34 MENTAL THERAPEUTIOI. 



suggestions from other minds. The same could be done during wake- 

 fulness if the patient could place himself in that same passive, recept- 

 ive attitude that he perforce takes during sleep. As it is, a large share 

 of the cures made by our best physicians are made, not by the medi- 

 cines, but by the power of suggestion born by the physician's con- 

 fidence and the patient's faith. Every one has experienced the ready 

 helpfulness of a visit from some doctor in whom he had implicit faith, 

 when another, and possibly fully as good a doctor, failed to give relief. 



Guiding Horses by Will. Every expert horseback rider knows 

 that he can guide his horse without the bridle. The writer, when a 

 youth, on more than one occasion won a wager that he could make his 

 horse, when coming to a fork in the road, take either branch road 

 without touching bridle or in any other way guiding the horse than by 

 simple strongly willing the horse to take the desired road. Even when 

 it required the horse to take the opposite from an accustomed road he 

 never failed. Old horsemen on the plains know of this peculiarity 

 without attempting to explain it, and know, too, that when lost this 

 very power often prevents speedy return to the trail because the rider 

 unconsciously influences the horse to turn, when if left to itself the 

 natural instincts of the horse would lead it in the right direction. 



The explanation of this power is that the unconscious mind of the 

 horse, which directs its actions, is moved by suggestion from the 

 directing mind of the rider, and the horse simply obeys a natural im- 

 pulse which it has not the mental ability to resist. The secret of suc- 

 cess in mental therapeutics lies in the passive state of mind a state 

 greatly aided by faith which enables the natural or subconscious 

 mind to receive and act upon proper suggestion. 



AutO-Suggestion. The greatest possible benefits are obtainable 

 through self -treatment on the same principle and by the same methods 

 as are used by the hypnotist or the mental healer. If we can but 

 conceive that our conscious and subconscious minds make us in reality 

 two minds two persons the conscious or objective mind treating the 

 subconscious or subjective mind which in turn treats, through its 

 nervous control, the affected organs, it will not be so difficult to com- 

 prehend. The easiest and most positive benefit of auto-suggestion is 

 in warding off sickness or disease. 



Fundamental Principle. The fundamental principle to be 

 always kept in mind is that the unconscious mind (or mental force) 

 has complete control of all the functions and organic acts of the body, 

 except as it is started in new directions by the conscious mind (or 

 mental force) . The proverb that " if a man tell a lie often enough he 

 will come to beliave it true," is eminently true of our physical ailments. 

 The man who thinks he will take a contagious disease, is ten times 

 as apt to become ill as is the man who thinks that he will escape will 

 keep well anyhow. To simply, in the mind, deny the power of disease 

 to obtain the mastery, is the greatest agent known to-day in warding 

 off disease. 



