THE CONTAGION OF IDEAS

One of the most important points about the subconscious mind is its
openness to suggestion. It likes to believe what it is told and to act
accordingly. The conscious mind, too,--proud seat of reason though it
may be,--shares this habit of accepting ideas without demanding too
much proof of their truth. Even at his best, man is extremely
susceptible to the contagion of ideas. Most of us are even less immune
to this mental contagion than we are to colds or influenza; for ideas
are catching. They are such subtle, insinuating things that they creep
into our minds without our knowing it at all; and once there, they are
as powerful as most germs.

Let a person faint in a crowded room, and a good per cent. of the
women present will begin to fan themselves. The room has suddenly
become insufferably close. After we have read half a hundred times
that Ivory soap floats, a fair proportion of the population is likely
to be seized with desire for a soap that floats,--not because they
have any good reason for doing so, but simply because the suggestion
has "taken." As for the harbingers of spring, they are neither the
birds nor the wild flowers, but the blooming windows of the
milliners, which successfully suggest in wintry February that summer
is coming, and that felt and fur are out of season. It is evident that
all advertising is suggestion.

The training of children, also, if it is done in the right way, is
largely a matter of suggestion. The little child who falls down and
bumps his head is very likely to cry if met with a sympathetic show of
concern, while the same child will often take his mishaps as a joke if
his elders meet them with a laugh or a diverting remark. Unlucky is