86 - Autosuggestion

【自己暗示、jiko-anji】

It refers to the phenomenon of an event or matter changing the way something ought to be by appealing to one's unconscious mind. That is to say, by "assuming" the progression of events, one affects the outcome. Image training in sports, for example, is an attempt to achieve positive results through autosuggestion.

In the first place, self-suggestion can be considered a form of mind control in which one repeatedly addresses the subconscious mind and misleads the brain, thereby manipulating the body itself, its behavior, and its abilities, all of which are controlled by the brain.

By making people believe that ordinary water is "lacquer" [A type of liquid or powder used to create a hard finish on objects] through suggestion, the affected person's hands get a rash when immersed in the water. Conversely, it has been reported that when people were told that lacquer was just water and then dipped their hands in it, they did not develop a rash.

Although it's known that suggestion does indeed affect the human body, the mechanisms underlying the brain and body are not yet fully understood, and it's currently unknown why this phenomenon occurs.

The idea that "beliefs" can affect the body has existed since ancient times, such as the saying, "sickness begins in the mind". When a child is injured, they may try to relieve the pain by rubbing the affected area with words such as "pain, pain, fly away", which can be considered a kind of autosuggestion.

75 - Conan Doyle

【コナン・ドイル、konan doiru】

English novelist who created the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, born in 1859 in Edinburgh, England, to a family of Irish descent.

After studying medicine at university and opening his own practice, he wrote novels in his spare time and published his first work, "A Study in Scarlet," in 1887, to little popular acclaim. However, his popularity exploded with the publication of "The Sign of the Four" in 1890.

After that, he continued to publish his works tirelessly. Although Holmes's popularity remained unshakable, Doyle himself was not pleased with Holmes's fame. He continued to be active outside of fiction, serving as a physician in the South African War and being knighted in 1902.

But in his later years, he lost his beloved son in World War I. Doyle gradually became interested in a certain subject. Psychic phenomena.

Through communication with the spirit world, he heard the voice of his deceased son, and since then he believed in psychic phenomena and the afterlife, eventually joining the British Association for Psychic Research. However, he became dissatisfied with the association's efforts to expose and elucidate psychic phenomena, leading to his resignation from the organization.

In 1920, Doyle received a photograph. It was a picture of a girl accompanied by fairies. After conducting various investigations, Doyle concluded that the photo was true, and as soon as it was published, there was a huge public outcry.

Later, in 1966, the woman who took the photo herself confessed that it was a hoax, proving that the photo was a fake, but this was already 36 years after Doyle's death.

63 - Ward

【結界、kekkai】

Wards were originally intended to separate the chaotic external world, or the natural world, which was outside the control of humans, from the orderly, pure internal world.

It is said that the practice of marking the boundary between the inside and outside of a temple and separating them is said to have originated in Buddhism. In other words, by separating the inside from the outside of the temple, the intention was to prohibit the intrusion of those who were not permitted to enter and to protect the order of the monks.

This was eventually passed on to esoteric Buddhism, where boundaries were established to protect against the presence of evil beings and curses.

In esoteric Buddhist practice, a ward is set up using sorcery to prevent the intrusion of foreign enemies, and the sign is often a talisman, a statue, or some other mystical instrument used to indicate the location of the boundary. However, the most familiar and common way of marking the result is the "shimenawa", or "consecrated rope".

The shimenawa is a sacred boundary that delimits the space between the outside and a sanctuary, making it impenetrable.