Life, 1910-12-29 · page 4 of 41
Life — December 29, 1910 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertisement disguised as editorial content** for "Mental Life," a mail-order self-help product costing $5. The satirical cartoon shows two figures labeled "C-O-N-C-E-N-T-R-A-T-E," appearing to be straining mentally. The satire targets the booming early-20th-century mail-order spiritualism and self-improvement racket. Life magazine mocks the absurd promise: concentrate on a doorknob for a week, and if unsatisfied, get your money back. The text ironically acknowledges readers may think they're dreaming while reading this obvious con. The joke is that Life is publishing a blatant scam ad while openly admitting its fraudulence—simultaneously mocking both the product and the gullible audiences purchasing such schemes. The "$5 a Life" tagline plays on the desperation of buyers seeking quick personal transformation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TIRES We (Guarantee Resu ts TRY LEADING THE Bangs MENTAL LIFE FOR A WEEK; IF NOT SATISFIED, YOUR MONEY REFUNDED. 'E are laboring under great disad- vantages in this coarse physical department because we have to rely upon materialistic type to ex- press a vast mental world; which, indeed, our mental subscribers understand, and which no medium like this can reveal. This typographical, material compared with the vibratory life our twenty million mental subscribers are leading, is like comparing a Sunday School kindergarten with the Universities of Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Konigsburg. Tena and the Chautauqua University all rolled into one. This is only the faintest kind of an adumbration of the only real world there is beyond the range of your coarse senses. All this being understood, howe we wish to repeat our recent an- nouncement—that we positively: guar- antee results, or your mental moncy returned. Remember that we are the only people in the world who do this merely upon your request, and without any examination. You ask for your money back and.you get it instantly. simple fact of your asking it bac of your wanting it—is sufficient for us; we ask no questions, the only stipula- tion being that we assume no responsibility for what may happen to you afterwards. -C-E- Now we want to make all this plain. No doubt you think, as you read this. that you are in a dream, and that you are reading something unreal, unsubstantial. That is only be- cause you have not yet been united to your subliminal self. We beg leave to assure you that you are at present the only unreality. You move along in your daily existence. eating and sleeping and talking and exercising, and toink that you are something real; and when you read of the Mental Life, you think it is a joke. Fortunately. we are in a position to prove that you are unreal. as you exist in the physical world to-day, and tha the only reality lics in leading the Mental Life. Laugh heartily. therefore. at our little joke, and then be prepared to be undeceived. Don't forget that we can prove our case millions of subscribers attest our genuineness. Over twenty But if this N-T-R-A-T-E" does not satisfy you, we will prove it to you personally We assert positively that the Mental Life is the only real Life. The rule is simple. First, you must concentrate, in order to get the vibratory forces working in our direction. The impulse does not have to be as strong as in many other cases, for the reason that we have a trained band of vogis, constantly on the gui vive for the faintest impulse from some new would-be subscriber. We have recently advised you to concentrate on a door knob, and a great many people have taken this advice liter- ally. We did not mean this. Use a door knob when it happens to be handy, but any shining object will do. Last week the wives of several bald-headed gentlemen came in without the slightest difficulty. Any bright object that focuses the attention will do. Concentrate, and will with all your might, that five mental dollars be sent into the office of the Mental Life, Gee. Now right here your attention to the only realitv. Your first belief is that you are doing nothing, when you do this; but if you will reflect, you will see that this involves a real effort. When you have done this, you go on as if nothing had havpened. In about a week you begin to realize—faintly, of course—because you are still bound by materialistic things—that something has happened. Everything looks different. Your wife has grown handsomer. The note that comes due you manage to pay without know- ing exactly how the thing has been accomplished. Your servants are singing at their work, and when your relatives visit you, you are delighted to see them. The whole world looks different. This is because your subliminal self has just received the first mental treatment {rom our yogi depart- ment. . Understand that you are not yet a subscriber to the Mental Life; that is only a higher joy that comes after years of preparation; you are only entering upon the first har- monic plane. Now our test comes in this: that if you don't, after a week or so, begin to feel as we describe, all you have to do is to concentrate again, and will Gee. Ime. Mit. to send back your money. You will get it instantly, and then—unless we mistake not—your troubles will begin fresh. If you care to wait for a longer period—say, several months—after sending (Conciudea on page 1181) $m a PF & in y then teres mont exam after that and imme eight Th the b but if in th trate and s Ime. gradu plane indeec Beg Life. while Mit (He