Yoga Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi, Bhagu F Karbhari
Publisher: Devchand Lalbhai Pustakoddhar Fund

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can see that from the face. However, it is a fact that many persons can be hypnotized, and those who cannot ordinarily be hypnotized, may be, if they are willing to be. In fact, every now and then in our daily experience we find, that we hypnotize ourselves and others to a more or less extent. When we say to a person that he looks very haggard, he will feel the influence and will look for the time being in the way in which he is influenced to look by this suggestion. When we say to a child something derogatory, something insulting, his face will look different altogether; but if we congratulate him and praise him he will look bright and happy, and his face will change in accordance with the suggestion. So, suggestion is indeed a great and potent factor in shaping the destinies of other people, and that is the reason, why we Jains always say, that even in the mind, the purest things should be thought, because that sort of mental activity acts as a suggestion. Therefore when you are engaged in your daily affairs, think in the purest way, so that this may influence other people for good, as we know at any rate, that suggestion is a great force.
The other school says that the suggestion is not important as a factor in producing hypnotic sleep. Two different means are employed for the purpose of producing the same result. When a person either on account of suggestion or a change in the physiological or nervous condition falls into a sleep, it cannot be the natural sleep. Under ordinary circumstances the person or the patient left to himself is not desirous
HYPNOTISM