THE POWER OF YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND
Reading Notes
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
My chapter-by-chapter notes on belief, suggestion, healing, success, sleep, relationships and the inner patterns Murphy believes shape everyday life.
Jump to ChaptersWhat I think this book is really about
I expected a simple “think positive” book, but Murphy is more interested in repetition than optimism. His central claim is that the subconscious responds to ideas that are repeatedly accepted with feeling, whether those ideas are helpful or harmful.
Every later subject—health, money, work, sleep, marriage, happiness, forgiveness and fear—comes back to that same pattern. The conscious mind chooses and reasons; the subconscious turns accepted beliefs into automatic expectations and behaviour.
Some stories are dated and some claims go much further than modern evidence. Still, the book raises a useful question: what have I repeated so often that it now feels like a fact about me?
Ideas that keep returning
Choose a chapter
Understanding the Mind
How This Book Can Work Miracles in Your Life
Murphy starts by asking why two people can face similar circumstances and end up living completely different lives. His answer is that the difference often begins in the beliefs they repeatedly accept. He wants the reader to stop treating thought as something harmless and temporary, because repeated thought eventually becomes expectation, and expectation quietly shapes behaviour.
The word miracle appears often, but the practical idea underneath it is simpler: the conscious mind chooses a thought, while the subconscious receives the emotional impression behind it. Prayer, visualization and repeated statements are presented as ways of making that impression clearer.
I found it useful to read this introduction as Murphy's promise for the rest of the book. He is not going to argue every claim scientifically. He is going to give stories, techniques and examples, all built around the belief that the mind responds to what it repeatedly accepts as true.
The book makes more sense when prayer is read as focused belief rather than only a religious ritual.
The Treasure House Within You
The main idea lands immediately: the resources we keep searching for outside ourselves may already exist as possibilities within the mind. Murphy compares the subconscious to a hidden treasure house, not because it hands out rewards automatically, but because it stores the beliefs, images and expectations that guide so much of daily life.
He separates the mind into two working parts. The conscious mind reasons, chooses and evaluates. The subconscious accepts the ideas that pass through often enough and then acts from them. That distinction is the foundation of the entire book, so I kept coming back to it whenever later chapters started sounding mystical.
One of the clearest images here is the gardener and the soil. The conscious mind chooses the seeds; the subconscious grows them. The soil does not decide whether the seed is useful. That is why Murphy keeps warning against casually repeating things such as “I can’t afford it,” “I always fail,” or “nothing works for me.”
Conscious thought is the gatekeeper; repeated feeling is what makes an idea sink deeper.
How Your Own Mind Works
This chapter made the conscious–subconscious split much easier to picture. Murphy calls the conscious mind objective because it deals with the outer world through the senses. The subconscious is subjective: it works from impressions, memories and suggestions, and it does not argue with an accepted premise in the same way the conscious mind does.
The examples about suggestion are the part I would want to remember. The same statement can affect two people differently because each person already carries a different set of beliefs. A negative suggestion only gains power when it is accepted. That does not mean words can never hurt; it means the mind still has a role in deciding which words become inner truth.
Autosuggestion is introduced as a practical counterweight. Instead of waiting for outside voices to define us, Murphy encourages deliberately repeating a calmer and more constructive idea until it feels familiar. It is less about saying a sentence once and more about changing the inner conversation that runs all day.
The subconscious follows the accepted premise; it does not stop to debate whether the premise is wise.
The Miracle-Working Power of Your Subconscious
Murphy treats the subconscious as the body's silent caretaker. Breathing, circulation, healing and countless other processes continue without conscious supervision, and he uses that fact to argue that the same inner intelligence can be approached through calm expectation rather than fear.
The strongest practical advice is saved for the moments before sleep. When the conscious mind becomes quieter, a clear request or mental picture can be repeated without the usual argument and tension. Murphy suggests handing over one problem at a time, imagining the desired result and then letting the mind rest instead of continuing to force an answer.
Some of the healing claims are much stronger than modern evidence would support, so I would not treat this chapter as a replacement for medical care. The useful part is the relationship between stress, expectation and recovery: fear keeps the mind circling the problem, while calm imagery can change how a person copes with it.
Use mental techniques alongside proper care, not instead of it.
Belief, Healing & Inner Direction
Mental Healings in Ancient Times
Shrines, rituals, sacred objects and dramatic ceremonies look very different on the surface, yet Murphy sees the same pattern beneath them: belief becomes emotionally real, the subconscious accepts the suggestion, and the body or behaviour responds.
The stories from religious and historical traditions are less important than the mechanism he wants us to notice. A person expects healing, the setting strengthens that expectation, and the ritual gives the mind something concrete to trust. The object itself may not be the active ingredient; the meaning attached to it is.
This chapter also shows how suggestion can produce harmful effects. If fear and expectation can create physical symptoms, then belief is not automatically good simply because it is powerful. The direction of the suggestion matters.
Different rituals may work through the same psychological channel: belief, expectation and emotional acceptance.
Mental Healings in Modern Times
The language changes from temples and shrines to hypnosis, therapy and prayer treatment, but Murphy's basic argument stays the same. Healing begins when the conscious and subconscious stop pulling in opposite directions.
He distinguishes blind faith from what he calls subjective faith. Blind faith depends heavily on a healer, object or ceremony. Subjective faith is the person's own inner acceptance that improvement is possible. Murphy clearly prefers the second because it gives the individual an active role rather than making them dependent on someone else's presence.
Absent treatment is also discussed here: holding a calm mental image of another person as healthy and at peace. Whether one accepts the metaphysical claim or not, the emotional discipline is interesting—it asks the helper to stop rehearsing fear and instead relate to the person through hope.
Murphy's ‘prayer therapy’ means aligning thought and feeling around one accepted result.
Practical Techniques in Mental Healings
This is the toolbox chapter. Murphy gathers several ways of impressing an idea on the subconscious, and the variety matters because not everyone responds to the same method.
Visualization means seeing the finished result as clearly as possible. The mental-movie method adds movement and detail, almost like replaying a short scene in the mind. The sleeping technique uses the drowsy state before sleep, while the thank-you method creates the feeling that the answer is already on its way.
The most sensible advice is to avoid strain. An affirmation repeated while another part of the mind is shouting “this is false” only creates more conflict. A shorter, gentler phrase often works better because it can be repeated without an internal fight.
Choose the technique that produces calm acceptance, not the one that sounds most impressive.
The Tendency of the Subconscious Is Lifeward
Murphy's view of the subconscious is fundamentally optimistic. He believes its natural direction is toward preservation, balance and life, just as the body automatically repairs a cut or fights infection.
The difficulty, in his view, is that conscious fear can interfere with this natural movement. Worry does not switch off the body's intelligence, but it can keep a person tense, sleepless and focused on danger. The repeated message here is that health should be treated as the normal pattern rather than illness being treated as an identity.
I would keep the psychological point and be cautious with the medical certainty. Seeing yourself as capable of recovery can support healthier choices; blaming every illness on wrong thinking would be unfair and inaccurate.
A hopeful mental attitude may support recovery, but illness is not proof that someone thought incorrectly.
How to Get the Results You Want
Trying harder is not always the answer. Murphy calls attention to the law of reversed effort: when desire and imagination conflict, imagination often wins. Telling yourself to relax while imagining failure only makes the tension stronger.
The better approach is surprisingly gentle. Define the result, picture it simply, and let the image become familiar without wrestling with it. The mind responds more easily to a believable scene than to desperate repetition.
This chapter helped explain why some affirmations feel useless. The words may say one thing while the emotional picture says the opposite. Results become more likely when the sentence, image and feeling all point in the same direction.
Do not use willpower to bully the subconscious; remove the inner contradiction.
Wealth, Work & Success
How to Use the Power of Your Subconscious for Wealth
Wealth is treated first as a state of mind, not a number. Murphy argues that someone can want money consciously while carrying a deeper belief that wealth is selfish, dangerous or unavailable to people like them. That hidden conflict weakens every positive statement they make.
He suggests building what he calls wealth consciousness: becoming comfortable with the ideas of supply, opportunity and fair exchange. The point is not to stare at money and wait. It is to stop rehearsing lack so constantly that every decision is made from fear.
One phrase I would avoid taking literally is the idea that the subconscious simply sends money. A more grounded reading is that expectation changes attention. People who believe opportunities exist are more likely to notice, prepare for and act on them.
A statement about wealth fails when it immediately triggers an opposite belief.
Your Right to Be Rich
Murphy pushes back against the idea that poverty is noble or that money is morally dirty. Money is presented as a symbol of exchange. It can support freedom, education, comfort and generosity, but it should not become the whole definition of a successful life.
Resenting people who have more is described as a hidden way of rejecting wealth itself. If the mind connects money with guilt or dishonesty, it will naturally resist the very thing the conscious mind claims to want.
The balanced message is better than the dramatic language: earn honestly, respect money without worshipping it, and expect compensation that matches the value you create.
The chapter argues for a healthy relationship with money, not obsession with money.
Your Subconscious Mind as a Partner in Success
Success is broken into three parts: love the work, become skilled at it, and make sure it contributes something beyond personal gain. That is a much richer definition than simply becoming famous or wealthy.
Murphy's stories usually follow the same pattern. A person forms a clear picture of the role, business or opportunity they want, keeps returning to it, and then acts when a path becomes visible. The mental image does not replace work; it keeps effort organized around a direction.
The most practical technique here is to imagine the satisfaction of the completed result before sleep. It gives the mind a specific target and may help ideas connect in the background.
True success in this chapter includes usefulness, not just personal reward.
Scientists Use the Subconscious Mind
This chapter is full of people who stopped forcing an answer and allowed it to surface later. Scientists, inventors and researchers would study a problem carefully, leave it alone for a while, and sometimes wake with a useful connection they had not consciously made.
Murphy calls this guidance from the subconscious. A modern reader might describe it as incubation: the brain continues sorting information even after deliberate effort pauses. Either way, the method is practical—gather the facts, define the question clearly, then create enough quiet for an answer to emerge.
The important detail is preparation. The subconscious cannot combine information that was never studied. Inspiration works best after serious attention, not instead of it.
First load the mind with the problem; then stop squeezing it for an immediate answer.
Sleep, Relationships & Happiness
Your Subconscious and the Wonders of Sleep
Sleep is not treated as dead time. Murphy sees it as a period when the conscious mind becomes quiet and the subconscious continues its work—maintaining the body, sorting experience and sometimes presenting an answer through dreams or sudden insight.
Several stories involve people placing a question before the mind at bedtime and waking with clearer judgment. The useful habit is simple: end the day with one calm request instead of carrying ten anxieties into bed.
The chapter is also an unexpectedly strong argument for getting enough sleep. Murphy connects sleep loss with poor judgment, irritability and reduced performance long before sleep advice became common in productivity books.
The bedtime request should be clear and calm; rumination is not the same as guidance.
Your Subconscious Mind and Marital Problems
Murphy believes relationships are often shaped long before the wedding by the picture each person carries of love, trust and partnership. Someone who repeatedly expects rejection or betrayal may enter relationships already prepared to find it.
He warns against trying to remake a spouse through criticism. Rehearsing another person's faults all day keeps those faults emotionally alive and usually creates more defensiveness. His alternative is not passive tolerance of harm; it is to communicate honestly while refusing to turn resentment into a permanent inner habit.
Some of the marriage advice reflects the era in which the book was written, so it should not be treated as a modern guide to every relationship. The enduring part is the reminder that contempt, nagging and silent brooding damage connection long before a formal separation.
Positive thinking is not a reason to remain in an unsafe or abusive relationship.
Your Subconscious Mind and Your Happiness
Happiness is described as a habit of attention. Murphy does not deny that circumstances matter, but he argues that many people postpone all happiness until a condition is met: more money, a different job, a perfect relationship or some future success.
His alternative is to choose a mental direction each morning. Gratitude, goodwill and a peaceful statement repeated at the start of the day are meant to prevent the mind from being claimed immediately by irritation and fear.
The line I kept from this chapter is that happiness is not something another person can hand over permanently. External events affect us, but the daily pattern of thought determines how long we stay trapped in each reaction.
Choosing happiness does not mean suppressing grief; it means not building a permanent home inside it.
Your Subconscious Mind and Harmonious Human Relations
The quickest summary of this chapter is the golden rule turned inward: the thoughts we repeatedly direct toward others also shape our own emotional state. Resentment keeps the person we dislike present in the mind long after the conversation ends.
Murphy gives examples of people whose inner speech held them back at work or made every social interaction feel hostile. The outer problem was not always imaginary, but the constant private rehearsal made it larger and harder to handle calmly.
Emotional maturity here means being able to disagree without surrendering control of your mind. Difficult people may still need boundaries. The goal is to act from judgment rather than letting their behaviour dictate your entire inner life.
Harmony is not appeasement; boundaries and goodwill can exist together.
How to Use Your Subconscious Mind for Forgiveness
Forgiveness is presented less as excusing another person and more as releasing the mental repetition of the injury. Every time the scene is replayed with the same anger, the body and mind experience part of it again.
Murphy also spends time on self-forgiveness. Guilt can be useful when it leads to responsibility and repair, but endless self-punishment does not undo the past. A person can admit harm, change behaviour and still refuse to define the rest of life by one action.
His ‘acid test’ is practical: if the person who hurt you received good news, could you hear it without being consumed by bitterness? Forgiveness may not be complete, but that question reveals where the wound still has control.
Forgiveness releases your attention; it does not erase accountability or require renewed contact.
Freedom from Old Patterns
How Your Subconscious Removes Mental Blocks
Mental blocks often look mysterious from the outside, but Murphy treats them as learned patterns. A habit is strengthened by repetition, emotional reward and the picture a person carries of themselves.
The stories about alcohol and other destructive habits focus on desire for freedom rather than endless focus on the habit. The person is encouraged to imagine the feeling of being free, respected and at peace until that future becomes more attractive than the old relief.
One useful question appears beneath all the techniques: how much do you actually want the change? Wanting the outcome while secretly protecting the habit creates a divided mind. Progress begins when the benefits of freedom become emotionally real.
Replace the identity built around the habit, not only the visible behaviour.
How to Use Your Subconscious Mind to Remove Fear
Fear grows through avoidance. Murphy uses the familiar principle of doing the thing you fear in small, repeated steps so the mind can learn a different association.
The chapter covers public speaking, elevators, water, failure and death, but the method is similar each time: relax the body, picture a safe encounter, then move gradually toward the real situation. Imagination is used as rehearsal rather than as another place to practise disaster.
This does not mean every fear is irrational or that severe anxiety disappears through one affirmation. The valuable part is the refusal to treat fear as an identity. A frightened response can be retrained.
For severe or traumatic fear, professional support can work alongside gradual mental rehearsal.
How to Stay Young in Spirit Forever
The final chapter separates age from usefulness. Murphy objects to the idea that retirement, wrinkles or a birthday automatically mean decline. The mind can remain curious, teachable and connected even while the body changes.
Many examples involve older people beginning new work, studying unfamiliar subjects or contributing through experience. The common thread is purpose. A person who still expects to learn and serve gives the mind a reason to stay engaged.
It is a fitting ending because it returns to the book's central claim: repeated inner assumptions become a way of living. “I am too old” can become as limiting as any other suggestion. The healthier question is not how many years have passed, but what remains worth exploring.
Growing older is unavoidable; mentally withdrawing from life is not.
What stayed with me
Looking back, the book is not really asking us to wish harder. It is asking us to notice the private statements and images repeated so often that they have become automatic. I would not take every claim literally, especially the medical ones, but the central habit of examining our inner language is still worth carrying forward.
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