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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 635 



better be silent. He goes on to analyze the 

 exercises and their effects in an extremely 

 practical way, but at too great length for 

 me to entertain you with. Repetition, 

 alteration, periodicity, parallelism (or the 

 association of the idea of some desirable 

 vital or spiritual effect with each move- 

 ment), etc., are laws which he deems highly 

 important. "I am sure," he continues, 

 ' ' that everybody who is able to concentrate 

 thought and will, and to eliminate superflu- 

 ous emotions, sooner or later becomes a 

 master of his body and can overcome every 

 kind of illness. This is the truth at the 

 bottom of all mind-cures. Our thoughts 

 have a plastic power over the body." 



You will be relieved, I doubt not, to hear 

 my excentric correspondent here make con- 

 nection at last with something you know by 

 heart, namely, 'suggestive therapeutics.' 

 Call his whole performance, if you like, an 

 experiment in methodical self-suggestion. 

 That only makes it more valuable as an 

 illustration of what I wish to impress in as 

 many ways as possible upon your minds, 

 that we habitually live inside our limits of 

 power. Suggestion, especially under hyp- 

 nosis, is now universally recognized as a 

 means, exceptionally successful in certain 

 persons, of concentrating consciousness, 

 and, in others, of influencing their bodies' 

 states. It throws into gear energies of 

 imagination, of will, and of mental influ- 

 ence over physiological processes, that 

 usually lie dormant, and that can only be 

 thrown into gear at all in chosen subjects. 

 It is, in short, dynamogenie ; and the cheap- 

 est terms in which to deal with our amateur 

 Yogi's experience is to call it auto-sug- 

 gestive. 



I wrote to him that I couldn't possibly 

 attribute any sacramental value to the par- 

 ticular Hatha Yoga processes, the postures, 

 breathings, fastings and the like, and that 

 they seemed to me but so many manners. 



available in his case and his chela's, but 

 not for everybody, of breaking through the 

 barriers which life's routine had concreted 

 round the deeper strata of the will, and 

 gradually bringing its unused energies into 

 action. 



He replied as follows : 



You are quite right that the Yoga exercises are 

 nothing else than a methodical way of increasing 

 our will. Because we are unable to will at once 

 the most difficult things, we must imagine steps 

 leading to them. Breathing being the easiest of 

 the bodily activities, it is very natural that it 

 offers a good scope for exercise of will. The con- 

 trol of thought could be gained without breathing- 

 discipline, but it is simply easier to control 

 thought simultaneously with the control of breath. 

 Anyone who can think clearly and persistently of 

 one thing needs not breathing exercises. You are 

 quite right that we are not using all our power 

 and that we often learn how much we can only 

 when we must. * * * The power that we do not 

 use up completely can be brought [more and more] 

 into use by what we call faith. Faith is like the 

 manometer of the will, registering its pressure. 

 If I could believe that I can levitate, I could do 

 it. But I can not believe, and therefore I am 

 clumsily sticking to earth. * * * Now this faith, 

 this power of credulity, can be educated by small 

 efforts. I can breathe at the rate of say twelve 

 times a minute. I can easily believe that I can 

 breathe ten times a minute. When I have accus- 

 tomed myself to breathe ten times a minute, I 

 learn to believe it will be easy to breathe six times 

 a minute. Thus I have actually learned to breathe 

 at the rate of once a minute. How far I shall 

 progress I do not know. * * * The Yogi goes on 

 in his activity in an even way, without fits of too 

 much or too little, and he is eliminating more and 

 more every unrest, every worry — growing into the 

 infinite by regular training, by small additions to 

 a task which has grown familiar. * * * But you 

 are quite right that religious-crises, love-crises, 

 indignation-crises, may awaken in a very short 

 time powers similar to those reached by years of 

 patient Yoga practise. * * * The Hindus them- 

 selves admit that Samadhi can be reached in many 

 ways and with complete disregard of every phys- 

 ical training. 



Allowance made for every enthusiasm and 

 exaggeration, there can be no doubt of my 



