50 pages • 1 hour read
Dr. Joseph MurphyThe Power Of Your Subconscious Mind
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1963A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “Practical Techniques in Mental Healings”
Chapter 6 continues to explore the topic of mental healing by providing practical techniques for personal prayer. Murphy starts by comparing a person who prays to an engineer building a bridge, asserting that both use specific techniques and methods. He defines prayer as the formulation of an idea about something one wishes to accomplish. He claims that this formulation comes from a person’s deepest needs and desires.
The passing-over technique for imprinting a prayer on the subconscious involves prompting the subconscious mind to accept the request that the conscious mind provides. As with other techniques, this technique should be undertaken in a drowsy state. The person sees the desired thing coming to fruition in the form of a mental blueprint or image filled with thoughts of peace, harmony, joy, and goodwill. The visualization technique depends on the belief that the image formed in the imagination is as real as anything in the objective world. Murphy uses this technique before he gives a lecture, picturing his happy, inspired audience for about 10 minutes to the point at which he can hear audience members “proclaiming” their happiness.
He states that this mental-movie method is particularly useful for people who are selling a house. They must imagine the infinite intelligence attracting the perfect buyer, who then presents them with a check.
He also describes the Baudoin technique, which is named for a French psychotherapist who stressed the importance of condensing the desired idea into a brief phrase and repeating it over and over, much like a lullaby. Like all Murphy’s techniques, this one is best accomplished in a drowsy state because negative thoughts are suppressed during such moments.
The thank-you technique encourages thoughts of thankfulness for receipt of the desired outcome even before that outcome has been granted. The affirmative method requires a belief that only positive conditions such as harmony, truth, and health are real, actionable principles.
The argumentative method is based on the work of Dr. Phineas Quimby, an early-20th-century pioneer in mental and spiritual healing. He convinced his patients that their illness was based on negative beliefs and fears and that the subconscious mind knows how to heal such maladies. The process that he advocated was to picture the mind as a courtroom where the patient presents evidence that the healing power, having created the body, lies within. Finally, the patient renders a verdict in favor of healing.
The absolute method was also used by Dr. Quimby. It considers the qualities and attributes of God, including bliss, love, intelligence, harmony, beauty, and perfection. In this technique, one person can pray for another by mentioning the patient’s name and then reflecting on the positive qualities listed above, which are believed to dissolve everything in the patient’s mind and body that resists them.
The decree method is based on a quote from the Book of Job in the Bible. It involves putting the desired outcome into words as a decree and then stating that the words will go forth into the infinite mind.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Tendency of the Subconscious Is Lifeward”
Chapter 7 states that the tendency of the subconscious is “lifeward,” for it is always trying to help and to preserve the person from harm. The subconscious speaks very subtly—in “intuitions, impulses, hunches, intimations, urges, and ideas” (75)—yet it is always telling people to grow. The best accomplishments, including the urge to love and the impulse to create art, proceed from the subconscious.
Murphy describes the interaction of the conscious mind and the subconscious mind in terms of the nervous system. The voluntary nerves associated with the conscious mind may work separately or together with those of the involuntary nervous system, which is located in the solar plexus, or the “abdominal brain.” The conscious mind grasps an idea, which causes a vibration in the voluntary nerves, and this in turn causes a current or vibration in the involuntary system.
The structure of organs and their cells forms a “group intelligence” by acting together to carry out the orders of the conscious mind (77). However, the conscious mind can contradict what it perceives through the senses because of false beliefs and fears. To heal disease, it is possible to meditate on the fact that the subconscious mind formed the organs and cells and can therefore make those same organs and cells conform to their perfect pattern.
Chapter 8 Summary: “How to Get the Results You Want”
Murphy suggests that people fail because they lack confidence and try too hard, blocking the workings of the subconscious, which cannot distinguish between good and bad ideas. For this reason, he stresses that one’s thoughts should be positive and constructive. He also states that the subconscious cannot be coerced; only faith and strong visualizations of a result can influence it.
Murphy presents three steps to success in prayer, telling his readers to look at the problem, imagine the solution, and rest in the conviction that the solution has already occurred.
The law of reversed effort holds that when desires and imagination conflict, the imagination wins. For instance, a person could easily walk a plank on the floor, but if it were 20 feet in the air, a fear of falling would interfere with their sense of balance. Trying to will a desired result into being has a similar reversed effect and results in the opposite of what was prayed for. Murphy states that the best way to avoid this is to make the conscious wish while in a drowsy state.
Chapter 9 Summary: “How to Use the Power of Your Subconscious for Wealth”
Chapter 9 turns to the topic of using the subconscious for wealth. Murphy says that if a person has financial difficulties, it means that they have not convinced the subconscious mind that they “will always have plenty and some to spare” (89). He advises everyone to find work that they love and build the idea of wealth and abundance into the daily approach to life.
The subconscious is an invisible means of support. The secret is to repeat to oneself three or four times a day, for about five minutes, the words “Wealth—Success” (90). Murphy believes that the feeling of wealth will produce wealth. Just as the subconscious will follow up on negative or positive thoughts alike, it will magnify the idea of either wealth or poverty. When these affirmations fail, it is because people reject them with the conscious mind. To block rejections, it is important to state that all of one’s interests are being “prospered,” not just the financial ones.
Because the subconscious mind contains ideas for making money, convincing it that wealth is already present will mean that a person will always have wealth. Criticizing or envying those who are wealthier will work against this process. Even worrying about someone who is making money dishonestly will block the acquisition of wealth.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Your Right to Be Rich”
Chapter 10 explores every person’s “right” to be rich and to have all the money needed for a full, prosperous life filled with beauty and abundance. Murphy defines money as a “symbol of exchange” that, in modern times, takes the form of currency (96). He compares money to blood, for both blood and money need to circulate freely to promote a healthy body and healthy economy.
Murphy states that money is not a source of evil, as some people believe; instead, an excessive craving for money is wrong because people also need to feel emotions such as love and joy. Money itself is no different from valuable metals that can be extracted from the earth. However, he claims that poverty is a mental disease that requires people to cease criticizing money and affirm that they like it and use it wisely. Similarly, if people feel that they are underpaid, they are unconsciously sabotaging their employment opportunities.
Murphy urges people to picture a result in order to attract money. He gives the example of a boy who couldn’t afford medical school but pictured his own diploma as he cleaned doctors’ offices. Because he applied Murphy’s techniques—a vivid picture imprinted before bedtime—he was hired by a doctor who subsequently sent him to medical school. To seek wisdom regarding investments, it is necessary to quietly claim that infinite intelligence governs finances. With this approach, not only will the person’s investments be wise, but they will also be protected from loss.
People who gain money dishonestly are attracting loss of their character and peace of mind. If they would mentally call on and be guided by the powers of their subconscious, they would find honest work.
Chapters 6-10 Analysis
These chapters continue to build on the theme of Tapping the Subconscious to Achieve Personal Goals, with focuses that are as wide-ranging as prayer, healing, and the acquisition of wealth. All the techniques that Murphy mentions are variations on the basic process that he calls “scientific prayer”: the act of imprinting a conscious thought onto the subconscious mind using vivid and consistent mental pictures. Because Chapter 7 offers nine distinct methods for personal prayer, he provides enough techniques that a wide variety of people will be able to find one that resonates. He also continues to offer concrete and descriptive metaphors to illustrate his techniques, as when he compares the person who prays to an engineer. Chapter 7 also delves into Murphy’s interpretation of how the conscious and subconscious physically work together within the body—a dynamic that he previously referred to as “kinetic action.” It is important to note that this explanation conflates the involuntary nervous system with the divinely inspired subconscious mind, although Murphy himself admits that his explanation is a simplification.
Because Murphy treats wealth as another goal and devotes two out of 20 chapters to the topic, his work has frequently been associated with that of Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich (1937). Hill is known for promoting a “philosophy of achievement” that grounds success in typically American virtues such as democracy and capitalism. Both authors promote the importance of belief, but here the comparison ends; Hill never actually reveals the “secret” for financial success, while Murphy presents numerous concrete techniques for attracting wealth. However, the author’s treatment of wealth is something of a departure from the other areas he discusses in that he does not rely on the Bible for support. He ignores common biblical statements such as “Blessed are you who are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20) and “Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth” (Matt. 6:19). In fact, he criticizes people who believe the biblical concept that the love of money is a root of evil (Tim. 6:10) and even goes so far as to claim that such people will not prosper.
The discussion of wealth in Murphy’s work reveals the influence of his ordained ministry in the Church of Divine Science, which focuses on the personal experience of an omnipresent God and leaves choices in spiritual reading to the individual. Murphy is therefore free to select the Bible verses that best serve his vision; as a result, the phrases he quotes are upbeat and focused on topics such as healing, faith, prayer, love, and forgiveness.
