Incidentally it must not be forgotten that the voluntary muscles of the eyes are almost incessantly used during waking hours, and not only are they the most important of the voluntary muscles, consuming a great quantity of energy during the course of the day, but also inhibition of the activity of the eyes is almost a sine qua non of suggestion. From the foregoing deductions I tried various experimental exercises and out of these developed the complete exercise, now taught to all my pupils, to which I have given the name “Decubitus.” Its results have been remarkable. More than ninety per cent of the pupils readily learn the knack of it and find not only that it produces the state needed for autosuggestion, but also that both body and mind, when tired, are rested and restored by it to a degree that seems amazing. For my own part I can say that fifteen minutes of rest in a deep decubitus, after six o’clock in the late afternoon, is sufficient to make me fresh and keen for the evening regardless of how strenuous my day has been.
The exercise is done in the following way:
A recumbent position is taken on couch, bed, or floor, with the head resting on a low pillow, arms and legs straight-the legs never crossed-the palms of the hands faced downward and resting beside the thighs. Lying this way, with the eyes closed, one should let the period of a minute or two pass during which the mind is directed upon the idea of what is to be undertaken, and by steadily directing the attention upon an auto suggestive image the matters which previously have been occupying the mind are gradually replaced with the purpose of the treatment. The eyes should be closed until the exercise is completed, as the shutting out of external images of sight assists in getting one’s attention inward. Thought is now directed to the muscles of the right leg, beginning at the ankle, and the leg is raised from four inches to eight inches without allowing the knee to bend. It is held in this position while one may count approximately ten seconds, the attention remaining fixed upon the ankle. Then very, very slowly, the leg should begin to be moved downward again-so slowly that it will be at least ten or fifteen seconds in reaching its original point of support. While this downward motion is being made the attention is concentrated in moving slowly along the muscles of the leg, thinking of them and trying to see them in the mind as under load, the imagination travelling upward along them to the hip. If one finds any difficulty in this moving of the attention upward along the muscles, the eyes should be opened and assist in the process by beginning at the ankle and progressively moving up along the leg to the hip, while the leg is moving slowly downward toward its point of support. Thus two things are happening simultaneously and should be so timed as to be completed at the same instant; the first is that the leg through a period of several seconds, while held straight out and rapidly becoming fatigued, is being voluntarily moved downward to a level; the second is that the attention having been concentrated at the lower extremity, is moving up-ward steadily along these muscles until it reaches their roots at the hip at the very instant they are ready to relax. No thought whatever is given to relaxation or to anything but the direction of the muscles and the attention. As the leg comes finally down to its level support, and the attention reaches the hip, the leg should be slightly pressed downward and then mentally released. To make this release thorough I always instruct pupils to let go with that whole side of the body and let their breath escape with a little sigh. Without the slightest pause the attention is instantly switched to concentration upon the left ankle, that leg now being raised, and the entire process repeated until the limb in turn has been released, with the attention at the hip joint. The attention is now instantly switched to the right wrist, and that arm in turn is raised to be put through the complete process, following the muscles slowly, very slowly, from wrist to shoulder, while the arm is descending. From the right shoulder, with the sigh of release, attention is turned immediately upon the left wrist, and the procedure carried out on that side. When doing the exercise with the arms, the hands should be palm downward and held definitely straight out, so that all of the muscles of arm and hand to the fingertips are in approximately a straight line. This is important and it must not be over- looked. As the left arm is pressed down and released, with attention finishing at the shoulder, the eyes, now open, are at once to be fixed lightly upon some spot on wall or ceiling at an angle which is comfortable and without strain, attention instantly moving from the left shoulder to that spot and concentrating there. The nature of the thing upon which the eyes rest is of no importance whatever, except that if there be some definite form or shape so that the eyes may play over the lines, it is rather valuable. When I speak of the eyes and the attention as being “fixed” upon this point I do not mean that there should be a stare or a mental effort. I mean that the eyes are to be kept lightly but definitely attentive to a spot approximating one foot in diameter, and if there are lines which they can occupy themselves in tracing, so much the better, as it makes the concentration very easy.(1) Answering here a question which my pupils ask, let me say that the purpose of this holding the eyes to one spot has nothing whatever to do with hypnotism. It is a management of the eye muscles on the same principle, and for exactly the same purpose, as the treatment of the muscles of the legs and arms. We are merely putting the muscles under load, with attention attached, and then at a given instant releasing them from the load and simultaneously detaching attention from them. The eyes after being kept lightly fixed, with the attention also fixed, upon the spot selected, for a period of perhaps half a minute, are then allowed to close, and the attention is instantly directed to the formation of an imaginative picture or idea of oneself mentally and physically as one wishes and hopes to be. If the exercise has been done correctly the body is in a state of deep rest and will remain so until attention is again directed to it. Some practice may be needed before a pupil learns the knack of progressively re- laxing each limb and moving the attention concentratedly along each new path, but the thing is easily learned if instructions are accurately followed. The mental process of forming the autosuggestion image must now completely occupy the attention. It is only fair to give warning that at first it will not do this. The attention will wander constantly from the idea and has to be recalled and redirected. It is only by training and practice that one acquires the ability to let attention completely merge with an imaginative picture, or idea, immediately after closing the eyes. However, so long as the attention does not wander back to eyes, arms, or legs, the entire body will remain in a state of external immobility and deep rest, such that one is almost unaware of it. If the reader wishes to experience a sense of extraordinary repose, let him do the decubitus exercise a few times until he has acquired the art of with- drawing the attention voluntarily from the muscles after being under load. Let him then lie down in a quiet room and do the exercise, and at the moment of closing his eyes let him surrender his entire attention to re-living, imaginatively, a particularly happy event of early life. As the pictures and ideas of the event become more and more vivid let him surrender deeply to their emotions of pleasure. After ten or fifteen minutes he may with a slight snap of the mind and muscles recall himself completely to attention, or he may merely draw attention again to the state his body is in, without moving any of the muscles. In either case he cannot help observing a feeling of extraordinary refreshment, calmness, and rest. It is particularly interesting, after eight or ten minutes of a decubitus, to bring the mind back from imagination to external attention without immediately moving any part of the body and observe the truly remarkable immobility and sense almost of detachment. It is as if the process of decubitus had short-circuited the voluntary nerve and muscle system to such an extent that a considerable part of their normal energy had been subtracted from them. Indeed, this subtraction of energy from the external muscles and external brain is probably exactly what occurs. Certainly it is my own experience, and that of my pupils, that when a little practice has made one proficient in the decubitus exercise there is an extraordinary increase in the vividness of imagination and the intensity with which auto suggestion images are visualized. There are certain details which I will touch on here, since experience has shown that it is sometimes important to know about them at the very outset because of the circumstances under which some pupils are obliged to do their autosuggestion treatment. For example, there is the question of whether a decubitus exercise can be done satisfactorily in bed, in spite of the interference with bed clothes in lifting arms and legs. It certainly can, for I myself do it every night after retiring. The covers should be kicked down a little so that the legs can be raised three or four inches. This is enough to establish the load on the muscles, and because of the additional weight of the covers I make the process a little shorter, letting each leg come to rest again after about six or seven seconds. The same holds true for the arms. The room being in darkness I hold my eyes lightly fixed upon an imaginative spot on wall or ceiling, and in my mind sketch there some simple design like a square, a circle, or a diamond, letting my eyes, in imagination, trace and retrace the lines over and over again for about half a minute before they close. Practice makes the exercise just as effective under these conditions as when lying on a couch without covers. Again, some pupils either because of having heavy legs, or because the abdominal muscles have not been properly exercised and are too soft to do their part in sustaining the weight, may find that maintaining either leg, held straight out without support, is too much of a strain. In this case the leg exercises must at first be done only for two or three seconds, under no circumstances forcing them to the point of any marked strain. The abdominal muscles will gradually recover their tone and this in itself alone is a definite gain. Another question is whether it makes any difference if there are changes of position after the exercise has been completed, as for example when an itching of the face arouses a strong impulse to rub it. Emphatically it does make a difference and any limb that has to be moved should be decubited over again, with the eye exercise immediately following it, before one proceeds with the autosuggestion image. Another question is whether the exercise and the succeeding autosuggestion can be done when there is someone else present or when a room is not quiet. The answer to this is that much depends upon the other person and upon the nature of the noises. I find that under most conditions one can, with practice, completely detach oneself from the surroundings, but if the other person is nearby and is restless, the influence cannot help being more or less disturbing; just as, if the noises in a room are compulsive to attention, it is difficult to escape them. In this connection I would emphasize the fact that if one wishes to acquire expertness in autosuggestion it is a critical mistake to treat disturbances by any direct effort to rule them out. Such procedure uses the faculty of inhibition which itself is a great consumer of energy. The proper method is, by practice, to train the imagination so that at the stimulus of any auto suggestive idea, or intention, the whole wish energy swings to that focus and is thus automatically withdrawn from the surroundings. The decubitus being completed, the eyes finally closed, and attention merged with imagination, we have the attention now wholly within, and are concerned solely as a next step with the autosuggestion image that is to be formed. Some people assert that they cannot possibly visualize any image of themselves or any imaginative image which they can perceive in the sense of sight. For that reason, I have specified that the auto suggestive image may either be a visualized concept of self, or an idea of self. In either case it is to present oneself within one’s own mind as reaching a physical and mental goal-seeing oneself or thinking of oneself as what one wishes to be, in body and mind, within the bounds of actual possibility. There is no point in trying to obtain the unobtainable. A short man cannot suggest himself into being tall, after his skeletal growth has become fixed. Similarly, a mind which is not visual cannot normally be expected to develop that peculiar co-ordination between sight images and arm motility which are required to become a great painter. The image to be developed in the mind must be within reasonable expectation of attainment. Discussion of specific images for specific purposes will be extended in the following chapter. For the moment we must confine ourselves to the progressive steps in the technique. With the auto suggestive image or idea developed in the mind the next step is to think of it as being definitely perceived and recognized by others. This is to add the factor of ego maximation so extensively discussed before. As remarked in the preceding chapter, there are many minds which balk at this point and show quite complex resistances. If the difficulty is merely one of slow and untrained imagination without any conscious resistance to the idea, practice will soon make it easy to imagine other people noticing, liking and admiring the change that is being secured in the auto suggestive image. If on the other hand the resistance consists of a general and specific attitude of mind which says in effect, “I do not wish to dwell on the idea of attracting the attention of others to get their admiration,” the pupil may be sure that the resistance here is a cultural one which has grown out of other people’s training and is an example of instinct repression which has no valid basis when analyzed. Any man may assure himself and everybody else that he never allows his conduct to be guided by a wish for the admiration of others; any woman may firmly assert the same attitude. But the fact is that human conduct is inevitably guided in part by this principle even though we may be entirely unaware of it. We actually need, indeed positively require, for a sense of complete self-esteem, the esteem, approval, admiration and love of people around us. Being a powerful instinct this wish feeling, if fully released and intelligently directed in autosuggestion, becomes not only a tremendous reinforcement of our auto suggestive processes, but in such use is lifted to most valuable cultural service. When I make for myself, after the decubitus, an autosuggestion image of my- self in the presence of a class, getting my message across to them with the easy flow of a mind completely surrendered to its subject, and then add to the image a picture of the pupils unconsciously responding with rapt attention and utter absorption; when I see, in my mind, fascinated interest and eagerness in their faces and attitude; there is not the slightest doubt that in adding the imaginative perception of my effect on them I have greatly stimulated my instinctive wish to produce this effect. Furthermore, the ego maximation wish is not one to be ashamed of, but one to be glad of, since it makes me a better teacher and thus of greater service to those I am trying to teach. Again, if a woman is neurotically ill she cannot but be aware, if she stops to think, that she must be anything but an object of admiration to others about her. She may unconsciously have compensated to herself for any feelings of disappointment, so caused in her, by getting great satisfaction out of the evidences of pity that she arouses. Many a neurotic invalid has unconsciously developed the invalidism because of an unsatisfied wish to occupy the center of the stage and compel more attention. Now if the woman referred to as an example will recognize that the very ego maximation wish which has appeared as a factor in promoting her illness, can by constructive use be made a factor of cure, she certainly is on the way toward achieving a great cultural gain. In every auto suggestive image of herself as healthy, self-reliant, and assured, let her add a picture of other people realizing and admiring her remarkable progress toward recovery and showing her esteem instead of pity. The more difficult she at first finds it to create this picture in her mind, the more probable she may regard it that she has in the past unconsciously preferred pity to esteem-perhaps having quite early in life found it easier to get the former than the latter. The decubitus, the progressive mental and physical image of self, and the picture of this image being admired and esteemed by others, then constitute the first three steps. The imaginative process should be proceeded with until it excludes all other ideas in the mind. Nearly everyone will find that this requires practice and that at first other ideas tend to appear constantly. There must be no effort of will, to shut them out, but a quiet persistence in steadily returning to and bringing up the suggestion images or ideas. The next step is the last in the process and requires some explanation since it does make use of something resembling formulas, and my previous remarks on the relative feebleness of mere formulistic auto- suggestion might have seemed to indicate that I regard formulas as useless. They are by no means useless, but their proper part in autosuggestion can be apprehended only when one brings them into play as additional stimuli to impulses already in motion and highly energized within the brain. It is a well-known psychological principle that multiplication of stimuli not only intensifies a wish feeling but also intensifies the effective responses to it. Perception of a house afire will arouse excitement, but the yells of others in the street will increase the excitement. The sight of a loved person is a pleasurable stimulation but contact (touch stimulus) and speech (hearing stimulus) in- crease the pleasurable excitement and intensify the outbound responses. It is on this basis that I make use of something resembling formulas in the technique here described. As soon as the image with the ego maximizing emotion is well focused in the mind I begin to express in words my approach toward its realization. The words are rendered in a whisper, and, if they are associated with an image which I am frequently suggesting to myself, I find it useful to write them in a sort of formula beforehand and commit them to memory. There is then no tendency to subtract energy from the suggestion image by working the ideational part of the brain in composing appropriate sentences. The process should be simply a conversion of the ideas expressed in the image into a sense of moving steadily toward it day by day, and hour by hour, as a goal. I find Coué’s idea valuable in this connection and usually begin with some such words as “day by day, hour by hour, my whole being moves toward this goal now perceived and deeply wished for in my mind. In every respect I allow this goal more and more to possess my imagination and to stir the unconscious nerve impulses which are progressively developing me to its realization.” From this point I make the words more specific, always expressing the process of attaining to my image as actually under way and moving steadily toward fullest realization. I never let the words “I will” enter into what I am thinking or saying, nor do I allow my mind in any way whatever to bring up the idea of effort or determination. This is of critical importance. The entire process is imaginative and all of the whispered utterances are aimed to serve just two purposes. The first is to define and strengthen the suggestion image by putting it into organized idea. The second is to add to imagination the reinforcement of motor pattern in speech, and the stimulus of hearing the word spoken. I am frequently asked if thinking the words instead of whispering them will not serve just as well. In my opinion it will not, because the two factors just mentioned will then be missing. I do not mean by this to imply that there is no value in thinking the words. I do mean to say that in my experience both speech and hearing add something to their force, and I hold that the constructive value of directed auto- suggestion is so incalculably great that we should give ourselves the benefit of every known psychological principle in employing it. Specific examples of rendering auto suggestive images in words will be given in the following chapter.
(1) In practice it has been found valuable, particularly in the dark, to trace with the eyes some imaginary design-squares, circles, triangles, figure eights, anything so that the eye muscles are given occupation.