Think And Grow Rich: The 21st Century Edition Chapter 5 - Autosuggestion

Autosuggestion - one of the thirteen principles of success - is the focus of this chapter.

Napoleon Hill started the chapter by explaining that autosuggestion is self-suggestion, which encompasses all suggestions that we allow to reach our minds through the five senses.

Human beings have control over what reaches their subconscious minds…

… however, in the great majority of  instances, we don’t exercise it… and therefore, most people go through life in poverty!

At this point, I felt that the 21st Century edition gave informative and relevant commentary that:

• Studies showed that our subconscious is nonjudmental
• Psychological conditions - fixations, phobias and compulsive behaviors - occur when children learned things so powerfully that they become firmly planted in the child’s subconscious mind till adulthood
• Hill’s theory is based on the exact same psychological principles that thoughts do remain stored in the subconscious, and the more emotionalized when the thoughts are when they are input, the more influence they exert on attitude and behavior. Knowing this, we can use autosuggestion as a tool to input positive thoughts to achieve the success we desire.

Following that, the 6 steps from Chapter 3, ‘Desire’ are repeated because of the importance of communicating the desire to our subconsious mind in a spirit of absolute faith, of which here is a summary for your reference:

1. Fix  in your mind the exact amount of money you desire.
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return.
3. Establish a definite date when you intend to have the money.
4. Create a definite plan to carry out your desire.
5. Write it out in a clear and concise statement.
6. Read your written statement aloud twice daily, when you arise and before you retire.

However, merely reading out your statement is not good enough. You need to mix emotion or feeling with your words.

Modern Day Examples of Autosuggestion

More useful commentary was given in the 21st Century Edition on how the autosuggestion technique is most widely taught by contemporary motivational experts. Today, it is called Creative Visualization and regularly used by Olympic athletes and NASA astronauts as well as in the medical practice. Here, I quote a few modern day examples:

• Dr. Maxwell Maltz is a noted plastic surgeon found that it is important for patients to change their inner perception of themselves as well as to change their outer experience. His bestseller, ‘Psycho-Cybernetics’ draws heavily on visualization to increase self-esteem and improve a wide range of abilities.
• The Silva Method, another variation of visualization had been taught to millions of people. Jose Silva sold millions of his bestseller, ‘The Silva Mind Control Method’
• Dr. O. Carl Simonton published ‘Getting Well Again’. As an oncologist, he concluded that cancer patients who used visualizations in conjuction with chemotherapy treatments had a marked improvement over those who didn’t.

Last but not least, the original ‘Think And Grow Rich’ mentioned that many philosophers made the statement that man is the master of his own destiny but most failed to say why…

… and the reason that man may become the master of himself, and of his environment, is because he has the power to influence his own subconscious mind. And the actual performance of transmuting desire into money is through autosuggestion. That is the principleby which you can reach, and influence, the subconscious mind.

And Napoleon Hill went on to advise the reader to complete the book and return to re-read this chapter once every night till he or she become thoroughly convinced that the principle of autosuggestion is sound.