Émile Coué and Autosuggestion

Émile Coué genuinely seems to have wanted to help people by teaching them how to plant helpful directives in their subconscious minds. Whether he was effective is something that's still debated.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Speaker 01

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A plus by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 0:32Speaker 02

  This is the story of the one. As a shipping manager, he's running the dock, stocking supplies, and making sure every order goes out on time. And Granger helps him stay prepared. From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Granger to keep products moving and trucks rolling. So his operation runs smoothly, no matter the shift. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done.

• 1:02Speaker 03

  Whether you're calling the wise women in your life, video calling your girlfriends across the country, or checking out on someone who always knows how to make you smile, staying connected matters. Those small conversations, shared laughs, and quick hellos are what keep relationships strong even when life gets busy. Some of the most life-giving conversations start with just a phone call. That's why AT&T guarantees the network you can rely on, so you can focus on the moments and people that matter most. That's the AT&T Guarantee. AT&T, connecting changes everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.com/guarantee for details.

• 1:37Speaker 04

  Attention Chicken Nugget fans. Burger King heard that a lot of you didn't like the old Chicken Nuggets, so they got to work and reinvented them. These new Chicken Nuggets are their tastiest, crispiest, juiciest nuggets ever. And because better Chicken Nuggets deserve better sauces, they've reinvented several of their sauces, and they created a brand new one. The new special savory sauce, which is only available for a limited time at participating U.S. restaurants, don't wait around. You gotta try the new Burger King Chicken Nuggets today.

• 2:07Speaker 03

  Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.

• 2:18Speaker 03

  Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frey. And I'm Tracy V. Wilson. So if you have ever heard the phrase, "Every day and in every way, I'm getting better and better", you know the work of today's subject. That saying, incidentally, was co-opted by Tony Robbins for his motivational coaching business, which today's subject really would not have been cool with. It really belongs to a pharmacist from Troyes, France, who in the early 20th century, developed a method that was intended to help people overcome illnesses and make their lives better. This kind of goes back to the self-help books episode that we did earlier this year.

• 3:00Speaker 03

  He is tied to that and was a thing that I was debating over including in that episode and decided I wanted to do one on him on his own. He's kind of a little offshoot of that. So they make one bigger picture of like this concept of self-help. The lovely thing about it is that Emile Coe was refreshingly earnest. He genuinely seems to have wanted to help people regardless of what anyone thinks of his system and his approach. I don't think he was a particularly squirrely person. So it's nice to have somebody who's not a jerk as the main person. Because whether or not he and his ideas were effective, that is something that is still debated.

• 3:44Speaker 03

  And we will talk more about some of that at the end. Emile Coe was born on February 26th, 1857 in Troyes, France. His family was not wealthy. His father was a railroad worker. And not long after he was born, the family moved to Nougantin-sur-Saint, which was about 50 kilometers or 30 miles northwest of Troyes.

• 4:07Speaker 03

  Emil was smart and all the biographical descriptions of him make it sound like pursuing an education was just a given, even coming from this working class family. He attended school in New Jean Sorsan until he was a teenager. And then at 15, he moved back to Troyes, where he lived with an aunt who enrolled him in school there. After that, he went to college to get a science degree. A biography of Couet, written in 1923 by his supporter, Charles Baudouin, suggests that there was some kind of issue, maybe, with getting into college, but it is not

• 4:45Speaker 03

  really clear what happened. All it says in this biography is, quote, "Then, having leaning for science, he began to prepare unaided for his degree of Bachelor of Science, in itself, fine proof of perseverance. His first failure did not discourage him. He tried again and won out." Initially, Couet wanted to get a chemistry degree, but his father thought that that was going to leave his future a bit too uncertain. And he instead encouraged his son to get a pharmacological degree. That would include some chemistry, but it also had a very clear career path. And Emil Couet took his father's advice and he followed that path. When he finished his first run of school, he served in the army for a year,

• 5:30Speaker 03

  and then he started working as an apothecary assistant, essentially, in his hometown of Troyes. For a while, he worked for a druggist named Delany, who was incredibly pleased with Emil's work ethic. He kept assigning him more and more responsibilities. One of the biographies I read suggested that eventually Couet took on the work of three different people who may have lost their jobs because he was so good at his work. Next, Couet attended the College of Saint-Barbe in Paris. He won a government scholarship to continue his studies while he was there. He graduated with his pharmacology degree in 1876. Couet stayed in Paris to work as a pharmacist intern at Nîmes Enfant

• 6:12Speaker 03

  Malade Hospital. After that, he moved back to Troyes, where he started working as a pharmacist at an apothecary owned by a man named Choumineau.

• 6:22Speaker 03

  Couet became a full partner in this store. And then after just a few years of working there, he became owner of the shop after Chauvinod died. One of the kind of charming anecdotes about his work in this shop is that he would include brief upbeat notes, personalized for his clients with every prescription. And he felt that when he praised how effective a medication was, those patients seemed to do better than if he did not specifically call out the treatment as good when he was sending these little notes. While attending a wedding in Troyes in the early 1880s, Emile met two sisters, Marie and Lucy Lemoine.

• 7:06Speaker 03

  He and Lucy hit it off and they began a courtship. They were married in Nancy on August 30th, 1884. Lucy's father, incidentally, was a famous horticulturist in France. If you are fond of lilacs, you have probably admired his work. He developed many of the breeds of plant that remain popular today, and particularly the double bloom lilacs that were first popular in France and now are all over the world. In 1885, Couet met the physician Ambroise Auguste Libot, who was 34 years older than Emile. In spite of that age difference, these two men really got along. Like Couet, Libot was from a working class family and had sought a career in science.

• 7:49Speaker 03

  Libot had become a doctor and was also interested in magnetism, not magnetism in the context of physics, but magnetism as it related to mesmerism. Franz Anton Mesmer had put forth the idea that animal magnetism was a mysterious force that could influence people, and he used that in the context of hypnosis. Lebo was so fascinated with hypnosis and so eager to study it himself that he offered to treat medical patients for free if they would consent to being hypnotized. He believed that he could influence patients subconsciously in ways that would help their

• 8:30Speaker 03

  body heal. He was said to have achieved almost miraculous results with these methods. He wrote a book about his work, which was published in 1866 under the title Sleep and Analogous States Considered Mainly from the Point of View of the Influence of Moods on Physical Well-Being. The initial meeting of Kuwe and Lebo is often described as being an encounter for Kuwe that, in the words of one biographer, quote, "decided his entire life." Once these two men met, Kuwe was invited by Lebo to assist with some of his cases. And this led the pharmacist to really dive as deeply as he could for the next decade

• 9:11Speaker 03

  plus into the study of hypnosis and suggestion. He soon determined that Lebo was not really being as methodical as he could or should with this, and that there were actually far more possibilities for suggestion treatment if only a clear process for its use could be established. He did not think that he knew what that process was, though. He instead wanted to study a lot more. So he spent a great deal of time observing doctors and patients, making notes about every aspect of their interactions, their medical cases, whether they were being treated with medications, et cetera. This was also around the time that mesmerism and ideas like mind cures had become very

• 9:55Speaker 03

  popular throughout Europe and the United States. So a growing number of papers and books were being produced on these topics. Kuwe read them all, or at least tried to, like as many as he could get his hands on, and some of them he found to be total garbage. But he included these in his study of alternative treatments. It doesn't seem like he took them at face value, though. He recognized that a lot of the writing was muddled by the kind of eagerness that can just obliterate a scientific understanding, and some of it was just straight up charlatanism.

• 10:30Speaker 03

  But he did think that even those kinds of texts might have kernels in them that were worth studying, even if it was to see what sorts of claims held the most appeal for the general public. Viewed through that lens, every piece of information had some value to Kuwait. One of these pieces of writing was a book on hypnotism written in the United States. Precisely what book that was remains a little bit unclear. Um, there are different things cited depending on what biography of Kuwait you look at. Some name a specific book. Other accounts will differ. In Kuwait's New York Times obituary, it mentions that

• 11:12Speaker 03

  this book came from Rochester, New York, but that leaves a couple of interesting possibilities. One of these is Hypnotism and Hypnotic Suggestion: A Scientific Treatise on the Uses and Possibilities of Hypnotism, Suggestion, and Allied Phenomena by Thirty Authors. That book was edited by stage hypnotist and patent medicine peddler E. Virgil Neal, as well as medical assistant Charles S. Clark. I will say I could not find any information on Clark or the veracity of his credentials. E. Virgil Neal, though, is 100% on my list for a future episode because he was a big old fascinating mess. He was accused of mail fraud and for a while he

• 11:57Speaker 03

  actually fled the country. He is a minor character here today, though. Um, this book does have a section titled "How to Hypnotize and Awaken a Subject," and that was written by Edward H. Eldridge of Temple College. This is interesting because as I did some digging, I discovered that Eldridge and a handful of other academics issued a disclaimer in Science Magazine in November 1900 that they did not willingly have their work included in that book. Their various researches and their papers had been requested by the publisher, they were told, for research purposes only.

• 12:38Speaker 03

  Another candidate for what book this was, was Hypnotism as it is: A Book for Everybody, which was published in 1897 and was written by ex-Lamott Sage, who had a number of dubious credentials.

• 12:54Speaker 03

  This book is laid out as an informational examination of hypnotism that seems to have been motivated to just largely bust myths about the practice. Sage lays out early in the book that his 11 fundamental propositions of hypnotism, this list begins with, quote, "One, hypnotism within itself is absolutely harmless. Two, no one can be hypnotized against his will." From there, it includes the ideas that hypnotism is not a special power, that being hypnotized does not mean that a person is weak, that hypnotism is temporary and cannot affect a person's will forever, et cetera. There's also discussion in the book of various

• 13:39Speaker 03

  methods of hypnotism, but not specific how-tos on how to do it. There's also a plot twist. Exlamot Sage was a pseudonym of E. Virgil Neil. So whichever book it was, and it may have actually not been a book, but a correspondence course, depending on what source you look at, but whatever material it was that Kueh got from the United States, it seems like E. Virgil Neil was behind it. He did, incidentally, offer a correspondence course in hypnotism, so that may hold water. It doesn't seem as though Kueh knew about that disclaimer that Eldridge and other academics had been a part of, but after reading whatever this material was, he started to implement its

• 14:22Speaker 03

  techniques in hypnotism, offering, as LeBeau did, his services to clients for free if they were game to be hypnotized. And over time, he started to develop his own theory about why hypnosis worked. This is, again, an instance where we assume that Kueh, as one biographer put it, quote, "brushed aside all that was nothing better than puffery and humbug, and he likewise rejected the mystical postulates which underlay some of the theories." Coming up, we'll talk about the ways that Emile Kueh started to expand his understanding of hypnosis and what he thought was even better. But first, we will pause for a sponsor break.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 15:34Speaker 05

  This live check-in is brought to you by State Farm. Porque el bienestar de tu familia también merece protección. Okay, real talk. I'm about to become a dad again. And wow, it hits different the second time. Hi, I'm Wilmer Valderrama and I've done, you know, I've done the red carpets, the long days on set and all that, but nothing prepares you for that moment when you're building a crib and you realize you're building a future. Familia is everything to me. The laughs, the chaos, the unconditional love, but also the pressure, la responsabilidad. If you're stepping into something big right now, starting a family, getting engaged, moving cities, you're not alone. Take one step at a time. Why breathe?

• 16:17Speaker 05

  Be present and lean into the people that got your back. Y disfruta. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

• 16:25Speaker 03

  A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. Tune in for season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenx. Hosted by public health and policy expert Dr. Martine Hackett, Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition pushes the conversation within the rare disease community forward. Featuring guests living with MG, CIDP, myositis, SMA, and other rare autoimmune conditions, each episode explores hope, progress, and connection. How does research create new opportunities? How do shared experiences help light the way forward? How do we best show up for each other?

• 17:10Speaker 03

  Tune in to find out. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 17:21Speaker 06

  This is Troy Millings. As someone who travels a lot for work, I really appreciate a premium airport experience. With the Delta Sky Miles Reserve Business American Express Card, it truly feels like you can have it all. For a limited time, new Delta Sky Miles Reserve Business Card members can earn 200,000 bonus miles, the highest miles offered this year. Card members can also enjoy 15 visits to the Delta Sky Club each medallion year when flying Delta, and you can unlock unlimited Delta Sky Club access after spending $75,000 in purchases on your card during a calendar year. Those are benefits you can get behind. You also get four one-time guest passes each medallion year, so you can bring a friend or colleague along.

• 18:04Speaker 06

  15 Sky Club visits plus four guest passes? That's up to $950,000 annual value. Value estimate based on a $50 per visit rate to purchase additional visits or bring a guest to the Delta Sky Club. It's the kind of premium access that helps you feel right at home and at ease, no matter where you're headed. Apply today at www.delta.com/podcast. Offer ends November 4th, 2026. Minimum spending requirements and terms apply.

• 18:41Speaker 03

  Kué was really developing some very strong opinions about suggestion as it related to health and well-being. But he also recognized that his own small experiments were not giving him nearly enough information to draw any real conclusions. So 16 years after his first meeting with LeBeau, Kué started to study hypnotism and suggestion in earnest under him, as well as another man, Épolit Bernheim. Bernheim, who was originally from Moulous, France, was right between Kué and LeBeau in age. He had gotten his medical degree in Strasbourg and became the Chair of Ambulatory Medicine in Nancy in 1879.

• 19:23Speaker 03

  Then, after an 1882 meeting at Le Beau's clinic, he came away convinced that hypnosis had great potential in the field of medicine, and he became an ardent supporter and student of Le Beau. His work helped cement what came to be called the Nancy School, which encompassed the scientific hypnotism work being done by Le Beau and others, who wished to get out from under that mystical and seedy and kind of woo-woo assortment of associations that came with the practice. As Kuei worked with Le Beau and Bernheim, he started to think that there was a key element to the way people thought that enabled them to get the body over obstacles in their treatment to actually get better.

• 20:08Speaker 03

  And that element was imagination. This was linked not only to medical outcomes, but also to behavior. So he thought if someone thinks things like, "I can't help it" in regard to a behavior that they would like to stop, they're very unlikely to stop because they can't imagine a version of themselves without that behavior. Kuei came to believe that imagination was more important than a person's will, because even if somebody wanted very badly to change their own behavior, if they can't imagine it, they won't succeed. And you can see seeds of his eventual method here, something that he would come to call auto-suggestion.

• 20:49Speaker 03

  So this meant taking the idea of giving a subject a suggestion through hypnosis, the way Le Beau and others had been working, and transitioning it to give the power of the suggestion to the patient themselves. So in very concrete terms, it's the difference between a hypnotist telling someone, "You will no longer crave cigarettes", and having the subject tell themself, "I will no longer crave cigarettes." And as Kuei worked, he also came to the conclusion that an adverse imagination, one that was prone to counter-suggestion and doubt, could actually undermine all of this work. He called that "the law of reversed effort". If that phrase sounds familiar, it is also attributed to Aldous Huxley, although in Huxley's case,

• 21:34Speaker 03

  it applied to the concept of trying too hard and thus undermining the outcome of your desires. So kind of a different thing with the same name. Kueh believed that auto-suggestion would work because he had come to the determination that the source of the command isn't actually the important part, it's the recipient and their imagination doing the actual work. He founded the Lorraine Society of Applied Psychology in 1913 to continue his work in the field. He had sold his pharmacy in Tua and moved back to Nancy in the years before this. Over the next several years, he started collecting and systematizing his method into what would become a book.

• 22:15Speaker 03

  He described the power of the imagination this way, quote, "We can compare the imagination to a torrent which fatally sweeps away the poor wretch who has fallen into it in spite of his efforts to gain the bank. This torrent seems indomitable, but if you know how, you can turn it from its course and conduct it to the factory, and there you can transform its force into movement, heat, and electricity." And he believed that any person could control their own imagination, writing, quote, "To do so, it is enough in the first place to know that this is possible, of which fact almost everyone is ignorant, and secondly, to know by what means it can be done. Well, the means is very simple. It is that which

• 22:59Speaker 03

  we have used every day since we came into the world, without wishing or knowing it, and absolutely unconsciously, but which unfortunately for us, we often use wrongly and to our own detriment." This means is auto-suggestion. Kueh thought that people are actually always giving themselves unconscious auto-suggestions, and that we just need to learn to apply conscious auto-suggestions to self-influence our lives. He instructed people to start small by concentrating on some outcome they desired. He used example phrases like, "This thing is coming, this thing is going away, and this thing will or will not happen," and then to repeat those phrases to themselves several times without

• 23:44Speaker 03

  thinking of anything else. According to Kuwe, quote, "If the unconscious accepts the suggestion and transforms it into an auto suggestion, the thing or things are realized in every particular." One of Kuwe's conclusions was that it was the unconscious that truly held on to all of the information that a person is presented with in the course of their days. He later wrote, quote, "If we compare the conscious with the unconscious self, we see that the conscious self is only possessed of a very unreliable memory, while the unconscious self, on the contrary, is provided with a marvelous and impeccable memory, which registers

• 24:24Speaker 03

  without our knowledge the smallest events, the least important acts of our existence. Further, it is credulous and accepts with unreasoning docility what it is told." Over time, Kuwe abandoned hypnotism entirely in favor of training patients to use auto suggestion. It was through this work that he developed phrases like "every day and in every way I am becoming better and better." That, of course, is a translation. Kuwe's French version was "Tous les jours, à tous points de vue, je vais de mieux en mieux." He worked with patients one-on-one and in group settings and developed programs to

• 25:04Speaker 03

  help people control their pain and to recover from ailments, with the caveat that recovery had to be in the realm of possibility. So he wasn't looking at people who had some kind of terminal situation, saying that he was going to make them live, right? And Kuwe claimed in his treatment journals that a lot of his patients did recover from their illness, but there's no real substantiation for data on that. Yeah, he was very careful to be like, "I can't make someone regrow a lost limb." Or as Tracy said, like, "Somebody that is very near death, I can't like pull them back from the brink." Like, that's... But if they have a prognosis where they could get better, but we don't know, they have a good chance if they'll apply these methods.

• 25:46Speaker 03

  In his Nancy Research Center, Kuwe would tell patients that came for treatment, quote, "You have come here in search of someone who can cure you. You are on the wrong track. I have never cured anyone. I merely teach people to cure themselves. I have taught many persons to cure themselves, and that is what I am going to teach you. The experiments in which you are about to participate will always succeed, even if they should seem to fail. For I have never claimed that my thought can realize itself in you. My claim has always been that each person's own thought realizes itself in himself. If, therefore, at the moment when I ask you to think, I cannot unclasp my hands,

• 26:31Speaker 03

  you think on the contrary, I can, you will inevitably be able to unclasp them. You may imagine that you have convicted me of error, but in reality, you will have proved the soundness of the principle of auto suggestion." One of the things about Kuwe's work and its popularity, I think especially in the age that we're living in, people intentionally undermining the reputation of medicine. It's kind of a nice surprise that he was not trying to replace medical treatment with his idea of auto suggestion. He wanted people to see doctors. So unlike a lot of other non-medical approaches to maladies, he was not touting this as something to do instead of a scientific medical treatment.

• 27:15Speaker 03

  He wrote of it, quote, "I am not a doctor and would much prefer to be considered in the light of being the doctor's auxiliary. In all cases of serious organic disability, I say to those who seek me out, are you receiving medical treatment? If they reply yes, I give the advice, continue with it then and practice auto suggestion also. If they reply no, I say, consult a doctor then and follow his treatment as well as using auto suggestion. You will find that the two treatments help each other." In just about any instance where someone tried to call him like a miracle worker or heap similar praise on him, Kuwe was always very quick to negate those kinds of ideas. He always stated that the work was done by the person using his method,

• 28:00Speaker 03

  not by himself, and that it could help, but it should not be considered a miracle. Yeah, we'll have a particular instance that comes up later when he's on tour. In 1920, Kuwe published his book Self Mastery Through Auto-Suggestion. And after an initial slow start, it became a very big hit in France. And in 1922, it was published in English. Early on in this writing, he explains his idea of the conscious and unconscious selves in relation to auto-suggestion, writing, quote, "In order to understand properly the phenomena of auto-suggestion, or to speak more correctly of auto-suggestion,

• 28:42Speaker 03

  it is necessary to know that two absolutely distinct selves exist within us. Both are intelligent, but while one is conscious, the other is unconscious. For this reason, the existence of the latter generally escapes notice. It is, however, easy to prove its existence if one merely takes the trouble to examine certain phenomena and to reflect a few moments upon them. Let us take, for instance, the following examples." The examples he gives are the way that a sleepwalker can rise from bed and do various things and then return to bed all unconsciously, while the conscious mind has no memory of doing so.

• 29:22Speaker 03

  Or what he called the, quote, "too frequent case of a drunkard attacked by delirium tremens." Just in case you don't know what that word is, or those words are. Delirium tremens is not when someone is deeply intoxicated. It is a severe alcohol withdrawal, which can result in delirium, confusion, hallucinations, and other symptoms. So if you have ever heard the colloquial saying of someone who is not drinking being described as getting the DTs.

• 29:51Speaker 03

  Delirium Tremens is what that refers to. In Kuei's writing, he uses the example of someone in this delirious state becoming violent, and then when they return to consciousness, being horrified at their own actions. Kuei visited London in 1922 to talk about his method and became incredibly popular there, but there started to be some problems in its perception. This was in the post-World War I period when the English had a fresh surge of spiritualism and mysticism, and some of the work Kuei was doing seemed enough like magic to people that it got sort of folded into these less scientific ideologies.

• 30:32Speaker 03

  That meant that even though Kuei wanted to keep his work strictly scientific, its reputation got a little muddled in the public eye. This made it really easy for detractors to criticize his efforts as being woo-woo fluff or charlatanism, and that was a problem that would follow him across the Atlantic. And we will talk about that trip across the Atlantic after we hear from the sponsors that keep Stuff You Missed in History Class going.

• 31:01Speaker 01

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 31:29Speaker 03

  This mood check is brought to you by State Farm. Porque tu bienestar también merece protección. Que tal, mi gente? Honey German checking in contigo. Take a second. Literalmente, un momentico para ti. How's your corazón feeling today? If it's a little tired, a little oof, you're not alone. Have you eaten algo rico? Taken a deep breath? Maybe even turned off your phone for cinco minutitos? I promise, the memes will still be there. Sometimes self-care isn't candles and meditation. It's just saying no. It's drinking a little bit of agua. It's letting yourself rest sin pena. You don't have to prove anything today. Just be. Breathe. Estás haciendo lo mejor que puedes. And yes, that's enough.

• 32:12Speaker 03

  Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. Tune in for season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenx. Hosted by public health and policy expert Dr. Martine Hackett, Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition pushes the conversation within the rare disease community forward. Featuring guests living with MG, CIDP, myositis, SMA, and other rare autoimmune conditions, each episode explores hope, progress, and connection. How does research create new opportunities?

• 32:55Speaker 03

  How do shared experiences help light the way forward? How do we best show up for each other? Tune in to find out. Listen on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 33:11Speaker 06

  This is Troy Millings. As someone who travels a lot for work, I really appreciate a premium airport experience. With the Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business American Express Card, it truly feels like you can have it all. For a limited time, new Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business Card members can earn 200,000 bonus miles, the highest miles offered this year. Card members can also enjoy 15 visits to the Delta Sky Club each medallion year when flying Delta, and you can unlock unlimited Delta Sky Club access after spending $75,000 in purchases on your card during a calendar year. Those are benefits you can get behind. You also get four one-time guest passes each medallion year, so you can bring a friend or colleague along.

• 33:55Speaker 06

  15 Sky Club visits plus four guest passes? That's up to $950 in annual value. Value estimate based on a $50 per visit rate to purchase additional visits or bring a guest to the Delta Sky Club. It's the kind of premium access that helps you feel right at home and at ease, no matter where you're headed. Apply today at www.delta.com/podcast. Offer ends November 4th, 2026. Minimum spending requirements and terms apply.

• 34:31Speaker 03

  In early 1923, Kuohe made a visit to the US to tour and to lecture about his work. Newspapers were so expectant of his arrival that they reported everything about his crossing, that he was seasick on the voyage, but he had used his auto suggestion method to get rid of that problem. He was already famous when he arrived, in part because British Foreign Secretary Lord George Carzon had publicized the claim that Kuohe's method had cured him of insomnia. And he was not the only person that did this. Other foreign leaders, dignitaries, and celebrities had offered similar stories of the French pharmacist's

• 35:11Speaker 03

  positive impact on their well-being. By the time this famed proponent of auto suggestion arrived in New York, there were already plans for a National Kuohe Institute to be established there. He was interviewed at a press conference that was literally waiting for him on the dock the second he stepped off the ship. And he startled a number of the assembled journalists and enthusiasts by making very clear that he was neither a doctor nor a miracle man, that he had never cured anyone, and that, quote, "I merely help people to help themselves." While he toured and gave clinics, every minute detail of his days was reported. Papers ran stories literally about the items he carried in his

• 35:54Speaker 03

  hands, the phrase he most commonly used in group sessions when talking to individual attendees, which was "s'apasse," or "it's working," and even the way his mustache was waxed from day to day. All of this got written about every single day. The country very clearly had Kuohe fever at this point. Once Kuohe got to the US, in addition to giving talks, he wrote articles that were published in major newspapers all across the country. In one of them, he encouraged people using his method to just plant the suggestion and then kind of chill out, quote, "Let the imagination do its work alone. Be quite passive. Through mysterious, still unexplained processes, our subconscious does marvelous things."

• 36:38Speaker 03

  Think of the very commonest movements of the human body and ask yourself how they are operated. What has set in motion the complicated mechanism when you stretch your arm to reach a glass on a table, or when you take a cigarette from your case? No one knows. But if we cannot explain the phenomenon, we do know that in actual fact, it is an order resulting from a mere suggestion, which is transmitted through the nervous system and translated into action at a speed infinitely greater than that of lightning. There were detractors, and the medical establishment made very clear that they wanted nothing to do with auto suggestion. He was labeled as everything from just being a fad to actually being a dangerous menace.

• 37:22Speaker 03

  But Kuei's work was also embraced by a lot of people, and there was talk of Kuei-ism seemingly everywhere. In Boston, it was reported that he had to make a sneaky escape after he gave his last lecture in the city, because there was an eager crowd of people hoping to talk to him, many of whom were upset that booksellers had sold out of his book before they could buy a copy. Throughout his US visit, Emile Kuei was offered massive sums of money for various engagements, but he turned all of them down. Regardless of where anyone stood in their assessment of him and his work, no one could claim he was a charlatan, because he didn't seem at all interested in cashing in on his own popularity.

• 38:05Speaker 03

  And when people did things like begging him to cure the sick, as though he were some sort of mystic healer or religious figure, he actually exclaimed, "I am not a saint, but a man. I can affect no cures. I can only help you to help yourselves." I get the feeling he got a little frustrated in the US at times. Before Kuei ever got to the States, the phrase "every day and every way I'm getting better and better" had become so well-known that riffs on it were even being used in advertising to claim that sales were getting bigger and bigger, for example. But then, a series of claims that Kuei had not come up with this phrase began.

• 38:47Speaker 03

  This was attributed to everyone, from Socrates to Pliny the Elder to our old friend in this episode, E. Virgil Neil.

• 38:55Speaker 03

  Still, Kuwe was enthusiastically greeted as he toured around the eastern half of the country for almost six weeks. He returned again later in 1923, but his second US tour was pretty quiet by comparison. People had just moved on to other things. Also in 1923, while all of this touring was happening, psychoanalyst Charles Baudouin wrote that biography of Kuwe that we referenced earlier. Baudouin had openly endorsed the work of Kuwe even before that. And his biography began, at least to my mind, somewhat comedically with a physical description of Kuwe. This is literally how it opens, quote, "thick set, somewhat short, quiet, compact strength,

• 39:37Speaker 03

  a remarkably high forehead, hair brushed back, a little thinned out, and perfectly white for a number of years already, as also the short, pointed beard." The rest of Baudouin's description shares what a lively and upbeat personality Kuwe had, also noting, quote, "He is the type of what is known in England and especially in America as the self-made man. He never denies his lowly origin, and you feel that he loves the masses with a sympathy that may be called organic." In late June 1926, Kuwe went on a lecture tour of the Alsace region of France. He reported that he felt incredibly tired on this tour, and when he got home, he felt completely worn out.

• 40:21Speaker 03

  Just a few days later, on July 2, 1926, Emile Kuwe died of heart failure in his home in Nancy, France. His wife, Lucie, lived for almost 30 more years. She died in 1954. In the last years of Emile Kuwe's life, a number of Kuwe institutes popped up in cities in Europe and the United States, but most of those sputtered out. People who claimed they had been cured using his method often reported later that their problems had come back. The enthusiasm for autosuggestion really started lagging, and these institutes shut down. But we see the echoes of Kuai's work everywhere today, although his name is rarely invoked.

• 41:03Speaker 03

  When you see or hear a fitness trainer telling a client that they have to see themselves achieving their fitness goals in order to more effectively achieve them, that is an implementation of Kuaiism. The very popular idea of manifestation, also rooted in Kuai's work, although in a slightly different application, of course, instead of telling yourself that something can happen in an effort to influence yourself to do it, you are, according to people who believe in manifestation, telling the universe that you want that thing to influence it. But in reality, this idea works for some people because they're practicing a different form of auto suggestion, right? They may think that they're drawing energies to themselves,

• 41:46Speaker 03

  but they're kind of setting themselves in motion to turn the thing they imagine into a reality through their own efforts. We'll never know how Kuai would have reacted to these modern versions of his ideas, though, given how concerned he was about people just throwing out scientific treatments to focus exclusively on suggestion or auto suggestion, it stands to reason that he might worry a little bit. A lot of scientists have outright dismissed Kuai's work over the decades or framed it as sort of quaint, but there has actually been quite a bit of scientific study of auto suggestion in the last century. In 2010, research into autogenic training, which is a type of auto suggestion that's designed specifically to teach patients how

• 42:31Speaker 03

  to relax, found via fMRI that the brains of study participants who used autosuggestive phrases of autogenic training showed activation in parts of the brain that subjects who did not use auto suggestion did not show. That just means something was happening in the brain, not necessarily an effect beyond that. Yep. According to researcher Mark Schlaman and his team in their paper, autogenic training alters cerebral activation patterns in fMRI. Patients who had autogenic training also processed their emotions differently than subjects who didn't have it and had increased levels of self-awareness.

• 43:14Speaker 03

  Another study conducted in 2017 led by Nina Kamala Sari examined auto-suggestion in relation to quality of life for geriatric patients. The participants in the active group were given scripts of auto suggestive phrases, which they were recorded saying, and then they listened to those recordings of their own voices multiple times a day for 30 days. The control group had no auto suggestion. And at the end of the 30 days, the patients who had listened to their auto suggestion recordings showed improvements in their perceived quality of life, meaning the patients felt that they had improved, as well as in their serum cortisol levels and their adaptive immunity.

• 43:57Speaker 03

  So auto suggestion seems to have some uses that could have some scientific validity, but there's also a lot of difficulty measuring the specifics, even with a scientific study that includes hard numbers on body chemistry. And that's because there are so many nuances to this whole thing. Like, how much does visualization play a part? Someone who's telling themselves something positive may or may not form an image in their mind of that outcome. And it is hard to sort out that variation and its possible contribution to the efficacy, even with some kind of testing. Additionally, people who are using auto suggestive self-talk specifically crafted

• 44:39Speaker 03

  to accompany medical treatment might also, subconsciously, or maybe even consciously, take better care of themselves and pay closer attention to their health because they're being reminded of it regularly. In some cases, that could also improve their outcomes. And of course, every person is wired differently. Not everybody will be successful with any of these methods, whether they have any merit or not. Additionally, there are ongoing debates about whether someone self-evaluating can even report a true improvement, or if the auto suggestion actually just shifted their perception rather than their actual state of being.

• 45:17Speaker 03

  So while there's research on auto suggestion that can be seen as encouraging, it's not necessarily considered definitive in any way. Yeah, people still argue about it in scientific community all the time because we don't know. But I find it fascinating. My thing is like, probably couldn't hurt if it makes you feel better, great. I'll have plenty to say about this on Friday in our behind the scenes. Yeah. In the meantime, listen, I promise one day I'll stop talking about embroidery, but that day is not today. And it's because we keep getting so many good emails from listeners. We do. And this one touches me, so I hope I don't cry, but I might. It's me. This is

• 45:59Speaker 03

  from our listener Christine who writes, "Hi Holly and Tracy, longtime listener and periodic writer. I am still stuck thinking about your embroidery episode. Needle crafts are a huge part of my life. And when I started thinking about writing, the list of everything I wanted to tell you just kept getting longer and longer." I know how that happens. That's why I'm so bad at replying to emails. Christine continues, "I learned to cross stitch, sew, and crochet at a young age. It keeps my hands busy and helps me calm my brain. My mom does beautiful cross stitch Christmas stockings for all her grandkids and his wedding gifts. They make such an amazing gift for anyone who celebrates Christmas. She follows a pattern, but also adds in some personal touches and puts each person's name on their stocking. It's a beautiful gift. That's the kind of stuff you will keep for your entire life."

• 46:42Speaker 03

  I love it. This is the part that gets me choked up, so sorry. "I am attaching a photo of one of the most amazing needle art gifts my husband and I have ever received. A few years ago, our best friend tragically passed away. He and my husband were close as brothers and had gotten tattoos not too long before his death that translated to brother. When he passed, we received the attached needlework with the Greek lettering from the tattoo. I don't know who made it. It was an anonymous gift, but it is precious to both of us." This is the sweetest thing I've ever heard. "Needlework has taken on a little more meaning for me in the last three years. I hope the person who made it knows how much it means to us." So sweet. And then, excitement. "I have also included some pet tax

• 47:27Speaker 03

  For you are two rescue kitties, Tiger and Bean. Bean thinks it is essential to sit on the food bucket so we don't forget to feed her. Listen, that's just efficient. Bean knows what's up. Thank you for highlighting stories we don't hear every day and for not shying away from the hard stuff. I think it is too easy for many people to avoid discomfort, making it far too easy to allow harmful things to happen around us without getting involved. Keep speaking up, saying the hard things, and advocating for the people and stories who have been missed in history, Christine. Christine, I obviously love this email. Thank you. These kitties are, listen, Tiger and Bean are very precious and they need kisses and hugs. And like, listen, the food, sometimes you gotta be reminded that there's food

• 48:09Speaker 03

  there. If you would like to write to us, you can do so at [email protected]. We will be right back here with more episodes coming up. Thank you so much for spending this time with us. And if you would like to subscribe to the podcast and you haven't done that yet, you can do that on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 48:36Speaker 03

  Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 48:51Speaker 06

  This is Troy Millings. If you travel for work like I do, you know every trip is an opportunity to get more from the miles you're already earning. Whether you're heading to your next client meeting or catching a flight home, those miles can go a long way. For a limited time, new Delta SkyMiles Business Card members can earn 200,000 bonus miles, the highest miles offered this year with the Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business American Express Card. Apply today at www.delta.com/podcast. Offer ends November 4, 2026. Minimum spending requirements and terms apply. This is Shirley Strawberry from the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great

• 49:36Speaker 06

  deal on an all-wheel drive Camry, Corolla Cross, or a Corolla sedan with the latest features and tech. Or test drive a spacious Grand

• 49:45Speaker 01

  Highlander or adventure-ready RAB4. And with so many hybrid models available, you can enjoy longer trips without all the stops. While Toyota's legendary resale value means you could get more at trade-in, get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for deals and details. Toyota, let's go places. OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank.

• 50:30Speaker 01

  OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 50:35Speaker 00

  Hello?

• 50:35Speaker 02

  Hey, it's me, your wallet.

• 50:38Speaker 00

  Oh, hey.

• 50:38Speaker 02

  I was just wondering if we could maybe take it easy this week?

• 50:42Speaker 00

  Absolutely.

• 50:43Speaker 02

  Really?

• 50:43Speaker 00

  Yep, I'm shopping at Food Lion.

• 50:45Speaker 02

  Wait, you mean low prices?

• 50:47Speaker 00

  And MVP savings.

• 50:49Speaker 02

  Oh, you do care.

• 50:51Speaker 00

  Obviously.

• 50:51Speaker 02

  Okay, I feel better.

• 50:53Speaker 00

  Good, now let's go get some snacks. At Food Lion, low prices and MVP savings make it easier to shop for what you need without spending more than you have to. When your wallet needs a little TLC, head to your local Food Lion or shop at foodlion.com. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.