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Suggestology - Lozanov PDF
Suggestology - Lozanov PDF
PSYCHIC STUDIES
A series edited by Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.
ISSN: 0276–1610
Georgi Lozanov
Translated by
Introduction 1
The Beginning 12
Man and His Environment 34
Towards a General Theory of Suggestion 57
Suggestopedy—An Experimental Method of Suggestology 209
Characteristics of the Desuggestive—Suggestive, Liberating— 257
Stimulating System
Bibliography—English 340
Bibliography—Bulgarian 368
Chapter 1
Introduction
1The particle “suggesto” is related to the Latin verb suggero, suggessi, suggestum,
to get under or suggest. The particle “paedy” (pedy) is related to pedagogy and
thus is connected with matters of teaching, learning and education. Hence
“suggestopedy” denotes education and instruction in which the laws and principles
of suggestion are taken into account. Uncontrolled and insufficiently understood
suggestion occurs in any form of education, and in any communicative act in
general but organized, purposeful suggestion is given absolute prominence in the
practice of suggestopedy. However it is necessary to point out that we understand
and research the problem of suggestion not in the sense of limiting, constraining,
conditioning and manipulating but in the sense of the English meaning of the word
“suggestion”: to offer, to propose—i.e. to offer the personality a wide choice as
Nature does. This extension of the personality’s freedom to choose is realized
through the organized utilization of the paraconscious contents of the mind which
give shape and “volumeness” to the integral conscious—unconscious
communicative process and may create a disposition favorable for tapping the
reserve capacities of the personality.
2 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
Figure 1 The yogi Shaa demonstrates his hypermnestic abilities for figures and
objects—Bombay, Santa Cruz.
We do not doubt that we too have made errors. But through our
own experience we have become firmly convinced that there is no
error about the main point—the right to existence of the science of
suggestology and its newest branch, suggestopedy. We are far from
saying that we can supply the ultimate answers to all the problems.
We have only taken one of the possible roads to revealing a small
part of man’s possibilities.
Chapter 2
The Beginning
What did you do? It was a miracle. I was asked to recite the poem, so
I tried and to my surprise I recited the whole of it without a mistake.
I had heard it only once when we had the lesson.
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 13
This experiment was later repeated with other people who had to
take difficult examinations. In carrying out the individual
experiments to improve memory by suggestion in a normal waking
state, we became convinced that this method gave better results than
training people in a hypnotic state. This gave us grounds for
mentioning “suggested hypermnesia in which unsuspected past
perceptions are recollected” in a publication in 1963, and in another
joint publication with A.Atanassov in 1964, for writing: “There can
be no doubt that suggestive hypermnesia does exist”.
1The Group was set up under a joint ordinance No. 2541, of 26 June 1965, issued
by the Minister of National Education and Minister of Public Health and Social
Welfare.
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 15
account that the groups had only two normal academic hours a day
and one hour a day for a suggestopedic session. It must also be
stressed that their duties outside the courses were considerable. Not
only the students but also the teachers were overburdened with
work at this time. They came directly from regular work to teach in
these evening courses and remained with them till 11.00 p.m. One
of the main reasons the students were able to stand up to this was
that the sessions offered them relaxation, rest and recreation.
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 19
TABLE 4 Results of the French Written Tests: Groups IIa and IIb
following way: in the first group half the new words, in mixed order,
were tested immediately the next day, leaving no time for the
students to study them. The other half of the words were examined
three days later. Both tests proved that there was no difference in the
degree to which the words were known. The check of the second
group also took place the next day, but of all the words at one. The
meanings of all 500 words had been memorized by the students,
irrespective of whether they had attended the whole session or only
the active part of it (Table 7).
Some of the students attending the course said that the more
words they were given the better they remembered them. The last
two large sessions provided corroboration for our assumption that
even 1000 or more words can be easily memorized. Thus,
the problem of memorization of new words and phrases, as well as
TABLE 6 Results of Written Tests of Memorized Words Given in Sessions
Comprising (1) Less than 100 Words, (2) 100 Words, (3) More than 100 Words,
and (4) Words Given Only in Active Sessions
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 21
22 THE BEGINNING
TABLE 7 Words Memorized When Given in One Session of 500 New French
Words and Phrases (The written test includes all the 500 words, given in the
session)
words were given and learned. There are indications that many
more new words could be memorized in one day.
Many of the students assured us that the teaching and learning did
not tire them, that in fact they felt rested, and some of their neurotic
complaints were cured.
V. The following are the verbatim thoughts of some of the
students and of the three teachers at the meeting of the members of
the course and the Research Group on the termination of the
course.
A. Students;
1) A.K., a student in Group 2:
Our dream of easy and quick learning became a reality. We can
now take part in an elementary conversation.
2) R.A., a student in Group 2:
This method is simply miraculous and I must go on with the
course at any cost. I simply could not believe that I had learned so
much. My husband is learning French in another course by another
method. He is given at the most 40 words a week. He tries to learn
them but when I examine him at the end, he does not know the
words well.
3) E.K., a student in Group 3:
I began the course with great fear and hesitation as I suffer from
acute neurosis accompanied by headache, nausea and other
disorders. After the fourth session I began to take an active and
successful part in the work without my noticing it. Although I am
very busy all the time, I am at work and have three children at
home, I suddenly found that I had lost my feeling of tiredness and my
headache. My husband attended a 7 months’ course, and after he
had been learning the foreign language for 2 or 3 months, and I had
been learning in my course for only 10 or 12 days, he was surprised
when he examined me to see how many of my 70 words I knew. In
his course they learned no more than 25 words a day, and with
strenuous training at that, sometimes even until 1.00 a.m. But I,
with only 10 or 12 day’s’ learning, was able to read his textbook
and understand the sense though I did come across unfamiliar
words. I had no time to do homework as he had, because of my
three children. My neurosis reappeared a few days after I had
finished taking the course. Actually I rested during the courses and it
seems that is the reason that I felt all right.
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 27
The following was the final result of the written tests on the 1000
words given to each student in one study session:
1Suchempirical definitions have, for example, been given by G.Allport (1937, 1950)
W.Stern (1911, 1922, 1935, 1954), E.Kretschmer (1931, 1956), and others.
MAN AND HIS ENVIRONMENT 37
other hand, there are effects the receptors of which have not yet
been established, such as the electromagnetic field.1
A number of questions connected with the interrelations of man
and nature are not only still unanswered, but they have not yet been
raised. Any bold generalization with respect to these questions
would ultimately be a temporary hypothesis formulated at a given
stage.
Of special psychological significance are the formative effects of
the social environment on the individual. The relations between the
personality and the social environment are most often realized
through the mechanisms of suggestion.
The enormous role played by suggestion in public life has been
pointed out by a number of authors.1 Social environment with its
prestige, its requirements for the individual member of society, and
its generally accepted concepts and tastes imposes subordination on
the individual. The social environment exercises a suggestive
influence on the individual in an unconscious manner—not only
through fear of the power of the collective or through blind
subordination, but often the individual accepts suggestions in the
absence of any fear or subordination—suggestions which are in
harmony with the generally accepted social norms and views. Since
the very beginnings of man’s existence, society has exercised a
powerful and sometimes insurmountable influence over the
individual.
The force of social suggestion, developed to the point of mass
morbidity, can be seen with particular clarity in “psychic
epidemics”. There occur “political epidemics” when a society or a
nation, gripped by the suggestive effect of an idea harmful to the
interests of humanity, can fanatically perpetrate brutal mass
that hospitals for neurotics should be more like schools than hospitals because “…
the neurotic is not a patient, but a student who has been given a poor mark in the
great subject (discipline) called civilization. Not treatment but reeducation ’.
J.W.Klapman (1946) is a great adherent of group bibliotherapy. M.Prados (1951)
uses visual methods—pictorial images, films, etc. Recently, I.Z.Velvovsky and
M.E.Markov (1968) proposed to develop a new trend in psychotherapy
videopsychotherapy, in which pictorial images are projected not only liminally but
also subliminally. In their films, H.E.Rubin and E.Hatz (1946) use abstract colour
combinations, accompanied with soft music. There is another technique, too “the
question box”. Each patient writes his question on a sheet of paper anonymously
and drops it into the box. The psychotherapist answers each question without
knowing whose question it is.
44 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OFSUGGESTOPEDY
1This was clearly seen at the 4th International Congress of Group Psychotherapy in
“takes” from the group what is required to bring him out of his
particular state.
There are similar disputes between the champions of the three
methods: abreaction and analysis; suggestion in a waking state or
hypnosis; and conviction and re-education. The adherents of the
abreaction and psychoanalysis methods do not realize that many
suggestive elements can be detected at the basis of their methods.
For example, conversations between the patient and the
psychotherapist with great social prestige; preliminary meetings with
patients who have been cured by this physician; the atmosphere of
quietness, peace, and confidence in the analytical conversations and
the abreaction procedures; the certainty with which the physician
assures the patient that he will be cured by his method, and the
physician’s explanation that abreacted experiences or realized
complexes are of therapeutic value.
Those who adhere to methods of suggestion in a waking state or
hypnosis fail to notice how some of the patients spontaneously
abreact their complexes and psychotraumatic experiences during
their sessions. They do not see how their suggestions fuse with the
methods of conviction and reeducation.
The champions of the conviction and reeducation methods in
their turn do not realize that their own prestige and the whole
atmosphere of the conversation with the patient play a suggestive
role. If the therapeutic talks with patients are carefully examined,
elements of discrete abreaction can be detected in them.
The psychotherapist with prestige, regardless of whether or not he
is aware of and understands his role, is a universal suggestive
placebo for the patients, a convincing example of a correct
philosophical attitude toward life, and a soothing confessor all at
the same time. On the basis of this conception of a uniform
therapeutic mechanism determining the effect of the majority of the
psychotherapeutic methods (1968), was developed the so-called
integral psychotherapy (1967), in which the best use is made of
many of the present psychotherapeutic methods.
In integral psychotherapy the patients are in groups of 40 to 100
people (Figure 3). Patients with all types of neurosis, urticaria,
bronchial asthma, neurodermatitis, hypertension of a neurogenic
type, allergies, ulcers in the digestive system, etc., are treated. In
integral psychotherapy the following is adhered to:
46 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OFSUGGESTOPEDY
Figure 4 The correlations between the remedial effect of integral psychotherapy and
the duration of the disease.
Figure 5 The correlations between the stability of the remedial effect of integral
psychotherapy and the duration of the disease. Catamnesis—one year.
TABLE 8 Written Data Obtained from Patients Who Underwent Treatment with
Intergral Psychotherapy
The neglect of the psychic content of the individual turns him into a
personified social function, into a “unit”, a “bolt’ in an impersonal
social mechanism.
(p. 123)
of a wolf, in 1920. The former was eight years old and the latter a
year and a half. Both looked like human beings, but their behavior
was that of wolves. Amala died soon after being found. Kamala
learned some 30 words and would obey a few simple orders,
sometimes imitating a normal child, but normalization of her
mental development and satisfactory adaptation to human society
were never achieved. She died in 1929. The cases of animal-reared
children, as far as their authenticity can be guaranteed, have
illustrative rather than demonstrative value because a number of
questions in connection with them have not been convincingly
answered. For example, it is not clear whether the considerably
delayed and incomplete development of these children in human
society is not due to biolgoical causes, whether it is not a case of
oligophreny which may also be based on some anatomical
impairment of the central nervous system.
As has been emphasized, the individual cannot be studied only
through his socially conditioned development. Indeed, according to
I.S.Vigotsky (1937, 1956) the interpsychic, interpersonal social
processes are the foundations for the development of the
intrapsychic, inner processes, and P.C.Cohn (1968) added:
1The important role played by environmental factors both in falling ill and in
recovering, has been pointed out by a great many number of authors: A. Baruk
(1958), V.A.Gilyarovski (1954), S.Danadjiev (1935), D.Daskalov (1947),
O.V.Kerbikov (1955), Lubotskaya-Rosetts (1957), V.Makedonski (1957),
N.Muller-Hegemann (1957), A.M.Svyadosht (1955), T.P.Simson (1958)
G.E.Suhareva (1959), J.Fischer (1959), H.Hristozov (1959-a, 1959-b, 1960)
E.Sharankov (1961, 1963), N.Schipkovensky (1956), and many others.
MAN AND HIS ENVIRONMENT 53
…on the one hand, the capabilities of the human organism to receive
an HF-field with very small intensity in the order of 10•4v/m
(Plekhanov, 1965) and, on the other, the generation of SHF-field.
(Gasky, 1960), (p. 347)1
other individuals in the communication process is not yet clear, but any research
along these lines is worthwhile. Thus, for example, P.I.Gulyaev, et al. (1968-a,
1968-b) recorded from a distance an electromagnetic field around a man and from
its characteristics assessed the functional state of the individual organs.
G.A.Servaev, et al. (1969-a, 1969-b, 1969-c) employed a new type of transducer to
record some telebioenergetic process characteristics around the organism, which
they linked with the specific functional organization and mental strain of the
individual. At the Suggestology Research Institute, a similar transducer was used to
record from a distance certain changes in the electro-magnetic field around the head
in connection with mental activity. There is still no convincing evidence that these
telebioenergetic fluctuations are received by people in the near vicinity, but such a
possibility cannot be ruled out. In such a case, questions will arise about their
information values and mental reflection.
MAN AND HIS ENVIRONMENT 55
length was so significant that in the control test with each person
alone each one gave the correct answer. The quintessence of this
experiment lay in the fact that in the group test to identify the equal
line, with the exception of one person, all were led astray and gave
the wrong answer. The one exception had to give his answer last, or
last but one. Of the 123 persons tested, each of whom gave 12
answers, 37 percent gave wrong answers, i.e., in concurrence with
group opinion. In the enquiry held after each experiment, people
said that the opinion of the majority was very important to them
and that it was about their own perceptions that they had a feeling
of uncertainty and not about those of the majority. Those who did
not yield to group influence confessed that in withstanding it they
had experienced an unpleasant feeling of uneasiness. Some had
feared that they had failed to understand something, that they might
prove to be wrong or to show some sort of inferiority. They said it
was much more pleasant when they agreed with the others.
Conformity depends on many factors such as the character of the
group, the difficulty of the task, the characteristics of the individual,
etc. Unlike conformity, suggestive interrelations have nothing in
common with oppression and submission. They are an expression of
the natural unconscious interrelations between individual and
environment. It can be expected that with future research into
conformity, some phenomena will be dropped from the conformist
category and will be explained in the light of the general theory of
suggestion. The differentiation of conformity and suggestivity
will also enrich psychotherapy, which is closely associated with the
concept of personality, B.M.Segal, et al. (1969) find that such
factors as intensification of suggestivity, group conformism,
imitation of “leaders”, etc., play a therapeutic role in the
psychotherapeutic group. The individual environment relations
stand out with particular clarity in group psychotherapy where the
actuating role of the environment in the course of the therapeutic
process is manifested. While the effect of conformity results only in
adaptation, suggestivity ensures the activation of reserves of the
individual.
Chapter 4
Towards a General Theory of Suggestion
1P.Janet (1907) maintained that suggestion is a very rare phenomenon existing only
in hysteria and that suggestibility was the most important symptom in hysteria.
J.E.Babinsky and J.Froment (1918) thought that abnormal suggestibility was the
most significant symptom of the hysterical individual. H. Bernheim (1887), and the
Nancy School, in general, maintained that everyone is suggestible under given
conditions and that suggestibility is not a symptom of morbidity. Nevertheless, they
did not reject the view that intensified suggestibility was observed in hysteria.
Suggestibility as a leading symptom in hysteria was accepted by many later authors,
such as McDougal (1911), L.F.Schaffer (1936), J.B.Morgan (1936), L.Hirschlaff
(1919), L.Satow (1923), V.E.Fischer (1937), and E.Bleuler (1924).
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 63
a)
Primary suggestibility
L.R.Wolberg (1948), A.M.Weitzenhoffer (1953), K.V.Stukat (1958)
and others have grouped the numerous existing concepts of primary
suggestibility into physiological, dissociative, ideomotor,
conditioned reactions and Freudian.
According to the physiological theories, which originate from
R.Heidenhein (1906), the foundation of suggestibility lies in the
inhibition of the ganglionic cells of the brain. B.Sidis (1902)
accepted functional dissociation between the nervous cells as the
physiological basis of suggestibility.
Those who hold the dissociation theories consider suggestibility to
be an expression of the activity of a second subconscious ego which
also exists in the normal waking state of the consciousness. These
theories originated from C.T.Burnett (1925), P.Janet (1925/ 28), and
others. Janet, the most prominent representative of the dissociation
theories, refers suggestion to the group of automatisms. In his view,
suggestion is something alien of which the individual is not aware.
Janet emphasizes the significance of speech for the origination of
suggested reactions.
The adherents of the concepts of ideomotor and conditioned
reflex mechanisms of primary suggestibility firmly back up the idea
of the connection between speech and action, because they believe
the connection is decisive in giving rise to suggestion. W.James
(1890) wrote that any idea of movement awakens, to a certain extent,
the actual movement which is its object. A.L.Thorndike (1919)
criticized the ideomotor action concept, maintaining that ideas do
not cause action by themselves but only by way of habits and
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 65
b)
Secondary suggestibility
Considerably fewer hypotheses have been put forward to explain
secondary suggestibility. It is believed that it is comprised of more
varied and complicated phenomena than primary suggestibility.
The best known are A.Binet’s (1900) secondary suggestibility tests
for graded lines and weights which have already been mentioned.
However, olfactory stimuli can also be used. The subject is given
several bottles of liquids with different odors and asked to identify
them. Then bottles of water are given and the person is asked again
to do the same. The identification of the odor in this case is
demonstrative of the degree of suggestibility in the subject.
When visual instead of olfactory stimuli are used only very pale
colors are shown for recognition. Then plain white sheets are shown
as misleading tests. With auditory stimuli, the tests are made with
very low sounds and the misleading ones with periods in which
there is no sound whatsoever.
Rather different are the tests in which the memory and
imagination participate. For example, the person is shown a picture
after which a number of misleading questions are posed. The
answers to these questions are used to calculate the extent of
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 69
suggestibility in the subject. Similar also are the ink-blot tests. The
subject is asked whether he can see certain suggested but not
existing colored spots in an ink-blot. Depending on the number of
spots he alleges he has seen is judged a subject’s suggestibility.
H.J.Eysenck (1947) indicated the above-mentioned tests as typical
of secondary suggestibility. The majority of researchers, however,
give a much wider definition to the concept of secondary
suggestibility. Binet (1900) points out the following more important
mechanisms of secondary suggestibility: (1) subordination to outside
influence, (2) tendency toward imitation; (3) influence of a
preconceived idea, (4) expectant attention. K.G.Stukat (1958) unites
the first and second mechanisms, pointed out by Binet, into one,
“the need felt by the individual to submit” and the third and fourth
again into one, “the mechanism of expectation”. W.McDougall
(1908) believed that each human being has “instincts” of self-
assertion and submission which are the most important prerequisites
for suggestibility. According to him, the presence of a person whom
one considers to be inferior to oneself, gives rise to a self-assertive
impulse. Such an impulse signifies a considerable drop in
suggestibility. But in the presence of a person who creates an
impression of superiority of any kind, there arises an impulse, a
tendency to subordination which places one in a state subordinate
and receptive to that person. The impression of strength and
superiority can be in many directions: with respect to physical
strength, social position, intellectual level, or work skills.1
The role of cognitive factors and even the belief that suggestion in
secondary suggestibility is a purely rational process are pointed out
in the investigations of K.Duncker (1938), R.W.Berenda (1950),
S.E.Ash (1948, 1952), and others. They criticize the view that social
relations are the result of suggestive effects, resulting in automatic
reactions. This would signify that man in his social environment is
not critical, and is completely subordinate to the authority
dominating in the environment and is in constant interaction with
the environment. In fact, it cannot exist without its environment.
But this does not mean that the individuals act as one in a
somnambulistic phase of hypnosis. Ash even purports to show that
when the individual yields to the influence of a certain authority,
this is not due to automatic subordination but to the acceptance of
the situation and to seeing it in a new and more rational light. The
same thought expressed by persons with various degrees of
70 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
1Muzaffer Sherif (1936) writes about the complexity of the connections of the
suggestive stimulus, especially in a group situation. R.E.Coffin (1941) points out
that during the preparatory period for ordinary experiments with secondary
suggestibility, conditions for establishing the preliminary setup are created. It can
be accepted that this setup is experimentally prepared (created) behavior. The
subjects’ answers in the course of the experiment depend on this preliminary
preparedness. It contains a number of cognitive factors in itself.
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 71
1A considerable amount of experimental work has been done on the various aspects
were shown in a tachistoscope at various speeds. The words of a higher value for
the subjects were discovered more quickly than the words of a lower value.
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 73
1Such a trend toward splitting the mechanisms of suggestion can lead to concepts
failed to obtain the interrelations he had expected in his hypothesis of primary and
secondary suggestibility. A.L.Benton and A.Bandura (1953), in most of their
experiments, did not find essential interrelations and data on the expected factors
of primary and secondary suggestibility in tests of suggestibility in 50 students.
J.D.Duke (1964) investigated 91 persons, aged 34 to 72, but did not obtain any
positive evidence of secondary suggestibility factors. G.A.Schichko (1969) proposed
five suggestibility investigation tests without discussing the problem of the form in
which they would be carried out.
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 75
There are many facts known from life, from clinical practice, from
hypnosis and from physiological experiments, indicating that
understanding of the extra-conscious mental activity is of importance
in understanding the human being in health and in sickness.
(p. 49)
1We are introducing the term “paraconscious” in order to unite all “more or less
unconscious” contents and processing of the mind. They comprise the unconscious
setups of D.N.Uznadze which are close to the actions of inertia and the secondary
automated actions. The term “para-consciousness” covers the deep instinctive
tendencies which S.Freud and I.P.Pavlov interpret in two different ways. The term
paraconscious also covers: all automatic or secondary automated activities;
unconscious automated elements in the field of conscious mental activity;
subsensory (subliminal) stimuli; peripheral (marginal) perceptions; most of the
emotional stimuli; intuitive creativity; the second plane of the communicative
process; a considerable part of the processed information in the process of
conditioning, associating, coding and symbolizing; and a number of unconscious
interrelations which have informational, algorhythmical and reprogramming effects
on the personality.
The whole mental content and mental processes, designated under the term
“paraconsciousness” have a number of common characteristic features.
Suggestology utilizes a part of them, the paraconsciousness being considered as
always indivisibly bound up with consciousness, constantly in mergence and
refluence with the consciousness. Here and there we shall use “unconscious” as a
synonym for paraconscious in the meaning of “more or less unconscious”.
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 77
1Some authors maintain that of decisive importance in the onset of sleep are the
changes in the functions of the endocrine glands and their effect on the vegetative
nervous system. L.Stern (1937) examines Salmon’s conception associating the
inhibiting effect exercised by the posterior section of the pituitary gland on the
sympathetic centers in the basis of the third ventricle with the function of sleep.
A.Brissemoret and A.Joanin (1911), and H.Marchand (1921) discussed the role
played by cholestrol, E.Devaux (1910), R.Dubois (1901, 1909), E.Rosenbaum
(1892) et al. dwelt on the osmotic hypotheses and on the intercellular bloating of
neuralgia; P.Kronthal (1907), H.Zwaardemaker (1908) et al. find that congenital
cellular and nervous mechanisms explain the periodicity of sleep; in the biological
approach of H.Foster (1900, 1901), M. Nicard (1904) et al. greater attention is
given to the sense of sleep and its phylogenesis. Attempts have been made to
explain sleep by changes in the ionic equilibrium of the body. L.Stern (1937)
attributes the reduced excitability of the nerve centers to the increased
concentration of calcium ions and the decreased concentration of potassium ions
and explains the changes in the composition of the liquor by changes in the
hemocerebral barrier caused by the endocrine glands.
L.Mauthner (1890), O.Vogt (1895), E.Berger and L.Loewy (1898), L.
80 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
…facts obtained in research work in the last few years have proved
unexpected to a considerable degree, as they plainly contradict many
stable concepts about the nature of cerebral processes connected with
these states, and make it necessary to reassess certain general
principles connected with the organization of the cerebral functions.
(p. 8)
And Bassin (1968-a) writing about the “very profound changes now
taking place in ideas about the mechanisms of sleep”, concluded,
awaken a test animal, then rapid sleep can be obtained. This effect
suggested that rapid sleep reflects a state of shallower sleep due to
the intensification of the activity of the reticular activating system.
On the other hand, apart from vegetative evidence of the
intensification of sleep during rapid sleep, research into the spinal
motor apparatus has shown that sleep is intensified during this
phase. F.Baldissera and M. Mancia (1965), K.Kubota et al. (1965)
and others demonstrated in their experiments with animals, and
R.Hodes and W.Dement (1964) and J.Paillard (1965) with people,
that the moderate and selective inhibition of the spinal apparatus in
slow sleep increases very considerably and becomes generalized in
the transition to rapid sleep. E.Kantzov (1965) discovered that the
cerebral blood circulation is intensified from 30 to 50 percent in the
transition from slow to rapid sleep. He attributed this to active
vasodilatation resulting from an increase in cerebral metabolism. He
also reported a transitory rise in blood pressure which he attributed
to dreams occurring at the moment. K.Bulow (1965) did not
consider pulmonary ventilation and CO2 sensitivity in rapid sleep as
proof of the correctness of the view that it is sounder than slow
sleep. D.Hawkins et al. (1962) reported an increase in
electrocutaneous resistance in rapid sleep.
Many authors are inclined to consider rapid sleep as a state of a
particular kind, one which has a special functional purpose. F.
Snyder (1963) even believed rapid sleep to be a third state, differing
from sleeping and waking. Confirmation of these assessments has
been provided by research into the selective exclusion of rapid sleep,
into dreams occurring in it and into the phylo- and ontogenesis of
rapid sleep, and by microelectrode investigations of individual
neurones in rapid and slow sleep.
In many experiments the subjects were allowed to sleep only while
there was evidence of slow sleep. At the appearance of rapid sleep
they were immediately awakened. In the investigations of
W.Dement (1965), R.Berger (1961), L.Oswald (1962), B.Schwartz
1M.Jouvet (1961, 1962, 1965), M.Jouvet and D.Jouvet (1963), M.Jouvet et al.
(1965), K.Lissak et al. (1961), A.Rechtschaffen and E.Wolpert (1964),
A.Rechtschaffen et al. (1963-a, 1963-b), A.Rechtschaffen and P.Verdone (1964),
A.Rechtschaffen and L.Maron (1964), A.Rechtschaffen and D. Foulkes (1965),
D.Foulkes and A.Rechtschaffen (1964), G.Redding et al. (1964), K.Bulow (1965),
H.Gaspers (1965), F.Motokizawa and B.Fujimori (1964), D.Hawkins et al. (1962),
and F.Snyder (1963).
88 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
Figure 7b The eyeballs of the same child (one year and 3 months of age) when
looking forward and aside—in a waking state.
that the question of the usefulness of dreams will again come to the
fore, this time with no need for psychoanalytical speculative
interpretations.1
Bassin (1968-a) wrote,
The division of sleep into “slow” and “rapid” does not eliminate the
problem of the various degrees of sleep, assessed on the basis of
electroencephalographic evidence. While H.Davis et al. (1938)
determined five degrees of sleep, other authors accept different
variations in grading the profoundness of sleep. Thus, P.Passouant
(1950) proposed three states of sleep by merging the first two states
into one and the last two also into one; P.Spielberg (1955) described
four stages of sleep; H.Blake et al. (1939) put forward a proposal
94 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
dreaming and connect it with the phylogenetic past, had to admit the following:
Figure 9
Figure 10
only when needed and always under the same strictly determined
motor or mental formula. The especially important property of
automated actions to change dynamically in accordance with
specific conditions is not seen. Yet this property does visually
demonstrate the important part that paraconscious mental activity
plays in the control and regulation of automated activities. In a
sudden fall, for example, within a second the falling person carries
out an exceptional number of actions, which proceed from a desire
to protect some part of the body or perhaps some object that is
being carried. This protective adjustment of automated actions, in
compliance with the needs of the moment, goes to prove their great
plasticity. The unconscious mental activity, adjusting and
controlling these actions, has much greater speed and accuracy than
it would have if all these motor acts had had to become conscious,
acquire a “sense” and then be directed. The abbreviated formulae of
thinking, the ready concepts to which we are accustomed, the motor
acts and many other activities are achieved thanks only to
automation and to pushing a large part of the intermediate stages
into the spheres of unconscious mental activity. The entire conscious
activity is built up of unconscious components.
As already mentioned, the automation can be disturbed by illness
(1963-a). Then its importance for the normal course of all vital
activities can be seen very vividly. De-automation occurs quite often
in serious forms of psychasthenia where the abbreviated motor
formulae are again as they were at the time of their
original formation; the patient is forced to reprocess everything that
formerly occurred outside the field of the conscious. The treatment
of these illnesses requires great patience on the part of the physician.
The morbid de-automation of the patient L., for example, was
fully developed. He fell ill during puberty and had constantly to
reprocess the process of writing in his mind. Every letter he wrote
had to be carefully written, the letters had to form syllables and the
syllables words, with great consideration given to every little stroke.
The occupation of his mind with a process which normally at his
age was already automated prevented him from grasping the sense
of what he was writing. This tormented him and he was unable to
cope with it by the efforts of his own will. De-automation
progressed, and gradually included both drawing and reading. He
had to sit looking at a single page of a textbook for whole days, read
the words syllable by syllable, study the written form of each
108 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
character, analyze all this, etc. The de-automation in the next few
years took over his movements, too. Every impulse to walk, speak
or play was accompanied by a counter-impulse. In this way, all
automatic motor activities “entered” his mind again. A great effort
was required to make any comprehensive movement; every step for
him became an exercise in walking. The automation of thinking also
disappeared to a considerable extent. His entire activity was
impeded. Obsessions of experience and actions, also de-automated,
began to originate on this background and this further intensified
his general de-automation. The vegetative nervous system preserved
its unconscious automated activity. Although he was very gifted and
was able to delve with great detail into the mechanisms of his
traumatic experiences, both mental and physical work became
practically impossible for him.
In some normal cases, however, part of the automated activity can
be volitionally extended again in the mind without unpleasant
experiences. Not all automated actions can be arranged in the
consciousness. Many of them remain in the micro intervals of time
and escape conscious autoanalysis. Study of the laws and features of
automatic actions is one of the essential paths for research work on
unconscious mental activity, and hence on suggestive mechanisms.
The automation of many mental processes is a basic prerequisite
for the development of the individual. Under ordinary conditions
this process goes unnoticed. In some people, however, it can be
observed in a very marked manner. In these people one can clearly
see that the automation of some functions ensures that they are
speedily performed with a minimum number of errors, and with
little fatigue or loss of energy. This fact alone offers considerable
theoretical and practical advantages for research along this line. One
can investigate problems concerning paraconscious mental activity
and do experimental research on suggestion as a direct path to the
reserve capacities of the human mind by the rapid automation of
different processes.
In the Suggestology Research Institute laboratory, research was
carried out in connection with 48-year-old K.M., a physically and
mentally sound man who was an accountant by profession. Since
early childhood, he had had a special liking for figures. As a child it
seemed he had learned the multiplication tables in one attempt
without having to make any effort. In his professional activity and
outside it, he was constantly engaged in doing arithmetic. He was
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 109
Figure 12 Interperiod analysis of the EEG waves of the control subject B. Ch.
Figure 13 Telemetric investigation of the EEG and EGG of the subject F.M. during
yoga exercises.
Figure 14 The Bulgarian yogi L. doing a yoga leap with the back.
TABLE 12 EEG, Pulse and Blood Pressure Changes of Subject S.D. in Doing
Different Yoga Exercises
Figure 16 EEG bipolar recordings (from left PO) of the subject P.V. doing yoga
exercise with closed eyes (telemetric recording).
a: Background activity. b: Padmasana. c: Badriasana. d: Pashchimontana. e:
Matsyasana. f: Ardha-Matsyendrasana. g: Sarvangasana. h: Savasana.
Figure 17 Dynamics of the pulse rates of four subjects while doing the Savasana
exercise.
It must be regretted that in some cases the method was too hastily
put into the hands of unskilled, although extremely self-confident
persons. This resulted in its great promise being brought to nothing.
However, in places where the method is applied with skill and
understanding, much success has been achieved.
The role of paraconscious mental activity in tapping the reserve
capacities of the brain can also be seen in suggestive anaesthesia in
surgical intervention. No logical, rational and conscious expectancy
could result in the deep anaesthetizing and bloodless effect known in
clinical practice. Sceptics often deny the pain-killing effect of
suggestion in small surgical interventions, alleging that “there was
simply no time to feel any pain”. Many authors concede that the
painless effect can be attained but only under hypnosis. L.Shertok
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 119
The patient was in high spirits. Spent the night peacefully. Slept well.
Had enema. Prepared for the operation. Looking forward to it with
satisfaction, fully aware that herniotomy will be carried out with
suggestive anaesthesia, without hypnosis and medication.
9.00 a.m. The patient lay calmly in the operating theatre. From 9.
00 a.m. to the end of the operation (9.50 a.m.), Dr. Georgi Lozanov
maintained local suggestive anaesthesia by speech contact. At the time
of the operation, the patient also talked to the other people in the
operating theatre. He answered adequately and was fully conscious.
At every moment it was explained what was being done to him.
122 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
On the day of the operation, at about 4.00 p.m., his temperature was
38°C, but by 8.00 p.m. the same day it dropped to 37.4°C. The
following day it went down to 37°C. After a slight fluctuation the
following day when it went up to 37.2 C, his temperature until the
end of his hospitalization (1 September) remained within the normal
range—under 37°C.
The operation was performed on 24 August, and the stitches were
removed on 28 August—leaving only two supporting sutures which
were removed the next day. The wound was in an excellent condition,
well adapted, and healing per primam. The convalescent process was
proceeding rapidly. The sutures could have been removed on the
same day as the stitches.
When examined on the seventh day after his discharge, he was
found to be in excellent condition and without any complaints. At a
scientific medical discussion three months after his operation, the
patient declared that if he had to face another operation he would
choose to be operated on by us by the same methods. Check-ups five
and ten years after the operation showed he bore no visible operative
cicatrix.
Conclusions:
1) It can be considered that this operation performed with
suggestion in a waking state was successful, because in the course of
50 minutes pain appeared only for about two minutes and in places
where pain also appears when an ordinary anaesthetic is
administered to the patient. What is more, these places were not the
object of the preliminary suggestive anaesthesia. During the whole
of the other 48 minutes, the patient talked calmly with all who were
attending the operation.
2) The post-operative period was absolutely painless and the
convalescent process was accelerated.
3) The operation proved that suggestion in a waking state in a
surgical operation is equal in power to suggestion under hypnosis.
A documentary film was made of the operation which was
reported at the International Psychosomatic Congress in Rome, in
September, 1967.
Suggestion in a normal waking state can activate the reserve
capacities of the paraconscious mental activity in a number of other
directions as well. Most of the phenomena obtained by suggestion
under hypnosis have also been obtained by suggestion without
hypnosis. Vegetative, endocrine, trophic and other intimate
124 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
Figure 19 Difference in the size of the pupils of patient I’s eyes brought about
by suggestion in a waking state.
One such patient of particular interest was D.M., who was treated in
1958. His case was demonstrated at the Scientific Association of
Psychiatrists and Neurologists in Sofia on 21 April, 1960, and
described in 1963. He came for treatment in May, 1958 when he
was 52. He had already taken 6 months’ sick leave, and the question
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 125
Of the many allergic patients who were helped in this way was the 36-
year-old G.N., whose case was also demonstrated at the Scientific
Association of Psychiatrists and Neurologists in Sofia. For four
months he had suffered from insistent urticaria. The allergen was
most probably in the dust of the factory where he worked. He had
had treatment with synopen pyribenzamin, novocaine, cortancyl
insulin with glucose, bromium and other preparations with no effect.
In November and December, 1959, he was treated in an internal-
disease ward of one of the city hospitals and discharged with the
dignosis: urticaria, oedema angioneuroticum quincke. There was no
improvement. We started immediate therapeutic-suggestive sessions,
employing primarily the method of indirect suggestion and the
method of curative reactions. We stopped all dieting the first day, and
gradually discontinued the antihistamine treatment which he had
been receiving until then. The patient recovered and returned to the
same working environment without any drugs or dieting. Fifteen
years later, G.N. had shown no relapse.
1The role of verbal suggestion as a factor in orienting the setup has also been
1Some of the earlier authors, D.Grasset (1904), and others, confused the two
concepts.
132 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
Kliment of Ohrid, who lived in the second half of the ninth century,
John of Rila, who lived in the tenth century, and others healed the
infirm, cured the crippled and drove out the “evil spirit” by what was
alleged to be magic. The founder of the Bogomil movement, who
1The beginning of psychoanalysis is also connected with the use of hypnosis in the
lived in Bulgaria at the end of the tenth century and the beginning of
the eleventh, not only created an early mass movement
foreshadowing the European Renaissance, but also cured the infirm
in ways that the Church attributed to the “powers of darkness”.
A few years before Bulgaria’s liberation from five centuries of
Ottoman bondage, in 1878, V.Beron published his Natural History
(1870), in which he made an attempt to examine the problem of
“animal magnetism in people, historically and scientifically”. After
this a number of authors wrote scientific studies on hypnosis and
psychotherapy.
the works of P.P.Podyapolsky (1903, 1904, 1909, 1913, 1915, 1926, 1927-
a, 1927-b, 1929), V.M.Bekhterev (1892, 1893, 1898, 1911), and others.
They maintained that hypnosis is a special state of modified natural sleep and
not a pathological phenomenon as J.Charcot alleged. K.I.Platonov (1915,
1925-b, 1925-c, 1925-d, 1926-a, 1926-b, 1930-a, 1930-b, 1930-c, 1939,
1952-a, 1952-b, 1957) elaborated the problem of therapeutic and
experimental hypnoses in their interrelations.
134 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
and C.Wible (1937), B.Stokvis (1938), H.Kleinsorge and G.Klumbies (1949), and
P.Reiter (1956) showed that the rate of the pulse can change under hypnosis.
G.Heyer (1921), O.Langheinrich (1922), R.Heilig and H.Hoff (1925-a),
A.Luckhard and R.Johnston (1924), and M.L.Linetskiy (1967), observed a change
in the secretion of the stomach acid. E.Wittkower (1928) found a change in bile
secretion. F.Delhaugne and K.Hansen (1927) observed a change in the gastric and
duodenal secretion in suggested feeding with various foods. R.Heilig and H.Hoff
(1925-a) found changes in renal functions, and H.Marx (1926) in suggested
drinking under hypnosis, observed an increase of urine with a reduction of its
specific gravity, H.Marcus and E.Sahlgren (1925) in suggestion under hypnosis,
reduced the reaction of the pharmacodynamic test with adrenaline and atropine.
F.Glaser (1924), A.A.Tapilsky (1928), P.P. Istomin and P.Y.Galperin (1925), and
others obtained alimentary leucocytosis by suggestion; and E.Wittkower (1929)
obtained affective leucocytosis. A.Gigon (1926) reduced the blood sugar. F.Graser
(1924), H.Kretschmer and R.Kruger (1927), Shazilo and N.Abramov (1928), and
others changed the calcium level in blood serum to a moderate amount. H.Gessler
and K.Hansen (1927), and P.Reiter (1956) affected the basic metabolism, M.Levine
(1930) obtained differences in skin resistance, I.M.Korotkin, T.V.Pleshkova and
M.M. Suslova (1968) changed the hearing thresholds in 14 out of 16 subjects; K.I.
Platonov (1956) achieved a number of changes in the trophies and in the sugar
metabolism; P.I.Bull (1958), V.E.Rozhnov (1954), M.S.Lebedinsky (1959),
K.I.Platonov (1957), and many others made use of the possibility of achieving
physiological and biochemical changes under hypnosis in clinical practice. The
hypno-suggestive effect on skin trophies in a number of skin diseases, practised by
A.Kartamishev (1936), M.Zheltakov (1958), I.Zhukov (1958), and others give a
clear idea of this.
140 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
The experiment began at 12.10 p.m. The subject was asked questions
at different levels of hypnotic inhibition. The subject’s answers were
adequate. When the latent period of reaction was shorter the answers
were quicker, and more abrupt; when the latent period of reaction
was longer, they were slower, drawled out, spoken in a low voice and
vague. For example, to the question, “What is the weather like
today?”, the answer was, “The weather is cloudy”. In the “X-degree”
the subject tapped lightly with the thumb on her right hand and the
heel of her right foot. To the same question: “What is the weather
like?” she gave no answer. The question was repeated 12 times with
different intonations of the voice and in different degrees of loudness.
The subject answered vaguely “Sun!” and at the same time the
rhythm of the hand movement became slower and almost stopped. It
was again suggested to the subject: “You sleep in ‘X-degree’”. As a
result the subject began to tap rhythmically with the thumb of her
right hand and her right heel. To the question: “What is the weather
like now?” she did not answer but accelerated the tapping. The
question was repeated 25 times. The subject made an attempt to say
something which was incomprehensible and the rhythmical
movements came to a stop. Slow rhythmical movements of the lips
appeared. To the question: “What?” (10 times), she answered in a
low voice: “Sun, sun, sun…” (repeating the words many times for
about three or four minutes). While uttering the word “sun” the
142 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
subject began to tap with her thumb. The rhythm of the subject’s
speech and the rhythm of the movement of her thumb was one and
the same. When she was asked the question “Where do you want to
go? Tell us!” the rhythm changed and she did not answer. The
question was repeated many times. The subject continued tapping
rhythmically with her thumb and heel. Another question was asked:
“Did you see D. yesterday?” (D. is her brother). The question was
repeated 12 times. The subject did not answer but only repeated
“Sun…”. Another question was asked: “How is D.?” The question
was repeated 25 times and from time to time the persistent repeating
of the question was accompanied by a gentle tapping on the subject’s
shoulder to elicit an answer. However, the subject repeated only:
“Sun, sun, sun…”.
On the suggestion of “You sleep a little lighter”, the subject ceased
repeating “Sun” and the rhythm of the movements became slower.
“You sleep still lighter” and the question: “Did you see D.?” (many
times repeated) elicited the answer: “Yes, I did.” While the subject
was giving the answer the rhythmical movements ceased and then
began again. Then to the question: “How is D.?”, the subject did not
answer the question but repeated it word for word using the same
intonation. On the suggestion: “You sleep still lighter”, the
rhythmical movements ceased. And now to the question: “Have you
seen D.?” she answered, “Yes, I have”. The question: “When?”
brought the answer: “On Sunday”, and the question “How is he?”,
the answer: “Very well, very well, very well…”
On the suggestion: “You sleep a little deeper”, slow rhythmical
movements appeared. The question: “Did you see D.?” brought no
answer but the repetition of “Did you see D.?” (many times). After the
suggestion: “You sleep still deeper”, the subject’s movements became
more vigorous and their rhythm quicker. The question: “Did you see
D?” elicited the answer: “Sun, sun, sun…”
A deeper and deeper sleep was suggested until the rhythmical
movements stopped altogether. The subject was obviously in a deep
sleep. The question: “Did you see D.?” brought no answer. The
question was repeated many times but no answer was given to it.
Then the suggestion was made that she should wake.
1For example, K.I.Platonov and E.A.Prikhodivniy (1930) employed the Binet Simon
test method. M.Kline and H.Guze (1951) worked with the so-called House-Tree-
Person Test (H.T.P.)—drawing a house-tree-man. M.Suslova (1952) employed
arithmetical problems. M.Parrish, R.M.Lundy and H.W. Leibowitz (1968) used
test methods to elaborate illusionary perceptions. E. Barra and A.C.Moreas Passos
(1960) used Rorschach’s test. B.Stokvis (1955) on one occasion was able to
compare the handwriting of a subject at a suggested age with the actual
handwriting of the subject at that age.
146 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
Figure 20a The eyeballs in a waking state looking forward and with the maximum
deflexion to the right and to the left.
suggested that he was at a younger age, the letter was given to the
subject for him to imitate the handwriting (Figure 22-d). Finally, the
letter was dictated to him in a normal waking state (Figure 22-c).
The handwriting at the suggested age of 8 years bore a clear
resemblance to the handwriting of the original letter, while his
attempt to imitate the handwriting under ordinary hypnosis without
suggestion of a change of age was unsuccessful.
Experiments carried out 5 years later, with the same subject and
with the letter, showed some fluctuation in the results but remained
reasonably convincing.
The dissociated movements of the eyeball obtained experimentally
in a hypnotic age regression, going back to the age of a new-born
baby, contradict Hering’s motor law of the constant connectedness
of the movements of the eyeballs. They and the dissociated eyeball
movements, which we observed during natural sleep and in some
neurotic states, represent a deviation from this law which cannot be
simulated. It is also difficult to believe that such precise and
spontaneous simulation in drawing the picture would be possible
and all the more so seeing that the subject did not know we were
going to look for a similar drawing in the family archives. The same
holds good for the letter writing.
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 149
Figure 20b Movements of the eyeballs of the same subject at the hypnotically
suggested age of two days.
Figure 21a Drawing at the actual age of 8 years. b. Drawing at the hypnotically
suggested age of 8 years.
Figure 22
a:
A letter written by subject at the actual age of 8 years.
b:
Subjects handwriting at the age suggested under hypnosis, actually the same age as
that of the subject when writing.
c:
Handwriting of the same subject in a normal waking state.
d:
Handwriting of the same subject under ordinary hypnosis. It was suggested that the
handwriting of the old letter (a) should be imitated.
believed that the more profound is one’s sleep, the earlier is the
period of one’s life of which one dreams.1
Experimental hypnotic regression could also serve as a model in
examining the mechanisms of clinical regression. The inhibiting
background may occur here in a number of diseases which weaken
the cortical tonus. Clinical regression appears in a more colorful
form in puerilism, clinical ecmnesia and therapeutic ecmnesia of the
abreacted psychotherapeutic methods. Therefore, it must be
admitted that in puerilism and in some forms of clinical ecmnesia,
the fundamental physiological mechanism, despite the quite frequent
liveliness of the patient, is rooted in the diffusion of the process of
inhibition, and this under specific conditions would result in the
liberation (not fully and ultimately, of course) of older dynamic
stereotypes on archaic (old) functional levels.
Above all, the problem of hypnotic age regression is closely
connected with the problems of paraconscious mental activity. The
experiments which seem to manifest an actual return to a younger
age level show that the complex of conscious and unconscious
contents of the human mentality at various earlier stages of
individual development appears not only as a transformed current
complex, but to a great extent is preserved in its earlier stages in the
unconscious mental activity. What happens both in these
experiments and in the experiments in which no earlier-age level is
restored but only a notion of it is acted out, cannot be remembered
after release from the hypnotic state. This shows that the
complicated mental activity involved in these experiments remains
outside the field of cons ciousness—in the regions of the
unconscious mental activity—after the person comes out of the
hypnosis. There are grounds to believe that this unconscious mental
activity plays a paramount role in the formation of the reactions and
1When talking about the profundity of hypnotic retention, one should bear in mind
the modern literature on electrophysiological research during sleep. This research
into sleep suggests that it is a specific state of activity. The diffusion and
intensification of the process of inhibition should be examined rather as a
redistribution in a complicated functional structure, without precluding the
possibility of further clarification. This holds good still more for hypnosis which
many authors do not even consider to be a sleep-like state, but rather regard it as a
behavioral sleep-like state which in its physiological characteristics is closer to the
waking state than to sleep. Consequently, when we speak of the deepening of
hypnotic sleep we must realize that we are using a term which in no case precludes
future experimental clarification.
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 155
1Already in Mesmer’s time and even earlier—in temple medicine, for example—
there were cases observed of abreaction through hypnotic recollection of forgotten
psychotraumatizing events. Such hypermnesia was also observed by E.Breuer and
S.Freud (1909), as well as by later proponents of psychoanalysis. Such clinical forms
of hypermnesia were described by J.M. Bramwell (1913), H.E.Wingfield (1920),
W.McDougal (1926), M.Prince (1914), and K.I.Platonov (1957). Hypnotic
hypermnesia found a place in the abreacting therapeutic methods of M.M.Asatiani
(1926), S.Y.Lifshits (1927), L.Frank (1927), N.Krustnikov (1929) and K.Cholakov
(1933, 1940), as well as in the research work of the students of N.Krustnikov and
K.Cholakov—E. Shehanova (1928, 1954), A.G.Atanasov (1969), T.Tashev (1957),
V.Yonchev (1957, 1969), and others.
156 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
1This idea in one or another form persists even today; for instance in the works of
Anti-suggestive barriers
In its constant interrelation with the environment, the organism has
worked out a number of self-protective devices. Not all the
biological protective mechanisms have been fully clarified. The
following, for example, are already known as biological barriers: the
mechanical, thermic, infection, intoxication and other resistances of
healthy skin, the bacteriocide properties in the mucous, blood
coagulation and congenital and acquired immunity.
In his interrelations with environment, man also receives
information very often which enters (is introduced) by suggestion,
insufficiently conscious and insufficiently rationalized. It can be
assumed that if man were to receive and react unconsciously to all
the different (mental) effects from the environment, he would be
helpless. But in the same way as the body has its physiological safe-
guards, the personality has produced mental protection against
harmful effects. This protection comes from the anti-suggestive
barriers which accept or reject the various suggestive mental effects.
In psychological analysis one notices, first of all, the anti-
suggestive barrier built by conscious critical thinking. When
suggestion together with a greater or smaller conscious ingredient
falls within the field of the consciousness, of critical thinking, it is
weighed up carefully in all its aspects before being accepted. The
critical, conscious assessment of the stimulation, which tends to be
transformed into suggestion, is the first serious barrier destroying
suggestion. The critical logical barrier rejects everything which does
not give an impression of well-intended logical motivation.
A profound psychological analysis of a number of suggestive
situations shows that outside the scope of the conscious critical
thinking there is also an unconscious intuitive—affective barrier
against any suggestions entering the mind. This anti—suggestive
barrier springs from the congenital negativist setup in every man. An
intuitive—affective barrier in a more complicated form exists in the
small child before the complete development of the conscious—
verbal system and conscious critical thinking. Children very often
react in a negative way to suggestive effects. This mechanism of anti-
suggestive reaction gradually weakens as the child grows older, but
never disappears completely. Very often it even remains very much
as it was in childhood, but it remains camouflaged by the new
critical logic barrier which develops in the adult. The intuitive—
170 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
Figure 24 The global; at the same time conscious and paraconscious reactivity of
personality and the desuggestive—suggestive process, given schematically. a: Unity
and indivisibility of personality in each one of its activities, properties and qualities
including the formation of the antisuggestive barriers. b: Interaction between forms
of information and the antisuggestive barriers: Forms of presenting information
unsuitable for the concrete personality. Forms of information penetrating into
personality owing to harmonization with the antisuggestive barriers.
1. 2. 3. 4.
c: Using a suitable form of interaction with the concrete personality in order to
introduce a large amount of new information.
178 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
always be connected not only with the activity of the emotions, but
with the whole unconscious sphere of the personality as a global
mediator. For instance, the most vivid idea cannot provoke a
suggestive effect if it is not connected with the unconscious basic
setup of the personality: its attitude and motivation; with the
personality’s expectancy of “something” happening right now; with
its interests and needs; as well as, with its characteristic emotional,
intellectual and volitional qualities and the requirements of the
temperament of the personality. At a given moment in these
complicated interrelations, the ideas manage to transfer part of their
activity into the unconscious sphere where, in complex interrelations
with the anti-suggestive barriers, the final desuggestive—suggestive
effect originates. The unconscious transformation of ideas into a
suggestive result is especially clearly seen in ideomotor suggestions.
Through them the ideas are transformed into a motor act without
our being aware of it. Striving to follow authority’s example is also,
in most cases, a form of suggestive transformation of important ideas
into a given effect.
Since the suggestive mechanisms are of an unconscious nature, a
similar analysis can be made of all the personality’s mediators. In
accordance with this conception, the suggestive phenomena can be
divided into three groups and the various desuggestive—suggestive
techniques can be backed with arguments.
Suggestion has many and diverse varieties of expression. In some
cases it is purposeful and in others it is the general suggestive
background which influences the development of various processes
in the personality. Quite often, suggestion is formed in speech, but it
can also enter in unspoken ways. Though it is connected with
paraconscious mental activity, suggestion sometimes also possesses a
conscious ingredient. At present, the different types of suggestion
can be determined phenomenologically according to the answers to
the following three most essential questions:
1) At what is the suggestion aimed?
2) What role does speech play in the formation of the suggestion?
3) What is the degree of conscious participation in receiving the
suggestion?
The types of suggestions can be grouped schematically by
phenomenological criteria as follows:
a) According to the aim: (1) General suggestive background. (2)
Purposeful suggestions.
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 179
1Some physiological methods which, like the narcotic effect, may result in a veiling
capacities of both somatic and mental functions which are, for the
ordinary man, an extraordinary phenomenon under certain
circumstances. Some of these are, hypermnesia (supermemory) when
the quantitative surpassing of the possibility of the ordinary human
memory is great enough to bear the mark of a new law-
governed regularity; anaesthesia (loss of sensibility), when it is not
involved with the enduring of pain or a momentary painful
irritation; and various suggested changes in organic functions which
cannot be regulated by ordinary will power. The tapping of the
personality’s reserve capacities is due, on the one hand, to
desuggestion, i.e., freeing a person from former limiting and
discouraging suggestions and, on the other hand, to creative
encouragement and suggestions. A great part of the reserve
capacities tapped and manifested in the desuggestive—suggestive
process may in the near future become normal, ordinary capacities of
the personality. They may become a social norm. The social
suggestive norm for one or another of the limitations of our
capacities has kept these capacities down. One of the tasks of
suggestology is to gradually establish new norms for the capacities
of the personality. These capacities will develop not only in the
desuggestive—suggestive (freeing-and-encouraging) creative
communicative process, but also in the self-education process of
individual people to their inner reorganization. This will, of course,
be a long process because the social suggestive norm will constantly
give shape and counteract the development, thus hampering it.
However, this counteraction has its good side as well: it will ensure
a gradual and smooth unfolding of the reserve capacities and it will
protect us from indulging in too much enthusiasm which could also
be harmful.
Not all the reserve capacities tapped by suggestology can or
should be immediately applied in practice. A sharp conflict with the
social suggestive norm may arise and if the specialists are not well
prepared the work in this field may be delayed for years. In our
suggestopedic experiments, for instance, we achieved the
memorization of the meanings of 1000 to 1200 foreign words in one
session. But these were isolated experiments. In mass practice, it was
difficult to begin at once with such an enormous amount of
material, an amount that was, and is, in such striking contradiction
to the social suggestive norm. That is why for practical use we
reduced the material given in one lesson most often to 250 to 300
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 191
Authority (Prestige)
The concept of authority (not authoritarism!) as it is used in
suggestology stands for the non-directive prestige which by indirect
ways creates an atmosphere of confidence and intuitive desire to
follow the set example. Guarantees of the reliability of the
information carried by such kind of authority are associated, coded
and symbolized in it.
There are various types of authority: authority of the personality,
of sound logic, of the beauty found in the great works of art, etc.
Here we are interested mainly in the authority of the teacher and
that of the physician. Both the doctor’s and the teacher’s double-
plane behavior should naturally and spontaneously create
conditions for the developing of infantilization and concert
pseudopassiveness similar to those of a good concert or
performance. Thus the external conditions aid the personality’s
inner need for developing concentrative psychorelaxation directed to
the reserve capacities.
In most cases, the person receiving the information does not
realize that his receptivity has increased because of the increased
authoritativeness of the source. He does not understand that, at a
given moment, the informative process has begun to run at a higher
level. More is received, understood and memorized than is usual
because the source has increased authority. Enhanced authority
exercising a suggestive effect is felt emotionally, to a great extent,
like the other elements of N.M.R. with which suggestion operates.
The N.M.R. is felt in a similar way in the various kinds of art in
which the basic idea is perceived unnoticed during the emotional
and aesthetic experience. The more convincing the N.M.R. means
are in art, the more true to life and the more effectively selected they
are, the greater is the ease with which the idea is perceived, i.e., the
easier it is to overcome the anti-suggestive barriers. Consequently,
enhanced receptiveness to the suggested content of information,
although probably connected physiologically with local increased
excitability of the respective structures, operates below the level of
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 195
Infantilization
Authority creates confidence in the reliability of expected results. This
is how infantilization most often originates in the suggestive
process. Sometimes infantilization develops without any external
motive, due to inner inspiration born for instance from some idea,
i.e., autosuggestively. The higher the inspiring and non-directive
authority, the greater the developing infantilization; the two are, in
most cases closely connected.
Sometimes infantilization develops without any external motive,
due to inner inspiration born for instance from some idea, i.e.,
autosuggestively. Infantilization has nothing to do with the medical
term “infantilism”. It is a universal reaction of respect, inspiration
and confidence which, without disrupting the level of the normal
intellectual activity, considerably increases the perception, memory
and creativity functions. In infantilization, perception, memorization
and creative imagination seem to return, to some extent, to the more
favorable level of the earlier age periods. It is well known that the
child can memorize much more information than the adult. For a
child, every new concept reveals new worlds. With the advance of
age the memory functions and the flight of imagination begin to lose
198 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
Double-planeness
Double-planeness comprises the enormous signalling stream of
diverse stimuli which unconsciously, or semiconsciously, are emitted
200 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
Intonation
Intonation is one of the elements of double-plane behavior. It also
has marked significance for the buildup of authority and the
establishment of the suggestive connection. Intonation in
suggestology is usually understood as ordinary sound intonation. To
a large extent this is due to its wide application in psychotherapeutic
practice. Giving different nuances to the voice is, perhaps, the most
often employed method because it is the handiest and the one easiest
to “get the hang of”. Other methods require some sort of
organization and technique. They also involve certain difficulties
of coordination which would be psychologically right in the
ordinary therapeutic atmosphere. When a suggestion is put forward,
the intonation in the voice makes whatever it is sound significant. At
the same time, it convinces us of the authoritativeness of the source
of information. Intonation also helps achieve double planeness in
behavior. Solemn intonation is the kind most frequently employed.
Special intonation also creates a particular attitude in those hearing
it; it comes out of the framework of everyday life, and creates an
atmosphere of expectation. The affective content of intonation
facilitates a more profound emotional activation of the personality.
A suggestive atmosphere is not created and the reserve mechanisms
of unconscious mental activity are not liberated by every intonation
and every condition. It is very important to emphasize that
demonstrative intonation—if only for the sake of it and devoid of
any content—not only fails to bring the expected results, but often
202 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
diminishes the effect of the words because there is nothing behind the
intonation. In this sense, intonation can be regarded not so much as
external richness of tone, but as an expression of internal
psychological content. Internal intonation, import and an
atmosphere of expectation can also be created by some hardly
noticeable external sound variation. Very often, a pause is richer in
content than the effective sound shape of suggestive speech.
Intonation, however, is not absolutely necessary to achieve high
suggestive results. It only facilitates the suggestive process. A
number of experimental researches into the suggestopedic methods
for learning foreign languages have shown that this is so. In them,
high memorization results, reaching genuine suggestive
hypermnesia, were obtained without any special intonation when
giving the material to be memorized. These experiments were made
when the students were learning both individual words and phrases.
The size of the program varied with the number of isolated new
words or new words in phrases numbering from 100 to 1000. It
should be noted that the students preferred intonational presentation
of a new material: they found it more pleasant, not at all boring, and
felt no uneasiness when they had to explain to themselves why they
achieved such unusually high memorization results.1
In other experiments with special intonation, we got more lasting
memorization than was achieved in the control group. The
memorization of the experimental and control groups showed no
significant differences. We dropped artificial intonation later on in
our suggestopedic courses and retained only the artistic intonation in
harmony with the music of the concert session. In this way, the
intonation became more acceptable to the students.
Moderately artistic intonation increases the information value of
the material given, engages the emotional and double plane aspects
of the communicative process more actively, and creates an
atmosphere of acceptable significance.
Rhythm
Rhythm is a basic biological principle, a reflection of the rhythms in
nature. There are daily rhythms, seasonal rhythms and annual
rhythms, affective vegetative reactions and, hence, mental life. There
are also many cosmic rhythms affecting personality. The
psychological significance of rhythm has been emphasized by many
SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY 203
GENERAL CONCLUSION
From everything that has been said so far, the conclusion can be
drawn that the suggestive is a constant and indivisible part of every
communicative process. In some cases, it may increase to the extent
of tapping the reserves of mind; in others, it may decrease; but it
always participates in man’s mental and emotional life. The term
“suggestive” comprises the indivisible desugges-because, to a certain
208 TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF SUGGESTION
MEMORIZATION OF SUGGESTOPEDICALLY
PRESENTED MATERIAL
We made our assessments chiefly from the results of written control
tests. The tests were usually given the day after a suggestopedic
session, without the students having done any homework. They
were asked to give a partial or full translation of the material they
had been given in the session. In the first half of the course, the
translation was mainly from the foreign language into the mother
tongue. In the second half, translation was more frequently from
one’s own language into the foreign language. The words in the tests
were given at random.
The tests given were not on all the material, but on a great part of
it. We have data on the number of words and sentences memorized
by each student from the total 600–900 words and sentences given
in the tests. The words and sentences included in the control tests
are only a small part of the total number taught. Being chosen at
random for the test, this small part satisfies the requirements
for representative statistical research. Taking into consideration the
considerable number of lexical units included in the tests, it can be
210 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
said that the test figures for memorization are transferable to the
total material studied. This claim acquires a greater value from the
fact that the majority of the students showed a remarkable
steadiness in achieving high results in the tests.
The percentage of the assimilation of the material taught was
calculated for each student: percentage of memorized words,
percentage of memorized sentences, average number of new words
per school day, average number of words per suggestopedic session.
One example will be sufficient to explain how the calculations
were made: Student P.M. in a German language group had taken
seven tests. Out of the total 896 words given in the test, he knew
839, or 93.6 percent. Out of the total 1067 sentences he knew
1037, or 97 percent. Considering that the complete study program
comprised 1600 words, and the tests comprised only 896 words,
before transferring the results of the tests (93.6 words learned) to
the total material taught, the random error had to be calculated. It
was ±1.57 percent with a rank significance of 95 percent (error, 5
percent). In this case, the mean percentage of memorized words
would vary from 92.03 to 95.17 percent. The percentage of the
memorized sentences was 97, and the random error was ±1.02
percent.
In the experimental course attended by P.M., 1600 words were
given in 31 school days. When P.M. memorized 93.6 percent, he
memorized, on an average, 49 words per day and learned to use
them correctly. In this experiment the 1600 words were given in 15
suggestopedic sessions. Calculations show that the student
memorized, on an average, 100 words per session (about 45
minutes).
From the data provided by the above example, variations in
percentage learned were calculated for all students. Table 16 shows
the variations in the percentage of words learned by the students
who completed the courses. It can be seen that most of the 416
students learned more than 90 percent of the material they were
given. The average amount of material learned for all members of the
courses was 93.16 percent.
Table 17 shows the basic statistical indices of the average number
of words learned well enough for practical use in one study day and
the memorized meaning of words in one suggestopedic session (the
suggestopedic sessions were usually held every other day for 45
minutes).
SUGGESTOPEDY—AN EXPERIMENTAL METHOD OF SUGGESTOLOGY 211
SUGGESTOPEDIC MEMORIZATION IN
LEARNING VARIOUS FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Many kinds of subjects have been already taught by the suggestopedic
method. Here we give only an account of the suggestopedic teaching
of foreign languages, in particular the research we carried out to see
whether suggestive memorization of different languages would be
the same for all or would deviate. The results can be seen in
Table 20.
These are the mean percentages of the words memorized during
the whole course of instruction, calculated from the data on each
student who studied the respective language in the regular courses.
Here we shall assess whether the deviations observed in the
different languages were significant in respect to the mean indices of
the aggregate, where the arithmetical mean was 93.16, and the
average dispersion coefficient was 8.12. We shall employ the
criterion t.
For the German language group, criterion t has a value of 1.86.
Comparing it with the respective table, it is obvious that the
alternative hypothesis is supported by a probability ranging between
90 and 95 percent. Although marginally significant, this probability
is insufficient for unconditional adoption of the alternative
hypothesis.
For the French language group, criterion t has a value of 1.62.
The null hypothesis is supported by a probability exceeding 10
per cent. Therefore, neither it nor the alternative hypothesis can be
accepted with certainty.
216 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
For the English group, t has a value of 1.88. With this value of the
criterion, the alternative hypothesis cannot be accepted, although
there is a probability ranging between 80 and 95 percent in its
support.
The conclusion which can be drawn from these calculations is
that the suggestopedic system of memorization has been tried out
with success in different foreign languages. It is almost equally
suitable for teaching any foreign language. The differences
established in the results of the different groups cannot be
unconditionally accepted as significant. This favorable conclusion
we were able to draw about its usefulness in practice has been
corroborated by the results of suggestopedic courses held in other
countries.
DURABILITY OF MEMORIZATION IN
SUGGESTIVE HYPERMNESIA
One of the most frequently asked questions about suggestopedy is
whether memorization in hypermnestic volume is lasting. Objections
are usually raised to such a large amount of material being
memorized, on the ground that it will be quickly forgotten again.
Because of this criticism we decided to make experimental checks of
the durability of memorization in suggestive hypermnesia.
The impression we got from these checks is that what was learned
in the suggestopedic courses was lasting knowledge, not easily
forgotten, even if it was not practiced. This being so, taking into
consideration the pleasant suggestive atmosphere and the absence of
fatigue, suggestopedic instruction has considerable advantages.
Without examining in detail the problems of memory and the place
of suggestopedic data in the research work on memory functions so
far carried out, we shall briefly outline some of our principal
researches into certain characteristics of suggestive hypermnesia.
TABLE 22
was given to the students on the first study day of the course, and
the other one after the last suggestopedic session. In a number of
courses, the words on the sheets and the sheets themselves were
mixed up, but this did not change the results in any way.
The following are the results of the initial and final testing with
141 subjects.
At the beginning of the suggestopedic course, students learned, on
an average, 33.9 percent of the words, and after the last session 50.2
percent. These data were statistically processed to ascertain the
reliability of the differences. It was found that the difference of 16.3
percent was significant in a guaranteeed probability of 0.999. The
data make it possible for us to draw the important conclusion that
suggestopedic instruction also has a very favorable effect on the
mobilization of the memorization capacities of students in their
extrasuggestopedic memorization.
TABLE 27 Results of Suggestibility Test at the Beginning and at the End of the
Suggestopedic Course
the course, another picture was shown to them and other questions
were asked. Three questions were asked about each picture.
It cannot be claimed that this test reveals the whole suggestibility
of the person. It can only give an idea of the local dynamic
conditions of the general suggestive background, in so far as they
are connected with suggestopedic teaching and learning. The results
of the investigation of the suggestibility of the students at the
beginning and at the end of the course are shown in Table 27.
At the end of the suggestopedic course there is a clearly marked
tendency to a reduction in the number of those who gave answers
showing they had been misled by the questions. This means there
was a tendency toward a reduction of susceptibility to suggestive
effect.
Table 28 shows the answer analysis of the two groups in which the
suggestibility of the students was investigated. The figure and
percentage data given in the tables makes it possible to detail the
suggestibility changes during suggestopedic training.
The difference between the results at the beginning and at the end
of the course is significant. The significance of these differences is
supported by a probability exceeding 0.999.
Table 29 shows that the majority of students in both groups
exhibited a decrease in positive answers.
The study of suggestibility by the above test methods gives every
reason to assume that suggestopedic instruction affects the students’
suggestibility and most often results in a decrease in the general
(background) suggestibility. The decrease in background
suggestibility, at the end of the suggestopedic course, is probably an
228 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
Before I joined the course I felt nervous and irritable. It was difficult
for me to go to sleep. A few days after I started the course I found
that I had become calmer and fell asleep more easily…
I was suffering from a nervous disorder before the course, but now I
am fine. I sleep much better now.
230 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
Thanks to your course, I was able to get back to my normal state after
a shattering experience which had been depressing me for several
years…
…In general, in the days which I have spent here, I have gained
confidence and trust in my own abilities.
E.I., German course, November 1967, wrote that the migraines she
had been suffering from for many years no longer occurred:
Figure 33 Average data on the maximum blood pressure at the beginning and at the
end of the course.
At the end of the courses, the students showed greater speed and
accuracy in their work than they did before the courses began (P> 0.
99, see Table 31). The results of the mental arithmetic test were
similar. At the end of the courses, the number of the problems
correctly solved by the 221 investigated students was 7.3 percent
higher than the number they solved at the beginning.
The data obtained from the investigation of the eye electrical
sensitivity (rheobasis) of 210 students show that at the end of the
course, as compared with the beginning, the ocular rheobase of the
students decreased from 51.2 microamperes to 47.2 microamperes,
or by 6 percent.
The latent period of simple motor reaction to strong and weak
sound stimuli was also investigated. It was found that both before
238 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
Figure 36 Histograms of the interperiod intervals of the EEG waves at rest and
while doing mental arithmetic.
TABLE 32 Alpha, Beta, Theta and Delta Indices of Subject V.K., At Rest and In
Doing Mental Arithmetic, May 17, 1969
TABLE 33 Alpha, Beta and Theta Indices of Subject L.Y. At Rest, In Proof-Reading
and After The Test, November 19, 1968
Figure 37 Histograms of the interperiod intervals of the EEG waves before study
hours, before the session and after the session (group I).
TABLE 34 Percentage of Increased, Decreased and Not Changed Alpha and Beta
Indices After Lessons with and without a Session
Figure 38 Histograms of the interperiod intervals of the EEG waves before the
study hours, before the session and after the session (group II).
TABLE 35 Changes in the Alpha, Beta and Theta Indices in the Course of Lessons
Figure 39 EEG at rest under stimulation with the frequency of light signals, 5 cycles
per sec.
Figure 40 Histograms of the inter-period intervals of the EEG waves at rest and
under stimulation with a frequency of 5 cycles.
Figure 41 Assimilation of photic stimulations before the study hours, before the
session and after the session.
Evoked potentials
A number of reports in literature have revealed the fact that evoked
potentials in the human brain depend on the state of one’s attention.
According to J.Garcia-Aust, J.Bogacr and C.Vanzulli (1964), M.
Heider, P.Spong and D.Lindsley (1964, 1965), the amplitude of the
evoked potential increases when the attention is not fixed on the
stimuli, and its latent period shortens, while any distraction of
attention by stimuli results in changes diametrically different. M.P.
Kudinova and M.S.Mislobodski (1968), R.M.Chapman and H.R.
Bragdon (1964) and others described more complicated and
contradictory changes in the parameters of the evoked potentials
when the attention was drawn or distracted from the stimuli.
Kudinova and Mislobodski wrote about very typical changes in the
evoked potentials. The question arose as to whether evoked
potentials in the cerebral cortex could serve as a test for any changes
in the attention that might occur under the effect of teaching. To
find the answer to this question, a study was made of the amplitude
and time characteristics of evoked potentials of light stimuli before
lessons, after the first three study periods and after the sessions, as
SUGGESTOPEDY—AN EXPERIMENTAL METHOD OF SUGGESTOLOGY 249
Figure 42 Assimilation of the photic stimuli by the left and right hemispheres of the
brain before study hours, before and after the session.
Figure 43 Evoked potentials after 3 study hours and after the following session.
potential components. The same is true for the total duration of the
evoked potential. This is probably an expression of the slightly
increased excitability of the cerebral cortex of the students after the
first three study periods and then, after the session, of a decrease in
this excitability until it disappears altogether, as was also seen in the
investigations we carried out by other methods—EEG interperiod
interval analysis, rheobase, and the latent period of the motor
reaction.
After the first three study hours the evoked potential amplitude
increased the increase in the peaks N3 and P4 being expressed the
best (Figure 43). The amplitude from peak N3 to peak N4 increased
from an average 15.7 to 18.6 microvolts, or by 11.2 percent. After
the session the amplitude between the two peaks is 15.8 microvolts,
i.e., it practically returns to the initial level, or what it was before
lessons.
SUGGESTOPEDY—AN EXPERIMENTAL METHOD OF SUGGESTOLOGY 251
TABLE 37 EEG Indices in a Waking State and During Sleep in the Paradoxical State
The students’ sleep was most profound in the first two or three
hours of the night, after which it became increasingly superficial. A
slight deepening of sleep was observed again between 4 and 6 a.m.
but not in all the students. Paradoxical sleep showed undulation
during the night. One was struck by the counter-phase pattern of the
curves of paradoxical sleep before and during the course
(Figure 44). There were no strongly marked differences in the data
prior to and during the course. During the night when the courses
were being held, the average length of the ABC stages in relation to
the total length of sleep decreased from 60 to 58 percent and of
stages D and E from 30 to 27 percent. The duration of paradoxical
sleep increased from 10 to 15 percent (Figure 45).
The EEG data on the continuation of paradoxical sleep and the
subjective data obtained from the students in recounting their dreams
at night do not always coincide. There were cases of students who
reported they had dreamed little during a considerable length of
their paradoxical sleep, and vice versa. It should also be noted that
in comparison with the data given in literature on this subject, the
results we obtained in our investigation of paradoxical sleep
showed relatively low indices but the stages ABC relatively high
ones.
254 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
SUMMARY
The researches carried out to see the effect of suggestopedic
instruction showed that besides pedagogically highly efficient,
suggestopedy is conducive to the well-being of the students from the
point of view of physiology, psychology and mental work. The data
obtained from all the experimental methods point in the same
direction. This makes the data on the changes we observed all the
more reliable.
Suggestopedy is safe from the point of view of health and even
has a favorable psychotherapeutic effect on some functional
disorders. The strain felt in learning unknown study material is
abolished in suggestopedic instruction. In spite of the rapid rate
of work and the large volume of material given to learn, the
psychophysiological changes are only very slightly expressed. They
correspond to the characteristic changes that come from doing
mental work of low intensity. In the first three study hours, the
functional state of the cerebral cortex of the students is characterized
by a slight intensification of excitability as compared with the initial
condition. During the time of the session the alpha index in most
cases increases above its initial level, and the beta index decreases.
During the sessions we have a state of the most markedly expressed
mental relaxation in a waking state. This state of specific rest
explains the improvement of the students’ working capacity after the
session—an improvement in as much as there is sometimes a slight
decrease in some students’ working capacity after the first three
study periods.
It can be concluded that hypermnesia is not necessarily bound up
with strenuous mental bioelectric activity and great strain.
Hypermnesia can be achieved in states of concentrative
pseudopassiveness with an increased alpha rhythm.
SUGGESTOPEDY—AN EXPERIMENTAL METHOD OF SUGGESTOLOGY 255
Figure 45 Duration of the different stages of sleep before and during the course.
Figure 46 The first experimental suggestopedic course in Moscow was carried out
by specialists of the Suggestology Research Institute (Sofia) in 1969.
The whole material for the first course comprising of 2000 lexical
units, all the basic grammar of the respective foreign language, with
a view to achieving a satisfactory level of reading, speaking and
aural comprehension habits and skills is divided up into ten thematic
dialogues with entertaining plots and sub-plots. One of these
dialogues is read at each session.
In principle the sessions for the second and third courses are not
essentially different from those for the first course.
the setup is not created for fixed memorization of the global units of
the respective language without the possibility of creatively
processing them and breaking them in for use. Some of the students
can repeat some of the new passages, others can use them in new
variants, while others again can link them up with the material
already learned.
The next phase comprises the session itself. It lasts for one
academic hour (45 minutes) and with it, the day’s lessons come to
an end. At the beginning of the session, all conversation stops for a
minute or two, and the teacher listens to the music coming from a
tape-recorder. He waits and listens to several passages in order to
enter into the mood of the music and then begins to read or recite the
new text, his voice modulated in harmony with the musical phrases.
The students follow the text in their textbooks where each lesson is
translated into the mother tongue. Between the first and second part
of the concert, there are several minutes of solemn silence. In some
cases, even longer pauses can be given to permit the students to stir
a little. Before the beginning of the second part of the concert, there
are again several minutes of silence and some phrases of the music
are heard before the teacher begins to read the text. Now the
students close their textbooks and listen to the teacher’s reading. At
the end, the students silently leave the room. They are not told to do
any homework on the lesson they have just had except for reading it
cursorily once before going to bed, and again before getting up in
the morning.
The post-session phase comprises various elaborations of the
material to activate its assimilation. The primary elaboration,
secondary elaboration, generalization of the material and the final
etudes make up this phase.
The primary elaboration takes place the day after the session. It
ensures the reproduction of the material given in the session. It
comprises imitation of the text, questions and answers, reading, etc.
It is of special importance that the teacher should give each student
the possibility of taking part in what he knows the best. The
students must be stimulated without being given a false impression
that they know more than they really do. The students must be
made to feel that the material will gradually emerge in their mind
and that they will be able to reproduce above 90 percent of it.
Already, in this phase, they may, depending on the level of the
group, make a transition to the stage of creative transformation of
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 279
the new material and of its use in practice. This must be done
carefully and as spontaneously as possible, in order that those
students who still cannot cope with the new material do not lose
their self-confidence and become depressed.
The secondary elaboration takes place in the first periods of the
second day, after the session. In this elaboration the material is
activated, without any forcing on the part of the teacher, to such
an extent that it is possible to make new combinations with it and
new creative productions. The students listen to new emotionally
saturated musical compositions on the tape-recorders. An extra text,
a monologue, is read. The students engage in conversation on, given
themes, and are given small roles to play. The playing of these little
scenes should take place, however, only when the students
themselves agree to take the roles. The teaching and learning thus
acquires sense and meaning. In the general emotional stir caused by
the play-acting, the language side of the lesson is forgotten and the
students use the phrases heard in the session without searching their
minds for them or analysing them. After they have used the phrases,
the teacher can draw attention to them for a second or two, if some
mistakes are repeated. Mistakes made in conversation should not be
corrected immediately, but a situation should be created in which
the same words or phrases or similar ones are used by other
students or by the teachers themselves. Not only in this phase, but
during the whole course the students should never be made to feel
embarrassed by the mistakes they make. That is why the correction
of mistakes is considered one of the most important things in the art
of giving suggestopedic instruction.
The generalization of the material takes place twice during the
whole course. It is mainly grammatical, but the grammar is included
in new texts with interesting plots.
In the middle of the course the students might have a particular
kind of practical experience in speaking the language they are
learning in real hotels, restaurants, the street and in other places.
This is intended to encourage them by showing that they can cope in
the foreign language in real-life situations.
The last day of the course is dedicated to a performance in which
every student is included—the level to which he has learned the
material given in the course and his own wishes being taken into
consideration. The students themselves think up an interesting play
in which most of the themes they have studied are included. Their
280 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
but to listen quietly to the concert. They are told to take part in the
course as though it were a pleasant game of cultural occupation.
They are not to force the learning process by going over the material
again and again. They are to try to learn it in the way that children
learn new things—without being worried about the mistakes they
make at the beginning. They are reminded that they should not go in
for self-analysis during the course, but should judge the effect of the
teaching by the results which will be seen the last day or even some
days after the end of the course. It is explained to them that mastery
of the material is not a matter of ability, but one of adaptation to
the favorable climate for learning created in the course. The students
are reminded that this kind of adaptation is hindered by
psychotrauma during the period of the course by excessive self-
analysis and disturbances in hearing, but even under any of these
circumstances a considerable part of the material is mastered. The
students are assured that the course has no harmful effects on their
health, but just the contrary—nervous disorders are often cured by
this psychotherapeutic—psychohygienic educational process.
3) Before the beginning of the course each student is given a name
that is used in the language he is going to study. He is also given a
new biography. In this way, the students become actors and
actresses. They are forbidden to talk about their real names and
professions and, further, are not to ask each other questions about
themselves.
hearted story running through the material in the textbook and the
plot must turn on the emotional content of the story. Traumatic
themes and distasteful lexical material should be avoided. The
heroes of the story must have definite character traits. Grammar
should be given in natural situations, and unobtrusively. The
textbook must be up to all modern requirements in regard to the
choice of lexical material.
As an example of one kind of a suggestopedic foreign-language
textbook (By E.Gateva), Lesson One, for beginners studying a
foreign Western language (Italian) has been included here. The
material given in this lesson has to be assimilated in a kind of ritual-
cycle, featuring a pre-session, a session and a post-session phase
(Figure 51 and Figure 52).
Figure 51a
GRAMMATICA
Quadro primo
FONETICA
L’alfabeto
italiano
Aa a Mm emme
Bb bi Nn enne
Cc ci Oo o
Dd di Pp Pi
Ee e Qq qu
Ff effe Rr erre
Gg gi Ss esse
Hh acca Tt ti
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 287
Figure 51b
288 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
Figure 52
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 289
290 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 291
292 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 293
294 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 295
296 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 297
298 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 299
300 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
cu cuore, scuola
cia, cio cominciàmo, sacrifìcio/i
atona non viene pronunciata
chi, che chiedere, marchesa
g ge dipinge, intelligente
gi giro, regista
ga, go, gu ragazzo, Rigoletto, guardo
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 305
LE CONSONANTI DOPPIE
Babbo, ragazzo, abbracciare, repubblica
L’ACCENTO
…: Parole piane:
21 21 21 21
signore, cantante, mare, rosso
2. Parole tronche:
città, università
3. Parole sdrucciole:
321 321 321 321
306 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
L’APOCOPE/Troncamento/
buon giorno/buono giorno/
gran buongustaio/grande buongustaio/
L’ELISIONE
trent’ anni/trenta anni/
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 307
l’amico/
MORFOLOGIA E SINTASSI
L’articolo determinativo e indeterminativo
Il nome: genere e numero
308 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
Maschile
Singolare Plurale
1. Nomi che terminano in—o
A/il/un/ davanti a nomi che cominciano con
consonance tranne la Z.
Il/un/biglietto I/dei/biglietti
Il quadro, il successo, il marito, il matrimonio, il
figlio, il ragazzo, il museo, il congresso, il giro, il
luogo/i luoghi/, il giorno, il bambino.
Singolare Plurale
b/lo/uno/davanti a nomi che
cominciano con s+consonante,
ps, z
lo/uno/spettacolo gli/degli/spettacoli
lo stabilimento, lo specchio, lo
psicologo, lo zucchero
C/l’/un/davanti a nomi che
cominciano con vocale
l‘/un/anno gli/degli/anni
L’italiano, l’aeroporto,
l’istituto, l’albergo/gli
alberghi/, l’amico,/gli amici/
2. Nomi che teminano in—e
il/un/padre i/dei/padri
il cantante, il viaggiatore, il
direttore, il professore, lo
studente, lo scrittore, l’autore
3. Nomi che terminano in—a
il/un/musicista i/dei/musicisti
il college, il pianista, il poet a,
il sistema, lo psicoterapeuta
4. Nomi che terminano in
consonante:
il/un/film, bar i/dei/film, bar
5. Particolarità del plurale
il lenzuolo le lenzuola
il frutto le frutta
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 309
Femminile
Singolare Plurale
1. Nomi che terminano in—a
a/la/una/davanti a nomi che
cominciano con consonante
la/una/sorella le/delle/sorelle
la strade, la famiglia, la signora, la
lingua, la ragazza, la tazza, la
sorpresa, la bellezza, la gioia, la
valigia
b/l’/un’/davanti a nomi che
cominciano con vocale
l’/un’/aranciata le/delle/aranciate
l’italiana, l’opera, l’arnica/le
amiche/, l’uscita, l’acqua
2. Nomi che terminano in—e
la/una/madre le/delle/madri
la moglie, la cantante,
l’importazione, l’occasione, la
canzone, la voce, l’ungherese, la
francese
la scrittrice/lo scrittore/ le/delle/scrittrici
Essere
1. /Io/ sono italiano.
2. /Tu/ sei un bambino!
3. /Egli/Lei/ è inglese.
/Ella/Lui/ è italiana.
/Lei/ è molto gentile.
1. /Noi/ siamo a Roma.
2. /Voi/ siete studenti.
3. /Essi/Loro/ sono ragazzi.
/Esse/Loro/ sono ragazze.
310 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
Il coniugazione
Vincere Verbi irregolari
Vinco vinciamo potere
vinci vincete posso possiamo
vince vincono puoi potete
dipingere può possono
dipingo dipingiamo volere
dipingi dipingete voglio vogliamo
dipinge dipingono vuoi volete
rimanere vuole vogliono
rimango rimaniamo dovere
rimani rimanete devo dobbiamo
rimane rimangono devi dovete
conoscere deve devono
conosco conosciamo
conosci conoscete
conosce conoscono
III conigazione
capire salire
capisco capiamo salgo saliamo
capisci capite sali salite
capisce capiscono sale salgono
312 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
a
Abito a Milano.
a+il=al a+i=ai a+la=alla a+le=alle
a+lo=allo a+gli=agli a+l’=all’
a+l’=all’
Studia al Conservatorio.
da
Da cinque anni abito a Milano.
da+il=dal da+i=dai da+la=dalla da+le=dalle
da+lo=dallo da+gli=dagli da+l’=dall’
da+l’=dall’
Vengo dall’aeroporto.
di
Sono amico di Suo padre.
di+il=del di+i=dei di+la=della di+le=delle
di+lo=dello di+gli=degli di+l’=dell’
di+l’=dell’
Le pareti della camera sono alte.
in
Viaggiano in treno.
in+il=nel in+i=nei in+la=nella in+le=nelle
in+lo=nello in+gli=negli in+l’=nell’
in+l’=nell’
Nell’armadio per i vestiti ci sono molte stampelle
su
Sulla tavola ci sono i giornali. /su+la=sulla/
per
Vengono per la prima volta.
L’ARTICOLO PARTITIVO
Vogliono dell’acqua minerale.
Non vogliono acqua minerale.
IL VERBO IMPERSONALE c’è, ci sono /ci+essere—3 persona/
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 313
1. Lo spettacolo è meraviglioso.
Gli spettacoli sono meravigliosi.
La camera è comoda e tranquilla.
Le camere sono comode e tranquille.
2. Francesco è un ragazzo intelligente.
Francesco ed Emilio sono due ragazzi intelligenti.
Elsa è una ragazza intelligente.
Elsa e la sua amica sono ragazze intelligenti.
PARTCIPIO PASSATO
PASSATO PROSSIMO
Siamo arrivati.
Avere Essere
ho avuto abbiamo avuto sono stato,—a siamo stati,—e
hai avuto avete avuto sei stato,—a siete stati,—e
ha avuto hanno avuto è stato,—a sono stati,—e
Hanno avuto grande successo. Siete stati in Italia?
314 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
Figure 53
Books with pictures where the stories of the same performances are
related must be prepared.
7) Familiarizing and training teachers is necessary for work with
the musical form, in which part of the lesson is given. Teachers must
realize the educational, as well as the direct significance (from the
point of view of learning) of the musical compositions of the pre-
classical and classical period chosen to accompany the delivery of
the new material. They must unobtrusively turn the music on at
difficult moments in the teaching and learning of new material.
Teachers must be on guard against showing a formalistic attitude
toward the use of music in the lessons.
8) The parents should be instructed on how they should play their
role in the educational process. Parents must be clever enough to
organize their children’s free time properly, particularly when these
children have no obligations to do homework, especially in the first
half of the school year. Parents must help to encourage motivation
and arouse the interest to learn in their children. If they are unable
to do this, it is better not to interfere and not to insist on their
children doing tiring exercises at home, but rather to urge them to
utilize what they have learned at school in the practical
everyday tasks of the family-going shopping, writing letters, reading
books, etc.
For example, parents are sent the following instructions:
placed in the pupils field of vision. They are left hanging for two
days, without the children’s attention being drawn to them.
2) At the end of the second day of school, the posters are taken
down and shown to the children in random order with the pictures
themselves concealed and only the written words showing for the
children to read. A situation for playing games is created. At first in
chorus and then separately, the children have to answer the
following questions: (a) Which picture was above this word (or
sentence)? (b) The word (or sentence) of which picture is this? (c)
What is this word (or sentence)?
3) The other half of the posters are hung in the class room for
another two days. Then the teacher proceeds in the same way with
them as he did with the first half. It is obligatory to realize all this in
the atmosphere of a game.
4) All the words and sentences contained on the posters are
written separately without the pictures. They are to be read quickly
in random order by the first-grade group, first in chorus, and
afterwards separately by each child.
5) The words and sentences already learned are combined in short
new sentences, each with one new word. The sentences are
connected in a plot, and they are read in chorus and from time to
time, by individual pupils. The children are not allowed to
read separate letters or syllables. Only the whole word is read, or
the whole sentence. However, the teacher does suggest in passing,
that the words are composed of letters, yet one does not stop to dwell
on the letters when reading. Here, too, the teacher goes on to the
quick reading of slides and quick-reading contests are held.
6) Next is the didactic opera or theatrical performance, usually
filmed or videotaped. A part of the words already learned, and also
some of the new words, are given in the performance as a way of
unravelling the most interesting parts of the plot. All the children
join in the chorus and thus “help” the actors who suggest that
reading is pleasant and easy. The same performance comprises some
mathematical material. Note that the previous day a book with
illustrations containing the play of the same performance was read
by the pupils.
7) Small songs and poems already learnt by heart by the children
and made up primarily of words already familiar and of a pleasant
nature are sung or read in chorus and individually. The children
must follow the place in the text with their first finger even when the
318 SUGGESTOLOGY AND OUTLINES OF SUGGESTOPEDY
on strict instruction, the effect of the artistic means is lost and the
teaching and learning acquires a conventional nature.
2) Integration of the different stages. The four teaching stages
should, in the subject matter, be a continuation of one another.
Elements of one stage should be contained, to a lesser degree, in the
next one. Essential elements of the first and second stages should be
contained in the third stage and, at the same time, a transition to the
fourth stage should be made possible. The teacher should begin with
the story, the performance and the song, then switch over to the
didactic material; and then, again and again, go back to the play, to
art and to the emotions. These elements also should not be missing
in the fourth stage, no matter how strong is the tendency to make it
a dry review and fixation of the material taught.
3) Integration of the themes. The separate themes should not be
linked together, just for the sake of transition. It is indicated in each
theme that it contains the themes taken before, and the prerequisites
are created for the next one. Thus, for example, the study of
multi plication should not remain isolated in the first theme. It can
be illustrated, enriched and more thoroughly mastered by giving the
children a variety of examples taken from the next themes.
Similarly, geometrical material is imperceptibly introduced, in the
very first theme, in the form of illustrations that are easily
understood by the children. While teaching the children the
composition of numbers which forms the second theme, a natural
link can be found with addition and subtraction which are given in
the third theme. Moreover, addition should be compared with
multiplication while addition and subtraction, like multiplication
and division, should always be taken together for the sake of
comparing one with the other. The generalized laws are then
expressed by using letters. Therefore, every moment of instruction in
mathematics gives meaning to all previous examples and creates the
prerequisites for the next ones.
4) Integration of the subjects. Integration also must be realized in
regard to the other subjects—reading, writing, manual work,
drawing, physical education and singing. In teaching each one of
these subjects, we can introduce elements of mathematics in a
natural way, as in everyday life.
Comprehensive integration in teaching reveals the maturity and
experience of a teacher. It does not cancel out the tasks set for the
respective study period, but links what is being studied with real
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 325
very pleasant and equally efficient, lasts respectively longer. The same
holds good for suggestopedic courses, both in universities and
schools, where there are no possibilities of changing the curriculum
to introduce an intensified form of foreign language instruction.
Under such conditions the process of instruction can be prolonged to
cover a whole academic year. However, the volume of the material
taught and assimilated will be much larger than the volume usually
taught and assimilated in this period of time. All the characteristic
features of the suggestopedic system of instruction will be present in
the prolonged course, a fact of great importance from the point of
view of psychohygiene and education.
If we take the 24 days’ foreign language course with four lessons a
day as the basic pattern, the following results can be expected: (1)
The students assimilate, on average, more than 90 percent of the
vocabulary which comprises 2000 lexical units per course; (2) More
than 60 percent of the new vocabulary is used actively and
fluently in everyday conversation and the rest of the vocabulary is
known at translation level; (3) The students speak within the
framework of the whole essential grammar; (4) Any text can be read;
(5) The students can write, although making some mistakes; (6) The
students make some mistakes in speaking, but this does not hinder
the communication; (7) Pronunciation is satisfactory; (8) The
students are not afraid of talking to foreigners who speak the same
language; (9) The students are eager to continue studying the same
foreign language and, if possible, in the same way.
This also is true for beginners who have never learned the foreign
language before. It stands to reason that in teaching students who
have some preliminary idea of the language, the results will be much
better. The assimilation of the new material in the following second
and third course takes place approximately at the same speed.
If we compare the average number of words per lesson (according
to official data), given according to the different methods of
teaching foreign languages, we obtain the data shown in Table 40.
The data given in Table 40 show that on an average four times
more new words are given per lesson in suggestopedic instruction
than in instruction by other methods. It is exceptionally important
to point out that these words are not only given but they are
assimilated in class along with the corresponding grammar,
phonetics, reading, etc. One great advantage of the suggestopedic
system is the absence of obligatory homework.
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 327
TABLE 41 Initial and Final Levels of Reading in the First-Grade Classes of the
122nd (Experimental) and the 139th (Control) School
TABLE 42 Input and Output Levels of Reading in the First-Grade Classes of the
122nd (Experimental) and the 139th (Control) School
Table 44 Mental Reading and Retelling the Contents at the End of the 1973/1974
Academic Year
…the material that had been studied had been well assimilated and
was more than adequate for completing the school year of the first-
grade.
DESUGGESTIVE—SUGGESTIVE, LIBERATING—STIMULATING SYSTEM 333
TABLE 46 Input and Output Levels in Mathematics in the First Grade of the
122nd (Experimental) and the 139th (Control) School
TABLE 47 Initial and Final Levels of the First-grade Classes of the 50th
(Experimental) and the 64th (Control) School in the 1973/74 School Year
strictness of the ritual must be observed may get poor results in their
teaching and hinder the general development of Suggestopedy.
General conclusion: An understanding of the nature of
suggestopedic principles and means in their indivisible unity, their
strict observance, devotion to the cause of Suggestopedy and
awareness of its importance for the future ensure that mistakes are
avoided and that the suggestopedic system is not discredited. Each
teacher must bear in mind that any discrediting of his suggestopedic
work is not confined only to his group, but has much wider
repercussion.
CONCLUSION
It is hardly necessary to point to all the prospects that suggestology
and Suggestopedy offer. The fact that Suggestopedy is becoming
popular all over the world is a confirmation of its importance. We
consider that the main question now is how to go further. In our
opinion, the most important procedure is to continue organizing
the work in this field under the management of state and
international institutions and with the participation of trained
specialists from institutes of high repute, otherwise programs will be
implemented on nonprofessional amateur levels. We believe that the
good results which suggestology and suggestopedy achieve will be
made use of by those countries and organizations which understand
the importance of these questions and that they will now create
conditions for the proper development of suggestopedy.
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