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Joseph Murphy’s Perspective
Joseph Murphy was an Irish-born American author. He had a degree in Psychology from the University of Southern California. In the mid-1940s, he moved to Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, Murphy met Religious Science founder Ernest Holmes. He became ordained into Religious Science. He went on to teach at the Institute of Religious Science. Murphy met with Erwin Gregg, the president of the Divine Science Association. He then became ordained into Divine Science. In 1949, he became the minister of the Los Angeles Divine Science Church. His congregation grew into one of the country’s largest New Thought congregations. Murphy specialized in using the subconscious mind to treat diseases.
Synopsis
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind explains how to access the potential of the subconscious mind. Accessing our subconscious mind can make us happier and wiser. It has the potential to lower mortality rates. It can also help you make money and assist you in finding the love of your life. The subconscious mind has the power to improve people’s lives. Joseph Murphy conducted years of research on the world’s major religions. He believed that some Great Power lies behind all spiritual life. This power is within each of us.
StoryShot #1: Repetition Can Train Your Subconscious Mind
Learning a new skill takes considerable conscious effort. For example, the first time you learned to ride a bike would have been challenging. With repetition, it would have required less conscious effort. Your subconscious mind grasped the task better. Riding a bike became automatic.
We can use repetition to overcome personal challenges. Enrico Caruso was an Italian opera singer in the late nineteenth century. He would get nervous before his shows, and his throat would spasm. His conscious mind was impairing a skill that had become subconscious for him. The constant negative thoughts caused Caruso’s conscious mind to take over. He worried about the performance going wrong and the crowd reacting with hostility. Caruso was able to conquer these physical reactions. He would tell his conscious mind to stop interfering with his subconscious mind. This allowed him to reduce his fears and improve his performance.
StoryShot #2: Positive Thinking and Visualization Are Integral to Achieving Your Dreams
Positive thinking and visualization can heal. In the eighteenth century, priests told the sick that believing in God would make them better. Some attributed the success of this practice to the existence of God. But, it is more likely that these practices relied on the subconscious mind.
A relative of Murphy developed tuberculosis. The relative’s son decided to help him get better. The son picked up a piece of wood off a sidewalk and gave it to his father. He explained that he had bought a cross from a monk who had recently worked at a healing shrine. He also stated that the cross had the power to heal many people. The father clutched the piece of wood overnight. The next day, he had completely healed. If you visualize or imagine what you hope to be true, sometimes it does come true. But, breaking the illusion for the healed person can cause the disease to resurface.
This ‘miracle’ is not a unique circumstance. Joseph Murphy spoke on a weekly radio show called the Church of Divine Science. He taught millions of listeners about the power of the subconscious mind. On this radio show, he described the mental movie method. This method involves creating a mental image that you desire. Then, you hold it in your mind until your subconscious makes it a reality. Many listeners used this approach to sell their property for the right price and to the right buyer. This technique worked well for selling their homes. Several listeners sent in thank-you letters to Murphy since this technique worked so well for selling their homes.
StoryShot #3: Utilize Your Natural Ability to Self-Heal
You can activate your subconscious mind by allowing your body to self-heal. Sleeping on a decision is one of the most effective self-healing approaches.
Your brain needs time to consider options. It can allow your subconscious mind to communicate the best option. A woman had a job opportunity on the other side of the country. The salary was double what she was currently earning, but she was unsure whether it was worth the money. Instead of making a rash decision, this woman went to bed early and slept on it. She was letting her subconscious mind influence her decision. In the morning, she decided not to accept the offer. She listened to her subconscious mind and rejected the offer. Three months later, she realized that she had made the correct decision. The other company had filed for bankruptcy. Occasionally, we need to give our subconscious mind room to improve our lives.
The subconscious mind processes data faster than the conscious self. It also uses different methods. Letting your gut work overnight will help you think clearer the following day. You will also have more confidence. The unconscious realm feeds off belief. So, if you believe you are in good health, your subconscious will self-heal. Faith is also a universal process of self-healing. Healing thoughts can heal all sickness, ailments, and traumatic events. Our unconscious mind can complement medicine and science. Even pseudo-scientific historical approaches have healed many people. Healing through touch is one example. In these instances, it is not the healers who heal. Instead, it is the individual’s unconscious mind.
Self-healing also establishes placebo effects. The placebo effect occurs when an individual takes a substance that is not a proper treatment. But, taking this substance makes them feel better. The most famous example is giving participants sugar tablets rather than actual medication. Placebos often work as well as genuine treatments. Doctors have found that the placebo effect has various physical and psychological benefits. Some placebo experiments have produced better results for heart rate, blood pressure, and other aspects of health. The main thing is that our mind is stable in health and well-being. Joseph Murphy would attribute this effect to our unconscious mind.
Belief in the genuineness of a treatment is not necessary for it to work. Instead, we should open our subconscious field to questioning and challenging standard views. When you feel drowsy, your subconscious mind influences your faith in a treatment. This drowsiness is how praying to God can sometimes help individuals to heal. Praying shuts out your conscious realm. It allows the irrational, subconscious mind to work properly.
StoryShot #4: Let Go of All Negative Thoughts
“What the other person says or does cannot really annoy or irritate you except you permit him to disturb you. The only way he can annoy you is through your own thought. For example, if you get angry, you have to go through four stages in your mind: You begin to think about what he said. You decide to get angry and generate an emotion of rage. Then, you decide to act. Perhaps, you talk back and react in kind. You see that the thought, emotion, reaction, and action all take place in your mind. When you become emotionally mature, you do not respond negatively to the criticism and resentment of others.”
— Joseph Murphy, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
Our natural reaction is to adopt negative thoughts about circumstances. Instead, we should attempt to choose happiness.
Negative thoughts are detrimental. They affect your emotions, and they also prevent you from succeeding. An associate of Murphy worked day in and day out. The long working hours meant he neglected his family. His blood pressure also increased to an unhealthy level. This associate had a negative view of why he worked so much. He felt guilty about not doing the right thing by his long-deceased brother. The remorse he felt came from a place of negativity. These negative thoughts made him behave in a way that punished himself, his wife, and his children. He did not realize that these long hours were not his boss’ fault; they were the fault of his negative thoughts.
StoryShot #5: Fears Are Just False Thoughts
Fear is an emotion that troubles us throughout our lives. When we were young, we were fearful of monsters under our beds. As we grow up, we continue to have fears in the shape of money worries. False thoughts are the cause of both these fears. We challenge these fears by challenging our thoughts.
Aging is a widespread fear for adults. We can overcome this fear by changing our thoughts about aging. Aging only happens when we stop learning new skills. Staying young isn’t about age but about remaining active and doing things we enjoy. An executive that lived near Murphy and who retired at 65 had spent most of his life learning. He did not view retirement as something to be afraid of but as another learning opportunity. He started learning new skills, such as photography. Likewise, he sought opportunities to travel the world. Finally, this man became a lecturer on how to age well. Murphy’s father set out to learn French at 65. Five years later, he was a specialist. He then started to study Gaelic. Again, he reached a level that meant he was teaching it until his death at 99. If we keep positivity and learning at the forefront of our minds, we will feel younger and, it seems, live longer.
StoryShot #6: Combining Visualization and Personal Passions Can Considerably Improve Your Life
Visualization can also help you attract money. If you combine visualization and your passions, money will come into your life. Picturing your desired end goal in life will feed your subconscious and help you reach this goal.
A young Australian boy wanted to become a doctor and surgeon. But, the boy did not have enough money to start his journey. Every night before he fell asleep, he would envision a medical diploma hanging on his wall. He got a break when a doctor saw his potential. The doctor taught him how to sterilize instruments and give injections. The boy used the money earned from this work to pay for his medical school tuition. Combining your passions with positive visualization leads to initial success. This success motivates you to excel further.
StoryShot #7: Your Subconscious Can Help You Find the Ideal Romantic Partner
We can even use positive visualization to find the perfect romantic partner. A teacher known to Murphy used visualization for this purpose. This teacher had three ex-husbands. Each of these ex-husbands was weak and passive. These were not the qualities that she desired in a partner. She was a relatively masculine woman with a dominant personality. She was attracting men with the opposite character to what she desired. But she then used her subconscious to mentally construct an image of her ideal partner. She would do this every night before falling asleep. She then accepted a job as a secretary in a doctor’s office and found the strong man of her dreams. The physician was a healthy, successful man. They got married and have been happily married ever since.
StoryShot #8: There Are Three Main Steps to Success
It is also possible to achieve success in life by following these three steps.
- Love Your Work
It might be hard sometimes, but loving your work will improve your quality of life. If you love your job, it won’t feel like work. You will feel engaged in your craft and be completely motivated to continue working. You might be struggling to find a job that you love. Ask for guidance from career experts. Have faith and confidence that you will find a job that you love.
- Specialize
If you find a job you love, you should specialize in particular areas. Perfecting a craft is a rewarding pursuit. It allows you to become a leader in your field. Mastering your work will help you feel more fulfilled. Economic success will follow.
- Be Altruistic
Altruism is the most crucial step to happiness. You cannot love work for selfish reasons. You gain the most happiness when a cause that serves humanity motivates you.
StoryShot #9: Desire Happiness
Happiness is a mental construct. It means that we can foster a feeling of happiness if we desire it. Yet, most people have a disposition for unhappiness. They will search for what is wrong in their environment. It is always possible to find negatives in our environment. When we discover these negatives, we are only attracting more negative experiences.
StoryShot #10: Two Factors Prevent You from Using Your Subconscious Mind
Some circumstances can prevent the unconscious realm from impacting your life. Critics will often use these examples as evidence that the method does not work. The reality is that the environment was not optimal for the subconscious mind to excel.
Two factors can make our unconscious realm fail. The first factor is a lack of confidence, and the second factor is when we put too much effort into making it work.
Your unconscious mind will carry out an idea as soon as it accepts this idea. The unconscious mind will carry out any action planted in it, whether good or bad. Any hesitations will take root in the unconscious realm. Money is one example. You might imagine being rich in the future, but you still won’t believe that you will be rich one day. In this instance, your unconscious realm creates a reality where you have no money. So, you are not using the unconscious mind to your benefit. The unconscious realm is only ineffective due to a lack of self-confidence.
Let the unconscious realm influence your life, but do not force the unconscious realm to help you. If you push the unconscious mind too much, then you will fail. Avoid utilizing forced beliefs. Using real beliefs allows the unconscious mind to turn these beliefs into a reality. Forcing things to happen only works within the conscious realm. Relax and have faith in the notion that the unconscious mind will work for you. You must maintain this relaxed approach even when results are not instant.
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind Summary
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind summary explains how accessing the potential of the subconscious mind can improve people’s lives, such as making them happier, wiser, and even lowering mortality rates. Joseph Murphy also discusses how repetition can train the subconscious mind, how utilizing self-healing can activate it, and how combining visualization with personal passions can improve one’s life. Additionally, we covered how fears are just false thoughts, how desire for happiness can foster a feeling of happiness, and two factors that can prevent you from using you subconscious mind effectively.
Rating
We rate The Power of Your Subconscious Mind 4/5.
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Editor’s Note
This article was first published in early 2021. It was updated in May 2022.
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