Affirmative Prayer: a Joseph Murphy practice guide

How to practise

Write one believable sentence in positive language, repeat it slowly, and pause when repetition becomes tense or compulsive. An affirmation is a reflective practice, not evidence that a claim is medically or factually true.

Relevant source passages

Source page 65. The Affirmative Method The effectiveness of an affirmation is determined largely by your understanding of the truth and the meaning back of the words, “In 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.…

Source page 66. 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. 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…

Use with care

Treat this as educational reflection. It does not establish causation, predict outcomes, or replace medical, mental-health, legal, financial, relationship, or safety advice.

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