BELIEF AND SUGGESTION
The writer has been informed by a prominent physician of Chicago, that
for many years he has been in the habit of administering hypodermic
injections of distilled water, accompanying the same by the statement
that he is injecting morphine. He states that in every case, he
has succeeded in inducing a quiet, peaceful sleep, and a cessation
of pain after the injection, which can be attributed only to the
_belief_ of the patient. The same physician also relates the case of
a woman who believed that she had taken strychnine by mistake. When
the doctor was called he found the woman manifesting every symptom of
strychnine poisoning, even down to the most minute details, and he
is of the opinion that death would have ensued in a short time had
he not proceeded to administer the regular antidotes and restorative
treatment. After the woman was brought out of the condition, it was
discovered that the supposed strychnine was nothing but a harmless
powder. In relating the case, the physician always adds that the woman
had witnessed the death struggles of a dog which had been poisoned by
strychnine several months previous, which might have had some effect in
enabling her to unconsciously counterfeit the symptoms.
Dr. Max Eastman, in a recent magazine article says: "The mission
of this paper is to offer guidance in a matter about which a great
quantity of the general public is very much at sea. In this question
of 'mind over matter,' the reformers have done their work. They have
stirred things up. They have bestowed upon the world about a hundred
and fifty little religions and a confused idea that there must be some
truth in the matter somewhere. The ignorant have done their work. They
have persecuted the believers, jeered at them, or damned them with
a vacuous smile. The world will never lack ballast. It is only the
scientists that have failed of their duty. They have stalked through a
routine of elevated lectures, written a few incomprehensible books,
and kept the science of psychology, so far as the hungry world goes,
sealed up in their own proud bosoms. In all this uproar of faith-cures,
and miracles, and shouting prophets, we have heard few illuminating
words from the universities. The consequence is that we are without a
helm, and the reform blows now one way and now another....
"The law of suggestion, which is one of the great discoveries of modern
science, was first formulated by Dr. Liebault at Paris, in a book
published in 1866. Since his day the number of physicians who practice
'suggestive therapeutics' has steadily increased, until to-day no
thorough clinical hospital is without a professional suggestionist. The
practice _does not involve any metaphysical theories_, the passage of
any hidden force from one brain to another, any 'planes of existence,'
or any religious upset, or any poetic physiology, or the swallowing of
any occult doctrines whatever. It is one of the simplest and coolest of
scientific theories. It is a question of the relation between the brain
and the bodily organs. It seems never to have been clearly stated that
healing disease by suggestion depends not in the least degree upon
any theory of the relation of mind and matter.... The attempt to fix
an idea in the mind without reason is suggestion. It is accomplished
usually in medical practice by asking the patient to lie down and relax
his body and his mind and then vigorously stating to him the desired
idea. It may be accomplished in a number of ways. The patient may be
told that the operator is a wizard and is about to transfer an idea
from his own mind to that of the patient. If the patient believes him
he will very likely accept the idea. It may be accomplished by gestures
or incantations which the patient regards with superstitious awe,
provided it is explained beforehand what these gestures are meant to
produce. It may be accomplished by telling the patient he has no body,
and sitting with him for awhile in spiritual silence, _provided he
knows what to expect_.
"All these methods, _if one believes in them_, are good, and they prove
by their success the law of suggestion. But the method that is based
on a sure truth is the method of the scientist. He reasons with his
patient, he stirs in him what moral or religious enthusiasm he can,
and to these means he adds tactfully the subtle suggestive powers of
his own presence and eloquence. This force, together with the power
which is revealed in a man of correcting his own mental habits, is
the greatest practical discovery of modern psychology.... Suggestive
therapeutics is the use of suggestion to fix in the mind ideas of
healthy mental habits....
"Our question is: can the physical conditions of the brain affect the
physical condition of the stomach? We know that the brain-building
condition which accompanies the idea of raising our hand can affect
the condition of the muscles of our arm--and we call that a voluntary
function. Now the question is whether the brain condition which
accompanies the idea of enlivening our stomach can have an effect upon
that involuntary function. Experiments with suggestion have proved that
in some cases it can, if it continues long enough. Persons of a very
suggestible nature, can, for instance, by concentrating their mind
upon a certain part of the body, increase the flow of blood to that
part, although the regulation of blood flow is supposed to be entirely
involuntary. The action of the heart, also the movements of the
digestive organs particularly, and of the organs of elimination, are
almost directly affected in suggestible persons by that change in their
brains which accompanies certain ideas.... Science has established
then, that suggestion can effect to some extent, the so-called
involuntary functions of the body; but the extent or limitation of
these effects is by no means determined. It could not be determined
scientifically without years of diligent experiment and tabulation.
Any dogmatic statement upon one side or the other of that question, is
therefore premature and against the spirit of science."
Dr. Leith, in his Edinburgh lectures in 1896, said: "I am inclined
to doubt whether the benefits of Nauheim (a treatment for the heart)
is not after all to be explained largely, if not entirely, by the
influence of the mental factor." Tuke says that: "John Hunter says he
was subject to spasm of his 'vital parts' when anxious about an event;
as, for instance, whether his bees would swarm or not, whether the
large cat he was anxious to kill would get away before he could get the
gun. After death it was found that he had some heart disease.... Lord
Eglinton told John Hunter how, when two soldiers were condemned to be
shot, it was arranged the one who threw the number with the dice should
be reprieved; the one who proved successful generally fainted, while
the one to be shot remained calm." Dr. Schofield says: "During the rush
of Consumptives to Berlin for inoculation by Dr. Koch's tuberculin,
a special set of symptoms were observed to follow the injection and
were taken as being diagnostic of the existence of tuberculosis; among
others, a rise of temperature after so many hours. These phenomena were
eagerly looked for by the patients, and occurred accurately in several
who were injected with pure water. The formation of blisters full of
serum from the application of plain stamp and other paper to various
parts of the bodies of patients in the hypnotic state, is well attested
and undoubtedly true."
Dr. Krafft-Ebing has produced a rise from 37 degrees centigrade to 38.5
degrees centigrade in patients by fixing their minds by suggestion.
In the same way Binet lowered the temperature 10 degrees centigrade.
The latter authority says: "How can it be, when one merely says to
the patient: 'Your hand will become cold,' and the vaso-motor system
answers by constricting the artery? _C'est ce que depasse notre
imagination._" Schofield commenting on the above, says: "Indeed there
is no way of accounting for such a phenomena but by freely admitting
the presence of unconscious psychic forces in the body, capable of so
influencing the structures of the body as to produce physical changes."
Tuke says: "A lady saw a child in immediate danger of having its ankle
crushed by an iron gate. She was greatly agitated, but could not
move, owing to intense pain coming on in her corresponding ankle. She
walked home with difficulty, took off her stocking and found a circle
around the ankle of a light red color, with a large red spot on the
outer side. By the morning her whole foot was inflamed, and she had to
remain in bed for some days. A young woman witnessing the lancing of an
abscess in the axilla immediately felt pain in that region, followed
by inflammation. Dr. Marmise of Bordeaux tells us of a lady's maid,
who when the surgeon put his lancet into her mistress's arm to bleed
her, felt the prick in her own arm, and shortly after there appeared a
bruise at the spot."
It is related that St. Francis d'Assisi dwelt so long in concentrated
meditation upon the thought and picture of the Crucifixion that
he suffered intense pain in his hands and feet, at the points
corresponding to the place of the nails in the hands and feet of
Christ, which was afterward followed by marked inflammation at those
points, terminating in actual ulceration. The phenomena of the
_stigmata_ in the cases of religious enthusiasts and fanatics has
been mentioned elsewhere in this book. Prof. Barrett says of the
phenomenon: "It is not so well known, but it is nevertheless the
fact, that utterly startling physiological changes can be produced
in a hypnotized subject merely by conscious or unconscious mental
suggestion. Thus a red scar or a painful burn, or even a figure of a
definite shape, such as a cross or an initial, can be caused to appear
on the body of the entranced subject solely through suggesting the
idea. By creating some local disturbance of the blood-vessel in the
skin, the unconscious self has done what would be impossible for the
conscious to perform. And so in the well-attested cases of _stigmata_,
where a close resemblance to the wounds of the body of the crucified
Saviour appears on the body of the ecstatic. This is a case of
unconscious self-suggestion, arising from the intent and adoring gaze
of the ecstatic upon the bleeding figure on the crucifix."
Dr. Schofield says: "The breath is altered by the emotions. The short
quiet breath of joy contrasts with the long sigh of relief after
breathless suspense. Joy gives eupnoea or easy breathing, grief or
rather fear tends to dyspnoea or difficult breathing. Sobbing goes with
grief, laughter with joy, and one often merges into the other. Yawning
is produced by pure idea or by seeing it, as well as by fatigue. Dr.
Morton Prince says a lady he knew always had violent catarrh in the
nose (hay fever) if a rose was in the room. He gave her an _artificial_
one and the usual symptoms followed. How many cases of hay-fever have
a somewhat similar origin in the unconscious mind?... The hair may
be turned grey and white by emotion in a few hours or sooner. With
regard to the stomach and digestion, apart from actual disease, we
may notice one or two instances of unconscious mind action. A man who
was very sea-sick lost a valuable set of artificial teeth overboard,
and was instantly cured. If the thoughts are strongly directed to the
intestinal canal, as by bread-pills, it will produce strong peristaltic
action. Vomiting occurs from mental causes, apart from organic brain
disease. Bad news will produce nausea; emotion also, or seeing
another person vomit, or certain smells or ideas, or thoughts about a
sea-voyage, etc., or the thought that an emetic has been taken.... The
thought of an acid fruit will fill the mouth with water. A successful
way of stopping discordant street music is to suck a lemon within a
full view of a German band. Fear will so dry the throat that dry rice
cannot be swallowed. This is a test in India for the detection of a
murderer. The suspected man is brought forward and given a handful of
dry rice to swallow. If he can do this he is innocent; if he cannot he
is guilty, fear having dried up his mouth.... A young lady who could
not be cured of vomiting was engaged to be married. On being told that
the wedding day must be postponed till cured, the vomiting ceased.... A
mother nursing her child always found the milk secreted when she heard
the child crying for any length of time. Fear stops the secretion of
milk, and worry will entirely change its character, so as to become
absolutely injurious to the child."
Maudsley says: "Perhaps we do not as physicians consider sufficiently
the influence of mental states in the production of disease, their
importance as symptoms; or realize all the advantages which we take
of them in our efforts to cure disease. Quackery seems to have got
hold of a truth which legitimate medicine fails to appreciate or use
adequately." Dr. Buckley says: "A doctor was called to see a lady
with severe rheumatism, and tried to extemporize a vapor bath in bed,
with an old tin pipe and a tea-kettle; and only succeeded in scalding
the patient with the boiling water proceeding from the overful kettle
through the pipe. The patient screamed: 'Doctor, you have scalded
me,' and leaped out of bed. But the rheumatism was cured, and did not
return." Tuke relates an amusing instance of the effect of suggestion
and faith upon warts. He had been considering the subject of the
various "pow-wows" or "wart-cures" of the old women, and determined to
try some experiments in order to see whether these cures were not due
simply to mental influences and expectant attention. On an official
tour he visited an asylum, where he was regarded as a great personage
by reason of his office. He noticed that several of the inmates were
afflicted with warts, and muttering a few words over the excresences,
he told the owners that by such and such a day the warts would have
completely disappeared. He forgot the circumstances, owing to the
press of his official duties, and was agreeably surprised when, on his
next round of visits, he was told that his patients had been cured
at the time he had predicted. Nearly everyone has had some personal
acquaintance with some of these "pow-wow" wart cures, in one form or
another. Tying a knot in a piece of cord, then rubbing the wart with
it, and burying the string, has cured thousands of cases of warts--the
suggestion being the real cause behind the mask.
Ferassi cured fifty cases of ague by a charm, which consisted merely of
a piece of paper with the word "Febrifuge" written on it. The patient
was directed to clip off one letter of the word each day until cured.
Some patients recovered as soon as the first "F" was clipped from the
paper. The writer hereof knows personally of a number of people having
been cured of fever and ague by means of a written "charm" which an old
man in Philadelphia sold them at a dollar a copy. The old man informed
him that he, "and his father before him" had cured thousands of people
in this way, making a comfortable living from the practice. Dr. Gerbe,
of Paris, cured 401 out of 629 cases of toothache by masked suggestion
administered in the form of causing the patients to crush a small
insect between their fingers, after having strongly impressed upon them
the fact that this was an infallible cure.
Dr. Schofield reports the following interesting cases of cures by
auto-suggestion and faith: "A surgeon took into a hospital ward some
time ago, a little boy who had kept his bed for five years, having hurt
his spine in a fall. He had been all the time totally paralyzed in the
legs, and could not feel when they were touched or pinched; nor could
he move them in the least degree. After careful examination, the doctor
explained minutely to the boy the awful nature of the electric battery,
and told him to prepare for its application the next day. At the same
time he showed him a sixpence, and sympathizing with his state, told
him that the sixpence should be his if, notwithstanding, he should have
improved enough the next day to walk leaning on and pushing a chair,
which would also save the need of the battery. In two weeks the boy was
running races in the park, and his cure was reported in the '_Lancet_.'
... A young lady who had taken ether three and a half years before, on
the inhaler being held three inches away from the face, and retaining a
faint odor of ether, went right off, and becoming unconscious without
any ether being used or the inhaler touching her face. A woman was
brought on a couch into a London hospital by two ladies, who said she
had been suffering from incurable paralysis of the spine for two years,
and having exhausted all their means in nursing her, they now sought to
get her admitted, pending her removal to a home for incurables. In two
hours I had cured her by agencies which owed all their virtue to their
influence on the mind, and I walked with the woman half a mile up and
down the waiting-room, and she then returned home in an omnibus, being
completely cured. An amusing case is that of a paralyzed girl, who on
learning that she had secured the affections of the curate, who used
to visit her, got out of bed and walked--cured; and soon afterwards
made an excellent pastor's wife. A remarkable instance of this sort of
cure is that of a child afflicted with paralysis, who was brought up
from the country to Paris to the Hotel Dieu. The child, who had heard
a great deal of the wonderful metropolis, its magnificent hospitals,
its omnipotent doctors, and their wonderful cures, was awe-struck, and
so vividly impressed with the idea that such surroundings must have a
curative influence, that the day after her arrival she sat up in bed
much better. The good doctor just passed around, but had not time to
treat her till the third day; by which time when he came round she was
out of bed, walking about the room, quite restored by the glimpses she
had got of his majestic presence."
Having now shown by numerous disinterested authorities, the majority
of whom belong to the medical profession, that the mental states of
belief, faith and expectancy, and their negative aspects of fear,
apprehension, and false-belief, may, and do, influence physical
conditions, functioning and activities, irrespective of the particular
theory, creed, or explanation accepted by the patient himself, or
herself, we see the necessity of seeking for the common principle of
cure manifesting in the various forms of phenomena. And before this
common principle may be grasped, we must needs acquaint ourselves with
the physical organism involved in the process of cure. Accordingly
the several succeeding chapters will be devoted to that phase of the
general subject.