Hypnotising into and out of disease
On January 10th, 1927, Orage told his New York group, as reported by Sherman Manchester,
We hypnotize ourselves into all sorts of diseases.[1]
Given the importance of hypnotism and suggestion in the writings and talks of Gurdjieff, most emphatically brought to our attention in the aspect of our abnormalities of consciousness, we would do well to take every opportunity to study the “science of hypnotism,”[2] in ourselves and our interactions with others, in Gurdjieff’s teaching, and in the hints left by his pupils, and also in other literature on hypnotism and magnetism. Indeed, according to Elizabeth Bennett, Gurdjieff also advised Bernard Courtenay Mayers, who was a doctor, to study Braid and Mesmer.[3]
Orage goes on to say:
…for example the air is coming in through the window at an unusual rate—the suggestion is to say: “I feel a cold draft” etc., and so assign to it a malicious content—and us hypnotizing ourselves into almost anything.
Rather than simply receive the impression, like a small child, in most of us it is immediately seized upon by associations. The reputation of a cold draft causing illness, as well as discomfort, was perhaps more rife in the 1920s, and one might in that case unconsciously suggest giving oneself a cold or a chill. Thus, one imputes to the air, that is, suggests to oneself that it has, malicious content.
It’s interesting that Orage uses the example of air.