The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-27
MENTAL SUGGESTION AS A CURE
Evidence That the Mind Has a Powerful
Influence Upon the Body.

| From the Medical Record.
Every physician is well aware of the
| potent influence for good or i'll that the
mind exerts over the body in sickness.
| In health, too, the effect of mental
| suggestion is with many persons pow
erful to an extraordinary degree. Upon
this notorious psychological fact the
Christian Scientists and faith curers of
all kinds base their treatment, and in
virtue of some indisputable cures
brought about by these means have
been so long able to gull the public into
the belief that their healing powers
are effective in any case of disease or
injury. Patent medicines and quacks
owe their success to precisely Identical
reasons If an individual has faith in
a medicine or treatment he Will assur-
eddy derive more benefit from that
medicine or treatment than if he were
skeptical as to it's merits. There can
be little doubt that the sympathetic
physician is the one best calculated to
lead his patient to recover. Again in
many instances the good that may be
wrought to the sufferer by the agency
of mental suggestion is undeniable.
Prof. j. NJ Baldwin, referring to this
fact in connection with insomnia, says:
I'm experimenting upon the possibility
of suggesting sleep to another l have
found certain strong reactive infiu-
ences upon my own mental condition.
Such an effort which involves the pic
turing of another as asleep isGa strong
autosuggestion of sleep, taking effect
in my own case in about five minutes
if the conditions be kept constant. The
more clearly the patients sleep Is pic
| tured the stronger becomes the sugges-
tive feeling of drowsiness. An unfail-
ing cure for insomnia, speaking for
myself, is the persistent effort to put
some one else asleep by hard thinking
of the end in view, with continued
gentle movement such as stroking the
other with the hand
DR.. E. C. Spitzka of New York has
recently given some really remarkable
instances of the power of mental sug-
gestion. He cites the we'll known fact
that the mortality from wounds and
diseases in a defeated army is as four
to three, and even as three to two He
also refers to the incontrovertible fact
that persons in robust health have been
| known to die apparently of starvation
after being without food for from three
to five days. DIR. SpilZka is of the
opinion that these individuals did not
die of actual starvation, but from the
physical effects of hunger. The proof
of this contention lies in the fact that
persons have been known to fast of
their own free will for more than 40
days without injuring their constitu-
tons TO any appfecldpie eAleH'' MahS
examples establishing the truth of this
statement might be given, but it VIII
be sufficient to quote one from DR..
Spitzka's paper. He says: In the
graver forms of hysteria, when loss OF
sensation occurs in exactly one-half OF
the body, you can lay piece of tint
| ed paper on the sensitive side; then,
suggesting it to be mustard plaster, a
| red area will appear on the correspond
ing unsensitive side. Blisters OF such
a character that scars have permanent
ly remained from them have been pro-
duced in similar cases by the same
method" The medical profession, 1t
appears more than likely, has not as yet
wholly appreciated the advantages to
be derived from the employment Oh
mental suggestion.