Religion and Psychology 3 1 7 



mind a fear of fainting ; he has fainted on some previous occasion, 

 and so he has lost confidence in himself; he feels he will be right 

 away from all aid, so the mere sight of an open space arouses this 

 subconscious idea, his heart beats rapidly, and the initial stages of 

 a fainting attack set in with this feeling of anxiety, a feeling that 

 he is " glued to the spot." 



If, then, suggestion and faith are distinct, in what way can 

 we indicate their relationship more clearly than we have already 

 done ? From the theoretical point of view, I think we can 

 say that suggestion is ultimately always dependent upon some 

 form or other of faith, and not conversely. The patient may 

 not be conscious of faith, he may respond to suggestion, and sug- 

 gestion may be given in a mechanical way. He may have no 

 conscious faith in the method, but he finds that the method bene- 

 fits him. If one analyses him, however, one discovers that 

 in his subconscious mind there is faith. The relationship be- 

 tween suggestion and such a general (often subconscious) back- 

 ground of faith is similar to that between the empirical investigation 

 of nature by scientists, and the general metaphysical principle 

 of the uniformity of nature, within the domain of knowledge. 

 A scientist would not be able to make a single step forward in 

 his investigations or theories about the universe unless he had 

 that belief in the uniformity of nature — that A remains A unless 

 and until it is altered by some other factor, that if A becomes B 

 there is some reason for it in the intrusion of further factors. 

 Unless he holds this metaphysical belief in the uniformity of nature, 

 he is unable to form hypotheses, and by their means advance in 

 scientific knowledge. His individual generalisations from facts 

 of experience are based upon this belief. Similarly an individual 

 benefits by suggestion treatment along special lines because of his 

 more general belief or faith in the universe. The individual may 

 not consciously hold such a faith, but somewhere in his mind there 

 is that faith, the belief in a friendliness somewhere, and if he is com- 

 pletely lacking in it, then he will be completely inaccessible to 

 therapeutic suggestion. Actually, in the case of everyone, there 

 is the tendency, the readiness to believe in friendliness outside — 

 based upon early childhood experiences and inherited tendencies. 

 This again brings us back from the point of view of suggestion and 

 faith to the more fundamental problem of " deep " analysis. 



Some psycho-analysts consider that the facts of suggestion, of 



