Mark: You know that old saying, 'seeing is believing'? Total nonsense. According to our book today, the real power lies in believing before you see. In fact, what you believe is precisely what you will end up seeing, for better or for worse. Michelle: Okay, that's a bold claim to start with. You're basically flipping reality on its head. What book are we diving into that makes such a provocative argument? Mark: We are talking about the classic, and honestly, pretty controversial book, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy. It was first published back in 1963 and has sold millions of copies. Michelle: I've definitely seen that title around. It feels like one of those foundational self-help books. Mark: It absolutely is. And what's fascinating about Murphy is his background. He started out training to be a Jesuit priest, left that, became a pharmacist, and then a hugely popular New Thought minister in Los Angeles. So he's mixing spirituality, psychology, and even a bit of a pharmacist's 'here's the prescription' mindset into his writing. Michelle: A priest-turned-pharmacist-turned-minister. That is a wild resume. Okay, 'controversial' is my favorite word. Let's start with the foundational idea. You said believing is seeing. How does Murphy claim that even works?

Mark: He starts by saying we don't have two minds, but one mind with two very distinct functions. He calls them the objective mind and the subjective mind. Michelle: Let me guess, that's just a fancy way of saying the conscious and subconscious mind? Mark: Exactly. The conscious, or objective mind, is the one you're using right now to listen and reason. It deals with the outside world. But the subconscious, or subjective mind, is the real powerhouse. And to explain their relationship, Murphy uses this brilliant analogy. Michelle: I love a good analogy. Lay it on me. Mark: He says to think of yourself as the captain of a great ship. Your conscious mind is that captain. You're on the bridge, looking at the maps, using the compass, making decisions, and giving orders. Michelle: Okay, I'm with you. I'm the captain of my own destiny, steering my ship. Mark: Right. But the subconscious mind is the crew down in the engine room. They don't see where you're going. They don't question the orders. If the captain says, "Full steam ahead," they pour on the coal. If the captain, whether through incompetence or a faulty compass, gives an order that sends the ship straight towards an iceberg, the crew in the engine room will execute that order with the exact same efficiency. They will work just as hard to crash the ship as they would to bring it to a beautiful port. Michelle: Whoa. So my subconscious is like a giant, powerful toddler with the keys to a battleship? It'll do whatever I tell it, even if the instruction is 'crash into that iceberg'? Mark: That is a perfect way to put it. The subconscious does not argue. It accepts your dominant thoughts and beliefs as its commands. Murphy gives a simple example. He talks about a person who repeatedly says, "I get indigestion if I eat mushrooms." They've given a clear order to the crew. So, when they eat mushrooms, the subconscious mind says, "Aye, aye, Captain! Indigestion coming right up!" and faithfully produces the physical symptom. Michelle: That's both terrifying and incredibly empowering. It means we're constantly programming ourselves, whether we know it or not. My daily anxieties, my little complaints... those are all orders I'm sending down to the engine room. Mark: Precisely. Every fear, every limiting belief, every negative assumption is a command. The book argues that so many of our struggles—with health, with money, with relationships—stem from the fact that we are terrible captains. We're giving chaotic, contradictory, and often self-destructive orders. Michelle: Okay, so that's the problem. And it's a big one. How do we become better captains? How do we start giving the right orders?

Mark: And that's the million-dollar question, which leads to Murphy's most radical and, for many, most unbelievable claim: you can give it orders to heal your own body. He calls the subconscious the "master chemist." Michelle: Okay, hold on. This is where it gets tricky for me. We're not talking about just getting over a mushroom aversion anymore. Are we talking about serious diseases? Because that sounds... dangerous. Mark: This is exactly why the book is so polarizing and often criticized as pseudoscience. Murphy is not subtle here. His logic is that the subconscious mind directed the building of your body from a single cell. It knows every tissue, every nerve, every function. It holds the perfect blueprint. Therefore, it can also repair it. Michelle: The logic is... elegant, I'll give him that. But the real world is messy. Does he have any stories to back this up? Mark: He has dozens, and some of them are truly wild. There's one about a student who had a severe eye condition. His ophthalmologist told him he needed surgery. The student had been attending Murphy's lectures and decided to try one of the techniques. Michelle: What did he do? Just tell himself his eyes were fine? Mark: Something even more specific. Every night, before falling asleep, he would get into a drowsy, relaxed state. And in that state, he would vividly imagine his eye doctor standing in front of him. He would imagine the doctor examining his eyes and then hear him exclaim, over and over, "A miracle has happened! A miracle has happened!" He didn't focus on the problem; he focused on the feeling of the desired solution. Michelle: He's basically creating a mental movie of his healing. What happened? Mark: He did this for about three weeks. He went back for his pre-surgery check-up. The ophthalmologist examined him, looked up in complete astonishment, and said, "This is a miracle!" The condition had cleared up. Michelle: That's a goosebumps story. The power of pure, unconflicted belief. But it also brings up a really difficult question. What about the flip side? If it doesn't work, does Murphy just say you didn't believe hard enough? That feels like it could lead to a lot of guilt and self-blame. Mark: You've hit on the core criticism of the book. For every inspirational story, there's the potential for someone to feel like a failure if they don't get the same result. Murphy's answer would be that it’s not about brute-force willpower. You can't just shout "I am healed!" at your subconscious. He says the key is to avoid mental conflict. The student didn't say "My eyes are perfect," because his conscious mind knew that wasn't true and would reject it. Instead, he created a feeling and a scene that the subconscious could accept without argument. Michelle: That's a subtle but crucial distinction. It's about finding a belief you can actually get behind emotionally. Mark: Exactly. And that same principle of avoiding mental conflict is the key to how he suggests we approach another area where our minds are a battlefield of contradiction: money.

Michelle: Right, because if there's one area full of conflicting thoughts, it's wealth. We're taught 'money is the root of all evil' but also 'I need to pay my rent.' The captain is shouting two different destinations at once. Mark: And the crew in the engine room gets confused and the ship just goes in circles. Murphy argues that poverty is a kind of mental disease. He says many people have a 'poverty-type mind.' They are constantly dwelling on lack, on bills, on what they can't afford. So, their subconscious faithfully creates more lack. Michelle: So just chanting "I am a millionaire" a hundred times a day isn't going to work if you're simultaneously panicking about your credit card bill. Mark: It will actually make things worse! Because your conscious mind is screaming, "Liar!" and that conflict neutralizes the whole effort. The dominant idea—the feeling of lack—wins. The key is to give the subconscious an order it won't fight. He tells this amazing story about a salesman who was barely scraping by. Michelle: Let me hear it. Mark: This guy was making about $75 a week, feeling like a total failure. He started a simple practice. Every morning while shaving, he'd look himself in the eye in the mirror and say, with as much conviction as he could muster, "You are wealthy. You are a big success." He did this for weeks. Michelle: So he's talking to his reflection. What happened? Mark: After about eight weeks, he was suddenly promoted to sales manager with a salary of $12,000 a year—a massive jump at the time. He leapfrogged over 80 other salesmen in the company. Michelle: That's a great story, but in today's world, that could sound a bit like 'hustle culture' delusion. How does this differ from just 'faking it till you make it'? Mark: That's a fantastic question. Murphy would say the key isn't the words, but the feeling and the conviction. You're not faking it for others; you're genuinely reprogramming your own inner operating system. The man in the mirror wasn't just saying words; he was impressing a new idea of himself onto his subconscious. His subconscious then started guiding his actions, his confidence, his decisions, in a way that led to success. He became a person who was worth that salary. Michelle: So the external change is a reflection of the internal change. The promotion wasn't magic; it was the result of his subconscious steering him differently. Mark: That's the core idea. The subconscious magnifies whatever you deposit in it. Deposit thoughts of success, and it will give you success in return.

Michelle: So, whether it's health, wealth, or just not getting sick from mushrooms, it all comes back to one thing: the orders you're giving your subconscious. And most of us are probably giving terrible, contradictory orders all day long without even realizing it. Mark: Exactly. The most profound, and frankly, scariest takeaway from Murphy is that your subconscious is always on, always listening. He calls it a 'blank check.' You can write 'health and success' on it, or you can write 'fear and failure.' The power is immense, which makes our responsibility to direct our own thoughts immense as well. It’s not just about positive thinking; it’s about mental hygiene. Michelle: I like that term, 'mental hygiene.' It's less about forcing happiness and more about cleaning up the junk in our own heads. So maybe the one thing our listeners can do today is just to listen. Listen to their own internal chatter for five minutes. Are you the captain giving clear directions to paradise, or are you just shouting random, panicked things at the crew? Mark: That's a perfect challenge. What orders are you giving right now? Are they taking you where you want to go? Let us know what you discover. We're always curious to hear how these ideas land with you all. Michelle: It’s a powerful thought to end on. Thanks, Mark. Mark: This is Aibrary, signing off.