Евгений Шубралов – Suggestion at a distance: theory, practice and philosophy (страница 6)

How many patients, turning to a doctor for the treatment of their toothache, must admit already in the doctor's waiting room that their help becomes unnecessary due to the fact that the toothache disappeared even before the patient could see his doctor.

It should be noted, however, that not all people blindly believe in the power of one or another doctor in relation to their disease, and therefore the mental influence of a doctor on his patients is not the same.

INVOLUNTARY SUGGESTION AND MUTUAL SUGGESTION

In general, it must be admitted that, since most people cannot restrain themselves from involuntary resistance to extraneous mental influences, it is natural that the effect of suggestion in the waking state to a more or less pronounced degree is not possible for everyone. In order to carry out suggestion in these cases, it is precisely the preparatory environment mentioned above that is needed, which eliminates involuntary resistance on the part of the person being subjected to suggestion.

Nevertheless, in everyday life we often encounter the effect of involuntary suggestion produced by the natural communication of one person with another.

This suggestion occurs unnoticed by the person on whom it acts, and therefore usually does not cause any resistance on his part. True, it rarely acts immediately, more often slowly, but it is surely strengthened in the mental sphere.

To clarify this fact with an example, I will remind you here what a magical effect on everyone is produced, for example, by the appearance of one cheerful gentleman in a bored society. Everyone immediately involuntarily, without noticing it themselves, becomes infected with his fun, cheers up their spirits, and society turns from boring, monotonous into very cheerful and lively.

In turn, the revival of society has an infectious effect on the person who brought this revival, which makes his spiritual tone even more uplifting.

Here is one of the many examples of the effect of involuntary suggestion or the natural inoculation of mental states from one person to another.

Since in this case we are talking about the mutual mental influence of one person on others and vice versa, it is most correct to call this condition involuntary mutual suggestion.

At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the effect of involuntary suggestion and mutual suggestion is much broader than one might think from the very beginning.

It is not limited only to certain more or less exceptional persons, like intentional suggestion produced in the waking state, and also does not require any special unusual conditions for itself, like suggestion produced in hypnosis, but acts on everyone and everyone under all possible conditions.

It goes without saying that with regard to the involuntary inoculation of mental states, there are great differences between individuals in the sense that some, as more impressionable, more passive and therefore more trusting natures, are more easily amenable to involuntary mental suggestion, while others are less; but the difference between individuals exists only quantitative, not qualitative, in other words, it consists only in the degree of susceptibility to unintentional or involuntary suggestion from others, but no more.

Involuntary suggestion and mutual suggestion, thus, as we understand it, is a more or less universal phenomenon.

However, the question arises, in what way can the ideas and mental states of others be instilled in us and subordinate us to their influence? There is every reason to think that this inoculation takes place exclusively through the senses.

The question of mental influence at a distance from one person to another has been repeatedly raised in science, but all attempts to prove this method of transmitting thoughts at a distance more or less irrevocably collapse as soon as it is subjected to experimental verification, and at present no strictly verified fact can be given that I would speak in favor of the real existence of telepathic transmission of mental states.

Therefore, without denying in principle the further development of the above-mentioned question, we must admit that the supposed similar transmission of thoughts by some in the present state of our knowledge is completely unproven.

Thus, discarding any assumption about the possibility of telepathic transmission of ideas at a distance, we are forced to dwell on the idea that the inoculation of mental states from one person to another can be transmitted in the same ways as the influence of one person on another is transmitted in general, that is, through the senses.

There can hardly be any doubt that the main transmitter of suggestion from one person to another is the organ of hearing, since verbal suggestion is, generally speaking, the most widespread and, apparently, the most valid.

But there is no doubt that other organs, especially vision, can also serve as intermediaries in the transmission of suggestion. Not to mention the influence of facial expressions and gestures, I will only point out the fact that very few people can see a yawn so as not to yawn themselves; similarly, the sight of a lemon being eaten involuntarily causes lips to clench and excessive salivation.

There is a well-known anecdote that an entire orchestra was stopped this way by one spectator, who engaged in eating a lemon in front of the musicians.

All these are examples of visual suggestion, which, as it is easy to see, works in certain cases no less correctly than auditory suggestion.

Examples can also be given of the transmission of suggestion through the tactile and muscular senses. Everyone knows that mutual handshaking is often a very effective means of conveying emotional feelings and sympathy between close people.

Further, there is an example that one medical student experienced great fear at the thought that he had cut off his finger with a scalpel, whereas in fact only the blunt back of the scalpel slipped over his finger.

Another example of suggestion by means of a tactile organ is the well-known story about a criminal sentenced to death, who, with his eyes closed, was told that one of the veins had been opened and that his blood was constantly flowing.

After a few minutes, he turned out to be dead, despite the fact that instead of blood, warm water was flowing through his body.

As for suggestion by means of a muscular sense, it has been studied repeatedly on hysterics in Salle-Petriere, and it turned out that in certain cases suggestion can be performed very successfully in this way. It is enough for a hysterical patient in hypnosis to fold her hands, as they fold when praying, and immediately her face assumes an expression of supplication. If in another case you fold her right hand into a fist, then her face takes on an expression of threat.

It is obvious, therefore, that the muscular sense, generally very little adapted for the communication of individuals, makes it possible to transmit suggestions.

In general, it must be recognized that various sense organs can serve as transmitters of suggestion, not excluding touch and muscle sense, but it goes without saying that organs such as hearing and vision, as the devices most adapted for communicating people with each other, are the most important organs through which suggestions are most often and most accurately transmitted.

In fact, involuntary suggestion and mutual suggestion, being a universal phenomenon, operates everywhere and everywhere in our daily lives. Without noticing it ourselves, we acquire to a certain extent feelings, superstitions, prejudices, inclinations, thoughts and even character traits from those around us, whom we most often treat. Such inoculation of mental states occurs mutually between persons living together, in other words, each person in one way or another inoculates another feature of his mental nature and, conversely, accepts certain mental traits from it. Consequently, in the full sense of the word, there is a mental interchange between people living together, which responds not only to feelings, thoughts and actions, but even to the physical sphere, since the influence of mental activity can generally be reflected on it.

This influence especially affects facial expressions, which give a certain expression to the face and outline its features to a certain extent. This fact, among other things, explains to us the fact that, as has long been noted, there is in a significant number of cases a great similarity in the features of husband and wife, which obviously depends most of all on mental assimilation by mutual suggestion of both persons who are in cohabitation. In happy marriages, this similarity of facial features is apparently even more common than in the mass of all marriages in general.

But there is nothing more convincing in the sense of direct transmission of mental states from one person to another, as the transmission of pathological phenomena.

Everyone knows that a tantrum that has occurred in society can lead to a number of other tantrums; on the other hand, stuttering and other convulsive forms are easily transmitted to predisposed subjects quite directly, through involuntary and imperceptible inoculation or suggestion.