Life — November 17, 1910 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Vast Mental Conspiracy" - Life Magazine Satire 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.