Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/231

 SUGGESTION 213

are movements of accommodation and convergence of the eyes, if the person is of the visual type. In thinking of the sound of an orchestra there are changes in the tension of the muscles of the tympanum of the ear, or in the neck muscles,&quot; * and so on. It follows therefore that every idea of an act will result in the action, unless hindered by a com peting idea, or ideas; provided, of course, there is no sub jective or objective physical impediment that prevents the actual performance of it, no paralysis of the muscles or no material obstruction to the movement. And if the act be thus rendered impossible of execution, there will neverthe less be a tendency to perform it. Clearly, then, when the idea of an action is imparted to a person under such condi tions that no contrary idea is brought into consciousness with it, while the normal conditions of movement are pres ent, the action will inevitably be performed. This general psychological truth has been experimentally confirmed times without number. It is a theoretical truism and an experi mental commonplace. The idea imparted may, how ever, not be an idea of an action, and may not directly refer to action at all. But when presented, will be ac cepted by the mind as true, i.e., as a reliable basis for pos sible action, unless there is present in consciousness some contrary or inconsistent idea. This proposition has been so much insisted upon in a preceding chap ter that it is unnecessary to elaborate it here. We need only to repeat that the primary mental function is belief, the acceptance of a presentation as true, and when a pres entation is rejected as false it is only because there is some thing in the mental life as already organized which conflicts with it and prevails against it. In order, therefore, to con trol the belief of a person it is only necessary to introduce an idea into his mind in such a way as to prevent any opposing idea or contrary feeling from coming into his con sciousness with it; or if any opposing mental content should make its appearance, to effect its suppression. 1 Dunlap, &quot; A System of Psychology,&quot; p. 158.

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