Power of Suggestion by Fr Bernard Shaw

Suggestion is one of the many useful and wonderful natural forces bestowed by God upon man. Its power under favourable circumstances is described by psychologists and proved by facts to be very great, sometimes even tremendous. It can be used for good and bad ends, for constructive and destructive purposes, for helping and harming, for curing and killing, for serving and dominating others… A frenchman of rank was condemned to death for some crime, and his friends, willing to avoid the scandal of public execution, allowed him to be made subject of an experiment. He was told that he must bleed to death. His eyes were bandaged and his arm having been slightly pricked, a stream of warm water was made to trickle down it and fall into a basin, while the assistant kept up a conversation on his supposed condition. “He is getting faint.” “The heart action is becoming feebler.” “His pulse is almost gone,” and other remarks of the sort. In a very short time, the miserable man died without having lost a drop of blood.