Self Help
Yes, I am sure this is where I caught it, and, I am
just as sure that her enthusiasm was not a matter of accident. She
had trained herself to look for something in her prospective
purchaser's office, or his work, or his conversation, over which she
could express enthusiasm.
Remember, suggestion and enthusiasm go hand in hand!
I can remember, as though it were yesterday, the feeling that came
over me when that would-be salesman pushed that Saturday Evening
Post in front of me, as he remarked:
"You wouldn't subscribe for the Post to help me out, would you?"
His words were chilled, they were lifeless; they lacked enthusiasm; they registered an impression in my mind, but that impression was one of coldness. I wanted to see the man go out at the door at which he had come in.
Mind you, I am not naturally unsympathetic, but the tone of his voice, the look on his face, his general bearing suggested that he was there to ask a favor and not to offer one. Suggestion is one of the most subtle and powerful principles of psychology. You are making use of it in all that you do and say and think, but, unless you understand the difference between negative suggestion and positive suggestion, you may be using it in such a way that it is bringing you defeat instead of success.
Science has established the fact that through the negative use of suggestion life may be extinguished. Some years ago, in France, a criminal was condemned to death, but before the time for his execution an experiment was performed on him which conclusively proved that through the principle of suggestion death, could be produced.
The criminal was brought to the guillotine and his head
was placed under the knife, after he had been blindfolded. A heavy, sharp
edged plank was then dropped on his neck, producing a shock similar to that
of a sharp edged knife. Warm water was then gently poured on his neck and
allowed to trickle slowly down his spine, to imitate the flow of warm blood.
In seven minutes the doctors pronounced the man dead. His imagination, through the principle of suggestion, had actually turned the sharp edged plank into a guillotine blade and stopped his heart from beating.