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Think Yourself to
Health, Wealth
& Happiness
Titles by Joseph Murphy
THE POWER OF YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
THE MIRACLE OF MIND DYNAMICS
YOUR INFINITE POWER TO BE RICH
SECRETS OF THE I CHING
THE AMAZING LAWS OF COSMIC MIND POWER
THINK YOURSELF RICH
THINK YOURSELF TO HEALTH, WEALTH & HAPPINESS
PUTTING THE POWER OF YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND TO WORK
Think Yourself to
Health, Wealth
& Happiness
Intuition
The Supreme Intelligence,
or Life Principle in your subconscious,
is always knocking at the door of your heart.
Open the door to your heart and listen.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank JMW Group, Inc., for giving me the opportunity to work on this book. It is always nice to have work, to have something to do. It is especially nice when what you do inspires and enriches you, as the writings of Joseph Murphy have done for me.
In particular, I would like to thank Pete Allen and Sara Castle, of JMW Group, Inc, for their support and infinite patience. They will smile when they read that, no doubt think that “infinite” falls far short of describing the degree of patience they were required to exercise. I don’t know of a word that speaks of a greater quantity. If I did, I would use it, for they have given it. Perhaps where I’m falling short, then, is not in the word infinite, but in the word patience. Perhaps I should instead have used forbearance. So I will revise my gratitude: I would like to thank Pete Allen and Sara Castle for their infinite forbearance.
My thanks to production editor Mariann Hutlak, for her generosity of time and her guidance in seeing to it that a manuscript became a book.
And I would be remiss if I excluded my cat Toby. He has had to endure months of regrettable neglect. But always, he came to me, giving his affection, seeking mine. Often, he received instead my ill temper, my impatience, as he uncannily entered my office at just those moments when I was struggling for a word or concept or the order of things. In the end, however, he won me over, reminding me in the process of what I think is perhaps one of Joseph Murphy’s most profound teachings: (which you’ll find in his chapter “Forgiveness”): “Without love in our hearts, we stumble and fall.”
What This Book Can Do for You
Through the words you will read, you will discover the limitless power within you to create the life of prosperity and harmony you desire. You will learn to tune in to the infinite intelligence and power within you.
Think Yourself to Health, Wealth & Happiness contains the keys to transforming your life. Bringing together the highlights of Joseph Murphy’s lifetime of teachings about the power of the subconscious mind, this book will help you learn the rules, techniques, and principles for using the power of your subconscious to bring forth health, happiness, prosperity, and all that you desire in your life.
To reap the greatest benefit from this book, start by reading all of Part I, “The Great Laws of the Subconscious Mind,” in order to acquire an understanding of the basic principles of the power of the subconscious mind. A firm grasp of these is essential. Part II, “Enrich Your Life with the Unlimited Power of Your Subconscious Mind,” will guide you in applying the laws of the subconscious to specific areas of your life that you seek to change or enhance. As you read Part II, allow yourself to stay with each chapter for a while. Take time to reflect on it and understand how it addresses your current needs. Allow the teachings of the chapter to become a part of your subconscious. Then move on to another chapter.
Once you have concluded your initial reading of the book, keep it on hand as a companion that you can turn to whenever you want to enrich an area of your life or are facing a difficulty of any kind. For example, if you want to know more about the miraculous power of prayer and how you can benefit from it, you can turn to Chapter 4; if you’re finding it difficult to forgive, you can turn to Chapter 5; if needless worry and fear are holding you back, Chapter 11 will teach you to find peace; and if you are seeking more fulfilling relationships, Chapter 17 will guide you.
Joseph Murphy dedicated his life to understanding the laws of the subconscious mind and to teaching others—in simple, down-to-earth terms—how to translate this understanding into practical techniques that can be applied for the betterment of everyday life. In these pages, you will find invaluable knowledge culled from Murphy’s teachings and particularly chosen for inclusion here because of their keenness of insight and practical benefits. You will read about real people and how they used the laws of the subconscious to bring desired changes into their life. You will discover techniques that you can apply to strengthen the power of your subconscious and use to achieve all your aspirations and you will learn the key principles to remember and apply in your daily life. Whatever enrichment or transformation your desire, Think Yourself to Health, Wealth & Happiness will help you attain it.
Editor’s Preface
Part I
THE GREAT LAWS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
1 Understanding the Laws of the Subconscious
What you can conceive, you can achieve through the wisdom and power of your subconscious mind.
Your subconscious is part of mind, which operates in accordance with psychological laws, and part of Mind, which operates in accordance with spiritual laws. This is not to say that the subconscious is two minds. It is one mind that can have two distinct ways of operating. To truly understand then, the workings, and most importantly the power of your subconscious, it is important—indeed necessary—that we discuss and know well its two aspects, or operations, separately.
THE SUBCONSCIOUS AS HABIT–MIND
It often appears as though we are living in two worlds: one external and the other internal; one visible and the other invisible; one objective and the other subjective.
The external (visible, objective) world enters you through your five senses and is shared by everyone. Your internal (invisible, subjective) world of thoughts, feelings, imagination, sensations, beliefs, and reactions belongs to you alone.
Suppose, for example, that you are invited to a banquet. Everything that you see, hear, taste, smell, and touch is of the external world, the world revealed by your five senses. All that you think, feel, like, and dislike belongs to your inner world. In one sense, it could be said that you are attending two banquets: the one of your sensory experiences and the one of your subjective experiences. In the end, though, there is only one banquet: the one of your subjective experience. Even your sensory experiences would mean nothing if it weren’t for your subjective experiences that tell you that you like this and don’t like that, enjoy this and don’t enjoy that, want this and don’t want that.
Ask yourself, “In which world do I do my living? Do I live in the world that is revealed by my five senses, or in the inner world?”
In truth, it is in the inner world that you live all the time. Whether you are acting so consciously or not, it is in this world where you hold your truest existence. This is the world of your subconscious. This is where you feel. This is the world you want to consciously honor in order to have the life you want.
The law of your mind is this: You will get a reaction or response from your subconscious mind according to the nature of the thought or idea you hold in your conscious mind.
The terms generally used to distinguish the two functions of your mind are objective and subjective mind, conscious and subconscious mind, waking and sleeping mind, surface self and deep self, voluntary mind and involuntary mind, male and female—among others. I use the terms conscious and unconscious to represent this dual nature of your mind.
It is important to remember, however, that these are not two minds. They are merely two spheres of activity within one mind. You have only one mind, which possesses two distinctive characteristics, two levels.
The functions of these two spheres of mind are essentially unlike. Each is endowed with separate and distinct attributes and powers.
The five-sense mind, the conscious mind, is the mind that thinks from the standpoint of circumstance, conditions, and environment, but it is within your subconscious mind that you will find the cause for every effect. The conditions, circumstances, and environment of your life are not the cause of your life—they are the effects.
Your conscious mind has the thought of expectancy; your deeper mind has the “know-how” of accomplishment. Consider this parable of the conscious and subconscious minds.
The captain of a ship directs the ship and signals orders to those in the engine room who control all the boilers, instruments, gauges, and so on. The workers in the engine room do not know where they are going; they follow orders. They would go on the rocks if the person on the bridge issued faulty or wrong instructions. The captain issues orders that are automatically obeyed. Those in the engine room do not give their input; they simply carry out orders.
Our subconscious convictions and beliefs dictate and control all our conscious actions.
The subconscious acts by law. The law that may now hold you in bondage can also be the law that can free you. A negative habit that binds you can be transformed into a positive habit that frees you, through the repetition and the abiding conviction of your desired action in your conscious mind.
Habits, in other words, are formed by repeating certain thought patterns or actions over and over again until they establish patterns in the subconscious mind, where they grow until they reach the point of saturation. Impressions are made in the subconscious by repetition, faith, and expectancy. Whatever is repeated by you over and over again becomes an established habit pattern and is in control.
Through the act of repetition and conviction, your newly desired conscious will for yourself can become your subconscious will for yourself.
Your subconscious mind works twenty-four hours a day, pouring all the fruit of your habitual thinking into your life.
The law of the subconscious mind does not act differently for the rich or the poor, the good or the wicked. It produces unerringly what it is presented. If you hold up a horrible painting in front of a mirror, the mirror will reflect exactly the picture held before it. The subconscious mind is a mirror for the king and the beggar alike: It always reflects accurately the contents of your mentality.
Just as a doctor has confidence when he or she begins to operate, because the doctor knows surgery, anatomy, physiology, and other basic sciences dealing with the human body, you can, by comparable study and application, develop confidence in the principles of the two functions of your mind—namely the conscious and subconscious. You can learn that the subconscious mind responds to your habitual thinking, and that by carefully choosing your thoughts, you can choose your reactions and responses to life, thus creating the life you want.
Your conscious mind is the reasoning, thinking mind. You make all your decisions with your conscious mind. Your subconscious mind is the seat of your emotions and is the creative mind.
Your conscious mind chooses, but it does not create. Your subconscious is the creative power within you. By the combined operations of your subconscious and conscious minds, you truly become the sum total of your conscious choices.
If you say to your subconscious, “Wake me up at six o’clock,” you will awaken exactly at the time specified. It never fails. The subconscious is a source of omnipotent power.
If you pay keen attention to the actions and behaviors of your conscious life and the ideas that well up in your conscious mind, you will find that your subconscious mind is attempting to keep you informed of things transpiring on the subjective plane of your life. It is always trying to support you. The law of life is self-preservation.
You have free will in the choice of the idea, desire, or concept you entertain. In that sense, you have freedom. Thereafter, however, once you mentally accept an idea as living reality, all your steps are then controlled by the subconscious mind, which operates according to the law of compulsion. The beliefs and assumptions that have become embedded in your subconscious dictate, control, and govern all your conscious actions.
Only through the conscious choice of the prayer to change your subconscious beliefs for the better can you alter the movement of the law of compulsion in your life.
The wisdom of your deeper mind is always using you. Practice using the wisdom of your deeper mind until it begins to use you in such a manner that all your ways are pleasant and all your paths are peace.
The law of the subconscious is the universal and natural principle of action and reaction: Whatever you impress on your subconscious mind by your conscious mind will be expressed, that is, carried out in your life.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “There is no thought in my mind but it quickly tends to convert itself into a power and organizes a huge instrumentality of means.”
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7)
This refers to the action of our thoughts. We sow thoughts when we believe them wholeheartedly.
Our subconscious minds are like the soil. They will grow whatever type of seed we plant in the gardens of our minds, and that is what we will reap.
Your subconscious accepts and brings into reality the dominant of two ideas, feelings, and images. It is your dominant thoughts, feelings, and images that control all phases of your life.
In thinking about your subconscious mind, remember that it operates deductively. It brings to a logical, sequential conclusion the nature of the thoughts, feelings, or pictures you hold in your conscious mind.
Your conscious mind is referred to as your objective mind because it deals with outward objects; it takes cognizance of the objective world. It is your guide and director in your contact with your environment. It learns through observation, experience, and education—acquiring knowledge through your five senses.
Your subconscious mind is referred to as your subjective mind because it takes cognizance of its environment by means independent of the five senses. It perceives by intuition. It is the seat of your emotions and the storehouse of memory.
The only thing necessary for you to do is to get your subconscious mind to accept your idea, and the law of your own subconscious mind will bring it forth. You give the command or decree, and your subconscious will faithfully reproduce the idea impressed upon it.
Innumerable experiments by psychologists and others on persons in the hypnotic state have shown that the subconscious mind is incapable of making decisions and comparisons that are necessary for a reasoning process. These experiments have shown repeatedly that your subconscious mind will accept any suggestion, however false. Having once accepted any suggestion, it responds according to the nature of the suggestion given.
The subconscious mind works by the association of ideas and uses every bit of knowledge that you have gathered in your lifetime to bring about its purpose. Once the subconscious mind accepts an idea, it begins to execute it; in accordance with the law of compulsion, it works for good and bad ideas alike. You will get a reaction or response from your subconscious mind according to the nature of the thought or idea you hold in your conscious mind: If you think good, good will follow; if you think evil, evil will follow. It does not reason things out the way your conscious mind does, and it does not argue with you controversially. It does not engage in proving whether your thoughts are good or bad, true or false, but accepts what is impressed upon it or what you consciously believe and responds accordingly. Whatever you claim mentally and feel as true, your subconscious mind will accept and bring forth into your experience. If you consciously assume something as true, even though it may be false, your subconscious mind will accept it as true, proceeding to bring about the results which must necessarily follow, because you consciously assumed them to be true.
The law of the subconscious is always impartial, impersonal, and neutral. Your subconscious mind is amoral and impersonal, it is neither compassionate nor vindictive; it has no morality. Morality depends on your motivation and how you use the law of mind.
Your desires are good or bad depending on the nature of the desire itself. Your thought carries its own reward. Desire good, and by the immutable law of your subconscious mind, good follows.
This is the way your mind works.
It is neither more nor less than the law of cause and effect, which is a universal and impersonal law.
We are creatures of habit. If we repeat a thought or act over a period of time, instilling it into our subconscious minds, we will be under the compulsion of a habit, because habit is the function of our subconscious minds. We learned to swim, ride a bicycle, dance, and drive a car by consciously doing these things over and over again until they established tracks in our subconscious minds. Then, the automatic habit action of our subconscious minds took over, resulting in the performance of actions that we now call “second nature.”
We are free to choose our thoughts—noble or ignoble. We are free to choose a good habit or a bad habit. Once we choose, our lives are then lives of either good habits or bad habits.
You are always writing the book of your life, because your thoughts become your experiences.
What you write on the inside, you will experience on the outside. If something is written on your subconscious mind, your subconscious mind will move heaven and earth to bring it to pass, and you will experience it in your life as the objective manifestation of circumstances, conditions, and events. Impress your subconscious with right ideas and constructive thoughts, for as Emerson said, “Man is what he thinks all day long.”
The reason we experience so much personal suffering and pain is that we do not understand the interaction between the conscious and subconscious minds. The subconscious mind is a law: It arranges all of the conscious thoughts we deposit into it into a complex pattern. These patterns become the cause of all our ills, as well as the cause of our triumphant achievements.
Psychiatrists and psychologists delving and probing into our deeper minds have demonstrated that we are not aware of these inner patterns. Not having placed them there knowingly, many of us assume that we don’t even have them. Then we establish alibis and excuses of all kinds to justify ourselves and the behaviors we manifest.
Unless otherwise checked, the conscious mind, with its evidence based on the five senses and outer appearances, often interferes with the innate, life-giving movement of the subconscious. Then fear, false beliefs, and negative patterns are made to register in your subconscious mind, and there is no other course open to the subconscious mind except to act on these suggestions and bring them into your life, resulting in your suffering and pain.
When the principles of the conscious and subconscious minds work in accord and synchronously toward harmony, you bring yourself a life of happiness and peace.
You can look upon your mind as being like an iceberg, 90 percent of which is subconscious and “below water.”
Your subconscious is the major operator of your life; its beliefs dictate, control, and manipulate all your conscious actions. More than 90 percent of your mental life, therefore, is subconscious. Those who fail to understand the workings of this incredible power live within very narrow limits.
Your subconscious is amenable to the suggestions of your conscious mind just as well as the suggestions of another’s, if their suggestions are accepted as true by your conscious mind. You can always reject the suggestions of others, though, by thinking on whatsoever things are true, lovely, and of good report.
Although your subconscious mind is all-wise and knows all the answers to all questions, it does not argue with you or talk back to you. It does not say, “You must not impress me with that thought.” It accepts the ideas—true or false—given it by your conscious mind, working deductively to bring your thoughts into your life with unwavering focus and accuracy.
Everything you experience is due to the law of mind. By dwelling on the idea of increased good, and by nourishing it and sustaining it, you draw more of the riches of life to yourself. On the other hand, if you think only of decrease, lack, and limitation, you magnify your loss.
The law of your subconscious is to increase any idea implanted in it.
THE SUBCONSCIOUS AS UNIVERSAL MIND
Your subconscious mind is one with Infinite Intelligence and Boundless Wisdom. It is fed by hidden springs, and is called the Law of Life. Your subconscious mind is also a manifestation of Universal Mind.
There is a Power in you that has never been fully released. God dwells in you rather than operating or influencing you from without. The Power that moves the world and governs the galaxies in space, in other words, is within you. You have, then, through your subconscious mind, the infallible power to direct the Cosmic Power that created the universe! This Power stands always at your beck and call and obeys your decrees and beliefs. It is your obedient servant and awaits only your use and direction. It is inexhaustible, eternal, and infinite.
Surrender to this Power and let its beneficent, healing balm flow through your body, business, home, life, and finances. Once you get the knack of directing it, you will find that it will heal your ailing body, ailing pocketbook, ailing human relationships, and ailing heart. It is impossible for you to exhaust the infinite riches of the Universal Mind. Your subconscious then, as a manifestation of Universal Mind, is your most powerful friend and ally.
Your subconscious is sometimes referred to as the soul.
Your subconscious mind is the source of your ideals, aspirations, and altruistic urges.
Your mind is a part of the One Universal Mind: God. When you use your mind in the right way, you gain a response from this Deeper Mind.
There is in all of nature a law of action and reaction, or cause and effect. In mental activity, thought is the action, and the response of the subconscious mind is the reaction.
If you set up resistance in your mind to the flow of Life through you, you’re going to get a reaction: Emotional congestion will get snarled up in your subconscious mind and cause all kinds of negative conditions in your life.
That is why it’s of such importance to harmonize your conscious thoughts with what you know to be the operation of the subconscious mind: Be sure that you think on whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure; whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8)
There is a Power and Intelligence within you that far transcends your intellect.
You are living in a fathomless sea of infinite riches. Within your subconscious depths lie the Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Power, and Infinite Supply of all that is necessary, waiting for development and expression. The Infinite Intelligence within your subconscious mind can reveal to you everything you need to know at every moment of time and point of space, provided you are open-minded and receptive. Whatever you desire, there is a power that can fulfill that desire for you; there is an answer to every problem.
The master secret of the ages, then, is not the secret of atomic energy, thermonuclear energy, or interplanetary travel. The secret is that there is a marvelous, miracle-working power found in your own subconscious mind.
You can bring into your life more power, wealth, health, and happiness by learning to contact and release the hidden power of your subconscious mind. You need not acquire this power: you already possess it. But you must learn how to use it; you must understand it, so that you can apply it in all departments of your life.
Begin to control your thought processes and you will be able to apply the Power of your subconscious to any problem, as you will actually be consciously cooperating with the Infinite Power and Omnipotent Law that governs all things.
It is your right to discover your inner world of Power, Light, Love, and Beauty. Then you will discover the greatest truth: The law of your subconscious, when properly used, cannot fail you.
The other day in a restaurant I heard a man say to his companion that sometime, he would hit the jackpot and make his mark in the world. The other replied, “I hope someday I will get a healing for my arthritis.” They were postponing their good, and looking to the future for its fulfillment.
All the powers of the Cosmic Mind are within you now. Most people are waiting for something good to happen in their lives, instead of realizing that God is the Eternal Now. They are constantly saying that “some day” they will be happy, prosperous, and successful.
Wealth is available now; it is a thought-image in your mind. Why wait for it?
Strength is now. Call on the infinite Power of God within you, and this Power will respond, energizing, vitalizing, and renewing your whole being.
Love is now. Know and believe that God’s love envelops and saturates your mind and body, and that this Divine love will be filtered through and made manifest in all phases of your life.
Guidance is now. Infinite Intelligence within you knows the answer, and responds to the nature of your request.
Peace is now. Fulfillment is now.
Healing is now. The Infinite Presence that made you is flowing through you now: transforming, healing, and restoring every atom of your being.
Claim your good now. Now is the time.
Remember, you do not create anything; all you do is give form and expression to that which always was, now is, and ever shall be.
The Bible says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth: and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?” (Matthew 7:7–10)
Here the Bible tells you to ask, seek, and knock and you will receive a response from your subconscious mind, whose nature is responsiveness. Become enthusiastic, and feel and know that there is a solution to every problem, a way out of every dilemma, and that when you ask for bread, you will not get a stone, but rather the embodiment of your request.
There are no incurable conditions, for with God all things are possible.
Your subconscious mind is such a powerful force, because within your subconscious mind is the Divine Presence. You can call this Presence your Higher Self, the Superconscious, the I Am, or the Christ in you, the hope of Glory, Inner Wisdom, Universal Mind, the Life Principle, Subliminal Mind, or Superconscious Mind. All these terms mean the same thing.
All you need to know is that there is an Infinite Wisdom and Intelligence within you that far transcends your intellect or your five senses—and that it always responds to your recognition, faith, and expectancy.
The subconscious uses all its mighty resources to begin manifesting your idea in your life; to that end, it mobilizes all the mental and spiritual laws of your deeper mind. What is of the utmost importance to remember is that the principle of the subconscious works for good or bad ideas. Consequently, if you use it negatively, it brings trouble, failure, and confusion. When you use it constructively, it brings guidance, freedom, and peace of mind. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)
What you decide to be true with your conscious mind, you will experience with your subconscious mind. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, to begin now to believe, claim, feel, and know that God is guiding you in all ways; that Divine right action governs you at all times; that God is prospering you in all ways; and that you are inspired from On High. As you accept these truths with your conscious mind, your subconscious will bring them to pass, and you will discover that all your ways are pleasantness and all your paths are peace.
We cannot analyze the mind under a microscope, nor can we see it, but like any other force, we can pay attention to how it works. As we study the operations of the mind, its ways cease to seem magical, but they remain marvelous.
Study the ways of your mind, and you will discover a wondrous, hidden power that will raise you up and set you on the high road to happiness, freedom, and peace of mind. Wonders will happen in your life.
Many people constantly say that there is no way to solve their problems, that their situations are hopeless. Such an attitude is the result of, and results in, spiritual blindness.
We begin to see spiritually—which is the same as mentally, because the mind is Spirit—when we gain a new understanding of our mental powers and develop a conscious awareness that the Wisdom and Intelligence in our subconscious can solve all our problems.
To bring about an answer to your concern, your subconscious mind draws on the Infinite Power, Energy, and Wisdom within you. It lines up all the laws of nature to get its way. Sometimes it brings about an immediate solution to your difficulties, but at other times it may take days, weeks, or longer.
I once told a man, “If you use your subconscious mind in the right way, it will provide you with what you need.”
“How? Please, tell me,” he begged.
“You’re not to wonder how, when, or where,” I replied. “Don’t wonder about the source. The subconscious has ways you know not of. Its ways are past finding out.”
When you are seeking an answer to a problem, your subconscious will respond, but it expects you to have a firm conviction in your conscious mind. This does not mean that you must already know the answer or that you can’t ask your subconscious about conflicting concerns you’re having. It means that you must acknowledge that the answer is in your subconscious mind. It means that you must unhesitatingly accept that the solution lies within the problem, that the answer is in every question, and that Infinite Intelligence within your subconscious mind knows all and sees all, has the answer, and is revealing it to you now. This mental attitude that the Creative Intelligence is bringing about a happy solution will enable you to find the answer.
You can’t, however, request an answer from your subconscious while consciously thinking, “I don’t think there is any way out; I am all mixed up and confused; why don’t I get an answer?” By doing that, you would be neutralizing your prayer.
Harmonize the conscious and subconscious mind. Turn over your request to your subconscious mind with the conscious conviction that it has the know-how of accomplishment and that it will respond to you according to the nature of your request.
When the conscious and subconscious minds cooperate, the idea or desire implanted in the subconscious mind is always realized.
It is of great importance to realize that your subconscious mind is always working. It never sleeps; it never rests. It is always on the job. Its Power is enormous. It is the source of Power and Wisdom that places you in touch with the Omnipotence and the Power that moves the world, that guides the planets in their course, and that causes the sun to shine. It is active night and day, whether you act upon it or not.
The reason you often cannot argue rationally in defense of your profoundest convictions is that they do not come from your conscious, reasoning mind; they come from your subconscious mind.
Your subconscious speaks to you in intuitions, impulses, hunches, intimations, urges, and ideas, and it is always telling you to rise, transcend, grow, advance, and move forward to greater heights.
The urge to love, to save the lives of others, to act altruistically, to suspend concern for your own life in times of crisis, comes from the depths of your subconscious, because the law of the subconscious is the law of God, and the law of God is the law of right action.
Your subconscious will speak lofty and wise sayings through you that your conscious mind knows nothing about. Throughout history, great artists, musicians, poets, speakers, and writers have known this and have tuned in to their subconscious powers and become inspired.
Robert Louis Stevenson used to charge his subconscious with the task of evolving stories for him while he slept. He was accustomed to asking his subconscious to give him a good, marketable thriller when his bank account was low. Stevenson said the intelligence of his deeper mind gave him the story piece by piece, like a serial.
Mark Twain confided to the world on many occasions that he never worked in his life. All his humor and all his great writings were due to the fact that he tapped the inexhaustible reservoir of his subconscious mind.
Self-preservation is the first law of life. The Infinite Intelligence of your subconscious always seeks to guard and preserve you from harm of every kind. It will take care of your life and your body if you do not interfere with it by entertaining thoughts of doubt, fear, lack, and limitation.
Millions of people are living lives of mediocrity, lack, and limitation of all kinds because they don’t direct their subconscious minds properly. They fail to impregnate their minds with thoughts of harmony, peace, joy, abundance, security, and right action. If you do not direct your subconscious mind according to universal principles and eternal verities, you will then subject it to the thinking of the masses, and this, as you know, is mostly negative.
Begin now to activate your conscious mind spiritually with thoughts of good, and your subconscious will do the rest for you.
Your subconscious does not argue or engage in controversial disputes with your conscious mind’s directions, because in the subconscious mind there is only One Power—God, Infinite Intelligence—and there are no divisions or quarrels in this Power. This Power operates by the principle of beauty, not of ugliness; of harmony, not of discord; of love, not of hatred; of joy, not of sadness; of opulence and abundance, not of deprivation and poverty, of right action, not of wrong action. There can be no antagonism, no quarrels, and no argument where there are only principles of beauty, harmony, love, joy, abundance, and right action.
The fundamental nature of Infinite Intelligence is unity and love. It responds to all your thoughts as if they were moving toward love. This is why your subconscious mind will bring forth whatever thought, plan, or idea you impress upon it, good or bad. It will embrace every thought with love and bring it forth.
Your subconscious mind is in contact with the Universal Subconscious twenty-four hours a day. This contact is never broken. There is always a flow of creative ideas within you, welling up from your Deeper Mind to your conscious mind.
As the residence, the center, the doorway to Infinite Intelligence, your subconscious knows only the answer. It will answer any question, but you must ask without any fear or doubt whatsoever and with assurance that the answer will come in divine order, through divine love.
We may not know everything that is in our subconscious minds, contributing to our lives, but what we’re aware of and find harmful, we can change through scientific prayer.
THEY USED THE LAWS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS
Your subconscious assumptions, convictions, and beliefs dictate and control all your conscious actions by the law of compulsion. This is why your habitual behavior is a function of the subconscious. For example, I was once taken to meet a man in New York City, Al T., who never left his apartment. He would not go out into the street or even down to the lobby of the building. Whenever he planned to leave home, he would imagine all the dire things that might happen to him. He would feel faint and dizzy. This condition is called agoraphobia. The fear originated in Al’s early childhood. When he was about five years old, he wandered away from home and was lost in the woods for several hours. His memory of being lost and the anxiety ensuing from it were still lurking in his subconscious mind.
Once, the great operatic tenor Caruso was struck with stage fright. He said his throat was paralyzed due to spasms caused by intense fear, which constricted the muscles of his throat. Perspiration poured copiously down his face. He was ashamed because in a few minutes he had to go out on the stage, yet he was shaking with fear and trepidation. He said, “They will laugh at me. I can’t sing.” Then he shouted in the presence of those behind the stage, “The Little Me wants to strangle the Big Me within.”
It is obvious that Caruso understood the two levels of mind—the conscious and the subconscious.
He then said to the Little Me, “Get out of here; the Big Me wants to sing through me.”
By the Big Me he meant the limitless power and wisdom of his subconscious mind, and he began to shout, “Get out, get out! The Big Me is going to sing!”
His subconscious mind responded, releasing the vital forces within him. When the call came, he walked out onto the stage and sang gloriously and majestically, enthralling the audience.
Your subconscious mind is reactive and responds to the nature of your thoughts. When your conscious mind (the Little Me) is full of fear, worry, foreboding, despair, and a sense of panic, these emotions that you’ve been planting in your subconscious mind (the Big Me) become who you are. Your subconscious mind then acts on those emotions accordingly and paralyzes you. If you find this happening in your life, you can, like Caruso, speak affirmatively and with a deep sense of authority to the irrational emotions generated in your deeper mind, as follows: “Be still. Be quiet. I am in control. You must obey me. You are subject to my command, you cannot intrude where you do not belong.”
As reported in an article in a British newspaper, over a period of about two years a man said, “I would give my right arm to see my daughter cured.” His daughter had a crippling form of arthritis, along with a so-called incurable form of skin disease. Medical treatment had failed to alleviate the condition, and the father had an intense longing for his daughter’s healing, expressing his desire in the words just quoted.
The newspaper article went on to report that one day, the family was out riding when their car collided with another. The father’s right arm was torn off at the shoulder, and immediately the daughter’s arthritis and skin condition vanished.
You must make certain to give your subconscious only suggestions that heal, bless, elevate, and inspire you in all your ways. Remember that your subconscious mind cannot take a joke. It takes you at your word.
Techniques for Harnessing the Power of Your Subconscious
Have as clear an idea as possible of what you wish to know or have answered. As you go to sleep at night, say to your subconscious, “Give your attention to this and reveal to me the answer.” Say this silently or audibly, whichever appeals to you. When you awaken in the morning, the first thought you have will often be the answer. It may also come in a dream, or flash spontaneously into your conscious mind during the day, when you’re preoccupied with something else.
Principles to Remember and Apply
Your subconscious mind does not reason inductively or argue controversially with you. It does not look at two ideas and then make a decision as to which is best. You are to decide that with your conscious mind.
Your subconscious is the storehouse of memory; within your subconscious are recorded all your experiences since childhood. If you can’t find or remember something, ask your subconscious and it will reveal the answer to you.
Habit is the function of the subconscious mind. In a very real sense, then, we are creatures of habit. Keep your conscious mind busy with the expectation of the best, and your subconscious will faithfully reproduce your habitual thinking.
Think Yourself to
Health, Wealth
& Happiness
Titles by Joseph Murphy
THE POWER OF YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
THE MIRACLE OF MIND DYNAMICS
YOUR INFINITE POWER TO BE RICH
SECRETS OF THE I CHING
THE AMAZING LAWS OF COSMIC MIND POWER
THINK YOURSELF RICH
THINK YOURSELF TO HEALTH, WEALTH & HAPPINESS
PUTTING THE POWER OF YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND TO WORK
Think Yourself to
Health, Wealth
& Happiness
Intuition
The Supreme Intelligence,
or Life Principle in your subconscious,
is always knocking at the door of your heart.
Open the door to your heart and listen.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank JMW Group, Inc., for giving me the opportunity to work on this book. It is always nice to have work, to have something to do. It is especially nice when what you do inspires and enriches you, as the writings of Joseph Murphy have done for me.
In particular, I would like to thank Pete Allen and Sara Castle, of JMW Group, Inc, for their support and infinite patience. They will smile when they read that, no doubt think that “infinite” falls far short of describing the degree of patience they were required to exercise. I don’t know of a word that speaks of a greater quantity. If I did, I would use it, for they have given it. Perhaps where I’m falling short, then, is not in the word infinite, but in the word patience. Perhaps I should instead have used forbearance. So I will revise my gratitude: I would like to thank Pete Allen and Sara Castle for their infinite forbearance.
My thanks to production editor Mariann Hutlak, for her generosity of time and her guidance in seeing to it that a manuscript became a book.
And I would be remiss if I excluded my cat Toby. He has had to endure months of regrettable neglect. But always, he came to me, giving his affection, seeking mine. Often, he received instead my ill temper, my impatience, as he uncannily entered my office at just those moments when I was struggling for a word or concept or the order of things. In the end, however, he won me over, reminding me in the process of what I think is perhaps one of Joseph Murphy’s most profound teachings: (which you’ll find in his chapter “Forgiveness”): “Without love in our hearts, we stumble and fall.”
What This Book Can Do for You
Through the words you will read, you will discover the limitless power within you to create the life of prosperity and harmony you desire. You will learn to tune in to the infinite intelligence and power within you.
Think Yourself to Health, Wealth & Happiness contains the keys to transforming your life. Bringing together the highlights of Joseph Murphy’s lifetime of teachings about the power of the subconscious mind, this book will help you learn the rules, techniques, and principles for using the power of your subconscious to bring forth health, happiness, prosperity, and all that you desire in your life.
To reap the greatest benefit from this book, start by reading all of Part I, “The Great Laws of the Subconscious Mind,” in order to acquire an understanding of the basic principles of the power of the subconscious mind. A firm grasp of these is essential. Part II, “Enrich Your Life with the Unlimited Power of Your Subconscious Mind,” will guide you in applying the laws of the subconscious to specific areas of your life that you seek to change or enhance. As you read Part II, allow yourself to stay with each chapter for a while. Take time to reflect on it and understand how it addresses your current needs. Allow the teachings of the chapter to become a part of your subconscious. Then move on to another chapter.
Once you have concluded your initial reading of the book, keep it on hand as a companion that you can turn to whenever you want to enrich an area of your life or are facing a difficulty of any kind. For example, if you want to know more about the miraculous power of prayer and how you can benefit from it, you can turn to Chapter 4; if you’re finding it difficult to forgive, you can turn to Chapter 5; if needless worry and fear are holding you back, Chapter 11 will teach you to find peace; and if you are seeking more fulfilling relationships, Chapter 17 will guide you.
Joseph Murphy dedicated his life to understanding the laws of the subconscious mind and to teaching others—in simple, down-to-earth terms—how to translate this understanding into practical techniques that can be applied for the betterment of everyday life. In these pages, you will find invaluable knowledge culled from Murphy’s teachings and particularly chosen for inclusion here because of their keenness of insight and practical benefits. You will read about real people and how they used the laws of the subconscious to bring desired changes into their life. You will discover techniques that you can apply to strengthen the power of your subconscious and use to achieve all your aspirations and you will learn the key principles to remember and apply in your daily life. Whatever enrichment or transformation your desire, Think Yourself to Health, Wealth & Happiness will help you attain it.
Editor’s Preface
Part I
THE GREAT LAWS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
1 Understanding the Laws of the Subconscious
What you can conceive, you can achieve through the wisdom and power of your subconscious mind.
Your subconscious is part of mind, which operates in accordance with psychological laws, and part of Mind, which operates in accordance with spiritual laws. This is not to say that the subconscious is two minds. It is one mind that can have two distinct ways of operating. To truly understand then, the workings, and most importantly the power of your subconscious, it is important—indeed necessary—that we discuss and know well its two aspects, or operations, separately.
THE SUBCONSCIOUS AS HABIT–MIND
It often appears as though we are living in two worlds: one external and the other internal; one visible and the other invisible; one objective and the other subjective.
The external (visible, objective) world enters you through your five senses and is shared by everyone. Your internal (invisible, subjective) world of thoughts, feelings, imagination, sensations, beliefs, and reactions belongs to you alone.
Suppose, for example, that you are invited to a banquet. Everything that you see, hear, taste, smell, and touch is of the external world, the world revealed by your five senses. All that you think, feel, like, and dislike belongs to your inner world. In one sense, it could be said that you are attending two banquets: the one of your sensory experiences and the one of your subjective experiences. In the end, though, there is only one banquet: the one of your subjective experience. Even your sensory experiences would mean nothing if it weren’t for your subjective experiences that tell you that you like this and don’t like that, enjoy this and don’t enjoy that, want this and don’t want that.
Ask yourself, “In which world do I do my living? Do I live in the world that is revealed by my five senses, or in the inner world?”
In truth, it is in the inner world that you live all the time. Whether you are acting so consciously or not, it is in this world where you hold your truest existence. This is the world of your subconscious. This is where you feel. This is the world you want to consciously honor in order to have the life you want.
The law of your mind is this: You will get a reaction or response from your subconscious mind according to the nature of the thought or idea you hold in your conscious mind.
The terms generally used to distinguish the two functions of your mind are objective and subjective mind, conscious and subconscious mind, waking and sleeping mind, surface self and deep self, voluntary mind and involuntary mind, male and female—among others. I use the terms conscious and unconscious to represent this dual nature of your mind.
It is important to remember, however, that these are not two minds. They are merely two spheres of activity within one mind. You have only one mind, which possesses two distinctive characteristics, two levels.
The functions of these two spheres of mind are essentially unlike. Each is endowed with separate and distinct attributes and powers.
The five-sense mind, the conscious mind, is the mind that thinks from the standpoint of circumstance, conditions, and environment, but it is within your subconscious mind that you will find the cause for every effect. The conditions, circumstances, and environment of your life are not the cause of your life—they are the effects.
Your conscious mind has the thought of expectancy; your deeper mind has the “know-how” of accomplishment. Consider this parable of the conscious and subconscious minds.
The captain of a ship directs the ship and signals orders to those in the engine room who control all the boilers, instruments, gauges, and so on. The workers in the engine room do not know where they are going; they follow orders. They would go on the rocks if the person on the bridge issued faulty or wrong instructions. The captain issues orders that are automatically obeyed. Those in the engine room do not give their input; they simply carry out orders.
Our subconscious convictions and beliefs dictate and control all our conscious actions.
The subconscious acts by law. The law that may now hold you in bondage can also be the law that can free you. A negative habit that binds you can be transformed into a positive habit that frees you, through the repetition and the abiding conviction of your desired action in your conscious mind.
Habits, in other words, are formed by repeating certain thought patterns or actions over and over again until they establish patterns in the subconscious mind, where they grow until they reach the point of saturation. Impressions are made in the subconscious by repetition, faith, and expectancy. Whatever is repeated by you over and over again becomes an established habit pattern and is in control.
Through the act of repetition and conviction, your newly desired conscious will for yourself can become your subconscious will for yourself.
Your subconscious mind works twenty-four hours a day, pouring all the fruit of your habitual thinking into your life.
The law of the subconscious mind does not act differently for the rich or the poor, the good or the wicked. It produces unerringly what it is presented. If you hold up a horrible painting in front of a mirror, the mirror will reflect exactly the picture held before it. The subconscious mind is a mirror for the king and the beggar alike: It always reflects accurately the contents of your mentality.
Just as a doctor has confidence when he or she begins to operate, because the doctor knows surgery, anatomy, physiology, and other basic sciences dealing with the human body, you can, by comparable study and application, develop confidence in the principles of the two functions of your mind—namely the conscious and subconscious. You can learn that the subconscious mind responds to your habitual thinking, and that by carefully choosing your thoughts, you can choose your reactions and responses to life, thus creating the life you want.
Your conscious mind is the reasoning, thinking mind. You make all your decisions with your conscious mind. Your subconscious mind is the seat of your emotions and is the creative mind.
Your conscious mind chooses, but it does not create. Your subconscious is the creative power within you. By the combined operations of your subconscious and conscious minds, you truly become the sum total of your conscious choices.
If you say to your subconscious, “Wake me up at six o’clock,” you will awaken exactly at the time specified. It never fails. The subconscious is a source of omnipotent power.
If you pay keen attention to the actions and behaviors of your conscious life and the ideas that well up in your conscious mind, you will find that your subconscious mind is attempting to keep you informed of things transpiring on the subjective plane of your life. It is always trying to support you. The law of life is self-preservation.
You have free will in the choice of the idea, desire, or concept you entertain. In that sense, you have freedom. Thereafter, however, once you mentally accept an idea as living reality, all your steps are then controlled by the subconscious mind, which operates according to the law of compulsion. The beliefs and assumptions that have become embedded in your subconscious dictate, control, and govern all your conscious actions.
Only through the conscious choice of the prayer to change your subconscious beliefs for the better can you alter the movement of the law of compulsion in your life.
The wisdom of your deeper mind is always using you. Practice using the wisdom of your deeper mind until it begins to use you in such a manner that all your ways are pleasant and all your paths are peace.
The law of the subconscious is the universal and natural principle of action and reaction: Whatever you impress on your subconscious mind by your conscious mind will be expressed, that is, carried out in your life.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “There is no thought in my mind but it quickly tends to convert itself into a power and organizes a huge instrumentality of means.”
Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7)
This refers to the action of our thoughts. We sow thoughts when we believe them wholeheartedly.
Our subconscious minds are like the soil. They will grow whatever type of seed we plant in the gardens of our minds, and that is what we will reap.
Your subconscious accepts and brings into reality the dominant of two ideas, feelings, and images. It is your dominant thoughts, feelings, and images that control all phases of your life.
In thinking about your subconscious mind, remember that it operates deductively. It brings to a logical, sequential conclusion the nature of the thoughts, feelings, or pictures you hold in your conscious mind.
Your conscious mind is referred to as your objective mind because it deals with outward objects; it takes cognizance of the objective world. It is your guide and director in your contact with your environment. It learns through observation, experience, and education—acquiring knowledge through your five senses.
Your subconscious mind is referred to as your subjective mind because it takes cognizance of its environment by means independent of the five senses. It perceives by intuition. It is the seat of your emotions and the storehouse of memory.
The only thing necessary for you to do is to get your subconscious mind to accept your idea, and the law of your own subconscious mind will bring it forth. You give the command or decree, and your subconscious will faithfully reproduce the idea impressed upon it.
Innumerable experiments by psychologists and others on persons in the hypnotic state have shown that the subconscious mind is incapable of making decisions and comparisons that are necessary for a reasoning process. These experiments have shown repeatedly that your subconscious mind will accept any suggestion, however false. Having once accepted any suggestion, it responds according to the nature of the suggestion given.
The subconscious mind works by the association of ideas and uses every bit of knowledge that you have gathered in your lifetime to bring about its purpose. Once the subconscious mind accepts an idea, it begins to execute it; in accordance with the law of compulsion, it works for good and bad ideas alike. You will get a reaction or response from your subconscious mind according to the nature of the thought or idea you hold in your conscious mind: If you think good, good will follow; if you think evil, evil will follow. It does not reason things out the way your conscious mind does, and it does not argue with you controversially. It does not engage in proving whether your thoughts are good or bad, true or false, but accepts what is impressed upon it or what you consciously believe and responds accordingly. Whatever you claim mentally and feel as true, your subconscious mind will accept and bring forth into your experience. If you consciously assume something as true, even though it may be false, your subconscious mind will accept it as true, proceeding to bring about the results which must necessarily follow, because you consciously assumed them to be true.
The law of the subconscious is always impartial, impersonal, and neutral. Your subconscious mind is amoral and impersonal, it is neither compassionate nor vindictive; it has no morality. Morality depends on your motivation and how you use the law of mind.
Your desires are good or bad depending on the nature of the desire itself. Your thought carries its own reward. Desire good, and by the immutable law of your subconscious mind, good follows.
This is the way your mind works.
It is neither more nor less than the law of cause and effect, which is a universal and impersonal law.
We are creatures of habit. If we repeat a thought or act over a period of time, instilling it into our subconscious minds, we will be under the compulsion of a habit, because habit is the function of our subconscious minds. We learned to swim, ride a bicycle, dance, and drive a car by consciously doing these things over and over again until they established tracks in our subconscious minds. Then, the automatic habit action of our subconscious minds took over, resulting in the performance of actions that we now call “second nature.”
We are free to choose our thoughts—noble or ignoble. We are free to choose a good habit or a bad habit. Once we choose, our lives are then lives of either good habits or bad habits.
You are always writing the book of your life, because your thoughts become your experiences.
What you write on the inside, you will experience on the outside. If something is written on your subconscious mind, your subconscious mind will move heaven and earth to bring it to pass, and you will experience it in your life as the objective manifestation of circumstances, conditions, and events. Impress your subconscious with right ideas and constructive thoughts, for as Emerson said, “Man is what he thinks all day long.”
The reason we experience so much personal suffering and pain is that we do not understand the interaction between the conscious and subconscious minds. The subconscious mind is a law: It arranges all of the conscious thoughts we deposit into it into a complex pattern. These patterns become the cause of all our ills, as well as the cause of our triumphant achievements.
Psychiatrists and psychologists delving and probing into our deeper minds have demonstrated that we are not aware of these inner patterns. Not having placed them there knowingly, many of us assume that we don’t even have them. Then we establish alibis and excuses of all kinds to justify ourselves and the behaviors we manifest.
Unless otherwise checked, the conscious mind, with its evidence based on the five senses and outer appearances, often interferes with the innate, life-giving movement of the subconscious. Then fear, false beliefs, and negative patterns are made to register in your subconscious mind, and there is no other course open to the subconscious mind except to act on these suggestions and bring them into your life, resulting in your suffering and pain.
When the principles of the conscious and subconscious minds work in accord and synchronously toward harmony, you bring yourself a life of happiness and peace.
You can look upon your mind as being like an iceberg, 90 percent of which is subconscious and “below water.”
Your subconscious is the major operator of your life; its beliefs dictate, control, and manipulate all your conscious actions. More than 90 percent of your mental life, therefore, is subconscious. Those who fail to understand the workings of this incredible power live within very narrow limits.
Your subconscious is amenable to the suggestions of your conscious mind just as well as the suggestions of another’s, if their suggestions are accepted as true by your conscious mind. You can always reject the suggestions of others, though, by thinking on whatsoever things are true, lovely, and of good report.
Although your subconscious mind is all-wise and knows all the answers to all questions, it does not argue with you or talk back to you. It does not say, “You must not impress me with that thought.” It accepts the ideas—true or false—given it by your conscious mind, working deductively to bring your thoughts into your life with unwavering focus and accuracy.
Everything you experience is due to the law of mind. By dwelling on the idea of increased good, and by nourishing it and sustaining it, you draw more of the riches of life to yourself. On the other hand, if you think only of decrease, lack, and limitation, you magnify your loss.
The law of your subconscious is to increase any idea implanted in it.
THE SUBCONSCIOUS AS UNIVERSAL MIND
Your subconscious mind is one with Infinite Intelligence and Boundless Wisdom. It is fed by hidden springs, and is called the Law of Life. Your subconscious mind is also a manifestation of Universal Mind.
There is a Power in you that has never been fully released. God dwells in you rather than operating or influencing you from without. The Power that moves the world and governs the galaxies in space, in other words, is within you. You have, then, through your subconscious mind, the infallible power to direct the Cosmic Power that created the universe! This Power stands always at your beck and call and obeys your decrees and beliefs. It is your obedient servant and awaits only your use and direction. It is inexhaustible, eternal, and infinite.
Surrender to this Power and let its beneficent, healing balm flow through your body, business, home, life, and finances. Once you get the knack of directing it, you will find that it will heal your ailing body, ailing pocketbook, ailing human relationships, and ailing heart. It is impossible for you to exhaust the infinite riches of the Universal Mind. Your subconscious then, as a manifestation of Universal Mind, is your most powerful friend and ally.
Your subconscious is sometimes referred to as the soul.
Your subconscious mind is the source of your ideals, aspirations, and altruistic urges.
Your mind is a part of the One Universal Mind: God. When you use your mind in the right way, you gain a response from this Deeper Mind.
There is in all of nature a law of action and reaction, or cause and effect. In mental activity, thought is the action, and the response of the subconscious mind is the reaction.
If you set up resistance in your mind to the flow of Life through you, you’re going to get a reaction: Emotional congestion will get snarled up in your subconscious mind and cause all kinds of negative conditions in your life.
That is why it’s of such importance to harmonize your conscious thoughts with what you know to be the operation of the subconscious mind: Be sure that you think on whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure; whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8)
There is a Power and Intelligence within you that far transcends your intellect.
You are living in a fathomless sea of infinite riches. Within your subconscious depths lie the Infinite Wisdom, Infinite Power, and Infinite Supply of all that is necessary, waiting for development and expression. The Infinite Intelligence within your subconscious mind can reveal to you everything you need to know at every moment of time and point of space, provided you are open-minded and receptive. Whatever you desire, there is a power that can fulfill that desire for you; there is an answer to every problem.
The master secret of the ages, then, is not the secret of atomic energy, thermonuclear energy, or interplanetary travel. The secret is that there is a marvelous, miracle-working power found in your own subconscious mind.
You can bring into your life more power, wealth, health, and happiness by learning to contact and release the hidden power of your subconscious mind. You need not acquire this power: you already possess it. But you must learn how to use it; you must understand it, so that you can apply it in all departments of your life.
Begin to control your thought processes and you will be able to apply the Power of your subconscious to any problem, as you will actually be consciously cooperating with the Infinite Power and Omnipotent Law that governs all things.
It is your right to discover your inner world of Power, Light, Love, and Beauty. Then you will discover the greatest truth: The law of your subconscious, when properly used, cannot fail you.
The other day in a restaurant I heard a man say to his companion that sometime, he would hit the jackpot and make his mark in the world. The other replied, “I hope someday I will get a healing for my arthritis.” They were postponing their good, and looking to the future for its fulfillment.
All the powers of the Cosmic Mind are within you now. Most people are waiting for something good to happen in their lives, instead of realizing that God is the Eternal Now. They are constantly saying that “some day” they will be happy, prosperous, and successful.
Wealth is available now; it is a thought-image in your mind. Why wait for it?
Strength is now. Call on the infinite Power of God within you, and this Power will respond, energizing, vitalizing, and renewing your whole being.
Love is now. Know and believe that God’s love envelops and saturates your mind and body, and that this Divine love will be filtered through and made manifest in all phases of your life.
Guidance is now. Infinite Intelligence within you knows the answer, and responds to the nature of your request.
Peace is now. Fulfillment is now.
Healing is now. The Infinite Presence that made you is flowing through you now: transforming, healing, and restoring every atom of your being.
Claim your good now. Now is the time.
Remember, you do not create anything; all you do is give form and expression to that which always was, now is, and ever shall be.
The Bible says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth: and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?” (Matthew 7:7–10)
Here the Bible tells you to ask, seek, and knock and you will receive a response from your subconscious mind, whose nature is responsiveness. Become enthusiastic, and feel and know that there is a solution to every problem, a way out of every dilemma, and that when you ask for bread, you will not get a stone, but rather the embodiment of your request.
There are no incurable conditions, for with God all things are possible.
Your subconscious mind is such a powerful force, because within your subconscious mind is the Divine Presence. You can call this Presence your Higher Self, the Superconscious, the I Am, or the Christ in you, the hope of Glory, Inner Wisdom, Universal Mind, the Life Principle, Subliminal Mind, or Superconscious Mind. All these terms mean the same thing.
All you need to know is that there is an Infinite Wisdom and Intelligence within you that far transcends your intellect or your five senses—and that it always responds to your recognition, faith, and expectancy.
The subconscious uses all its mighty resources to begin manifesting your idea in your life; to that end, it mobilizes all the mental and spiritual laws of your deeper mind. What is of the utmost importance to remember is that the principle of the subconscious works for good or bad ideas. Consequently, if you use it negatively, it brings trouble, failure, and confusion. When you use it constructively, it brings guidance, freedom, and peace of mind. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)
What you decide to be true with your conscious mind, you will experience with your subconscious mind. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, to begin now to believe, claim, feel, and know that God is guiding you in all ways; that Divine right action governs you at all times; that God is prospering you in all ways; and that you are inspired from On High. As you accept these truths with your conscious mind, your subconscious will bring them to pass, and you will discover that all your ways are pleasantness and all your paths are peace.
We cannot analyze the mind under a microscope, nor can we see it, but like any other force, we can pay attention to how it works. As we study the operations of the mind, its ways cease to seem magical, but they remain marvelous.
Study the ways of your mind, and you will discover a wondrous, hidden power that will raise you up and set you on the high road to happiness, freedom, and peace of mind. Wonders will happen in your life.
Many people constantly say that there is no way to solve their problems, that their situations are hopeless. Such an attitude is the result of, and results in, spiritual blindness.
We begin to see spiritually—which is the same as mentally, because the mind is Spirit—when we gain a new understanding of our mental powers and develop a conscious awareness that the Wisdom and Intelligence in our subconscious can solve all our problems.
To bring about an answer to your concern, your subconscious mind draws on the Infinite Power, Energy, and Wisdom within you. It lines up all the laws of nature to get its way. Sometimes it brings about an immediate solution to your difficulties, but at other times it may take days, weeks, or longer.
I once told a man, “If you use your subconscious mind in the right way, it will provide you with what you need.”
“How? Please, tell me,” he begged.
“You’re not to wonder how, when, or where,” I replied. “Don’t wonder about the source. The subconscious has ways you know not of. Its ways are past finding out.”
When you are seeking an answer to a problem, your subconscious will respond, but it expects you to have a firm conviction in your conscious mind. This does not mean that you must already know the answer or that you can’t ask your subconscious about conflicting concerns you’re having. It means that you must acknowledge that the answer is in your subconscious mind. It means that you must unhesitatingly accept that the solution lies within the problem, that the answer is in every question, and that Infinite Intelligence within your subconscious mind knows all and sees all, has the answer, and is revealing it to you now. This mental attitude that the Creative Intelligence is bringing about a happy solution will enable you to find the answer.
You can’t, however, request an answer from your subconscious while consciously thinking, “I don’t think there is any way out; I am all mixed up and confused; why don’t I get an answer?” By doing that, you would be neutralizing your prayer.
Harmonize the conscious and subconscious mind. Turn over your request to your subconscious mind with the conscious conviction that it has the know-how of accomplishment and that it will respond to you according to the nature of your request.
When the conscious and subconscious minds cooperate, the idea or desire implanted in the subconscious mind is always realized.
It is of great importance to realize that your subconscious mind is always working. It never sleeps; it never rests. It is always on the job. Its Power is enormous. It is the source of Power and Wisdom that places you in touch with the Omnipotence and the Power that moves the world, that guides the planets in their course, and that causes the sun to shine. It is active night and day, whether you act upon it or not.
The reason you often cannot argue rationally in defense of your profoundest convictions is that they do not come from your conscious, reasoning mind; they come from your subconscious mind.
Your subconscious speaks to you in intuitions, impulses, hunches, intimations, urges, and ideas, and it is always telling you to rise, transcend, grow, advance, and move forward to greater heights.
The urge to love, to save the lives of others, to act altruistically, to suspend concern for your own life in times of crisis, comes from the depths of your subconscious, because the law of the subconscious is the law of God, and the law of God is the law of right action.
Your subconscious will speak lofty and wise sayings through you that your conscious mind knows nothing about. Throughout history, great artists, musicians, poets, speakers, and writers have known this and have tuned in to their subconscious powers and become inspired.
Robert Louis Stevenson used to charge his subconscious with the task of evolving stories for him while he slept. He was accustomed to asking his subconscious to give him a good, marketable thriller when his bank account was low. Stevenson said the intelligence of his deeper mind gave him the story piece by piece, like a serial.
Mark Twain confided to the world on many occasions that he never worked in his life. All his humor and all his great writings were due to the fact that he tapped the inexhaustible reservoir of his subconscious mind.
Self-preservation is the first law of life. The Infinite Intelligence of your subconscious always seeks to guard and preserve you from harm of every kind. It will take care of your life and your body if you do not interfere with it by entertaining thoughts of doubt, fear, lack, and limitation.
Millions of people are living lives of mediocrity, lack, and limitation of all kinds because they don’t direct their subconscious minds properly. They fail to impregnate their minds with thoughts of harmony, peace, joy, abundance, security, and right action. If you do not direct your subconscious mind according to universal principles and eternal verities, you will then subject it to the thinking of the masses, and this, as you know, is mostly negative.
Begin now to activate your conscious mind spiritually with thoughts of good, and your subconscious will do the rest for you.
Your subconscious does not argue or engage in controversial disputes with your conscious mind’s directions, because in the subconscious mind there is only One Power—God, Infinite Intelligence—and there are no divisions or quarrels in this Power. This Power operates by the principle of beauty, not of ugliness; of harmony, not of discord; of love, not of hatred; of joy, not of sadness; of opulence and abundance, not of deprivation and poverty, of right action, not of wrong action. There can be no antagonism, no quarrels, and no argument where there are only principles of beauty, harmony, love, joy, abundance, and right action.
The fundamental nature of Infinite Intelligence is unity and love. It responds to all your thoughts as if they were moving toward love. This is why your subconscious mind will bring forth whatever thought, plan, or idea you impress upon it, good or bad. It will embrace every thought with love and bring it forth.
Your subconscious mind is in contact with the Universal Subconscious twenty-four hours a day. This contact is never broken. There is always a flow of creative ideas within you, welling up from your Deeper Mind to your conscious mind.
As the residence, the center, the doorway to Infinite Intelligence, your subconscious knows only the answer. It will answer any question, but you must ask without any fear or doubt whatsoever and with assurance that the answer will come in divine order, through divine love.
We may not know everything that is in our subconscious minds, contributing to our lives, but what we’re aware of and find harmful, we can change through scientific prayer.
THEY USED THE LAWS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS
Your subconscious assumptions, convictions, and beliefs dictate and control all your conscious actions by the law of compulsion. This is why your habitual behavior is a function of the subconscious. For example, I was once taken to meet a man in New York City, Al T., who never left his apartment. He would not go out into the street or even down to the lobby of the building. Whenever he planned to leave home, he would imagine all the dire things that might happen to him. He would feel faint and dizzy. This condition is called agoraphobia. The fear originated in Al’s early childhood. When he was about five years old, he wandered away from home and was lost in the woods for several hours. His memory of being lost and the anxiety ensuing from it were still lurking in his subconscious mind.
Once, the great operatic tenor Caruso was struck with stage fright. He said his throat was paralyzed due to spasms caused by intense fear, which constricted the muscles of his throat. Perspiration poured copiously down his face. He was ashamed because in a few minutes he had to go out on the stage, yet he was shaking with fear and trepidation. He said, “They will laugh at me. I can’t sing.” Then he shouted in the presence of those behind the stage, “The Little Me wants to strangle the Big Me within.”
It is obvious that Caruso understood the two levels of mind—the conscious and the subconscious.
He then said to the Little Me, “Get out of here; the Big Me wants to sing through me.”
By the Big Me he meant the limitless power and wisdom of his subconscious mind, and he began to shout, “Get out, get out! The Big Me is going to sing!”
His subconscious mind responded, releasing the vital forces within him. When the call came, he walked out onto the stage and sang gloriously and majestically, enthralling the audience.
Your subconscious mind is reactive and responds to the nature of your thoughts. When your conscious mind (the Little Me) is full of fear, worry, foreboding, despair, and a sense of panic, these emotions that you’ve been planting in your subconscious mind (the Big Me) become who you are. Your subconscious mind then acts on those emotions accordingly and paralyzes you. If you find this happening in your life, you can, like Caruso, speak affirmatively and with a deep sense of authority to the irrational emotions generated in your deeper mind, as follows: “Be still. Be quiet. I am in control. You must obey me. You are subject to my command, you cannot intrude where you do not belong.”
As reported in an article in a British newspaper, over a period of about two years a man said, “I would give my right arm to see my daughter cured.” His daughter had a crippling form of arthritis, along with a so-called incurable form of skin disease. Medical treatment had failed to alleviate the condition, and the father had an intense longing for his daughter’s healing, expressing his desire in the words just quoted.
The newspaper article went on to report that one day, the family was out riding when their car collided with another. The father’s right arm was torn off at the shoulder, and immediately the daughter’s arthritis and skin condition vanished.
You must make certain to give your subconscious only suggestions that heal, bless, elevate, and inspire you in all your ways. Remember that your subconscious mind cannot take a joke. It takes you at your word.
Techniques for Harnessing the Power of Your Subconscious
Have as clear an idea as possible of what you wish to know or have answered. As you go to sleep at night, say to your subconscious, “Give your attention to this and reveal to me the answer.” Say this silently or audibly, whichever appeals to you. When you awaken in the morning, the first thought you have will often be the answer. It may also come in a dream, or flash spontaneously into your conscious mind during the day, when you’re preoccupied with something else.
Principles to Remember and Apply
Your subconscious mind does not reason inductively or argue controversially with you. It does not look at two ideas and then make a decision as to which is best. You are to decide that with your conscious mind.
Your subconscious is the storehouse of memory; within your subconscious are recorded all your experiences since childhood. If you can’t find or remember something, ask your subconscious and it will reveal the answer to you.
Habit is the function of the subconscious mind. In a very real sense, then, we are creatures of habit. Keep your conscious mind busy with the expectation of the best, and your subconscious will faithfully reproduce your habitual thinking.
