3 1 2 Science Religion and Reality 



emotionalism and religiosity is diminished, the essentially religious 

 outlook on life remains unimpaired. 



2. Suggestion and Faith 



We may now consider in more detail the psychological factors 

 at work in bringing us into relationship with the Divine, and there 

 occurs at once to the therapeutic mind the problem of the general 

 nature of faith, and its relation to suggestion. The modern 

 psycho-therapeutic doctrine of suggestion was a direct develop- 

 ment from the rather extreme views of Christian Scientists of 

 thirty or forty years ago. So-called faith cures were produced by 

 Mrs. Eddy and her followers supported by the enthusiasm they had 

 for this line of thought, and many medical and other psychologists 

 who investigated the matter came to the conclusion that, for the 

 most part, the cures could be explained in terms of suggestion. It 

 therefore behoves us to understand as clearly as possible what is 

 meant by suggestion and the theory and practice of suggestion- 

 treatment, and the bearing it has upon faith and other forms of 

 religious experience. Suggestion may be defined as the acceptance 

 of an idea by the mind, especially by the so-called subconscious 

 mind, independently of adequate logical grounds for such accept- 

 ance. It is an instance of ideo-motor action. The idea is placed 

 before the mind, or rather, aroused vividly in the mind, when the 

 mind is in a state where opposing and conflicting ideas have no 

 chance of making themselves felt ; whereupon this implanted or 

 elicited idea tends to realise itself. It takes a certain time in doing 

 so, known as the " latent period." In a simple case of suggestion, 

 then, the mind of the individual is in a passive state, free from 

 contradictory or conflicting ideas, receptive, ready to allow the 

 suggested idea or ideas to be aroused in full force. The idea has a 

 tendency to pass over into action, to bring about its own realisation, 

 in so far as it is not interfered with by conflicting ideas. Favouring 

 factors in suggestion are a state of general passivity, muscular as well 

 as sensory, combined with concentration upon some neutral idea. 

 We find in psycho-therapeutic practice, when we wish to produce 

 benefit by suggestion, that our best results are obtained if we get 

 the patient into a passive state, when the muscles are relaxed, 

 a state not so much of attention as what is called by Baudouin 

 contention — a state of concentration without effort. We eliminate 

 effort by requesting the patient to relax his muscles, and we 



