The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy
Chapter 5: Mental Healings in Modern Times
Everyone is definitely concerned with the healing of bodily conditions and human affairs.
What is it that heals? Where is this healing power? These are questions asked by
everyone. The answer is that this healing power is the subconscious mind of each person,
and a changed mental attitude on the part of the sick person releases this healing power.
No mental or religious science practitioner, psychologist, psychiatrist, or medical doctor
ever healed a patient. There is an old saying, “The doctor dresses the wound, but God
heals it.” The psychologist or psychiatrist proceeds to remove the mental blocks in the
patient so that the healing principle may be released, restoring the patient to health.
Likewise, the surgeon removes the physical block enabling the healing currents to
function normally. No physician, surgeon, or mental science practitioner claims, “he
healed the patient.” The one healing power is called by many names— Nature, Life, God,
Creative Intelligence, and Subconscious Power.
As previously outlined, there are many different methods used to
remove the mental, emotional, and physical blocks which
inhibit the flow of the healing life principle animating all of us. The healing principle
resident in your subconscious mind can and will, if properly directed by you or some
other person, heal your mind and body of all disease. This healing principle is operative
in all men regardless of creed, color, or race. You do not have to belong to some
particular church in order to use and participate in this healing process. Your
subconscious will heal the burn or cut on your hand even though you profess to be an
atheist or agnostic.
The modern mental therapeutic procedure is based on the truth that the infinite
intelligence and power of your subconscious mind responds according to your faith. The
mental science practitioner or minister follows the injunction of the Bible, i.e., he goes
into his closet and shuts the door, which means he stills his mind, relaxes, lets go, and
thinks of the infinite healing presence within him. He closes the door of his mind to all
outside distractions as well as appearances, and then he quietly and knowingly turns
over his request or desire to his subconscious mind, realizing that the intelligence of his
mind will answer him according to his specific needs.The most wonderful thing to know
is this: Imagine the end desired and feel its reality; then the infinite life principle will
respond to your conscious choice and your conscious request. This is the meaning of
believe you have received, and you shall receive. This is what the modern mental scientist
does when he practices prayer therapy.
One process of healing
There is only one universal healing principle operating through everything— the cat, the
dog, the tree, the grass, the wind, the earth—for everything is alive. This life principle
operates through the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms as instinct and the law of
growth. Man is consciously aware of this life principle, and he can consciously direct it to
bless himself in countless ways.
There are many different approaches, techniques, and methods in using the universal
power, but there is only one process of healing, which is faith, for according to your faith
is it done unto you.
The law of belief
All religions of the world represent forms of belief, and these beliefs are explained in
many ways. The law of life is belief. What do you believe about yourself, life, and the
universe? It is done unto you, as you believe.
Belief is a thought in your mind, which causes the power of your subconscious to be
distributed into all phases of your life according to your thinking habits. You must realize
the Bible is not talking about your belief in some ritual, ceremony, form, institution, man,
or formula. It is talking about belief itself. The belief of your mind is simply the thought
of your mind. If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. MARK 9:23.
It is foolish to believe in something to hurt or harm you. Remember, it is not the thing
believed in that hurts or harms you, but the belief or thought in your mind, which creates
the result. All your experiences, all your actions, and all the events and circumstances of
your life are but the reflections and reactions to your own thought.
Prayer therapy is the combined function of the conscious and
subconscious mind scientifically directed
Prayer therapy is the synchronized, harmonious, and intelligent function of the conscious
and subconscious levels of mind specifically directed for a definite purpose. In scientific
prayer or prayer therapy, you must know what you are doing and why you are doing it.
You trust the law of healing. Prayer therapy is sometimes referred to as mental treatment,
and another term is scientific prayer.
In prayer therapy you consciously choose a certain idea, mental picture, or plan which
you desire to experience. You realize your capacity to convey this idea or mental image
to your subconscious by feeling the reality of the state assumed. As you remain faithful in
your mental attitude, your prayer will be answered. Prayer therapy is a definite mental
action for a definite specific purpose.
Let us suppose that you decide to heal a certain difficulty by prayer therapy. You are
aware that your problem or sickness, whatever it may be, must be caused by negative
thoughts charged with fear and lodged in your subconscious mind, and that if you can
succeed in cleansing your mind of these thoughts, you will get a healing. You, therefore,
turn to the healing power within your own subconscious mind and remind yourself of its
infinite power and intelligence and its capacity to heal all conditions. As you dwell on
these truths, your fear will begin to dissolve, and the recollection of these truths also
corrects the erroneous beliefs.
You give thanks for the healing that you know will come, and then you keep your mind
off the difficulty until you feel guided, after an interval, to pray again. While you are
praying, you absolutely refuse to give any power to the negative conditions or to admit
for a second that the healing will not come. This attitude of mind brings about the
harmonious union of the conscious and subconscious mind, which releases the healing
power.
Faith healing, what it means, and how blind faith works
What is popularly termed faith healing is not the faith mentioned in the Bible, which
means knowledge of the interaction of the conscious and subconscious mind. A faith
healer is one who heals without any real scientific understanding of the powers and forces
involved. He may claim that he has a special gift of healing, and the sick person’s blind
belief in him or his powers may bring results.
The voodoo doctor in South Africa and other parts of the world may heal by incantations,
or touching the so-called bones of saints, or anything else may heal a person, which cause
the patients to honestly believe in the method or process.
Any method, which causes you to more from fear and worry to faith and expectancy, will
heal. There are many persons, each of whom claims that because his personal theory
produces results, it is, therefore, the correct one. This, as already explained in this
chapter, cannot be true. To illustrate how blind faith works: You will recall our
discussion of the Swiss physician, Franz Anton Mesmer. In 1776 he claimed many cures
when he stroked diseased bodies with artificial magnets. Later on he threw away his
magnets and evolved the theory of animal magnetism. This he held to be a fluid, which
pervades the universe, but is most active in the human organism.
He claimed that this magnetic fluid, which was going forth from him to his patients,
healed them. People flocked to him, and many wonderful cures were affected.
Mesmer moved to Paris, and while there the Government appointed a commission
composed of physicians and members of the Academy of Science, of which Benjamin
Franklin was a member, to investigate his cures. The report admitted the leading facts
claimed by Mesmer, but held that there was no evidence to prove the correctness of his
magnetic fluid theory, and said the effects were due to the imagination of the patients.
Soon after this, Mesmer was driven into exile, and died in 1815. Shortly afterwards, Dr.
Braid of Manchester undertook to show that magnetic fluid had nothing to do with the
production of the healings of Dr. Mesmer. Dr. Braid discovered that patients could be
thrown into hypnotic sleep by suggestion, during which many of the well-known
phenomena ascribed to magnetism by Mesmer could be produced.
You can readily see that all these cures were undoubtedly brought about by the active
imagination of the patients together with a powerful suggestion of health to their
subconscious minds. All this could be termed blind faith, as there was no understanding
in those days as to how the cures were brought about.
Subjective faith and what it means
You will recall the proposition, which need not be repeated at length, that the subjective
or subconscious mind of an individual is as amenable to the control of his own conscious
or objective mind as it is by the suggestions of another. It follows that whatever may be
your objective belief, if you will assume to have faith actively or passively, your
subconscious mind will be controlled by the suggestion, and your desire will be fulfilled.
The faith required in mental healings is a purely subjective faith, and it is attainable upon
the cessation of active opposition on the part of the objective or conscious mind.
In the healing of the body it is, of course, desirable to secure the concurrent faith of both
the conscious and subconscious mind. However, it is not always essential if you will
enter into a state of passivity and receptivity by relaxing the mind and the body and
getting into a sleepy state. In this drowsy state your passivity becomes receptive to
subjective impression.
Recently, I was asked by a man, “How is it that I got a healing through a minister? I did
not believe what he said when, he told me that there is no such thing as disease and that
matter does not exist.” This man at first thought his intelligence was being insulted, and
he protested against such a palpable absurdity. The explanation is simple. He was quieted
by soothing words and told to get into a perfectly passive condition, to say nothing, and
think of nothing for the time being. His minister also became passive, and affirmed
quietly, peacefully, and constantly for about one half hour that this man would have
perfect health, peace, harmony, and wholeness. He felt immense relief and was restored
to health.
It is easy to see that his subjective faith had been made manifest by his passivity under
treatment, and the suggestions of perfect healthfulness by the minister were conveyed to
his subconscious mind. The two subjective minds were then en rapport.
The minister was not handicapped by antagonistic autosuggestions of the patient arising
from objective doubt of the power of the healer or the correctness of the theory. In this
sleepy, drowsy state the conscious mind resistance is reduced to a minimum, and results
followed. The subconscious mind of the patient being necessarily controlled by such
suggestion exercised its functions in accordance therewith, and a healing followed.
The meaning of absent treatment
Suppose you learned that your mother was sick in New York City and you lived in Los
Angeles. Your mother would not be physically present where you are, but you could pray
for her. It is the Father within which doeth the work.
The creative law of mind (subconscious mind) serves you and will do the work. Its
response to you is automatic. Your treatment is for the purpose of inducing an inner
realization of health and harmony in your mentality.
This inner realization, acting through the subconscious mind, operates through your
mother’s subconscious mind as there is but one creative mind. Your thoughts of health,
vitality, and perfection operate through the one universal subjective mind, and set a law
in motion on the subjective side of life, which manifests through her body as a healing.
In the mind principle there is no time or space. It is the same mind that operates through
your mother no matter where she may be. In reality there is no absent treatment as
opposed to present treatment for the universal mind is omnipresent. You do not try to
send out thoughts or hold a thought. Your treatment is a conscious movement of thought,
and as you become conscious of the qualities of health, wellbeing, and relaxation, these
qualities will be resurrected in the experience of your mother, and results will follow.
The following is a perfect example of what is called absent treatment. Recently, a listener
of our radio program in Los Angeles prayed as follows for her mother in New York who
had a coronary thrombosis: “The healing presence is right where my mother is. Her
bodily condition is but a reflection of her thought life like shadows cast on the screen. I
know that in order to change the images on the screen I must change the projection reel.
My mind is the projection reel, and I now project in my own mind the image of
wholeness, harmony, and perfect health for my mother. The infinite healing presence,
which created my mother’s body and all her organs is now saturating every atom of her
being, and a river of peace, flows through every cell of her body. The doctors are divinely
guided and directed, and whoever touches my mother is guided to do the right thing. I
know that disease has no ultimate reality; if it had, no one could be healed. I now align
myself with the infinite principle of love and life, and I know and decree that harmony,
health, and peace are now being expressed in my mother’s body.”
She prayed in the above manner several times daily, and her mother had a most
remarkable recovery after a few days, much to the amazement of her specialist. He
complimented her on her great faith in the power of God.
The conclusion arrived at in the daughter’s mind set the creative law of mind in motion
on the subjective side of life, which manifested itself through her mother’s body as
perfect health and harmony. What the daughter felt as true about her mother was
simultaneously resurrected in the experience of her mother.
Releasing the kinetic action of the subconscious mind
A psychologist friend of mine told me that one of his lungs was infected. X rays and
analysis showed the presence of tuberculosis. At night before going to sleep he would
quietly affirm, “Every cell, nerve, tissue, and muscle of my lungs are now being made
whole, pure, and perfect. My whole body is being restored to health and harmony.”
These are not his exact words, but they represent the essence of what he affirmed. A
complete healing followed in about a month’s time. Subsequent X rays showed a perfect
healing. I wanted to know his method, so I asked him why he repeated the words prior to
sleep. Here is his reply, “The kinetic action of the subconscious mind continues
throughout your sleeptime period. Hence, give the subconscious mind something good to
work on as you drop off into slumber.” This was a very wise answer. In thinking of
harmony and perfect health, he never mentioned his trouble by name.
I strongly suggest that you cease talking about your ailments or giving them a name. The
only sap from which they draw life is your attention and fear of them. Like the
abovementioned psychologist, become a mental surgeon. Then your troubles will be cut
off like dead branches are pruned from a tree.
If you are constantly naming your aches and symptoms, you inhibit the kinetic action,
which means the release of the healing power and energy of your subconscious mind.
Furthermore, by the law of your own mind, these imaginings tend to take shape, as the
thing I greatly feared. Fill your mind with the great truths of life and walk forward
in the light of love.
Related Hypnosis Session: Optimum Healing
Summary of your aids to health
1. Find out what it is that heals you. Realize that correct directions given to your
subconscious mind will heal your mind and body.
2. Develop a definite plan for turning over your requests or desires to your subconscious
mind.
3. Imagine the end desired and feel its reality. Follow it through, and you will get definite
results.
4. Decide what belief is. Know that belief is a thought in your mind, and what you think
you create.
5. It is foolish to believe in sickness and something to hurt or to harm you. Believe in
perfect health, prosperity, peace, wealth, and divine guidance.
6. Great and noble thoughts upon which you habitually dwell become great acts.
7. Apply the power of prayer therapy in your life. Choose a certain plan, idea, or mental
picture. Mentally and emotionally unite with that idea, and as you remain faithful to your
mental attitude, your prayer will be answered.
8. Always remember, if you really want the power to heal, you can have it through faith,
which means knowledge of the working of your conscious and subconscious mind. Faith
comes with understanding.
9. Blind faith means that a person may get results in healing without any scientific
understanding of the powers and forces involved.
10. Learn to pray for your loved ones who may be ill. Quiet your mind, and your thoughts
of health, vitality, and perfection operating through the one universal subjective mind will
be felt and resurrected in the mind of your loved one.
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