According to Albanese 2007: 195, by 1843, there were two hundred mesmerizers
practicing in the Boston area alone. See also Heelas 1996.
Trine 1897: 18.
Yogananda and Dhirananda 1928: 23.
Yogananda and Dhirananda 1928: 23.
This is the subtitle of Yogananda’s pamphlets.
Yogananda and Dhirananda 1928: 20.
Yogananda and Dhirananda 1928: 22.
Yogananda and Dhirananda 1928: 22.
See Singleton 2010: 56– 64.
Yogananda and Dhirananda 1928: 23.
Coué 1922: 26.
Coué might be seen, to a large extent as replying to Payot, whose focus on the will
characterizes its force as absolute but its nature as almost entirely conscious. Coué
rightly observes that the efficacy of one’s conscious will is significantly constrained
by what one imagines to be possible. Haddock had, by this point, already mounted
a similar critique in his own work, even referencing a “French writer” who states
that “the Will ... is to choose in order to act” (Haddock 1921: 17). There is no way
of determining with certainty whether the mysterious French writer is in fact Payot,
but this seems likely to be the case. There is likewise no way of determining whether
Coué was familiar with Haddock’s work (he never cites the American author).
Coué would have been practicing his method contemporaneously to Haddock, but
the former’s publications do not arrive until the very end of his life (My System
being published in 1923), so the lines of influence remain ambiguous. Coué differs
from Haddock not so much in essence as in terminolog y. He defines the conscious
will as a weak oppositional force to unconscious imagination, whereas Haddock
views will as a general principle spanning the conscious and unconscious spec-
trum of human habit and volition. Yogananda, despite to a large extent replicating
Haddock’s language on this point, makes no mention of him.
Yogananda and Dhirananda 1928: 22.
Yogananda 1925b: 18.
Yogananda 1925b: 25, emphasis in original.
Yogoda flyer in East- West 4(7) (1932), emphasis in original. A version of this flyer,
with slight differences in format and wording appeared in nearly every edition of
the publication.
