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 is 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 naiveté.
Your Subconscious Will Accept Your Blueprint
If you were building a new home for yourself and your 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 waving 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 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 mind will accept your blueprint and bring all these things to pass. By their fruits ye shall know them.
The Science & 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 mold from which the building will emerge – a beautiful or an ugly one, a skyscraper or a very low one. His mental imagery is projected and 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; each one of them illumined and inspired by the infinite healing presence. 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.
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
