Your thought is creative; you can bless him. If some one 
calls you a skunk, you have the freedom to say to the other, “God’s 
peace fills your soul.” 
14. Love is the answer to getting along with others. Love is 
understanding, good will, and respecting the divinity of the other. 15. You would not hate a hunchback or cripple. You would have 
compassion. Have compassion and understanding for mental 
hunchbacks who have been conditioned negatively. To understand all  
is to forgive all. 16. Rejoice in the success, promotion, and good fortune of the other. In doing so, you attract good fortune to yourself. 17. Never yield to emotional scenes and tantrums of others. Appeasement never wins. Do not be a doormat. Adhere to that which 
is right. Stick to your ideal, knowing that the mental outlook, whic h  
 176  gives you peace, happiness, and joy, is right, good, and true. What 
blesses you, blesses all. 18. All you owe any person in the world is love, and love is wishing 
for everyone what you wish for yourself—health, happiness, and all 
the blessings of life. 177  17 
How to Use Your Subconscious Mind 
for Forgiveness 
Life plays no favorites. God is Life, and this Life-Principle  is 
flowing through you this moment. God loves to express Him-self as 
harmony,  peace, beauty, joy, and abundance through you. This is 
called the will of God or the tendency of Life. If you set up resistance in your mind to the flow of Life thr ough 
you, this emotional congestion will get snarled up in your 
subconscious mind and cause all kinds of negative conditions. God 
has nothing to do with unhappy or chaotic conditions in the world. Man’s negative and destructive thinking brings about all these  
conditions. Therefore, it is silly to blame God for your trouble or  
sickness. Many persons habitually set up mental resistance to the f low of Life 
by accusing and reproaching God for the sin, sick-ness, and suffer ing 
of mankind. Others cast the blame on God for their pains, aches,  and 
loss of loved ones, personal tragedies, and accidents. They are a ngry 
at God, and they believe He is responsible for their misery. As long as people entertain such negative concepts about God, t hey 
will experience the automatic negative reactions from the ir 
subconscious minds. Actually, such people do not know that they are punishing 
themselves. They must see the truth, find release, and give up all 
condemnation, resentment, and anger against anyone or any power 
outside themselves. Otherwise, they cannot go forward into a hea lthy, 
happy, or creative activity. The minute these people entertain a God of 
love in their minds and hearts, and when they believe that God is their 
Loving Father who watches over them, cares for them, guides them, 
sustains and strengthens them, this concept and belief about G od or  
 178  the Life-Principle will be accepted by their sub-conscious mind, and 
they will find themselves blessed in count-less ways. • Life always forgives you 
Life forgives you when you cut your finger. The subcon-scious 
intelligence within you sets about immediately to repair it . New cells 
build bridges over the cut. Should you take some tainted food by error, 
Life forgives you and causes you to regurgitate it in order t o preserve 
you. If you burn your hand, the Life-Principle reduces the edema and 
congestion, and gives you new skin, tissue, and cells. Life holds no 
grudges against you, and it is always forgiving you. Life bring s you 
back to health, vitality, harmony, and peace, if you co-operate  by 
think-ing in harmony with nature. Negative, hurtful memories, bitt er-
ness, and ill will clutter up and impede the free flow of th e Life-
Principle in you. • How he banished that feeling of guilt 
I knew a man who worked every night until about one o’clock in the 
morning. He paid no attention to his two boys or his wife. He was  
always too busy working hard. He thought people should pat him on  
the back because he was working so arduously and persistently past 
midnight every night. He had a blood pressure of over two hundred 
and was full of guilt. Un-consciously, he proceeded to punish himself by hard work and 
he completely ignored his children. A normal man does not do that. He is interested in his boys and in their development. He does not shut 
his wife out of his world. I explained to him why he was working so arduously, “There is 
something eating you inside, otherwise, you would not act this way. You are punishing yourself, and you have to learn to forgive 
yourself.” He did have a deep sense of guilt. It was toward a brother. I explained to him that God was not punishing him, but that he was 
punishing himself. For example, if you misuse the laws of life , you 
will suffer accordingly. If you put your hand on a naked charged wi re,  
 179  you will get burned. The forces of nature are not evil; it is your use of 
them that determines whether they have a good or evil effect. Electricity is not evil; it depends on how you use it, whether to b urn 
down a structure or light up a home. The only sin is ignorance of the 
law, and the only pun-ishment is the automatic reaction of man’ s 
misuse of the law. If you misuse the principle of chemistry, you may blow up the 
office or the factory. If you strike your hand on a board, you may 
cause your hand to bleed. The board is not for that purpose. Its 
purpose may be to lean upon or to support your feet. This man realized that God does not condemn or punish anyone, 
and that all his suffering was due to the reaction of his s ubconscious 
mind to his own negative and destructive think-ing. He had cheated 
his brother at one time, and the brother had now passed on. Still, he  
was full of remorse and guilt. I asked him, “Would you cheat your brother now?” 
He said, “No.” 
“Did you feel you were justified at the time?” 
His reply was, “Yes.” 
“But, you would not do it now?” 
He added, “No, I am helping others to know how to live.” 
I added the following comment, “You have a greater reason and 
understanding now. Forgiveness is to forgive your-self. Forgiveness i s 
getting your thoughts in line with the divine law of harmony. Selfcondemnation is called hell (bondage and restriction); forgi veness 
is called heaven (harmony and peace).” 
The burden of guilt and self-condemnation was lifted from his mind, 
and he had a complete healing. The doctor tested his blood pressur e, 
and it had become normal. The explanation was the cure. 180  • A murderer learned to forgive himself 
A man who murdered his brother in Europe visited me many yea rs 
ago. He was suffering from great mental anguish and torture believing 
that God must punish him. He explained that his brother had been  
having an affair with his wife, and that he had shot him on the spur of 
the moment. This had hap-pened about fifteen years previous t o his 
interview with me. In the meantime, this man had married an 
American girl and had been blessed with three lovely children. He was 
in a posi-tion where he helped many people, and he was a transf ormed 
man. My explanation to him was that physically and psycho-log ically he 
was not the same man who shot his brother, since scientists i nform us 
that every cell of our bodies changes every eleven months. Moreov er, 
mentally and spiritually he was a new man. He was now full o f love 
and good will for humanity. The “old” man who committed the crime 
fifteen years before was mentally and spiritually dead. Ac tually, he 
was condemning an innocent man! This explanation had a profound effect upon him, and he said it was 
as if a great weight had been lifted from his mind. He reali zed the 
significance of the following truth in the Bible: Come now, let us 
reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet , they 
shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, the y shall 
be as wool. ISAIAH 1:18. • Criticism cannot hurt you without your consent 
A schoolteacher told me that one of her associates criticize d a 
speech she had given, saying to her that she spoke too fast, she 
swallowed some of her words, she couldn’t be heard, her diction was 
poor, and her speech ineffective. This teacher was furious an d full of 
resentment toward her critic. She admitted to me that the criticisms were just. Her firs t reaction 
was really childish, and she agreed that the letter was reall y a blessing 
and a marvelous corrective. She proceeded immediately to supplement 
her deficiencies in her speech by enrolling in a course in pub lic  
 181  speaking at City College. She wrote and thanked the writer of  the note 
for her  interest, ex-pressing appreciation for her conclusi ons and 
findings,  which enabled the teacher to correct the matter at once. • How to be compassionate 
Suppose none of the things mentioned in the letter had been true o f 
the teacher. The latter would have realized that her class material had 
upset the prejudices, superstitions, or narrow sectarian beli efs of the 
writer of the note, and that a psychologically ill person wa s simply 
pouring forth her resentment because a psychological boil had be en 
hurt. To understand this fact is to be compassionate. The next logical  step 
would be to pray for the other person’s peace, har-mony, and 
understanding. You cannot be hurt when you know that you are master of your 
thoughts, reactions, and emotions. Emotions follow thoughts, and you 
have the power to reject all thoughts, which may disturb or upset you. • Left at the altar 
Some years ago I visited a church to perform a marriage c eremony. The young man did not appear, and at the end of two hours, the bride-
to-be shed a few tears, and then said to me, “I prayed for di vine 
guidance. This might be the answer for He never faileth.” 
That was her reaction—faith in God and all things good. She had no 
bitterness in her heart because as she said, “It must not have been right 
action because my prayer was for right action for both of u s.” 
Someone else having a similar experience would have gone into a 
tantrum, have had an emotional fit, re-quired sedation, and perhaps  
needed hospitalization. Tune in with the infinite intelligence within your subcon-scious  
depths, trusting the answer in the same way that you trusted your  
mother when she held you in her arms. This is how you can acquire 
poise and mental and emotional health. 182  • It is wrong to marry. Sex is evil and I am evil 
Some time ago, I talked to a young lady aged twenty-two. She was  
taught that it was a sin to dance, to play cards, to swim, and t o go out 
with men. She was threatened by her mother who told her she wou ld 
burn eternally in hell-fire if she disobeyed her will and her  religious 
teachings. This girl wore a black dress and black stockings. She wore no rouge, 
lipstick, or any form of make-up because her mother said t hat these 
things were sinful. Her mother told her that all men were evil , and that 
sex was of the devil and simply diabolic debauchery. This girl had to learn how to forgive herself, as she was f ull of guilt. To forgive means to give for. She had to give up all these f alse beliefs 
for the truths of life and a new estimate of herself. Whe n she went out 
with young men in the office where she worked, she had a deep sense  
of guilt and thought that God would punish her. Several eligible young 
men proposed to her, but she said to me, “It is wrong to marry. S ex is 
evil and I am evil.” This was her conscience or early c onditioning 
speaking. She came to me once weekly for about ten weeks, and I taught her  
the workings of the conscious and subconscious mind as set forth i n 
this book. This young girl gradually came to see that she had been complet ely 
brainwashed, mesmerized, and conditioned by an ignorant, 
superstitious, bigoted, and frus-trated mother. She broke awa y 
completely from her family and started to live a wonderful life. At my suggestion she dressed up and had her hair at-tended to. She 
took lessons in dancing from a man, and she also took driving lessons. She learned to swim, play cards, and had a number of dates. She 
began to love He. She prayed for a divine companion by claimi ng that 
Infinite Spirit would at-tract to her a man who harmonized with he r 
thoroughly. Eventu-ally this came to pass. As she left my off ice one 
evening, there was a man waiting to see me and I casually i ntroduced 
them. They are now married and harmonize with each other perfectly. 183  • Forgiveness is necessary for healing 
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any  ... 
MARK 11:25. Forgiveness of others is essential to mental peace and radian t health. You must forgive everyone who has ever hurt you if you want perfec t 
health and happiness. Forgive your-self by getting your thoughts i n 
harmony with divine law and order. You cannot really forgive 
yourself completely until you have forgiven others first. To ref use to  
forgive yourself is nothing more or less than spiritual pride  or 
ignorance. In the psychosomatic field of medicine today, it is being consta ntly 
stressed that resentment, condemnation of others, re-morse, and 
hostility are behind a host of maladies ranging from arthritis t o cardiac 
disease. They point out that these sick people, who were hur t, 
mistreated, deceived, or injured, were full of resentment and hatred for 
those who hurt them. This caused inflamed and festering wounds in 
their subconscious minds. There is only one remedy. They have to cut 
out and discard their hurts, and the one and only sure way is by 
forgiveness. • Forgiveness is love in action 
The essential ingredient in the art of forgiveness is the willing ness to 
forgive. If you sincerely desire to forgive the other, you are f ifty-one 
percent over the hurdle. I feel sure you know that to forgive the  other 
does not necessarily mean that you like him or want to associat e with 
him. You cannot be compelled to like someone, neither can a 
government legislate good will, love, peace, or tolerance. It is quite 
impossible to like people because someone in Washington iss ues an 
edict to that effect. We can, however, love people without liking them. The Bible says, Love ye one another. This, anyone can do who 
really wants to do it. Love means that you wish for the other he alth, 
happiness, peace, joy, and all the blessings of life. There i s only one 
prerequisite, and that is sincerity. You are not being magnani mous 
when you forgive, you are really being selfish, because what you wish  
 184  for the other, you are actually wishing for yourself. The reason i s that 
you are thinking it and you are feeling it. As you think and fee l, so are 
you. Could anything be simpler than that? • Technique of forgiveness 
The following is a simple method, which works wonders in your life 
as you practice it: Quiet your mind, relax, and let go. Think o f God 
and His love for you, and then affirm, “I fully and freely for give 
(mention the name of the offender); I release him mentally and 
spiritually. I completely forgive everything connected wit h the matter  
in question. I am free, and he/she is free. It is a marvelous fe eling. It is 
my day of general amnesty. I release anybody and everybody who has  
ever hurt me, and I wish for each and everyone health, happiness , 
peace, and all the blessings of life. I do this freely, joyous ly, and 
lovingly, and whenever I think of the person or persons who hurt me, I 
say, ‘I have released you, and all the blessings of life are yours.’ I am 
free and you are free. It is wonderful!” 
The great secret of true forgiveness is that once you have  forgiven 
the person, it is unnecessary to repeat the prayer. Whenever the person 
comes to your mind, or the particular hurt happens to enter your mind, 
wish the delinquent well, and say, “Peace be to you.” Do this as  often 
as the thought enters your mind. You will find that after a few d ays 
the thought of the person or experience will return less and  less often, 
until it fades into nothingness. •The acid test for forgiveness 
There is an acid test for gold. There is also an acid test for  
forgiveness. If I should tell you something wonderful about someone 
who has wronged you, cheated you, or defrauded you, and you sizzled 
at hearing the good news about this person, the roots of hatred woul d 
still be in your subconscious mind, playing havoc with you. Let us suppose you had a painful abscess on your jaw a year ag o, 
and you told me about it. I would casually ask you if you had any pai n 
now. You would automatically say, “Of course not, I have a memory 
of it but no pain.” That is the whole story. You may have a memory  of  
 185  the incident but no sting or hurt any more. This is the acid test, and 
you must meet it psychologically and spiritually, otherwise,  you are 
simply deceiving yourself and not practicing the true art o f 
forgiveness. • To understand all is to forgive all 
When man understands the creative law of his own mind, he ceases 
to blame other people and conditions for making or marring his li fe. He  knows that his own thoughts and feelings create his destiny. Furthermore, he is aware that externals are not the causes and 
conditioners of his life and his experiences. To think that others  can 
mar your happiness that you are the football of a cruel fate that you 
must oppose and fight others for a living—all these and others  like 
them are untenable when you understand that thoughts are things. The 
Bible says the same thing. For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. PROV-ERBS 23:7. • Summary of your aids to forgiveness 
1. God, or Life, is no respecter of persons. Life plays no favorit es. Life, or God, seems to favor you when you align yourself with the 
principle of harmony, health, joy, and peace. 2. God, or Life, never sends disease, sickness, accident, or suffe r-
ing. We bring these things on ourselves by our own nega-tive 
destructive thinking based upon the law as we sow, so shall we reap . 3. Your concept of God is the most important thing in your life. If 
you really believe in a God of love, your subcon-scious mind will  
respond in countless blessings to you. Be-lieve in a God of love. 4. Life, or God, holds no grudge against you. Life never condemns 
you. Life heals a severe cut on your hand. Life forgives you if y ou 
burn your finger. It reduces the edema and restores the part t o 
wholeness and perfection. 5. Your guilt complex is a false concept of God and Life. God, or 
Life, does not punish or judge you. You do this to yourself by your 
false beliefs, negative thinking, and self-condemnation. 186  6. God, or Life, does not condemn or punish you. The forces of 
nature are not evil. The effect of their use depends on how you use t he 
power within you. You can use electricity to kill someone or to l ight 
the house. You can use water to drown a child, or quench his thirst. Good and 
evil come right back to the thought and purpose in man’s own mind. 7. God, or Life, never punishes. Man punishes himself by his fa lse 
concepts of God, Life, and the Universe. His thoughts are creat ive, 
and he creates his own misery. 8. If another criticizes you, and these faults are within you, rejo ice, 
give thanks, and appreciate the comments. This gives you the 
opportunity to correct the particular fault. 9. You cannot be hurt by criticism when you know that you are 
master of your thoughts, reactions, and emotions. This gives you the 
opportunity to pray and bless the other, thereby blessing yoursel f. 
10. When you pray for guidance and right action, take what comes. Realize it is good and very good. Then there is no cause for self-pity, 
criticism, or hatred. 11. There is nothing good or bad, but thinking 
makes it so. There is no evil in sex, the desire for food, weal th, or true 
expression. It depends on how you use these urges, desires, or 
aspirations. Your desire for food can be met without killing  someone 
for a loaf of bread. 12. Resentment, hatred, ill will, and hostility are behind a host of 
maladies. Forgive yourself and everybody else by pour-ing out l ove, 
life, joy, and good will to all those who have hurt you. Continue until 
such time as you meet them in your mind and you are at peace wit h 
them. 13. To forgive is to give something for . Give love, peace, joy, 
wisdom, and all the blessings of life to the other, until there  is no sting 
left in your mind. This is really the acid test of forgiveness. 187  14. Let us suppose you had an abscess in your jaw about a year a go. It was very painful. Ask yourself if it is painful now. The a nswer is in 
the negative. Likewise, if someone has hurt you, lied about and 
vilified you, and said all manner of evil about you, is your thought of  
that person negative? Do you sizzle when he or she comes into  your 
mind? If so, the roots of hatred are still there, playing havoc with you 
and your good. The only way is to wither them with love by wishing 
for the person all the blessings of life, until you can meet the pers on in 
your mind, and you can sincerely react with a benediction of peace  
and good will. This is the meaning of forgive until seventy times 
seven. 188  18 
How Your Subconscious Removes  
Mental Blocks 
The solution lies within the problem. The answer is in every 
question. If you are presented with a difficult situation and y ou cannot 
see your way clear, the best procedure is to assume that inf inite 
intelligence within your subconscious mind knows all and sees all, ha s 
the answer, and is revealing it to you now. Your new mental atti tude 
that the creative intelligence is bringing about a happy s olution will 
enable you to find the answer. Rest assured that such an attitud e of 
mind would bring order, peace, and meaning to all your undertakings. • How to break or build a habit 
You are a creature of habit. Habit is the function of your 
subconscious mind. You learned to swim, ride a bicycle, dance, and  
drive a car by consciously doing these things over and over again unt il 
they established tracks in your subconscious mind. Then, the 
automatic habit action of your subconscious mind took over. This is 
sometimes called second nature, which is a reaction of your 
subconscious mind to your thinking and acting. You are free to choose a good habit or a bad habit. If you repeat a 
negative thought or act over a period of time, you will be under  the 
compulsion of a habit. The law of your sub-conscious is compulsion. • How he broke a bad habit 
Mr. Jones said to me, “An uncontrollable urge to drink seizes me , 
and I remain drunk for two weeks at a time. I can’t give up t his 
terrible habit.”  
Time and time again these experiences had occurred to this 
unfortunate man. He had grown into the habit of drinking to excess. Although he had started drinking of his own initiative, he also began  
to realize that he could change the habit and establish a new one . He  
 189  said that while through his will power he was able to suppress  his 
desires temporarily, his continued efforts to suppress the m any urges 
only made matters worse. His repeated failures convinced him that he 
was hopeless and powerless to control his urge or obsession. Thi s idea 
of being powerless operated as a powerful suggestion to hi s 
subconscious mind and aggravated his weakness, making his life a  
succession of failures. I taught him to harmonize the functions of the conscious and 
subconscious mind. When these two cooperate, the idea or desire 
implanted in the subconscious mind is realized. His reason-i ng mind 
agreed that if the old habit path or track had carried him i nto trouble, 
he could consciously form a new path to freedom, sobriety, and peac e 
of mind. He knew that his de-structive habit was automatic, but since 
it was acquired through his conscious choice, he realized that if he had 
been conditioned negatively, he also could be conditioned positivel y. As a result, he ceased thinking of the fact that he was powe rless to 
overcome the habit. Moreover, he understood clearly that there wa s no 
obstacle to his healing other than his own thought. Therefore, there was no occasion for great mental effort or me ntal 
coercion. • The power of his mental picture 
This man acquired a practice of relaxing his body and getting into a 
relaxed, drowsy, meditative state. Then he filled his mind wit h the 
picture of the desired end, knowing his sub-conscious mind could 
bring it about the easiest way. He imagined his daughter 
congratulating him on his freedom, and saying to him, “Daddy, it’s 
wonderful to have you home!” He had lost his family through drink. He was not allowed to visit them, and his wife would not speak  to 
him. Regularly, systematically, he used to sit down and meditate in the  
way outlined. When his attention wandered, he made it a habit to 
immediately recall the mental picture of his daughter with her smile 
and the scene of his home enlivened by her cheerful voice. All thi s  
 190  brought about a reconditioning of his mind. It was a gradual proces s. 
He kept it up. He persevered knowing that sooner or later he  would 
establish a new habit pattern in his subconscious mind. I told him that he could liken his conscious mind to a camera, that  
his subconscious mind was the sensitive plate on which he regi stered 
and impressed the picture. This made a pro-found impression on him, 
and his whole aim was to firmly impress the picture on his mi nd and 
develop it there. Films are developed in the dark; likewise , mental 
pictures are developed in the darkroom of the subconscious mind. • Focused attention 
Realizing that his conscious mind was simply a camera, he use d no 
effort. There was no mental struggle. He quietly ad-justed his t houghts 
and focused his attention on the scene before him until he graduall y 
became identified with the picture. He became absorbed in the  mental 
atmosphere, repeating the mental movie frequently. There wa s no 
room for doubt that a healing would follow. When there was any 
temptation to drink, he would switch his imagination from any 
reveries of drinking bouts to the feeling of being at home wi th his 
family. He was successful because he confidently expected to 
experience the picture he was developing in his mind. Today he  is 
president of a multimillion-dollar concern and is radiantly happy. • He said a jinx was following him 
Mr. Block said that he had been making an annual income of 
$20,000, but for the past three months all doors seemed to jam tightl y. He brought clients up to the point where they were about to s ign on 
the dotted line, and then at the eleventh hour the door closed. He 
added that perhaps a jinx was following him. In discussing the matter with Mr. Block, I discovered that three  
months previously he had become very irritated, annoyed, and 
resentful toward a dentist who, after he had promised to sign a 
contract, had withdrawn at the last moment. He began to live i n the 
unconscious fear that other clients would do the same, thereby se tting 
up a history of frustration, hostility, and obstacles. He graduall y built  
 191  up in his mind a belief in obstruc-tion and last minute cancell ations 
until a vicious circle had been established. What I fear most has come 
upon me. Mr. Block realized that the trouble was in his mind, and that 
it was essential to change his mental attitude. His run of so-called misfortune was broken in the follow-ing way: 
“I realize I am one with the infinite intelligence of my  subconscious 
mind which knows no obstacle, difficulty, or delay. I live in the 
joyous expectancy of the best. My deeper mind responds to my 
thoughts. I know that the work of the infinite power of my 
subconscious cannot be hindered. Infinite intelligence always f inishes 
successfully whatever it begins. Creative wisdom works through me 
bringing all my plans and purposes to completion. Whatever I st art, I 
bring to a success-ful conclusion. My aim in life is to give  wonderful 
service, and all those whom I contact are blessed by what I ha ve to 
offer. All my work comes to full fruition in divine order.”  
He repeated this prayer every morning before going to call o n his 
customers, and he also prayed each night prior to sleep. In a short time 
he had established a new habit pattern in his subconscious mind, and 
he was back in his old accustomed stride as a successful salesman. • How much do you want what you want? A young man asked Socrates how he could get wisdom. Socrates 
replied, “Come with me.” He took the lad to a river, pushed th e boy’s 
head under the water, held it there until the boy was gaspi ng for air, 
then relaxed and released his head. When the boy regained his 
composure, he asked him, “What did you desire most when you were 
under water?” 
“I wanted air,” said the boy. Socrates said to him, “When you want wisdom as much as you 
wanted air when you were immersed in the water, you will receive it.”  
Likewise, when you really have an intense desire to over-come any 
block in your life, and you come to a clear-cut de-cision that the re is a  
 192  way out, and that is the course you wish to follow, then victory and 
triumph are assured. If you really want peace of mind and inner calm, you will get it. Regardless of how unjustly you have been treated, or how unfair th e 
boss has been, or what a mean scoundrel some-one has proved to be, 
all this makes no difference to you when you awaken to your mental 
and spiritual powers. You know what you want, and you will 
definitely refuse to let the thieves (thoughts) of hatred, anger, hostility , 
and ill will rob you of peace, harmony, health, and happiness. You 
cease to become upset by people, conditions, news, and events by 
identifying your thoughts immediately with your aim in life. You r aim 
is peace, health, inspiration, harmony, and abundance. Feel a ri ver of 
peace flowing through you now. Your thought is the immaterial and 
invisible power, and you choose to let it bless, inspire, and giv e you 
peace. • Why he could not be healed 
This is a case history of a married man with four children who was 
supporting and secretly living with another woman during his business 
trips. He was ill, nervous, irritable, and cantankerous, and he could not  
sleep without drugs. The doctor’s medicine failed to bring down hi s 
high blood pressure of over two hundred. He had pains in numerous 
organs of his body, which doctors could not diagnose or relieve. To 
make matters worse, he was drinking heavily. The cause of all this was a deep unconscious sense of guilt. H e had 
violated the marriage vows, and this troubled him. The religi ous creed 
he was brought up on was deeply lodged in his subconscious mind, 
and he drank excessively to heal the wound of guilt. Some invalids  
take morphine and codeine for severe pains; he was taking a lcohol for 
the pain or wound in his mind. It was the old story of adding fue l to 
the fire. 193  • The explanation and the cure 
He listened to the explanation of how his mind worked. He faced his 
problem, looked at it, and gave up his dual role. He knew that h is 
drinking was an unconscious attempt to escape. The hidden cause 
lodged in his subconscious mind had to be eradicated; then the healing 
would follow. He began to impress his subconscious mind three or four times a 
day by using the following prayer: “My mind is full of peace, poise, 
balance, and equilibrium. The infinite lies stretched in smi ling repose 
within me. I am not afraid of anything in the past, the present , or the  
future. The infinite intelligence of my subconscious mind leads , 
guides, and directs me in all ways. I now meet every situation w ith 
faith, poise, calmness, and confidence. I am now completely free from the habit. My mind is full of i nner 
peace, freedom, and joy. I forgive myself; then I am forgiven. Peace, 
sobriety, and confidence reign supreme in my mind.” 
He repeated this prayer frequently as outlined; being fully  aware of 
what he was doing and why he was doing it. Knowing what he was 
doing gave him the necessary faith and confidence. I explained t o him 
that as he spoke these statements out loud, slowly, lovingly, and 
meaningfully, they would gradually sink down into his subconscious 
mind. Like seeds, they would grow after their kind. These truth s, on 
which he concentrated, went in through his eyes, his ears heard the 
sound, and the healing vibrations of these words reached his 
subconscious mind and obliterated all the negative mental pa tterns 
which caused all the trouble. Light dispels darkness. The constr uctive 
thought de-stroys the negative thought. He became a transformed man 
within a month. • Refusing to admit it 
If you are an alcoholic or drug addict, admit it. Do not dodge the 
issue. Many people remain alcoholics because they refuse to admit i t.   
 194  Your disease is instability, an inner fear. You are refusing t o face 
life, and so you try to escape your responsi-bilities through t he bottle. As an alcoholic you have no free will, although you think you have, 
and you may even boast about your will power. If you are a habitual  
drunkard and say bravely, “I will not touch it any more,” you have no 
power to make this assertion come true, because you do not know 
where to locate the power. You are living in a psychological prison of your own making, and 
you are bound by your beliefs, opinions, training, and environmenta l 
influences. Like most people, you are a creature of habit. You are con ditioned 
to react the way you do. • Building in the idea of freedom 
You can build the idea of freedom and peace of mind into your 
mentality so that it reaches your subconscious depths. The latter, be ing 
allpowerful, will free you from all desire for alcohol. The n, you will 
have the new understanding of how your mind works, and you can 
truly back up your statement and prove the truth to yourself. • Fifty-one percent healed 
If you have a keen desire to free yourself from any de-struct ive 
habit, you are fifty-one percent healed already. When you have a  
greater desire to give up the bad habit than to con-tinue  it, you will not 
experience too much difficulty in gaining complete freedom. Whatever thought you anchor the mind upon, the latter magnifies. If 
you engage the mind on the concept of freedom (freedom from the 
habit) and peace of mind, and if you keep it focused on this new 
direction of attention, you generate feelings and emotions, which 
gradually emotionalize the concept of freedom and peace. Whateve r 
idea you emotionalize is accepted by your subconscious and brought 
to pass. 195  • The law of substitution 
Realize that something good can come out of your suffer-ing. You 
have not suffered in vain. However, it is foolish to continue to suffer. If you continue as an alcoholic, it will bring about mental and 
physical deterioration and decay. Realize that the power in your  
subconscious is backing you up. Even though you may be seized wi th 
melancholia, you should begin to imagine the joy of freedom that  is in 
store for you. This is the law of substi-tution. Your imagination took 
you to the bottle; let it take you now to freedom and peace of mind. You will suffer a little bit, but it is for a constructiv e purpose. You 
will bear it like a mother in the pangs of childbirth, and you will, 
likewise, bring forth a child of the mind. Your subconscious will give 
birth to sobriety. • Cause of alcoholism 
The real cause of alcoholism is negative and destructive thi nking; 
for as a man thinketh, so is he. The alcoholic has a deep sense of 
inferiority, inadequacy, defeat, and frustration, usually accompanie d 
by a deep inner hostility. He has countless alibis as to his  reason for 
drinking, but the sole reason is in his thought life. • Three magic steps 
The first step: Get still; quiet the wheels of the mind. Enter into a 
sleepy, drowsy state. In this relaxed, peaceful, receptive state, you are 
preparing for the second step. The second step: Take a brief phrase, which can readily be graven 
on the memory, and repeat it over and over as a lullaby. Use the  
phrase, “Sobriety and peace of mind are mine now, and I give thanks.” 
To prevent the mind from wandering, repeat it aloud or sketch i ts 
pronunciation with the lips and tongue as you say it mentally. This  
helps its entry into the subconscious mind. Do this for five minut es or 
more. You will find a deep emotional response. The third step: Just before going to sleep, practice what Johann von 
Goethe, German author, used to do. Imagine a friend, a loved one in  
 196  front of you. Your eyes are closed, you are relaxed and at pea ce. The 
loved one or friend is subjectively present, and is saying to you, 
“Congratulations!” You see the smile; you hear the voice. You  
mentally touch the hand; it is all real and vivid. The word 
congratulations imply complete freedom. Hear it over and over again 
until you get the sub-conscious reaction, which satisfies. • Keep on keeping on 
When fear knocks at the door of your mind, or when worry, anxiety, 
and doubt cross your mind, behold your vision, your goal. Think of 
the infinite power within your subconscious mind, which you can 
generate by your thinking and imagining, and this will give you 
confidence, power, and courage. Keep on, persevere, until the day 
breaks, and the shadows flee away. • Review your thought power 
1. The solution lies within the problem. The answer is in every  
question. Infinite intelligence responds to you as you call upon it with 
faith and confidence. 2. Habit is the function of your subconscious mind. There is no 
greater evidence of the marvelous power of your sub-conscious t han 
the force and sway habit holds in your life. You are a creature of habit. 3. You form habit patterns in your subconscious mind by repeating 
a thought and act over and over again until it establishes trac ks in the 
subconscious mind and becomes automatic, such as swimming,  
dancing, typing, walking, driving your car, etc. 4. You have freedom to choose. You can choose a good habit or a 
bad habit. Prayer is a good habit. 5. Whatever mental picture, backed by faith, you behold in your 
conscious mind, and your subconscious mind will bring to pass. 6. The only obstacle to your success and achievement is your ow n 
thought or mental image. 197  7. When your attention wanders, bring it back to the con-templation  
of your good or goal. Make a habit of this. This is called di sciplining 
the mind. 8. Your conscious mind is the camera, and your subconscious mind 
is the sensitive plate on which you register or impress the picture . 9. The only jinx that follows anyone is a fear thought re-peated ov er 
and over in the mind. Break the jinx by know-ing that whatever you 
start you will bring to a conclusion in divine order. Picture  the happy 
ending and sustain it with confidence. 10. To form a new habit, you must be convinced that it is desirable . When your desire to give up the bad habit is greater than y our desire 
to continue, you are fifty-one per-cent healed already. 11. The statements of others cannot hurt you except through your 
own thoughts and mental participation. Identify your-self with your 
aim, which is peace, harmony, and joy. You are the only thinker in 
your universe. 12. Excessive drinking is an unconscious desire to escape. The 
cause of alcoholism is negative and destructive thinking. The cure is 
to think of freedom, sobriety, and perfection, and to feel the t hrill of 
accomplishment. 13. Many people remain alcoholics because they refuse to admit it. 14. The law of your subconscious mind, which held you in bondage 
and inhibited your freedom of action, will give you freedom and 
happiness. It depends on how you use it. 15. Your imagination took you to the bottle; let it take you to 
freedom by imagining you are free. 16. The real cause of alcoholism is negative and destructive  
thinking. As a man thinketh in his heart [subconscious mind], so is he. 17. When fear knocks at the door of your mind, let faith in God and 
all things good open the door. 198  19 
How to Use Your Subconscious Mind to 
Remove Fear 
One of our students told me that he was invited to speak at a  
banquet. He said he was panic-stricken at the thought of speaki ng 
before a thousand people. He overcame his fear this way: For  several 
nights he sat down in an armchair for about five minutes and said t o 
himself slowly, quietly, and positively, “I am going to master this fear . I am overcoming it now. I speak with poise and confidence. I a m 
relaxed and at ease.” He operated a definite law of mind and overcame 
his fear. The subconscious mind is amenable to suggestion and is controlled  
by suggestion. When you still your mind and relax, the thoughts of 
your conscious mind sink down into the sub-conscious through a 
process similar to osmosis, whereby fluids separated by a p orous 
membrane intermingle. As these positive seeds, or thoughts, sink  into 
the subconscious area, they grow after their kind, and you become 
poised, serene, and calm. • Man’s greatest enemy 
It is said that fear is man’s greatest enemy. Fear is b ehind failure, 
sickness, and poor human relations. Millions of people are af raid of 
the past, the future, old age, insanity, and death. Fear is a  thought in 
your mind, and you are afraid of your own thoughts. A little boy can be paralyzed with fear when he is told ther e is a 
boogieman under his bed that is going to take him away. When his 
father turns on the light and shows him there is no boogieman, he i s 
freed from fear. The fear in the mind of the boy was as real as if there 
really was a boogie man there. He was healed of a false t hought in his 
mind. The thing he feared did not exist. Likewise, most of your fear s 
have no reality. They are merely a conglomeration of sinister shadows 
and shadows have no reality. 199  • Do the thing you fear 
Ralph Waldo Emerson, philosopher and poet, said, “Do the thing 
you are afraid to do, and the death of fear is certain.” 
There was a time when the writer of this chapter was fill ed with 
unutterable fear when standing before an audience. The way I 
overcame it was to stand before the audience, do the thing I was afraid 
to do, and the death of fear was certain. When you affirm positively that you are going to master your fea rs, 
and you come to a definite decision in your conscious mind, you 
release the power of the subconscious, which flows in response to the 
nature of your thought. • Banishing stage fright 
A young lady was invited to an audition. She had been looking 
forward to the interview. However, on three previous occasions, s he 
had failed miserably due to stage fright. She possessed a very good voice, but she was certain that when the  
time came for her to sing, she would be seized with stage frig ht. The 
subconscious mind takes your fears as a re-quest, proceeds to manife st 
them, and brings them into your experience. On three previous 
auditions she sang wrong notes, and she finally broke down and cried . The cause, as previously outlined, was an involuntary autosuggestion, 
i.e., a silent fear thought emotionalized and subjectified. She overcame it by the following technique: Three times a day s he 
isolated herself in a room. She sat down comfortably in an arm chair, 
relaxed her body, and closed her eyes. She stilled her mind and body 
to the best of her ability. Physical inertia favors pass ivity and renders 
the mind more receptive to sug-gestion. She counteracted the fe ar 
suggestion by its converse, saying to herself, “I sing beautif ully. I am 
poised, serene, con-fident, and calm.” 
She repeated the words slowly, quietly, and with feeling from five to 
ten times at each sitting. She had three such “sittings” ever y day and 
one immediately prior to sleep at night. At the end of a we ek she was  
 200  completely poised and confident, and gave a definitely outstand ing 
audition. Carry out the above procedure, and the death of fear is 
certain. • Fear of failure 
Occasionally young men from the local university come to see me, 
as well as schoolteachers, who often seem to suffer from suggest ive 
amnesia at examinations. The complaint is always the same: “ I know 
the answers after the examination is over, but I can’t reme mber the 
answers during the examination.” 
The idea, which realizes itself, is the one to which we in-var iably 
give concentrated attention. I find that each one is obsessed w ith the 
idea of failure. Fear is behind the temporary amnesia, and it is the 
cause of the whole experience. One young medical student was the most brilliant person in his 
class, yet he found himself failing to answer simple ques-t ions at the 
time of written or oral examinations. I explained to him that the reason 
was he had been worrying and was fear-ful for several days p revious 
to the examination. These negative thoughts became charged with 
fear. Thoughts enveloped in the powerful emotion of fear are realized in 
the subconscious mind. In other words, this young man was requesting 
his subconscious mind to see to it that he failed, and that is  exactly 
what it did. On the day of the examina-tion he found himself stricken with what  
is called, in psycho-logical circles, suggestive amnesia. • How he overcame the fear 
He learned that his subconscious mind was the storehouse of 
memory, and that it had a perfect record of all he had heard and read 
during his medical training. Moreover, he learned that the 
subconscious mind  was responsive and reciprocal. The way to be en 
rapport with it was to be relaxed, peaceful, and confident. Every night 
and morning he began to imagine his mother congratulating him on  
 201  his wonderful record. He would hold an imaginary letter from her in 
his hand. As he began to contem-plate the happy result, he called fort h 
a corresponding or re-ciprocal response or reaction in himself. The all -
wise and omnipotent power of the subconscious took over, dictate d, 
and directed his conscious mind accordingly. He imagined the end, 
thereby willing the means to the realization of the end. Follow-ing th is 
procedure, he had no trouble passing subsequent exami-nations. In 
other words, the subjective wisdom took over, compelling him to giv e 
an excellent account of himself. • Fear of water, mountains, closed places, etc. There are many people who are afraid to go into an ele-vator, climb 
mountains, or even swim in the water. It may well be that the 
individual had unpleasant experiences in the water in his y outh, such 
as having been thrown forcibly into the water without being a ble to 
swim. He might have been forcibly detained in an elevator, which 
failed to function properly, causing resultant fear of closed plac es. I had an experience when I was about ten years of age. I 
accidentally fell into a pool and went down three times. I can s till 
remember the dark water engulfing my head, and my gasping for air  
until another boy pulled me out at the last moment. This experie nce 
sank into my subconscious mind, and for years I feared the water. An elderly psychologist said to me, “Go down to the swimming 
pool, look at the water, and say out loud in strong tones, ‘I am going 
to master you. I can dominate you.’ Then go into the water, take 
lessons, and overcome it.” This I did, and I mastered the water . Do not 
permit water to master you. Remember, you are the master of the 
water. When I assumed a new attitude of mind, the omnipotent power of 
the subconscious responded, giving me strength, faith, and confidence, 
and enabling me to overcome my fear. 202  • Master technique for overcoming any particular fear 
The following is a process and technique for overcoming fear, 
which I teach from the platform. It works like a charm. Try it! Suppose you are afraid of the water, a mountain, an inter-view, an  
audition, or you fear closed places. If you are afraid of swimmi ng, 
begin now to sit still for five or ten minutes three or four  times a day, 
and imagine you are swimming. Actually, you are swimming in your 
mind. It is a subjective experience. Mentally you have pr ojected 
yourself into the water. You feel the chill of the water and the movement of your arms a nd 
legs. It is all real, vivid, and a joyous activity of the mind. It is not idle 
daydreaming, for you know that what you are experiencing in your 
imagination will be developed in your subconscious mind. Then you 
will be compelled to express the image and likeness of t he picture you 
impressed on your deeper mind. This is the law of the subconscious. You could apply the same technique if you are afraid of mountains 
or high places. Imagine you are climbing the moun-tain, feel the 
reality of it all, enjoy the scenery, knowing that as you continue  to do 
this mentally, you will do it physically with ease and comfort. •He blessed the elevator 
I knew an executive of a large corporation who was terri-fied t o ride 
in an elevator. He would walk up five flights of stairs t o his office 
every morning. He said that he began to bless the elevator ev ery night 
and several times a day. He finally overcame his fear. Thi s was how 
he blessed the elevator: “The elevator in our building is a w onderful 
idea. It came out of the universal mind. It is a boon and a ble ssing to 
all our employees. It gives wonderful service. It operates in divine 
order. I ride in it in peace and joy. I remain silent now while the  
currents of life, love, and understanding flow through the patterns  of 
my thought. In my imagination I am now in the elevator, and I step 
out into my office. The elevator is full of our employees. I talk  to 
them, and they are friendly, joyous, and free. It is a wonderful ex -
perience of freedom, faith, and confidence. I give thanks.”  
 203  He continued this prayer for about ten days, and on the eleventh  
day, he walked into the elevator with other members of the 
organization and felt completely free. • Normal and abnormal fear 
Man is born only with two fears, the fear of falling and th e fear of 
noise. These are an alarm system given you by nature as a m eans of 
selfpreservation. Normal fear is good. You hear an automobile coming 
down the road, and you step aside to survive. The momentary fear of  
being run over is overcome by your action. All other fears we re given 
to you by parents, relatives, teachers, and all those who influe nced 
your early years. • Abnormal fear 
Abnormal fear takes place when man lets his imagination run ri ot. I 
knew a woman who was invited to go on a trip around the world by 
plane. She began to cut out of the newspapers all reports of airpla ne 
catastrophes. She pictured herself going down in the ocean, bei ng 
drowned, etc. This is abnormal fear. Had she persisted in this, sh e 
would undoubtedly have attracted what she feared most. Another example of abnormal fear is that of a business-man in Ne w 
York, who was very prosperous and successful. He had his own 
private mental motion picture of which he was the directo r. He would 
run this mental movie of failure, bank-ruptcy, empty shelves, and no 
bank balance until he sank into a deep depression. He refused to  stop 
this morbid imagery and kept reminding his wife that “this can’ t last,” 
“there will be a recession,”  
“I feel sure we will go bankrupt,” etc. His wife told me that he finally did go into bankruptcy, and all  the 
things he imagined and feared came to pass. The things he feare d did 
not exist, but he brought them to pass by constantly fearing, bel ieving, 
and expecting financial disaster. Job said, the thing I feared has come 
upon me. 204  There are people who are afraid that something terrible wi ll happen 
to their children, and that some dread catastrophe will befal l them. When they read about an epidemic or rare disease, they live in f ear 
that they will catch it, and some imagine they have the disease  
already. All this is abnormal fear. • The answer to abnormal fear 
Move mentally to the opposite. To stay at the extreme of fea r is 
stagnation plus mental and physical deterioration. When fear ari ses, 
there immediately comes with it a desire for some-thing o pposite to 
the thing feared. Place your attention on the thing immediately  
desired. Get absorbed and engrossed in your desire, knowing that  the 
subjective always overturns the ob-jective. This atti tude will give you 
confidence and lift your spirits. The infinite power of your subconscious mind is moving on your 
behalf, and it cannot fail. Therefore, peace and assur-ance are yours. • Examine your fears 
The president of a large organization told me that when he was a 
salesman he used to walk around the block five or six times be fore he 
called on a customer. The sales manager came along one day and said 
to him “Don’t be afraid of the boogie man behind the door. There is 
no boogieman. It is a false belief.” 
The manager told him that whenever he looked at his own fears he 
stared them in the face and stood up to them, looking them strai ght in 
the eye. Then they faded and shrank into in-significance. • He landed in the jungle 
A chaplain told me of his experiences in the Second World War. H e 
had to parachute from a damaged plane and land in the jungle. He sa id 
he was frightened, but he knew there were two kinds of fear, norm al 
and abnormal, which we have previously pointed out. 205  He decided to do something about the fear immediately. and bega n 
to talk to himself saying, “John, you can’t surrender to your fear. Your  
fear is a desire for safety and security, and a way out.” 
He began to claim; “Infinite intelligence which guides the pl anets in 
their courses is now leading and guiding me out of this jungle.” 
He kept saying this out loud to himself for ten minutes or more . “Then,” he added, “Something began to stir inside me. A mood of 
confidence began to seize me, and I began to walk. After a fe w days, I 
miraculously came out of the jungle, and was picked up by a r escue 
plane.”  
His changed mental attitude saved him. His confidence and trust  hi 
the subjective wisdom and power within him was the solution to his 
problem. He said, “Had I begun to bemoan my fate and indulge my fears, I  
would have succumbed to the monster fear, and probably would have 
died of fear and starvation.” 
• He dismissed himself 
The general manager of an organization told me that for three years 
he feared he would lose his position. He was always imagining failure. The thing he feared did not exist, save as a morbid anxious thought in 
his  own mind. His vivid imagination dramatized the loss of his job 
until he became nervous and neu-rotic. Finally he was asked to resign. Actually, he dismissed himself. His constant negative im-ag ery and 
fear suggestions to his subconscious mind caused the latter to respond 
and react accordingly. It caused him to make mistakes and fool ish 
decisions, which resulted in his failure as a general manager . His 
dismissal would never have happened,. if he had immediately mov ed 
to the opposite in his mind. • They plotted against him 
During a recent world lecture tour, I had a two-hour conversation 
with a prominent government official. He had a deep sense of inne r  
 206  peace and serenity. He said that all the abuse he recei ves politically 
from newspapers and the opposition party never disturb him. His  
practice is to sit still for fifteen minutes in the morning and rea lize that 
in the center of him is a deep still ocean of peace. Medit ating in this 
way, he generates tremendous power, which overcomes all manner of 
difficulties and fears. Some time previously, a colleague called him at midnight and tol d 
him a group of people was plotting against him. This is what  he said 
to his colleague, “I am going to sleep now in perfect peace. You can 
discuss it with me at 10:00 A.M. to-morrow.” 
He said to me, “I know that no negative thought can ever manifes t 
except I emotionalize the thought and accept it men-tally. I r efuse to 
entertain their suggestion of fear. Therefore, no harm can come t o 
me.” 
Notice how calm he was, how cool, how peaceful! He did not start  
getting excited, tearing his hair, or wringing his hands. At his center 
he found the still water, an inner peace, and there was a great calm . • Deliver yourself from all your fears 
Use this perfect formula for casting out fear. I sought the Lord, and 
He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. PSALM 34:4. The 
Lord is an ancient word meaning law —the power of your 
subconscious mind. Learn the wonders of your subconscious, and how it works and 
functions. Master the techniques given to you in this chapter. Put them 
into practice now, today! Your subconscious will re-spond, and you 
will be free of all fears. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and 
delivered me from all my fears. • Step this way to freedom from fear 
1. Do the thing you are afraid to do, and the death of fear is certain. Say to yourself and mean it, “I am going to master this fear ,” and you 
will. 207  2. Fear is a negative thought in your mind. Supplant it with a 
constructive thought. Fear has killed millions. Confidence is gre ater 
than fear. Nothing is more powerful than faith in God and the good. 3. Fear is man’s greatest enemy. It is behind failure, sickne ss, and 
bad human relations. Love casts out fear. Love is an emotional  
attachment to the good things of life. Fall in love with honesty, 
integrity, justice,  good will, and success. Live in the joyous 
expectancy of the best, and invariably the best will come to you. 4. Counteract the fear suggestions with the opposite, such as “I s ing 
beautifully; I am poised, serene, and calm.” It will pay fa bulous 
dividends. 5. Fear is behind amnesia at oral and written examination time. Y ou 
can overcome this by affirming frequently, “I have a perfect  memory 
for everything I need to know,” or you can imagine a friend 
congratulating you on your bril-liant success on the examination. Persevere and you will win. 6. If you are afraid to cross water, swim. In your imagina-tion s wim 
freely, joyously. Project yourself into the water mentally. Fee l the 
chill and thrill of swimming across the pool. Make it vivid. A s you do 
this subjectively, you will be compelled to go into the water  and 
conquer it. This is the law of your mind. 7. If you are afraid of closed places, such as elevators, le cture halls, 
etc., mentally ride in an elevator blessing all its parts  and functions. You will be amazed how quickly the fear will be dissipated. 8. You were born with only two fears, the fear of falling and the fear 
of noise. All your other fears were acquired. Get rid of them. 9. Normal fear is good. Abnormal fear is very bad and de-structi ve. To constantly indulge in fear thoughts results in abnormal fea r, 
obsessions, and complexes. To fear some-thing persistently ca uses a 
sense of panic and terror. 10. You can overcome abnormal fear when you know the power of 
your subconscious mind can change conditions and bring to pass the  
 208  cherished desires of your heart. Give your immediate attention a nd 
devotion to your desire which is the opposite of your fear. This is the 
love that casts out fear. 11. If you are afraid of failure, give attention to success. If  you are 
afraid of sickness, dwell on your perfect health. If you are a fraid of an 
accident, dwell on the guidance and protection of God. If you are 
afraid of death, dwell on Eternal Life. God is Life, and that is  your life 
now. 12. The great law of substitution is the answer to fear. What -ever 
you fear has its solution in the form of your desire. If you are sick, you 
desire health. If you are in the prison of fear, you desire freedom . Expect the good. Mentally con-centrate on the good, and know that 
your subconscious mind answers you always. It never fails. 13. The things you fear do not really exist except as thoughts in your 
mind. Thoughts are creative. This is why Job said; the thing I feared 
has come upon me. Think good and good follows. 14. Look at your fears; hold them up to the light of reason. Learn t o 
laugh at your fears. That is the best medicine. 15. Nothing can disturb you but your own thought. The sug-
gestions, statements, or threats of other persons have no power . The 
power is within you, and when your thoughts are focused on that 
which is good, then God’s power is with your thoughts of good. There 
is only one Creative Power, and It moves as harmony. There ar e no 
divisions  of quarrels in it. Its source is Love. This is why God’s 
power is with your thoughts of good. 209  20 
How to Stay Young in Spirit Forever 
Your subconscious mind never grows old. It is timeless, ageless,  
and endless. It is a part of the universal mind of God, which was  never 
born, and it will never die. Fatigue or old age cannot be predicated on any spiritual quality  or 
power. Patience, kindness, veracity, humility, good will, peace, 
harmony, and brotherly love are attributes and qualities, whic h never 
grow old. If you continue to generate these qualities here on thi s plane 
of life, you will always remain young in spirit. I remember reading an article in one of our magazines some years 
ago, which stated that a group of eminent medical men at the D e 
Courcy Clinic, in Cincinnati, Ohio, reported that years alone are no t 
responsible for bringing about degenerative disorders. These sa me 
physicians stated that it is the fear of time, not time i tself, that has a 
harmful aging effect on our minds and bodies, and that the neurotic 
fear of the effects of time may well be the cause of premat ure aging. During the many years of my public life, I have had oc-casion to 
study the biographies of the famous men and women who have 
continued their productive activities into the years well be yond the 
normal span of  life. Some of them achieve their greatness in old age. At the same  time, 
it has been my privilege to meet and to know countless individual s of 
no prominence who, in their lesser sphere, belonged to those hardy 
mortals who have proved that old age of itself does not destroy t he 
creative powers of the mind and body. • He had grown old in his thought life 
A few years ago I called on an old friend in London, Eng-land. He 
was over 80 years of age, very ill, and obviously was yieldi ng to his 
advancing years. Our conversation revealed his physical weaknes s, his  
 210  sense of frustration, and a general deterioration almost approach ing 
lifelessness. His cry was that he was useless and that no one wanted 
him. With an expression of hopelessness he betrayed his false  
philosophy, “We are born, grow up, become old, good for nothing, 
and that’s the end.”  
This mental attitude of futility and worthlessness was the chief 
reason for his sickness. He was looking forward only to senesce nce, 
and after that—nothing. Indeed, he had grown old in his thought life, 
and his subconscious mind brought about all the evidence of his 
habitual thinking. • Age is the dawn of wisdom 
Unfortunately, many people have the same attitude as this unhappy  
man. They are afraid of what they term “old age,” the end, and 
extinction, which really means that they are afraid of life . Yet, life is 
endless. Age is not the flight of years, but the dawn of wisdom. Wisdom is an awareness of the tremendous spiritual powers in your  
subconscious mind and the knowledge of how to apply these powers 
to lead a full and happy life. Get it out of your head once and for  all 
that 65, 75, or 85 years of age is synonymous with the end for you or  
anybody else. It can be the beginning of a glorious, fruitful , active, 
and most productive life pattern, better than you have ever 
experienced. Believe this, expect it, and your subconscious  will bring 
it to pass. • Welcome the change 
Old age is not a tragic occurrence. What we call the aging process is 
really change. It is to be welcomed joyfully and gladly as eac h phase 
of human life is a step forward on the path, which has no end. Man 
has powers, which transcend his bodily powers. He has senses, whi ch 
transcend his five physical senses. Scientists today are finding positive indisputable evidence that 
something conscious in man can leave his present body and trave l  
 211  thousands of miles to see, hear, touch, and speak to peo-ple even 
though his physical body never leaves the couch on which it reclines. Man’s life is spiritual and eternal. He need never grow old for  Life, 
or God, cannot grow old. The Bible says that God is Life. Life is self-
renewing, eternal, indestructible, and is the reality of all men. • Evidence for survival 
The evidence gathered by the psychical research societies both in 
Great Britain and America is overwhelming. You may go into any  
large metropolitan library and get volumes on The Proceedings of the 
Psychical Research Society based on findings of distinguished 
scientists on survival following so-called death. You will find a  
startling report on scientific experiments es-tablishing t he reality of 
life after death in The Case for Psychic Survival by Hereward 
Carrington, Directorof the American Psychical Institute.
The_Power_of_The_Subconscious_Mind_by_Joseph_Murphy.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Your thought is creative; you can bless him. If some one 
calls you a skunk, you have the freedom to say to the other, “God’s 
peace fills your soul. ” 
14. Love is the answer to getting along with others. Love is 
understanding, good will, and respecting the divinity of the other. 15. You would not hate a hunchback or cripple. You would have 
compassion. Have compassion and understanding for mental 
hunchbacks who have been conditioned negatively. To understand all  
is to forgive all. 16. Rejoice in the success, promotion, and good fortune of the other. In doing so, you attract good fortune to yourself. 17. Never yield to emotional scenes and tantrums of others. Appeasement never wins. Do not be a doormat. Adhere to that which 
is right. Stick to your ideal, knowing that the mental outlook, whic h  
 176  gives you peace, happiness, and joy, is right, good, and true. What 
blesses you, blesses all. 18. All you owe any person in the world is love, and love is wishing 
for everyone what you wish for yourself—health, happiness, and all 
the blessings of life. 177  17 
How to Use Your Subconscious Mind 
for Forgiveness 
Life plays no favorites. God is Life, and this Life-Principle  is 
flowing through you this moment. God loves to express Him-self as 
harmony,  peace, beauty, joy, and abundance through you. This is 
called the will of God or the tendency of Life. If you set up resistance in your mind to the flow of Life thr ough 
you, this emotional congestion will get snarled up in your 
subconscious mind and cause all kinds of negative conditions. God 
has nothing to do with unhappy or chaotic conditions in the world. Man’s negative and destructive thinking brings about all these  
conditions. Therefore, it is silly to blame God for your trouble or  
sickness. Many persons habitually set up mental resistance to the f low of Life 
by accusing and reproaching God for the sin, sick-ness, and suffer ing 
of mankind. Others cast the blame on God for their pains, aches,  and 
loss of loved ones, personal tragedies, and accidents. They are a ngry 
at God, and they believe He is responsible for their misery. As long as people entertain such negative concepts about God, t hey 
will experience the automatic negative reactions from the ir 
subconscious minds. Actually, such people do not know that they are punishing 
themselves. They must see the truth, find release, and give up all 
condemnation, resentment, and anger against anyone or any power 
outside themselves. Otherwise, they cannot go forward into a hea lthy, 
happy, or creative activity. The minute these people entertain a God of 
love in their minds and hearts, and when they believe that God is their 
Loving Father who watches over them, cares for them, guides them, 
sustains and strengthens them, this concept and belief about G od or  
 178  the Life-Principle will be accepted by their sub-conscious mind, and 
they will find themselves blessed in count-less ways. • Life always forgives you 
Life forgives you when you cut your finger. The subcon-scious 
intelligence within you sets about immediately to repair it. New cells 
build bridges over the cut. Should you take some tainted food by error, 
Life forgives you and causes you to regurgitate it in order t o preserve 
you. If you burn your hand, the Life-Principle reduces the edema and 
congestion, and gives you new skin, tissue, and cells. Life holds no 
grudges against you, and it is always forgiving you. Life bring s you 
back to health, vitality, harmony, and peace, if you co-operate  by 
think-ing in harmony with nature. Negative, hurtful memories, bitt er-
ness, and ill will clutter up and impede the free flow of th e Life-
Principle in you. • How he banished that feeling of guilt 
I knew a man who worked every night until about one o’clock in the 
morning. He paid no attention to his two boys or his wife. He was  
always too busy working hard. He thought people should pat him on  
the back because he was working so arduously and persistently past 
midnight every night. He had a blood pressure of over two hundred 
and was full of guilt. Un-consciously, he proceeded to punish himself by hard work and 
he completely ignored his children. A normal man does not do that. He is interested in his boys and in their development. He does not shut 
his wife out of his world. I explained to him why he was working so arduously, “There is 
something eating you inside, otherwise, you would not act this way. You are punishing yourself, and you have to learn to forgive 
yourself. ” He did have a deep sense of guilt. It was toward a brother. I explained to him that God was not punishing him, but that he was 
punishing himself. For example, if you misuse the laws of life, you 
will suffer accordingly. If you put your hand on a naked charged wi re,  
 179  you will get burned. The forces of nature are not evil; it is your use of 
them that determines whether they have a good or evil effect. Electricity is not evil; it depends on how you use it, whether to b urn 
down a structure or light up a home. The only sin is ignorance of the 
law, and the only pun-ishment is the automatic reaction of man’ s 
misuse of the law. If you misuse the principle of chemistry, you may blow up the 
office or the factory. If you strike your hand on a board, you may 
cause your hand to bleed. The board is not for that purpose. Its 
purpose may be to lean upon or to support your feet. This man realized that God does not condemn or punish anyone, 
and that all his suffering was due to the reaction of his s ubconscious 
mind to his own negative and destructive think-ing. He had cheated 
his brother at one time, and the brother had now passed on. Still, he  
was full of remorse and guilt. I asked him, “Would you cheat your brother now. ” 
He said, “No. ” 
“Did you feel you were justified at the time. ” 
His reply was, “Yes. ” 
“But, you would not do it now. ” 
He added, “No, I am helping others to know how to live. ” 
I added the following comment, “You have a greater reason and 
understanding now. Forgiveness is to forgive your-self. Forgiveness i s 
getting your thoughts in line with the divine law of harmony. Selfcondemnation is called hell (bondage and restriction); forgi veness 
is called heaven (harmony and peace). ” 
The burden of guilt and self-condemnation was lifted from his mind, 
and he had a complete healing. The doctor tested his blood pressur e, 
and it had become normal. The explanation was the cure. 180  • A murderer learned to forgive himself 
A man who murdered his brother in Europe visited me many yea rs 
ago. He was suffering from great mental anguish and torture believing 
that God must punish him. He explained that his brother had been  
having an affair with his wife, and that he had shot him on the spur of 
the moment. This had hap-pened about fifteen years previous t o his 
interview with me. In the meantime, this man had married an 
American girl and had been blessed with three lovely children. He was 
in a posi-tion where he helped many people, and he was a transf ormed 
man. My explanation to him was that physically and psycho-log ically he 
was not the same man who shot his brother, since scientists i nform us 
that every cell of our bodies changes every eleven months. Moreov er, 
mentally and spiritually he was a new man. He was now full o f love 
and good will for humanity. The “old” man who committed the crime 
fifteen years before was mentally and spiritually dead. Ac tually, he 
was condemning an innocent man. This explanation had a profound effect upon him, and he said it was 
as if a great weight had been lifted from his mind. He reali zed the 
significance of the following truth in the Bible: Come now, let us 
reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, the y shall 
be as wool. ISAIAH 1:18. • Criticism cannot hurt you without your consent 
A schoolteacher told me that one of her associates criticize d a 
speech she had given, saying to her that she spoke too fast, she 
swallowed some of her words, she couldn’t be heard, her diction was 
poor, and her speech ineffective. This teacher was furious an d full of 
resentment toward her critic. She admitted to me that the criticisms were just. Her firs t reaction 
was really childish, and she agreed that the letter was reall y a blessing 
and a marvelous corrective. She proceeded immediately to supplement 
her deficiencies in her speech by enrolling in a course in pub lic  
 181  speaking at City College. She wrote and thanked the writer of  the note 
for her  interest, ex-pressing appreciation for her conclusi ons and 
findings,  which enabled the teacher to correct the matter at once. • How to be compassionate 
Suppose none of the things mentioned in the letter had been true o f 
the teacher. The latter would have realized that her class material had 
upset the prejudices, superstitions, or narrow sectarian beli efs of the 
writer of the note, and that a psychologically ill person wa s simply 
pouring forth her resentment because a psychological boil had be en 
hurt. To understand this fact is to be compassionate. The next logical  step 
would be to pray for the other person’s peace, har-mony, and 
understanding. You cannot be hurt when you know that you are master of your 
thoughts, reactions, and emotions. Emotions follow thoughts, and you 
have the power to reject all thoughts, which may disturb or upset you. • Left at the altar 
Some years ago I visited a church to perform a marriage c eremony. The young man did not appear, and at the end of two hours, the bride-
to-be shed a few tears, and then said to me, “I prayed for di vine 
guidance. This might be the answer for He never faileth. ” 
That was her reaction—faith in God and all things good. She had no 
bitterness in her heart because as she said, “It must not have been right 
action because my prayer was for right action for both of u s. ” 
Someone else having a similar experience would have gone into a 
tantrum, have had an emotional fit, re-quired sedation, and perhaps  
needed hospitalization. Tune in with the infinite intelligence within your subcon-scious  
depths, trusting the answer in the same way that you trusted your  
mother when she held you in her arms. This is how you can acquire 
poise and mental and emotional health. 182  • It is wrong to marry. Sex is evil and I am evil 
Some time ago, I talked to a young lady aged twenty-two. She was  
taught that it was a sin to dance, to play cards, to swim, and t o go out 
with men. She was threatened by her mother who told her she wou ld 
burn eternally in hell-fire if she disobeyed her will and her  religious 
teachings. This girl wore a black dress and black stockings. She wore no rouge, 
lipstick, or any form of make-up because her mother said t hat these 
things were sinful. Her mother told her that all men were evil, and that 
sex was of the devil and simply diabolic debauchery. This girl had to learn how to forgive herself, as she was f ull of guilt. To forgive means to give for. She had to give up all these f alse beliefs 
for the truths of life and a new estimate of herself. Whe n she went out 
with young men in the office where she worked, she had a deep sense  
of guilt and thought that God would punish her. Several eligible young 
men proposed to her, but she said to me, “It is wrong to marry. S ex is 
evil and I am evil. ” This was her conscience or early c onditioning 
speaking. She came to me once weekly for about ten weeks, and I taught her  
the workings of the conscious and subconscious mind as set forth i n 
this book. This young girl gradually came to see that she had been complet ely 
brainwashed, mesmerized, and conditioned by an ignorant, 
superstitious, bigoted, and frus-trated mother. She broke awa y 
completely from her family and started to live a wonderful life. At my suggestion she dressed up and had her hair at-tended to. She 
took lessons in dancing from a man, and she also took driving lessons. She learned to swim, play cards, and had a number of dates. She 
began to love He. She prayed for a divine companion by claimi ng that 
Infinite Spirit would at-tract to her a man who harmonized with he r 
thoroughly. Eventu-ally this came to pass. As she left my off ice one 
evening, there was a man waiting to see me and I casually i ntroduced 
them. They are now married and harmonize with each other perfectly. 183  • Forgiveness is necessary for healing 
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any. MARK 11:25. Forgiveness of others is essential to mental peace and radian t health. You must forgive everyone who has ever hurt you if you want perfec t 
health and happiness. Forgive your-self by getting your thoughts i n 
harmony with divine law and order. You cannot really forgive 
yourself completely until you have forgiven others first. To ref use to  
forgive yourself is nothing more or less than spiritual pride  or 
ignorance. In the psychosomatic field of medicine today, it is being consta ntly 
stressed that resentment, condemnation of others, re-morse, and 
hostility are behind a host of maladies ranging from arthritis t o cardiac 
disease. They point out that these sick people, who were hur t, 
mistreated, deceived, or injured, were full of resentment and hatred for 
those who hurt them. This caused inflamed and festering wounds in 
their subconscious minds. There is only one remedy. They have to cut 
out and discard their hurts, and the one and only sure way is by 
forgiveness. • Forgiveness is love in action 
The essential ingredient in the art of forgiveness is the willing ness to 
forgive. If you sincerely desire to forgive the other, you are f ifty-one 
percent over the hurdle. I feel sure you know that to forgive the  other 
does not necessarily mean that you like him or want to associat e with 
him. You cannot be compelled to like someone, neither can a 
government legislate good will, love, peace, or tolerance. It is quite 
impossible to like people because someone in Washington iss ues an 
edict to that effect. We can, however, love people without liking them. The Bible says, Love ye one another. This, anyone can do who 
really wants to do it. Love means that you wish for the other he alth, 
happiness, peace, joy, and all the blessings of life. There i s only one 
prerequisite, and that is sincerity. You are not being magnani mous 
when you forgive, you are really being selfish, because what you wish  
 184  for the other, you are actually wishing for yourself. The reason i s that 
you are thinking it and you are feeling it. As you think and fee l, so are 
you. Could anything be simpler than that. • Technique of forgiveness 
The following is a simple method, which works wonders in your life 
as you practice it: Quiet your mind, relax, and let go. Think o f God 
and His love for you, and then affirm, “I fully and freely for give 
(mention the name of the offender); I release him mentally and 
spiritually. I completely forgive everything connected wit h the matter  
in question. I am free, and he/she is free. It is a marvelous fe eling. It is 
my day of general amnesty. I release anybody and everybody who has  
ever hurt me, and I wish for each and everyone health, happiness, 
peace, and all the blessings of life. I do this freely, joyous ly, and 
lovingly, and whenever I think of the person or persons who hurt me, I 
say, ‘I have released you, and all the blessings of life are yours. ’ I am 
free and you are free. It is wonderful. ” 
The great secret of true forgiveness is that once you have  forgiven 
the person, it is unnecessary to repeat the prayer. Whenever the person 
comes to your mind, or the particular hurt happens to enter your mind, 
wish the delinquent well, and say, “Peace be to you. ” Do this as  often 
as the thought enters your mind. You will find that after a few d ays 
the thought of the person or experience will return less and  less often, 
until it fades into nothingness. •The acid test for forgiveness 
There is an acid test for gold. There is also an acid test for  
forgiveness. If I should tell you something wonderful about someone 
who has wronged you, cheated you, or defrauded you, and you sizzled 
at hearing the good news about this person, the roots of hatred woul d 
still be in your subconscious mind, playing havoc with you. Let us suppose you had a painful abscess on your jaw a year ag o, 
and you told me about it. I would casually ask you if you had any pai n 
now. You would automatically say, “Of course not, I have a memory 
of it but no pain. ” That is the whole story. You may have a memory  of  
 185  the incident but no sting or hurt any more. This is the acid test, and 
you must meet it psychologically and spiritually, otherwise,  you are 
simply deceiving yourself and not practicing the true art o f 
forgiveness. • To understand all is to forgive all 
When man understands the creative law of his own mind, he ceases 
to blame other people and conditions for making or marring his li fe. He  knows that his own thoughts and feelings create his destiny. Furthermore, he is aware that externals are not the causes and 
conditioners of his life and his experiences. To think that others  can 
mar your happiness that you are the football of a cruel fate that you 
must oppose and fight others for a living—all these and others  like 
them are untenable when you understand that thoughts are things. The 
Bible says the same thing. For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. PROV-ERBS 23:7. • Summary of your aids to forgiveness 
1. God, or Life, is no respecter of persons. Life plays no favorit es. Life, or God, seems to favor you when you align yourself with the 
principle of harmony, health, joy, and peace. 2. God, or Life, never sends disease, sickness, accident, or suffe r-
ing. We bring these things on ourselves by our own nega-tive 
destructive thinking based upon the law as we sow, so shall we reap. 3. Your concept of God is the most important thing in your life. If 
you really believe in a God of love, your subcon-scious mind will  
respond in countless blessings to you. Be-lieve in a God of love. 4. Life, or God, holds no grudge against you. Life never condemns 
you. Life heals a severe cut on your hand. Life forgives you if y ou 
burn your finger. It reduces the edema and restores the part t o 
wholeness and perfection. 5. Your guilt complex is a false concept of God and Life. God, or 
Life, does not punish or judge you. You do this to yourself by your 
false beliefs, negative thinking, and self-condemnation. 186  6. God, or Life, does not condemn or punish you. The forces of 
nature are not evil. The effect of their use depends on how you use t he 
power within you. You can use electricity to kill someone or to l ight 
the house. You can use water to drown a child, or quench his thirst. Good and 
evil come right back to the thought and purpose in man’s own mind. 7. God, or Life, never punishes. Man punishes himself by his fa lse 
concepts of God, Life, and the Universe. His thoughts are creat ive, 
and he creates his own misery. 8. If another criticizes you, and these faults are within you, rejo ice, 
give thanks, and appreciate the comments. This gives you the 
opportunity to correct the particular fault. 9. You cannot be hurt by criticism when you know that you are 
master of your thoughts, reactions, and emotions. This gives you the 
opportunity to pray and bless the other, thereby blessing yoursel f. 10. When you pray for guidance and right action, take what comes. Realize it is good and very good. Then there is no cause for self-pity, 
criticism, or hatred. 11. There is nothing good or bad, but thinking 
makes it so. There is no evil in sex, the desire for food, weal th, or true 
expression. It depends on how you use these urges, desires, or 
aspirations. Your desire for food can be met without killing  someone 
for a loaf of bread. 12. Resentment, hatred, ill will, and hostility are behind a host of 
maladies. Forgive yourself and everybody else by pour-ing out l ove, 
life, joy, and good will to all those who have hurt you. Continue until 
such time as you meet them in your mind and you are at peace wit h 
them. 13. To forgive is to give something for. Give love, peace, joy, 
wisdom, and all the blessings of life to the other, until there  is no sting 
left in your mind. This is really the acid test of forgiveness. 187  14. Let us suppose you had an abscess in your jaw about a year a go. It was very painful. Ask yourself if it is painful now. The a nswer is in 
the negative. Likewise, if someone has hurt you, lied about and 
vilified you, and said all manner of evil about you, is your thought of  
that person negative. Do you sizzle when he or she comes into  your 
mind. If so, the roots of hatred are still there, playing havoc with you 
and your good. The only way is to wither them with love by wishing 
for the person all the blessings of life, until you can meet the pers on in 
your mind, and you can sincerely react with a benediction of peace  
and good will. This is the meaning of forgive until seventy times 
seven. 188  18 
How Your Subconscious Removes  
Mental Blocks 
The solution lies within the problem. The answer is in every 
question. If you are presented with a difficult situation and y ou cannot 
see your way clear, the best procedure is to assume that inf inite 
intelligence within your subconscious mind knows all and sees all, ha s 
the answer, and is revealing it to you now. Your new mental atti tude 
that the creative intelligence is bringing about a happy s olution will 
enable you to find the answer. Rest assured that such an attitud e of 
mind would bring order, peace, and meaning to all your undertakings. • How to break or build a habit 
You are a creature of habit. Habit is the function of your 
subconscious mind. You learned to swim, ride a bicycle, dance, and  
drive a car by consciously doing these things over and over again unt il 
they established tracks in your subconscious mind. Then, the 
automatic habit action of your subconscious mind took over. This is 
sometimes called second nature, which is a reaction of your 
subconscious mind to your thinking and acting. You are free to choose a good habit or a bad habit. If you repeat a 
negative thought or act over a period of time, you will be under  the 
compulsion of a habit. The law of your sub-conscious is compulsion. • How he broke a bad habit 
Mr. Jones said to me, “An uncontrollable urge to drink seizes me, 
and I remain drunk for two weeks at a time. I can’t give up t his 
terrible habit. ”  
Time and time again these experiences had occurred to this 
unfortunate man. He had grown into the habit of drinking to excess. Although he had started drinking of his own initiative, he also began  
to realize that he could change the habit and establish a new one. He  
 189  said that while through his will power he was able to suppress  his 
desires temporarily, his continued efforts to suppress the m any urges 
only made matters worse. His repeated failures convinced him that he 
was hopeless and powerless to control his urge or obsession. Thi s idea 
of being powerless operated as a powerful suggestion to hi s 
subconscious mind and aggravated his weakness, making his life a  
succession of failures. I taught him to harmonize the functions of the conscious and 
subconscious mind. When these two cooperate, the idea or desire 
implanted in the subconscious mind is realized. His reason-i ng mind 
agreed that if the old habit path or track had carried him i nto trouble, 
he could consciously form a new path to freedom, sobriety, and peac e 
of mind. He knew that his de-structive habit was automatic, but since 
it was acquired through his conscious choice, he realized that if he had 
been conditioned negatively, he also could be conditioned positivel y. As a result, he ceased thinking of the fact that he was powe rless to 
overcome the habit. Moreover, he understood clearly that there wa s no 
obstacle to his healing other than his own thought. Therefore, there was no occasion for great mental effort or me ntal 
coercion. • The power of his mental picture 
This man acquired a practice of relaxing his body and getting into a 
relaxed, drowsy, meditative state. Then he filled his mind wit h the 
picture of the desired end, knowing his sub-conscious mind could 
bring it about the easiest way. He imagined his daughter 
congratulating him on his freedom, and saying to him, “Daddy, it’s 
wonderful to have you home. ” He had lost his family through drink. He was not allowed to visit them, and his wife would not speak  to 
him. Regularly, systematically, he used to sit down and meditate in the  
way outlined. When his attention wandered, he made it a habit to 
immediately recall the mental picture of his daughter with her smile 
and the scene of his home enlivened by her cheerful voice. All thi s  
 190  brought about a reconditioning of his mind. It was a gradual proces s. He kept it up. He persevered knowing that sooner or later he  would 
establish a new habit pattern in his subconscious mind. I told him that he could liken his conscious mind to a camera, that  
his subconscious mind was the sensitive plate on which he regi stered 
and impressed the picture. This made a pro-found impression on him, 
and his whole aim was to firmly impress the picture on his mi nd and 
develop it there. Films are developed in the dark; likewise, mental 
pictures are developed in the darkroom of the subconscious mind. • Focused attention 
Realizing that his conscious mind was simply a camera, he use d no 
effort. There was no mental struggle. He quietly ad-justed his t houghts 
and focused his attention on the scene before him until he graduall y 
became identified with the picture. He became absorbed in the  mental 
atmosphere, repeating the mental movie frequently. There wa s no 
room for doubt that a healing would follow. When there was any 
temptation to drink, he would switch his imagination from any 
reveries of drinking bouts to the feeling of being at home wi th his 
family. He was successful because he confidently expected to 
experience the picture he was developing in his mind. Today he  is 
president of a multimillion-dollar concern and is radiantly happy. • He said a jinx was following him 
Mr. Block said that he had been making an annual income of 
$20,000, but for the past three months all doors seemed to jam tightl y. He brought clients up to the point where they were about to s ign on 
the dotted line, and then at the eleventh hour the door closed. He 
added that perhaps a jinx was following him. In discussing the matter with Mr. Block, I discovered that three  
months previously he had become very irritated, annoyed, and 
resentful toward a dentist who, after he had promised to sign a 
contract, had withdrawn at the last moment. He began to live i n the 
unconscious fear that other clients would do the same, thereby se tting 
up a history of frustration, hostility, and obstacles. He graduall y built  
 191  up in his mind a belief in obstruc-tion and last minute cancell ations 
until a vicious circle had been established. What I fear most has come 
upon me. Mr. Block realized that the trouble was in his mind, and that 
it was essential to change his mental attitude. His run of so-called misfortune was broken in the follow-ing way: 
“I realize I am one with the infinite intelligence of my  subconscious 
mind which knows no obstacle, difficulty, or delay. I live in the 
joyous expectancy of the best. My deeper mind responds to my 
thoughts. I know that the work of the infinite power of my 
subconscious cannot be hindered. Infinite intelligence always f inishes 
successfully whatever it begins. Creative wisdom works through me 
bringing all my plans and purposes to completion. Whatever I st art, I 
bring to a success-ful conclusion. My aim in life is to give  wonderful 
service, and all those whom I contact are blessed by what I ha ve to 
offer. All my work comes to full fruition in divine order. ”  
He repeated this prayer every morning before going to call o n his 
customers, and he also prayed each night prior to sleep. In a short time 
he had established a new habit pattern in his subconscious mind, and 
he was back in his old accustomed stride as a successful salesman. • How much do you want what you want. A young man asked Socrates how he could get wisdom. Socrates 
replied, “Come with me. ” He took the lad to a river, pushed th e boy’s 
head under the water, held it there until the boy was gaspi ng for air, 
then relaxed and released his head. When the boy regained his 
composure, he asked him, “What did you desire most when you were 
under water. ” 
“I wanted air,” said the boy. Socrates said to him, “When you want wisdom as much as you 
wanted air when you were immersed in the water, you will receive it. ”  
Likewise, when you really have an intense desire to over-come any 
block in your life, and you come to a clear-cut de-cision that the re is a  
 192  way out, and that is the course you wish to follow, then victory and 
triumph are assured. If you really want peace of mind and inner calm, you will get it. Regardless of how unjustly you have been treated, or how unfair th e 
boss has been, or what a mean scoundrel some-one has proved to be, 
all this makes no difference to you when you awaken to your mental 
and spiritual powers. You know what you want, and you will 
definitely refuse to let the thieves (thoughts) of hatred, anger, hostility, 
and ill will rob you of peace, harmony, health, and happiness. You 
cease to become upset by people, conditions, news, and events by 
identifying your thoughts immediately with your aim in life. You r aim 
is peace, health, inspiration, harmony, and abundance. Feel a ri ver of 
peace flowing through you now. Your thought is the immaterial and 
invisible power, and you choose to let it bless, inspire, and giv e you 
peace. • Why he could not be healed 
This is a case history of a married man with four children who was 
supporting and secretly living with another woman during his business 
trips. He was ill, nervous, irritable, and cantankerous, and he could not  
sleep without drugs. The doctor’s medicine failed to bring down hi s 
high blood pressure of over two hundred. He had pains in numerous 
organs of his body, which doctors could not diagnose or relieve. To 
make matters worse, he was drinking heavily. The cause of all this was a deep unconscious sense of guilt. H e had 
violated the marriage vows, and this troubled him. The religi ous creed 
he was brought up on was deeply lodged in his subconscious mind, 
and he drank excessively to heal the wound of guilt. Some invalids  
take morphine and codeine for severe pains; he was taking a lcohol for 
the pain or wound in his mind. It was the old story of adding fue l to 
the fire. 193  • The explanation and the cure 
He listened to the explanation of how his mind worked. He faced his 
problem, looked at it, and gave up his dual role. He knew that h is 
drinking was an unconscious attempt to escape. The hidden cause 
lodged in his subconscious mind had to be eradicated; then the healing 
would follow. He began to impress his subconscious mind three or four times a 
day by using the following prayer: “My mind is full of peace, poise, 
balance, and equilibrium. The infinite lies stretched in smi ling repose 
within me. I am not afraid of anything in the past, the present, or the  
future. The infinite intelligence of my subconscious mind leads, 
guides, and directs me in all ways. I now meet every situation w ith 
faith, poise, calmness, and confidence. I am now completely free from the habit. My mind is full of i nner 
peace, freedom, and joy. I forgive myself; then I am forgiven. Peace, 
sobriety, and confidence reign supreme in my mind. ” 
He repeated this prayer frequently as outlined; being fully  aware of 
what he was doing and why he was doing it. Knowing what he was 
doing gave him the necessary faith and confidence. I explained t o him 
that as he spoke these statements out loud, slowly, lovingly, and 
meaningfully, they would gradually sink down into his subconscious 
mind. Like seeds, they would grow after their kind. These truth s, on 
which he concentrated, went in through his eyes, his ears heard the 
sound, and the healing vibrations of these words reached his 
subconscious mind and obliterated all the negative mental pa tterns 
which caused all the trouble. Light dispels darkness. The constr uctive 
thought de-stroys the negative thought. He became a transformed man 
within a month. • Refusing to admit it 
If you are an alcoholic or drug addict, admit it. Do not dodge the 
issue. Many people remain alcoholics because they refuse to admit i t. 194  Your disease is instability, an inner fear. You are refusing t o face 
life, and so you try to escape your responsi-bilities through t he bottle. As an alcoholic you have no free will, although you think you have, 
and you may even boast about your will power. If you are a habitual  
drunkard and say bravely, “I will not touch it any more,” you have no 
power to make this assertion come true, because you do not know 
where to locate the power. You are living in a psychological prison of your own making, and 
you are bound by your beliefs, opinions, training, and environmenta l 
influences. Like most people, you are a creature of habit. You are con ditioned 
to react the way you do. • Building in the idea of freedom 
You can build the idea of freedom and peace of mind into your 
mentality so that it reaches your subconscious depths. The latter, be ing 
allpowerful, will free you from all desire for alcohol. The n, you will 
have the new understanding of how your mind works, and you can 
truly back up your statement and prove the truth to yourself. • Fifty-one percent healed 
If you have a keen desire to free yourself from any de-struct ive 
habit, you are fifty-one percent healed already. When you have a  
greater desire to give up the bad habit than to con-tinue  it, you will not 
experience too much difficulty in gaining complete freedom. Whatever thought you anchor the mind upon, the latter magnifies. If 
you engage the mind on the concept of freedom (freedom from the 
habit) and peace of mind, and if you keep it focused on this new 
direction of attention, you generate feelings and emotions, which 
gradually emotionalize the concept of freedom and peace. Whateve r 
idea you emotionalize is accepted by your subconscious and brought 
to pass. 195  • The law of substitution 
Realize that something good can come out of your suffer-ing. You 
have not suffered in vain. However, it is foolish to continue to suffer. If you continue as an alcoholic, it will bring about mental and 
physical deterioration and decay. Realize that the power in your  
subconscious is backing you up. Even though you may be seized wi th 
melancholia, you should begin to imagine the joy of freedom that  is in 
store for you. This is the law of substi-tution. Your imagination took 
you to the bottle; let it take you now to freedom and peace of mind. You will suffer a little bit, but it is for a constructiv e purpose. You 
will bear it like a mother in the pangs of childbirth, and you will, 
likewise, bring forth a child of the mind. Your subconscious will give 
birth to sobriety. • Cause of alcoholism 
The real cause of alcoholism is negative and destructive thi nking; 
for as a man thinketh, so is he. The alcoholic has a deep sense of 
inferiority, inadequacy, defeat, and frustration, usually accompanie d 
by a deep inner hostility. He has countless alibis as to his  reason for 
drinking, but the sole reason is in his thought life. • Three magic steps 
The first step: Get still; quiet the wheels of the mind. Enter into a 
sleepy, drowsy state. In this relaxed, peaceful, receptive state, you are 
preparing for the second step. The second step: Take a brief phrase, which can readily be graven 
on the memory, and repeat it over and over as a lullaby. Use the  
phrase, “Sobriety and peace of mind are mine now, and I give thanks. ” 
To prevent the mind from wandering, repeat it aloud or sketch i ts 
pronunciation with the lips and tongue as you say it mentally. This  
helps its entry into the subconscious mind. Do this for five minut es or 
more. You will find a deep emotional response. The third step: Just before going to sleep, practice what Johann von 
Goethe, German author, used to do. Imagine a friend, a loved one in  
 196  front of you. Your eyes are closed, you are relaxed and at pea ce. The 
loved one or friend is subjectively present, and is saying to you, 
“Congratulations. ” You see the smile; you hear the voice. You  
mentally touch the hand; it is all real and vivid. The word 
congratulations imply complete freedom. Hear it over and over again 
until you get the sub-conscious reaction, which satisfies. • Keep on keeping on 
When fear knocks at the door of your mind, or when worry, anxiety, 
and doubt cross your mind, behold your vision, your goal. Think of 
the infinite power within your subconscious mind, which you can 
generate by your thinking and imagining, and this will give you 
confidence, power, and courage. Keep on, persevere, until the day 
breaks, and the shadows flee away. • Review your thought power 
1. The solution lies within the problem. The answer is in every  
question. Infinite intelligence responds to you as you call upon it with 
faith and confidence.
Love is the answer to getting along with others. Love is understanding, goodwill, and respecting the divinity of the other.
According to the passage, what is the key to getting along with others?
To understand all is to forgive all. Forgiveness is getting your thoughts in line with the divine law of harmony.
What is the significance of understanding and forgiving oneself?
The subconscious mind is meant to forgive and heal. It can be used for healing by affirming and visualizing the desired outcome, and then repeating the words out loud.
What is the purpose of the subconscious mind, and how can it be used for healing?
The key to overcoming fear is to confront and replace the negative thought with a positive, constructive one. This can be achieved by affirming the opposite, such as "I am going to master this fear."
What is the key to overcoming fear?
The author believes that age is not a tragic occurrence, but rather a step forward on the path of life. He encourages the reader to welcome change and transcend the fear of aging by embracing the eternal and indestructible nature of life.
What is the author's perspective on the concept of age and aging?