Life, 1910-11-17 · page 6 of 44
Life — November 17, 1910 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes "Imaginary Life," an apparently fraudulent mail-order subscription service claiming to provide mental training or thought control. The masthead shows a crowd of cartoon figures, likely representing gullible subscribers. The satire mocks the scheme's absurdity: subscribers pay five dollars to join a "waiting list" for mental influence benefits. Life's editors ridicule the operation's vague promises and the subscribers' complaints about being mentally manipulated or charged unfairly. The cartoons ("'Tis futile!", "The very thing!", "Keep it on your mind") mock the scheme's contradictory claims. At bottom, "Our Yogi Training School" references popular early-20th-century fads for Eastern mysticism and mail-order self-improvement courses—which Life treats as obvious con artistry preying on hopeful but credulous Americans.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Alert! KD Ke 3 \& "Tis The very thing! beat ~~ Imaginary Life Subscribers Have Already Been Warned. A Word to the Wise. EE. IME. MIT., the able manager of our Thought Bureau, has for some time been familiar with the mental details of a con- spiracy to boycott the Imaginary Life, and we may say has had the whole thing under good control. It is natural, of course, that the immense mental subscription list we have should excite the envy of competitors, and that they should do all they can to create an imag- inary thought influence against us. Up to the present time they have had little effect; but we feel bound now to mention the matter in order that those who are on the waiting list may understand the truth. There are about twenty million people at present reading the “~ Imaginary Life, and several million more on the waiting list. There is also a large preparatory school of people to whom we furnish as much consolation as possible, while they are waiting to become subscribers. Our terms are easy. All you have to do is to want to come in and send along five imaginary dollars as a starter. You then become eligible, and are placed somewhere in the line along the first harmonic plane. All this is perfectly clear toevery one,and thoroughly understood. But for some time we have been receiving red vibra- tions from unknown sources, indicat- ing the presence of anenemy in the field of thought. These vibrations take various forms, but we notice them re- pared futile! NO MARRIED MEN NEED ‘We are sorry, but business is business flected in the messages received from’ various subscribers and others, in the form of doubts about the reality of our posi- tion, and in other ways. One gentleman writes: I have been under the impression for some time that you area humbug. Iam on the point of cancelling my subscription, and I write to ask you if I do so, whether you will return to me the balance of what Is due me. I have an idea that I can struggle along without the imaginary Life, and besides, I need the money. Keep it on ‘your Mind Under ordinary circumstances we would vibrate our friend’s balance to him at once, and move one of our waiting list up along the line; but the head of our yogi department informs us that this is a plain case of alien influence. Our friend has been worked upon by a mental enemy, and before letting him go, we shall put him under proper treatment for a couple of weeks, and get him again under the right harmonic influences. We do this as a matter of principle and because we have a deep sympathy for all those who may be temporarily led astray. We cannot undertake to do this, however, in a large number of cases, and we warn all our friends that if they begin to doubt us, and persist in it, we shall have to let them go to make room for others. The fact is, that we continue to be short of help in all of our de- partments, and until we can remedy this, we shall have to move along the vibrations of least resistance. We have just started a yogi Stage (Continued on page 851) Our Yogi Tbaining, School | HL Cis £06 comicbooks.com The Jelly Fish