Life, 1911-01-26 · page 6 of 44
Life — January 26, 1911 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is an editorial page addressing readers' inquiries about the magazine's mental health department. The main cartoon shows a figure (labeled "GEE. IME. MIT.") examining what appears to be St. Anthony's subliminal self—a visual pun on psychological self-examination. The text discusses the magazine's mental waiting list and efforts to help readers achieve "psychical harmony." It highlights a correspondent named Anthony Comstock who sought mental assistance, playfully suggesting the magazine's yogis and methods might help unite his "subliminal self" with his consciousness. The satire targets early 20th-century pseudoscientific mental wellness trends, particularly the appeal of Eastern philosophy (yoga) and subliminal psychology to educated Americans. Life mocks both the credulity of seekers and the magazine's own pretensions to offering legitimate psychological help through correspondence.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
_ a) i od oh To All Who Are In Doubt A CHANCE TO LEAD THE IMAG- INARY LIFE WITHOUT ANY RISK. FACTS SUBMITTED. E have received so many inquiries from people in the physical world asking us why we consider it necessary to use up space with this coarse physical announcement, when we have such an:enormous subscrip- tion list, and-doreverythingselse: by vibra- tions, that we feel;compedledstorclear up the matter. We do this not for the benefit of anyone who has come in and is now on our mental waiting list, or for the twenty mil- lion subscribers to the Mental Life now on our books; but we do it for the benefit of all those who are on the lower phy- sical plane of life, who are, so to speak, Icading the unreal existence, but don't know it. These friends, as we have point- ed out, perform their various functions every day, and think they are alive just because they read the papers, can walk and talk, and eat three or four meals a day. But, in reality, they haven't been awakened. This we do by educat- ing the subliminal self, so that it finally unites with the conscious- ness, and complete mental and psychical harmony are established. GEE. IME. MIT, EXAMINES ST. ANTHONY'S SUBLIMINAL SELF. We therefore take pleasure in replying to the following letter, as it represents a number of anxious inquirers: Gee, Ime. Mit. Dear Sir: I have been reading the alluring announcements you have been printing for some time, and beg to inform you that if you are laboring under the delusion that I am leading an unreal existence, I hereby invite you to come to my house and get acquainted with my wife. According to you, she is enly a dream. That makes me smile. Now, of course, I don't object to any way of making a living. My wife has taught me gradually that it’s all right to ccmmit any kind of a crime in order to make enough money to keep her in clothes, but why in the world you should impose upon intelligent people by deluding them with the idea that they can find happiness by gazing at a blue disc, is a little too much for Yours truly, We are never so much absorbed in the fact that we are now performing, by means of our vibratory department, the greatest service to humanity in the history of the world, that we cannot also indulge in some humorous reflections; we therefore smile with our correspondent, only our smile is “somewhat different from his; ‘t is a vibratory smile, and “extends over twenty millions of mental subscribers, who stand to-day as evidence against him. Of course, he doesn’t know this, but that is his fault. As we have already pointed out, we have any number of people on our mental list who don’t know it. For aught we know (we are too busy to look it up) the subliminal self of this very correspondent may at this instant be convulsed with some imaginary joke he is reading in the last Mental number of Life. Mr. Anthony Comstock, for ex- ample, has for some time been on our mental waiting list, and we entertain hopes that in time we may be able to drag his subliminal self up on to the first harmonic plane. We have some able yogis §& on our staff, and, with proper team work, we believe we can doit. Mr. Comstock doesn’t know this, of course, but this only shows what a great work we are doing. The way we got him was very amusing. He had heard that the phy- sical Life (no connection with this department) was going to issue an Improper Number, and one day, almost uncon- sciously, he said to himself mentally that he would give almost any amount to see one. Gee. Ime. Mit. duly got the vibration. It was entered on our mental books, and while Mr. Comstock has the smallest subliminal self that we have ever seen, we believe, as we have intimated, much can be done for him. In the course of a long time we firmly be- lieve that we shall be able to unite his sublin inal self with his consciousness. Thus the good work goes on. In the meantime, we say to our correspondent and to all others who read these lines and who are similarly situated (or think they are), that his wife, and theirs, are only dreams. (Concluded on page 199) comicbooks.com