Summary
Montaigne explores how powerfully our imagination affects our physical reality, sharing stories both personal and historical about the mind's ability to create actual bodily changes. He admits he's particularly susceptible to imagination's force—seeing someone else's pain makes him physically uncomfortable, and he believes our minds can literally reshape our bodies and experiences. Through vivid examples ranging from a man who grew horns after dreaming about them to his own cure for a friend's sexual performance anxiety using a fake magical charm, Montaigne demonstrates that what we believe often becomes our reality. He's especially insightful about sexual dysfunction, arguing that fear of failure often creates the very failure we fear, and that honest communication and mental preparation can break these cycles. The essay reveals how imagination works both ways—it can harm us through negative expectations but also heal us through positive ones. Montaigne suggests that doctors understand this, using elaborate rituals and confident promises to activate their patients' healing imagination. He concludes that our minds and bodies are so interconnected that strong mental states can affect not just ourselves but even others around us. This isn't mystical thinking but practical psychology—understanding how expectation shapes experience gives us tools to work with our minds rather than against them.
Coming Up in Chapter 21
Having explored how imagination can create our reality, Montaigne next examines a harsh economic truth: in a world of limited resources, one person's gain often means another's loss. He'll challenge us to think about the ethics of success and whether prosperity always comes at someone else's expense.
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An excerpt from the original text.(~500 words)
OF THE FORCE OF IMAGINATION “Fortis imaginatio generat casum,” say the schoolmen. [“A strong imagination begets the event itself.”--Axiom. Scholast.] I am one of those who are most sensible of the power of imagination: every one is jostled by it, but some are overthrown by it. It has a very piercing impression upon me; and I make it my business to avoid, wanting force to resist it. I could live by the sole help of healthful and jolly company: the very sight of another’s pain materially pains me, and I often usurp the sensations of another person. A perpetual cough in another tickles my lungs and throat. I more unwillingly visit the sick in whom by love and duty I am interested, than those I care not for, to whom I less look. I take possession of the disease I am concerned at, and take it to myself. I do not at all wonder that fancy should give fevers and sometimes kill such as allow it too much scope, and are too willing to entertain it. Simon Thomas was a great physician of his time: I remember, that happening one day at Toulouse to meet him at a rich old fellow’s house, who was troubled with weak lungs, and discoursing with the patient about the method of his cure, he told him, that one thing which would be very conducive to it, was to give me such occasion to be pleased with his company, that I might come often to see him, by which means, and by fixing his eyes upon the freshness of my complexion, and his imagination upon the sprightliness and vigour that glowed in my youth, and possessing all his senses with the flourishing age wherein I then was, his habit of body might, peradventure, be amended; but he forgot to say that mine, at the same time, might be made worse. Gallus Vibius so much bent his mind to find out the essence and motions of madness, that, in the end, he himself went out of his wits, and to such a degree, that he could never after recover his judgment, and might brag that he was become a fool by too much wisdom. Some there are who through fear anticipate the hangman; and there was the man, whose eyes being unbound to have his pardon read to him, was found stark dead upon the scaffold, by the stroke of imagination. We start, tremble, turn pale, and blush, as we are variously moved by imagination; and, being a-bed, feel our bodies agitated with its power to that degree, as even sometimes to expiring. And boiling youth, when fast asleep, grows so warm with fancy, as in a dream to satisfy amorous desires:-- “Ut, quasi transactis saepe omnibu rebu, profundant Fluminis ingentes, fluctus, vestemque cruentent.” Although it be no new thing to see horns grown in a night on the forehead of one that had none when he went to bed, notwithstanding, what befell Cippus, King of...
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Intelligence Amplifier™ Analysis
The Road of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Our beliefs about what will happen to us physically and mentally often create the very outcomes we expect.
Why This Matters
Connect literature to life
This chapter teaches how to identify when our expectations are creating the outcomes we fear.
Practice This Today
This week, notice when you catch yourself predicting failure—then ask whether that prediction is helping or hurting your actual performance.
Now let's explore the literary elements.
Terms to Know
Imagination's Physical Power
The idea that what we strongly believe or visualize can create actual physical changes in our bodies. Montaigne argues our minds don't just think thoughts—they can make us sick, heal us, or change how our bodies function.
Modern Usage:
We see this in the placebo effect, where fake medicine works if patients believe it will, or how anxiety can cause real stomach problems.
Sympathetic Response
When seeing or hearing about someone else's pain or illness makes you feel those same symptoms in your own body. Montaigne admits he physically feels others' suffering when he witnesses it.
Modern Usage:
This happens when you wince watching someone get hurt in a movie, or when yawning becomes contagious in a room.
Performance Anxiety
The fear of failing at something (especially sexually) that becomes so strong it actually causes the failure you're afraid of. Montaigne explores how worry about sexual performance can create impotence.
Modern Usage:
We see this in everything from stage fright to test anxiety to bedroom problems—fear of failure often creates the very failure we fear.
Psychological Medicine
Using mental techniques, rituals, or beliefs to heal physical problems rather than just drugs or surgery. Montaigne describes how doctors use elaborate ceremonies to activate patients' healing imagination.
Modern Usage:
Modern therapy, meditation apps, and even some medical bedside manner work this way—treating the mind to heal the body.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
When believing something will happen actually makes it more likely to happen. Montaigne shows how our expectations shape our reality, for better or worse.
Modern Usage:
If you expect a job interview to go badly, your nervousness might make it go badly—or if you expect to have a good day, you might notice more good things.
Mind-Body Connection
The idea that our mental and emotional states directly affect our physical health and vice versa. Montaigne argues they're so connected that strong feelings can cause real bodily changes.
Modern Usage:
Stress causing headaches, depression affecting appetite, or how positive thinking can boost immune system function.
Characters in This Chapter
Simon Thomas
Physician and storyteller
A respected doctor who tells Montaigne about using psychological tricks to heal patients. He represents how medical professionals understand the power of imagination in healing.
Modern Equivalent:
The doctor who has great bedside manner and knows that confidence and optimism help patients heal faster
The Rich Old Man
Patient with lung problems
Simon Thomas's patient who benefits from the doctor's understanding that pleasant company and good spirits can actually improve physical health.
Modern Equivalent:
The patient whose mood and social connections affect their recovery as much as their medication does
The Sexually Anxious Friend
Troubled companion seeking help
A man suffering from performance anxiety whom Montaigne helps by giving him a fake magical charm that works because he believes in it.
Modern Equivalent:
The friend who's psyching himself out about dating or work performance and needs a confidence boost more than actual advice
Key Quotes & Analysis
"A strong imagination begets the event itself."
Context: Montaigne opens the essay with this Latin saying to establish his main point
This sets up the entire essay's argument that our minds don't just observe reality—they actively create it. What we strongly believe or imagine has the power to become real through our actions and bodily responses.
In Today's Words:
If you really believe something will happen, you'll probably make it happen.
"I am one of those who are most sensible of the power of imagination: every one is jostled by it, but some are overthrown by it."
Context: Montaigne admits his own susceptibility to imagination's effects
He's being honest about his own psychological makeup while making a broader point—everyone is affected by imagination, but some people are more sensitive than others. This isn't weakness, just self-awareness.
In Today's Words:
I'm really sensitive to this stuff—we all are to some degree, but it hits some of us harder than others.
"The very sight of another's pain materially pains me, and I often usurp the sensations of another person."
Context: Montaigne describes how he physically feels others' suffering
This shows how imagination works through empathy and observation. He's not just emotionally moved by others' pain—he literally feels it in his body, demonstrating the mind's power over physical sensation.
In Today's Words:
When I see someone hurt, I actually feel it myself—like my brain can't tell the difference between their pain and mine.
Thematic Threads
Mind-Body Connection
In This Chapter
Montaigne demonstrates how imagination creates physical symptoms and cures
Development
Introduced here
In Your Life:
Your stress about a health issue might be making the symptoms worse.
Social Performance
In This Chapter
Sexual performance anxiety creates the dysfunction it fears through mental pressure
Development
Introduced here
In Your Life:
Worrying about how you'll perform in social situations often makes you perform worse.
Authority and Healing
In This Chapter
Doctors use rituals and confidence to activate patients' healing imagination
Development
Introduced here
In Your Life:
The bedside manner of your healthcare providers affects your actual recovery.
Personal Vulnerability
In This Chapter
Montaigne admits his own susceptibility to imagination's power
Development
Introduced here
In Your Life:
Acknowledging your mental patterns gives you power over them instead of being controlled by them.
Practical Psychology
In This Chapter
Understanding how expectation works gives tools for managing it
Development
Introduced here
In Your Life:
You can use positive visualization and mental preparation as practical life skills.
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
- 1
What examples does Montaigne give of imagination affecting people's physical bodies, and what made these changes happen?
analysis • surface - 2
Why did Montaigne's fake magical charm actually cure his friend's sexual performance problems when real medicine hadn't worked?
analysis • medium - 3
Where do you see this pattern of 'expecting failure creates actual failure' playing out in modern workplaces, schools, or relationships?
application • medium - 4
If you knew your expectations were literally shaping your outcomes, how would you prepare differently for challenging situations like job interviews or difficult conversations?
application • deep - 5
What does Montaigne's insight about imagination reveal about the relationship between our mental and physical selves, and why does this matter for how we live?
reflection • deep
Critical Thinking Exercise
Track Your Expectation Cycles
Think of a situation where you regularly expect things to go wrong - maybe giving presentations, having difficult conversations, or trying something new. Write down the specific thoughts that run through your head beforehand, then trace how those thoughts might be creating the very outcomes you fear. Finally, rewrite your mental script with more helpful expectations.
Consider:
- •Notice the physical sensations that come with negative expectations - tension, shallow breathing, racing heart
- •Consider how your expectations might change your behavior in ways that sabotage success
- •Remember that changing your mental script isn't about fake positivity but about realistic confidence
Journaling Prompt
Write about a time when your expectations - positive or negative - seemed to create exactly what you predicted would happen. What does this teach you about the power of your own mind?
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 21: One Person's Gain, Another's Loss
As the story unfolds, you'll explore economic interdependence creates moral complexity in everyday choices, while uncovering to recognize the hidden costs behind every transaction and opportunity. These lessons connect the classic to contemporary challenges we all face.