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PROFESSOR WILLIAM D. WHITNEY

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TRANSFERRED TOYALE MEDICAL LIBRARY


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"Day by day, in every way,I am getting better and better.

MY PILGRIMAGETO COUE

BY

ELLA BOYCE KIRK

American Library Servicepublishers500 Fifth Avenue New York


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Copyright 1922American Library ServiceAll translation rights reserved


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TO MY NIECEELLA RUTH BOYCEI DEDICATE THIS BOOK

THROUGH HER ENCOURAGEMENT AND CONSTANTATTENTION DURING MV VISIT TO NANCY, SHEHAS MADE POSSIBLE THE WRITING OF THISTRUTH OF MY HEALING BY EMILE COUtf


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CONTENTSPAGE

Emile Cou of Nancy 1A Thumbnail Autobiography 7Foreshadowings of My Infirmity 13My Efforts to Retain Health 18My Faith in Faith Cures 25The Journey to Cou6 28First Meeting with Cou& 31My Treatment and Cure by Cou6 .... 37Cou6 and the Peasant Clinics 41Cou6's Method of Autosuggestion 45Coufi and the Subconscious 51A Stance with Cou6 56Coud and Divine Healing 62Cou6"s Predecessors in Autosuggestion . . 70Other Applications for Autosuggestion. . . 75The Psychology of Autosuggestion .... 80The Force of the Subconscious 89Credo 92

M


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(Letter from Emile Coue to the Author)

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(Translation)

Nancy, August 5th, 1922.Dear Madam:

Rest assured that I am very happyto have been able to contribute toyour very rapid cure. If you will al-ways continue making your morningand evening suggestion, not only willyou avoid the recurrence of yourcramps, but you will also avoid thecoming of those maladies that areever lurking for us.Not only am I not opposed toyour speaking of my method to yourfriends, but, on the contrary, itwould give me great pleasure, sinceyou would thus contribute to spread-ing my ideas.

I beg of you, Madame, to acceptmy most friendly greetings,(Signed) Emile Cou.


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"Our actions spring not from our Will, butfrom our Imagination."

Emile Cou


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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUECHAPTER I

Emile Coue of NancyDay by day, to the minds of moreand more people, there is coming afamiliarity with the names Coue andNancy. The two are becominglinked in the popular ear as almostinterchangeable, and to the popularmind they are synonymous with allthat is good and beneficent in humanlife. To-day, in Nancy, France,whether seeking relief from physicaldisability, or whether interested instudying the problems of the humanmind; whether attracted by the noveland surprising, or whether genuinelyin sympathy with what is being doneby the little French apothecary, onemay find under the teaching of Mon-sieur Coue power and knowledgethat will interest, surprise and heal.

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEFor some time, the American

newspapers and magazines have beeninstrumental in familiarizing the pub-lic with Monsieur Coue and his workthrough articles and reviews of hisone small published work in English,"Self-Mastery Through ConsciousAutosuggestion," as well as of nu-merous books dealing with him andhis almost miraculous cures throughthe power of the mind. So interest-ing and convincing are the accountsgiven, so sincere and unassuming,that to one suffering from any ail-ment of the flesh the idea of sailingforth to see what there is to be seencomes most naturally. When themeans are at hand no time is lost incarrying out the idea, especially whenone is harassed by torturing physi-cal pain that saps one of the verydesire to live.Through the medium of the news-

papers the name Coue came to be asfamiliar as that of a household clas-sic. Whenever anyone complainedM


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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEof a physical ailment the first ques-tion asked was surely: "Why, haven'tyou heard of Coue? Don't you knowof his wonderful method of healingthrough autosuggestion? You musttry it. It will surely help you."The remarkable part of it wasthat whenever Coue's name wasmentioned or his treatment discussedit was always with the utmost faithand respect. The people who spokeof it were sure of what they said, andcould substantiate their statementswith facts. There was never any ofthat reluctance to bare details, neverany of that reticence to come to thepoint, that accompanies charlatanismin general. Everyone who everspoke of Coue and his work did itwith the utmost freedom, gave mi-nute information and did not hesi-tate to lend his personal assistancein effecting a cure by revealing theway autosuggestion was practiced.There always existed that enthusiasmthat comes with successand Coue's

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEmethod, as I discovered later, in af-fections that did not entail organicmalformations or broken bones, wassuccessful in ninety cases out of onehundred.

There is always something in theattitude of the person upon whoma theory is tried that either reflectsfavorably or detracts from its valid-ity. In all cases where the Couemethod was tried, the attitude wasone of satisfaction and gratitude.The individual radiated a desire tospread the idea and inform the worldof the wonders that could be accom-plished by a method so simple thatit might at first seem ridiculous.There was ever something about himakin to the fervor of the Christiansin ancient Rome who had seen thelight and were eager to open the eyesof those who were still in the dark.There was always in him a beautifulfaith that communicated itself toothers.

Surely all this could not be in-[4]


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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEspired by anything that was not basi-cally good and true! Truth evershines by its own light. All else isa futile spark that dazzles for a mo-ment and then is extinguished. Thetruth of Coue's marvelous methodhas in it the very essence of sunlightin its goodness and beneficence. Ifonly it were as widely diffused howmuch happier the world would beWhen I heard of Coue for the firsttime it was in a dark period of trialand stress, a period during which Iwas suffering excruciating physicalpain and the no less torturing painof scepticism and hopelessness. Ihad tried every available method ofcure to rid myself of my physical dis-ability, but strive as I might, I couldaccomplish nothing. I had reachedthe stage when I was about to resignmyself to the worst, when the namesCoue and Nancy came to me like twogood geniuses leading me to healthand happiness. I was not long inavailing myself of the promises they

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUE ,held out to me, and now, thanks tothem, I am able to publish my thank-fulness and gratitude to the world in-stead of dragging my life away inembittered invalidism in the narrowconfines of a basket-chair.

This personal experience of mytrip to Monsieur Coue at Nancy iswritten for the benefit, rather, moralsupport, of all those who are suffer-ing from the ills to which flesh isheir, and who, like myself, have lostfaith, and possibly hope. It is alsoan expression of gratitude for thewonderful effects that resulted frommy trip to Nancy, and a humbletribute to the marvelous work ofMonsieur Coue. I cite nothing thatI did not personally observe, or inwhich I did not play a small part.So, my purpose stated, I shall launchmy labor of love, begging of thereader the same tolerance St. Augus-tine asked for,that he judge thespirit and not the word. . . .

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CHAPTER IIA Thumbnail Autobiography

There were two normal and ines-capable ailments to which I had longbeen a conscientious autosuggestion-ist before going to Coue; namely, myage and my weight. Like mostwomen, I knew how to ignore bothof them so long as I felt youngenough to care about life and activityand was not too stout to climb thestairs to the entrance of my hotelwith average ease. If I could stillenter a taxicab comfortably or oc-cupy the allotted space in a theatre,I was content to press on from dayto day with undaunted spirits.

"Cast your burdens on the Lord"had always been my guiding preceptwhen dealing with problems thattouched the sensibilities. I was con-tent to allow my worries to dissipatein due time with the help of moral

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO CQUEfortitude. However, with respect tomerely fleshly troubles of wrinklesand excess tissue, I never cared totake my case beyond local jurisdic-tion. It seemed preferable to paythe masseuse and the hopefullynamed "Beauty Specialist" to set torights the attrition of time and age.It was wiser to let the tailor wage theslowly losing battle between "slen-derizing lines" and the broadeninginfluences of nature if he chose. Iwas prepared to pay my price andtake my discounts. It is a sane phi-losophy to keep the mind off the ex-ternal signs of accumulative yearsand to occupy it instead with broadhuman interests.

Always in my life I have observedan attitude of optimism and self-reliance. Seldom have I publicly oramong my friends sought sympathyor support for any trial that I haveever undergone,and they have notbeen few. However, so long as Iwas able to avoid foolish fretting in

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEmatters of health, so long as I couldhold my own with moderate successwith age and infirmity, I was happyin the fact of my continued mentalactivity. Perhaps a little like anold book,the binding scuffed andfaded, the pages yellow, the print alittle antique,I felt, nevertheless,that my contents were imperishableand unchanged.

Indeed, were I to look disinterest-edly upon my case, my years werein some ways an advantage. I couldgo wherever I chose, alone or withany companion, without fear andwithout scandal. My mature dignitywas a sufficient guarantee of disinter-estedness. I could be as curious asI chose about any person or eventwithout being committed or compro-mised. I could even evince interestfor Freud and psychoanalysis with-out seeming to exhibit a complex.

Truly, it is an ill wind that blowethnobody any good. Even my weight,judging everything impersonally, had

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEits compensations. Traffic policemen,taxi drivers, bell boys and shop-keepers paid me the deference thatplain people always render to meresize. I cannot say that I did nothave pangs of suffering from my con-dition, but the real sorrows and em-barrassments of overweight I keptclosely concealed in my own heart.The apparent burdens could be con-veniently utilized to avoid anythingI desired to shirk.

Withal, I led an active and satis-fying life, full of little tasks andduties. My days and evenings werefilled to the last minute with calls andshopping, lectures, theatres and con-certs. I combined harmoniously theuseful and the pleasant, thus arrivingat a satisfying balance. No middle-aged buyer, of the proverbial kind,lived any more actively while in NewYork than I did habitually in myown way. My hotel rooms were arendezvous for all my out-of-town

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUBfriends. What is more, I kept con-tinually the pace they were able tostrike only on occasion.

Sometimes, it is true, I had to rushinto new activities to forget the factthat I was bored with the life I wasleading, as compared to my activitiesin my earlier youth. Often I feltkeenly that my movements lackedpoint and continuity. When I con-trasted my life as a mere consumerlong since out of touch with the laborof producingwhen I thought ofmyself in retrospect, first, as the firstwoman school superintendent inAmerica, then, as an active socialfactor in the life of my home city,when I allowed my mind to look backupon what had been, I did indeedfeel idle and unhappy. If you canfancy yourself remaining at a publicball after your own party and friendshave gone home, you will appreciatethe bitterness of loneliness and bore-dom that came to me. Time maysoften the grief of impotence, but it


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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEalso lengthens the shadows of thepast.As time goes on, one meets, in-

deed, travelling companions on theway, but they, like oneself, are busywith time-killing occupations whileloitering on the wayside between thehomes they have left and the Ulti-mate Destination.

In moments of relaxation suchconsiderations came to me strongly.Often while I was preoccupied withmy petty infirmities I would ask my-self, "Why attempt to prolong andbeguile an interlude between life anddeath?" Had I not said and meantit that that person was fortunatewhose life came suddenly to an endat fifty? Oh, how I should havewelcomed at those moments a sum-mons to go elsewhere ! With whatpleasurable excitement and impor-tance I would have greeted the doc-tor's announcement that I had justa month in which to wind up myaffairs!

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CHAPTER IIIFORESHADOWINGS OF My INFIRMITYDuring that period I seldom reallysaw a doctor, but I never greeted onewithout the special interest that onetakes in a person with whom one isshortly to have important business.In spite of the fact that to all ap-pearances I was cheerful and activemost of the time, I possessed a kindof dreary, fussy activity, a hectic in-tensity that offered me little solace.A genuine thrill, I knew, awaited me,the doctor's dramatic announce-ment some day that I must preparemyself for a long journey. Probablyit would be heralded by toxic-uraemia. Probably the heart wouldgive way; for how could it be ashealthy as it seemed?

But alas, even for the high ambi-tions of age! The doctor's surprisefor me was genuine, but it was not

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEheroic and thrilling. It was merelytragic. He told me that I wasshortly going to be unable to walk IAt that moment I felt all the dis-illusion of Hedda Gabler when shehears that the man whom she ex-pected to do things beautifully, withvine-leaves in his hair, has shot him-self vulgarly in the bowelsFrom what the doctor said, a briefperiod of gradually restricted activ-ity lay before me, and then an inde-terminate sentence of invalidism,while, chained to a bed, or helpedabout from chair to chair, I patientlywaited until my pain was appeased!What a ghastly discounting of thehope of death! What a disgustingtermination of an active lifeto re-main a useless burden, an invalid,when one had expected to leave dra-matically,a useful and an interest-ing individual to the very last minute !

However, everything considered,the doctor's verdict should not havesurprised me. For approximately

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEfifteen years I had suffered occasion-ally with both limbs from a maladythat seemed to be due to gradualstiffening of the muscles. It wassometimes attended by cramps abovethe knees. Any difficulty in walkingthat I experienced in this way, how-ever, was always attributed not onlyby my doctor, but even by myself, tothe fact that I was so heavy. Thedoctor invariably prescribed rest anddiet, though frankly, it seemed to methat it was the more judicious thingto do, to set about making all possiblesacrifices to reduce my weight.

In spite of my resolutions, visitingfriends and hotel menu cards con-spired to make me defer all resolveto reduce. I have lived for yearson a prescription of milk and vichy,and an actual diet of broiled squabsous cloche. Many a morning Ihave gone downstairs to a breakfastthat began with a cup of hot waterand ended with sausage and wheatcakes.

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEOne day, most unexpectedly, the

trouble I had experienced with myknees showed new developments thatseemed grave enough to demand seri-ous attention. Pains so intense as tocause me to lose all consciousness,and swellings so gross as to interferewith my walking challenged notice.The doctors came and diagnosed.One said dropsy; another, rheuma-tism. All decreed that probably, atmy time of life, it was incurable.With rest and diet I could perhapsbring about reduction of the swelling,but it was nevertheless probably fu-tile to expect that I should againwalk with the old freedom.

Just what the doctors promisedand what they failed to maintain, justwhat the extent of my suffering wasfrom that time on for the last twoyears it is not interesting or impor-tant to detail. The significance ofthe trouble for me, indeed, was notphysical, but spiritual. I was con-cerned, not with what it meant in

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO CPUSterms of bodily suffering, but interms of isolation. It seemed only amatter of months till I would be cutoff entirely not only from my pleas-urable employments, but even frommy friends; it looked like a questionof long years until the bleakness ofinactivity would be terminated.From this juncture my whole tenorof life suddenly developed a new in-terest and value. Was it possiblethat I had ever been bored? CouldI actually have desired to die while Istill had the opera, the first nights,and the round of pleasures that wasalways planned for me whenever Irevisited my home city? Was itreally I who had pretended to feelthat such frequent visits from out-of-town friends were an impositionand an affliction? It was with a pangthat I saw myself cut off from thesevery friends, made dearer to me bythe impending possibility of losingthem.

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CHAPTER IVMy Efforts to Retain HealthNevertheless, I took the doctors'advice and arranged for diet and re-laxation. There was only one wayof getting a complete change, namely,by withdrawing from the hectic lifeof New York, away from hotels,away from amusements, away fromthe friends I loved so well and whohad come to mean so very much tome.As soon as I came to my decision,

I packed up and departed for thequiet, rural section of Maine whereI was born, and where I had not livedfor lo, these many years.

Needless to say, my country rela-tives were astonished to see me, ac-customed as they were to associatingme with bright lights and intense liv-ing. Therefore it was with a certaindegree of diffidence that they re-

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUficeived the announcement of my inten-tion to live a rigorously simple lifewith them for six months, if need be.As it was, I remained with them fromMay until December, making everyeffort to regain by abstemiousnessand quiet the privilege of again play-ing a part in the activities of NewYork.The effort was not wholly without

reward. It brought me again intocontact with girlhood friends andlong-neglected memories. I livedagain the quiet, peaceful hours of myyouth with all their soothing associa-tions. It renewed my acquaintancewith the peaceful, deep-thinking, pa-tient people of the country, whosegreatest concern was nature and thebounties of health and vigor that sheheld forth to them. On the whole,it made a little less terrible the pros-pect of ending my days where I hadbegun them. I was resigned to beingan invalid waiting out my term in thesilence of the Maine countryside.

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUESo much for the spiritual support.

The experiment was otherwise a fail-ure, for physically I grew not better,but worse. My resignation slowlywaned. Again the desire to live, tobe healthy, to have my share of con-structive work, took possession ofme. I decided at last, while therewas still some breath left in me, stillsome power of locomotion, to devoteall my forces to a more active at-tempt to recover the use of my limbs.

Following this decision, I returnedto New York to put myself into thehands of physicians, masseurs, chiro-practors, osteopaths,of any one oranything that held out the least hopeof a cure. I clutched desperately atevery straw. Now, with my renewedinterest to get well, life no longerseemed a bore. The activities thatonce threatened to pall on me nowseemed passionately worth while.Does this account, dear reader,lose interest for you? Do you urgeme to get on to the end of my story?

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEPerhaps you echo the aspiration ofthe deacon who replied to the queryabout his invalid wife, "Oh, yes, she'sstill sick. I wish she'd get well or dosomething!"

It is ever so. The healthy, activeperson can never appreciate theagony of the search for health of onewho fears permanent disability, orcontemplates a continued life of in-validism.

Before relating how I was curedof my infirmity, I believe it would beworth while to impress upon thereader that the physical pain itselfplayed the least part in my affliction.It was the loneliness that was unbear-able. It was the fear of being uselessthat chilled the heart. It was thesense of age and infirmity, creepinglike a glacier over a sunny land, thatdesolated and defrauded my life ofits capacity for joy. It would bepoor praise indeed of any cure if itrepresented a mere surcease of pain,

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEwhen despair itself had been the realmalady.

I wish with all my heart that Icould convey for the benefit of thoseafflicted with invalidism the lesson Ilearned through my trouble. Oftenthe cross that an afflicted personbears is the attitude of his friendsand relatives, who believe that theinvalid suffers only from physical ail-ments, and that the essential thing tobe done is to relieve him of pain andmake him as comfortable as neces-sary. Often, to make this possible,the invalid is isolated from brightcompany, deprived of useful occu-pation, and is thus made utterlywretched at the thought that he is aburden upon those who wait on himand outdo themselves conspicuouslyin their kindnesses. True, it is verykind to show consideration for a per-son's physical well-being. But illnessis most often mental. Indeed, itought to be borne in mind by thosewho are well that no invalidism is

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEunbearable if it is cheered by employ-ment, interesting company, and achance to render service. The chiefduty of those who nurse the sick is torestore their mental health.

This lesson was brought home tome forcefully during the two years Ifought to regain my world. Myfriends did their utmost to make meabsolutely comfortable. I had a spe-cial chair built for me. I reclinedupon cushions. I slept upon hot-water bags. Every contrivance forthe ease of tortured flesh was pro-cured for me. I ate my meals in myroom. I lived upon the well-inten-tioned wishes of attendants. Yet Ihad but one object in life,to fightoff loneliness.

Looking back upon my decision togo to M. Coue, it seems to me as ifit came as a last resort, when despairhad all but set in. It is possible thatI should have nourished some furtherhope of the remedies that were beingtried before becoming discouraged

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUfialtogether, but now it seems as ifthe thought of Coue came like aneleventh-hour reprieve.At any rate, when I sent for my

niece, saying: "Come with me; I'mgoing to Nancy to be treated by M.Coue," she did not hesitate or debatethe merits of the idea for a moment.She knew that everything I couldthink of or do had been tried. Thefact alone that I had hope enough inthe enterprise to consent to face thehardships of a trip to France in mycondition was in itself a justificationfor the journey.

Accordingly, we set sail on the 8thof July. Established in a specialdeck chair that had been built ex-pressly to accommodate my poor,tortured body, I vowed not to leaveit unless I was washed out to sea bya tidal wave.

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CHAPTER VMy Faith in Faith Cures

The existing appreciation on mypart that some portion of my troublewas mental is clear from the fact thatamong other remedies I had alreadytried several varieties of religiousfaith cures. At this moment I havenothing to urge against them. In thelight of my subsequent lessons fromM. Coue, I have more respect forthem now than before I went to him,for he convinced me that they are ofvalue for many people. His expla-nation that they are sometimes effi-cacious because they often cause thepatient to give himself curative auto-suggestions justifies them for thosewho can be convinced by theiraffirmations. However, they failedto help me, because I had no faithin them. Indeed, they antagonizedme. When a new-thought lady8

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEcharging me five or ten dollars acall, would sit in my room uncon-sciously attending to minor details ofher personal comfort and tell me thatI had no pain, I was irritated, notcured. When she offered to give meabsent treatments at the same rate,I found myself making mental calcu-lations as to how many patients couldbe absent-treated at one and the sametime, wondering whether a radio-broadcasting station, installed bysuch a healer, would not increase theprofits of the business. I caught my-self smiling inwardly at her naiveteand thought of the simple-mindedEastern dervish who devised an eco-nomical way of sending numerousprayers to God daily through themedium of a little hand-mill in whichhe placed sacred scrolls rolled in theform of pills. Instead of praying ingood old dervish fashion he merelyturned the crank, and the work wasdone.

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO CPUSNo, her method did not convince

me. I had taught school in myyounger days, with children as mypatients, so to speak. I had notfound it possible ever to impressthem with anything by means of ab-sent treatments. My experience,therefore, had given me a bias infavour of the personal touch.The result was that though I

clutched at M. Coue's treatmentthrough autosuggestion as a last re-sort, I was a little diffident, in thebottom of my heart, as to what hereally could do for me. I had seenenough of the faith-cure methods inAmerica to make me somewhat skep-tical.

It was in this state of mind that Iwent to France.

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CHAPTER VIThe Journey to Coue

Across three thousand miles ofocean, and across almost the wholeof France, to the city of Nancy wewent, my niece and I, with the verydefinitely compelling idea that thereI would find healing, possibly, butcertainly one of the most interestingpersonalities in the world, judgingfrom all I had read and heard of M.Coue.The ride from Paris to Nancy is

along the Marne valley, full of asso-ciations of the World War. Thesplendid vitality of the French peopleis very much in evidence in the tre-mendous amount of rebuilding thathas already been accomplished in theruined villages. Indeed, the wonderand admiration that we could nothelp but feel for the French nation,

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEalmost caused us to forget the mainscope of our visit to Nancy.At last we reached the city. The

first thing that interested us was itsbeautiful iron work. The publicsquares, the buildings and the ancientgates exerted a fascination over us,for they were so different from whatwe were accustomed to seeing. Itwas interesting to find a statue toStanislaus, the deposed king of Po-land, and to learn that as the father-in-law of Louis XV of France he hadbeen given the Duchy of Lorraine,of which Nancy was the principalcity, when his own country was lostto him. It was gratifying to see howhe had beautified that city. Whatcaused us to marvel most of all wasto find, glorified as later heroes ofthe town, the architect Here and theironsmith Lamour, whose buildings,gates and balconies are the greatestbeauties of the city to-day.

Our interest, however, was in anindividual, and not in civic beauty.

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEWe wished to see Coue. Few ques-tions were necessary to locate him.His name seemed to be known byeveryone in Nancy.

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CHAPTER VIIFirst Meeting With Coue

Bright and early, the followingday, we set out, along the Rue JeanneD'Arc to the home of M. Coue.There we found an attractive housein the French style surrounded by agarden with a locked gate. At ourring the maid appeared and told uswe had come too early. It was thenabout 8.30. Just then Madame Couehappened to pass by, coming fromher beautiful and much-loved garden.When she heard that we were theAmericans who had come all the wayfrom New York just to consult M.Coue she seemed to agree with usthat we were worthy some specialattention. We were accordinglyushered into M. Coue's study. Notuntil much later did we learn howfavoured we had been, for it was notthe practice of M. Coue to see people

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEprivately. He gives so much of histime to the public clinics that thelittle which remains to him must bepreserved for writing and the de-mands of his individual life.

It had seemed to us surely anunprecedented thing that anyoneshould, like us, have taken so longa trip for the purpose of seeing M.Coue. We were to learn later thatnot only were we not the first Amer-icans whose interest in M. Coue andhis work had led them to Nancy, butthat his fame had even reached SouthAfrica, so that at that very time pa-tients from that distant place werethere to consult him.

However, our concern for the mo-ment was with the private interview,which presently we had with M.Coue. It was naturally of great in-terest to us to gauge the personalityof a man so famous that his namewas known the world over.We had not been long in his studywhen M. Coue entered. How shall I

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUBdepict him in words? Sixty-sevenyears young, short in stature, with aremarkably keen eye and a twinklingsmile, he appears at first glance tobe bent with age, but one flash of hismerry smile instantly sets that im-pression to rest. One feels, to beginwith, how unassuming he is; next,how sincere; and lastly, how assured."You will be better," seems to be hismost characteristic remark.When he asked me what ailed me,I outlined to him my Via Crucis of

ill-health. I told him how I hadtaken treatments with osteopaths,allopaths, chiropractors, even men-tioning the ill-fated faith cures. Irelated of how all promised relief,but failed to give any. I remembertelling him of how one had advisedme, when I suffered most keenly withmy limbs, to walk with my mind,and not with my legs, for he as wellas many others maintained that I hadno trouble with them at all.M. Coue differed from them in

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEthat he recognized that I really didhave a physical basis for the pain inmy limbs, but he was of the opinionthat most of it was in my belief.Thereupon I said to him"Why should this exist in my legsif it is simply a belief in my mind?Why should not my arms be also af-fected?"He replied

"Undoubtedly you had a weaknessof the muscles of the legs and yourbelief strengthened it until it becamean actual fact to you, as a source ofgreat pain."When I asked him whether hecould cure me he said:

"I shall cure you, Mrs. Kirk. Ido not think you will have a recur-rence of the cramps."When I asked him, later in theinterview, about his method of cure,he said:"Be sure, Mrs. Kirk, that I do notperform these cures that are attrib-uted to me. Patients cure themselves

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEevery time. I just fertilize the men-tal soil, then make a few suggestions.If, then, the patient acts on these hewill get well, if it is within the limitsof possibility. There are many casesthat come to me that cannot be cured.Broken tissues, loss of limbs, somecases of deafness, some cases of eyediseases are incurable."He explained later that if the dis-ease of the eye is a muscular one, hecan cure it, but if there are liquidcomplications, he cannot.At this moment, while we were

discussing what could and what couldnot be cured, a lady entered with alarge suitcase. The maid was ex-postulating with her and trying asbest she could to prevent her fromgoing further. ."M. Coue," cried the woman,pleading, "your portrait that I ampainting is nearly finished."M. Coue laughed boyishly, in thetwinkling way peculiar to him, andsaid that the lady surely must be ad-

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEmitted if she was painting his por-trait.We then withdrew, while he calledafter us

"Be sure to sit in the garden untilthe patients come."

So ended my first interview withM. Coue.

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CHAPTER VIIIMv Treatment and Cure byCoue

My personal experience in beingtreated by Monsieur Coue is so sim-ple as to be unbelievable; neverthe-less, it has resulted in so definite achange, has proven so decided a cureas to seem a miraclea term thatM. Coue greatly objects to. Mytreatment was as follows : He askedme at first to hold out my arms withmy hands firmly clasped together andto repeat many times "I cannot openmy hands." At first I felt sure thatI could unclasp them if I tried, show-ing that the belief "I cannot" wasnot yet fully established in my uncon-scious mind. We repeated this to-gether many times, yet it was notwholly satisfactory because I reallydid not have the belief. However,he kindly said to me, "You do very

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUfiwell for the first time and I feel sureif you do exactly as I ask you to, thatyou will be cured."

Later in the morning, when I waswith other patients, he asked meto try this again. This time I hada much more confident feeling that Iwas getting the idea of the belief "Icannot" that he desired I shouldhave, and again he made the sugges-tion, "You will soon be well. Allpain will cease." After the thirdtrial I was conscious that thethoughts, "I cannot" and "I can,"had complete mastery of my hands.Then my kind teacher said, "Do nowas I tell you and you will soon bewell; there will be no recurrence ofthe pain, no contraction of the mus-cles, no lack of nerve control."Even then I did not believe it pos-sible; it all seemed so simple as to beonly a passing fancy. I repeatedtwenty times every morning and eve-ning, as he asked me to do, "Dayby day, in every way, I am getting

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUfibetter and better," sometimes add-ing, "and I am sure there will be norecurrence of the pain." M. Couesaid there was no objection to makingthis specific suggestion, though it wasnot at all necessary. In less than aweek I found that I could move aboutmore easily and could do more thingswithout conscious effort than I hadbeen able to do for years. It wasthen that the real cure was effected.I could now sit for a long time with-out changing position. I could walkmuch more easily and after threemonths, during which time I havesurely been getting better and bettereach day, there has been no recur-rence of the pain and I walk as welland as easily as I did twenty yearsago.The method that brought about

this result seems almost too simpleto tell. I have stated the treatmentin its entirety exactly as I received it.How simple it all sounds in the tell-ing! You go to Monsieur Coue with

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEan ailment, you return home, youseem to take up life when and as youleft it seventeen years ago. And yet,it is not exactly so. Precisely whatyou suffered from was not so mucha disease as a moral disaster; thecure has given you more than the ab-sence of pain. Something positivehas been gainedwhat M. Couecalls "Self-Mastery." You are ledto see that life has more spiritualvalue than you had given heed to.It is this intangible gain that I amanxious to pass on to others. Andit is with the hope that I can helpcreate a better understanding of M.Coue's work gained by my own per-sonal contact with him that I desireto make these observations of hissystem, which is certainly justified byresults and guaranteed by the logic ofscience.

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CHAPTER IXCOUE AND THE PEASANT CLINICSIt seems that the day I saw M.Coue for the first time was reservedfor peasants. We discovered thatclinics are held and that regularhours are observed as follows: Ontwo days a week, there are held whatare known as the Peasants' Clinics;all other afternoons, except Sunday,clinics are held in his home or in hisgarden, the weather permitting, forother people.The Peasants' Clinics are held all

day long, in a little house in thegarden, and so many people flock tothem that four meetings are held,two in the morning and two in theafternoon. Sometimes these are dou-bled in number, when M. Coue takesone group while one of his followerstakes another.The garden is most attractive and

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEthe atmosphere is calm, serene andhopeful. The people begin to arrivelong before the hour set, and placethemselves in groups about the roomsof the little house in the garden,which is used for the peasants. Itneeds but a glance to see what hasbrought them hither; faces drawnwith pain, the tortured look of men-tal distress, the twisted and bentframes supported by cane or crutch,all bear silent testimony to the needand the hope of relief. Soon M.Coue arrives. His manner is brisk,cheerful, even happy. His invariablepractice is to give treatment ingroups. Since he practices for hisjoy in the good he can accomplish(for it is an actual fact that he ac-cepts no fees), he is free to dictatethe terms under which he will treatpeople. The only terms he makesare that the patients shall come topublic clinics. So here he is, as acces-sible as the air we breathe. No oneis denied, and yet, in a sense, he is

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEmost inaccessible, for no matter whatone's means or position, to see M.Coue, he must come to the groupmeetings.

There seems to be a double pur-pose underlying his regulation. First,it minimizes the possibilities of thepatient's discussion of his own symp-toms. To dwell upon symptoms isto make a suggestion, which is highlyundesirable. We all know how char-acteristic it is to rehearse symptoms,particularly in the case of chronicinvalids. However, in a large groupit becomes practically impossible, andthat is a first step toward eliminatingan evil suggestion and substituting agood one. Next, M. Coue, in hiswhole attitude, reduces the impor-tance of illness. He is cheerful. Heeven makes little jokes as he makesa round of the room. The secondpurpose in group meetings seems tobe to strengthen the force of everygood suggestion made. As M. Couespeaks to each one, and from practi-

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUfically all the old patients come reportsof improvement, this naturally actsupon the others to instil hope andconfidence. So he goes about, havinga few words with each. If he finds,as he almost always does, someonein acute pain, he stops a few momentsto dispel it, by the following method:The patient is asked to relax asmuch as possible and to sit quietly,perhaps touching the part of thebody that is the seat of the pain.Then he is told to say over and over,rapidly, "C'est passe." M. Couedemonstrates how, by saying thewords with the patient, and so rap-idly does he speak that it sounds likea small buzz saw.You may doubt the possibility ofwhat I say, but it remains true that,over and over, we saw this methodeffective in action.

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CHAPTER XCoue's Method of Auto-

suggestionM. Coue, as is well known, main-tains that the imagination is strongerthan the will. His whole science isbased upon this theory, and judgingfrom his experiments it is a veryworkable theory indeed. To provehis point M. Coue is fond of tryinga little experiment with several peo-ple in succession to demonstrate howpowerful imagination really is. Aperson is asked to clasp his hands,pressing them together more andmore tightly, until they fairly trem-ble. At the same time he is askedto say to himself, over and over, "Ican't open them. I can't open them."Then, still holding this thought asfirmly as possible, he is asked to tryto open them. Of course, as long ashe thinks he cannot, it is impossible

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEfor him to do so. This experimentcannot fail, for if the hands are un-clasped it is because the patient de-cided he could do it.The effect upon the onlooker is

almost uncanny. It looks like magic,but it is easily apparent that it is onlya simple demonstration of the powerof the mental attitude. Perhaps thereader may have undergone a similarexperience, or seen someone elsestruggle hard to do something, andyet powerless to effect it. As an in-stance we may take the effort neededto dive into the water for the firsttime from a spring-board. Therethe individual stands; he honestlywants to dive; he is ashamed not to.Surely nothing could be simpler. Itlooks a more difficult feat to stand,poised and trembling at the edge ofthe board, than to make the leap;and yet some fear, deep within him,holds him as though paralysed. Asimilar experience may be observedwhen one tries to cross a busy street.

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEUnable to move hand or foot, onestands rooted with terror, exposingoneself to the very dangers one fears.

It is this same feeling of power-lessness that M. Coue evokes in oneconsciously in this experiment. Be-cause of the feeling of the inabilityto do a certain thing, one actually isunable to do it. This experimentseems to me another proof of thedeep wisdom of M. Coue, for in thisway he causes the patient to realizethe strength of his own thought, andthe responsibility he has toward itsproper direction.The idea is next presented upon

which the whole method of consciousautosuggestion is based. Before any-one can understand what it is, hemust first of all realize the natureof his own mind, namely, that he hastwo selves. We have been prone tothink that the conscious self, the onewe know best, is the true self. It isonly a very recent development inpsychology that is bringing to the

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEfore the other, really deeper andtruer self, the Unconscious or Sub-conscious self. Even in the recentdiscoveries, much emphasis has beenplaced, however, on the Subconsciousas something evil, to be subdued andcontrolled. M. Coue's attitude to-ward it is quite different.

First of all, let us consider whatthe unconscious does for us. Thereare many bodily and mental activitieswhich we can consciously direct andalter; but there are many more, ofgreater importance, that we cannotcontrol through the mind. Theseare more important because they arethe fundamental life activities with-out which life could not continue.Breathing, the beating of the heart,the processes of digestion and manymore, all come under that category.We have always been more or lessaware of the force of the subcon-scious. Literature abounds with rec-ognition of a power within oneself,and yet often alien to one's real pur-

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEposes. Indeed, if one set out withthis idea in mind, one could not reada book, without finding illustrations.To quote from Miss Cather's newbook, One of Ours:"The feeling of purpose, of fatefulpurpose, was strong in his breast."

McFee, in his new novel Com-mand, says: "For he had of late dis-covered that a man can, in somecurious subconscious way, keep hishead in a swoon. Like a person whois under an anaesthetic, who is awareof his own pulsing, swaying descentinto a hurried yet timeless oblivion,whose brain keeps an amused recordof the absurd efforts of alien intelli-gences to communicate with him ashe drops past the spinning worldsinto darkness, and who is aware, too,of his own entire helplessness, a mancan with advantage sometimes lethimself be fooled."Mark Twain in his Autobiographysays:

"There are some books that refuse[49]


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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUfito be written. They stand theirground, year after year, and will notbe persuaded. It is not because thebook is not there and worth beingwrittenit is only because the rightform of the story does not presentitself."

It has always been recognised thatunder emotional stress we often seemto be quite other beings than we liketo think we are, or, indeed, than wetry to be. It is common to hear itsaid, "He was beside himself withrage or fear." It has remained forM. Coue to discover the real natureof the unconscious, and to present itnot as an evil genius, rising from thedepths from time to time under emo-tional impulsion to defeat our mostearnest purposes; but that it is a deepand vital force, capable of being edu-cated and directed, provided that thelaws under which it works are ob-served. Under those circumstancesit may become a very fruitful sourceof power and peace.

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CHAPTER XIC0UE AND THE SUBCONSCIOUS

M. Coue's method is to study thesubconscious. His aim is to discoverwhen it most clearly manifests itself,and how it operates. It is wellknown that it is during sleep that itis most active. As a matter of fact,it is never dormant, and when sleeplulls the conscious mind it is free tomanifest itself. It is of course im-possible for the conscious mind to getinto touch with the unconscious dur-ing sleep, but there can be found cer-tain moments during waking periodsthat correspond to the characterof sleep. We find that in periodsof complete relaxation. When daydreams come, there exists such acondition.M. Coue, therefore, advocatesthat upon retiring, and also immedi-ately upon waking, while the mind

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEand body are as relaxed as possible,everyone should make to himself thegeneral suggestion of well-being thatis coming to be a household expres-sion: "Day by day, in every way, Iam getting better and better." Thisis to be said twenty times. M. Couealso suggests the use of a string withtwenty knots tied to it, for keepingthe record, and the uttering of thewords in as monotonous a tone aspossible. In other words, what isknown in psychology as voluntary oractive attention should be reduced toa minimum; the conscious self is tobe lulled to as quiescent a state aspossible, short of actual sleep. M.Coue explains that any idea which wecan succeed in having the subcon-scious accept will be realized in ac-tion, provided, however, that it iswithin the realms of the possible; forhe realizes that the human body haslimitations.When dealing with his patients M.Coue assures them that they will be

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUfibetter. He mentions various casespresent, speaking rather generally ofparticular symptoms, and saying thatthey will pass. It will be noted thatin this particular his method is quitedifferent from some others whichheal also by suggestion, for he recog-nises the reality of pain and suffering.He does not say: "You have nopain," but "You will be better."This calls forth no antagonistic sug-gestion in the unconscious mind ofthe patient. A second importantthing is his method of repetition.Repetition in psychology is a veryuseful factor, especially in the learn-ing process. More and more, espe-cially in recent research, its useful-ness has been appreciated. It is usedextensively in the business world, andadvertising has built a scientific lawabout it. How often are we led bythe constant repetition of an adver-tiser to try his product! It is in justthe same way that one may cause thesubconscious to adopt an idea. A

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEvery simple method,so simple that,paradoxical as it may sound, it isvery difficult. One is always proneto slide over the easy and obvious,and Very often just those simple,obvious things are the very funda-mentals of life. Nature seems tohave derived her greatest joy inworking silently and unobserved.Who has ever heard the seedlinggerminate or the sap flow? Whohas ever taken stock of the workingsof thought in the human mind, as itsilently, quietly thinks the dreamsthat may revolutionize a universe.Thinking is such a common process,and yet there is hardly a man inexistence who can adequately say howit is done. It is such a simple, such anatural thing.

In his dealing with the subcon-scious, Coue's method is strictly psy-chological, for it is the application ofa sound principle of psychology. Hecalls forth a state of mind among hispatients that succeeds in having them

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUElose all fear of disease. He inspiresthem with self-confidence. Hismethod is not to have his patients getwell merely by having them deter-mine to do so, but by causing them tofeel confident that their curativepowers are functioning in the bestpossible manner. Once he succeedsin getting this idea into the subcon-scious mind of his patient, the cureis effected.

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CHAPTER XIIA Seance With Coue

To see M. Coue enter a roomcrowded with patients, each anxiousto tell his distressing symptoms,many revealing by their obvious de-formities or useless members whattheir needs are, is to feel at once hispersonal power and his reservoir ofhope and enthusiasm. The dailyrepetition of his great task of hear-ing troubles and patiently explainingthem away, which would soon wearout a person of ordinary vitality, hasno terrors for him. He throws offweariness as lightly as the plow turnsoff the sod from the furrow. He dis-plays some of the energy of radium,which constantly gives off its emana-tions of power without any measur-able diminution of strength. Once,in response to a patient who com-

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEplained of fatigue, M. Coue quickly-retorted :

"Feel tired? Well, so do I.There are days when it tires me toreceive people, but I receive themjust the same, and all day long. Donot say I cannot help it. One canalways overcome oneself."As soon as M. Coue arrives, he

greets the group. No sign of ennuiis displayed on his face as he takesin this distressing sight which hascome to him daily for twenty years.The unceasing stream of the miser-able does not even momentarily stag-ger him. His enthusiasm is limitless.Almost arrived at the normal end oflife, he continues to restore the lifeand wasted energies of others.As he takes up the day's work, his

manner is brisk, cheerful, radiant.He makes the round of the room,speaking to each one, listening toeach one. No story of suffering castshim down. His attitude in the faceof each is serene, even confident and

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEjolly. There is always a twinklingsmile ready to be evoked. He jokeswith the patients. He banters them.He refuses to take disease seriouslyor lugubriously. He lightly ridiculestheir complaints. He will not hearof symptoms.

"Oh, Madame, not so many de-tails, I beg you !" he protests laugh-ingly. "By looking for details youcreate them, and you would want alist a yard long to contain all yourmaladies. As a matter of fact, it isthe mental outlook which is wrong.Well, make up your mind it is goingto be better and it will be so. It's assimple as the Gospel."

Always, whenever he finds some-one in acute pain he dispels it in hisusual way by having the patient sitquietly, relaxed, perhaps touching thepainful area, and repeating rapidlyafter him: "Ca passe, ga passe, qapasse, ga passe "As first seen thus at work, M.

Coue seems almost to have a com-[58]


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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEmand over pain and disease. Hesays it will pass, and it passes. Hesays, "You will be better," and youare better. Once he left his quiethome in Nancy to journey to Parisa rare excursion for one so devotedto the unfortunates who seek himout. The crowds flocked to him,some skeptical, some ready to believeanything. The sick and lame doggedhis heels. Nearly all were relieved;many were instantly cured. He wentto London to deliver a lecture, andset all England by the ears with hisremarkable demonstrations of drug-less healing. And everything he ac-complishes quietly, naturally, withalmost childlike simplicity.One day, during a seance, there

was a little stir near the door. Wewere seated in the hall and sawplainly that a man was being broughtin by some persons in a hand-basket.He was very ill with asthma. Theybrought him into the room and M.Coue said:

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUE"Why did you not come up the

steps?"There are three or four steps

leading to M. Coue's home.The man panted: "I could not."M. Coue then took his hand andsaid:"Walk down the steps with me."When they reached the pavementM. Coue said again:"Now I want you to go up the

steps alone.""But I cannot do it," replied theman.M. Coue again assured him that

he could do it and had him repeatmany, many times, "I can go up thosesteps; I can go up those steps."

In less than five minutes he walkedup the steps, showed some exertionwhen he entered the hall, and restedawhile. M. Coue had him repeat it.Thereupon the man walked down thesteps, coming up again with far lessexertion. Always before each newtrial, he said: "I can go up and down

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEthese steps easily." This action herepeated three times during the after-noon, with intervals of rest.The next time he came to the

clinic he was walking altogetherwithout support, and was showing nosigns of difficulty in breathing. Isaw him on several occasions afterthat, and he told me that he had nodifficulty whatever after the firstefforts.

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CHAPTER XIIICoue and Divine Healing

In his various clinics M. Coue hasconquered cases of paralysis, tuber-culosis, asthma, anaemia, stuttering,enteritis, gout, dyspepsia, eczemaand neurasthenia in all its manifes-tations. The crippled have thrownaway their crutches and walked forthe first time, sometimes after a sin-gle treatment. So amazing are someof his results, so great is the joy in-stantly felt by those relieved, and bythem infectiously communicated toastonished witnesses, that it is notsurprising that M. Coue himself ishailed as the healer, the source ofpower that accomplishes these cures.

Christian Scientists, when theyachieve similar results, assert that itis divine healing. Those in chargeof Catholic shrines such as Lourdesand Ste. Anne de Beaupre say that it

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUfiis God working through the interces-sion of particular saints in speciallocalities that produces the marvel-ous results. Hindoo healers haveclaimed magical or religious powersto cure, in similar fashion. Eventhe proof of Christ's own divinity issometimes asserted on the strengthof the miracles of healing which Heperformed.The popular mind is thoroughly

prepared to believe that divine powercan produce particular cures, that theDeity does sometimes take note of,and miraculously heal individuals,and that the possession, therefore, bya human being, of power to effectcures in an unexplained fashion with-out material aid is in itself proof ofhis possessing some superhuman,spiritual force.On this account, most people,when convinced that M. Coue'smethod does cure, assume that hehas some special power in himself.Many hail him as a divine agent, and

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COTJEit is easy to believe him a person suchas might be selected for the exerciseof peculiar forces. His venerablesprightliness, his sinister joy in doinggood, his gleeful, chuckling attitudein the face of the most discouragingmaladies, cause him to appear a littleaffected by some kind of madness.Why should he, an old man, havebeen doing this sort of thing fortwenty years without losing his ex-cited enthusiasm in it? Why shouldhe be so removed from the ordinarymotives of ordinary human beings?

"Perhaps it is profitable to him?"the skeptic might ask.

But not at all. He takes no fees.He not only demands no money, buteven refuses to accept any. He livessimply and takes no pleasures beyondearly morning labors in the garden,and his long hours of work with hispatients. His time is taken up to theextent of fifteen to sixteen hours aday. "I have never seen Coue re-fuse to give a treatment at however

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEawkward the hour the subject mayhave asked for it," says one admirer.He has subscribed his private means,opened his own house, and devotedevery waking minute of his time tothis miraculous healing of the sick.They come to him, and he gives ofhimself, taking nothing in return. Heis thus absolutely exposed as a manof pure heart. He is caught white-handed with innocence. He is con-victed, by his own actions, of being abit touched with divinity!No wonder that a severe critic, aPolytechnician, exclaims, "He is apower!" or that a lady asks, afteiseeing his cures, "Do you think thereare beings who radiate influence?"One woman, excited by the disap-

pearance of her suffering, cried:"Oh, M. Coue, one could kneel toyou. You are the merciful God!"And another corrected her, saying:"No, His messenger."M. Coue himself attributes noth-ing divine or superhuman to his mar-

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEvelous cures. There is no mistakeabout his answer to that question

"It is not the person who acts,"says Coue; "it is the method.

"I have no magnetic fluid."I have no influence."I have never cured anybody."My disciples obtain the same re-

sults as myself."Things which seem miraculous to

you have a perfectly natural cause;if they seem extraordinary it is onlybecause the cause escapes you. Whenyou know that, you realize that noth-ing could be more natural."Not his personal power, but auto-suggestion conveyed by the subjecthimself, to himself, is Coue's ownexplanation for his cures. Auto-suggestion he defines as a sort ofself-hypnotism, "the influence of theimagination upon the moral andphysical being."

"If you persuade yourself thatyou can do a certain thing, provided

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUfithat thing be possible, you will do it,however difficult it may be."To one patient Coue said: "WhenI tell you that you are better, youdo feel better at once, don't you?Why? Because you have faith in me.Just believe in yourself and you willobtain the same result."

In his lectures Coue always ex-plains to his patients that he pos-sesses no healing powers; that theycarry in themselves the source oftheir well-being. He is merely anagent to instil ideas of health intotheir minds.

"Autosuggestion is an instrumentwhich you have to learn how to use,just as you would any other instru-ment. An excellent gun in inexpe-rienced hands only gives wretchedresults, but the more skilled thehands become the more easily theyplace the bullets in the target."When certain people do not ob-tain satisfactory results with auto-suggestion, it is either because they

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUfilack confidence, or because they makeefforts, which is the more frequentcase. To make good suggestions itis absolutely necessary to do so with-out effort. Conscious autosuggestion,made with confidence, with faith,with perseverance, realizes itselfmathematically, within reason."

Coue, then, lays no claim to per-sonal power, or even religious aid ineffecting cures. Indeed, as we haveseen, he ascribes to autosuggestionthe cures for which religious sanctionis asserted.

"The means employed by the heal-ers all go back to autosuggestion,"he says. "That is to say, that thesemethods, whatever they arewords,incantations, gestures, stagingallproduce in the patient the autosug-gestion of recovery."

This self-depreciation, while disap-pointing the enthusiasts and disarm-ing the carpers, is well justified bythe history of autosuggestion. Toomany people before Coue have suc-

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEceeded by approximately the samemethods for any one person to beable to assert his possession ofstrange, occult powers. Indeed, Couehad, in his own town of Nancy, aprototype in nearly every particular.

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CHAPTER XIVCoue's Predecessors in Auto-

suggestionThe modern theory of psychother-apy owes its real birth to a littleFrench country doctor, A. A. Lie-bault, who opened a public dispen-sary in Nancy as long ago as 1860,announcing that he would treat, freeof charge, all who would submit tobe hypnotized. Although ignoredand scouted by his medical brethren,for at that period hypnotism, stillbeing more or less an occult science,was looked upon apprehensively,for twenty-five years he treated thepoorer classes practically withoutcharge. H i s patients numberedabout 15,000. Liebault's public spiritwas quite as high as that of Coue,and his method was not dissimilar,for Coue himself began with hyp-notism, and only as time went on

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEfound it possible to induce autosug-gestion without producing sleep.

There were also other practition-ers of drugless healing at Nancy,Bernheim, Liegeois (professor ofJurisprudence) and Beaunis (profes-sor of Physiology). They all pub-lished books on the subject. TheNancy school of investigation hasbeen followed in France by such menas A. Voisin, Barillon, Dejerine,Luys, Cullere, Nizet, Laloy, Reg-noult and others, besides many morein other countries.At the present day Coue does not

stand quite alone in his practice. Hisassistants, especially Mile. Kauff-mant, and those in charge of the in-stitute for the Practice of Autosug-gestion in London, and above allCoue's friend and fellow investiga-tor, Professor Charles Baudouin, ofSwitzerland, all perform similarworks of restoration. Indeed, theyall meet with excellent results. Imyself was cured of a minor trouble

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUfithrough the efforts of a young Eng-lish girl working with Coue.We should not too lightly disposeof Coue, however. In spite of hisown modest disclaimers, in spite of amultitude of predecessors, associatesand disciples, the little, stoop-shoul-dered chemist of Nancy remains notonly the sensation of to-day, but,with justice, the leader and thegreatest name connected with auto-suggestion. He, through his person-ality and astonishing cures, throughhis disinterested love of doing goodfor its own sake, has done much topopularize and gain adherents to hismethod of autosuggestion. He hassucceeded in making of it not a con-fined, insular scientific discovery, buta universally applicable law.

His faith rests securely upon agreat truth and a great service. Thetruth, which he was the first to makeplain, was precisely the disclosurethat this method was free for all topractice, if they were sufficiently in-

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEterested. His service lay in his greatskill in so simplifying the principlesof autosuggestion that everybody inthe world can understand them.Other suggestionists knowingly orunconsciously have lent themselves tothe illusion that they possessed spe-cial powers, or were dealing with atechnique that only the initiate oughtto be allowed to practice. They kepttheir methods cryptic, vague, mys-terious,an exclusive possession.They would not allow any one to seethe wheels go 'round. Coue, on theother hand, has made autosuggestionas simple and universal in its availa-bility as the air we breathe. Whatgenius it reveals, after all, to take afew simple instruments, such as astring of twenty knots, a doggerel oftwelve words, and two or three easyaffirmations, and to create out ofthem a system of drugless medicinethat has the world at respectful at-tention ! If Coue's cures are notmagical, his personal methods are.

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUfiThe hardest thing for most peopleto understand about Coueism is that

there isn't more of it. The sole tenetin the system is the deliberatelyadopted belief that, whatever ailsyou, you are getting better. Thesole means of forming that belief isto put the affirmation to work in yoursubconscious mind, with the expecta-tion that the subconscious mind willcarry the belief out into actualitywhile you are occupied with otherthings. The sole means of puttingthat belief to work is to din it intothe mind by tireless assertion at thosetimes of day when the will is mostquiescent, and when the fancy is mostcredulous.

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CHAPTER XVOther Applications for Auto-

suggestionSo far we have treated autosugges-tion insofar as it is used in particularconditions, specific infirmities. If,however, one desires a general sug-gestion for well-being, in digestion,other bodily functions and sleep, M.Coue has a routine for thata state-ment which he himself recites beforehis patients at the end of a seance.He has them sit quietly, relaxed,with their eyes closed, while he mut-ters over them a long suggestionabout the healthy functioning ofevery part of the body and mind.The effect he secures is invariably animmediate lifting of the spirits ofthose who hear it.

For particular maladies, as wehave already said, M. Coue givesassent to the formulation of specific

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEstatements suggesting particular im-provements, but he is somewhat skep-tical about the relative value of suchitemizing formulae. There is alwaysthe possibility of focusing the mindon the symptom rather than on theimprovement expected. Anxiety toget well may take the place of thehealing belief in a cure, and thus thewill is fatally brought in, and the illscomplained of become more acuteand vivid than ever. The safer wayis to forget just what troubles one,and to feel comforted in the generalbelief engendered by the assertionthat "Day by day, in every way, Iam getting better and better."Thus M. Coue brings his methodto an end just where he began it, in

a sing-song of childlike simplicity,which he frankly acknowledges to behis whole system. He labors withhis followers to make them acceptthe truth that nothing more is neces-sary.

Anything further introduced into[76]


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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEthe Coue system by himself or byanyone else is a variant of the for-mula, or merely an approach to thethreshold of belief. There are, in-deed, hurdles to be got over beforethe subconscious mind can accept thesuggestion of daily growing better.In the minds of the skeptical, doubtsmust be removed, suggestibility builtup, hope enkindled, faith engendered,and a desire aroused sufficient to keepthe subject repeating the formulalong enough for it to start its workin the subconscious.As a means of awakening such

hope and preparing the mind for be-lief, the Coue demonstrations are, ofcourse, of sovereign value. Nothingsucceeds like success. A visualdemonstration is worth hours ofargument and verbal proof. Hence,M. Coue receives his patients alwaysin groups, in order that the moresuggestible people who are mosteasily and quickly cured may infectby their example and convince by

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEtheir cries of delight and astonish-ment the more phlegmatic individ-uals who scoff. Each day, alongwith the inquiring newcomers, findsold patients who are ready to testifyand to reinforce their testimony withtheir hopeful attitudes that they havemade, and are still making, improve-ments.

Furthermore, the newcomer is al-ways given the hand-clasping test ofsuggestibility, which is usually effec-tive enough to convince him.

Fortunately, however, one doesnot have to begin with faith in themethod to sustain benefit. The sub-conscious mind often fashions a be-lief for itself out of the infection ofsuch demonstrations and goes towork on it while the conscious mindis still wrestling with difficulties,hunting for proofs and botheringabout theories. I, myself, went overto Nancy with hope, but hardly withbelief.

Simple people, however, children,[78]


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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUBand the peasants, who flock in suchnumbers to the clinic, and persons ofmarked religious tendencies are like-ly to be benefited at once. Theyarrive prepared to believe, the for-mula works upon them, the demon-stration convinces them, and they arecured, if not immediately, then inshort order. The complete simplicityof the Coue method and its generaladaptability is by such cases tri-umphantly demonstrated.The more sophisticated mind,however, cannot so easily be workedupon. People of higher educationand wider experience demand thatresults seemingly so miraculous bebrought into conformity with thegeneral laws of science. They wantto see how it is possible for the mindto perform cures of maladies thathave not yielded to medicine.

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CHAPTER XVIThe Psychology ofAutosuggestion

The practice of Coueism is self-contained and sufficient in itself, butfor those who need to go beyond,and care to follow his theory, Couehas explanations nearly as lucid andsimple as the method. He has deep-ly investigated the nature of the sub-conscious or unconscious mind. Therehe has found certain psychologicallaws which seem to him to accountfor his surprising results. Nothingnew is created by these laws, al-though several things are freshlystated. The scientific merit ofCoue's explanation lies in his bring-ing together known and demonstrableprinciples of psychology, and his re-jection of every unsound theory.To begin with, he acknowledgeshis limitations. He does not attempt

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEthe impossible. When promisingbenefits, he always says, "providingthis thing be possible." "You arecapable of accomplishing perfectlywell whatever you wish to do, oncondition that it is reasonable, andwhatever it is your duty to do.""What you say persistently and veryquickly conies to pass (within thedomain of the reasonable, ofcourse)."

Nevertheless, Coue is very spar-ing of mention of the diseases or con-ditions that he considers it reason-able to cure. He admits that auto-suggestion cannot set broken bones,or replace severed fingers. He ad-mits the possibility of transmittinginfectious diseases. I have seen himtell a new patient, a woman, that shemust first consult a physician for amorbid condition before he wouldconsent to receive her into the groupfor his treatment. The best he couldhope to do for a former soldier witha mutilated face was to improve his

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEmoral fortitude to enable him toescape the embarassment and de-pression caused by his unfortunateappearance. Another former sol-dier, shell-shocked, was considered adoubtful case. If his mind was toofar gone to receive suggestions, ofcourse, Coue admitted, autosugges-tion could not cure him. The smallpercentage of insane, of people ofarrested mental development or ofunsuggestible temperaments are alsoruled out as outside the range of hisministrations.

For the rest, however, Coue ac-cepts no handicaps. He has seen im-provements in so many apparently in-curable maladies when they havebeen faced with confidence, that heconfronts them all with the sover-eign remedy, which is confidence. Ajaunty self-assurance in the presenceof disease is his manner, because itis also his cure.To one patient he says : "You tellme you have attacks of nerves every

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEweek. Well, from to-day you aregoing to do what I tell you and youwill cease to have them."To another: "And you, Monsieur,your varicose ulcer is already bet-ter."To a third: "Ah, you have glau-coma, Madame. I cannot absolutelypromise to cure you of that, for I amnot sure that I can. That does notmean that you cannot be cured, for Ihave known it to happen in the caseof a lady of Chalon-sur-Saone andanother of Lorraine." Or again:"You say that you have suffered forforty years? It is none the less truethat you can be cured to-morrow, oncondition, naturally, of your doingexactly what I tell you to do, in theway I tell you to do it."

Is such optimism then, unscien-tific? Does the note sound strained?Perhaps so, if one demand of Couethe reticence of a diagnostician mak-ing what he calls a prognosis. Thespecialist, in his desire never to be

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEfound to have overstated the pros-pects of cure, usually makes sogloomy a forecast that he gives thepatient a case of melancholy that hasto be dealt with before his originaltrouble can be tackled. In a scantproportion of cases, Coue's happypredictions may prove to have beenoverdrawn; in all the rest they havebeen, themselves, the means ofbringing themselves to pass.

All successful physicians nowadaysrecognize this fact,that an opti-mistic attitude toward a disease is thefirst essential for a cure. The mostorthodox medical people are placingmore and more reliance upon nat-ural, self-corrective factors and lessand less upon medicines.

Dr. Richard Cabot, for instance,in his "Layman's handbook on medi-cine," which deserves to be readalongside of Coue, says, "There isthis consoling fact about disease,viz : that it usually gets well of itself,if given half a chance. Many a vic-

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUBtory over germs is so easily won thatwe never experience any illness atall. Traces of struggle are left inthe tissues, but the patient neverknows it. When the attack is forci-ble enough to make us aware of dis-ease, we try to aid nature. By rest,diet, nursing or surgery, we clear theway for Nature's army of Restora-tion.

"Occasionally we take a more de-cisive part. In eight diseasesma-laria, chlorosis, myxedema, syphilis,diphtheria, latent tetanus, sunstroke,hookworm and a few other tropicaldiseaseswhat we do may really becalled cure. In 270 (odd) other dis-eases as listed in text-books of medi-cine, nature, with some help fromour hygiene, can usually do the work.It is only in cancer and a few othermaladiesmost of them rarethatnature does little or nothing for ourrestoration to health.

"In most cases, then, it is a win-ning fight that we enter when we

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEcontribute our tiny strength to aidthe colossal and beneficent inge-nuity of nature's sanitation. Whatwe do is vastly worthwhile becauseit tries to imitate and in some de-gree to supplement the ever-activePower not ourselves that makes forhealth."

This is the word of a great phys-ician on the staff of Harvard Uni-versity, and formerly head of Massa-chusetts General Hospital thatdrugs can cure eight diseases, andout of 300 cases nature cures 272.What Cabot calls "Nature" Couemore specifically calls "the subcon-scious." "Nature," so far as it is inus, of course, is our vital processesthe unconscious growth, decay,movement, elimination and chemicalchange, that goes on unceasingly, andusually without feeling, in our in-ternal organs and tissues. It is notexactly conscious, as we well know,and yet it is presided over and di-rected by a system of nerves that

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEhave their ultimate origin and end-ings in the brain. It is related toconsciousness, we also know, becausewhat we do and feel consciously af-fects it adversely or beneficially.The proof of the influence of con-scious feeling upon the hidden under-tow of nature, which is the uncon-scious, is borne in upon us in a thou-sand ways. Bad news of sickness un-nerves us, quite as if we had takensomething deleterious into our stom-achs. A mere thought reaches ourvital organs and throws them outof kilter. Some people, if broughtto the top of a high building growdizzy and sicken at the mere sight.A change of scenetravel and ex-citementare often prescribed byphysicians as a cure for nervous dis-eases and even functional derange-ments. If asked to toe a crack onthe floor, any normal person can doso accurately, but only a practicedfoot can safely walk a wide plankover a deep chasm. Fear disturbs

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEall the functions of the body. Angeroften poisons and sickens.The conscious attitude of confi-dence, hope and striving is necessaryto maintain health. Who knows ofa case of a business man's success-fully "retiring" in his old age?Either he finds other objects of en-deavor connected with earlier experi-ence, and so essentially keeps going,or else he rapidly goes to pieces andearly falls a victim to disease anddeath.A man who has never known asick day in his life occasionally dis-covers, when past middle age, thathe has some incurable malady, en-larged heart, cancer, or Bright's dis-ease. The disclosure is usually fatalbefore the disease can work itselfout. A person who has often beenat death's door and rallied can standbad news about himself more stoic-ally, because in the recesses of hismind is the recollection of havingfooled the doctors before.

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CHAPTER XVIIThe Force of the SubconsciousThe subconscious, that unbeknown

to us, works for our help or hurtis undeniably a tremendous force,though it is not yet sufficiently under-stood. However, it has been dem-onstrated that it often works in con-junction with the conscious mind, ac-cepting suggestions that were firstpresented to the latter. It is thegreat storehouse of memory whencecome those sudden flashes of recol-lection of some inconsidered incidentof childhood. It is the great amphi-theatre of feeling and reasoning,whence come our sudden passions,our unhidden desires or decisions todo certain things. Ideas come forthfrom the unconscious mind greatlyelaborated, enveloped with new feel-ings, constructed into formidablesystems out of the minute daily offer-

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEings of conscious experience. Justas the painfully slow accretions ofthe bodies of coral polyps under thesea ultimately build up an island suchas the Bermudas, so the little actsand suggestions of health or sicknessaccumulate under the surface of ourconsciousness until they finallyemerge as an all-determining atti-tude, desire, or state of health.

It is Coue's discovery that what-ever idea is presented to the uncon-scious with an attitude of belief isaccepted as reality and graduallyrealizes itself in the unconscious.Hence his constant mission of favor-able suggestions to the unconscious.In his view, it is idle to try to up-root ideas in the unconscious. When-ever the will and the imagination(the belief to which we give con-sent) come into conflict, the imagina-tion invariably wins the day. Forthe imagination is simply that which,for us, is reality. The will is simplywhat we feel or desire about it,

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUEwhich cannot, of course, remove it.The only way to replace our sub-conscious sense of reality is to im-plant new belief by the process ofautosuggestion. Thus he comes backto the simple reiteration of "I amgetting better and better" to buildup new islands of consciousness un-der the surface of our knowing. Thesimplicity of the Coue system, there-fore, is not alone justified by its re-sults, but profoundly guaranteed bythe logic of science.

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MY PILGRIMAGE TO COUECREDOI believe in the earnestness of pur-

pose of Emile Coue, in his devotionto and sincerity in his work; in hisgreat kindness to all patients,whether they are in the highest ormore humble paths of life; in hisaffirmations of recovery to all, whenhe believes a cure is possible; in hisstatement that he has limitations andthat many cures cannot be effected byhim; in his assertion that dread andfear are the great hindrances tohealth; in the spiritual thought thathis patients receive from him, re-newing their interest in life and theircourage to go on under the most ad-verse conditions ; in fact, I believe inall his methods, all his attitude to-ward sickness, sorrow or distress.I believe that in all this he ap-proaches very near to the GreatComforter, for he certainly lives upto all His precepts. He epitomizesevery word and deed of the com-mand"freely ye have received,freely give."

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