How To Put The Subconscious Mind To Work
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Generally speaking there are four kinds of affirmations, namely:

1st.--Positive,

2nd.--Negative,

3rd.--Semi-negative, or Semi-positive,

4th.--Post-positive and Post-negative.

Inasmuch as we have offered in this series different methods and ideas of healing, this policy will be followed in the affirmations.

The old way of negation, denying things as they are, including sickness, poverty and diseases, has healed thousands, but a quicker, surer, more reasonable and a purely scientific way is to ac- knowledge that the sickness is in the body but to assert the real spirit is not and never could be sick, for this spirit is God. We, however, are

'For the way in which this healing takes place see Practical Psychology and Sex Life. Vol. Ill of this series presenting in this work various methods of healing and are not emphasizing absolute denial. Inasmuch as that belongs to the first stage of mental healing, dating back to the last half of the nineteenth century, such a bold assertion as the following, taken from "Divine Healing" is emphatic if not elegant, but it also is unreasonable and represents an archaic method. I quote verbatim: "Here is one, for example, who is troubled with the belief of a severe headache. What is that so-called headache! Nothing but a lie! It is not true." The author of this, teaches emphatically that you must deny everything that you do not want. Such teaching for people who have come into a higher consciousness of mixing reason with our thought needs no comment.

As a rule, the most effective way to achieve a healing is to take an antidote--a counter suggestion, affirmation--to that which has produced our sickness, leaving out the denial or negative part of the affirmation. In most cases I say this is more effective. Yet there are certain types of people and certain ailments which may be more readily eliminated and corrected if we take an affirmation semi-negative. For instance, for a cold, which is recognized to be one of the hardest things over which the ordinary newcomer into mental science faith has to demonstrate.

A person may so charge the subconscious mind with this affirmation "I am well, whole and complete" that the cold will never come but there may be other types, and I have known them in my classes, who have taken the following semi- negative affirmation and with it healed themselves from colds. '' My subconscious mind I desire and command you to rid my system of colds forever and forever" or, "my subconscious mind I desire and command you to eliminate from the organs of my body the thought of colds. I am perfect."

While the most effective is the positive antidote--the constructive opposite thought or counter suggestion--yet the wise patient or practitioner will be willing and ready to apply any method which will bring about a result. So, if a person is of the opinion that he or she needs a semi-negative affirmation, as per the illustration of cold above, do not hesitate to try this formula given.

Or take as another illustration memory. Suppose a person has poor memory. The positive suggestion would be, "You have perfect memory. You are life. You are vitality; you are strength. You are a part of universal intelligence and all mind is memory. You are a part of universal mind and memory and are therefore all mind and have perfect memory."

But with other individuals, it will be found helpful to give such a thought as, "He is freed from forgetting or free from whatever malady he may have." Then there are teachers who believe that all treatment should be specific in designating the symptom which should disappear and the harmony that should come in its place. For instance, one has heart trouble. He talks to his subconscious mind in this fashion, "My subconscious mind, 1 desire and command you to relieve the strain on my heart and make my heart function normally day and night."

This is a semi-negative suggestion. It brings up into the consciousness of the individual the fact that he has trouble with his heart, yet this method is used with many, many people very successfully. You see this book is trying to point the reader to the idea that there are many angles to truth and many ways to operate the laws of health, success and happiness.

The more positive thought probably is such an antidote as this, which does not mention to the consciousness any thing about the heart's irregularity, to-wit: "My subconscious mind, I desire and command you to make all of the organs of my chest well, perfect, harmonious and whole."

Suppose we are having trouble with digestion or assimilation. This will serve as an example of one way to make semi-positive affirmations. It is one used by Dr. A. A. Lindsay.

Hare no fear or thought about food and you will find that every meal will be digested properly and you will want three good meals daily and regularly. Your stomach will perform its offices in secreting the right fluids to treat the food--its muscular and nervous activities will be normal. The liver will perform its appointments naturally, and the intestinal functions will be carried on successfully. The assimilation of your food will be perfect; every cell shall take from your food the elements needed. The irritation of the skin, showing a lack of elimination, will disappear. Improvement in every direction shall continue from this moment until you are perfectly well in all respects.

This same kind of a treatment can be used to break bad habits.

Every healer must use the power of the spirit at his own level of consciousness. That is why this series is of such great service to man. It offers the many and different ways of healing so that each healer and each one to be healed may attract to him and use every means best needed in his present state of consciousness.

So, we say that the semi-negative will demonstrate its value as illustrated in the affirmation taken for a cold or heart trouble. On the other hand there are those who will be healed by making a direct denial as has been practiced by some in denying sickness, denying matter, denying mistakes or failures, denying sin, in fact, denying most everything except the universal spirit.

Christ, however never used denials. He used the positive, "I am," and "I will," "Be thou clean," "Thy faith hath made thee whole," "Rise, take up thy bed and walk," "Go and sin no more," "Take heed," etc., etc.

According to the measure of our own positiveness do we open the channel for the cosmic forces to flow through us, and according to the faith of the patient does he open the channel for the healing forces to flow into and through him it matters not what method is used so long as this faith is aroused.

While we suggest that the individual healer and patient use the semi-negative denial, the actual denial, or the positive, according to his or her plane of consciousness, we believe that most people will be more successful with the positive.

If you can get results by negative methods or semi-negative methods, use those methods. Some people do.

Oliver C. Sabin uses them successfully. While we do not agree with him entirely, yet his explanation of his procedure as given below may help those who elect to use his method.

We have had two cases where the fever had run two or three weeks, and with all the work that we could do we could not heal before four or five weeks. The universal thought around the patients was that the fevers had to run their course. We could keep them out of delirium, we could keep them comfortable, but to get them out of the hospital was impossible because of this universal thought. But if you can apply the Truth absolutely and perfectly against any kind of error you absolutely and perfectly destroy the error; you annihilate it.

For instance, here is a dark room, very dark. You think that darkness is real. I turn one of these electric buttons. What is the result? The light comes out, the darkness is annihilated. It did not go anywhere; it was nothing; it was simply the absence of light. So with error of any kind or character. It is the absence of Truth. Let the Truth be demonstrated that the perfect child of God cannot be sick and is not sick, that it is impossible for it to be sick--let that Truth be demonstrated and all the so-called errors in the world are gone. That is the thought that heals the sick.

Let me illustrate further: Here comes a messenger boy with a telegram for some one in this audience. It says that some friend has been injured and the person is asked to go immediately. We will suppose further that the telegram is false, came here through a misapprehension. What is the effect of that telegram upon this person before me? It strikes what we call the mind first, and instantaneously goes down through the body, and the body becomes distracted because of that story.

Suppose, before the person has time to leave the room, here comes another telegram stating that the first telegram was based upon misinformation, and that it was somebody else who was hurt. What is the effect of that second telegram? It annihilates the first one. Do you not see that it annihilates the first? The first statement was a lie; it never had an existence. Why? Because the person alleged to have been hurt never was touched; it could not be the Truth. Then the last one simply annihilates the first one, because the last one was the truth. Whenever the truth comes in contact with any kind of error it destroys that error.

Elizabeth Towne says:

I used to quickly heal myself of the blues, which often possessed me as I waked in the morning--if I forgot to go to sleep with a cheerful mind. When I waked "blue" I gave myself a few vigorous denials and affirmations--"I am not blue--I am full of soul-shine!"' I would say; and then put on a smile and go quietly about my work. Next time I thought about it I found myself vibrating with the shine-statement.

Such worked for her, it may work for you. Use the method best suited to your belief and temperament.

Other schools of metaphysical or religious healers treat the patient by impressing upon his mind the fact that God being perfect, good and loving could not be guilty of creating evil, pain or disease, and that such things are non- existent in the "Divine Mind," and are merely illusions, errors or false claims of the "mortal mind," or "carnal mind," of the patient; therefore, if the patient will deny their reality, and will admit as existent only such things as are held in the Divine Mind, i. e., the GOOD things, then the evil things, being merely illusions and untruths, must of necessity fade away and disappear and perfect health will result.

Others treat their patients by impressing upon their minds the idea that sickness and disease is either the world or "the devil," or of the "principle of evil," the latter being described as "the negation of truth," and similar terms; and that therefore fixing the mind and faith upon the "principle of Good," or God, must result in driving away the evil conditions. Others hold that disembodied spirits are aiding in the cure. There are thousands of variations rung on the chimes of metaphysical or religious suggestions in the cults. And they all make some cures, remember--in spite of their theories rather than because of them.

If wisely used the Semi-Denial is, in some instances, a powerful method for healing but a dangerous one if wrongly used. For some people to deny sickness is the best way of quickly loosening the hold of the inharmonious claim, but this denial must be followed by a strong positive affirmation.

In my classes I teach this semi-denial method, as one method of healing but I am always careful to insist that my students and patients follow the denial with the strongest positive affirmation possible.

Jesus gives us a good example of the denial method. When he was accused of doing the works of Beelzebub and of possessing a devil he said, "I have not a devil but I honor my Father, and ye do dishonor Me.'' When St. Paul was accused before the king of being mad he said: "I am not mad, most noble Festus; (notice the strong affirmation following) but speak forth the words of truth and soberness."

The following affirmations for health will give the reader an idea of what we mean by denial being followed by the positive: For instance, HEADACHE--"My head is aching less and less, it is going, going, going." (Notice the positive which follows.) "I am perfect, whole and harmonious."

ASTHMA--"My subconscious mind I desire and command you to drive my asthma away so that it shall never return (note the positive which follows.) I am harmonious in body, mind and spirit.''

COLD--"My subconscious mind I desire and command you to make it impossible for a cold ever to enter my system (note the positive which follows). Every organ of my body is functioning normally. I am healthful, strong, and harmonious."

HEART TROUBLE--" My subconscious mind I desire and command you to make my heart function naturally, normally and rightly, beating in natural rhythmic pulsation’s, sending the blood to every atom of my being, cleansing, purifying and bringing it back into the lungs with ease, with power, and poise." (Note the positive which follows :) "My subconscious mind I desire and command you to make all of the organs in my chest to the reason we prefix "my subconscious mind" to the state-and torso function in their normal capacity and with perfect action in every particular."

Indeed, any negative statement carries a wrong suggestion. Therefore, denial is a harmful form of suggestion unless it is immediately followed by a strong, positive and constructive affirmation.

So if you do use negative suggestion, I think Thomas Parker Boyd's method is best, namely: to follow the negative by positive suggestion, as he explains in "The Finger of God."

Be perfectly still, physically, then mentally. Next, use a process of denial. Say to yourself, "In heaven there is no pain; there is no sickness; there is no lack; there is no fear; there is no weakness." Now follow it with the positive affirmation, "In harmony or Heaven there is perfect being; in Heaven there is perfect health; in Heaven there is perfect life; in Heaven there is perfect power; in Heaven there is perfect harmony." Then let your mind rest upon the fact that Heaven is the Inner Kingdom.

Scientific understanding unlocks for us the secrets of the Kingdom, for here, especially, is the great law of action and reaction operative. Every thought we hold, be it good or bad, reacts upon us of its kind. The law is universal. The thought of health steadily held reacts upon its holder. The thought of lack and want reacts as a state of poverty.

C. Franklin Leavitt, commenting upon this same side of affirmations in "Are You YOU?" says:

Many ask when denials should be used. Now remember, it is never the words which influence the subconscious. It is the IDEA conveyed. Some denials are, in effect, affirmations. The so-called denial, "I am NOT sick! I am NOT all in.' I am NOT unhappy!" given with a certain defiance and spirit, certainly suggests anything but weakness--rather, it suggests determination, energy, fighting spirit. On the other hand, an affirmation (in words) of strength, can carry a suggestion of weakness. Suppose you have suffered from insomnia for a long time. It is highly probable that each time you affirm, "Tonight and ever after I shall sleep soundly and well," that through the force of association of ideas, you will THINK of not sleep, but sleeping! What is to be done?

Why, this-- simply affirm once or twice in the morning and in the evening, quietly, almost with indifference, "I shall, of course, always sleep well, from now on, because there is no good reason why I should not do so. I expect to sleep." Then forget it! A healthy person doesn't think about whether he will sleep or not. Act like a healthy person and the suggestion of health will be given to the sub- conscious, and acted upon. Besides such specialized forms of thinking as affirmations and visualization, you should reorganize your general thinking--in your consideration of any matter adopting a mental attitude of serenity, courage and optimism.

But generally speaking, a positive, a constructive statement is the best vehicle of suggestion, because it goes directly to the point. It is like an arrow aimed at a target, it shoots in the direction it is sent. A negative suggestion carries a wrong idea.

The subconscious mind must overcome the negative before it can become positive.

Elizabeth Severn says:

The more important mode, however, is one of Direct Suggestion. This is really the distinguishing feature and crux of the whole system. It is indispensable as a means of reaching the subconsciousness, and through it is supplied that force of will and initial impulse which all sick people lack in regard to themselves.

Some healers use suggestions made with reference to the disappearance of disease symptoms by confidently asserting that the disease will dis- appear as we have shown in the illustration of cold and heart trouble above.

When we deny a pain, either by "persuasion," declaration, or affirmation, it takes a much longer time for the demonstration because the very denial is a contradiction. Coue has met this situation by using the method "It is going, it is going, it is going." He has his patients say this so fast and so often that they haven't time to think of anything else. This is hopeful, it inspires the subject with confidence and is not contradicted by actual feelings and common sense.

This method would be, for instance, if you are suffering from headache, to affirm, either to yourself or to your patient that it will disappear. If it is self-healing, isolate yourself as much as possible, close your eyes, and without any effort whatever, repeat the phrase in an audible tone, moving your lips, "It is going, it is going, it is going," over as long as it may be necessary. The pain will subside, and as its passing becomes evident, conclude your phrase, "It is going, it is going, it is going," with an emphatic, "It is gone, it is gone, it is gone."

After the patient has been seated and made comfortable in a semi-reclining position, relaxed in mind and body, the healer may or may not make passes about the head or body of the patient while he speaks in a monotone to the effect that the headache, for instance, is about to cease, that it is already ceasing, that it is gone. During this time the patient will use his own phrases in the reiteration of the declaration that the head is better, that there is complete harmony among all of the organs of the body, that the glands, pores, secretions and functioning of all bodily organs are normal, restful, quiet and natural.

The healer talks directly to the subconscious as though it were a separate and distinct entity. The early practitioners, pursued a method which is still used by many healers employing negative or partially negative suggestions. They would for instance, treat headache in some such way as this: A strong suggestion that the headache is about to cease is made and repeated in various ways a number of times. Then a strong suggestion that it is already ceasing follows, the suggestion being repeated in various ways for some time and then finally the word given that it has ceased. The suggestion should be made in the form of spoken words, in something of a mono- tone, yet very decisively and positively until the desired effect is produced. When the pain has left, a strong declaration should be boldly made that the pain has entirely ceased. "If any remnants of the pain are felt, the fact should be ignored and the suggestion proceeded in, that it has ceased. This should be followed by the declaration that there will be no return of the symptoms and this should be made with an air, tone and feeling of perfect confidence."

In other words, it has been found that any positive suggestion made when the mind is in a receptive state is likely to be carried into execution more readily.

The negative or semi-positive affirmation also gets there but it is a longer, more roundabout way.

And remember, the denial method should al- ways be followed by the positive.

H. W. Dresser is right when he says:

"Rational mind cure thrives, not by denial but by understanding; it urges both the sick and the therapeutist to make sure that all the facts are taken into account."

We present the following as an illustration of the positive method, and contrast it with the negative:

Suppose one says: "I am not timid," and repeats over and over, "I am not timid." At the beginning the more frequently he says "I am not timid," the more he brings timidity up to the threshold of consciousness so that eventually he may feel more timid than before. On the other hand, if he were to take the affirmation "I am strong, courageous, powerful and harmonious," he will feel wholesome vibrations immediately.

Of course, if he continues to deny his timidity long enough, with persistence enough and will not give up, he is bound to change the current of his thinking.

The timidity, however, is more quickly over- come by taking the antidote for timidity which is an affirmation just the opposite to such as mentioned above, viz., "courage, strength, power, harmony.''

So, if one wants to overcome the habit of poverty he will come into the fruitful field of abundance much more quickly by asserting such a thought as this "The spirit of good goes before me, making easy and prosperous all my way," than by denying poverty in words such as "I am not poor, I am not poverty stricken, I have no lack."

The positive thought of prosperity and plenty displaces the poverty thought of lack and limitation more quickly than by denying poverty and limitation, just as failure gives way more quickly to the persistent thought of success than by asserting "I am not a failure."

We believe more in the positive affirmation than in the negative or semi-negative. Nevertheless, use that which helps you the most.

A post-positive or a post-negative affirmation demonstration may be well illustrated in the experience of the hypnotic subject who is told that at a certain time tomorrow, or in the future, he is going to perform a certain act and does perform it at the time stated--post suggestion.

"Post" means the action takes place after the prediction and in the future. So if one holds a thought for healing diseases, poverty or unhappiness, the healing may not take place immediately but will at some time in the future.

For instance, hay fever. You may treat a person for hay fever weeks or months before the periodicity is due, or after the seizure has taken place and suggestions again may be given so that it will not return at the next cycle of recurrence.

In fact, most of our demonstrations are post, or effected in the future. This must be borne in mind or your demonstration may never be accomplished. Remember that most things take time, any kind of a demonstration must have time, and if you do not become a new creature overnight, a millionaire in a week, or happy as a lark in a fortnight, it is the way of life. It takes time to break old habits and make new ones, but if you have suggested well and rightly to yourself, as we have outlined in this volume and will allow the element of time to effect a healing, you may expect to have it. Your healing or whatever you are endeavoring to demonstrate will come. Maybe not at once, but remember that whatever method you may use to effect your demonstration, that demonstration will be accomplished if not at once then in the future--post-healing.