We are overcome by the subtle force of the repeated suggestion, which acts directly on our feelings and emotions before finally reaching the very core of our subconscious minds. This is the basic idea behind all good advertising: keep making the same suggestion over and over until you start to believe it and want to buy. We have recently indulged in a vitamin frenzy.
Tomatoes were regarded as poisonous for centuries. Until a brave individual tried them and survived, no one dared to eat them. Despite the fact that tomatoes were once considered unfit for human consumption, millions of people consume them today. In contrast, the lowly spinach nearly ended up in the trash after the US government declared that it lacked the food values that had been associated with it for decades. Millions of people believed this, and they refused to continue honoring Popeye's favorite dish.
It's clear that the people who started all of the great religious movements knew a lot about the power of repeated suggestion and used it to get big results. Religious teachings have been ingrained in us ever since we were born, as have our parents and their parents before them.
That kind of faith almost certainly involves the use of white magic.
When you realize that the only things that can hurt or bother you are the things you become aware of, then statements like "What we don't know won't hurt us" and "Ignorance is bliss" take on greater significance. We've all heard the tale of the man who tried something even though he knew it couldn't be done.
According to psychologists, we only have two fears when we are babies: the fear of falling and of loud noises. All of our other fears come from our experiences or are passed down to us; They are based on what we are taught or see and hear.
Men and women, I like to imagine, are like steadfast oak trees that are able to hold their ground amidst the many divergent currents of thought that swirl around them. But far too many people are like saplings that eventually grow in the direction of a strong thought that blows against them, swayed by every little breeze.
There are numerous examples of the power of thought and suggestion in the Bible. Understand Beginning, Part 30, refrains 36 to 43, and you'll discover that even Jacob knew their power. According to the Bible, he developed spotted and speckled cattle, sheep, and goats by placing rods made of trees, which were partially stripped of their bark, in the watering troughs where the animals drank. You can probably guess that the flocks had babies before the spotted rods and produced cattle that were "ring-straked, speckled, and spotted." (Additionally, Jacob became extremely wealthy.)
Moses was also an expert at making suggestions. He used it on the Israelites for forty years, and it led them to the promised land of milk and honey. David killed Goliath with a pebble from a slingshot, following the suggestive forces that were working on him.
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