness and simplicity, +who has become my friend.</p> + +<p>It was indispensable to see him in his field of action. He invited me to a popular +"séance." I heard a concert of gratitude. Lesions in the lungs, displaced organs, +asthma, Pott's disease (!), paralysis, the whole deadly horde of diseases were being put +to flight. I saw a paralytic, who sat contorted and twisted in his chair, get up and +walk. M. Coué had spoken, he demanded confidence, great, immense confidence in +oneself. He said: "Learn to cure yourselves, you can do so; I have never cured anyone. +The power is within you yourselves, call upon your spirit, make it act for your physical +and mental good, and it will come, it will cure you, you will be strong and happy". +Having spoken, Coué approached the paralytic: "You heard what I said, do you +believe that you will walk?" "Yes."--"Very well then, get up!" The woman got up, she +walked, and went round the garden. The miracle was accomplished.</p> + +<p>A young girl with Pott's disease, whose vertebral column became straight again after +three visits, told me what an intense happiness it was to feel herself coming back to +life after having thought herself a hopeless case.</p> + +<p>Three women, cured of lesions in the lungs, expressed their delight at going back to +work and to a normal life. Coué in the midst of those people whom he loves, seemed +to me a being apart, for this man ignores money, all his work is gratuitous, and his +extraordinary disinterestedness forbids his taking a farthing for it. "I owe you +something", I said to him, "I simply owe you everything. . . ." "No, only the pleasure I +shall have from your continuing to keep well. . . ."</p> + +<p>An irresistible sympathy attracts one to this simple-minded philanthropist; arm in arm +we walked round the kitchen garden which he cultivates himself, getting up early to do +so. Practically a vegetarian, he considers with satisfaction the results of his work. And +then the serious conversation goes on: "In your <i>mind</i> you possess an +<i>unlimited</i> power. It acts on matter if we know how to domesticate it. The +imagination is like a horse without a bridle; if such a horse is pulling the carriage in +which you are, he may do all sorts of foolish things and take you to your death. But +harness him properly, drive him with a sure hand, and he will go wherever you like. Thus +it is with the mind, the imagination. They must be directed for our own good. +Autosuggestion, formulated with the lips, is an order which the unconscious receives, it +carries it out unknown to ourselves and above all at night, so that the evening +autosuggestion is the most important. It gives marvelous results."</p> + +<p>When you feel a physical pain, add the formula <i>"It is going away . . .",</i> very +quickly repeated, in a kind of droning voice, placing your hand on the part where you +feel the pain, or on the forehead, if it is a mental distress.</p> + +<p>For the method acts very efficaciously on the mind. After having called in the help of +the soul for the body, one can ask it again for all the circumstances and difficulties of +life.</p> + +<p>There also I know from experience that events can be singularly modified by this +process.</p> + +<p>You know it to-day, and you will know it better still by reading M. Baudouin's book, +and then his pamphlet: <i>"Culture de la force morale",</i> and then, lastly, the little +succinct treatise written by M. Coué himself: <i>"Self Mastery."</i> All these +works may be found at M. Coué's.</p> + +<p>If however I have been able to inspire in you the desire of making this excellent +pilgrimage yourself, you will go to Nancy to fetch the booklet. Like myself you will love +this unique man, unique by reason of his noble charity and of his love for his fellows, +as Christ taught it.</p> + +<p>Like myself also, you will be cured physically and mentally. Life will seem to you +better and more beautiful. That surely is worth the trouble of trying for.</p> + +<p> M. Burnat-Provins.</p><a name= +"8"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>SOME NOTES ON THE JOURNEY OF M. COUÉ TO PARIS IN OCTOBER, 1919</p> + +<p>The desire that the teachings of M. Coué in Paris last October should not be +lost to others, has urged me to write them down. Putting aside this time the numerous +people, physically or mentally ill, who have seen their troubles lessen and disappear as +the result of his beneficent treatment, let us begin by quoting just a few of his +teachings.</p> + +<p><i>Question.--</i>Why is it that I do not obtain better results although I use your +method and prayer?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i>--Because, probably, at the back of your mind there is an <i>unconscious +doubt,</i> or because you make <i>efforts.</i> Now, remember that efforts are determined +by the will; if you bring the will into play, you run a serious risk of bringing the +imagination into play too, but in the contrary direction, which brings about just the +reverse of what you desire.</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i>--What are we to do when something troubles us?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i>--When something happens that troubles you, <i>repeat</i> at once "No, +that does not trouble me at all, not in the least, the fact is rather agreeable than +otherwise." In short, the idea is to work ourselves up in a good sense instead of in a +bad.</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i>--Are the preliminary experiments indispensable if they are +unacceptable to the pride of the subject?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i>--No, they are not indispensable, but they are of great utility; for +although they may seem childish to certain people, they are on the contrary extremely +serious; they do indeed prove three things:</p> + +<p>1. That every idea that we have in our minds becomes <i>true</i> for us, and has a +tendency to transform itself into action.</p> + +<p>2. That when there is a conflict between the imagination and the will, it is always +the imagination which wins; and in this case we do exactly the <i>contrary</i> of what we +wish to do.</p> + +<p>3. That it is easy for us to put into our minds, <i>without any effort,</i> the idea +that we wish to have, since we have been able without effort to think in succession: "I +cannot," and then "I can."</p> + +<p>The preliminary experiments should not be repeated at home; alone, one is often unable +to put oneself in the right physical and mental conditions, there is a risk of failure, +and in this case one's self-confidence is shaken.</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i>--When one is in pain, one cannot help thinking of one's trouble.</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i>--Do not be afraid to think of it; on the contrary, do think of it, but +to say to it, "I am not <i>afraid</i> of you."</p> + +<p>If you go anywhere and a dog rushes at you barking, look it firmly in the eyes and it +will not bite you; but if you fear it, if you turn back, he will soon have his teeth in +your legs.</p> + +<p><i>Question.--</i>And if one does a retreat?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i>--Go backwards.</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i>--How can we realize what we desire?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.--</i>By often repeating what you desire: "I am gaining assurance," and you +will do so; "My memory is improving," and it really does so; "I am becoming absolutely +master of myself," and you find that you are becoming so.</p> + +<p>If you say the contrary, it is the contrary which will come about.</p> + +<p>What you say persistently and very quickly <i>comes to pass</i> (within the domain of +the reasonable, of course).</p> + +<p>Some testimonies:</p> + +<p>A young lady to another lady: "How simple it is! There is nothing to add to it: he +seems inspired. Do you not think that there are beings who radiate influence?"</p> + +<p>. . . An eminent Parisian doctor to numerous doctors surrounding him: "I have entirely +come over to the ideas of M. Coué."</p> + +<p>. . . A Polytechnician, a severe critic, thus defines M. Coué: "He is a +Power."</p> + +<p>. . . Yes, he is a Power of Goodness. Without mercy for the bad autosuggestions of the +"defeatist" type, but indefatigably painstaking, active and smiling, to help everyone to +develop their personality, and to teach them to cure themselves, which is the +characteristic of his beneficent method.</p> + +<p>How could one fail to desire from the depths of one's heart that all might understand +and seize the "good news" that M. Coué brings? "It is the awakening, possible for +everyone, of the personal power which he has <i>received</i> of being happy and +well."</p> + +<p>It is, <i>if one consents,</i> the full development of this power which can transform +one's life.</p> + +<p>Then, and is it not quite rightly so? it is the strict duty (and at the same time the +happiness) of those who have been initiated, to spread by every possible means the +knowledge of this wonderful method, the happy results of which have been recognized and +verified by <i>thousands</i> of persons, to make it known to those who suffer, who are +sad, or who are overburdened . . . to all! and to help them to put it into practice.</p> + +<p>Then, thinking of France, triumphant but bruised, of her defenders victorious but +mutilated, of all the physical and moral suffering entailed by the war; may those +who-have the power (the greatest power ever given to man is the power of doing good +[Socrates]) see that the inexhaustible reservoir of physical and moral forces that the +"Method" puts within our reach may soon become the-patrimony of all the nation and +through it of humanity.</p> + +<p>Mme. Emile Leon, <i><br> +Collaborator, in Paris, of M. Emile Coué</i></p><a name="9"></a><br> +<br> + +<p>"EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE"</p> + +<p>By Mme. Emile Leon, Disciple of M. Coué.</p> + +<p>When one has been able to take advantage of a great benefit; when this benefit is +within reach of everyone, although almost everyone is ignorant of it, is it not an urgent +and absolute duty (for those who are initiated) to make it known to those around them? +For all can make their own the amazing results of the "Emile Coué Method."</p> + +<p>To drive away pain is much . . . but how much more is it to lead into the possession of +a new life <i>all</i> those who suffer. . . .</p> + +<p>Last April we had the visit of M. Emile Coué at Paris, and here are some of his +teachings:</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i>--Question of a theist: I think it is unworthy of the Eternal to make +our obedience to his will, depend on what M. Coué calls a trick or mechanical +process: conscious autosuggestion.</p> + +<p><i>M. Coué.</i>--Whether we wish it or not, our imagination always overrules +our will, when they are in conflict. We can lead it into the right path indicated by our +reason, by <i>consciously</i> employing the mechanical process that we employ +<i>unconsciously</i> often to lead into the wrong.</p> + +<p>And the thoughtful questioner says to herself: "Yes, it is true, in this elevated +sphere of thought, conscious autosuggestion has the power to free us from obstacles +<i>created by ourselves,</i> which might as it were put a veil between us and God, just +as a piece of stuff, hanging in a window, can prevent the sun from coming into a +room."</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i>--How ought one to set about bringing those dear to one who may be +suffering, to make themselves good autosuggestions which would set them free?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i>--Do not insist or lecture them about it. Just remind them simply that I +advise them to make an autosuggestion with the <i>conviction</i> that they will obtain +the result they want.</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i>--How is one to explain to oneself and to explain to others that the +repetition of the same words: "I am going to sleep. . . . It is going away . . ." etc., has +the power to produce the effect, and above all so powerful an effect that it is a certain +one?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.--</i>The repetition of the same words forces one to think them, and when we +think them they become true for us and transform themselves into reality.</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i>--How is one to keep inwardly the mastery of oneself?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.--</i>To be master of oneself it is enough to think that one is so, and in +order to think it, one should often repeat it without making any effort.</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i>--And outwardly, how is one to keep one's liberty?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i>--Self mastery applies just as much physically as mentally.</p> + +<p><i>Question</i> (Affirmation).--It is impossible to escape trouble or +sadness, if we do not do as we should, it would not be just, and autosuggestion, +cannot . . . and ought not +to prevent <i>just suffering.</i></p> + +<p><i>M. Coué</i> (very seriously and affirmatively).--Certainly and +assuredly it ought not to be so, but it is so often . . . at any rate for a time.</p> + +<p><i>Question.--</i>Why did that patient who has been entirely cured, continually have +those terrible attacks?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i>--He expected his attacks, he feared them . . . and so he <i>provoked</i> +them; if this gentleman gets well into his mind the idea that he will have no more +attacks, he will not have any; if he thinks that he will have them, he will indeed do +so.</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i>--In what does your method differ from others.</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i>--The differ not the <i>will</i> which rules us but the +<i>imagination;</i> that is the basis, the fundamental basis.</p> + +<p><i>Question.--</i>Will you give me a summary of your "Method" for Mme. R----, who is +doing an important work?</p> + +<p><i>M. E. Coué.</i>--Here is the summary of the "Method" in a few words: +Contrary to what is taught, it is not our will which makes us act, but our imagination +(the unconscious). If we often do act as we <i>will,</i> it is because at the same time +we think that we can. If it is not so, we do exactly the reverse of what we wish. Ex: The +more a person with insomnia <i>determines</i> to sleep, the more excited she becomes; the +more we <i>try</i> to remember a name which we think we have forgotten, the more it +escapes us (it comes back only if, in your mind, you replace the idea: "I have +forgotten", by the idea "it will come back"); the more we strive to prevent ourselves +from laughing, the more our laughter bursts out; the more we <i>determine</i> to avoid an +obstacle, when learning to bicycle, the more we rush upon it.</p> + +<p>We must then apply ourselves to directing our <i>imagination</i> which now directs us; +in this way we easily arrive at becoming masters of ourselves physically and morally.</p> + +<p>How are we to arrive at this result? By the practice of conscious +<i>autosuggestion.</i></p> + +<p>Conscious autosuggestion is based on this principle. Every idea that we have in our +mind becomes true for us and tends to realize itself.</p> + +<p>Thus, if we <i>desire</i> something, we can obtain it at the end of a more or less +long time, if we often repeat that this thing is going to come, or to disappear, +according to whether it is a good quality or a fault, either physical or mental.</p> + +<p>Everything is included by employing night and morning the general formula: "Every day, +<i>in every respect,</i> I am getting better and better".</p> + +<p><i>Question.</i>--For those who are sad--who are in distress?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i>--As long as you think: "I am sad", you <i>cannot</i> be cheerful, and +in order to think something, it is enough to say without effort: "I do think this +thing--"; as to the distress it will disappear, however violent it may be, <i>that</i> I +<i>can</i> affirm.</p> + +<p>A man arrives bent, dragging himself painfully along, leaning on two sticks; he has on +his face an expression of dull depression. As the hall is filling up, M. E. Coué +enters. After having questioned this man, he says to him something like this: "So you +have had rheumatism for 32 years and you cannot walk. Don't be afraid, it's not going to +last as long as that again".</p> + +<p>Then after the preliminary experiments: "Shut your eyes, and repeat very quickly +indeed, moving your lips, the words: 'It is going, it is going' (at the same time M. +Coué passes his hand over the legs of the patient, for 20 to 25 seconds). Now you +are no longer in pain, get up and walk (the patient walks) quickly! quicker! more quickly +still! and since you can walk so well, you are going to run; run! Monsieur, run!" The +patient runs (joyously, almost as if he had recovered his youth), to his great +astonishment, and also to that of the numerous persons present at the séance of +April 27th, 1920. (Clinic of Dr. Berillon.)</p> + +<p>A lady declares: "My husband suffered from attacks of asthma for many years, he had +such difficulty in breathing that we feared a fatal issue; his medical adviser, Dr. X---- +had given him up. He was almost radically cured of his attacks, after only one visit from +M. Coué".</p> + +<p>A young woman comes to thank M. Coué with lively gratitude. Her doctor, Dr. +Vachet, who was with her in the room, says that the cerebral anaemia from which she had +suffered for a long while, which he had not succeeded in checking by the usual means, had +disappeared as if by magic through the use of conscious autosuggestion.</p> + +<p>Another person who had had a fractured leg and could not walk without pain and +limping, could at once walk normally. No more pain, no more limping.</p> + +<p>In the hall which thrills with interest, joyful testimonies break out from numerous +persons who have been relieved or cured.</p> + +<p>A doctor: "Autosuggestion is the weapon of healing". As to this philosopher who writes +(he mentions his name), he relies on the <i>genius</i> of Coué.</p> + +<p>A gentleman, a former magistrate, whom a lady had asked to express his appreciation, +exclaims in a moved tone: "I cannot put my appreciation into words--I think it is +admirable--" A woman of the world, excited by the disappearance of her sufferings: "Oh, M. +Coué, one could kneel to you--You are the merciful God!" Another lady, very much +impressed herself, rectifies: "No, his messenger".</p> + +<p>An aged lady: It is delightful, when one is aged and fragile, to replace a feeling of +general ill health by that of refreshment and general well-being, and M. E. Coué's +method can, I affirm for I have proved it, produce this happy result, which is all the +more complete and lasting since it relies on the all-powerful force which is within +us.</p> + +<p>A warmly sympathetic voice calls him the modest name he prefers to that of "Master": +Professor Coué.</p> + +<p>A young woman who has been entirely won over: "M. Coué goes straight to his +aim, attains it with sureness, and, in setting free his patient, carries generosity and +knowledge to its highest point, since he leaves to the patient himself the merit of his +liberation and the use of a marvellous power".</p> + +<p>A literary man, whom a lady asks to write a little <i>"chef d'oeuvre"</i> on the +beneficent "Method" refuses absolutely, emphasizing the simple words which, used +according to the Method, help to make all suffering disappear: "IT IS GOING +AWAY--<i>that</i> is the <i>chef-d'oeuvre!"</i> he affirms.</p> + +<p>And the thousands of sick folks who have been relieved or cured will not contradict +him.</p> + +<p>A lady who has suffered much declares: "In re-reading the 'Method' I find it more and +more superior to the developments it has inspired; there is really nothing to take away +nor add to this 'Method'--all that is left is to spread it. I shall do so in every +possible way."</p> + +<p>And now in conclusion I will say: Although M. Coué's modesty makes him reply to +everyone:</p> + +<p>I have no magnetic fluid--</p> + +<p>I have no influence--</p> + +<p>I have never cured anybody--</p> + +<p>My disciples obtain the same results as myself--</p> + +<p>"I can say in all sincerity that they tend to do so, instructed as they are in the +<i>valuable 'Method',</i> and when, in some far distant future, the thrilling voice of +its author called to a higher sphere can no longer teach it here below, the 'Method', his +work, will help in aiding, comforting, and curing thousands and thousands of human +beings: it must be <i>immortal,</i> and communicated to the entire world by generous +France--for the man of letters was right, and knew how to illuminate in a word this true +simple, and marvellous help in conquering pain: 'IT IS GOING AWAY--! <i>There is the +chef-d'oeuvre!'"</i></p> + +<p> B. K. (Emile-Leon).<br> + Paris, June 6th, 1920.</p><br> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Self Mastery Through Conscious +Autosuggestion, by Emile Coué + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELF MASTERY *** + +***** This file should be named 27203-h.htm or 27203-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/2/0/27203/ + +Produced by Ruth Hart + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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