HOW TO INFLUENCE OTHERS THROUGH MENTAL IMAGERY
[Sidenote: _A Rule for Influencing Others_]
The practical importance of the fact of mental imagery and of the
individual differences in power of mental imagery is very great.
They should be particularly taken into account in any business or
profession in which one seeks to implant knowledge or conviction
in the mind of another.
[Sidenote: _Application to Pedagogy_]
The underlying principle in such cases is this: _To the mind you
are seeking to convince or educate, present your facts in as
many different ways and as realistically as possible, so that
there may be a variety of images, each serving as a clue to
prompt the memory._
We cannot do more at this point than indicate a few minor phases
of the practical application of the principles of mental imagery.
In the old days geography was taught simply with a book and maps.
Today children also use their hands in molding relief maps in
sand or clay, and mountains and rivers have acquired a meaning
they never had before.
In the days of the oral "spelling match" boys and girls were
better spellers than products of a later school system, because
they used not only the eye to see the printed word, the arm and
hand to feel in writing it, but also the ear to hear it and the
vocal muscles to utter it. And because of this fact oral spelling
is being brought back to the schoolroom.
[Sidenote: _How to Sell Goods by Mental Imagery_]
If you have pianos to advertise, do not limit your advertisement
to a beautiful picture of the mahogany case and general words
telling the reader that it is "the best." Pianos are musical
instruments, and the descriptive words should first of all call
up delightful _auditory images_ in your reader's mind.
If you have for sale an article of food, do not simply tell
your customer how good it is. Let him see it, feel it, and
particularly _taste it_, if you want him to call for it the next
time he enters your store.
[Sidenote: _A Study of Advertisements_]
Turn, for example, to the advertisement of a certain brand of
chocolate, facing page 6. The daintily spread table, the pretty
girl, the steaming cup, the evident satisfaction of the man, who
looks accustomed to good living,--these elements combine in a
skilful appeal to the senses. Turn now to another advertisement
of this same brand of chocolate, shown facing page 22. The
purpose here is to inform you as to the large quantity of cocoa
beans roasted in the company's furnaces. Whether this fact is of
any consequence or not, the impression you get from the picture
is of a wheelbarrow full of something that looks like coal being
trundled by a dirty workman, while the shovel by the furnace door
and the cocoa beans scattered about the floor remind one of a
begrimed iron foundry.
[Sidenote: _The Words that Create Desire_]
_The only words that will ever sell anything are graphic words,
picturesque words, words that call up distinct and definite
mental pictures of an attractive kind._
The more sensory images we have of any object the better we know
it.
_If you want to make a first impression lasting, make it vivid.
It will then photograph itself upon the memory and arouse the
curiosity._
A boy who is a poor visualizer will never make a good artist. A
man who is a poor visualizer is out of place as a photographer or
a picture salesman.
[Sidenote: _A Key for Selecting a Calling_]
No person with weak auditory images should follow music as a
profession or attempt to sell phonographs or musical instruments
or become a telephone or telegraph operator or stenographer.
No man who can but faintly imagine the taste of things should try
to write advertisements for articles of food.
Remember the rule: _To the mind you are seeking to convince or
educate present your facts in as many different ways and as
realistically as possible, so that there may be a variety of
images, each serving as a clue to prompt the memory._
You can put this rule to practical use at once. Try it. You will
be delighted with the result.
HOW TO TEST YOUR MENTAL IMAGERY
[Illustration]