And, on higher levels, we see that the transfigured lives and heroic energies of the great figures of Christian history all represent the realization of an idea of which the heart was an impassioned love of God, subduing to its purposes all the impulses and powers of the inner man, "If you would truly know how these things come to pass," said St.
Bonaventura, "ask it of desire not of intellect; of the ardours of prayer, not of the teaching of the schools."[112] More and more psychology tends to endorse the truth of these words.
Quiescence, attention, and emotional interest are then the conditions of successful suggestion.

We have further to notice two characteristics which have been described by the Nancy school of psychologists; and which are of some importance for those who wish to understand the mechanism of religious experience.

These have been called the law of Unconscious Teleology, and the law of Reversed Effort.
The law of unconscious teleology means that when an end has been effectively suggested to it, the unconscious mind will always tend to work towards its realization.

Thus in psycho-therapeutics it is found that a general suggestion of good health made to the sick person is often enough.

The doctor may not himself know enough about the malady to suggest stage by stage the process of cure.