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+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
+
+
+
+
+[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.]
+
+
+
+SELF MASTERY THROUGH CONSCIOUS
+AUTOSUGGESTION
+
+by
+
+EMILE COUÉ
+
+
+AMERICAN LIBRARY SERVICE
+PUBLISHERS
+500 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK
+
+
+Copyright 1922
+_by_
+AMERICAN LIBRARY SERVICE
+_All Translation Rights Reserved_
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, by _Emile Coué_    5
+Thoughts and Precepts, by _Emile Coué_                           36
+Observations on What Autosuggestion Can Do, by _Emile Coué_      43
+Education As It Ought To Be, by _Emile Coué_                     50
+A Survey of the "Séances" at M. Emile Coué's                     55
+Letters from Patients Treated by the Coué Method         62, 72, 75
+The Miracle Within, by _M. Burnet-Provins_                       80
+Some Notes on the Journey of M. Coué to Paris in October, 1919   85
+Everything for Everyone! by Mme. Emile Leon                      88
+
+
+[Illustration of Emile Coué]
+
+
+SELF MASTERY THROUGH CONSCIOUS
+AUTOSUGGESTION
+
+Suggestion, or rather Autosuggestion, is quite a new subject, and yet
+at the same time it is as old as the world.
+
+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.
+
+By knowing how to practise it _consciously_ 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.
+
+
+THE CONSCIOUS SELF AND THE UNCONSCIOUS SELF
+
+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:
+
+Every one has heard of somnambulism; every one knows that a
+somnambulist gets up at night _without waking_, 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.
+
+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?
+
+Let us now examine the alas, too frequent case of a drunkard
+attacked by _delirium tremens_. 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? [*]
+
+[*] 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.
+
+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.
+
+Not only does the unconscious self preside over the functions of our
+organism, but also over _all our actions whatever they are_. It is
+this that we call imagination, and it is this which, contrary to
+accepted opinion, _always_ makes us act even, and _above all_,
+against _our will_ when there is antagonism between these two
+forces.
+
+
+WILL AND IMAGINATION
+
+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
+_yields_ to the imagination. It is an _absolute_ rule that admits of no
+_exception_.
+
+"Blasphemy! Paradox!" you will exclaim. "Not at all! On the
+contrary, it is the purest truth," I shall reply.
+
+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 _fact_.
+
+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 _in spite of every effort of your
+will_ you would be certain to fall to the ground.
+
+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 _imagine_ that
+you _cannot_ do so.
+
+Notice that your will is powerless to make you advance; if you
+_imagine_ that you _cannot_, it is _absolutely_ 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.
+
+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 _in spite of all the efforts of our will_, and the more violent
+these efforts are, the quicker is the opposite to the desired result
+brought about.
+
+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 _will_, the
+more efforts he makes, the more restless he becomes.
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+Who has not suffered from an attack of uncontrollable laughter,
+which bursts out more violently the more one tries to control it?
+
+What was the state of mind of each person in these different
+circumstances? "_I do not want_ to fall but I _cannot help_ doing
+so"; "I _want_ to sleep but I _cannot_ "; "I _want_ to remember the
+name of Mrs. So and So, but I _cannot_ "; "I _want_ to avoid the
+obstacle, but I _cannot_ "; "I _want_ to stop laughing, but I
+_cannot_."
+
+As you see, in each of these conflicts it is always the _imagination_
+which gains the victory over the _will_, without any exception.
+
+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
+_imagine_ that they must go _forward_, and in the second they
+_imagine_ that they are conquered and must fly for their lives.
+
+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.
+
+We human beings have a certain resemblance to sheep, and
+involuntarily, we are irresistibly impelled to follow other people's
+examples, _imagining_ that we cannot do otherwise.
+
+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 _will_.
+
+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 _will_, in spite of the
+harm they know it will do them.
+
+In the same way certain criminals commit crimes _in spite of
+themselves_, and when they are asked why they acted so, they
+answer "I could not help it, something impelled me, it was stronger
+than I."
+
+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.
+
+
+SUGGESTION AND AUTOSUGGESTION
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _suggestion_ and
+_autosuggestion_.
+
+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 _sine qua non_ condition of
+transforming itself into _autosuggestion_ in the subject. This latter
+word may be defined as "the implanting of an idea in oneself by
+oneself."
+
+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 _autosuggestion_, 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 _autosuggestion_.
+
+
+THE USE OF AUTOSUGGESTION
+
+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 _autosuggestion_.
+
+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.
+
+[*] Of course the thing must be in our power.
+
+Thus understood, _autosuggestion_ is nothing but hypnotism as I
+see it, and I would define it in these simple words: _The influence of
+the imagination upon the moral and physical being of mankind_.
+Now this influence is undeniable, and without returning to previous
+examples, I will quote a few others.
+
+If you persuade yourself that you can do a certain thing, provided
+this thing be _possible_, you will do it however difficult it may be.
+If on the contrary you _imagine_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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
+_conscious autosuggestion_.
+
+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 _imagine_ themselves to
+be ill mentally or physically. If certain others are paralytic without
+having any lesion to account for it, it is that they _imagine_
+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
+_perfectly happy_, the other _absolutely wretched_.
+
+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 _unconscious_ upon the
+physical and moral being.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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 will
+must not be brought into play in practising autosuggestion; 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.
+
+This remark is of capital importance, and explains why results are so
+unsatisfactory when, in treating moral ailments, one strives to
+_re-educate_ the will. It is the _training of the imagination_ 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:
+
+1. When the will and the imagination are antagonistic, it is always
+the imagination which wins, _without any exception_.
+
+2. In the conflict between the will and the imagination, the force of
+the imagination is in _direct ratio to the square of the will_.
+
+3. When the will and the imagination are in agreement, one does not
+add to the other, but one is multiplied by the other.
+
+4. The imagination can be directed.
+
+(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.)
+
+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, _can_ yield
+to _autosuggestion_, daring and unlikely as my statement may seem;
+I do not say _does always yield_, but _can yield_, which is a
+different thing.
+
+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.
+
+_Autosuggestion_ 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 _consciously_. 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".
+
+I am now going to show you how everyone can profit by the
+beneficent action of _autosuggestion_ 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:
+
+1. The mentally undeveloped who are not capable of understanding
+what you say to them.
+
+2. _Those who are unwilling to understand_.
+
+
+HOW TO TEACH PATIENTS TO MAKE AUTOSUGGESTIONS
+
+The principle of the method may be summed up in these few words:
+_It is impossible to think of two things at once_, that is to say that
+two ideas may be in juxtaposition, but they cannot be superimposed
+in our mind.
+
+_Every thought entirely filling our mind becomes true for us and
+tends to transform itself into action_.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+_First experiment_.[*] _Preparatory_.--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.
+
+[*] These experiments are those of Sage of Rochester.
+
+_Second experiment_.--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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+_Third experiment_.--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.
+
+_Fourth experiment_.--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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+In all these experiments, I cannot repeat too often, it is not
+_suggestion_ properly so-called which produces the phenomena, but
+the _autosuggestion_ which is consecutive to the suggestion of the
+operator.
+
+
+METHOD OF PROCEDURE IN CURATIVE SUGGESTION
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.)
+
+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,
+--_on condition that it is reasonable_,--and whatever it is your duty to
+do.
+
+So when you wish to do something reasonable, or when you have a
+duty to perform, always think that it is _easy_, and make the words
+_difficult, impossible, I cannot, it is stronger than I, I cannot prevent
+myself from_. . . , disappear from your vocabulary; they are not
+English. What is English is: "_It is easy and I can_ ". 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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:
+
+"EVERY DAY, IN EVERY RESPECT, I AM GETTING BETTER
+AND BETTER." In his mind he should emphasize the words "_in
+every respect_" which applies to every need, mental or physical.
+This general suggestion is more efficacious than special ones.
+
+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.
+
+
+THE SUPERIORITY OF THIS METHOD
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+HOW SUGGESTION WORKS
+
+In order to understand properly the part played by suggestion or
+rather by autosuggestion, it is enough to know that the _unconscious
+self is the grand director of all our functions_. 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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _naturally_, as
+they would have done artificially at the contact of a haemostatic like
+adrenalin, for example.
+
+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.
+
+
+THE USE OF SUGGESTION FOR THE CURE OF MORAL
+AILMENTS AND TAINTS EITHER CONGENITAL OR
+ACQUIRED
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Since such results are to be obtained by suggestion, would it not be
+beneficial--I might even say _indispensable_--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?
+
+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.
+
+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?
+
+
+A FEW TYPICAL CURES
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _morals_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+What conclusion is to be drawn from all this?
+
+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.
+
+Lastly, and above all, it should be applied to the moral regeneration
+of those who have wandered from the right path.
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS AND PRECEPTS OF EMILE COUÉ
+
+_taken down literally by Mme. Emile Leon, his disciple._
+
+Do not spend your time in thinking of illness you might have, for if
+you have no real ones you will create artificial ones.
+
+***
+
+When you make conscious autosuggestions, do it naturally, simply,
+with conviction, and above all _without any effort._ If unconscious
+and bad autosuggestions are so often realized, it is because they are
+made without effort.
+
+***
+
+Be sure that you will obtain what you want, and you will obtain it,
+so long as it is within reason.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+Never discuss things you know nothing about, or you will only
+make yourself ridiculous.
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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 _thinking that
+we cannot do so,_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+Things are not for us what they are, but what they seem; this
+explains the contradictory evidence of persons speaking in all good
+faith.
+
+***
+
+By believing oneself to be the master of one's thoughts one becomes
+so.
+
+***
+
+Everyone of our thoughts, good or bad, becomes concrete,
+materializes, and becomes in short a reality.
+
+We are what we make ourselves and not what circumstances make
+us.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+Conscious autosuggestion, made with confidence, with faith, with
+perseverance, realizes itself mathematically, within reason.
+
+***
+
+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 _without effort._ The
+latter implies the use of the _will,_ which must be entirely put aside.
+One must have recourse _exclusively_ to the imagination.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+Contrary to common opinion, physical diseases are generally far
+more easily cured than mental ones.
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+It is not the person who acts, it is the method.
+
+***
+
+. . . Contrary to general opinion, suggestion, or autosuggestion can
+bring about the cure of organic lesions.
+
+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.
+
+Docteur Paul Joire, _Président of the Societe universelle d'Etudes
+psychiques_ (Bull. No. 4 of the S. L. 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
+_spiritual forces_ which lead the world.
+
+Docteur Louis Renon, _Lecturing professor at the Faculty of
+Medicine of Paris, and doctor at the Necker Hospital._
+
+***
+
+. . . Never lose sight of the great principle of autosuggestion:
+_Optimism always and in spite of everything, even when events do
+not seem to justify it._
+
+René de Drabois, (Bull. 11 of the S. L. P. A.)
+
+***
+
+Suggestion sustained by faith is a formidable force.
+
+Docteur A. L., Paris, (July, 1920.)
+
+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 _the good of others_
+more than one's own.
+
+"Culture de la Force Morale", by C. Baudouin.
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS ON WHAT AUTOSUGGESTION CAN DO
+
+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, _no better._ 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 _remarkable_ 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 _on foot_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.)
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+M. Hazot, aged 48, living at Brin. Invalided the 15th of January,
+1915, with _specific_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _entirely subsided,_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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: _"in every respect"_ contained in the formula used
+morning and evening.)
+
+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.)
+
+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 _normally_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _run._ Still more, he can
+whirl both arms like a windmill. In November the cure is still
+holding good.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _without the help of either crutch or stick._ 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.
+
+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.
+
+EMILE COUÉ.
+
+
+
+EDUCATION AS IT OUGHT TO BE
+
+It may seem paradoxical but, nevertheless, the Education of a child
+ought to begin before its birth.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+How then should parents, and those entrusted with the education of
+children avoid provoking bad autosuggestions and, on the other
+hand, influence good autosuggestions?
+
+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.
+
+Above all--above all, avoid harshness and brutality, for there the risk
+is incurred of influencing an autosuggestion of cruelty accompanied
+by hate.
+
+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.
+
+Inevitably this fatal example will be followed, and may produce
+later a real catastrophe.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+In so doing an inner satisfaction is experienced that the egoist ever
+seeks and never finds.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+As soon as children can speak, make them repeat morning and
+evening, twenty times consecutively:
+
+"Day by day, in all respects, I grow better", which will produce in
+them an excellent physical, moral and healthy atmosphere.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Finally, it is desirable that all teachers should, every morning, make
+suggestions to their pupils, somewhat in the following fashion.
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+This is the Counsel, which, if followed faithfully and truly from
+henceforth, will produce a race endowed with the highest physical
+and moral qualities.
+
+Emile Coué.
+
+
+
+A SURVEY OF THE "SÉANCES" AT M. COUÉ'S
+
+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:
+
+"Well, Madame, and what is your trouble? . . ."
+
+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. . . .
+
+---
+
+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.
+
+---
+
+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.
+
+---
+
+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. . . .
+
+---
+
+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. . . .
+
+---
+
+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. . . .
+
+---
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+---
+
+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. . . .
+
+---
+
+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.
+
+---
+
+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."
+
+---
+
+_Observation.--_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.
+
+---
+
+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 cannot help it." "One can
+always overcome oneself."_
+
+_Observation.--_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.
+
+---
+
+The cause which prevents you from walking, whatever it is, is going
+to disappear little by little every day: you know the proverb:
+_Heaven helps those who help themselves._ Stand up two or three
+times a day supporting yourself on two persons, and say to yourself
+firmly: _My kidneys are not so weak that I cannot do it, on the
+contrary I can. . . ._
+
+---
+
+After having said: "Every day, in every respect, I am getting better
+and better," add: "The people who are pursuing me _cannot_ pursue
+me any more, they are not pursuing me. . . ."
+
+---
+
+What I told you is quite true; it was enough to think that you had no
+more pain for the pain to disappear; _do not think then that it may
+come back or it will come back. . . ._
+
+(A woman, sotto voice, "What patience he has! What a wonderfully
+painstaking man!")
+
+---
+
+ALL THAT WE THINK BECOMES TRUE FOR US.  WE MUST
+NOT THEN ALLOW OURSELVES TO THINK WRONGLY.
+
+---
+
+THINK "MY TROUBLE IS GOING AWAY," JUST AS YOU
+THINK YOU CANNOT OPEN YOUR HANDS.
+
+The more you say: _"I will not,"_ the more surely the contrary
+comes about. You must say: _"It's going away,"_ 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.
+
+_Observation.--This is the essential point of the method._ In order to
+make auto-suggestions, you must eliminate the _will_ completely
+and only address yourself to the _imagination,_ so as to avoid a
+conflict between them in which the will would be vanquished.
+
+---
+
+To become stronger as one becomes older seems paradoxical, but it
+is true.
+
+---
+
+For diabetes: Continue to use therapeutic treatments; I am quite
+willing to make suggestions to you, but I cannot promise to cure you.
+
+_Observation._--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.
+
+---
+
+This obsession must be a real nightmare. The people you used to
+detest are becoming your friends, you like them and they like you.
+
+Ah, but to _will_ and to _desire_ is not the _same_ thing.
+
+---
+
+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:
+
+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."
+
+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."
+
+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."
+
+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. . . .'"
+
+To the fifth, etc., etc.
+
+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:
+_As long as you live,_ 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 _lips_ (that is indispensable) and counting
+_mechanically_ on a string with twenty knots in it the following
+phrase: _'Every day, in every respect, I am getting better and
+better.'"_
+
+There is no need to think of anything in particular, as the words _"in
+every respect"_ 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.
+
+Further, every time that in the course of the day or night you feel
+any physical or mental discomfort, _affirm_ 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 _very quickly,_
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _'Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.'"_
+
+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."
+
+Therefore, suppressing, first of all, every cause of suffering _created
+or encouraged by ourselves,_ 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).
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+E. Vs----oer.
+
+_Note._--Entrance is free to the members of the Lorraine Society of
+applied Psychology.
+
+
+
+EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS ADDRESSED TO M. COUÉ
+
+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 _with flying
+colors,_ 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.)
+
+          Mlle. V----,
+     _Schoolmistress, August,_ 1916.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+Yours most gratefully.
+
+          Paul Chenot,
+     _Rue de Strasbourg,_ 141 _Nancy, Aug.,_ 1917.
+
+***
+
+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 _as big as my hand,_
+is entirely _cured._ 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.
+
+          Mme. Ligny,
+     _Mailleroncourt-Charette (Haute Saône), May,_ 1918.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. S----,
+     _Pont à Mousson, Feb.,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. V----,
+     _Saint-Dié, Feb.,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Docteur Vachet,
+     _Vincennes, May,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. Soulier,
+     _Place du Marchè Toul, May,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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 _"in every respect"_ 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.
+
+Yours most gratefully,
+
+          E. Itier,
+     _Rue de Lille, Paris, April,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+I can now take up again the struggle I have sustained for 30 years,
+and which had exhausted me.
+
+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.
+
+          Mlle. Th----,
+     _Professor at the Young Ladies' College at Ch----, Jan.,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Ch. Baudouin,
+     _Professor at the Institut. J.-J. Rousseau, Geneva._
+
+***
+
+. . . 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.
+
+At the Nursing Home we try to apply your method collectively, and
+have already obtained visible results in this way.
+
+          Docteur Berillon,
+     _Paris, March,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+. . . I have received your kind letter as well as your very interesting
+lecture.
+
+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.
+
+          Docteur Van Velsen,
+     _Brussels, March,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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
+_stronger. . . ._ 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.
+
+          Mme. M----,
+     _Cesson-Saint-Brieuc._
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. Lemaitre,
+     _Richemont, June,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Don Enrique C----,
+     _Madrid._
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          A. F----,
+     _Reimiremont._
+
+***
+
+. . . 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.
+
+          E. L----,
+     _Saint-Clément (M-et-M.)_
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. L----,
+     _Henry (Lorraine)._
+
+***
+
+. . . 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.
+
+I cannot do otherwise than bless the Coué system.
+
+          L----,
+     _Cannes (A. M.)._
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Perrin (Charles),
+     _Essey-les Nancy._
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. Soulie,
+     6, _Place du Marchè, Toul._
+
+***
+
+. . . 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.
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. M----,
+     _à Soulosse._
+
+***
+
+A dedication to M. Coué by the author of a medical treatise:
+
+To M. Coué who knew how to dissect the human soul and to extract
+from it a psychologic method founded on conscious autosuggestion.
+
+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.
+
+Thus he has given man the means of increasing tenfold his moral
+force by giving him confidence in himself.
+
+          Docteur P. R.,
+     _Francfort._
+
+***
+
+. . . 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. . . .
+
+     Miss Josephine M. Richardson.
+
+***
+
+. . . When I came, I expected a great deal, but what I have seen,
+thanks to your great kindness, exceeds greatly my expectation.
+
+          Montagu S. Monier-Williams, M. D.,
+     _London._
+
+
+
+FRAGMENTS FROM LETTERS
+Addressed to Mme. Emile Leon, Disciple of M. Coué
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. F----,
+     _Rue de Bougainville,_ 4, _Paris._
+
+***
+
+Amazed at the results obtained by the autosuggestion which you
+made known to me, I thank you with all my heart.
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. L. T----,
+     _Rue du Laos,_ 4, _Paris._
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          M. L. D----,
+     _Paris, June,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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."
+
+          B. P----,
+     _Paris, October,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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. C.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. Friry,
+     _Boulevard Malesherbes, Paris._
+
+
+EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS
+_Addressed to Mlle. Kaufmant, Disciple of M. Coué_
+
+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.
+
+Yours most gratefully.
+
+          Jeanne Gilli,
+     15, _Av. Borriglione, Nice, March,_ 1918.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+Yours gratefully and sympathetically,
+
+          A. Kettner,
+     26, _Av. Borriglione, Nice, March,_ 1918.
+
+***
+
+. . . 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.
+
+          Mme. Poirson,
+     _Liverdun, August,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+          Jeanne Grosjean,
+     _Nancy, Nov.,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+. . . Personally the science of autosuggestion--for I consider it as
+entirely a _science--_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.
+
+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 _hundred times_
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+          M. L. D----,
+     _Nancy, November,_ 1920.
+
+
+
+THE MIRACLE WITHIN
+
+_(Reprinted from the "Renaissance politique, littéraire et artistique"
+of the 18th of December,_ 1920)
+
+HOMAGE TO EMILE COUÉ
+
+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.
+
+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: _"To Emile Coué, the initiator and
+benefactor, with deep gratitude"._
+
+I read it and did not put down the book until I had reached the end.
+
+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.
+
+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 _autosuggestion._
+
+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, _he showed the action of the unconscious in organic
+cases._ 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.
+
+As I cannot enter here into long scientific details I will content
+myself by saying how the learned man of Nancy practises his
+method.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Here are the magic words: _"Every day, in every respect, I am
+getting better and better"._
+
+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.
+
+While articulating these words, _which are registered by the
+unconscious,_ 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 _"in every respect"_
+has a general effect.
+
+This desire must be expressed without passion, without will, with
+gentleness, _but with absolute confidence._
+
+For Emile Coué at the moment of autosuggestion, _does not call in
+the will in any way, on the contrary;_ there must be no question of
+the will at that moment, but the _imagination,_ the great motive
+force infinitely more active than that which is usually invoked, the
+imagination alone must be brought into play.
+
+"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.
+
+As deeds talk louder than words, I will tell you what happened to
+myself before I had ever seen M. Coué.
+
+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.
+
+These examples impressed me profoundly; _there_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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 am going to be cured,_ 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.
+
+I went there and found the excellent man, attractive by his goodness
+and simplicity, who has become my friend.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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. . . ."
+
+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 _mind_ you
+possess an _unlimited_ 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."
+
+When you feel a physical pain, add the formula _"It is going
+away . . .",_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+There also I know from experience that events can be singularly
+modified by this process.
+
+You know it to-day, and you will know it better still by reading M.
+Baudouin's book, and then his pamphlet: _"Culture de la force
+morale",_ and then, lastly, the little succinct treatise written by M.
+Coué himself: _"Self Mastery."_ All these works may be found at M.
+Coué's.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+          M. Burnat-Provins.
+
+
+
+SOME NOTES ON THE JOURNEY OF M. COUÉ TO PARIS IN
+OCTOBER, 1919
+
+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.
+
+_Question._--Why is it that I do not obtain better results although I
+use your method and prayer?
+
+_Answer._--Because, probably, at the back of your mind there is an
+_unconscious doubt,_ or because you make _efforts._ 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.
+
+_Question._--What are we to do when something troubles us?
+
+_Answer._--When something happens that troubles you, _repeat_ 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.
+
+_Question._--Are the preliminary experiments indispensable if they
+are unacceptable to the pride of the subject?
+
+_Answer._--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:
+
+1. That every idea that we have in our minds becomes _true_ for us,
+and has a tendency to transform itself into action.
+
+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 _contrary_ of what we wish to do.
+
+3. That it is easy for us to put into our minds, _without any effort,_
+the idea that we wish to have, since we have been able without effort
+to think in succession: "I cannot," and then "I can."
+
+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.
+
+_Question._--When one is in pain, one cannot help thinking of one's
+trouble.
+
+_Answer._--Do not be afraid to think of it; on the contrary, do think
+of it, but to say to it, "I am not _afraid_ of you."
+
+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.
+
+_Question._--And if one does a retreat?
+
+_Answer._--Go backwards.
+
+_Question._--How can we realize what we desire?
+
+_Answer._--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.
+
+If you say the contrary, it is the contrary which will come about.
+
+What you say persistently and very quickly _comes to pass_ (within
+the domain of the reasonable, of course).
+
+Some testimonies:
+
+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?"
+
+. . . An eminent Parisian doctor to numerous doctors surrounding
+him: "I have entirely come over to the ideas of M. Coué."
+
+. . . A Polytechnician, a severe critic, thus defines M. Coué: "He is a
+Power."
+
+. . . 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.
+
+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 _received_ of being happy and well."
+
+It is, _if one consents,_ the full development of this power which
+can transform one's life.
+
+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
+_thousands_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+Mme. Emile Leon,
+_Collaborator, in Paris, of M. Emile Coué_
+
+
+
+"EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE"
+
+By Mme. Emile Leon, Disciple of M. Coué.
+
+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."
+
+To drive away pain is much . . . but how much more is it to lead into
+the possession of a new life _all_ those who suffer. . . .
+
+Last April we had the visit of M. Emile Coué at Paris, and here are
+some of his teachings:
+
+_Question._--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.
+
+_M. Coué._--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 _consciously_ employing the
+mechanical process that we employ _unconsciously_ often to lead
+into the wrong.
+
+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 _created by ourselves,_ 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."
+
+_Question._--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?
+
+_Answer._--Do not insist or lecture them about it. Just remind them
+simply that I advise them to make an autosuggestion with the
+_conviction_ that they will obtain the result they want.
+
+_Question._--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?
+
+_Answer._--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.
+
+_Question._--How is one to keep inwardly the mastery of oneself?
+
+_Answer._--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.
+
+_Question._--And outwardly, how is one to keep one's liberty?
+
+_Answer._--Self mastery applies just as much physically as
+mentally.
+
+_Question_(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 _just suffering._
+
+_M. Coué_(very seriously and affirmatively).--Certainly and
+assuredly it ought not to be so, but it is so often . . . at any rate for a
+time.
+
+_Question._--Why did that patient who has been entirely cured,
+continually have those terrible attacks?
+
+_Answer._--He expected his attacks, he feared them . . . and so he
+_provoked_ 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.
+
+_Question._--In what does your method differ from others.
+
+_Answer._--The differ not the _will_ which rules us but the
+_imagination;_ that is the basis, the fundamental basis.
+
+_Question._--Will you give me a summary of your "Method" for
+Mme. R----, who is doing an important work?
+
+_M. E. Coué._--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
+_will,_ 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 _determines_ to sleep, the more excited she
+becomes; the more we _try_ 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 _determine_
+to avoid an obstacle, when learning to bicycle, the more we rush
+upon it.
+
+We must then apply ourselves to directing our _imagination_ which
+now directs us; in this way we easily arrive at becoming masters of
+ourselves physically and morally.
+
+How are we to arrive at this result? By the practice of conscious
+_autosuggestion._
+
+Conscious autosuggestion is based on this principle. Every idea that
+we have in our mind becomes true for us and tends to realize itself.
+
+Thus, if we _desire_ 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.
+
+Everything is included by employing night and morning the general
+formula: "Every day, _in every respect,_ I am getting better and
+better".
+
+_Question._--For those who are sad--who are in distress?
+
+_Answer._--As long as you think: "I am sad", you _cannot_ 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, _that_ I _can_ affirm.
+
+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."
+
+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.)
+
+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".
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+In the hall which thrills with interest, joyful testimonies break out
+from numerous persons who have been relieved or cured.
+
+A doctor: "Autosuggestion is the weapon of healing". As to this
+philosopher who writes (he mentions his name), he relies on the
+_genius_ of Coué.
+
+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".
+
+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.
+
+A warmly sympathetic voice calls him the modest name he prefers
+to that of "Master": Professor Coué.
+
+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".
+
+A literary man, whom a lady asks to write a little _"chef d'oeuvre"_
+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--_that_ is the _chef-d'oeuvre!"_
+he affirms.
+
+And the thousands of sick folks who have been relieved or cured
+will not contradict him.
+
+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."
+
+And now in conclusion I will say: Although M. Coué's modesty
+makes him reply to everyone:
+
+I have no magnetic fluid--
+
+I have no influence--
+
+I have never cured anybody--
+
+My disciples obtain the same results as myself--
+
+"I can say in all sincerity that they tend to do so, instructed as they
+are in the _valuable 'Method',_ 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 _immortal,_ 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--! _There is the
+chef-d'oeuvre!'"_
+
+          B. K. (Emile-Leon).
+     Paris, June 6th, 1920.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Self Mastery Through Conscious
+Autosuggestion, by Emile Coué
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Self Mastery Through Conscious
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+
+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:&nbsp; many of the people quoted in this text are identified only by their
+initials along with either a dash or three periods.&nbsp; For consistency's sake, I have
+used four dashes for each person instead of periods.&nbsp; I have also added
+quotation marks where appropriate.&nbsp; Finally, I have made the following
+spelling change:&nbsp; I congraulate you to I congratulate you. ]</p>
+
+<center>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+<p>SELF MASTERY THROUGH CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION</p>
+
+<p>by</p>
+
+<p>EMILE COU&Eacute;</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
+Cou&eacute;</i></a></td>
+
+<td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;5</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#2">Thoughts and Precepts, by <i>Emile Cou&eacute;</i></a></td>
+
+<td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;36</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#3">Observations on What Autosuggestion Can Do, by <i>Emile
+Cou&eacute;</i></a></td>
+
+<td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;43</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#4">Education As It Ought To Be, by <i>Emile Cou&eacute;</i></a></td>
+
+<td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;50</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#5">A Survey of the "S&eacute;ances" at M. Emile Cou&eacute;'s</a></td>
+
+<td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;55</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#6">Letters from Patients Treated by the Cou&eacute; Method</a></td>
+
+<td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;62, 72, 75</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#7">The Miracle Within, by <i>M. Burnet-Provins</i></a></td>
+
+<td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;80</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#8">Some Notes on the Journey of M. Cou&eacute; to Paris in October,
+1919</a></td>
+
+<td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;85</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#9">Everything for Everyone! by Mme. Emile Leon</a></td>
+
+<td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;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>.&quot;</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.&quot;</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. Gauth&eacute;, 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 Max&eacute;ville. 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>&nbsp;<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 COU&Eacute;</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>Pr&eacute;sident 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>Ren&eacute; 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. Cou&eacute;
+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 Max&eacute;ville. 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 "s&eacute;ances," 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.&nbsp; 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-Piv&eacute;r&eacute;court, 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, Malz&eacute;ville. 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 "s&eacute;ance," 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 "s&eacute;ances" 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 (Eug&egrave;ne), aged 60, rue de la C&ocirc;te, 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 "s&eacute;ance," 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 COU&Eacute;.</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 Cou&eacute;.</p><a name="5"></a><br>
+<br>
+
+<p>A SURVEY OF THE "S&Eacute;ANCES" AT M. COU&Eacute;'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 s&eacute;ance 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. Cou&eacute;, 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-Sa&ocirc;ne 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.&quot;</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. . . .&quot;</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.&nbsp; 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. Cou&eacute; 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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To the third: &quot;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.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To the fourth: &quot;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. Cou&eacute; 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. Cou&eacute; 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 Cou&eacute; 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. Cou&eacute; 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. Cou&eacute; 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. COU&Eacute;</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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mlle. V----, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Paul Chenot, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. Ligny,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mailleroncourt-Charette (Haute Sa&ocirc;ne), May,</i> 1918.</p>
+
+<p>***</p>
+
+<p>N. B.--It is worthy of remark that this lady never saw M. Cou&eacute;, 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. S----, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Pont &agrave; 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
+s&eacute;ances, 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. V----,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Saint-Di&eacute;, 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Docteur Vachet,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. Soulier,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Place du March&egrave; 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. Cou&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>Yours most gratefully,</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; E. Itier,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mlle. Th----,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ch. Baudouin,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Docteur Berillon,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Docteur Van Velsen,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. M----,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. Lemaitre, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Don Enrique C----,<br>
+<i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A. F----, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; E. L----, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Saint-Cl&eacute;ment (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 s&eacute;ance, 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. L----, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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 Cou&eacute; system.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; L----, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Perrin (Charles),<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. Soulie,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 6, <i>Place du March&egrave;, 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 s&eacute;ances 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. M----, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &agrave; Soulosse.</i></p>
+
+<p>***</p>
+
+<p>A dedication to M. Cou&eacute; by the author of a medical treatise:</p>
+
+<p>To M. Cou&eacute; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Docteur P. R., <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Montagu S. Monier-Williams, M.
+D., <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; London.</i></p><br>
+
+<p>FRAGMENTS FROM LETTERS<br>
+Addressed to Mme. Emile Leon, Disciple of M. Cou&eacute;</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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. F----,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. L. T----,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+Rue du Laos,</i> 4, <i>Paris.</i></p>
+
+<p>***</p>
+
+<p>I want to tell you what excellent results M. Cou&eacute;'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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; M. L. D----, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; B. P----, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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. Cou&eacute;, 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. Friry, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Boulevard Malesherbes, Paris.</i></p><br>
+
+<p>EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS<br>
+<i>Addressed to Mlle. Kaufmant, Disciple of M. Cou&eacute;</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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Jeanne Gilli,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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 s&eacute;ance, 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A. Kettner,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Mme. Poirson, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Jeanne Grosjean,<i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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. Cou&eacute;'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: &quot;that he never performs a miracle or cures
+anybody, but that he shows people how to cure themselves.&quot; 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 &quot;giving heart&quot; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; M. L. D----, <i><br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Nancy, November,</i> 1920.</p><a name="7"></a><br>
+<br>
+
+<p>THE MIRACLE WITHIN</p>
+
+<p><i>(Reprinted from the "Renaissance politique, litt&eacute;raire et artistique" of the
+18th of December,</i> 1920)</p>
+
+<p>HOMAGE TO EMILE COU&Eacute;</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 Cou&eacute;, 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 Cou&eacute; who at the
+present time lives at Nancy, where he lately followed the work and experiments of
+Li&eacute;bault, the father of the doctrine of suggestions, for more than twenty years, I
+say, Cou&eacute; 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 Cou&eacute; 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 Cou&eacute; 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. Cou&eacute;.</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 Cou&eacute; 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
+"s&eacute;ance." 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. Cou&eacute; 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, Cou&eacute; 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. Cou&eacute; 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.&quot;</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. Cou&eacute; himself: <i>"Self Mastery."</i> All these
+works may be found at M. Cou&eacute;'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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; M. Burnat-Provins.</p><a name=
+"8"></a><br>
+<br>
+
+<p>SOME NOTES ON THE JOURNEY OF M. COU&Eacute; TO PARIS IN OCTOBER, 1919</p>
+
+<p>The desire that the teachings of M. Cou&eacute; 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?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>. . . An eminent Parisian doctor to numerous doctors surrounding him: "I have entirely
+come over to the ideas of M. Cou&eacute;."</p>
+
+<p>. . . A Polytechnician, a severe critic, thus defines M. Cou&eacute;: "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. Cou&eacute; 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 Cou&eacute;</i></p><a name="9"></a><br>
+<br>
+
+<p>"EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE"</p>
+
+<p>By Mme. Emile Leon, Disciple of M. Cou&eacute;.</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 Cou&eacute; 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 Cou&eacute; 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. Cou&eacute; calls a trick or mechanical
+process: conscious autosuggestion.</p>
+
+<p><i>M. Cou&eacute;.</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.&quot;</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. Cou&eacute;</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. Cou&eacute;.</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. Cou&eacute;
+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.
+Cou&eacute; 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!&quot; 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 s&eacute;ance 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. Cou&eacute;".</p>
+
+<p>A young woman comes to thank M. Cou&eacute; 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 Cou&eacute;.</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.
+Cou&eacute;, 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. Cou&eacute;'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 Cou&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p>A young woman who has been entirely won over: "M. Cou&eacute; 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. Cou&eacute;'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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; B. K. (Emile-Leon).<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Paris, June 6th, 1920.</p><br>
+<br>
+<br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Self Mastery Through Conscious
+Autosuggestion, by Emile Coué
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Self Mastery Through Conscious
+Autosuggestion, by Emile Coue
+
+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 Coue
+
+Release Date: November 8, 2008 [EBook #27203]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELF MASTERY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Ruth Hart
+
+
+
+
+[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.]
+
+
+
+SELF MASTERY THROUGH CONSCIOUS
+AUTOSUGGESTION
+
+by
+
+EMILE COUE
+
+
+AMERICAN LIBRARY SERVICE
+PUBLISHERS
+500 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK
+
+
+Copyright 1922
+_by_
+AMERICAN LIBRARY SERVICE
+_All Translation Rights Reserved_
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, by _Emile Coue_    5
+Thoughts and Precepts, by _Emile Coue_                           36
+Observations on What Autosuggestion Can Do, by _Emile Coue_      43
+Education As It Ought To Be, by _Emile Coue_                     50
+A Survey of the "Seances" at M. Emile Coue's                     55
+Letters from Patients Treated by the Coue Method         62, 72, 75
+The Miracle Within, by _M. Burnet-Provins_                       80
+Some Notes on the Journey of M. Coue to Paris in October, 1919   85
+Everything for Everyone! by Mme. Emile Leon                      88
+
+
+[Illustration of Emile Coue]
+
+
+SELF MASTERY THROUGH CONSCIOUS
+AUTOSUGGESTION
+
+Suggestion, or rather Autosuggestion, is quite a new subject, and yet
+at the same time it is as old as the world.
+
+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.
+
+By knowing how to practise it _consciously_ 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.
+
+
+THE CONSCIOUS SELF AND THE UNCONSCIOUS SELF
+
+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:
+
+Every one has heard of somnambulism; every one knows that a
+somnambulist gets up at night _without waking_, 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.
+
+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?
+
+Let us now examine the alas, too frequent case of a drunkard
+attacked by _delirium tremens_. 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? [*]
+
+[*] 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.
+
+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.
+
+Not only does the unconscious self preside over the functions of our
+organism, but also over _all our actions whatever they are_. It is
+this that we call imagination, and it is this which, contrary to
+accepted opinion, _always_ makes us act even, and _above all_,
+against _our will_ when there is antagonism between these two
+forces.
+
+
+WILL AND IMAGINATION
+
+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
+_yields_ to the imagination. It is an _absolute_ rule that admits of no
+_exception_.
+
+"Blasphemy! Paradox!" you will exclaim. "Not at all! On the
+contrary, it is the purest truth," I shall reply.
+
+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 _fact_.
+
+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 _in spite of every effort of your
+will_ you would be certain to fall to the ground.
+
+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 _imagine_ that
+you _cannot_ do so.
+
+Notice that your will is powerless to make you advance; if you
+_imagine_ that you _cannot_, it is _absolutely_ 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.
+
+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 _in spite of all the efforts of our will_, and the more violent
+these efforts are, the quicker is the opposite to the desired result
+brought about.
+
+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 _will_, the
+more efforts he makes, the more restless he becomes.
+
+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?
+
+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.
+
+Who has not suffered from an attack of uncontrollable laughter,
+which bursts out more violently the more one tries to control it?
+
+What was the state of mind of each person in these different
+circumstances? "_I do not want_ to fall but I _cannot help_ doing
+so"; "I _want_ to sleep but I _cannot_ "; "I _want_ to remember the
+name of Mrs. So and So, but I _cannot_ "; "I _want_ to avoid the
+obstacle, but I _cannot_ "; "I _want_ to stop laughing, but I
+_cannot_."
+
+As you see, in each of these conflicts it is always the _imagination_
+which gains the victory over the _will_, without any exception.
+
+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
+_imagine_ that they must go _forward_, and in the second they
+_imagine_ that they are conquered and must fly for their lives.
+
+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.
+
+We human beings have a certain resemblance to sheep, and
+involuntarily, we are irresistibly impelled to follow other people's
+examples, _imagining_ that we cannot do otherwise.
+
+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 _will_.
+
+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 _will_, in spite of the
+harm they know it will do them.
+
+In the same way certain criminals commit crimes _in spite of
+themselves_, and when they are asked why they acted so, they
+answer "I could not help it, something impelled me, it was stronger
+than I."
+
+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.
+
+
+SUGGESTION AND AUTOSUGGESTION
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _suggestion_ and
+_autosuggestion_.
+
+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 _sine qua non_ condition of
+transforming itself into _autosuggestion_ in the subject. This latter
+word may be defined as "the implanting of an idea in oneself by
+oneself."
+
+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 _autosuggestion_, 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 _autosuggestion_.
+
+
+THE USE OF AUTOSUGGESTION
+
+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 _autosuggestion_.
+
+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.
+
+[*] Of course the thing must be in our power.
+
+Thus understood, _autosuggestion_ is nothing but hypnotism as I
+see it, and I would define it in these simple words: _The influence of
+the imagination upon the moral and physical being of mankind_.
+Now this influence is undeniable, and without returning to previous
+examples, I will quote a few others.
+
+If you persuade yourself that you can do a certain thing, provided
+this thing be _possible_, you will do it however difficult it may be.
+If on the contrary you _imagine_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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
+_conscious autosuggestion_.
+
+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 _imagine_ themselves to
+be ill mentally or physically. If certain others are paralytic without
+having any lesion to account for it, it is that they _imagine_
+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
+_perfectly happy_, the other _absolutely wretched_.
+
+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 _unconscious_ upon the
+physical and moral being.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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 will
+must not be brought into play in practising autosuggestion; 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.
+
+This remark is of capital importance, and explains why results are so
+unsatisfactory when, in treating moral ailments, one strives to
+_re-educate_ the will. It is the _training of the imagination_ 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:
+
+1. When the will and the imagination are antagonistic, it is always
+the imagination which wins, _without any exception_.
+
+2. In the conflict between the will and the imagination, the force of
+the imagination is in _direct ratio to the square of the will_.
+
+3. When the will and the imagination are in agreement, one does not
+add to the other, but one is multiplied by the other.
+
+4. The imagination can be directed.
+
+(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.)
+
+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, _can_ yield
+to _autosuggestion_, daring and unlikely as my statement may seem;
+I do not say _does always yield_, but _can yield_, which is a
+different thing.
+
+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.
+
+_Autosuggestion_ 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 _consciously_. 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".
+
+I am now going to show you how everyone can profit by the
+beneficent action of _autosuggestion_ 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:
+
+1. The mentally undeveloped who are not capable of understanding
+what you say to them.
+
+2. _Those who are unwilling to understand_.
+
+
+HOW TO TEACH PATIENTS TO MAKE AUTOSUGGESTIONS
+
+The principle of the method may be summed up in these few words:
+_It is impossible to think of two things at once_, that is to say that
+two ideas may be in juxtaposition, but they cannot be superimposed
+in our mind.
+
+_Every thought entirely filling our mind becomes true for us and
+tends to transform itself into action_.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+_First experiment_.[*] _Preparatory_.--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.
+
+[*] These experiments are those of Sage of Rochester.
+
+_Second experiment_.--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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+_Third experiment_.--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.
+
+_Fourth experiment_.--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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+In all these experiments, I cannot repeat too often, it is not
+_suggestion_ properly so-called which produces the phenomena, but
+the _autosuggestion_ which is consecutive to the suggestion of the
+operator.
+
+
+METHOD OF PROCEDURE IN CURATIVE SUGGESTION
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.)
+
+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,
+--_on condition that it is reasonable_,--and whatever it is your duty to
+do.
+
+So when you wish to do something reasonable, or when you have a
+duty to perform, always think that it is _easy_, and make the words
+_difficult, impossible, I cannot, it is stronger than I, I cannot prevent
+myself from_. . . , disappear from your vocabulary; they are not
+English. What is English is: "_It is easy and I can_ ". 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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:
+
+"EVERY DAY, IN EVERY RESPECT, I AM GETTING BETTER
+AND BETTER." In his mind he should emphasize the words "_in
+every respect_" which applies to every need, mental or physical.
+This general suggestion is more efficacious than special ones.
+
+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.
+
+
+THE SUPERIORITY OF THIS METHOD
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+HOW SUGGESTION WORKS
+
+In order to understand properly the part played by suggestion or
+rather by autosuggestion, it is enough to know that the _unconscious
+self is the grand director of all our functions_. 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.
+
+Let us take for example, a case of dental haemorrhage which I had
+the opportunity of observing in the consulting room of M. Gauthe, 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.
+
+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 _naturally_, as
+they would have done artificially at the contact of a haemostatic like
+adrenalin, for example.
+
+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.
+
+
+THE USE OF SUGGESTION FOR THE CURE OF MORAL
+AILMENTS AND TAINTS EITHER CONGENITAL OR
+ACQUIRED
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Since such results are to be obtained by suggestion, would it not be
+beneficial--I might even say _indispensable_--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?
+
+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.
+
+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?
+
+
+A FEW TYPICAL CURES
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _morals_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Mme. H----, at Maxeville. 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+What conclusion is to be drawn from all this?
+
+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.
+
+Lastly, and above all, it should be applied to the moral regeneration
+of those who have wandered from the right path.
+
+
+
+
+THOUGHTS AND PRECEPTS OF EMILE COUE
+
+_taken down literally by Mme. Emile Leon, his disciple._
+
+Do not spend your time in thinking of illness you might have, for if
+you have no real ones you will create artificial ones.
+
+***
+
+When you make conscious autosuggestions, do it naturally, simply,
+with conviction, and above all _without any effort._ If unconscious
+and bad autosuggestions are so often realized, it is because they are
+made without effort.
+
+***
+
+Be sure that you will obtain what you want, and you will obtain it,
+so long as it is within reason.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+Never discuss things you know nothing about, or you will only
+make yourself ridiculous.
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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 _thinking that
+we cannot do so,_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+Things are not for us what they are, but what they seem; this
+explains the contradictory evidence of persons speaking in all good
+faith.
+
+***
+
+By believing oneself to be the master of one's thoughts one becomes
+so.
+
+***
+
+Everyone of our thoughts, good or bad, becomes concrete,
+materializes, and becomes in short a reality.
+
+We are what we make ourselves and not what circumstances make
+us.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+Conscious autosuggestion, made with confidence, with faith, with
+perseverance, realizes itself mathematically, within reason.
+
+***
+
+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 _without effort._ The
+latter implies the use of the _will,_ which must be entirely put aside.
+One must have recourse _exclusively_ to the imagination.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+Contrary to common opinion, physical diseases are generally far
+more easily cured than mental ones.
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+***
+
+It is not the person who acts, it is the method.
+
+***
+
+. . . Contrary to general opinion, suggestion, or autosuggestion can
+bring about the cure of organic lesions.
+
+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.
+
+Docteur Paul Joire, _President of the Societe universelle d'Etudes
+psychiques_ (Bull. No. 4 of the S. L. 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
+_spiritual forces_ which lead the world.
+
+Docteur Louis Renon, _Lecturing professor at the Faculty of
+Medicine of Paris, and doctor at the Necker Hospital._
+
+***
+
+. . . Never lose sight of the great principle of autosuggestion:
+_Optimism always and in spite of everything, even when events do
+not seem to justify it._
+
+Rene de Drabois, (Bull. 11 of the S. L. P. A.)
+
+***
+
+Suggestion sustained by faith is a formidable force.
+
+Docteur A. L., Paris, (July, 1920.)
+
+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 _the good of others_
+more than one's own.
+
+"Culture de la Force Morale", by C. Baudouin.
+
+
+
+OBSERVATIONS ON WHAT AUTOSUGGESTION CAN DO
+
+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, _no better._ 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 _remarkable_ 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 _on foot_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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. Coue at Geneva, who treats her by
+suggestion and tells her to return in a week. When she comes back
+the sore has healed.
+
+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.)
+
+Mme. Urbain Marie, aged 55, at Maxeville. 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.
+
+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.
+
+M. Hazot, aged 48, living at Brin. Invalided the 15th of January,
+1915, with _specific_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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
+"seances," 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Mme. H----, rue Guilbert-de-Piverecourt, 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 _entirely subsided,_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+Mme. M----, aged 43, rue d'Amance, 2, Malzeville. 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: _"in every respect"_ contained in the formula used
+morning and evening.)
+
+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.)
+
+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 "seance," to her great
+astonishment, she can walk _normally_ 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 "seances" 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.
+
+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.
+
+M. Ferry (Eugene), aged 60, rue de la Cote, 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 "seance," the pains vanish completely and the patient
+can not only take long strides but even _run._ Still more, he can
+whirl both arms like a windmill. In November the cure is still
+holding good.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _without the help of either crutch or stick._ 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.
+
+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.
+
+EMILE COUE.
+
+
+
+EDUCATION AS IT OUGHT TO BE
+
+It may seem paradoxical but, nevertheless, the Education of a child
+ought to begin before its birth.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+How then should parents, and those entrusted with the education of
+children avoid provoking bad autosuggestions and, on the other
+hand, influence good autosuggestions?
+
+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.
+
+Above all--above all, avoid harshness and brutality, for there the risk
+is incurred of influencing an autosuggestion of cruelty accompanied
+by hate.
+
+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.
+
+Inevitably this fatal example will be followed, and may produce
+later a real catastrophe.
+
+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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+In so doing an inner satisfaction is experienced that the egoist ever
+seeks and never finds.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+As soon as children can speak, make them repeat morning and
+evening, twenty times consecutively:
+
+"Day by day, in all respects, I grow better", which will produce in
+them an excellent physical, moral and healthy atmosphere.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Finally, it is desirable that all teachers should, every morning, make
+suggestions to their pupils, somewhat in the following fashion.
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+This is the Counsel, which, if followed faithfully and truly from
+henceforth, will produce a race endowed with the highest physical
+and moral qualities.
+
+Emile Coue.
+
+
+
+A SURVEY OF THE "SEANCES" AT M. COUE'S
+
+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 seance 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. Coue, 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:
+
+"Well, Madame, and what is your trouble? . . ."
+
+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. . . .
+
+---
+
+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.
+
+---
+
+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.
+
+---
+
+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. . . .
+
+---
+
+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. . . .
+
+---
+
+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. . . .
+
+---
+
+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-Saone and another of Lorraine.
+
+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.
+
+---
+
+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. . . .
+
+---
+
+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.
+
+---
+
+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."
+
+---
+
+_Observation.--_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.
+
+---
+
+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 cannot help it." "One can
+always overcome oneself."_
+
+_Observation.--_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.
+
+---
+
+The cause which prevents you from walking, whatever it is, is going
+to disappear little by little every day: you know the proverb:
+_Heaven helps those who help themselves._ Stand up two or three
+times a day supporting yourself on two persons, and say to yourself
+firmly: _My kidneys are not so weak that I cannot do it, on the
+contrary I can. . . ._
+
+---
+
+After having said: "Every day, in every respect, I am getting better
+and better," add: "The people who are pursuing me _cannot_ pursue
+me any more, they are not pursuing me. . . ."
+
+---
+
+What I told you is quite true; it was enough to think that you had no
+more pain for the pain to disappear; _do not think then that it may
+come back or it will come back. . . ._
+
+(A woman, sotto voice, "What patience he has! What a wonderfully
+painstaking man!")
+
+---
+
+ALL THAT WE THINK BECOMES TRUE FOR US.  WE MUST
+NOT THEN ALLOW OURSELVES TO THINK WRONGLY.
+
+---
+
+THINK "MY TROUBLE IS GOING AWAY," JUST AS YOU
+THINK YOU CANNOT OPEN YOUR HANDS.
+
+The more you say: _"I will not,"_ the more surely the contrary
+comes about. You must say: _"It's going away,"_ 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.
+
+_Observation.--This is the essential point of the method._ In order to
+make auto-suggestions, you must eliminate the _will_ completely
+and only address yourself to the _imagination,_ so as to avoid a
+conflict between them in which the will would be vanquished.
+
+---
+
+To become stronger as one becomes older seems paradoxical, but it
+is true.
+
+---
+
+For diabetes: Continue to use therapeutic treatments; I am quite
+willing to make suggestions to you, but I cannot promise to cure you.
+
+_Observation._--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.
+
+---
+
+This obsession must be a real nightmare. The people you used to
+detest are becoming your friends, you like them and they like you.
+
+Ah, but to _will_ and to _desire_ is not the _same_ thing.
+
+---
+
+Then, after having asked them to close their eyes, M. Coue 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:
+
+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."
+
+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."
+
+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."
+
+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. . . .'"
+
+To the fifth, etc., etc.
+
+When everyone has been attended to, M. Coue 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:
+_As long as you live,_ 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 _lips_ (that is indispensable) and counting
+_mechanically_ on a string with twenty knots in it the following
+phrase: _'Every day, in every respect, I am getting better and
+better.'"_
+
+There is no need to think of anything in particular, as the words _"in
+every respect"_ 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.
+
+Further, every time that in the course of the day or night you feel
+any physical or mental discomfort, _affirm_ 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 _very quickly,_
+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.
+
+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.
+
+M. Coue 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 _'Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.'"_
+
+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
+Coue shows us luminously that the power to get health and
+happiness is within us: we have indeed received this gift."
+
+Therefore, suppressing, first of all, every cause of suffering _created
+or encouraged by ourselves,_ 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).
+
+By this means we shall follow first of all the great movement of the
+future of which M. E. Coue 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.
+
+May I be allowed to add that when M. Coue 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.
+
+E. Vs----oer.
+
+_Note._--Entrance is free to the members of the Lorraine Society of
+applied Psychology.
+
+
+
+EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS ADDRESSED TO M. COUE
+
+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 _with flying
+colors,_ 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.)
+
+          Mlle. V----,
+     _Schoolmistress, August,_ 1916.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+Yours most gratefully.
+
+          Paul Chenot,
+     _Rue de Strasbourg,_ 141 _Nancy, Aug.,_ 1917.
+
+***
+
+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 _as big as my hand,_
+is entirely _cured._ 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.
+
+          Mme. Ligny,
+     _Mailleroncourt-Charette (Haute Saone), May,_ 1918.
+
+***
+
+N. B.--It is worthy of remark that this lady never saw M. Coue, 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.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. S----,
+     _Pont a Mousson, Feb.,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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
+seances, 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.
+
+          Mme. V----,
+     _Saint-Die, Feb.,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Docteur Vachet,
+     _Vincennes, May,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. Soulier,
+     _Place du Marche Toul, May,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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 _"in every respect"_ 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. Coue.
+
+Yours most gratefully,
+
+          E. Itier,
+     _Rue de Lille, Paris, April,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+I can now take up again the struggle I have sustained for 30 years,
+and which had exhausted me.
+
+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.
+
+          Mlle. Th----,
+     _Professor at the Young Ladies' College at Ch----, Jan.,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Ch. Baudouin,
+     _Professor at the Institut. J.-J. Rousseau, Geneva._
+
+***
+
+. . . 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.
+
+At the Nursing Home we try to apply your method collectively, and
+have already obtained visible results in this way.
+
+          Docteur Berillon,
+     _Paris, March,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+. . . I have received your kind letter as well as your very interesting
+lecture.
+
+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.
+
+          Docteur Van Velsen,
+     _Brussels, March,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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
+_stronger. . . ._ 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.
+
+          Mme. M----,
+     _Cesson-Saint-Brieuc._
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. Lemaitre,
+     _Richemont, June,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Don Enrique C----,
+     _Madrid._
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          A. F----,
+     _Reimiremont._
+
+***
+
+. . . 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.
+
+          E. L----,
+     _Saint-Clement (M-et-M.)_
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+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 seance, 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.
+
+          Mme. L----,
+     _Henry (Lorraine)._
+
+***
+
+. . . 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.
+
+I cannot do otherwise than bless the Coue system.
+
+          L----,
+     _Cannes (A. M.)._
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Perrin (Charles),
+     _Essey-les Nancy._
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. Soulie,
+     6, _Place du Marche, Toul._
+
+***
+
+. . . 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.
+
+In the month of June, 1920, after having attended one of your
+seances 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.
+
+          Mme. M----,
+     _a Soulosse._
+
+***
+
+A dedication to M. Coue by the author of a medical treatise:
+
+To M. Coue who knew how to dissect the human soul and to extract
+from it a psychologic method founded on conscious autosuggestion.
+
+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.
+
+Thus he has given man the means of increasing tenfold his moral
+force by giving him confidence in himself.
+
+          Docteur P. R.,
+     _Francfort._
+
+***
+
+. . . 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. . . .
+
+     Miss Josephine M. Richardson.
+
+***
+
+. . . When I came, I expected a great deal, but what I have seen,
+thanks to your great kindness, exceeds greatly my expectation.
+
+          Montagu S. Monier-Williams, M. D.,
+     _London._
+
+
+
+FRAGMENTS FROM LETTERS
+Addressed to Mme. Emile Leon, Disciple of M. Coue
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. F----,
+     _Rue de Bougainville,_ 4, _Paris._
+
+***
+
+Amazed at the results obtained by the autosuggestion which you
+made known to me, I thank you with all my heart.
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. L. T----,
+     _Rue du Laos,_ 4, _Paris._
+
+***
+
+I want to tell you what excellent results M. Coue'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.
+
+          M. L. D----,
+     _Paris, June,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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."
+
+          B. P----,
+     _Paris, October,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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. Coue, 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. C.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+          Mme. Friry,
+     _Boulevard Malesherbes, Paris._
+
+
+EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS
+_Addressed to Mlle. Kaufmant, Disciple of M. Coue_
+
+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.
+
+Yours most gratefully.
+
+          Jeanne Gilli,
+     15, _Av. Borriglione, Nice, March,_ 1918.
+
+***
+
+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 seance, where, before those present, he himself
+made the declaration of his cure, due to your kind intervention.
+Thank you with all my heart.
+
+Yours gratefully and sympathetically,
+
+          A. Kettner,
+     26, _Av. Borriglione, Nice, March,_ 1918.
+
+***
+
+. . . 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.
+
+          Mme. Poirson,
+     _Liverdun, August,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+          Jeanne Grosjean,
+     _Nancy, Nov.,_ 1920.
+
+***
+
+. . . Personally the science of autosuggestion--for I consider it as
+entirely a _science--_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.
+
+In 1915 when I was present for the first time at M. Coue's lectures, I
+confess that I was entirely sceptical. Before facts a _hundred times_
+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.
+
+There is no need to tell you again that M. Coue, 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. Coue 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+          M. L. D----,
+     _Nancy, November,_ 1920.
+
+
+
+THE MIRACLE WITHIN
+
+_(Reprinted from the "Renaissance politique, litteraire et artistique"
+of the 18th of December,_ 1920)
+
+HOMAGE TO EMILE COUE
+
+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.
+
+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: _"To Emile Coue, the initiator and
+benefactor, with deep gratitude"._
+
+I read it and did not put down the book until I had reached the end.
+
+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.
+
+After more than twenty years of indefatigable work, Emile Coue
+who at the present time lives at Nancy, where he lately followed the
+work and experiments of Liebault, the father of the doctrine of
+suggestions, for more than twenty years, I say, Coue has been
+occupied exclusively with this question, but particularly in order to
+bring his fellow creatures to cultivate _autosuggestion._
+
+At the beginning of the century Coue had attained the object of his
+researches, and had disengaged the general and immense force of
+autosuggestion. After innumerable experiments on thousands of
+subjects, _he showed the action of the unconscious in organic
+cases._ 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.
+
+As I cannot enter here into long scientific details I will content
+myself by saying how the learned man of Nancy practises his
+method.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Here are the magic words: _"Every day, in every respect, I am
+getting better and better"._
+
+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.
+
+While articulating these words, _which are registered by the
+unconscious,_ 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 _"in every respect"_
+has a general effect.
+
+This desire must be expressed without passion, without will, with
+gentleness, _but with absolute confidence._
+
+For Emile Coue at the moment of autosuggestion, _does not call in
+the will in any way, on the contrary;_ there must be no question of
+the will at that moment, but the _imagination,_ the great motive
+force infinitely more active than that which is usually invoked, the
+imagination alone must be brought into play.
+
+"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.
+
+As deeds talk louder than words, I will tell you what happened to
+myself before I had ever seen M. Coue.
+
+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.
+
+These examples impressed me profoundly; _there_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+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 am going to be cured,_ 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 Coue
+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.
+
+I went there and found the excellent man, attractive by his goodness
+and simplicity, who has become my friend.
+
+It was indispensable to see him in his field of action. He invited me
+to a popular "seance." 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. Coue 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, Coue 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.
+
+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.
+
+Three women, cured of lesions in the lungs, expressed their delight
+at going back to work and to a normal life. Coue 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. . . ."
+
+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 _mind_ you
+possess an _unlimited_ 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."
+
+When you feel a physical pain, add the formula _"It is going
+away . . .",_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+There also I know from experience that events can be singularly
+modified by this process.
+
+You know it to-day, and you will know it better still by reading M.
+Baudouin's book, and then his pamphlet: _"Culture de la force
+morale",_ and then, lastly, the little succinct treatise written by M.
+Coue himself: _"Self Mastery."_ All these works may be found at M.
+Coue's.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+          M. Burnat-Provins.
+
+
+
+SOME NOTES ON THE JOURNEY OF M. COUE TO PARIS IN
+OCTOBER, 1919
+
+The desire that the teachings of M. Coue 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.
+
+_Question._--Why is it that I do not obtain better results although I
+use your method and prayer?
+
+_Answer._--Because, probably, at the back of your mind there is an
+_unconscious doubt,_ or because you make _efforts._ 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.
+
+_Question._--What are we to do when something troubles us?
+
+_Answer._--When something happens that troubles you, _repeat_ 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.
+
+_Question._--Are the preliminary experiments indispensable if they
+are unacceptable to the pride of the subject?
+
+_Answer._--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:
+
+1. That every idea that we have in our minds becomes _true_ for us,
+and has a tendency to transform itself into action.
+
+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 _contrary_ of what we wish to do.
+
+3. That it is easy for us to put into our minds, _without any effort,_
+the idea that we wish to have, since we have been able without effort
+to think in succession: "I cannot," and then "I can."
+
+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.
+
+_Question._--When one is in pain, one cannot help thinking of one's
+trouble.
+
+_Answer._--Do not be afraid to think of it; on the contrary, do think
+of it, but to say to it, "I am not _afraid_ of you."
+
+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.
+
+_Question._--And if one does a retreat?
+
+_Answer._--Go backwards.
+
+_Question._--How can we realize what we desire?
+
+_Answer._--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.
+
+If you say the contrary, it is the contrary which will come about.
+
+What you say persistently and very quickly _comes to pass_ (within
+the domain of the reasonable, of course).
+
+Some testimonies:
+
+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?"
+
+. . . An eminent Parisian doctor to numerous doctors surrounding
+him: "I have entirely come over to the ideas of M. Coue."
+
+. . . A Polytechnician, a severe critic, thus defines M. Coue: "He is a
+Power."
+
+. . . 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.
+
+How could one fail to desire from the depths of one's heart that all
+might understand and seize the "good news" that M. Coue brings?
+"It is the awakening, possible for everyone, of the personal power
+which he has _received_ of being happy and well."
+
+It is, _if one consents,_ the full development of this power which
+can transform one's life.
+
+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
+_thousands_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+Mme. Emile Leon,
+_Collaborator, in Paris, of M. Emile Coue_
+
+
+
+"EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE"
+
+By Mme. Emile Leon, Disciple of M. Coue.
+
+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 Coue Method."
+
+To drive away pain is much . . . but how much more is it to lead into
+the possession of a new life _all_ those who suffer. . . .
+
+Last April we had the visit of M. Emile Coue at Paris, and here are
+some of his teachings:
+
+_Question._--Question of a theist: I think it is unworthy of the
+Eternal to make our obedience to his will, depend on what M. Coue
+calls a trick or mechanical process: conscious autosuggestion.
+
+_M. Coue._--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 _consciously_ employing the
+mechanical process that we employ _unconsciously_ often to lead
+into the wrong.
+
+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 _created by ourselves,_ 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."
+
+_Question._--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?
+
+_Answer._--Do not insist or lecture them about it. Just remind them
+simply that I advise them to make an autosuggestion with the
+_conviction_ that they will obtain the result they want.
+
+_Question._--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?
+
+_Answer._--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.
+
+_Question._--How is one to keep inwardly the mastery of oneself?
+
+_Answer._--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.
+
+_Question._--And outwardly, how is one to keep one's liberty?
+
+_Answer._--Self mastery applies just as much physically as
+mentally.
+
+_Question_(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 _just suffering._
+
+_M. Coue_(very seriously and affirmatively).--Certainly and
+assuredly it ought not to be so, but it is so often . . . at any rate for a
+time.
+
+_Question._--Why did that patient who has been entirely cured,
+continually have those terrible attacks?
+
+_Answer._--He expected his attacks, he feared them . . . and so he
+_provoked_ 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.
+
+_Question._--In what does your method differ from others.
+
+_Answer._--The differ not the _will_ which rules us but the
+_imagination;_ that is the basis, the fundamental basis.
+
+_Question._--Will you give me a summary of your "Method" for
+Mme. R----, who is doing an important work?
+
+_M. E. Coue._--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
+_will,_ 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 _determines_ to sleep, the more excited she
+becomes; the more we _try_ 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 _determine_
+to avoid an obstacle, when learning to bicycle, the more we rush
+upon it.
+
+We must then apply ourselves to directing our _imagination_ which
+now directs us; in this way we easily arrive at becoming masters of
+ourselves physically and morally.
+
+How are we to arrive at this result? By the practice of conscious
+_autosuggestion._
+
+Conscious autosuggestion is based on this principle. Every idea that
+we have in our mind becomes true for us and tends to realize itself.
+
+Thus, if we _desire_ 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.
+
+Everything is included by employing night and morning the general
+formula: "Every day, _in every respect,_ I am getting better and
+better".
+
+_Question._--For those who are sad--who are in distress?
+
+_Answer._--As long as you think: "I am sad", you _cannot_ 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, _that_ I _can_ affirm.
+
+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. Coue 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."
+
+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. Coue 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 seance of April 27th, 1920. (Clinic of Dr.
+Berillon.)
+
+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.
+Coue".
+
+A young woman comes to thank M. Coue 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.
+
+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.
+
+In the hall which thrills with interest, joyful testimonies break out
+from numerous persons who have been relieved or cured.
+
+A doctor: "Autosuggestion is the weapon of healing". As to this
+philosopher who writes (he mentions his name), he relies on the
+_genius_ of Coue.
+
+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. Coue,
+one could kneel to you--You are the merciful God!" Another lady,
+very much impressed herself, rectifies: "No, his messenger".
+
+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. Coue'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.
+
+A warmly sympathetic voice calls him the modest name he prefers
+to that of "Master": Professor Coue.
+
+A young woman who has been entirely won over: "M. Coue 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".
+
+A literary man, whom a lady asks to write a little _"chef d'oeuvre"_
+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--_that_ is the _chef-d'oeuvre!"_
+he affirms.
+
+And the thousands of sick folks who have been relieved or cured
+will not contradict him.
+
+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."
+
+And now in conclusion I will say: Although M. Coue's modesty
+makes him reply to everyone:
+
+I have no magnetic fluid--
+
+I have no influence--
+
+I have never cured anybody--
+
+My disciples obtain the same results as myself--
+
+"I can say in all sincerity that they tend to do so, instructed as they
+are in the _valuable 'Method',_ 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 _immortal,_ 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--! _There is the
+chef-d'oeuvre!'"_
+
+          B. K. (Emile-Leon).
+     Paris, June 6th, 1920.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Self Mastery Through Conscious
+Autosuggestion, by Emile Coue
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