Practical Techniques for Mental Healings

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy
Chapter 6 – Practical Techniques in Mental Healings

An engineer has a technique and a process for building a bridge or an engine. Like the
engineer, your mind also has a technique for governing, controlling, and directing your
life. You must realize that methods and techniques are primary.

In building the Golden Gate Bridge, the chief engineer understood mathematical
principles, stresses and strains. Secondly, he had a picture of the ideal bridge across the
bay. The third step was his application of tried and proven methods by which the
principles were implemented until the bridge took form and we drive on it. There also are
techniques and methods by which your prayers are answered. If your prayer is answered,
there is a way in which it is answered, and this is a scientific way.

Nothing happens by chance. This is a world of law and order. In this chapter you will find practical techniques for the unfolding and nurture of your spiritual life. Your prayers must not remain up in the air like a balloon. They must go somewhere and accomplish something in your life.

Related Hypnosis Session: Optimum Health and Healing

When we come to analyze prayer we discover there are many different approaches and
methods. We will not consider in this book the formal, ritual prayers used in religious
services. These have important place in group worship. We are immediately concerned
with the methods of personal prayer as it is applied in your daily life and as it is used to
help others.

Prayer is the formulation of an idea concerning something we wish to accomplish. Prayer
is the soul’s sincere desire. Your desire is your prayer. It comes out of your deepest needs
and it reveals the things you want in life. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness: for they shall be filled. That is really prayer, life’s hunger and thirst for
peace, harmony, health, joy, and all the other blessings of life.

The passing over technique for impregnating the subconscious

This consists essentially in inducing the subconscious mind to take over your request as
handed it by the conscious mind. This passing over is best accomplished in the reverie
like state. Know that in your deeper mind are Infinite Intelligence and Infinite Power. Just
calmly think over what you want; see it coming into fuller fruition from this moment
forward. Be like the little girl who had a very bad cough and a sore throat. She declared
firmly and repeatedly, “It is passing away now. It is passing away now.” It passed away
in about an hour. Use this technique with complete simplicity and naïveté.

Your subconscious will accept your blueprint

If you were building a new home for yourself and family, you know that you would be
intensely interested in regard to the blueprint for your home; you would see to it that the
builders conformed to the blueprint. You would watch the material and select only the
best wood, steel, in fact, the best of everything. What about your mental home and your
mental blueprint for happiness and abundance? All your experiences and everything that
enters into your life depend upon the nature of the mental building blocks, which you use
in the construction of your mental home.

If your blueprint is full of mental patterns of fear, worry, anxiety, or lack, and if you are
despondent, doubtful, and cynical, then the texture of the mental material you are
weaving into your mind will come forth as more toil, care, tension, anxiety, and

limitation of all kinds. The most fundamental and the most far reaching activity in life is
that which you build into your mentality every waking hour. Your word is silent
and invisible; nevertheless, it is real.

You are building your mental home all the time, and your thought and mental imagery
represent your blueprint. Hour by hour, moment by moment, you can build radiant health,
success, and happiness by the thoughts you think, the ideas which you harbor, the beliefs
that you accept, and the scenes that you rehearse in the hidden studio of your mind. This
stately mansion, upon the construction of which you are perpetually engaged, is your
personality, your identity in this plane, your whole life story on this earth.
Get a new blueprint; build silently by realizing peace, harmony, joy, and good will in the
present moment. By dwelling upon these things and claiming them, your subconscious
will accept your blueprint and bring all these things to pass. By their fruits ye shall know
them.

The science and art of true prayer

The term “science” means knowledge, which is coordinated, arranged, and systematized.
Let us think of the science and art of true prayer as it deals with the fundamental
principles of life and the techniques and processes by which they can be demonstrated in
your life, as well as in the life of every human being when he applies them faithfully. The
art is your technique or process, and the science behind it is the definite response of
creative mind to your mental picture or thought.

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto
you. MATTHEW 7:7.

Here you are told you shall receive that for which you ask. It shall be opened to you when
you knock, and you shall find that for which you are searching. This teaching implies the
definiteness of mental and spiritual laws. There is always a direct response from the
Infinite Intelligence of your subconscious mind to your conscious thinking. If you ask for
bread, you will not receive a stone. You must ask believing, if you are to receive. Your
mind moves from the thought to the thing.

Unless there is first an image in the mind, it cannot move, for there would be nothing for it to
move toward. Your prayer, which is your mental act must be accepted as an image in your mind
before the power from your subconscious will play upon it and make it productive.
You must reach a point of acceptance in your mind, an unqualified and undisputed state of agreement.

This contemplation should be accompanied by a feeling of joy and restfulness in
foreseeing the certain accomplishment of your desire. The sound basis for the art and
science of true prayer is your knowledge and complete confidence that the movement of
your conscious mind will gain a definite response from your subconscious mind, which is
one with boundless wisdom and infinite power. By following this procedure, your prayers
will be answered.

The visualization technique

The easiest and most obvious way to formulate an idea is to visualize it, to see it in your
mind’s eye as vividly as if it were alive. You can see with the naked eye only what
already exists in the external world; in a similar way, that which you can visualize in your
mind’s eye already exists in the invisible realms of your mind. Any picture, which you
have in your mind, is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not
seen. What you form in your imagination is as real as any part of your body. The idea
and the thought are real and will one day appear in your objective world if you are
faithful to your mental image. This process of thinking forms impressions in your mind;
these impressions in turn become manifested as facts and experiences in your life.

The builder visualizes the type of building he wants; he sees it as he desires it to be
completed. His imagery and thought processes become a plastic old from which the
building will emerge—a beautiful or an ugly one, a skyscraper or a very low one. His
mental imagery is projected as it is drawn on paper. Eventually, the contractor and his
workers gather the essential materials, and the building progresses until it stands finished,
conforming perfectly to the mental patterns of the architect.

I use the visualization technique prior to speaking from the platform. I quiet the wheels of
my mind in order that I may present to the subconscious mind my images of thought.
Then, I picture the entire auditorium and the seats filled with men and women, and each
one of them illumined and inspired by the infinite healing presence within each
one. I see them as radiant, happy, and free.

Having first built up the idea in my imagination, I quietly sustain it there as a mental
picture while I imagine I hear men and women saying, “I am healed,” “I feel wonderful,”
“I’ve had an instantaneous healing,” “I’m transformed.” I keep this up for about ten
minutes or more, knowing and feeling that each person’s mind and body are saturated
with love, wholeness, beauty, and perfection. My awareness grows to the point where
in my mind I can actually hear the voices of the multitude proclaiming their health and
happiness; then I release the whole picture and go onto the platform. Almost every
Sunday some people stop and say that their prayers were answered.

Related Hypnosis Session: Improve Visualization

Mental movie method

The Chinese say, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” William James, the father of
American psychology, stressed the fact that the subconscious mind will bring to pass any
picture held in the mind and backed by faith. Act as though I am, and I will be.
A number of years ago I was in the Middle West lecturing in several states, and I desired
to have a permanent location in the general area from which I could serve those who
desired help. I traveled far, but the desire did not leave my mind. One evening, while in a
hotel in Spokane, Washington, I relaxed completely on a couch, immobilized my
attention, and in a quiet, passive manner imagined that I was talking to a large audience,
saying in effect, “I am glad to be here; I have prayed for the ideal opportunity.” I saw
in my mind’s eye the imaginary audience, and I felt the reality of it all. I played the role
of the actor, dramatized this mental movie, and felt satisfied that this picture was being
conveyed to my subconscious mind, which would bring it to pass in its own way. The
next morning, on awakening, I felt a great sense of peace and satisfaction, and in a few
days’ time I received a telegram asking me to take over an organization in the Midwest,
which I did, and I enjoyed it immensely for several years.

The method outlined here appeals to many who have described it as “the mental movie
method.” I have received numerous letters from people who listen to my radio talks and
weekly public lectures, telling me of the wonderful results they get using this technique
in the sale of their property. I suggest to those who have homes or property for sale that
they satisfy themselves in their own mind that their price is right. Then, I claim that the
Infinite Intelligence is attracting to them the buyer who really wants to have the property
and who will love it and prosper in it. After having done this I suggest that they quiet
their mind, relax, let go, and get into a drowsy, sleepy state, which reduces all mental
effort to a minimum. Then, they are to picture the check in their hands, rejoice in the
check, give thanks for the check, and go off to sleep feeling the naturalness of the whole
mental movie created in their own mind. They must act as though it were an objective
reality, and the subconscious mind will take it as an impression, and through the deeper
currents of the mind the buyer and the seller are brought together. A mental picture held
in the mind, backed by faith, will come to pass.

Related Hypnosis Session: Guided Meditation

The Baudoin technique

Charles Baudoin was a professor at the Rousseau Institute in France. He was a brilliant
psychotherapist and a research director of the New Nancy School of Healing, who in
1910 taught that the best way to impress the subconscious mind was to enter into a
drowsy, sleepy state, or a state akin to sleep in which all effort was reduced to a
minimum. Then in a quiet, passive, receptive way, by reflection, he would convey the
idea to the subconscious.

The following is his formula: “A very simple way of securing this (impregnation of the
subconscious mind) is to condense the idea which is to be the object of suggestion, to
sum it up in a brief phrase which can be readily graven on the memory, and to repeat it
over and over again as a lullaby.”

Some years ago, a young lady in Los Angeles was engaged in a prolonged bitter family
lawsuit over a will. Her husband had bequeathed his entire estate to her, and his sons and
daughters by a previous marriage were bitterly fighting to break the will. The Baudoin
technique was outlined to her, and this is what she did: She relaxed her body in an
armchair, entered into the sleepy state and, as suggested, condensed the idea of her need
into a phrase consisting of six words easily graven on the memory. “It is finished in
Divine Order.” The significance to her of these words meant that Infinite Intelligence
operating through the laws of her subconscious mind would bring about a harmonious
adjustment through the principle of harmony. She continued this procedure every night
for about ten nights. After she got into a sleepy state, she would affirm slowly, quietly,
and feelingly the statement: “It is finished in Divine Order,” over and over again, feeling
a sense of inner peace and an all pervading tranquility; then she went off into her deep,
normal sleep.

On the morning of the eleventh day, following the use of the above technique, she
awakened with a sense of wellbeing, a conviction that it was finished. Her attorney called
her the same day, saying that the opposing attorney and his clients were willing to settle.
A harmonious agreement was reached, and litigation was discontinued.

The sleeping technique

By entering into a sleepy, drowsy state, effort is reduced to a minimum. The conscious
mind is submerged to a great extent when in a sleepy state. The reason for this is that the
highest degree of outcropping of the subconscious occurs prior to sleep and just after we
awaken. In this state the negative thoughts, which tend to neutralize your desire and so
prevent acceptance by your subconscious mind, are no longer present.

Suppose you want to get rid of a destructive habit. Assume a comfortable posture, relax
your body, and be still. Get into a sleepy state, and in that sleepy state, say quietly, over
and over again as a lullaby, “I am completely free from this habit; harmony and peace of
mind reign supreme.” Repeat the above slowly, quietly, and lovingly for five or ten
minute’s night and morning. Each time you repeat the words the emotional value
becomes greater. When the urge comes to repeat the negative habit, repeat the above
formula out loud by yourself. By this means you induce the subconscious to accept the
idea, and a healing follows.

Related Hypnosis Session: Sleep and Dream

The ‘thank you’ technique

In the Bible, Paul recommends that we make known our requests with praise and
thanksgiving. Some extraordinary results follow this simple method of prayer. The
thankful heart is always close to the creative forces of the universe, causing countless
blessings to flow toward it by the law of reciprocal relationship, based on a cosmic law of
action and reaction.

For instance, a father promises his son a car for graduation; the boy has not yet received
the car, but he is very thankful and happy, and is as joyous as though he had actually
received the car. He knows his father will fulfill his promise, and he is full of gratitude
and joy even though he has not yet received the car, objectively speaking. He has,
however, received it with joy and thankfulness in his mind.

I shall illustrate how Mr. Broke applied this technique with excellent results. He said,
“Bills are piling up, I am out of work, I have three children and no money. What shall I
do?” Regularly every night and morning, for a period of about three weeks, he repeated
the words, “Thank you, Father, for my wealth,” in a relaxed, peaceful manner until the
feeling or mood of thankfulness dominated his mind. He imagined he was addressing the
infinite power and intelligence within him knowing, of course, that he could not see the
creative intelligence or infinite mind. He was seeing with the inner eye of spiritual
perception, realizing that his thought image of wealth was the first cause, relative to the
money, position, and food he needed. His thought feeling was the substance of wealth
untrammeled by antecedent conditions of any kind. By repeating, “Thank you, Father,”
over and over again, his mind and heart were lifted up to the point of acceptance, and
when fear, thoughts of lack, poverty, and distress came into his mind, he would say,
“Thank you, Father,” as often as necessary.

He knew that as he kept up the thankful attitude he would recondition his mind to the
idea of wealth, which is what happened. The sequel to his prayer is very interesting.
After praying in the abovementioned manner, he met a former employer of his on the
street whom he had not seen for twenty years. The man offered him a very lucrative
position and advanced him $500 on a temporary loan. Today, Mr. Broke is vice-president
of the company for which he works. His recent remark to me was, “I shall never forget the
wonders of ‘Thank you, Father.’ It has worked wonders for me.”

Related Hypnosis Session: Get A Gratitude Attitude

The affirmative method

The effectiveness of an affirmation is determined largely by your understanding of the
truth and the meaning back of the words, ³In praying use not vain repetition.´ Therefore,
the power of your affirmation lies in the intelligent application of definite and specific
positives. For example, a boy adds three and three and puts down seven on the
blackboard. The teacher affirms with mathematical certainty that three and three are six;
therefore, the boy changes his figures accordingly. The teacher’s statement did not make
three and three equal six because the latter was already a mathematical truth.

The mathematical truth caused the boy to rearrange the figures on the blackboard. It is
abnormal to be sick; it is normal to be healthy. Health is the truth of your being. When
you affirm health, harmony, and peace for yourself or another, and when you realize
these are universal principles of your own being, you will rearrange the negative patterns
of your subconscious mind based on your faith and understanding of that which you
affirm.

The result of the affirmative process of prayer depends on your conforming to the
principles of life, regardless of appearances. Consider for a moment that there is a
principle of mathematics and none of error; there is a principle of truth but none of
dishonesty.

There is a principle of intelligence but none of ignorance; there is a principle of harmony
and none of discord. There is a principle of health but none of disease, and there is a
principle of abundance but none of poverty.

The affirmative method was chosen by the author for use on his sister who was to be
operated on for the removal of gallstones in a hospital in England. The condition
described was based on the diagnosis of hospital tests and the usual X-ray procedures.
She asked me to pray for her. We were separated geographically about 6,500 miles, but
there is no time or space in the mind principle. Infinite mind or intelligence is present in
its entirety at every point simultaneously.

I withdrew all thought from the contemplation of symptoms and
from the corporeal personality altogether. I affirmed as follows: “This
prayer is for my sister Catherine. She is relaxed and at peace, poised, balanced, serene,
and calm. The healing intelligence of her subconscious mind, which created her body, is
now transforming every cell, nerve, tissue, muscle, and bone of her being according to
the perfect pattern of all organs lodged in her subconscious mind. Silently, quietly, all
distorted thought patterns in her subconscious mind are removed and dissolved, and the
vitality, wholeness, and beauty of the life principle are made manifest in every atom of
her being. She is now open and receptive to the healing currents, which are flowing
through her like a river, restoring her to perfect health, harmony, and peace. All
distortions and ugly images are now washed away by the infinite ocean of love and peace
flowing through her, and it is so.”

I affirmed the above several times a day, and at the end of two weeks my sister had an
examination, which showed a remarkable healing, and the X ray, proved negative.
To affirm is to state that it is so, and as you maintain this attitude of mind as true,
regardless of all evidence to the contrary, you will receive an answer to your prayer. Your
thought can only affirm, for even if you deny something, you are actually affirming the
presence of what you deny.
Repeating an affirmation, knowing what you are saying and why you are saying it, leads
the mind to that state of consciousness where it accepts that which you state as true. Keep
on affirming the truths of life until you get the subconscious reaction, which satisfies.

Related Hypnosis Session: Embedded Affirmations for Change

The argumentative method

This method is just what the word implies. It stems from the procedure of Dr. Phineas
Parkhurst Quimby of Maine. Dr. Quimby, a pioneer in mental and spiritual healing, lived
and practiced in Belfast, Maine, about one hundred years ago. A book called The Quimby
Manuscripts, published in 1921 by Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York City, and
edited by Horatio Dresser, is available in your library. This book gives newspaper
accounts of this man’s remarkable results in prayer treatment of the sick.

Quimby duplicated many of the healing miracles recorded in the Bible. In brief, the
argumentative method employed according to Quimby consists of spiritual reasoning
where you convince the patient and yourself that his sickness is due to his false belief,
groundless fears, and negative patterns lodged in his subconscious mind. You reason it
out clearly in your mind and convince your patient that the disease or ailment is due only
to a distorted, twisted pattern of thought, which has taken form in his body. This wrong
belief in some external power and external causes has now externalized itself as sickness,
and can be changed by changing the thought patterns. You explain to the sick person that
the basis of all healing is a change of belief. You also point out that the subconscious
mind created the body and all its organs; therefore, it knows how to heal it, can heal it,
and is doing so now as you speak. You argue in the courtroom of your mind that the
disease is a shadow of the mind based on disease soaked, morbid thought imagery.

You continue to build up all the evidence you can muster on behalf of the healing power
within, which created all the organs in the first place, and which has a perfect pattern of
every cell, nerve, and tissue within it. Then, you render a verdict in the courthouse of
your mind in favor of yourself or your patient. You liberate the sick one by faith and
spiritual understanding. Your mental and spiritual evidence is overwhelming; they’re
being but one mind, what you feel as true will be resurrected in the experience of
the patient. This procedure is essentially the argumentative method used by Dr. Quimby
of Maine from 1849 to 1869.

The absolute method is like modern sound wave therapy

Many people throughout the world practice this form of prayer treatment with wonderful
results. The person using the absolute method mentions the name of the patient, such as
John Jones, then quietly and silently thinks of God and His qualities and attributes, such
as, God is all bliss, boundless love, infinite intelligence, all powerful, boundless wisdom,
absolute harmony, indescribable beauty, and perfection. As he quietly thinks along
these lines he is lifted up in consciousness into a new spiritual wave length, at which
times he feels the infinite ocean of God’s love is now dissolving everything unlike itself
in the mind and body of John Jones for whom he is praying. He feels all the power and
love of God are now focused on John Jones, and whatever is bothering or vexing him is
now completely neutralized in the presence of the infinite ocean of life and love.

The absolute method of prayer might be likened to the sound wave or sonic therapy recently
shown me by a distinguished physician in Los Angeles. He has an ultra sound wave
machine, which oscillates at a tremendous speed and sends sound waves to any area of
the body to which it is directed. These sound waves can be controlled, and he told me of
achieving remarkable results in dissolving arthritic calcareous deposits, as well as the
healing and removal of other disturbing conditions. To the degree that we rise in
consciousness by contemplating qualities and attributes of God, do we generate spiritual
electronic waves of harmony, health, and peace. Many remarkable healings follow this
technique of prayer.

A cripple walks

Dr. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, of whom we spoke previously in this chapter, used the
absolute method in the latter years of his healing career. He was really the father of
psychosomatic medicine and the first psychoanalyst. He had the capacity to diagnose
clairvoyantly the cause of the patient’s trouble, pains, and aches.

The following is a condensed account of the healing of a cripple as recorded in Quimby’s
Manuscripts: Quimby was called on to visit a woman who was lame, aged, and
bedridden. He states that her ailment was due to the fact that she was
imprisoned by a creed so small and contracted that she could not stand upright and move
about. She was living in the tomb of fear and ignorance; furthermore, she was taking the
Bible literally, and it frightened her. “In this tomb,” Quimby said, “was the presence and
power of God trying to burst the bands, break through the bonds, and rise from the dead.”
When she would ask others for an explanation of some passage of the Bible, the answer
would be a stone; then she would hunger for the bread of life. Dr. Quimby diagnosed her
case as a mind cloudy and stagnated, due to excitation and fear, caused by the inability to
see clearly the meaning of the passage of the Bible, which she had been reading. This
showed itself in the body by her heavy and sluggish feeling, which would terminate as
paralysis.

At this point Quimby asked her what was meant in the Bible verses: Yet a little while am
I with you, and then I go unto Him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me:
and where I am, thither ye cannot come. JOHN 7:3334. She replied that it meant Jesus
went to heaven. Quimby explained what it really meant by telling her that being with her
a little while meant his explanation of her symptoms, feelings, and their causes; i.e., he
had compassion and sympathy for her momentarily, but he could not remain in that
mental state. The next step was to go to Him that sent us, which, as Quimby pointed out,
was the creative power of God in all of us. Quimby immediately traveled in his mind and
contemplated the divine ideal; i.e., the vitality, intelligence, harmony, and power of God
functioning in the sick person. This is why he said to the woman, “Therefore, where I go
you cannot come, for you are in your narrow, restricted belief, and I am in health.”

This prayer and explanation produced an instantaneous sensation, and a change came over her
mind. She walked without her crutches! Quimby said it was one of the most singular of
all his healings. She was, as it were, dead to error, and to bring her to life or truth was to
raise her from the dead. Quimby quoted the resurrection of Christ and applied it to her
own Christ or health; this produced a powerful effect on her. He also explained to her that
the truth, which she accepted, was the angel or idea, which rolled away the stone of fear,
ignorance, and superstition, thereby, releasing the healing power of God, which made her
whole.

The decree method

Power goes into our word according to the feeling and faith behind it. When we realize
the power that moves the world is moving on our behalf and is backing up our word, our
confidence and assurance grow. You do not try and add power to power; therefore, there
must be no mental striving, coercion, force, or mental wrestling.
A young girl used the decree method on a young man who was constantly phoning her,
pressing her for dates, and meeting her at her place of business; she found it very difficult
to get rid of him. She decreed as follows: “I release………unto God. He is in his true
place at all times. I am free, and he is free. I now decree that my words go forth into
infinite mind and it brings it to pass. It is so.” She said he vanished and she has never
seen him since, adding, “It was as though the ground swallowed him up.” Thou shalt
decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy
ways. JOB 22:28.

Serve yourself with scientific truth

1. Be a mental engineer and use tried and proven techniques in building a grander and
greater life.
2. Your desire is your prayer. Picture the fulfillment of your desire now and feel its
reality, and you will experience the joy of the answered prayer.
3. Desire to accomplish things the easy way—with the sure aid of mental science.
4. You can build radiant health, success, and happiness by the thoughts you think in the
hidden studio of your mind.
5. Experiment scientifically until you personally prove that there is always a direct
response from the infinite intelligence of your subconscious mind to your conscious
thinking.
6. Feel the joy and restfulness in foreseeing the certain accomplishment of your desire.
Any mental picture, which you have in your mind, is the substance of things hoped for
and the evidence of things not seen.
7. A mental picture is worth a thousand words. Your subconscious will bring to pass any
picture held in the mind backed by faith.
8. Avoid all effort or mental coercion in prayer. Get into a sleepy, drowsy state and lull
yourself to sleep feeling and knowing that your prayer is answered.
9. Remember that the thankful heart is always close to the riches of the universe.
10. To affirm is to state that it is so, and as you maintain this attitude of mind as true,
regardless of all evidence to the contrary, you will receive an answer to your prayer.
11. Generate electronic waves of harmony, health, and peace by thinking of the love and
the glory of God.
12. What you decree and feel as true will come to pass. Decree harmony, health, peace,
and abundance.

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The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy Chapter 6 – Practical Techniques in Mental Healings