Is Your Cough Infectious?

OSHO  5.4.2020

Psychologists say that 90% of our activities happen as a result of self-hypnosis.A man coughs and suddenly, many others start coughing. Until now you were sitting quietly, there was no trace of any coughing, but one man coughs and you are suddenly reminded of coughing.With that reminder, hypnosis catches hold of you and your throat begins to itch. Now you are bound to cough.This was a suggestion, it functioned like a spell, and now you will follow it.

Psychologists also say that the role of germs in this situation is secondary, the role of hypnosis is primary;that is what makes people sick or healthy. Your body functions in obedience to the commands of your mind. Even now, at this very moment, if the body falls sick, it is only because it is obeying the mind, and when it is healthy, it is only obeying the mind.When it becomes old, it is only obeying the mind. In living and even in dying, it has your full agreement and command.When old people die,the deep reason behind it is that the moment they start getting old,they start wishing for death. Young people don’t usually die, and the basic reason behind it is not their youth, the reason is that they don’t think about dying. Death is less of a physical phenomenon and more of a psychological one.

Hindu scriptures have called this maya, hypnosis.Whatsoever you are doing,whatsoever you are,whatsoever your mental state, is all your hypnosis. If you are happy, if you are unhappy, it is all your hypnosis, but your unawareness of it makes it very difficult for you to change it. If someone is unhappy and you tell him that he is only hypnotised about being unhappy,he will not agree with you because he cannot change it.

But if you try some experiments with hypnosis, you will be amazed: if you hypnotise a person and then put an onion in his hand and tell him that it is an apple, he just might eat it and say that it is an apple.

This ability of the mind is called Maya. In this hypnosis, the world that people create together is almost magical. The world that we are living in is our own magic. We are crying and weeping and screaming in pain. Or this happiness is happening, and that joy is happening, and this trouble and that difficulty…. It is all your own magic, and the key to it is in your own hands. 

Abridged from The Flight Of The Alone To The Alone, Osho Times International, courtesy: Osho International Foundation, www.osho.com