resistible belief. "Cases suffering from
various imperative conceptions are, while possessing their reasons,
either irresistibly led by certain impulses or they cannot rid
themselves of erroneous ideas concerning themselves and others." This
means, in fact, that they had been previously _hypnotised_ to a
definite conception which had become imperative. As in Witchcraft, it
is a law that one sorcerer cannot undo the work of another without
extraordinary pains; so in hypnotism it is hard to undo what is
already established by a similar agent.

_One can will to remember or recall anything forgotten_. I will not be
responsible that this will invariably succeed at the first time, but
that it does often follow continued determination I know from
experience. I believe that where an operator hypnotizes a subject it
very often succeeds, if we may believe the instances recorded. And
I am also inclined to believe that in many cases, though assuredly
not in all, whatever is effected by one person upon another can
also be brought about in one's self by patience in forethought,
self-suggestion, and the continued will which they awaken.

_We can revive by this process old well-nigh forgotten trains of
thought_. This is difficult but possible. It belongs to an advanced
stage of experience or may be found in very susceptible subjects. I do
not belong at all to the latter, but I have perfectly succeeded in
continuing a dream; that is to say, I have woke up three times during
a dream, and, being pleased with it, wished it to go on, then fallen
asleep and it went on, like three successive chapters in a novel.

_We can subdue the habit of worrying ourselves and others needlessly
about every trifling or serious cause of irritation which enters
our minds_. There are many people who from a mere idle habit or
self-indulgence and irrepressible loquacity make their own lives and
those of others very miserable--as all my readers can confirm from
experience. I once knew a man of great fortune, with many depending on
him, who vented his ill-temper and petty annoyances on almost everyone
to whom he spoke. He was so fully aware of this failing that he at
once, in confessing it to a mutual friend, shed tears of regret. Yet
he was a millionaire man of business, and had a strong will which
might have been directed to a cure. All peevish, fretful and
talkative, or even complaining people, should be induced to seriously
study this subject.

_We can cu