es, words are nothing--ideas are everything.

If you wish to treat yourself psychically for some physical disorder, or
if you wish to do good to others in the same way, you have but to put into
operation the general principles of psychic influence herein described.
That is to say, you must first be filled with the strong desire and wish
to make the cure; then you must make a strong mental image of the desired
result, as actually present. (Do not think of it as "going to be;" instead
say and think that it "is now!"); then concentrate the attention firmly
and positively upon the idea. You may aid yourself and others by
affirmations or auto-suggestions (words creating desired ideas and mental
pictures) if you wish--you may get better results in this way. In this
connection, let me remind you that the healing work in many cases consists
largely in placing proper mental pictures in the mind of the patient,
thereby displacing improper and harmful mental pictures of disease, etc.,
which have been given lodgment there before. Many persons are sick because
of improper and harmful mental pictures that they have allowed to be
placed there by the suggestions of others. Fear and dread of disease often
acts to bring about the feared condition, for reasons that you can readily
see.

And, now, finally for the work of "absent healing" by psychic influence. I
can state this to you very simply; it is this: take what I have just told
you regarding personal treatments, and combine it with what I have told
you in previous lessons about "long distance psychic influence"--then you
will have the whole thing. Here is a sample of an effective distant
treatment; or "absent treatment," to use the popular term--it may be
varied and enlarged up to fit individual cases:

Sit quietly in your own room, inducing a calm, peaceful mental attitude
and state. Then (in the way already told you in this book) make a mental
picture of the patient as sitting opposite to you, or lying down in front
of you. If you have never seen the patient, make simply a mental image of
a man, or a woman, as the case may be, and think of the figure as being
the patient. The best practitioners of distant psychic healing produce
such a strong mental image of the patient that they can often actually
"feel" his or her presence. (This of course is the result of a simple
form of clairvoyance.) Then make a strong mental picture of the condition
that you wish to induce in the patient--t