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CHAPTER III
FAITH OR SUGGESTION?
No Christian festival has greater power to seize and move the
souls of men than Easter. The experience of the Crucifixion is
for many people a profoundly real and intense one in which all
their hope is fixed. Many still witness to the Resurrection with
personal conviction as deep as that of the Apostles. They have
no doubt that the risen Christ is spiritually present among His
own; and some have met Him as Saint Paul did on the way to
Damascus.
How is this possible? There are people who answer this
question without hesitation. They say it is the result of
imagination, suggestion. We believe what we wish to believe,
experience what we desire to experience. No other explanation
is necessary.
Such statements should not be dismissed without
consideration. It is cowardly to evade them. Our purpose here is
not to answer them merely by pointing out that the Crucifixion
and Resurrection are historical realities, the foundation upon
which the Christian Church has been built; though this fact alone
is sufficient to contradict the argument that, “The whole thing is
suggestion’. We wish to show that the ideas of suggestion and
faith are not interchangeable.
It is beyond question that human beings influence and are
influenced by each other. Even our moods and feelings are
infectious when they are strong. Dominating personalities
exercise a compelling power over individuals and masses.
People unconsciously identify themselves with those whom they
idealise. In all such transferences of affect, suggestion is at
work.
But in its strict meaning, the term suggestion is used to
denote the intentional attempt of one person to influence another
by imparting ideas to him while his critical faculties are
inhibited. Suggestions implanted in this way can influence the
recipient’s reasoning, his emotional reactions, and sometimes
his physical condition: the latter especially when the reasoning
powers are in abeyance to the degree that occurs under hypnosis.
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