The Mystic Will: A Method of Developing and Strengthening the Faculties of the Mind, through the Awakened Will, by a Simple, Scientific Process Possible to Any Person of Ordinary IntelligenceLeland, Charles Godfrey
Philosophy
The Mystic Will: A Method of Developing and Strengthening the Faculties of the Mind, through the Awakened Will, by a Simple, Scientific Process Possible to Any Person of Ordinary Intelligence
Leland, Charles Godfrey
Mental suggestion
I have heard hypnotism, with regard to fascination, spoken of with
great apprehension. "It is dreadful," said one to me, "to think of
anybody's being able to exercise such an influence on anyone." And
yet, widely known as it is, instances of its abuse are very rare.
Thus, when Cremation was first discussed, it was warmly opposed,
because somebody _might_ be poisoned, and then, the body being burned,
there could be no autopsy! Nature has decreed some drawback to the
best things; nothing is perfect. But to balance the immense benefits
latent in suggestion against the problematic abuses is like condemning
the ship because a bucket of tar has been spilt on the deck.
Sincere kindness and respect, which are allied unto identity, are
the best or surest key to love, and they in turn are allied to
fascination. Here I might observe that the action of the eye, which is
a silent speech of emotion, has always been regarded as powerful in
fascination, but those who are not by nature gifted with it cannot use
it to much good purpose. That emotional, susceptible subjects ready to
receive suggestion can be put to sleep or made to imagine anything
terrible regarding anybody's glance is very true, just as an ignorant
Italian will believe of any man that he has the _malocchio_ if he be
told so, whence came the idea that Pope Gregory XVI had the evil eye.
But where there is _sincere_ kindly feeling it makes itself felt in a
sympathetic nature by what is popularly called magic, only because it
is not understood. The enchantment lies in this, that unconscious
cerebration, or the power (or powers), who are always acting in us,
effect many curious and very subtle mental phenomena, all of which
they do not confide to the common-sense waking judgment or Reason,
simply because the latter is almost entirely occupied with common
worldly subjects. It is as if someone whose whole attention and
interest had been at all times given to some plain hard drudgery,
should be called on to review or write a book of exquisitely subtle
poetry. It is, indeed, almost sadly touching to reflect how this
innocent and beautiful faculty of recognizing what is good, is really
acting perhaps in evil and merely worldly minds all in vain, and all
unknown to them. The more the conscious waking-judgment has been
trained to recognize goodness, the more will the hidden water-fairies
rise above the surface, as it were, to the sunshine. So it comes that
true kindly feeling is recognized by sympathy, and those who would be
loved, cannot do better than make themselves truly and perfectly
_kind_ by forethought and will, and with this the process of
self-hypnotism will be a great aid. For it is not more by winning
others to us, than in willing ourselves to them that true Love
consists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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