About the author and book :
This book first came on the shelf in 1963. Dr Joseph Murphy was an Irish author. He had earned his PhD in psychology in the 1950s and after that, he went on talking about the subconscious mind and the hidden power of it in thousands of talks and lectures which had inspired a lot of people.

He also had a strong belief in Hindu philosophy and its ideologies as he had spent a lot of time in India for his research. He has given a lot of references and quotes from the bible as he was brought up in a catholic family.

Book review:

As you start reading this book, you will first get an understanding of the difference between prayer and scientific prayer. The author says it means “it is the harmonious interaction between conscious and subconscious mind directed towards a specific purpose”.

We get an answer to our prayers only when we have convinced our subconscious mind with our imaginations, mental pictures, eagerness, continuous thought and mental acceptance that we have for the thing that we want in our life. when we say our prayers have been answered it’s nothing just but our belief and our heart’s desperate desires have been fulfilled by no one but ourselves.

You must have heard about LOA(law of attraction) this phenomenon resembles a lot to the author’s perspective. The law of your mind is the law of your belief.

What’s the difference between the Conscious and Subconscious mind?

We also call it subjective(conscious) or objective(subconscious) mind .The conscious mind is nothing but our five senses that is at work almost all of the time except the time we are sleeping. While we are awake these senses gather the information and while we are sleeping our subconscious mind is at work on processing those information and mol-ding our body cells according to that .So always be very very careful about what you hear? what do you discuss? how do you behave? who do you take suggestions from? and how you perceive ?. We will have to make sure the thoughts going on into my system should be positive, happy and constructive, on which I want my subconscious to work upon.

The author says the few minutes before we sleep and the few minutes after we wake up are the most important time when we can put our subconscious mind at work and make things happen for ourselves. The author has given numerous examples in this book of how people have achieved what they wanted just by believing in those things.

Few of my favourite examples from the book :

The author has also explained the power of hypnosis where your conscious mind is at rest so you can put any thoughts in the mind of a person who is under the influence and the person starts believing that. There is also a story of a surgeon called Dr.jmes Esdaile, who was working in India west Bengal in the 1950s before the current methods of anaesthesia was discovered. He said the doctor used the method of mental anaesthesia on all his patients. Where the patient is supposed to be convinced that he is under influence of anaesthesia without any medicines.

William James the father of American psychology said “Your subconscious mind is one with infinite intelligence and wisdom and it is called as law of life. Whatever you impress upon, it will move heaven and earth to bring it to pass”

In another story, he says a lady called Madam bird has regained her sight with her belief and true desire of heart after the doctors have declared her optical nerves were dead. the doctors called it a miracle. But this was nothing but the healing power of her subconscious mind which was put to work.

My favourite quote is “The treasure house is within you, look within for the answer to your heart’s desire”

A New definition to mental healing:

Today, we consult a psychologist or psychiatrist only to remove the mental blocks that we have put in our minds . None of the above experts can heal your mind except you , yes they might help you seeing through a dark situation and help you navigate in the path to reach your subconscious. But it’s only you who can give direction and order to it.

You must have heard of many ministers who have extraordinary healing power and can cure any disease. It’s our belief to be healed by the person who made it to work.

Even in India, i have heard many stories of like this who has healed people . By no means of offence to anyone. But if those stories were believed to be true, then he had some superpower or he had cracked the technique to get into a person’s subconscious mind and make them believe that they can be healed.? Something to think about!

Some of the techniques explained in the book :

The Boudin technique:
Charles Baudoin a famous psychotherapist says “A very simple way of securing this “impregnation of the subconscious mind” is to condense the idea which is to be the believed, to sum it up in a brief phase and repeat it again and again until its graven into your memory “

The mental movie method:

Imagine and picture yourself a movie after you succeed or you have received the results of your beliefs. and keep repeating to yourself. And feel the happiness and satisfaction through your mind’s eye.

The affirmative method :

The result of an affirmative process of prayer depends upon your conforming to the principles of life. To affirm is to state that it is so, and as you maintain this attitude as true, regardless of all evidence to the contrary.

there are many other methods or techniques described in the book like the argumentative method where you argue in the courtroom of your mind that the problem is just a shadow of the mind soaked with negative thoughts.

Lastly, the author explained how to stay young forever.As our subconscious mind is timeless, ageless and endless the secret is to practice on the spiritual quality patience, kindness, veracity, peace and harmony.The author explained it as “the age is the dawn of wisdom” . Your character, intelligence and your convictions are not subjected to decay. Think of it like your grey hairs can be an asset to you because the years of practice and application throughout your life you have gained huge experience, so the person ultimately has an advantage compared to a person who is starting on their 20s and 30s. The secret of keeping yourself young is to learn something new every day and keep your mind occupied with good thoughts. Be sure that your mind never retires.

I have been moved and motivated to direct my mind on a much more fruitful direction and to try out the different techniques explained in the book. As also have gained the confidence of achieving whatever i want to , i just have to believe in it. I went on and read many more articles and papers on the power of the subconscious mind. Have shared the all references with you down.

Do let me know what do you think about the book and my thoughts on it?

Would appreciate your feedback.

Happy Reading 🙂

Note: the facts written here was thoroughly discussed with an expert (my mom ) as she is continuing her PhD in psychology so she helped me verify and understand a few things from an expert point of view before I wrote it all down.

References:
https://www.jackcanfield.com/blog/power-of-the-subconscious-mind/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/briannawiest/2018/09/12/13-ways-to-start-training-your-subconscious-mind-to-get-what-you-want/
https://www.briantracy.com/blog/personal-success/understanding-your-subconscious-mind/