Homo culture Part 10

The age at which suggestion may be of use is hardly yet known. Certainly so soon as the understanding has become developed it may be employed, though the language should be simplified for the childish understanding.

Before this it is of doubtful utility; but some experiments which have been made intimate that good health may sometimes be transmitted from a healthy person to a very young sick child by thought transference.

Thought transference is the transference from one to another person of some feeling, sensation or idea. The person from whom the thought is transferred is the _active_ agent, and the one who receives it is the _pa.s.sive_ one. Often this phenomenon takes place spontaneously, as when one is in trouble, or at the point of dying, a knowledge of it may sometimes be transferred to an intimate friend who is in sympathy. In the hypnotic state, thought transference can sometimes be induced artificially; and the point here to be considered is the transference to the child of healthy normal sensations to replace the abnormal ones which may have taken possession of consciousness and caused trouble.

The important thing always to have in mind in using psychic forces on children is to instil natural, or normal, conditions, not unnatural or abnormal ones. To this end to produce the best results, the active agent should be a normally healthy person, having good common sense, and living a normal, natural life. Those with sickly, sentimental or fanciful notions, if they try to use suggestion may transfer these states to the child, which would do harm rather than good.