Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-25
.HERE is, after all. something in this
widely exploited little thing caiied
auto-suggestion-

widely exploited little tninS cAiieu
auto-suggestion-
Far be ii from the writer of this to state
hat he believes anybody can auto-suggest
himself into q condition in which ne
IAN speak the Syriac or Coptfc languages
without ever having had minutes in
struction therein; or that he can auto
suggest himself into the ability to burst
'orth miracUiously into grand opera meio-
lies or play on the concert either. or per-
form abstruse feats in higher mathe-
natics. or cure himself or housemaids
knee or cold feet. or get over the habit
Of nagging his wife or kicking the cat;
Or performing any others of those Won
srous feats that. by extremists In the
au,o-suggssting line, have been claimed
can be done.
But the hereof writer can and will go
On record as to one little auto-sleep per-
Torrance, personally conducted. which
nas all of the authenticity of an individ-
Ial experience
IL concerns the matter of sleep
Sleep had run away from the hereof for
several nights in succession. There SEEM
I'd no very reasonable reason why sleep
should have done any such meas1y
Of found that the scampering away of
yleep after three OF four nights of IL.
was distinctly annexing his Angora and
corralnng his chamois and doing sundry
and divers other undesirable things.
-
The hereof, being DESTROYS Of lodging
all suggestions as TO the various forms Of
sope sieep-producers that were suggested
10 him by friends, tried, as he tossed
about on the wakeful hay. to WOO the
rAp hx ted
mental methods, of which he had heard.
He tried the counting gag first lie
counted UP to /, Is9. and then. far from
feeling sleepy. he felt like giving one wild
Apachesque screech and going right
through the third-stOry window, taking
sash and all with him.
Then lie tried that little scheme of
counting sheep going over fence or
turnstile or something.
1t didn't work out. the sheep stun. None
whatever.
He counted up about 973 sheep making
their foolish little anbles over the OBJ
stAcle, and then the sheep began to run
out on him. as il were: they began to
perform strange and uncanny antics. and
the worst of IL was there seemed no way
in the world to stop EN-. They'd run
right smack at the obstacle and butt their
heads into II. and they'd butt so hard that
toey q KNOCK tne1r Ioolish brains out and
bound back and lie there the frozen
ground in inert. messy masses. or they'd
take off for the jump about thirty feet
before reaching the obstacle and they'd
jump way up over the tallest barns and
other buildings. and finally a whole passed.
Of EN- jumped over the top of the Wash
1ngton Monument. which somehow sneak
ed into the picture. and then, after that
mighty and perilouS jump why, the
sheep nd just rain down from the sky
and hit the hard. wintry sod with sicken-
ing thuds, and by this time the hereof
was SO keen to see daylight or gaslight
or something that he had to bound right
out OF the shucks and light the lights all
over the place. thereby disturbing his
spouse. and he was Obliged to light a pipe
and read Buckles History of Civilization
upside down for three or four hours or
until the grisly dawn came CRAVING out
Of the non-orange east.
All or most Of the other little mental
0aao-0roducinE schemes did the hereof