This work belongs to the American New Thought tradition and treats the ordinary difficulties of living, money, health, love, and vocation, as problems answerable by spiritual law rather than by worldly contrivance. Shinn writes from the conviction that the same principles taught in scripture describe an operating order behind visible circumstance, and that once these principles are understood a person no longer contends blindly against events but works with a lawful mechanism whose results can be relied upon.
The book proceeds from foundation to practice. It first establishes its governing metaphor and its scriptural authority, then moves through the great laws it names: supply, the creative word, nonresistance, forgiveness, love, and guidance. Having stated the laws, it turns to the harder question of application, since intellectual agreement produces no change and only a genuinely impressed subconscious alters outer conditions. The closing movement gathers this instruction into a working method of denial and affirmation, the deliberate use of language to withdraw belief from an unwanted appearance and to affirm the good already held in Divine Mind.
Shinn illustrates each principle with brief accounts drawn from her practice as a metaphysical teacher, offering compact demonstrations rather than sustained argument. The reasoning is devotional and experiential more than systematic, and the reader should watch for this. The examples are meant as evidence of law in operation, not as guarantees, and the book assumes a settled theological frame in which a benevolent divine intelligence answers correct alignment. Readers approaching it as history or as philosophy will find its causal claims stated with more confidence than proof, while readers approaching it as a practical devotional will find a coherent and repeatable discipline.
It suits students of the metaphysical current that runs from Emerson through the mental-science movements of the early twentieth century, and it serves as a concise entry point to the wider literature of affirmative prayer and the creative word. What distinguishes it is its brevity and its practical bent, a small volume that states its laws plainly and then insists that they be enacted rather than merely admired.
Chapter by chapter
Florence Scovel Shinn opens by reframing life as a game governed by spiritual law, with the Old and New Testaments as its rulebook. The central mechanism is giving and receiving: whatever a man sends out in word or deed returns to him. She introduces the imaging faculty as decisive, illustrated by a man who pictured a rare disease until it killed him, and describes the three departments of the mind: the subconscious as directionless power, the conscious as the mortal mind that sees appearances, and the superconscious as the God Mind holding the Divine Design for each person. Through client anecdotes she demonstrates the law of substitution of a right idea for a wrong one, the destructive force of idle and joking words, and the transforming power of intuition and the spoken word, as when a woman with eight dollars and a hunch received thousands. She teaches that plenty is always on man's pathway, that fear is inverted faith and man's only enemy, and that the subconscious is a faithful listener that records every thought. She closes with an affirmation to demolish untrue records and establish the square of life: Health, Wealth, Love, and perfect self-Expression.
- Life is a game played by spiritual law, and the harvest matches the seed: what a man gives, he receives.
- The imaging faculty must be trained to picture only good, for what man images externalizes in his affairs.
- The mind has three departments: the subconscious power without direction, the conscious mortal mind, and the superconscious God Mind holding the Divine Design.
- The spoken word carries creative force, so idle and joking words must be guarded and untrue records demolished.
- Fear is only inverted faith, and it must be replaced by faith in good so that only good can manifest.
This chapter sets out Shinn's central teaching that the divine is the true source of all supply and that a person may release what belongs to him by right through the spoken word held in unwavering faith. She argues that thought and speech are active forces that shape circumstance, so one must not merely ask but also act as though the answer has already arrived. Through her accounts of a woman facing a lawsuit, another seeking an apartment, and a man needing a loan, she illustrates the scriptural instruction to dig ditches in a dry valley, meaning to prepare visibly for the thing not yet seen. For the reader today the chapter offers a disciplined method of expectant faith, showing how vision, prepared action, and steady agreement carry a demand from the invisible into manifest form.
- Shinn teaches that the divine is the source of supply and that the spoken word, held in faith, releases what belongs to a person by right.
- One must prepare for the thing requested before any sign of it appears, as the three kings dug ditches in the waterless valley.
- Asking for one outcome while planning for its failure neutralizes the request and produces the situation prepared for instead.
- A person can only receive what he sees himself receiving, so he must hold the vision of the completed end and give thanks in advance.
- Because we grow doubtful about our own affairs, it is easier to hold the vision for another, and no one truly fails while a single person sees him succeed.
This chapter sets forth Shinn's central teaching that the spoken word is a creative instrument through which a person is continually legislating the conditions of his own life. Drawing on scripture and everyday anecdotes, she shows how careless speech about lack, sickness, and failure attracts those very things, while words used only to heal, bless, and prosper draw their like. She distinguishes superstition, where an object merely awakens expectancy, from true reliance on the one Power, and she warns that the advanced student cannot return to lucky charms. Fear invites the obstacle; fearlessness and nonresistance dissolve it. Disease is traced to mental inharmony, chiefly unforgiveness and resentment, so that healing the body begins with restoring the soul through love. For the reader today, it offers a disciplined watchfulness over speech and thought as practical spiritual law.
- Through his spoken word a person is continually making laws of success or failure for himself.
- A charm holds no power; it only awakens expectancy, and the one Power is God alone.
- Fear attracts the obstacle on the path, while fearlessness and nonresistance cause it to fall away.
- Words used only to heal, bless, and prosper return good, for what one wishes another he wishes himself.
- Disease arises from a mind not at ease, and unforgiveness is its most prolific cause.
- Sending good-will to every man builds a protecting aura and leaves one with no enemies without.
Shinn teaches that evil is a false law born of a belief in two powers, and that nothing can resist a person who is perfectly nonresistant. The subconscious outpictures whatever is deeply felt, so resistance, fear and blame only fasten a situation more firmly in place. Through the great law of transmutation, one blesses the adverse person or event and baptizes it success, and it either serves the divine plan or fades harmoniously away. Because life is a mirror, man's work is always with himself, and he must forsake living in the past or future in order to live fully in the now, spiritually alert to every lead. Right words spoken on waking, and carefully worded affirmations that promise wonderful service for wonderful pay, open the way for plenty, for it is man's divine right to have more than enough.
- Nothing on earth can resist an absolutely nonresistant person, for there is in reality no evil to resist.
- Bless the enemy, the situation, or the event and baptize it success, and its arrows are transmuted into blessings.
- When there is in man no emotional response to an inharmonious situation, it fades away forever from his pathway.
- Life is a mirror, so man's work is ever with himself: change yourself and your associates change.
- Live fully in the now, spiritually alert, beginning each day with right words and carefully worded affirmations.
This chapter sets the law of Karma, the exact return of thought, word, and deed, beside the higher law of forgiveness, or grace, which Shinn presents as the way to cancel old debts of cause and effect. She argues that everything a person gives returns with precision, and that the more one knows of spiritual law, the swifter the reckoning. Yet she insists no one is bound to suffer indefinitely, since the Christ within redeems the student who calls consciously on the law of forgiveness and rests in divine right rather than forcing outcomes through personal will. For a reader today the teaching offers both accountability and release. It asks us to examine what we sow, to relinquish willful demands, and to trust an inexhaustible supply that answers faith before it appears.
- Karma means that thoughts, words, and deeds return to the sender with exact and often swift accuracy.
- Greater knowledge of spiritual law brings greater responsibility, so the informed student reaps consequences quickly.
- Forcing outcomes through personal will produces ill-gotten results, while relinquishing that will lets Infinite Intelligence supply what is truly ours.
- The law of forgiveness, or grace, transcends Karma and neutralizes past mistakes when consciously invoked.
- Supply is inexhaustible when fully trusted, but faith must hold the vision steady before the demonstration appears.
This chapter turns from theory to method, addressing the practical problem of how to impress the subconscious with good when intellectual assent alone changes nothing. Shinn offers her central technique of "casting the burden," in which an adverse thought or condition rooted in the subconscious is handed over to the superconscious, or Christ within, where its weight dissolves. She teaches that the reasoning mind is too clouded by doubt and fear to reorder the deeper mind directly, so the affirmation must be repeated with quiet persistence until vision clears and relief arrives. She then joins this practice to active faith, showing that belief must be enacted through concrete gestures. For the reader today, it supplies a repeatable discipline for releasing fear and moving from anxious effort toward trusting expectancy.
- Intellectual knowledge of Truth produces no result until the subconscious is actually impressed with good.
- Casting a burden upon the superconscious lifts its weight and dissolves the fear or lack behind it.
- The affirmation must be repeated steadily, silently or aloud, until the vision clears and relief follows.
- Active faith requires enacting belief through concrete gestures, since faith without works is dead.
- Fear must be redirected into faith by walking toward the feared thing rather than avoiding it.
- Small signs before a demonstration should be welcomed as evidence, not mistaken for the whole fulfillment.
Shinn teaches that every soul on earth is taking its initiation in love, and that real love is selfless, fearless, and demands nothing in return. Through the story of a jealous woman who learned to bless the man who left her (and so drew him back into marriage), she shows that one can only receive the love one first gives. She widens the law of love to include money, work, and family: contempt for money separates a person from it, hoarding brings ruin, indifference dissolves a marriage, and mother-fear objectifies the very dangers it pictures. Resentment, sorrow, and remorse are boomerangs that return as sickness and loss, while good-will neutralizes them, even in business. The chapter closes on the assurance that perfect love casts out fear and is the fulfilling of the law.
- Real love is selfless and free from fear; it gives without demanding return and so draws to itself its own.
- You can never receive what you have never given; blessing and saluting the divinity in another dissolves resentment and reverses cruelty.
- Contempt for money, hoarding, and violating the law of use separate a person from supply and bring disease and loss.
- Indifference or criticism from a spouse withdraws the inspiration that sustains a relationship.
- Mother-fear pictures and objectifies danger, while placing a loved one in God's hands surrounds them with divine protection.
- Sorrow, regret, and remorse break down the body; a present kindness neutralizes a past wrong, for love is the fulfilling of the law.
Shinn teaches that accomplishment follows the man who knows the power of his word and obeys his intuitive leads. After speaking the word one must wait for a definite lead, then act without reasoning. Giving and cheerful tithing open the way for receiving, while limited vision limits supply. Intuition points the way without explaining, and leads may arrive during treatment or at unexpected moments. Because every disease has a mental correspondence, permanent healing requires that destructive thinking, condemnation, and unforgiveness be released, for what man condemns in others he attracts to himself. Indecision is overcome by affirmation, and guidance from the psychic plane, numbers, and horoscopes is to be avoided in favor of the One Mind. Man's will is used to back the universal will and hold the perfect vision. Through a woman's demonstration of two thousand dollars restored, Shinn shows that there is no loss in Divine Mind and that apparent injustice merely opens the way for the manifestation.
- Speak the word, then wait for a definite lead before acting, and do not reason.
- Giving and cheerful tithing create activity in finances and open the way for receiving.
- Intuition is a spiritual faculty that points the way without explaining.
- What man condemns in others he attracts to himself, so condemnation and unforgiveness must be released.
- There is no loss in Divine Mind; apparent injustice opens the way for demonstration.
Shinn teaches that every person carries a perfect plan held in Divine Mind, encompassing health, wealth, love, and self-expression. Because the imaging faculty is creative, one must ask for and clearly see this design rather than force a mental picture, then hold the flash of inspiration without wavering. She warns against burying one's talent, against fear and stage-fright, and against dictating the channel through which good must arrive, since Infinite Intelligence works only through a nonresistant instrument and commands man to stand still. Poise gives God-Power its opening, while anger, fear, and worry are inverted faith that bring to pass the thing feared. Through client stories of the man with seven cents, the boy's examinations, the traveler abroad, the unfinished sewing, and the refused gift, she illustrates completion, receptivity, and the balance of giving and receiving. The chapter closes by answering why lives differ through reincarnation and Karma, affirming that the real spiritual man is birthless and deathless and is freed by fulfilling the Divine Design of his life.
- Each person has a perfect self-expression and place that no one else can fill.
- Ask for the Divine Design and hold the inspired picture without wavering rather than forcing a mental image.
- Do not dictate the channel; Infinite Intelligence works only through a nonresistant instrument, so stand still and stay poised.
- Fear and worry are inverted faith that bring to pass the very thing feared; poise gives God-Power its opening.
- Giving and receiving must remain in balance, for all gifts are from God and man is merely the channel.
- The real spiritual man is birthless and deathless, set free through fulfilling the Divine Design of his life.
Shinn teaches that all good is already accomplished in divine mind and is released through man's spoken word, so demands must be worded correctly and claimed for the divine selection, under grace, in a perfect way. Because man is bound by the limited expectancies of the subconscious, he must enlarge his expectancies to receive more, affirming until belief is established and giving thanks that he has already received. Through stories of a pink papercutter, an umbrella mender, a hundred dollar bill, and a smashed bookcase mistaken for a window, she shows that active faith and letting go bring instantaneous manifestation. She contrasts visualizing with visioning, exalts the power in the name Jesus Christ, and closes with the goal of the Game of Life and a series of affirmations for prosperity, right conditions, faith, health, eyesight, guidance, hearing, right work, and freedom.
- Word every demand for the divine selection, claiming that it now manifests under grace, in a perfect way.
- Man cannot release more than he believes possible, so he must enlarge the limited expectancies of the subconscious.
- Continual affirming and repeated thanksgiving, not pleading, establish belief and open the way for manifestation.
- Letting go and casting the burden give Infinite Intelligence the chance to work, often at the eleventh hour.
- Visioning through intuition, and the power in the name Jesus Christ, bring the ideal made real into manifestation.