Mind and Body; or, Mental States and Physical ConditionsAtkinson, William Walker
Science
Mind and Body; or, Mental States and Physical Conditions
Atkinson, William Walker
Mental suggestion
"Perhaps the most wonderful confirmation came under my observation
while wintering in San Antonio, Texas, in 1880. Some nostrum fakirs
with a retinue of fourteen musicians and comedians came to this city
in an immense chariot, drawn by eight gaily caparisoned horses. Every
evening they came upon the military plaza to sell their panacea. I
went over one evening out of curiosity, being attracted by the songs
and music. The head fakir was shouting to an immense crowd about
the virtues of his specific. He claimed that it contained thirteen
ingredients, gathered at a great expense from all quarters of the
globe, and would cure all the ills that flesh was heir to. Cures
were warranted in every case, or the money refunded on the following
evening. After this harangue, he said that the medicine was for sale at
$1 per bottle, until 300 bottles had been sold, as it was an invariable
rule to sell only that number on any one evening. Immediately a
frenzied mob rushed pell-mell to the end of the chariot, each one
holding aloft a silver dollar. He had previously announced that no
change would be made, and that every one to get the medicine should
have a dollar ready in his hand. In half an hour 300 bottles had been
sold, the empty trunk closed with a bang, and the statement made that
no more could be had until the following evening, although there was
yet a great multitude clamoring for more. Curiosity again led me to the
plaza the next evening, and I went early. The initial performance was a
free tooth-pulling, to last thirty minutes. He said he was the kingpin
of the tooth-pullers, and I believe he was. The rapidity of his work
was a marvel. He snatched from various jaws about 250 teeth, including
the good ones, within the limit, throwing them from his forceps right
and left among his audience. Those operated upon were wrought to such
a frenzy of excitement and wonder that each one, without an exception,
declared that no pain whatever had been experienced. A call was then
made for the 300 who had bought medicine on the previous evening to
mount the chariot and tell what the medicine had done for them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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