Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1916 — Inspiration Miscellany [ARTICLE]

Inspiration Miscellany

Why Not Cure Your Bad Habits? In a large’eastern city is a professional hypnotist who has a wide reputation for curing the habit of intemperance. His method is very simple. “There is no real hypnotism about it —unless it is a matter of self hypnotism,” this professor once said. “I simply observe the mind process of the man that drinks and advise him how to reverse it. The subconscious soliloquy in the mind of the man that drinks runs something like this: ‘When did I have my last ball? Whew! Long as that! I don’t see how I stood it so long. Wouldn't have thought It possible.’ And so on the victim repeats to himself on the principle that he needs this-periodical stimulant just as It Is necessary to heap coal on to fire to keep it from burning out. In a word, that man self hypnotizes himself into tlio belief that he needs a drink. "My advice to cure this craving is not to fight the appetite, but to fight down the cause that leads to,the appetite. Let a man repeat to himself over and over again: ‘I really donH need this drink. If I take it. it’s simply a matter of pouring so much down my throat superfluously, for I could get along without,’ Before long he will be surprised how instead of hypnotizing himself into drink he will hypnotize himself out of it.” Simple, isn’t it? But if this self hypnotism, or whatever you choose to call it, is a cure for intemperance why is it not equally a recipe for curing other bad habits?