Suggestion

Years afterwards, Braid, an English surgeon, discovered that some of the facts of mesmerism were true, and he announced his discovery in a scientific manner, and lo, his views were accepted, and the thing was called hypnotism, poor old mesmer being forgotten because of his theory.

Then, after a number of years, certain other aspects of the phenomenon were discovered, and scientifically relabeled Suggestion.

and the renaming was supposed to explain the entire subject.

The learned ones now saying, Poo, tis nothing but suggestion, as if that explained the matter, but so far they have only accepted certain phases of this form of dynamic thought, for that is what it is, and there are many other phases of which they do not dream.

And finally this week, from April 2021, this is Romance in the Stones, The Power of Crystals vs.

The Power of Suggestion, written by Chris French and read here by Owen Sargesson.

Although I managed to publish a fair few scientific papers over the four decades or so of my academic career, I truly regret that there were a few studies that, despite producing interesting and publishable findings, I simply never found the time to see through to the final stage.

In some cases, although I presented the results at conferences and even had fairly positive feedback from reviewers for more detailed versions that I submitted to academic journals, I never managed to get them over the line to publication purely because of pressure from other commitments.

But I am happy to say that the positive features of this book vastly outweigh any minor negative aspects.

From April 2021, that was Owen Sargesson reading Chris French's article, Romance in the Stones, The Power of Crystals vs.

The Power of Suggestion.

And that's all for this episode of the Skeptic Podcast.