im to turn his eyes away from yours for a
single moment. If he is able to unclasp his hands, do not think it is
your own fault, it is the subject's, he has not properly thought: "I
cannot". Assure him firmly of this, and begin the experiment again.

Always use a tone of command which suffers no disobedience. I do
not mean that it is necessary to raise your voice; on the contrary it is
preferable to employ the ordinary pitch, but stress every word in a
dry and imperative tone.

When these experiments have been successful, all the others succeed
equally well and can be easily obtained by carrying out to the letter
the instructions given above.

Some subjects are very sensitive, and it is easy to recognize them by
the fact that the contraction of their fingers and limbs is easily
produced. After two or three successful experiments, it is no longer
necessary to say to them: "Think this", or "think that"; You need
only, for example, say to them simply--but in the imperative tone
employed by all good suggestionists--"Close your hands; now you
cannot open them". "Shut your eyes; now you cannot open them,"
and the subject finds it absolutely impossible to open the hands or
the eyes in spite of all his efforts. Tell him in a few moments: "You
can do it now," and the de-contraction takes place instantaneously.

These experiments can be varied to infinity. Here are a few more:
Make the subject join his hands, and suggest that they are welded
together; make him put his hand on the table, and suggest that it is
stuck to it; tell him that he is fixed to his chair and cannot rise; make
him rise, and tell him he cannot walk; put a penholder on the table
and tell him that it weighs a hundredweight, and that he cannot lift it,
etc., etc.

In all these experiments, I cannot repeat too often, it is not
_suggestion_ properly so-called which produces the phenomena, but
the _autosuggestion_ which is consecutive to the suggestion of the
operator.

METHOD OF PROCEDURE IN CURATIVE SUGGESTION

When the subject has passed through the preceding experiments and
has understood them, he is ripe for curative suggestion. He is like a
cultivated field in which the seed can germinate and develop,
whereas before it was but rough earth in which it would have
perished.

Whatever ailment the subject suffers from, whether it is physical or
mental, it is important to proceed always in the same way, and to use
the same words with a few variations ac