This section is from the book "Mental Therapeutics Or Just How To Heal Oneself And Others", by Theron Q. Dumont. Also available from Amazon: Mental Therapeutics or Just How to Heal Oneself and Others.
In giving actual treatments by Personal Thought Induction, you should instruct the patient to sit quietly in a comfortable position- have a cozy, comfortable chair in your treating-room for this purpose. It is well to have your treating-room as quiet as possible, and as free and never along the lines of diseased conditions. In practice, and in actual treatments, you should always hold the mental picture of the desired condition-not that of the diseased condition; and always make your silent suggestions along the lines of positive upbuilding, stating the conditions you wish to produce, and never those which you wish to remove. Always point out the mental road you wish the Corporeal Mind to follow.
In practicing before the mirror, you should throw yourself into the exercise in full earnestness. Do not indulge in flippant and frivolous play regarding treatments-throw earnestness into your thoughts and mental pictures. Do not merely think the idea of what*you wish to silently suggest to the imaginary patient; but actually think the words in which you would express the idea if you were speaking to the patient. This formation of words in the mind, and the projection of them in Thought Induction is very important. There is, of course, no magic in the words themselves, but nevertheless the action of the mind in crystallizing the idea into words gives concentrated force to them, and they are projected with greatly increased power into the mind of the patient. In giving Thought Induction treatments then, remember to think in actual words. Form the actual words in your mind.
In these practice exercises, and in giving actual treatments to patients while in their presence, you should follow the same general rules which are followed in giving audible Mental Suggestion. That is to say, you should throw the same degree of earnestness into the silent words that you would in the spoken words. You should encourage the same feeling of force and power within yourself-the same raising of your own vibrations so that they may become positive to those of the patient. You should remember the principle of Repetition, as mentioned in connection with Mental Suggestion; and manage to repeat the same silent mental commands or suggestions a number of times.
Remember, always, that you are actually and really addressing the Corporeal Mind of the patient in these silent treatments, just as truly as when you address the conscious mind of the person in an ordinary spoken course of instructions, commands or advice. The more that you are able to realize this actual process the more force and power will you manifest. The subconscious mind, in all of its phases, is very quick to sense the degree of earnestness and belief, or the degree of lightness and unbelief, in the mind of the practitioner; and it responds in the same degree. It is like a child or an intelligent animal -very keen to perceive shades of feeling or belief, truth or untruth.
In giving actual treatments by Personal Thought Induction, you should instruct the patient to sit quietly in a comfortable position- have a cozy, comfortable chair in your treating-room for this purpose. It is well to have your treating-room as quiet as possible, and as free as possible from disturbing influences. It is well to have the light somewhat dim or shaded, for bright lights tend to distract the attention. The main idea in fitting up the room and furnishing it should be that of inducing the idea of Quiet, Poise, Calm, and Peace.
Bid the patient to sit quietly and easily; and to relax himself completely, taking the tension off every muscle, and every strain off the mind. You will be able to help him in this matter by sitting quietly some little distance from him, and placing yourself in the proper mental attitude. Sit quietly yourself, stilling your own feelings and thoughts, and you will gradually raise up your vibrations from the lower plane to that of Peace, Harmony, and Health. The patient will then sense these vibrations and will experience a feeling of Calmness and Peace; this stage is often marked by the patient giving utterance to a gentle sigh of relief, and a further relaxing of mind and body.
The desired mental condition having been produced in the patient, the practitioner should form a strong mental image or picture of the patient before him and presenting all the outward appearances of perfect health; he should see the patient as a strong, healthy, vigorous, happy man or woman. The practitioner should keep this idea or mental picture before him as much as possible during the entire treatment. He should refuse to think of or picture the patient in a condition of disease or weakness; but should always insist upon his mind picturing the desired condition of health.
Then he should begin making the silent suggestions of the desired conditions-the conditions which he wishes to have manifested in actual physical substance and form in the body of the patient. He should address the Corporeal Mind of the patient just as he would an actual entity. He may even address it as "Mind," just as he would a person; and then tell "Mind" what he wishes it to do for the patient. He may further likewise address the organ-minds, or cell-minds of the body of the patient, just as he would do in Mental Suggestion, or in Auto-Suggestion. The principles of healing are always the same, remember, notwithstanding the differences in the forms of administering it.
In my own experiments and actual practice conducted for the purpose of developing and perfecting the methods which I teach to my students, as well as in the work that I have had my students perform under my direction, I have found the following general method or idea to work out very effectively in this class of treatments. You will note that this general method is not so much a matter of saying or doing a certain thing as it is a case of holding a certain mental attitude. This fact may prejudice some against it, by causing them to regard the idea as fanciful or even fantastic. But those who have pondered these things deeply, and who have grasped certain little-known underlying principles of the action of the subconscious mind, have no such illusions or misconceptions-instead, they realize that this general method has as its foundation a very basic fact of the operation of the subconscious mentality of man, particularly of that phase which is known as the Corporeal Mind.
 
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