14

The Cosmic Power and Your Future

YOU MOLD, FASHION, and create your own future by your present thoughts made manifest, because, as Emerson said, “You are what you think all day long.” Change your present thoughts and you change your whole life. You can direct the Cosmic Power within you and thereby control your life experiences; you can actually bring to pass the cherished desires of your heart.

Your mind is constantly in motion as thoughts, images, ideas, dreams, and aspirations come and go. Your world is constantly changing in harmony with your habitual thinking. You create for yourself success or failure, affluence or poverty, health or sickness, and peace or pain by your conscious and subconscious thought. For as a man thinketh in his heart (subconscious mind), so is he . . . (Proverbs 23:7). Any thought of yours—good or bad—if consciously accepted, is implanted in your subconscious mind, and it comes forth after its kind. This is why you create your own future.

HOW A NEW FUTURE WAS GAINED THROUGH COSMIC HEALING POWER

A few weeks ago I visited in the hospital a man who had undergone a major operation. He told me that his kidneys had completely given up functioning, and he asked me to pray for him, saying, “I have no future. I’m only forty, but I suppose I’m done for. What will happen to my family? Prayer is all that’s left!”

I said to him that his first step was his willingness to believe that the Cosmic Healing Power which made his body and all its organs could restore and heal him. We prayed together as follows:

We join together now in knowing that the Cosmic Healing Power which made your body and all its organs knows all the processes and functions of your body, and the miraculous Healing Power is permeating every atom of your being, making you whole and perfect. All your organs are God’s ideas, and through the power of the Almighty they are functioning perfectly now.

After about fifteen minutes our prayer was answered and his kidneys began to function, which pleased his surgeon immensely. He is now back with his family and in perfect health, and, while conferring with me recently, he said, “My future is assured. I know that my future is my present thought grown up.”

This man knows that his faith in the goodness of God, in the guidance of God, and in the creative power of his own thought will always be made manifest in his life. With this attitude, he is building a glorious future for himself full of harmony, health, peace, and abundance.

HOW TO ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FUTURE

Some months ago I had an interview with a man who was blaming circumstances, God, fate, bad luck, and his in-laws for his unhappy and inharmonious condition. I explained to him that all of God’s riches were available to him: health, wealth, love, peace, harmony, and the Cosmic Creative Power, which he could instantly contact through the medium of his thought. I emphasized the fact that it was up to him to make his own future whatever he wanted it to be, but that he had to open his mind to receive the bounty of God. Here is the formula I prescribed for him, which I called mental and spiritual medicine.

First step. Take all your attention away from old hurts, grievances, resentments, and rankling memories, and cease all self-condemnation or criticism of others.

Second step. Take time out morning and evening to implant in your subconscious mind by regular, systematic, and constructive thinking, the mental patterns of harmony, abundance, security, success, and full expression.

Third step. Instantly chop off the head of every thought of fear, worry, sickness, defeat, discouragement, or lack of any kind. This means that you cremate or burn up every negative thought by immediately substituting constructive thoughts, such as harmony, peace, love, joy, right action, and Divine guidance.

He undertook this mental discipline, and in a month’s time he noticed a most remarkable change in his affairs—in all phases of his life. He held on to this new mental and spiritual regimen, perseveringly and unflinchingly, and discovered that as he changed his mind he changed everything. His business prospered, he sleeps better at night, he has ceased blaming others, and he is going ahead by leaps and bounds.

He said to me, “I realize that my future is my invisible thinking made visible.” This is the truth that set him free.

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO CHANGE FOR THE BETTER

I recently explained to a young woman that the future was in her own hands and that she could do literally anything with her life, because it was her life. The truth is that she could actually change her future.

She had thought heretofore that her future was in the hands of God and that she could not determine and create her own destiny. She pointed out to me that her mother had always told her that God knew best and that she should take what comes and be content. I explained to her that this isn’t the truth, that she had to take the initiative, and that God, the Cosmic Power, would not work for her except through her—i.e., through her thought and imagination.

She adopted an intelligent plan and decided to run her life as methodically and efficiently as a successful person operates his business. The following mental technique was outlined for her with the instruction that she was to affirm these truths three times a day feelingly and knowingly, and with a deep understanding that every thought tends to execute itself unless neutralized by a counterthought:

I am now designing and mapping out my own future. I am a child of God, and I have the capacity to think, feel, imagine, act, and react. From this moment forward I choose harmony, health, peace, abundance, Divine right action, happiness, and love. I know that these thoughts are like seeds placed in the ground, which contain the complete program for their full development. Likewise, my subconscious mind knows how to bring forth all the mental seeds I am depositing in my mind. I know my thought and feeling create my destiny, and I rejoice that it is so.

In less than three weeks, by following the above technique and prayer process, she had added color, vitality, joy, happiness, and luxuries to her life. She subsequently married a young physicist, has gone on a trip around the world, and has experienced a wonderful mental transformation, whereby her life now has color, beauty, and love. She has discovered that the normal desires and demands of the full life can be met in an intelligent manner since she has permitted herself to become a creative outlet for the Cosmic Power within her.

She told me, “It is wonderful to know that I am a child of God and that God is releasing and expressing Himself through me and that I create my own future.”

WHY YOU ARE ALWAYS PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

You are “always” planning for the future, because if you are thinking or planning something for the future, you are thinking about it now. Likewise, if you are fearing delays, obstacles, and impediments to your future plans, you are thinking of these things now. In the Cosmic Mind there is no time or place—only the Eternal now. It is omnipresent, timeless, and spaceless.

There are many people who get the weekend off and look forward to blue Monday, or “black Monday,” as some call it. Naturally it becomes a day of confusion and depression to them, as they had consciously decreed their future and their subconscious had responded accordingly. In all probability, they didn’t even know that they had planned ahead and had thus created their future.

When you really want to change your future, you will come to a decision to change your thoughts, feelings, actions, and reactions. You can have a new birthday in God when you realize that your mind is a part of the Cosmic Mind and that the Cosmic Power is with your thoughts of good. You can be transformed and you can build a glorious and wonderful future by the renewal of your mind.

HOW A YOUNG WOMAN DISCOVERED SHE HAS WHAT IT TAKES TO FACE LIFE

A few years ago while lecturing at the Psychic Science College in Belfast, Ireland, I interviewed a young woman who said to me, “I haven’t got the power to handle my troubles and difficulties or to meet and solve the problems of life. I’m divorced. I hate myself, and I’m no good.”

I explained to her that her condition was simply due to habitual negative thinking, and to constant self-criticism and self-condemnation which were poisoning the springs of hope, faith, confidence, and enthusiasm and were rendering her a physical and mental wreck. In other words, she was taking mental, self-generated poisons, and she was polluting the sanctuary of the Living God within her.

I explained the laws of mind to her and pointed out that she is constantly reaping what she sows in her subconscious mind; that she was here, like everybody else, to overcome problems, challenges, and difficulties and to lead a victorious life; that she had to stand up as a child of God and meet life boldly; and to realize and utilize the tremendous Cosmic Power within her.

I told her the story of how Eddie Rickenbacker, the famous aviator, and his companions were shipwrecked and were adrift on a raft in the Pacific Ocean. He prayed for food, and a gull came and perched on his head and remained long enough to be seized and utilized for food. He prayed to be rescued, and of course he was picked up. He believed in the wisdom and power of God to take care of him and the answer came, for the Cosmic Power answers you when you call, believing.

This episode made a profound impression on the young Irish lady. I gave her the following prayer, pointing out that it was a process of reconditioning her mind and that when negative thoughts of any kind came to her mind—which they would because of her destructive habit of self-condemnation and self-demotion—she was to immediately supplant them with a spiritual thought. This is the prayer which she was to repeat out loud for about ten minutes, morning and night:

I am a child of God. I am a channel of God, and God has need of me where I am, otherwise I would not be here. I know I am here to express more and more of God’s love, life, truth, and beauty. I am here to do my share and to contribute to humanity. I have much to give; I can give love, laughter, joy, confidence, and goodwill to all people, to all animals, and to all things in God’s universe.

I am here to stir up the gift of God within me. I realize that I am a gardener, mentally speaking, and as I sow, so shall I reap in life. Life is a mirror for the king as well as for the beggar, and whatever I give to life, life returns to me magnified, multiplied, and running over. I deposit in the garden of my mind wonderful seeds of peace, love, goodwill, success, harmony, and joy.

I forgive myself for harboring negative, destructive thoughts, and I pour out love and goodwill to all my relatives and to all people everywhere. I know when I have forgiven others, because when I meet them in my mind there is no sting; I am free.

I am constantly drawing out the fruit of the delightful seeds I am depositing in my subconscious mind. I know that my thoughts, like seeds, will be made manifest as form, function, experience, and conditions. I think on these things, and the Cosmic Power is with my thoughts of good. I am at peace.

She repeated the above prayer for the recommended ten minutes in the morning and evening, realizing that her eyes saw these truths and her ears heard them, bringing the two faculties of sight and hearing into function, thereby reinforcing the power of her affirmations. After a few weeks, I received the following letter:

Dear Dr. Murphy: All of us enjoyed your lectures in Belfast; you opened the eyes of many. I would like to tell you of the change that has come over me.

I prayed the way you told me, and after a few days all the bitterness in my soul disappeared as if by magic. I joined a dancing class, and I have been promoted in the store to the position of head of my department. The assistant manager proposed marriage to me, and we are to be married in six months! I have forgiven myself and my relatives.

Every day is a new day. I know that I predict my own future by the way I think, feel, and imagine. I am grateful. God bless you!

HOW A SALESMAN CHANGED HIS MIND AND CHANGED HIS DESTINY

Some months ago a young salesman came to see me. He said that he could not get along with his boss; he had failed to make his quota of sales and had lost his job; and he was out of money. He had walked ten miles to see his sister in Hollywood in the hope of borrowing a few hundred dollars. His sister refused, saying that until he stopped drinking and philandering she would not give him a penny, and she coldly turned him away.

He told me that he had slept in a flop-house and that the kindly desk man had told him to see me and that I would help him. I spent over an hour with him, listening to his sob story of grief, disappointments, and anger and resentment toward his former boss and members of his family who had refused to help him.

He said that he was a member of a church; that he religiously followed all the rules, tenets, rituals, and ceremonies; that he attended every Sunday morning—but still everything went against him. This young man also was angry even at God for letting him down.

In many instances, the explanation is the cure. Patiently and kindly, I explained to him that he could keep and follow all the prescribed rules, rituals, doctrines, and dogmas of a church from an external standpoint, and still think negatively and destructively. I told him that if he believed in a punitive God, or that God had not played fair with him, such beliefs automatically would bring trouble and difficulties on him. In other words, he becomes his own tormentor and brings failure, lack, and misfortune on himself, for it is done unto him as he believes.

I explained to him that the first step is to admit that he had been wrong; then he could be completely changed in all phases of his life. My mental and spiritual prescription for him was as follows:

“Form a mental image of yourself as a great salesman; imagine that your relatives and I are congratulating you on your new and wonderful position and on your promotion and outstanding success. Run this mental movie frequently, and the Cosmic Power within you will lead and guide you to a new position with wonderful opportunities for advancement.”

He decided to do just what I recommended. He did not overcome his problems of resentment toward his boss and his relatives all at once; but whenever he thought of them or his boss, he silently blessed them by saying: I release you; God be with you. After a few weeks, he was completely free of his grudges, resentment, and hostility.

He now occupies an executive position in one of the leading organizations in Los Angeles, and he bubbles over with enthusiasm. He glows with the power, enthusiasm, and zeal of a transformed man. He has proved the age-old doctrine, “Change your thought and you change your future.”

SUMMARY

POINTS TO RECALL

1. You mold, fashion, and create your own destiny. Your future is your present thought made manifest on the screen of space.
2. The first step in changing your mind, body, and environment is to believe that the Cosmic Healing Power which made your body can heal you and bring into your life all kinds of blessings. The Cosmic Power is all-wise.
3. You must assume responsibility for your future and cease blaming your in-laws, God, life, and the universe. You can instantly contact the Cosmic Power through the medium of your thought and make your future what you want it to be.
4. Take time out morning and evening to implant in your mind, by regular, systematic, and constructive thinking, the mental patterns of success, prosperity, abundance, right action, harmony, and full expression.
5. Your future is in your own hands for the simple reason that whatever you sow in your mind, you will reap on the screen of space. To think that your future is in the hands of God and not dependent on your own initiative is rank superstition. Your thought and your feeling create your destiny.
6. You can always plan for the future. If you are planning something in the future, you are planning it now—this instant—in your mind. Likewise, if you are fearing delays, obstacles, and impediments, you are thinking of these things now and creating the delays you fear. In the Cosmic Mind there is no time or space; all is the Eternal now. Plan something glorious and wonderful now in your mind.
7. Meet your challenges, problems, and difficulties boldly. Realize that the problem is there—but God is there, too; then every problem is Divinely outmatched. Stand up to the problem as a child of God and grapple with it courageously, and the Cosmic Power will instantly come to your aid. When you begin, God begins.
8. You predict your own future by the way in which you think, feel, imagine, act, and react.
9. You can follow all the rules, tenets, rituals, and ceremonies of a particular church and still be miserable, frustrated, and unhappy. You, and only you are responsible for the way you think and believe.
10. Change your thought-life and you change your destiny.