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 a l 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.