Self-Suggestion by Max Freedom Long

Author:Max Freedom Long [Long, Max Freedom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 4066338112668
Publisher: Musaicum Books
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Table of Contents

Once one has come to understand the theory behind concentration and meditation (as we are using the two terms) and has experimented to see how best to create mental thought form images to be used as suggestions, the theory behind the charging of the idea structures with vital force and "will" power needs to be taken up in more detail.

The history of Mesmer's "animal magnetism" is one that has run anything but smoothly. Because it was not "electricity", as this force was coming to be known, and because Braid had taught that tiring the eyes brought on a receptive state much like normal sleep, in which suggestions were accepted by the subject, there was a general discarding of mesmerism and of all tentative belief that vital force might be involved in hypnosis. However, one school of thought was developing in which it was taught that the hypnotist must "dominate" his subject with his "will".

The "domination" theory rapidly came into favor even though no one could say what "will" might be. It seemed to the onlooker that the hypnotist was imposing his "will" on his subject in order to make him do the outlandish things which amused audiences in the theaters. A cult grew up quite aside from the field of Braidian suggestion, and the new leaders wrote books and sold courses telling of the wonders of the human "will" and how to use it. The "will" was not spoken of as vital force or power because even weak invalids had been seen to be able to exert a "will" power sufficient to lay all relatives and doctors by the heels. The flavor of the legendary "evil eye", or the fire-flashing eye of the born commander of men permeated the writings. To use the "will" power was to pull oneself up by the boot straps in some magical fashion which could not be explained, but which was proclaimed possible. One could do it if one just would, but "do or die" was the motto for a surprisingly long time after those testing the validity of the system found it lacking.

In a book written in 1894, titled "The Will Power", its author, J. Milner Fothergill, M.D., wrote on his opening page, "What the will is, is a matter upon which metaphysicians have not yet been able to make up their minds, after all the attention bestowed on the subject; and when they have come to some conclusion, either of agreement or fixity of disagreement, the results will have no practical value. . . .Will is one of the 'little men who stand behind us', mind, soul, spirit, will, intangible something, revealed to us,—how? . . . Yet we never hesitate to use these words, nor is there any difficulty about their being comprehended by others . . . a man may have moderate abilities, and yet attain great success because he possesses a firm will. . . . It is the will which enables a man to carry out what the intellect devises.

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