Suggestion and hypnotism

Use in the book

XII counts suggestion among the influences that make an apparently free desire dependent on conditions. XIV explains it as a directing principle acting upon a receptive one. The seed-thought develops until the recipient may regard it as an original creation.

Actors and public speakers supply familiar examples of emotional influence. The chapter contrasts its own model with the objective and subjective mind vocabulary used by other teachers, claiming that gender supplies the missing natural analogy.

Places to read

1. XII Causation · Block 11… “will because some feeling, mood, emotion, or environmental suggestion arouses a tendency or desire within him so to do.”
2. XIV Mental Gender · Block 13… “the head of Telepathy; Thought Transference; Mental Influence; Suggestion; Hypnotism, etc. Many have sought for an explanation of these varied phases of phenomena under the theories of the various "dual mind"” …
3. XIV Mental Gender · Block 14… “to develop into maturity. In the same way Suggestion and Hypnotism operates. The Masculine Principle of the person giving the suggestions directs a stream of Vibratory Energy or Will-Power toward the” …
4. XIV Mental Gender · Block 17… “phenomena by that force which science has styled "Suggestion," by which term is meant the process or method whereby an idea is transferred to, or "impressed upon" the mind of another,” …
5. XIV Mental Gender · Block 18… “is customary for the writers and teachers of Suggestion to explain that it is the "objective or voluntary" mind which make the mental impression, or suggestion, upon the "subjective or involuntary"” …

In this edition

Suggestion and hypnotism retain their historical wording. The lexicon does not turn these passages into instructions for controlling another person.

Reading the argument

The grouping is broad. A persuasive speech, an accepted instruction, a hypnotic procedure, and an alleged telepathic effect are not established as one mechanism by being given one model. The source's explanation is therefore an account to assess, not a substitute for evidence about each case.

Related texts

Hudson's The Law of Psychic Phenomena, II, makes suggestion central to its distinction between objective and subjective mind. The explicit citation in XIV makes this a direct comparison, rather than an inferred influence from a distant text.⁷

Suggestion

“Suggestion” — 12 occurrences in 7 text blocks: II.22; XII.11–12; XIV.13–14, 17–18.

suggestions

“suggestions” — 2 occurrences in 2 text blocks: XIV.14; XV.14.

Hypnotism

“Hypnotism” — 3 occurrences in 3 text blocks: XIV.13–14, 16.

hypnotized

“hypnotized” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: VI.16.