Suggestibility is a characteristic of human beings. Without it social life would be impossible. Everyone is naturally suggestible. We should never think or do anything from sheer hesitation, if we were to wait until each reason for our thoughts or deeds had to be proved. Everyone of us must believe in things that he cannot demonstrate; he accepts them in good faith. It is true that some people boast that they only believe that which their senses demonstrate; but the senses often deceive us by false perceptions. We are constantly taken in, and especially so when we are in a state of expectancy. Thus, even, renowned scientific men, used to mathematical accuracy, have seen under the microscope what they are working for, and what was subsequently proved by others could not have been there.

Human suggestibility enters into every act of life, colours all our sensations with the most varied tints, leads our judgment astray, and creates those continual illusions against which we have so much trouble to defend ourselves, even when we exert all the strength of our reason.

We pretend to be intelligent beings; nevertheless, if we want frankly to examine our conscience, we shall find that it is difficult always to see clearly, and that daily we are the victims of unreasonable suggestion. As soon as we leave the firm ground of mathematics, we experience an incredible difficulty in resisting suggestion. When we formulate an opinion, or when we allow ourselves to be persuaded, it is very rare that logic is the only cause. Our feelings, affections, esteem, the awe and fear which those who are talking to us inspire in us, surreptitously prepare the paths of our understanding, and our reason is often taken in a trap. Our sensibility intervenes, our feelings and our secret desires mingle with the cold conception of reason, and, without being conscious of it, we are led into error. We let ourselves be captivated by a superficial eloquence, by the charm of language, and we yield at the first beck of attraction. Somebody's optimistic reflection can give us strength, and, on the other hand, his ill-humour can take away all our enthusiasm and energy.

Men who pride themselves on their power of resisting external influences are often the most suggestible in every other department of life, except that in which they resolutely determine to be unlike other people. Hence it is not uncommon to find amongst genuine scientific men the most credulous spiritualists.

Even the most resolute characters are influenced by suggestion. It only requires that the suggestion should be made artfully. The idea need only be introduced discreetly and gradually in order to succeed. By indirect suggestion the subject has no consciousness that his views are being modified. If a man tells another that Mr. So-and-so, in whom he has complete confidence, is a cheat, the suggestion will be resented; but if he gradually raises a doubt in his friend's mind, the former trust is likely to be shaken. Besides, such new idea introduced almost unnoticed is likely to lie latent for a period, and when it does assert itself, it will appear to the subject to have originated with himself.

We are all open to suggestions, only some are more so. Some persons are disposed to allow themselves very easily to be influenced by others. On the other hand, we meet with people who know how to subject others irresistibly to their influence. They often abuse their gift if they are unscrupulous.

Some masters can give their orders and directions, and see their employes flying to fulfil them; others can shout themselves hoarse, and even use the whip, and still they are disobeyed. Again, some servants and employes are so easily influenced that they serve almost any master well, while others cannot keep their position more than twenty-four hours in any one place.

The attachment of social life depends to a very great extent on the degree of power of making and receiving suggestions, and the firmest friends and happiest couples in life are frequently those who are in this respect well matched.

Many a household is the sense of perpetual storm because a wife has not learned, by a thousand experiences, that to bring to bear a given tone and temper on her husband is as certain to produce an explosion as would be the application of a match to a barrel of gunpowder. That she has an influence at command which, when turned upon his nature, will produce a very different result, is evident from the fact that he once fell in love with her. To know the characters we are in daily contact with, and the influence which draws out their best and represses their worst, is to have mastered the chemistry of domestic bliss.

A message conveying a sudden joy or a great misfortune produces often extraordinary effects beyond all bounds of reason, and the measure of pleasure we get from life—altogether—depends more on our suggestibility than on any other factor. Some people can be happy even in misery, and millionaires have been known to commit suicide because of the loss of a comparatively small fortune, often only from fear of loss and not actual loss. Books are often bought because of their suggestive titles; fashionable clothes are worn because of the suggestion of wealth and respectability. Certain foods, the habit of open or closed windows, and other idiosyncrasies and hobbies often create the pleasures of comfort, or displeasures and discomfort, not because of their actual effects, but by suggestion. The mere suspicion suffices to set up the greatest agony.

Moreover, suggestion lies at the bottom of all forms of moral and religious teaching. It is, in fact, the basis of education. It has been practiced on all of us, sometimes reinforced by the application of more or less violent bodily stimuli, which helps to impress the suggestion more deeply on our minds.

That suggestion is a wonderfully delicate and many-sided re-agent is shown by the fact that it can influence and modify all the characteristics of the mind down to the finest variations of logic, ethics and aesthetics.

One of the best examples of the effect of suggestion to the extent of its becoming an obsession is that of a person who has fallen in love. It is as powerful in its mental and bodily effects as hypnotism.

The man or woman who caused this state of mind exercises a strange fascination over the victim, resulting in complete blindness to the attractions of all other persons. There exists "a predilection for the object of his or her fascination, which object to any impartial observer does not materially differ from many others of the same class." Indeed, there is often complete blindness to both physical and mental defects of the object of adoration. He or she feels as if under a charm or spell, and can only be happy when the object of predilection is by the side. The world is divided in two for lovers: (1) The place where he or she is, and (2) the place where he or she is not. The latter is quite uninteresting. Girls previously careless of their persons will become particular about their dress and appearance: the hair that never looked tidy will be combed to represent the most fashionable coiffure, and even the professional manicure may be engaged to cause the hands to look neat and to feel soft. Men, on the other hand, feel stirred, and their emotional and poetical faculties so powerfully stimulated that many of them attempt poetry, whom nothing else could have induced to "drop into verse." They may change the habits of a lifetime, break with their own relations, dismiss their most faithful servants, ruin themselves financially, give up their club and smoking, and may even change their politics and religion. Simultaneously with these mental changes there are certain physical symptoms. In the presence of the object of predilection, a gentle languor pervades the frame; the respiration becomes sighing; the blood rushes to the head, causing blushing of the countenance. Accompanying this is a great confusion of thought and language, particularly in novices, and when very acute there may be a loss of appetite and insomnia. There is usually a disposition to violent palpitation of the heart, and a sensation at times as if the heart has been displaced upwards into the larynx. Persons in love become highly sensitive to each other's feelings. The slightest inattention, or a greeting less warm than usual, will cause serious agitation, worry and misery, lasting for hours or even days. They become moody and avoid society, and if the neglect persists they grow pale and thin, morbid thoughts of self-destruction may arise, and sometimes homicidal impulses at the sight of a rival have been known to occur. On the other hand, a contact of the hands, and more so of the lips or cheeks, though the action last but a second, may cause symptoms of exaltation and happy illusions of most enduring character.

There is no hypnotist who can produce such complex results all at once, as is the case in a person who has "fallen in love."

There are certain classes of persons whose intellectual labours are characterized by suggestibility in a very marked degree. Poets and artists are the most conspicuous examples.

An artist's power depends on how much of this inner nature he can represent in his picture or statuary to impress the observer. His greatness depends to some extent on his powers to create particular feelings in those who contemplate his work.

Different people look at the work of an artist. It will convey a different suggestion to all of them, and even to a single person at different times the message suggested may be different according to the mood he happens to be in. "We walk through a city and observe its buildings. What are they? To some they suggest so much stone and lime, iron and timber. To others these structures are embodied ideas, they are penetrated with mind, and it is the soul out of the material that acts on their subconscious mind.

The same with the human body. We know how the invisible things of a man's character write themselves upon his features; how out of a life devoted to high purposes there come subtle beauties of form and expression which suggest the nobleness within; and how, on the other hand, the inward corruption of an ignoble soul puts its disfiguring mark on eye and brow and lip, and distorts every facial line. This is one of nature's broad suggestions, which only a fool will neglect.

Of all the works of art, none act so powerfully on our emotions as the works of musical genius. Musical sounds have a mysterious language of their own, which human beings and even some animals intuitively understand, and to which they immediately respond. Apart from the ordinary effects of music, we have actual examples of suggestion in the stirring military band that leads soldiers to fight bravely, when their hearts are, perhaps, full of fear and their thoughts are with the loved ones at home. We have the powerful organ of the church that moves the man, whose belief has, perhaps, been severely shaken, to pray for forgiveness for his sins. When no preacher could bend his spirit, sacred music resounding in the lofty, dimly-illuminated cathedral will carry his mind to spiritual heights.

When we think of what music contains and what it suggests, we do not wonder that Plato, the great prophet of the ideal, should have put it so high as an element of education and as an inspirer of virtue.

What is true of the artist is also true of the writer. What can flatter an author more than to hear that his novel made men and women laugh and weep, or was effective in creating good morals or wicked conduct. After the publication of Goethe's Sorrows of Werther, there was a perfect epidemic of suicides in Germany.

And what is the object of the dramatist and actor but to suggest certain thoughts and feelings to the audience, to make them think, laugh, or cry, and although the transferred emotion may be suppressed and is usually not lasting, with a few it is sometimes strong enough to prevent their enjoying their supper and sleep, that night.

Even in business suggestion plays an important role. The best salesman is he who can dispose of goods that the purchaser has no intention to buy—at least, not at the price asked. The best buyer is he who can make a man part with his goods at a figure which he regrets as soon as he leaves his presence. For that purpose it is necessary not only to have the power of suggestion, but in order to make that power effective an intimate knowledge, intuitive or acquired, of human character is needed. A successful salesman must first gain the attention, then arouse interest, then awaken desire, ' then the sale may be concluded.

The art of advertising depends almost entirely on its power of suggestion. The advertiser may make a simple bold assertion, and repeat it daily, thus suggesting by repetition that the statement is a fact. Or

else he may endeavour to catch the sceptic, the man or woman who craves for reason, and thereupon he supplies it. Thus a manufacturer of shoe-blacking advises us to buy his stuff because

1. It is the best;

2. It is the cheapest;

3. It is the blackest;

4. It lasts longest;

5. It is most easily applied; and

6. Because it encourages home industry.

All excellent and good reasons for supporting the manufacturer in his noble and philanthropic mission of accumulating a large fortune.

In politics, as in daily life, people follow a leader, sometimes against their real interests and convictions. Think of the extraordinary influence of a strong personality like Napoleon, Bismarck, or say—Gladstone. We have no modern statesman to exercise such a power over his followers. But if there is no leader in that sense, party politics have still the same power of acting by suggestion. They give each other bad names in the hope that the voter may be influenced by them. A few cleverly-chosen words may suggest to a whole mass of people a political truth or untruth—people not stopping to enquire the reason, but following the suggestion like a flock of sheep.

The voter as he reads his newspaper may adopt by suggestion the words which are made habitual by repetition every morning, conveying not only political opinions, but whole trains of political arguments.

The tactics of election-politics also depends on the principle of suggestion. The candidate is advised to "show himself" continually, to distribute his portrait periodically, to give away prizes, to "say a few words" at the end of other people's speeches—all under circumstances which offer little or no opportunity for the formation of a reasoned opinion of his merits, but many opportunities for the rise of a purely instinctive [affection among those present by mere suggestion.

"When a new candidate on his first appearance smiles at his constituents exactly as if he were an old friend, not only does he appeal to an ancient and immediate instinct of human affection, but he produces at the same time a shadowy belief that he is an old friend; and his agent may even imply this, provided that he says nothing definite enough to arouse critical and rational attention. By the end of the meeting one can safely go as far as to call for three cheers for 'good old Jones.' " (Graham Wallas.)

Let any man sit down and sanely consider the performances of the average man of the rank and file of either of the political parties during a campaign. See how men are swayed by emotional appeals to their prejudices and partly spirit. See how they allow themselves to be blinded by glittering promises and statements, without a shred of reasonable argument, until they become fanatics. Their emotions are skilfully played upon by the leaders and speakers, and the current of personal magnetism and suggestion spreads over the body of the party until they become a mob possessed of certain fixed ideas that have taken possession of them.

A monarchy is usually more successful than a republic, in some countries at all events, because it is more suggestive. The republic, too, relies on certain suggested ideas, such as "justice," "freedom," "equality."

Just as in the Middle Ages there arose epidemics of hysteria, so it sometimes happens that a whole country has lost its political judgment by some powerful suggestion that blows like a wind of folly over the land. The French Revolution is an example.

History, and more particularly the history of civilisation, affords striking instances of the mighty effect of suggestion. Whether we are dealing with social, religious, or political events, or with artistic tendencies and scientific currents of thought, the suggestibility of crowds throws light on many phenomena.

It is feeling that sways a gathering of people, not reason. Mobs composed of a number of individuals will commit acts that no one man of the lot would think of perpetrating singly or individually. These whirlpools of emotional excitement, of whatever kind, are strengthened by the constantly repeated suggestions of those participating in it, which with the constantly growing volume of mental energy being thrown forth serves to add fuel to the fire.

That is how "enthusiasm" is infectious; that is why a theatrical performance is enjoyed more when the house is filled than when only half its seating capacity is used.

Suggestion is the cause of the movements and actions of crowds. A word or a cry may seize a whole mass of people in its suggestive grasp, so that it is carried away to acts of destruction like a wild and will-less herd.

A voice in a dense moving crowd will not attract attention. A person is carried away by the throng against his will. But let the crowd stand still and be quiet, that same voice may carry the people. It is the same law which will be explained later on under hypnotism and telepathy: a suggestion to be successful, the receiver must be in a passive, relaxed state. If the receiver is active, a suggestion gets no hold of him, his brain is too much occupied with its own ideas. So also the excited crowd will carry the individual but a passive crowd may be moved by a single voice.

One voice in a passive crowd and a thousand separate men and women, gathered promiscuously and knowing nothing of each other, have ceased to be individuals. They are blended for the time into a huge common consciousness, which laughs and cries, exults or despairs, as one single soul.

Just as a hypnotised person does not stop to enquire whether the suggestion has a basis of fact but acts upon it at once, so a passive crowd can be moved suddenly. Let a person call out in a theatre the word "Fire" and the crowd will not stop to see whether the place is actually burning, but the feeling of self-preservation is at once aroused, and the people rush for the doors.