Coue, the famous psychologist from France who visited
America about forty years ago, defined the law of reversed
effort as follows: “When your desires and imagination are in
conflict your imagination invariably gains the day.”
If, for example, you were asked to walk a plank on the
floor, you would do so without question. Now suppose the
same plank were placed twenty feet up in the air between
two walls, would you walk it? Your desire to walk it would
be counteracted by your imagination or fear of falling. Your
dominant idea which would be the picture of falling would
conquer. Your desire, will, or effort to walk on the plank
would be reversed, and the dominant idea of failure would be reinforced.
Mental effort is invariably self-defeated, eventuating
always in the opposite of what is desired. The suggestions
of powerlessness to overcome the condition dominate the
mind; your subconscious is always controlled by the dominant
idea. Your subconscious will accept the strongest of two
contradictory propositions. The effortless way is the better.
If you say, “I want a healing, but I can’t get it;” “I try so
hard;” “I force myself to pray;” “I use all the will power I
have,” you must realize that your error lies in your effort.
Never try to compel the subconscious mind to accept your
idea by exercising will power. Such attempts are doomed to
failure, and you get the opposite of what you prayed for.
The following is a rather common experience. Students,
when taking examinations and reading through their papers,
find that all their knowledge has suddenly deserted them.
Their minds become appalling blanks, and they are unable
to recall one relevant thought.
The more they grit their teeth and summon the powers
of the will, the further the answers seem to flee. But, when
they have left the examination room and the mental
relaxes, the answers they were seeking flow tantalizingly back
into their minds.
Trying to force themselves to remember was the cause of
their failure. This is an example of the law of reversed effort
whereby you get the opposite of what you asked or prayed for