Shrewd men take advantage of this tendency of the human mind, and, by getting a few people interested in certain things, they manage to set the fashion, and the crowd follows like sheep. Get people talking about a thing, and the contagion spreads until everybody is interested in the matter. The majority of people are more or less susceptible to this form of suggestion, the degree depending upon their habit of thinking, judging and acting for themselves. The man or woman who has ideas of his, or her, own, is not so apt to be impressed by every wave of popular fashion, style and thought as those who maintain a more negative attitude toward the minds of others. The method of curing an undue tendency toward imitative action is to start in to build up your individuality, and to develop positivity, along the lines mentioned in the concluding chapters of this book. The third line of action of Mental Suggestion is: Suggestion Through Association - This form of Mental Suggestion is very common. It is based upon the acquired impressions of the race, by which certain words, actions, manners, tones, appearances, etc., are associated with certain previously experienced mental states. Mental States take form in physical action and expression, as we know. A man feeling in a certain way is apt to express himself by certain actions or in certain words. These actions and words thus become symbols of the mental state producing them, and consequently they produce upon the mind of the person seeing or heaving them the mental image connected with that mental state. And this mental image is calculated to induce a similar or corresponding state in the mind of the person seeing and hearing. So that these symbols are really Mental Suggestions, since they tend to induce mental states.

I wish to remind you that every written, printed or spoken word, or words, is the outward and physical expression of some inner mental state of the person uttering or writing the words. The words are the "outward and visible signs" of an "inward feeling" - remember this always. Mere words, in themselves, have no suggestive value - the value depends upon the meaning impressed upon them by the mind of the person using them accompanied by an understanding of their meaning by the person hearing or reading them. The word "horror," for instance, or "uncanny," has a definite meaning to persons familiar with it. It bears a direct relation to a mental feeling, or emotion, and is the physical and outward expression of the same. One may say the word over and over again to a person who has never heard it, or to one of another race who does not understand the term, and no suggestive effect follows. But speak the word to one who is accustomed to connect and associate it with a definite feeling that they have experienced, and the feeling will be produced, or "induced," if the circumstances of the use of the word be favorable. The word " love," used properly, will awaken in the mind of its hearers feelings corresponding with the term. And these feelings must have been experienced before, either directly or indirectly, before they may be induced by suggestion. Feelings experienced by one's ancestors leave a record in one's subconscious mentality, which may also be induced by the appropriate suggestion.

Personally, words seem to me to be like the wax record of a phonograph. The record is covered with minute impressions produced by the sound-waves entering the phonograph. Place this record in its place in the phonograph and start the latter in morion and lo! the minute impressions on the record will reproduce or "induce" in the diaphragm the same kind of sound-waves that originally caused the im-pressions. In this way a word, which is the physical symbolic record of feeling, will produce its associated feeling in the mind of the person hearing or reading it.

And, as I have said, the feeling produced will depend largely upon the understanding of the meaning of the word held by the person receiving the impression. For instance, in the case of the word "love," let us suppose that the term is strongly and feelingly suggested to a number of persons at the same time, and in the same way. You will find that the feeling induced in the one person will be that of love of parents; in another love of children; in another love of husband or wife; in another love of God; in another an exalted affection for some person of the opposite sex; in another the low animal passion for one of the other sex; and so on, each experiencing a feeling occasioned by bis or her association of the word with some feeling previously entertained. The same word may induce a feeling of the greatest pleasure in one person, and the greatest horror or disgust in another - the difference depending upon the association of the word in the mind of the two persons.

I have dwelt upon these facts in order to make clear to you that there is no magic power in words in themselves, and that all their force and effect depends upon the associated feeling of which they are the crystallized physical and outward former symbol. The word is the body - the feeling is its soul.

And so it is with the suggestion of appearance, manner, surrounding, etc. Each of these depends for force and effect upon some accustomed association with some inner feeling, which feeling is reproduced or induced by the outward symbol of the thing. We associate certain things with certain feelings, and when we see these things we are apt to experience the feeling indicated. People have been overcome by the sight of a picture, or a scene in a play - a song - a poem - or suggestive music.

And here is where the art of the suggestionist comes into play. He watches closely and discovers that certain words, tones, manners, appearances, actions, motions, etc., are associated in the minds of people with certain feelings and ideas. And so when he wishes to reproduce, produce, or induce in others these ideas or feelings, he simply reproduces operation of this form of Mental Suggestion. The orator; the lawyer; the preacher; each uses words calculated to induce mental states, feelings and emotions, in the minds of his hearers. Such a one soon begins to learn the suggestive value of words, tones, and expression. He avoids the use of cold, abstract words, and drifts into the use of those which are symbols for deep feeling and emotion, knowing that these word symbols uttered with the proper tone and expression will induce the feelings for which they stand in the minds of the hearers. The hearers' emotions and feelings are played upon, in this way, like an instrument. The emotion or passion, whether it be love, fear, hate, greed, patriotism, courage, jealousy, sympathy, etc., etc., is awakened by the skillful use of the words, tones, and expression which stand as symbols for these feelings.