The Genie Within: Your Subconscious Mind (32 page)

The second most important point is to use emotion. According to some studies in the scientific literature, the most import factors in prayer are expressing
love
and
compassion
. Interestingly, results of some studies show that when you pray for someone else, your prayer does as much, or more, good for you as it does for the person you are praying for.

The above is essential but the following are only suggestions that you might find helpful.

Rather than to start a prayer right off with an affirmation, establish a rapport with God. Just like when you talk to your subconscious mind, you should be friendly and courteous. Start with a greeting. This helps enrich your connection with God. You might use this part of your prayer to just pay homage to God.

Then you need to tune in to the Universal Mind. Tune in by acknowledging that the Universal Mind is all-knowing, has the answer to your prayer, and is available to you.

Then give your affirmative prayer.

After that, like any good, considerate person, say, “Thank you.” Be profusely thankful for the result, which you are already visualizing as fulfilled. Be thankful, not only for this result, but for
all
your blessings.

Then let it go. The Universal Mind knows how to do it better than you. Using your conscious mind is counterproductive.

KEY NO. 3: BE SINGLE-MINDED

Your subconscious mind can hold many concepts on a subject, but it will only hold one of them as binding. And that concept will dominate your subconscious mind. This law was discussed in Lesson Four. Thus, when you pray for something, it is imperative that your subconscious mind holds the same truth about that something as your conscious mind.

For example, suppose his doctor tells Frank that he has a weak heart. Immediately Frank starts praying—in the present tense—that he has a strong, healthy heart. Frank’s conscious mind accepts the idea that he already has a strong healthy heart. But suppose the dominant concept in his subconscious mind is that he has a
weak
heart. (That dominant thought in the subconscious mind may be the cause of the weak heart in the first place.)

That “weak heart” concept could have originated from an incident such as this. Frank witnessed a relative die from a heart attack when he was three years old. The situation was highly emotional. Frank’s conscious mind has forgotten the incident but his subconscious mind has not. The incident was traumatic and left a strong impression in his subconscious mind, so strong that it dominated.

Further assume that Frank’s mother, who he had a strong emotional bond with and who was sobbing uncontrollably, said (or three-year-old Frank thought she said) “Weak hearts run in our family. Our child will have a weak heart too.” From then on, Frank’s subconscious mind accepted the idea that he had a weak heart. Even though Frank had no conscious reason to believe his heart was weak, the concept in his subconscious mind dominated. (When conscious mind and subconscious mind are in conflict, subconscious mind always wins.)

Now, in Frank’s prayers, the subconscious mind dominates the conscious mind and his prayers go unanswered.
Frank’s prayers will be ineffective due to this internal conflict.

Frank must program his
subconscious
mind to accept the idea that he has a strong, hale, healthy heart. As soon as his conscious mind and subconscious mind are in sync, in harmony in the belief that he has a strong heart, which is the truth, his affirmative prayer will be sent to the Universal Mind and it will be answered.

When you pray for something, condition your subconscious mind (as explained in Lesson Eight) to accept the concept as truth, just as it is in your conscious mind. Then your conscious mind and subconscious mind will work together “single-mindedly” in harmony to ensure success of your prayer.

KEY NO. 4: MAKE YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND FAITH FULL

Faith is universally accepted as crucial for successful prayer. The importance of faith is found throughout the New Testament and I imagine, the Koran, Torah, etc. It is the foundation of healing and successful prayer. When your prayers do not work, it may be due to lack of faith. You may think you have faith and sincerely believe in your religious doctrines. But that is your conscious mind you are talking about. What does your subconscious mind hold as truth?

Your faith is not complete if it is only instilled in your conscious mind: faith must also be ingrained in your subconscious mind. Unless you were exposed to nothing but the doctrines of your religion and the rules from the preceding lessons from the time you were born (and you believed and accepted them!), the concepts in your subconscious mind probably do not coincide with those in your conscious mind. These concepts need to be in concert in your conscious mind and subconscious mind for maximum prayer power. You need to be single-minded in your faith.

To overcome this lack of, or contrary faith in your subconscious mind, you need to program your subconscious mind with the beliefs in your conscious mind. Until the concepts in your conscious mind and subconscious mind are in agreement, these conflicting beliefs could be the cause of unsuccessful prayers.

There is another reason faith is crucial. Recall in Lesson Four where I pointed out that if you entertain doubt, i.e., any
fear
of failure, you will likely fail. Fear is in the subconscious mind and if it is stronger than your
will
to succeed, you will fail. So any fear may weaken your prayer. You need a strong enough faith to override any fear of failure.

This brings up an important point. Prayer works and it is capable of anything. Prayer has no limits. But, if you pray for something that you know (conscious mind) and feel (subconscious mind) is not possible, you will entertain a fear of failure, a fear that you may not be able to overcome.

For example, suppose Mary is diagnosed with a form of fatal cancer. There is hope. Spontaneous remission of cancers has been documented. Elmer and Alyce Green investigated over 400 cases of spontaneous remission years ago, and there are many more cases on record since then. So it is
possible
that Mary could have a spontaneous remission and wake up the next day with no trace of cancer.

If Mary prays for complete recovery by tomorrow, unless she is superhuman, she will have strong doubts about it. She will entertain some fear that it might not happen. This fear will weaken and probably defeat her prayer.

But she could pray without reservation for the start of healing. She could pray without reservation for her immune system to kick in to a higher gear and start killing the cancer cells
now
. She could pray without reservation to be stronger tomorrow than she is today and for her healthy cells to multiply and crowd out the cancerous cells
now
. She could
pray for a lot of things that she could have complete confidence in. My suggestion is to pray for things you can be confident in achieving. Miracles do not have to be instantaneous; it is okay if they take a little time.

Prayer works. If it is not working for you, maybe lack of faith in your subconscious mind is blocking your prayer. Write a long affirmation about every aspect of your beliefs, and what you want to have faith in, and instill that affirmation in your subconscious mind so that is the only truth it holds.

CONCLUSIONS

Put a thousand times more ooooph in your prayers:

       •    Pray in the alpha, or better yet, theta state of mind.

       •    Use affirmative prayer. Visualize the result, not the problem.

       •    Feel and express love and compassion.

       •    Be certain you are single-minded: be absolutely certain your conscious mind and subconscious mind are in agreement.

       •    Program your subconscious mind for strong, fervent faith to coincide with that in your conscious mind.

       •    Be thankful and express gratitude for all blessings.

¹
The Mind Race
, by Russel Targ and Keith Harary, and
Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain
, by Shilla Ostraner and Lyn Shroeder, to name just two sources.

²
Aczel, Amir D.,
Entanglement, The Greatest Mystery In Physics
, Four Walls Eight Windows, 2001.

³
Boston Globe
, May 13, 2001

APPENDIX A

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND
SUGGESTED READING

Lessons One through Eight

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Borysenko, Joan, Ph.D.,
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Chopra, Deepak, M.D.,
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Green, Elmer & Alyce, Beyond Biofeedback, Delta, 1977.

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Murphy, Joseph, D.D., D.R.S., Ph.D., L.L.D.,
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Peale, Norman Vincent,
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Peale, Norman Vincent,
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Pelletier, Kenneth R.,
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