Autosuggestions: A Brief History

The ancient spiritual masters were all aware of the tremendous power of repeated positive statements. All the great religions have stressed their importance. Chanting a mantra - a sound, syllable, word, or group of words capable of ‘creating transformation’- is a customary practice in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. Repeating prayers is customary in Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH), the prophet of Islam, once said that if someone inquires about your well being, say ‘I am fine, Thank God’. It took scientists more than a thousand years to understand the significance of this statement.

In the beginning of the 20th century, psychiatrists finally began to realize the importance of saying ‘I am fine.’ French psychologist Emile Coue found in his research that when we say good things again and again good things are attracted to us. Our lives begin to change. Between 1910 and 1926 he helped thousands of patients recover from various psychosomatic diseases including migraine, headaches, asthma, stuttering, gastric ulcer, insomnia, tumor and paralysis in his clinic. All the patients needed to do was to repeat, ‘Day by day in every way I am getting better and better’ twenty times in the morning and twenty times in the afternoon. Within a few days their diseases disappeared!

Professor Coue coined a new term for this age-old technique of repeating positive statements - autosuggestions. Since then the effectiveness of autosuggestions has been proven time and time again in every corner of earth.

Robert Muller, a member of the French Resistance against Nazi occupation during the Second World War, used autosuggestions to escape a life or death situation. Muller writes in his memoir, Most of All They Taught Me Happiness, about how, under the alias of Pariso, he was able to infiltrate an office of the Vichy government in 1943. There he collected information about the movements of the German soldiers. One day he learnt that Gestapo members were in the premises searching for him. There was no way to escape. In the face of certain death, Muller, who had read Professor Emile Coue’s, Self Mastery through Autosuggestion, started repeating to himself that he would view the whole thing as a thrilling adventure.

After a while he calmed down a little and decided he would walk out of the office in front of the very eyes of the Gestapo soldiers. He took off his glasses, dampened his hair and lit a cigarette. Then he took a file and walked up to his secretary, who was then being interrogated by the Gestapo soldiers, and calmly asked what was going on. Without blinking an eye the secretary replied, ‘These gentlemen are looking for Pariso. ‘Pariso!’, Muller replied, feigning amazement. ‘I just saw him on the fifth floor.’ The Gestapo soldiers ran to the fifth floor. Muller’s friends took him to safety.

Professor M U Ahmed, the pioneer of Applied Psychology in Bangladesh, first applied autosuggestions on himself. In 1934 he became infected with paratyphoid. After months of failed effort the doctors gave up hope and suggested he spend his last days at home. As he was being taken to Barishal, his hometown, by a boat on the Buriganga, he discovered a new mantra for life. He started saying ami bachte chai, ami bachbo ( I want to live, I will live) again and again. He got better. In 1973, he was declared clinically dead and yet came back to life in the same process.

Prof. Ahmed did not apply autosuggestions only on himself. For three decades he used autosuggestions successfully for curing psychosomatic diseases.Thousands of patients have had astonishing recoveries using autosuggestions in his Medistic Psychotherapy process.

In Bangladesh, between 1993 and 2012, tens of thousands of people have used autosuggestions successfully. These people, who took part in one of the three hundred and forty Quantum Method Courses, have overcome almost every kind of problem imaginable using autosuggestions, affirmations and goal visualization in the meditative level.

An elderly woman whose pain kept her crippled and bed ridden for years now climbs up hills like a twenty-year-old. A lady who had such severe asthma that she couldn’t even open the refrigerator door without an attack can now bathe in the rain. Another whose digestion was so poor that the only food she had in years was rice and chicken broth is now happily eating everything she wants!

One came with a 40 year old migraine but left it forever in the classroom. Another who had failed to cure his frozen shoulder after the best medical treatment at home and abroad amazed his fellow course participants by effortlessly lifting his arm.

Some came in on crutches or even wheelchairs, but went out walking confidently on their own two feet. Others who had been recommended immediate surgery for their heart problem have been completely healthy for years without it.

One who had failed to sleep for 18 years, even with the aid of sleeping pills, fell asleep peacefully after the first day of class. Another who had such severe death phobia that he never stepped out of his home now happily travels abroad.

The student who failed to appear in his secondary school certificate exam for three years in a row is now doing a Ph. D. in Harvard. The job seeker who always performed poorly in front of viva boards got a job at the very first try after completing the course. The businessman on the verge of bankruptcy is now making millions. The father who was feared and detested by his children for his bad temper is now the heart and soul of the family.

You might find these stories too good to be true. You may think these were miracles, that these were the lucky few. But there is nothing supernatural about these transformations; they are the result of scientific cause and effect. However, if you still prefer to think of them as miracles, then you too can make miracles happen. You can be one of the fortunate few. Because now you too have the tool to make the seemingly impossible possible, and that is autosuggestion.