Joseph Murphy was born in Ireland, the son of a private boy's school headmaster and raised a Roman Catholic. He studied for the priesthood and joined the Jesuits. In his twenties, an experience with healing prayer led him to leave the Jesuits and move to the United States, where he became a pharmacist in New York (having a degree in chemistry by that time). Here he attended the Church of the Healing Christ (part of the Church of Divine Science), where Emmet Fox had become minister in 1931. In the mid 1940s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he met Religious Science founder Ernest Holmes, and was ordained into Religious Science by Holmes in 1946, thereafter teaching at the Institute of Religious Science. A meeting with Divine Science Association president Erwin Gregg led to him being reordained into Divine Science, and he became the minister of the Los Angeles Divine Science Church in 1949, which he built into one of the largest New Thought congregations in the country. In the next decade, Murphy married, earned a PhD in psychology from the University of Southern California and started writing. After his first wife died in 1976, he remarried to a fellow Divine Science minister who was his longstanding secretary. He died in 1981.

Chapter 1 : How Your Own Mind Works

Man has only one mind, but he has two distinct phases or functions of the one mind. Each phase is characterized by its own phenomena which is peculiar to itself. Each of these minds is capable of independent action, as well as synchronous action. We call one the objective mind, because it deals with external things, and the other is the subjective mind. The subjective mind is amenable, and controlled by suggestion of the objective or conscious mind. The objective mind takes cognizance of the objective world. The media of observation are the five physical senses. The objective mind is your guide in your contact with the environment. We gain knowledge through the five senses. The objective mind learns through observation, experience, and education. The greatest function of the conscious mind is that of reasoning.

Look around Los Angeles; you come to the conclusion that it is a beautiful city based upon your observation of the parks, the buildings, the beautiful structure, the lovely flower gardens, etc. This is the working of your conscious or objective mind.

The word objective means that it deals with objective things. The subjective mind takes cognizance of its environment by means independent of the five physical senses. The subjective mind or the subconscious mind—either term may be used—perceives by intuition. The subconscious mind is the seat of your emotions. We know without a doubt that it performs its highest functions when the objective senses are in abeyance.

It is the intelligence that makes itself manifest when the conscious mind is suspended or in a sleepy, drowsy state. The subconscious mind sees without the use of the eyes; it has the capacity of clairvoyance and clairaudience. The subconscious mind can leave the body; travel to distant lands, and bring back intelligence oftentimes of the most exact and truthful character. Through the subconscious mind you can read the thoughts of others, even to the minutest details; read the contents of sealed envelopes and closed safes.

The subconscious mind has the ability to apprehend the thoughts of others without the use of the ordinary, objective means of communication. So it is of the greatest importance that we understand the interaction of the conscious and subconscious mind, in order to learn the true art of prayer.

Now there are many terms used in describing the objective and the subjective mind. They are, as we told you, called: The conscious or subconscious mind, the waking or sleeping mind, the surface self or the deep self, voluntary mind or involuntary mind, the male and the female, and many other terms. Remember there is only one mind having two phases or functions.

The subjective mind is always amenable to suggestion; it is controlled by suggestion. We must recognize that the subconscious mind accepts all suggestions; it does not argue with you, but it fulfills your wishes. All things that have happened to you are based on thoughts impressed on the subconscious mind through belief. The subconscious mind will accept your beliefs and your convictions.

It is like the soil; it will accept any seed that you deposit in it, whether it is good or bad. Remember: Anything that you accept as true and believe in will be accepted by your subconscious mind, and brought into your life as a condition, experience, or event. Ideas are conveyed to the subconscious mind through feeling.

We will use an illustration: The conscious mind is like the navigator or man at the bridge of a ship. He directs the ship, and signals orders to the men in the engine-room which consists of all of the boilers, instruments, gages, etc. The men in the engine-room do not know where they are going; they follow orders. They would go on the rocks if the man on the bridge issued faulty or wrong instructions, based on his findings with the compass, sextant, or other instruments. The men in the engine-room obey him, because he is the director. They do not talk back to the captain; they simply carry out orders.

The captain is the master of the ship; his orders are followed out; likewise, your conscious mind is the captain, the master of your ship. Your body and all of your affairs represent the ship. Your subconscious mind takes the orders you give it based upon your belief and suggestions accepted as true.

Another simple illustration is this: When you repeatedly say to people, “I do not like mushrooms,” then the time comes for you to be served mushrooms, you get indigestion, because your subconscious mind says to you, “The boss does not like mushrooms.” This is an example probably amusing to you; nevertheless, this is an example of the relationship between the conscious and subconscious mind.

When a woman says, “I wake up at three o’clock if I drink coffee at night”; whenever she drinks it, the subconscious mind nudges her, as if to say, “The boss wants you to stay awake tonight.”

The heart is called the subconscious mind in ancient allegories. The Egyptians knew that the heart was the subconscious mind, but they did not call it by that name. The Chaldeans and the Babylonians called it by different names. You can impress your subconscious mind, and your subconscious mind will express what is impressed upon it. Any idea that is emotionalized or felt as true will be accepted by your subconscious mind.

If you want a healing, for example, get silent, relax, breathe easily, immobilize your attention, think of the healing power within your subconscious mind; affirm that the organ of your body is healing now. As you do that, there must be no resentment or bitterness in your heart; you must forgive everyone. You can repeat this healing process three or four times daily. Remember that your subconscious mind made the body, and can heal it also. People are constantly affirming the healing of an organ or a part of their body; then ten or fifteen minutes afterwards, they say, “Oh, I am getting worse; I’ll never be healed. I am incurable.” This mental attitude or these negative statements neutralize the previous, positive affirmation.

If a surgeon operated on you, cut out your appendix, and in the next few minutes ran back and opened you up again to see how you were getting along; then a half hour later ran back and opened you up again, he would probably kill you by poisoning. You kill or prevent your healing by using negative statements.

There is a subconscious mind within you; you should learn how to use it in the same manner as a man learns to use electricity. Man controls electricity with wires, tubes, and bulbs, plus his knowledge of the laws of conductivity and insulation, etc. We must learn about the tremendous power and the intelligence within us, and use it wisely.

Many men are beginning to realize the true importance of the subconscious mind. In business many men are using it to achieve success and promotion. Edison, Ford, Marconi, Einstein, and many others have used the subconscious mind; it has given to them the insight and the “know how” for all of their great achievements in science, industry, and art. Research has shown that the ability to bring into action the subconscious powers has determined the success of all of the great scientific and research workers. There is a tremendous dynamo within you, and you can use it. You can also be completely released from tension and frustration. You can discover the abundant energy within you enabling you to energize and vitalize all parts of your body.

We are told, for example, that Elbert Hubbard declared that his most important ideas came while he was relaxed, or working in the garden, or going for a walk; the reason being when the conscious mind is relaxed, the subjective wisdom comes to the fore. There are oftentimes inspirational up rushes when the conscious mind is completely relaxed.

How often have you wondered at night what the answer to a particular problem was, and when you turned the request over to the subconscious mind, it gave you the solution in the morning. This is the meaning of the old adage, “Night brings counsel.” If you want to wake up at seven o’clock in the morning, and you suggest seven o’clock to the subconscious mind, the subconscious mind will wake you at seven o’clock on the dot.

A mother may be nursing a sick child, and she falls asleep; but before she goes to sleep, she suggests to the subconscious mind that she will awaken if the child’s temperature goes up, or when it needs medicine, or perhaps cries. There may be a thunderstorm going on while the mother sleeps; yet she is not awakened by the storm; however, when the child cries, she is immediately awakened. This is a simple function of the subconscious mind.