Editing Autosuggestion (section)

===Hypnotism à la James Braid and Xenophon LaMotte Sage===
In 1901, Coué sent to the United States for a free book, ''Hypnotism as It is'' (i.e., Sage, 1900a),<ref>Given that Coué could read Latin and was fluent in both German and English meant that an English language book presented no difficulty.</ref> which purported to disclose "secrets [of the] science that brings business and social success" and "the hidden mysteries of personal magnetism, hypnotism, magnetic healing, etc.". Deeply impressed by its contents, he purchased the French language version of the associated correspondence course (i.e., Sage, 1900b, and 1900c),<ref>It is significant that the career of the French [[Parapsychology|parapsychologist]] [[Michel Moine#The parapsychologist and the journalist : two careers in parallel|Michel Moine]] also began with Sage's course.</ref> created by  stage hypnotist extraordinaire, "''Professor Xenophon LaMotte Sage,  A.M., Ph.D., LL.D., of Rochester, New York''" (who had been admitted into the prestigious ''Medico-Legal Society of New York'' in 1899).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/medicolegaljour03yorkgoog/page/399/mode/1up p.399 of Medico-Legal Society of New York (1899), "Transactions: Annual Meeting, December 1899", ''Medico-Legal Journal'', ''17''(3), pp.399-402.]</ref>

In real life, Xenophon LaMotte Sage was none other than [[Ewing Virgil Neal]] (1868-1949), the multi-millionaire, [[Calligraphy|calligrapher]], [[Stage hypnosis|hypnotist]], publisher, [[advertising]]/[[marketing]] pioneer (he launched the career of [[Carl R. Byoir]]), pharmaceutical manufacturer, parfumier, international businessman, confidant of [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]], Commandatore of the [[Order of the Crown of Italy]], Officer of the [[Legion of Honour]], and fugitive from justice, who moved to France in the 1920s.<ref>See Conroy (2014), passim.</ref>

Sage's course supplied the missing piece of the puzzle — namely, Braid-style hypnotic inductions — the solution for which had, up to that time, eluded Coué: 
::&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Coué immediately recognised that the course’s Braid-style of hypnotism was ideal for ''mental therapeutics''. He undertook an intense study, and was soon skilled enough to offer hypnotism alongside his pharmaceutical enterprise. In the context of Liébeault’s ‘hypnosis’, Braid’s hypnotism, and Coué’s (later) discoveries about autosuggestion, one must recognise the substantially different orientations of Liébeault’s "''suggestive therapeutics''", which concentrated on imposing the coercive power of the operator’s suggestion, and Braid’s "''psycho-physiology''", which concentrated on activating the transformative power of the subject’s mind."<ref>Yeates (2016a), p.13.</ref><ref>For more on Braid's overarching conceptualization, "''psycho-physiology''" — "the whole of [those] phenomena which result from the reciprocal actions of mind and matter upon each other" — see Braid (1855), p.855.</ref>

Although he had abandoned Liébeault's "''hypnosis''" in 1886, he adopted Braid's ''hypnotism'' in 1901; and, in fact, in addition to, and (often) separate from, his auto-suggestive practices, Coué actively used Braid's hypnotism for the rest of his professional life.<ref>Baudouin (1920), pp.257-258; Orton (1955), p.48; Yeates (2016a, 2016b, 2016c).</ref>