314 Science Religion and Reality 



disappeared, and he became permanently well. In this case we 

 have an interesting illustration of a transition from suggestion to 

 a state of faith. In suggestion the mind is passively stimulated to 

 produce an idea, and then this idea in its turn realises itself, because 

 it has no competitors, it works automatically, by its own momentum 

 as it were. In faith, on the other hand, one finds a state of mind 

 which is essentially active ; as William James said, there is a will 

 to believe, it is a definite assertion or affirmation of an active mind. 

 The whole mind is active and the experience is accompanied by an 

 emotion which is something of the nature of volition, a determina- 

 tion to give oneself up completely to the idea for some reason or 

 other. It may be just in order to get rid of a symptom, or for the 

 sake of higher development of the mind — a belief in the possibility 

 of such higher development. 



Intermediate between suggestion and faith is auto-suggestion, 

 where the individual gives suggestions to himself. In auto- 

 suggestion he is passive, he thinks of sleep, he gets for a moment or 

 two into a comatose state, almost free from all activity and yet in 

 a state of concentration, and then, in some wonderful way, he is 

 able to present to himself the idea, or bring up before himself the 

 idea, of what he wants, the change he wishes to bring about in his 

 mind or body. He, as we say, affirms this idea to himself, that e.g. 

 at night he will sleep well, and wake up feeling much better and 

 free- from the stammer, or nervousness, or difficulty of concentra- 

 tion, or whatever it maybe, that he will be able to concentrate well, 

 to remember well, to feel cheerful and happy ; and experience 

 shows us that beneficial results definitely follow. By perseverance 

 in the use of this method the patient can often transform his whole 

 outlook upon life. I look upon auto-suggestion as a bad term. It 

 is really something more akin to faith than to suggestion. It is 

 the cultivation of a special active attitude of mind, an assertion 

 of health and of faith in its possibility — a particular kind of healthy- 

 mindedness. If you treat yourself by auto-suggestion, you get 

 benefit so far as you can make it depend upon the extent to which 

 you can really believe and affirm to yourself the gospel of health, 

 that health is more real than disease ; that so far as the will of God 

 goes. He wills health rather than disease. With such a crude 

 belief results actually do follow. 



In dealing with these problems, which are, of course, really 

 extremely difficult, it is necessary to take facts first and look for 



