How Two Remarkable Thinkers Helped Me Understand the Subconscious Mind Beyond Theory: An Early Encounter That Stayed with Me and Refreshed in My Late 70s

In my youth and early in my career as a scientist and public health officer, when my thinking was firmly shaped by clinical discipline and structured inquiry, I came across The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Dr. Joseph Murphy, introduced to me by a mentor who was a philosopher at the University of Melbourne.

At that stage, I was deeply immersed in environments where evidence, measurement, and clearly defined frameworks guided understanding. Concepts that could not be directly observed or tested were approached with a degree of caution, not dismissal, but careful distance, as a principle of a doctoral fellow.

Murphy’s work did not fit comfortably within my scholarly framework. His suggestion that unseen patterns of thought could influence tangible outcomes felt unfamiliar, almost difficult to reconcile…