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< r />
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.