All attainments come in their regular order, as orderly as the movements of the sun and planets; first we desire, second we believe, third we try the belief, fourth we have knowledge.

We entertain a belief, and the belief comes into our minds and controls us. A man in the throes of poverty can throw off the shackles, if he can add to his belief.

A suggestion, to be a controlling influence, must be a positive suggestion left undisturbed; it must be regarded by the person entertaining it as a fixture in his life; not subject to change or modification.

Still another method of making an application of the principle of suggestion is described by Mr. J. R. Seaward, of Hamilton, Mont. He says:

“I am a man 36 years of age and have a family, and they rejoice with me that I am free from the use of tobacco. I chewed, or rather ate the weed for 15 years. Didn’t mean to form the habit when I started in, but thought that it was conducive to my growth from youth to manhood. After the habit had grown on me for several years unresisted, I discovered that I was in the grip of a slowly but surely growing octopus that had me freely within its embrace, and I was helpless to release myself.

I had followed carpenter and shop woodwork for trade, and all woodworkers know there is something about lumber that makes a man want to use tobacco. When I got so that I had to chew all the time and the strongest I could get and then was not satisfied, I began to wonder where I was headed for. Slowly the idea that I was a slave to the weed dawned on me and I began to think about cutting down on it, or out altogether.

I will now explain to you the way in which Friend Wife broke me of a vile habit and convinced us both of the marvelous power of Suggestion when properly applied.

At about the time that I struck bottom, there came to my notice some literature, telling of the power of directed thought, and I became interested in the study of that, and also in some inspirational literature which later came to my notice. I was rather skeptical at first, but as I read and thought and commenced to look for proof in the events of our daily lives and in our environment, the truth commenced to dawn upon me. I began to see and know that life manifestations were fed from within and grew from within, and if the within be in a state of decay, it invariably showed without. In fact, I know now that “The Man of Gallilee,” said something when He said, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” If he thinks himself a slave to tobacco or other obnoxious habits, so is he. He must think himself free to remain free.

But to think one’s self away from a habit that clings as close as thought itself, is a hard matter unaided. At the time we tried suggestion for the elimination of my tobacco habit I slept in one bedroom with one of the children and wife slept in another bedroom with our then youngest boy, about eight months old. As often is the case she had to be up at times during the night to wait on the baby and it was at those times that she gave me mental treatments while I was asleep.

It isn’t necessary to be in the same room, though it is all right if it happens to be the case. While I was sleeping she would visualize herself or mentally project herself as though she was standing or kneeling beside my bed and speaking to me. Her suggestions were of a constructive and positive nature rather than of negative. It went something like this: “You are now desiring freedom from the tobacco habit; you are free and desire and enjoy mastery more than indulgence; tomorrow you will want only about half the normal amount of tobacco and each day it will be less until you are free within a week and shall never have any more craving for tobacco. You are Master and free.”

She made the above suggestion (in substance) to me each time that she was awake during the night and I do pledge on oath that within six days from the time she started treatment I had completely quit craving tobacco, and quit using it.

That has been several months ago, and today I am more master of my habits of thought and word and deed than ever before in my life. I have changed from an under-weight, nervous wreck to a full-weight, healthful, strong, energetic, and clear-thinking man, and everyone who knew me remarks how differently I look and act and seem. Since that time, I have followed the study and the practice of constructive and directed thinking.”

You know that in wireless telegraphy or telephony they use an instrument called the tuning coil that vibrates in harmony with an electrical wave or vibration of a certain length. It is in tune with that particular tune of wave and consequently they are in harmony and allow the vibration to go on to the other receiving instrument unhindered. Yet there may be other wireless vibrations of a higher or lower “tune” or key passing at the same time, yet only those in harmony are registered by the receiver.

Now our minds are just about the same way only we regulate our “tuning” coil by our Willpower. We can tune our minds to low-vibration thoughts such as the animal impulses of nature, or we can “tune” them to thoughts of an educational or mental nature, or we can, after some qualifications are met, tune ourselves to receive purely spiritual thought vibrations. This power constitutes the Divine power that is given to man. Of course you will readily see that there never was a primitive hut or modern mansion built without the application of this principle of directed constructive thinking and visualization.

The backbone of salesmanship of all kinds if the understanding and skillful use of suggestion. When cleverly used it tends to relax one’s conscious attention and warm up ad quicken the Desire, until a favorable response is gained. Window displays and counter displays as well as illustrated advertising all rely on the power to drive a suggestion into the very center of Desire, where it grows to the point of action if in harmony with the thought vibrations of the Desire. If the desire does not recognize or is not in harmony with the suggestion it is as “seed that has falled upon stony ground,” and is without harvest of action.

Thought and action do produce material results as is easily verified in the builder and his plans--the dressmaker and her pattern, or the school and its product, all in harmony with the leading constructive thought. The quality of thought determines the measure of success in life.

All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.

-Goethe.

Psycho-Analysis

“Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,” asked Macbeth of the Doctor--but the passage is so strikingly fitting, so prophetically explanatory of psychoanalysis, that it must be given in full:

Macbeth: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased.

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow.

Raze out the written troubles of the brain.

And with some sweet oblivious antidote

Cleanse the stuff’d bossom of that perilous stuff

Which weight upon the heart?

Doctor: Therein the patient must minister to himself.

There is hardly a person today exempt from some form of phobia, or fear, whose origin may date so far back as to be lost among the shadows of childhood; hardly a person is free from some aversion, or “complex,” whose effects are a matter of daily occurrence, despite the will of the victim. In a sense, the subconsciousness has never forgotten the incident, and still harbours the unpleasant memory of it; the consciousness, however, in an attempt to protect our dignity, or vanity, whichever you prefer, may evolve some apparent, better reason than the original one.

Thus complexes are formed. Brontephobia, or fear of thunder, was brought about in the case of one patient by hearing a cannon go off very near her when she was a child; a fact which had been “forgotten” for years; to confess to such a fear, even to one’s self, would have been childish--and fear to the somewhat more dignified cause of thunder. Needless to say, it is such disguises of the memories which make difficult the labor of the psychoanalyst to pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, to raze out the written troubles of the brain, its “traumas” or the original shocks. And when we remember that Psyche in Greek means not only the mind, but the soul, we can better understand Shakespeare’s amazing grasp of psychology when he speaks not only of the “mind diseased,” but of “that perilous stuff which weighs upon the heart.”

We all have these complexes, in forms ranging from the mild to the severe; sitophobia, the aversion to certain foods; claustrophobia, the fear of locked doors--to which the fear of open spaces forms a striking contrast; stage-fright; touching wood and other superstitions--a thorough list would indeed be a very long one.

For the greater part, the patient must minister to himself--with the help of the skilled psychoanalyst. In some cases elaborate processes are needed, and the use of psychometers and other delicate registering devices enlisted; but usually, the procedure is a simple one. The subject of investigation is made comfortable physically, and put in a quiet mood; he is then told to utter whatever may come into his mind in connection with his complex--with occasional promptings and questions from the psychoanalyst. Sooner or later the association of ideas will bring to the surface the original, cause or experience, which had become “rooted,” submerged; very often the mere explanation will suffice to eradicate the obsession.

But there is another group of disorders, hysteria, which may partake both of the physical and the psychical, or where either state may induce the other. Richard Ingalese in his “History and Power of Mind,” has summed up the matter very clearly: “Disease may be divided into two classes, the imaginary and the real. Imaginary disease is a picture held firmly by the objective mind, which causes more or less physical correspondence. This kind of disease is often created in total disregard of the laws governing anatomy or physiology; and is the hardest to cure, because persons possessed of it hold to it so persistently that an entire revision of their mode of thought must be made before it can be cured. It is not at all infrequent to have a patient complain of kidney disease, locating the pain and the organs several inches below the waist line. The spleen is often supposed to be in the right side of the body, and phantom tumors appear and disappear. But all these mental pictures, if held long enough, create matrices or vortices, and draw into them the elements that will bring finally the actual disease that was at first purely imaginary.”

Psycho-analysis proceeds upon the assumption that a very large number of cases of disease are caused by repression of normal desires, or by disturbances that have occurred in the past life of the individual. In such cases the root of the disease is so concealed, sometimes through years and years, that it must be searched for.

The Psycho-Analyst is enabled to locate such difficulties, through dreams, or rather through the interpretation of dreams, or by questioning the patient concerning his past life. The well trained analyst must of necessity secure the friendly confidence of the patient to such an extent that the latter will not hesitate to reveal any experience, no matter how intimate.

As soon, as the patient has been led to remember a particular experience, he is encouraged to talk about it in detail and thus it is brought up from the subconsciousness. The analyst then shows him what has been causing the difficulty and when the cause is eradicated it can do no more harm.

It is exactly parallel to a foreign substance in the flesh; there is a horrible swelling, with inflammation, pain, and suffering; the surgeon is called, removes the difficulty, and natures does the rest. The psychological law follows the same procedure. If there has been any abnormal activity, any festering sore in the subconscious mind, going on for years and years, if it can be located by a process of mental analysis and put out of the mental complex and shown to the patient, the catharsis is complete.

Dr. Hugh T. Patrick, clinical professor of nerves and mental disease in Northwestern University Medical School, mentions several interesting cases.

“In many cases of functional nervous disorders the factor of fear is quite obvious. But in many cases, though equally important, it is not at once apparent. Of the latter there are numerous varieties which may be divided into groups. One group embraces patients known to have physical courage. A few years ago there was referred to me one of the most noted as well as fearless men in the ring, a man who was peculiarly carefree, if not careless. He was suffering with what were considered rather vague and baffling nervous symptoms, principally insomnia, lack of interest, and moodiness. A careful analysis soon revealed that some trifling symptoms, due to high living and domestic friction, had served to put the idea into his head that he was losing his mind. This phobia was sickness, and the fear so possessed his soul that he was good for nothing until he got rid of it. Needless to say, the patient himself was quite unconscious of the nature of his trouble, and his physician had overlooked it.

So they could not cure the trouble from a physical standpoint. The situation had to be mentally analyzed, and the cause of the fear dragged out from subconsciousness and exposed to the man. When he had a look at it, why, it had exactly the same effect as pulling an eyelash out from an inflamed eye and letting you see it. Your troubles are all over right away, because you are very sure the disturbing cause has been removed, and you forget about it then.

“A sheep rancher of Wyoming complained of insomnia, loss of appetite, abdominal distress, general nervousness and inability to look after his ranch. What really was the matter with him was fear of cancer of the stomach. This phobia completely unnerved him and cause him to enormously magnify every bodily sensation. But was he a nerveless coward? Decidedly not.

There was a time when the cattlemen of the Far West made sheep raising a hazardous occupation. Through these dangerous years he lived without a tremor, though he never went to sleep without a rifle by his side. Once he was informed that three cattlemen had started out to ‘get him,’ and the information was correct. He mounted his horse and properly armed, rode out to meet them. As he expressed it, he ‘talked them out of it,’ and the three would-be assassins turned and rode away. In this encounter he was not in the least apprehensive or uncomfortable, and I learned of the incident only in a conversation about his business.”

He had plenty of physical courage, but when something in the inner organism seemed to be wrong, he was scared. As soon as this doctor discovered what the fear was, he probably produced an X-ray or something of that nature to show the patient that there was nothing the matter. Then drawing the patient’s attention to the groundless fear, the doctor was able to convince the patient of the groundlessness of his fears.