ABSTRACT
TO some degree every person is open to suggestion. With the little child suggestion, sympathy, and imitation underlie its every action, and until reason has been acquired, conduct is largely the outcome of suggestion, which is the invitation or command of the environment. Children are particularly open to suggestion, because they have not had the experiences which develop reason and make them cautious. As they grow older, they find that suggestion may be of untruth as well as truth, and they tend more and more to apply reason to suggestion before acting upon it. The more they become exposed to the wiles of the world, the less they accept suggestion on its face value. The more protected they have been, the less likely they are to apply reason, because they have found less need to do so. In all of us, however, the innate tendency is there, and, to a higher or lower degree, suggestion tends always to work itself out to fulfillment.
