2. In the conflict between the will and the imagination, the force of the imagination is in _direct ratio to the square of the will_. 3. When the will and the imagination are in agreement, one does not add to the other, but one is multiplied by the other. 4. The imagination can be directed. (The expressions "In direct ratio to the square of the will" and "Is multiplied by" are not rigorously exact. They are simply illustrations destined to make my meaning clearer.) After what has just been said it would seem that nobody ought to be ill. That is quite true. Every illness, whatever it may be, _can_ yield to _autosuggestion_, daring and unlikely as my statement may seem; I do not say _does always yield_, but _can yield_, which is a different thing. But in order to lead people to practise conscious autosuggestion they must be taught how, just as they are taught to read or write or play the piano. _Autosuggestion_ is, as I said above, an instrument that we possess at birth, and with which we play unconsciously all our life, as a baby plays with its rattle. It is however a dangerous instrument; it can wound or even kill you if you handle it imprudently and unconsciously. It can on the contrary save your life when you know how to employ it _consciously_. One can say of it as Aesop said of the tongue: "It is at the same time the best and the worst thing in the world". I am now going to show you how everyone can profit by the beneficent action of _autosuggestion_ consciously applied. In saying "every one", I exaggerate a little, for there are two classes of persons in whom it is difficult to arouse conscious autosuggestion: 1. The mentally undeveloped who are not capable of understanding what you say to them. 2. _Those who are unwilling to understand_. HOW TO TEACH PATIENTS TO MAKE AUTOSUGGESTIONS The principle of the method may be summed up in these few words: _It is impossible to think of two things at once_, that is to say that two ideas may be in juxtaposition, but they cannot be superimposed in our mind. _Every thought entirely filling our mind becomes true for us and tends to transform itself into action_. Thus if you can make a sick person think that her trouble is getting better, it will disappear; if you succeed in making a kleptomaniac think that he will not steal any more, he will cease to steal, etc., etc. This training which perhaps seems to you an impossibility, is, however, the simplest thing in the world. It is enough, by a series of appropriate and graduated experiments, to teach the subject, as it were the A. B. C. of conscious thought, and here is the series: by following it to the letter one can be absolutely sure of obtaining a good result, except with the two categories of persons mentioned above.