p. 9 | EVILS OF SUGGESTION

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 27, 1904

EVILS OF SUGGESTION.

MOST, if not all, the evils of this world are instigated by suggestion. So the devil began with our first parents, and he has used the same thing mightily ever since. Suggestion made and received is at the basis of Hypnotism. The Farm Stock and Home tells how it works in patent medicine nostrums:—

How Nostrum Vendors Work.

In a recent periodical devoted to advertising and its preparation there was an article on medical advertising, from which the following is quoted:—

"In writing medical advertising, make a forceful appeal to your prospective customers along three lines.

"1. Convince him that he has the disease.

"2. Convince him that you have the remedy.

"3. Convince him that it is a bargain."

The first suggestion is the whole secret of the patent medicine graft. They rely on the power of suggestion to convince an ailing individual that he has the symptoms described. That point once attained and correspondence opened, it is much more than an even chance that an order will be drawn from the invalid. A plausible scheme is now being worked by medicine vendors by offering to refund the purchase price if the medicine does not affect a cure. This is nearly always successful in getting the order, but the purchaser never gets any money back if the medicine fails to work; all requests for refund are ignored, and, the amount being too small to sue, the victim finally decides to save postage on further letters, and charges his loss to experience.