Thursday, May 4, 2017

The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind

The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind - this week's topic - was offered by Pravin. It is a popular self-help book written by Dr. (Psychology PHD from University of Southern California (USC)) Joseph Murphy in 1963. Murphy was born in Ireland, raised a Roman Catholic but eventually left Catholicism and became a  divined minister in the New Thought  Church of Devine Science, a brief history of which is available here

Murphy spent considerable time in India with gurus learning Hindu philosophy. I'll leave it to Ramana, Pravin and Maria to connect those dots to today's topic.


Murphy - in  The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind - says “The way to get rid of darkness is with light; the way to overcome cold is with heat; the way to overcome the negative thought is to substitute the good thought. Affirm the good, and the bad will vanish." To me that is a typical power of positive speaking notion. Nothing that has not been said many times before by other proponents like Norman Vincent Peale.


“I like money, I love it, I use it wisely, constructively, and judiciously. Money is constantly circulating in my life. I release it with joy, and it returns to me multiplied in a wonderful way. It is good and very good. Money flows to me in avalanches of abundance. I use it for good only, and I am grateful for my good and for the riches of my mind.” 

“Trying to accumulate wealth by the sweat of your brow and hard labor is one way to become the richest man in the graveyard. You do not have to strive or slave hard.” 
Now those are interesting quotes.  Positively think your way to happiness and fortune.  Frankly, if it was that easy I suspect the church of  Divine Science would be a bit larger.  As the city of my birth and subsequent first 10 years of my life played a large part in Divine Science and I have never heard of it until today seems to confirm it as a relatively minor player. That does not, however, lessen the value of  Murphy's ideas.
I find the inherent positivity of Murphy's notions to be quite valid as a roadmap for life. Those who know me know I am not particularly religious so I tend to dismiss god references fairly quickly.  But I have also been accused of being a spiritual guy - and in that light the god references make sense. I am not convinced there needs to be god to make them valid though I suspect Murphy and any person of faith would disagree with me.  Concepts of god would make a good discussion as it relates to Murphy's book. I am not, however, going there today. I will only say that when it comes to god U2 says it best for me - I Still Haven't Found What I;m Looking For.
I'll end this little ditty with one last Murphy quote from the book - 
“Success means successful living. When you are peaceful, happy, joyous, and doing what you love to do, you are successful.”  Now that is something I can agree with completely.  I can see why so many folks are enamored of Dr. Murphy and his book.

Be sure to check on my cohorts to see what they have to say on this topic - RamanaPravin and Maria.


See ya next week, same bat time and same bat channel.

2 comments:

  1. While Murphy was influenced by India, I have been validated by an American! That man, Kahneman did a lot of work with another Easterner, an Israeli Amos Tversky. Quite some cross pollination what?

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  2. I have little doubt about the effects of our subconscious mind. I also think the language we tell ourselves -- thought being a mediator of action -- matters. What intrigues me is how much is genetic, how much environmental. Mixing religious thought with other ideas can sometimes muddy the water, but not always.

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