The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
Good Fit
- Readers interested in the self-help/positive-thinking genre looking for simple, repeatable techniques
- Anyone wanting to understand how prayer and belief "work" through a psychological rather than religious lens
- Readers who want to encounter one of the foundational texts of the 1963 "New Thought" movement in its original form
- Readers who enjoy a simple, everyday, non-academic writing style
Not a Fit
- Readers looking for scientific/empirical evidence or neuroscience-based argumentation — the book is religious-philosophical in tone, not grounded in clinical research
- Anyone skeptical of "magical thinking" who wants only evidence-based therapy methods
- Readers who can't tolerate a repetitive, somewhat sermon-like tone
Murphy opens with a series of questions about the contradictory fates of different people — why one person is happy and another unhappy, why one recovers from serious illness and another doesn't, why one succeeds while another struggles their whole life. He claims the answer lies in how the conscious and subconscious mind operate.
The author grounds his reason for writing the book in personal experience — he claims he recovered from a malignant tumor using "the healing power of the subconscious," presents this as the book's central "proof," and quotes an old proverb: "The doctor dresses the wound; God heals it."
The book's central thesis: in any religious tradition (Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Jewish), prayer "works" not because of a specific religion, ritual form, or liturgy, but because of the "law of belief" — whatever the mind accepts is realized by the subconscious.
Murphy promises the book will offer not just theory but simple techniques immediately applicable in daily life — a selling point repeated throughout the Introduction, which recommends reading the book carefully, more than once.
Toward the end of the section, the author raises the question "What do you believe?" and argues that what secures a person's desires is not the SPECIFIC thing they believe in, but simply the mind's process of acceptance — the philosophical core underlying every later chapter.
Stylistically, the text is clearly written in a sermon-like register — many rhetorical questions, repetition, "I promise you" phrasing — likely the main obstacle for a reader seeking scientific precision, but also a key reason for the genre's popularity.
- Simple, everyday language, no academic jargon
- A tone close to a sermon, built on repeated rhetorical questions and repetition
- Chapter titles are framed as practical promises ("The Miracle-Working Power of Your Subconscious," "How to Use It for Wealth," etc.)
- Repeatedly reprinted since its 1963 original, one of the best-selling examples of the "New Thought" tradition
Another classic example of the same "New Thought" tradition
A modern, popularized version of the same core ideas
After the Introduction, the book builds its theoretical foundation with "How Your Mind Works" and "The Miracle-Working Power of Your Subconscious," then moves into ancient and modern techniques of "mental healing."
The second half of the book is devoted entirely to practical applications — step-by-step "subconscious programming" scripts for wealth, marriage problems, sleep, human relationships, forgiveness, overcoming fear, and staying spiritually young, closing with a chapter on how scientists use the subconscious mind.
If you see a problem, write to us. Publisher, author, rights holder, or just a reader — it doesn't matter. If there's something problematic about copyright in this review, if the review's author has broken the site's rules, or if you simply have a suggestion or complaint, hey@kitabdanevar.com. We'd rather resolve this between ourselves than go to court: we review requests within 48 hours and, if needed, correct or fully remove the review.
