The ability to influence our subconscious with affirmations is called suggestion, and it is based on specific psychological laws
By Roberto Assagioli, Feb. 25, 1934[i], from the Assagioli Archive in Florence, doc. #24061.[ii] Lecture VII of a Course of Lectures on “The Energies Latent in Us.” Original Title: La Suggestione: Sua Natura e Sue Leggi. Translated and Edited With Notes by Jan Kuniholm[iii]
Abstract: “Suggestion” is the name given for a method of using the inexhaustible treasures of latent energies in the unconscious. A definition of suggestion and five psychological laws upon which it is based are presented, with examples. Suggestion can be beneficial or malevolent. Its existence is often undervalued and associated only with its lower aspects. One must be aware of one’s suggestibility, know its laws. Self-suggestion offers a whole new science and art of self-mastery, whose fundamental task is self-observation.
Last Sunday we talked about the inexhaustible treasures of latent energies in our plastic, not yet differentiated unconscious. Today we will begin to talk about the procedure by which those treasures can be used most effectively. It is a simple method; learning it requires far less time and effort than that of a language or a musical instrument, while its usefulness is incomparably greater.
When the benefits it brings are widely known, and are appreciated at their proper value, its use will become an integral part of the education of every young person, and of every child as well. Indeed, it is not uncommon for children to achieve more rapid and surprising results than adults do.
To use this method well, one must first have a clear idea of the nature and psychological laws on which its action is based. This method has various names, but the most popular designation, which has now become the standard one, is that of suggestion. Words by themselves do not matter, they are like markers or labels: what matters is the meaning we attach to them. But we often have a vague, uncertain and inaccurate idea of the words we use, because we do not take the trouble to specify their meaning, that is, to think clearly and consciously. Everyone believes they know how to think, but actually thinking is an art that must be learned. We will talk about that perhaps on another occasion; in the meantime as of now I recommend a good book on this subject: The Art of Thinking by Ernest Dimnet. [iv] The author gives a series of excellent rules and wise advice in an easy, witty and persuasive form.
Besides not thinking accurately, we have the illusion that others use words in the same sense in which we use them, while in fact they often give them a very different meaning. Hence a long series of mistakes, misunderstandings, and vain, useless and unnecessary disputes. It is therefore appropriate to carefully define every important word that does not designate a concrete object, indicating to others in what sense we use it.
It is especially appropriate to make this semantic clarification for the word “suggestion,” to which different meanings are given, and which is used superficially by many people, without having first gotten a correct and precise idea of it. We will therefore first give a definition of suggestion based on the most serious scientific studies of which it has been the subject:
Suggestion is the process by which a psychic[v] fact[vi] imprints itself on the unconscious (with or without the awareness and assent of consciousness) and by means of this (the unconscious) is realized.
This definition is illustrated and clarified by examination of the psychological laws and facts, both spontaneous and experimental, on which it is based.
The [first] fundamental law on which suggestion is based is as follows:
Every idea or image tends to produce a physical condition, state of mind or [external] act corresponding to it.
Of the powerful action that psychic facts exert on the body — on which psychosomatic medicine is based — we shall speak on another occasion.[vii] Today we will pause to examine the power that images and ideas have to produce external states of mind and acts.
EXAMPLES:
1. In deep hypnosis it is enough [for the practitioner] to make a gesture for the hypnotized person to repeat it. Sometimes there is echolalia; that is, the subject repeats everything he or she hears. If asked a question, he repeats this instead of answering it. This is the height of passivity.
2. In [psychologically] weak people, in whom the unconscious is not mastered and directed, every idea and image — coming from outside or inside — persistently tends to come true; [i.e. be realized].
3. Even in normal cases there are numerous examples of this law:
- The peasant farmer who moves his lips when reading.Imitation, which is clear in children, but also widespread among adults. Pupils unconsciously imitating teachers, assistants who follow their professor’s pace and style.Psychic contagion. In crowds the power of suggestion is multiplied.Prestige, authority. Imitation of the upper classes.
- Advertising: this is an experiment in continuous and large-scale suggestion, and it succeeds very well! In this the industrialists and merchants, who lavish millions on it, prove to be good practical psychologists.
Suggestion is a double-edged sword: it can be beneficial or malevolent. It is usually undervalued because only its lower aspects are considered, and it is associated with weakness of will and personality. Thus no one wants to admit to being “suggestible.” How many times have I been told, “I am not suggestible,” and by the very people who shortly before or after had given me clear evidence that they were strongly suggestible! The belief that one is not is a dangerous illusion, because it removes vigilance and makes one easy prey to unrecognized suggestions. Being suggestible, after all, simply means “possessing a plastic [or moldable] unconscious.” There are some mad people (paranoids) who are not suggestible at all: they are self-confident and locked into their ideas, but they are certainly not ideal types! So do not deny your suggestibility, and do not try to suppress it; do not become rigid or harden; but know its laws, watch over it, protect it and use it consciously.
OTHER LAWS:
II. Attention and repetition strengthen the suggestion.
Those who create advertisements know this, as they work in every way to capture their audience’s attention, and therefore they multiply and repeat them tirelessly.
III. Interest and emotions strengthen the suggestion.
This law explains phobias and morbid impulses. If an idea or image frightens us, this intensifies the suggestion, that is, the tendency and impulse to implement the idea.
IV. The Law of unconscious purpose.
The idea being suggested for a given [desired] end, the unconscious by itself finds the means and puts them into practice, into operation, in a skillful and ingenious way. The suggestion becomes almost a small intelligent entity that does everything to bring itself to fruition.
Example of the “posthypnotic suggestion.” The impulse to implement [the suggestion] creates “reasons,” or rather pretexts and excuses that have no validity. Those who are dominated by a passion think badly. In treatment by suggestion, the unconscious uses the means [for healing] that the conscious personality would not know how to use.
V. Law of “reversed effort” [viii] (Baudouin and Coué).[ix] When the imagination (i.e. suggestion) and the will are in conflict, the imagination always wins. We would say: when unconscious and conscious are in opposition, the unconscious wins. In fact, the unconscious is larger than the conscious; it stands between the consciousness and the body. One must act through it.
This might at first be disturbing, but knowing this gives us a powerful weapon. For the opposition between consciousness and the unconscious is not necessary; it is the result of our ignorance, of our mistakes. We tend to fight, to “take the unconscious head-on,” and then it rebels. In this way we arouse its “spirit of contradiction.” How much wasted energy, how much unnecessary suffering, how many nervous and psychic disorders have been and are produced by ignorance of this law! And how many errors in education and care!
For example, telling an ill patient, “You have to make yourself strong,” “You have to use your will,” or “You have to care,” is psychologically incorrect, because this leads to acting against the unconscious, to regard it as an enemy; instead it is better to ally oneself with it. There is in fact a part of it that is always ready to obey us, if it “knows how to receive [the instruction].” As for the not-so-good suggestions that already exist, these must be devalued and neutralized, but not fought directly.
As we see, a whole new science and art of living has been formed and needs to be known in order for us to “own ourselves,” to be masters in our own house, to use the great resources that are latent within us.
In the next lesson we will expound on the technique of suggestion and autosuggestion exercises. Meanwhile, remember that the fundamental task is to: OBSERVE OURSELVES.
In order to improve ourselves and others we must first possess ourselves, but to possess ourselves we must first know ourselves. And to know oneself one must notice oneself and observe. One must not just “let oneself live” as one generally does, but make our own soul and the souls of others the object of study — of serene, impartial, and at the same time careful and fervent study. Thus life acquires a new interest and value, and reveals its profound meanings to us. [x]
[i] A note at the heading of the original typed manuscript reads, “(notes not taken).” —Ed.
[ii] Other versions of this essay are in Docs #24056,24057, and 24060.—Ed.
[iii] Editor’s interpolations are shown in [brackets]. —Ed.
[iv] Originally published in 1928 by Simon & Schuster, this book went through many editions and is still now available in several editions. Dimnet (1866-1954) was a French priest and writer who emigrated to the United states after the First World War. This book was a best-seller in the 1930s. —Ed.
[v] By psychic Assagioli means the generic area of processes that include all of the domain usually associated with the psyche, and this may include emotional and mental processes as well as common parapsychological processes, and all areas covered by psychology in its broadest sense. —Ed.
[vi] Assagioli uses the Italian word fatto here; a word that is easily translated as “fact,” but has a connotation of being a proposition, or observation, or phenomenon that can be stated, imagined, or conceived, having a quality that makes it capable of being “materialized” or “realized” in experience.—Ed.
[vii] Assagioli wrote and spoke about psychological laws on several occasions, and many years later he included an expanded version of this law and the others related to it in Chapter V of his book The Act of Will. —Ed.
[viii] The particular name for this law is taken from the 1922 English translation of Charles Baudouin’s Suggestion and Autosuggestion, in which the translator refers to terms used by Émile Coué. See p.10, translation by Eden and Cedar Paul, New York Dodd, Mead and Co. On p.86 of this edition, the author says, “The stronger the effort, the less effective it is.” —Ed.
[ix] Charles Baudouin (1893-1963) was a French psychoanalyst and therapist. He promoted psychoanalysis through his books and conferences and did pioneering work in several fields including art, education, suggestion and hypnosis. Èmile Couè (1857-1926) was a French psychologist who introduced a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based upon suggestion and autosuggestion. He published his book Self-Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion in 1922. —Ed.
[x] For those who want to deepen their knowledge of suggestion, and use autosuggestion, the excellent book by Charles Baudouin, Psychologie de la suggestion (Neuchâtel, Delachaux et Niestlé, 1924) is recommended.—Author’s Note. This book [The Psychology of Suggestion] has not been translated into English. —Ed.
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