How to Practice Suggestion and Autosuggestion

Emile Coue

• Publisher: White Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781473330474
• eBook ISBN: 9781473340510
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

This vintage book contains a detailed exposition of suggestion and autosuggestion by the pioneer of the technique, Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie. Autosuggestion is a psychological technique developed at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a type of self-induced suggestion whereby one's thoughts, feelings, or behaviour are self-guided. Contents include: "Interview by Emile Coué of Each Patient Attending His Clinic", "Examples and Experiments Illustrating the Powers of Suggestion and Autosuggestion", "Suggestions: General", "Suggestions: Special for Each Ailment", "Special Suggestions for Each Ailment", "Advice to Patients", "Lecture Delivered by Emile Coué in Twenty Cities of America", et cetera. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie.

FIRST PART

INTERVIEW BETWEEN EMILE COUÉ AND EACH PERSON ATTENDING THE CLINIC AND GENERAL CONVERSATION, PERMITTING M. COUÉ TO ASCERTAIN THE STATE OF MIND OF HIS INVALIDS

All the people who are sick (they are numerous, and all maladies or nearly all are represented) are seated in a circle round M. Coué. With artless good-nature he interests himself in each one; he asks those who have tried his method to “help to cure themselves” as he calls it, he asks newcomers their state of health, gives them advice and encourages them. To those who come for the first time, he asks the reason of their visit, and from what complaint they are suffering.

M. Coué (to an honest woman who has come to him with pains in the stomach and stiffness of the limbs): “You do not walk perfectly at present, you know! Walk now in front of me, quicker, still quicker!”

(The woman runs after M. Coué round the room, and shows with pleasure that she walks— and runs much more easily than before.)

M. Coué (to an old woman who is deaf and has a swelling of the liver): “What is your trouble, Madam? You are deaf? No, no, you are not deaf because you have just replied to what I have asked you!”

“Ah! yes, but you speak loudly, that is why I can hear you.”

“Yes, well there is no sort of deafness worse than that of a person who does not wish to hear!”

“Oh! but it is not that I do not wish to hear! I am deaf!”

“But you see very well that you are not deaf because you understand me! (laughter). Where do you suffer besides ?”

“I am swollen on the side of my liver.”

“I did not ask you where you were swollen! I ask you where you suffer pain.” (M. Coué uses his method: It is going, it is going, while rubbing the painful part lightly; the woman repeats with him very rapidly the words: It is going; it is going, and feels very much better.)

A Polish man, suffering from the liver, is accompanied by his wife. M. Coué speaks to them in German.

“And you, Mlle., have you need of help?”

“You, Sir, you have a tumor on the tongue which necessitated a surgical operation. I cannot affirm that that will be cured. It is quite possible that you may be, but I do not affirm it. To certain people I say plainly: You will be cured, because I am sure of it. To others I say: It is possible that you may be cured. I say perhaps. That does not mean that I am sure, nor does it mean the reverse.”

“And you, Sir?”

“Oh! I am cured! (to those present). I was a neurasthenic for three years. I have only been to M. Coué six times, and now I am cured!”

“I congratulate you, my friend, it is a very good thing to be cured!”

“And you, Sir?” “Pain in the right side?”

“Yes, but it should go away, M. Coué!”

“And yet you say you do not use suggestion, you use it very well on the contrary!”

“You, sir, are asthmatical? A little time ago there was a gentleman here who had been asthmatical for a long time; he was able at last to go up and down stairs without becoming breathless at all. An interesting case of asthma is that of M. Mollino, of London, who had been asthmatical for 25 years, and who passed his nights sitting up in bed trying to find some means to breathe easily, which he was not able to do. He stayed here not quite three weeks, and left completely cured. On leaving here, he went to Chamonix. The day after he made an ascent of six thousand feet, and the following day one of seven thousand. He was sad, but he became happy and held himself erect like a young man. I was very pleased to see him thus. His daughter, Mme. M., also profited by her stay here.”

“And you, Madam?”

“The bladder is much better. There is no longer any deposit in the urine. I am much better. But as I am a woman with a family, I wished to do some washing. I did too much, however, which gave me shooting pains in the legs, so that I could not sleep.”

“That is easy to get rid of. From the moment that you felt your bladder better, you will find these pains are easy to cure.”

“And you, Madam, the heart.”

“Yes, Sir, I was treated in the hospital, but I left it as I entered it, without being any better.”

“They told you that your heart was bad. You had palpitations? When you went upstairs you were breathless? Well, a little time ago there was a woman here, and she also suffered from palpitations. She was able to go up and down stairs without any difficulty, and you will do me the pleasure of doing the same thing presently.”

“You, Madam, are very depressed? You do not appear at all depressed, you are laughing!”

“One must keep cheerful, try to console ones-self!”

“To console yourself! No, you must send that away, that feeling! Do not tremble, neither your hand nor your foot need tremble, your leg too! But it no longer trembles!”

“I feel it.”

“But I tell you that it does not tremble!”

“That which troubles me most, is the numbness that I feel.”

“You must get rid of all that: above all no efforts.”

“In the evening I am sure to be better, but in the morning on awakening, I have, I am afraid, brain trouble.”

“Ah! always this fear! Good gracious!!! But you can make people die in this way. One day five or six good fellows said among themselves: “We will play a joke upon So and So. When he comes in, we will say to him: ‘Why, whatever is the matter with you?’ The young man in question met one of the fellows later, and the latter said to him: ‘Why, whatever is the matter with you today? Are you ill? You look so strange!’ He replies: ‘No, I am not ill, no . . . there is nothing wrong with me.’ Later he met another of his friends who said to him: ‘But you are as yellow as a guinea! Are you ill? You look so anyhow!’ The poor fellow hesitated and said: ‘No . . . I . . . I have nothing the matter with me; but it is odd, some one else told me almost the same thing.’ When the third man speaks to him, he believes himself ill, and when the fourth and fifth, he really is ill and goes to bed. . . . !”

“And you, Sir, neurasthenia? Ask this gentleman the formula for healing yourself. He will tell you all about it presently. He was completely cured himself.

“I do not sleep!”

“You will sleep like a doormouse, and then everything will assume a rosy tint. There is a certain expression in your face which shows that it will soon leave you, and if you can smile there is no longer any neurasthenia!”

“I can no longer write; I cannot write or speak quickly; I am sad and can no longer think. I am losing my faculties!”

“Ah, well, you can no longer think! The best proof that you can still think is that you say (and in consequence you think it) ‘I can no longer think.’ I am going to give you a prescription which will make you laugh, but which is excellent. Every time that you have gloomy thoughts, you will place yourself in front of a looking glass, and laugh at yourself. In a few minutes you will find that you are laughing quite naturally, as you are doing now. And when you can laugh as you are at present, neurasthenia goes away. I tell you NEURASTHENIA GOES AWAY.”

“And you, Madam?”

“My pains are better. Every time that I have them, I use the method you have shown me, but they come back!”

“Ah! Well, you must not forget this, that I never cure anyone. For the moment you are not getting well very fast. Very good. Then say to yourself: ‘After all it is not so bad today, and tomorrow it will be still better . . .”

“And you, Madam, the stomach? You cannot digest your food? Well, well, you will digest your food soon.”

“I wish to conquer my fear.”

“Ah! You are frightened of being afraid, and yet it is the fear of being frightened that makes you afraid!”

“And you, Madam. You say that during the day you feel well?”

“Yes, it is in the night I feel bad; I feel stifled and expectorate a lot.”

“You are careful to make your suggestions?”

“I never miss.”

“Then you will be cured.”

“And you, Madam. You continue to improve. No one will recognize you when you return to London! Madame came here in a deplorable state of mind. She had to have some one with her lest she should throw herself overboard while on the boat. She imagined a whole host of things. But she started imagining just the contrary, and you see the result. And Madame, has only been here a fortnight.”

“And you, Mlle., you continue to get better?”

“Oh, yes, the other day my friend left me, and I did not shed a single tear, in fact I wanted to laugh!”

“Oh, but you are exaggerating, you must be hardhearted. It is good, however. You have made progress.”

“(To an English woman who has a trembling) And you, well and good, are better. It seems that yesterday you were able to get up from your chair and walk fairly well . . . not this morning ? But if you are able to do it one day, you can do it every day. You must always say to yourself: ‘I can.’ You cannot walk well today? Well, presently you are going to run! It is not hope that will cure you. It is the certainty.”

(A voice in the audience.) “I saw Mlle, get out of the tram almost without help. One held out a hand to her, because one is used to helping her, and so Mlle, took it but she could have done without it.”

“Ah! but you have deceived me, Mlle., that is naughty of you!”

To a young girl who had not been able to see at all with the left eye, and whom M. Coué has cured.) “Come, Mlle., let us measure your sight!” (M. Coué moves further and further from her, until she can no longer see his features plainly.) “But you have made great progress! Soon you will be able to see a fly upon a cathedral!” (A voice.) “I told Mlle, she would soon be able to see the Cannebiere from here!” (Laughter.)

“Well, Mlle., if you had continued to use your lorgnon, you would have become quite blind in time. You owe me a candle at least. (To the assembly.) “Since Mlle. was two years old (she is now twenty-two) she could no longer see with the left eye as a result of meningitis. For a whole year this eye was bandaged. As she was a whole year thus and not able to see anything, the idea fixed itself in her mind: ‘I cannot see!’ When the bandage was removed she could not see at all with that eye. I just said that she might have become completely blind, because she was overstraining the right eye, and that if she were not careful, she would end by not seeing at all. But now Mlle, who could not play the piano for more than five minutes, can play for two hours, and she sews and reads with the left eye.”

“And you, Mme., always the same thing? But you walk very well! Therefore it is not the same thing. Above all, do not get the idea into your head that you are not improving, you MUST improve. It is perfectly normal for you to do so!”

“And you, young man, your cold? You have not lost it? It is that you are too fond of it, you know! You no longer have any boils or pimples. They become fewer and fewer? So much the better.”

(An English lady.) “M. Coué, will you help me to cure my left eye, and my throat which is contracted?”

“You say, Madam, that your throat is contracted. Tha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie
• Title
• Preface
• Contents
• First Part
• Second Part
• Third Part
• Fourth Part
• Fifth Part
• Sixth Part