Auto-suggestion is something by which one helps oneself to be encouraged or to be discouraged, to be well or to be ill, to go down or to rise, to be happy or to be unhappy. There are two kinds of auto-suggestion: the kind that one intentionally, consciously, makes to oneself and upon which the whole mystical training is based; and the suggestion that one makes to oneself automatically, knowing neither its nature nor its results. The latter kind of suggestion is made by everyone to himself without knowing whether it is to his advantage or to his disadvantage; by it many go downhill and very few uphill. There are many who without knowing it are in love with misfortune. They will say outwardly, "I hate it. I don't want it. I don't want to be ill. I don't want to be unfortunate," yet at the same time unconsciously they continually suggest the contrary to themselves by thinking, "I am so ill, I am so unfortunate, I am so stupid, I am so weak."