Within You Is the Power

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Within You Is the Power (Around the World with Dr. Murphy)

I took a 50-day journey around the world in October 1976 with fascinating sightseeing excursions everywhere, visiting Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, India, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Hawaii. I met many interesting people, visited the various shrines, and heard lectures regarding the various religious beliefs, miraculous healings at shrines, techniques of prayer used, and the unique way of many in approaching the Invisible Presence and Power. During this trip I had the opportunity of talking to many people on the laws of mind and the way of the Spirit. I was intensely interested in knowing that all those people in the many countries visited wanted to hear more about the workings of the subconscious mind.

One of the reasons for this trip was to gather material for a book. Therefore, I made mental notes of everything I saw and heard, much of which will be incorporated in the following pages.

The City of Athens is quite modern with an interest and charm of its own. It becomes more fascinating each time I visit it. Actually, it is a literal exploration of antiquity: The Parthenon, the Temple of Olympic Zeus, and excursions to Eleusis and Corinth. This reminded me of the Eleusinian mysteries and the invitation into all ancient temple mystery rites, which were repositories of ancient spiritual treasures.

You Are Your Own Savior

The guide at Corinth expounded quite extensively on the fact that we were standing on the same spot where Paul stood as he expatiated and descanted on his Epistles to the Corinthians. Then he added that Paul knew that Jesus was man's savior. This is not correct, however, as you will perceive in perusing this chapter. Paul said: . . . Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain . . . (I Corinthians 15:14). . . . Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light (Ephesians 5:14).

What does the Bible mean by such language? The literal interpretation of the Bible has done much towards driving thinking people into unbelief. We must understand that the scriptures of the world abound in symbolisms. Many phrases and chapters of the Bible reveal the impossibility of being rendered literally; and if any part is admitted to be figurative, allegorical, and mystical, so many other parts may be. The men who wrote the Bible, most of whom are nameless, said to themselves: "We know what we wish to convey, but how can we explain it to the people?" Therefore, they decided to speak of problems, difficulties, wars, strife, sickness, etc., and then explained how to overcome the problems of which they spoke.

The Hope of Glory

This is not a sanctimonious state, singing of hymns, going to church, following the rules and tenets of some religious organization, etc. It means the practice of the Presence of God within you. It means to express light, love, truth, and beauty now and to be happy and living in the joyous expectancy of the best. When you are exuding vibrancy and your family and social relationships are good, that is also the glory (the glow and the ray) of God. Christ means the Presence of God in you.

The word "Christ," as you know, is not a proper name. It refers to a title. It is a Greek word meaning anointed or consecrated. It corresponds to the Hebrew word "Messiah" and to the word "Buddha." The Christ in you means the Divine Presence in you, the spiritual truth about you. Jesus is the name of a man. The words "Jesus" and "Joshua" are synonymous. The latter means "God is the solution." God is the salvation or the solution to all your problems. To see Christ in the other means to see (perceive spiritually) peace where there is discord, love where there is hatred, joy where there is sadness, and wholeness, beauty, and perfection where there is sickness. This mental and spiritual exercise is ofttimes referred to as the practice of the Presence of God.

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me (John 12:32). This means that when, through prayer and meditation, you lift your ideal up to the point of acceptance, the manifestation will appear. In other words, you will experience the joy of the answered prayer.

Touching the Divine Presence

When you pray and there follows a sense of peace, quietness, and confidence, that means that you have mentally touched your Higher Self (God in you; the I AM) and that you have begun to know yourself a little better. The Christ in you is "The I AM," the Living Spirit Almighty, the Life Principle. Descartes said, "Cogito ergo sum," which means: "I think; therefore, I AM."

The capacity of Spirit is to think, enabling you to choose, compare, weigh, and decide. You have volition, choice, and initiative. The only immaterial power you are aware of is your thought. Descartes rationalized that all objective evidence is not absolutely true, e.g., optical illusions, others deceiving you, etc. The only sure thing in the universe is that God is God. When you say "I AM," you are announcing the Presence of God within you.

God In Action in You

When you are kind and generous and lift up others in your thought and feeling and say something good and uplifting, that's the I AM in you. You are an individualization of Infinite Spirit, and you are here to express more and more of your Divinity. We rise from the dead when we give up old beliefs, superstitions, and false beliefs and awaken to the God-Presence within.

Visit to Istanbul

There was a group of twenty-one on our trip. All were of different religious beliefs, and all of us agreed that we were indeed in an exotic city, which has one foot in Europe and another in Asia. It is worthwhile to view the famous Blue Mosque, the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent, the Museum of St. Sophia, and the Hippodrome.

The Turks are probably the most zealous of the Moslems. Friday is the Sabbath of Islam, and business is suspended to some degree. Prayers are read and sermons given by the priests in the mosques. There were many people assembled in the mosques we visited, but the silence was so profound I was unaware that it contained a single worshipper. The essential doctrine is the absolute unity and supremacy of God. Allah is God and Mohammed is His prophet.

A Reasonable Question and the Answer

In chatting with one of the men in the mosque, he asked why we insist that we must accept Jesus as our savior. He then quoted what a missionary had said in the Christian school he attended as a boy: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

My explanation was as follows: Some preachers unfortunately take the Bible literally, forgetting the age-old truths: . . . The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life (II Corinthians 3:6). Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven (Matthew 23:9). . . . I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God (John 20:17). All this indicates that we have a common Father or Progenitor, the Life Principle; and that, in reality, we are all brothers and sisters.

I pointed out to him that every man is his own savior because God indwells all men. The Bible says: I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High (Psalm 82:6). Paul says: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Romans 8:14). God is no respecter of persons. For there is no respect of persons with God (Romans 2:11).

The Bible is essentially a psychological and spiritual textbook and is not taken literally by vast numbers of people who study the inner meaning of the symbols, parables, fables, myths, cryptograms, and numbers mentioned throughout the volume.

I admitted to him that many clergymen talk about salvation of the soul in afterlife; but tomorrow, next week, next year is afterlife. The Life Principle in each of us is constantly bringing forth on the screen of space the results of our habitual thinking and imagery. Man can't lose his soul, which is eternal and indestructible, any more than God can lose Himself.

There is no lost soul. A man may be lost to harmony, health, and peace from a psychological standpoint; but he can always unite with the Infinite Spirit within him and again claim, feel, and experience that which he thought he had lost. Man wants to be saved from sickness, pain, misery, lack, and suffering here and now. This is the immediate and essential problem-not only in Turkey, but in all other parts of the world.

Man's future is his present thinking objectified as experience and conditions in his life. You do not associate the salvation or solution to your problem with a man or another personality, whether it be Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, or Laotze. You look to no man to save you. You realize that if you are lost in the jungle, there is no man to save you; but if you turn to the Infinite Intelligence within you, the answer will come and you will be led out to freedom and safety.

"God gave His son," which means His expression, His power, His attributes, and lodged them in the subconscious of every man. This is why Paul says: . . . That thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee . . . (II Timothy 1:6). Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (I Corinthians 3:16).

God imaged Himself to be man, and God became what He imagined Himself to be. Every man is a manifestation or the projected image of the Infinite. All the powers of God are in every man. The image-making power is the first faculty of man. Whatever man imagines and feels himself to be, comes to pass for the simple reason that whatever is impressed on the subconscious mind is expressed and made manifest as form, function, experience, and event.

My new acquaintance told me of the truth of the latter statement. He said he had been sickly as a boy, having been born in the slums and grown up depressed and hungry many times. A member of his mosque had told him to imagine he was in college and to look at his degree on the wall every night as though he had it now; and that Allah would bring it to pass. He had practiced this technique every night. One day at the beach he had saved a girl from drowning. Her father, who was an Ambassador, was very grateful and sent him to England to study, paying all his college expenses. He is now experiencing the everlasting life spoken of in that Bible passage.

The word "everlasting" means a continuous life without the great swings of fate; a creative, peaceful, harmonious life without ups and downs, sickness and health, wealth and poverty, depression and joy. He leads a constructive, progressive pattern of life. This is really the meaning of that biblical passage, which is lost in theological complexities and which becomes an absurdity to the reasoning mind. Moreover, it is really an insult to the Jew, the Moslem, the Buddhist, and the Shintoist to tell him he has to believe in the personality of Jesus to be saved. Saved from what? We need to be saved from ignorance, fear, superstition, poverty, and disease. Ignorance is the only sin, and all the suffering is the consequence.

Get a New Conception of Yourself

God is the Universal Presence and Power, instantly available to all men regardless of whether they are atheists, agnostics, or holy men. Your thought is creative. You can begin to get a new self-image of being what you long to be. Nourish that image with faith and confidence and you will discover that the creative Power of God is within you. Then you will know for the first time that you are your own savior, and it will prove to you that God indwells you.

There is only one Creative Power. See this clearly. Reason it out until it becomes a conviction within you beyond all argument, disputation, or dialectics, in which you rest mentally in peace and harmony. All the wisdom and power of God are within you as the only begotten Son of God, which means the expression, the offspring, the projection of the Infinite Spirit in you. We are all begotten of the Only One, for there is only One Presence and Power. The above explanation completely satisfied my Moslem friend, and he is now reading The Power of Your Subconscious Mind and Peace Within Yourself.

The Land of the Pharaohs

This was my third visit to this fascinating area. One is carried back in time when he visits Luxor and sees the glorious Temple of Karnak, the Valley of the Kings, and the Colossi of Memnon in Thebes, sights that really fill all visitors with a sort of mystic awe and wonder. We heard lectures in the Egyptian museum in Cairo, and viewed the fabulous relics taken from King Tutankhamun's tomb, the Alabaster Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Cheops. There was also a thrilling Sound and Light Spectacle at the Pyramids depicting the fabulous days of the Pharaohs.

The Great Pyramid

This Pyramid is referred to as the chief of the Seven Wonders of the World and many times is called a "gospel in stone." It is at the center of the universe, symbolizing the great truth that God is at the center of your being. The Pyramid refers to man and the universe. Scientists from all over the world have studied its marvelous structure, its vast age and exquisite workmanship, and the mystery of its origin. Our lecturer on the Pyramids pointed out to us that distinguished astronomers, mathematicians, Egyptologists, and archaeologists have conducted extensive research and have concluded that the original designers were men of a very high intelligence and possessed of cosmic wisdom.

The Four Cardinal Points-The Way of Prayer

The orientation of the Great Pyramid relates to the four cardinal points of the compass, which symbolize the four parts of man: spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical. The four cardinal points also refer to the four letters in the name Jehovah, i.e., Yod-He-Vau-He. Yod is Consciousness, Spirit, I AM. He is the idea, the thought-image in your mind. Vau represents feeling, love, and emotion. The final He is the manifestation of that which you imaged and felt to be true. This is the way all things are made. There is nothing made that is not made this way. God speaks to you through desire. Feel the reality of your desire, nourish it, sustain it, imagine the reality of it, see the happy ending, and gradually it will gel in your subconscious mind and come to pass.