The Magic of Believing: Making It Work For You

In his motivational classic The Magic of Believing (1948) Claude M Bristol said that virtually anything can be yours, and you can be anything, if you are able to develop a ‘knowing’ about it that you don’t ever need to question.

Of Napoleon and Alexander the Great, Bristol says, “They became supermen because they had supernormal beliefs”. Your belief about yourself and your place in the world is arguably the major determinant of success.

The subconscious mind constantly works to express our deepest beliefs and desires. It is a faithful servant which renews, guides and inspires. But it requires great respect for, and faith in, what it can do.

The subconscious operates via imagery, so it is vital that we feed it very clear mental pictures of what we desire. It can then go to work in ‘living up to’ the image placed before it, by giving us intuitions about what to do, where to go, who to meet.

As Carl Jung noted with his idea of the 'collective unconscious', somehow the subconscious is connected to all other minds. Through the law of radiation and attraction it can pull events and people to you that will assist in making your dreams reality.

All the great electrical scientists – Edison, Steinmetz, Tesla, Marconi – were interested in telepathy. It was not ridiculous to them that thoughts could move through the air, affecting things if, like a good radio signal, they were strong and clear.

The force of your belief represents a transmitter to the universe that enters the minds of other people and even inanimate objects. The more powerful your ‘broadcast’, the more likely that the world will pick it up and react accordingly.

Charms, talismans, chants, alone do not bring good fortune, Bristol says. It is the belief in their efficacy that is powerful. Repetition is the ‘white magic’ which enables us to turn a wish into a relaxed expectation. We give thanks for what is or is about to be.

Think of some of the great belief systems in history: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Communism, Capitalism. For good or worse, these systems of thought became beliefs that have shaped our world. Are the beliefs you have about yourself strong enough to change your world?

The show pianist Liberace turned his life around after reading The Magic of Believing. But Bristol includes a warning about misuse of the mental technology associated with strong belief and suggestion: it is so powerful that it must be used for good, not to dominate.