Murphy says that to affirm is “to state that it is so” (68). An affirmation is the positive statement that a person makes in order to imprint a conscious thought on the subconscious. This affirmation can be thought or spoken aloud. For example, to overcome frustration and achieve a desire, a person might speak an affirmation that begins, “The infinite intelligence, which gave me this desire, leads, guides, and reveals to me the perfect plan for the unfolding of my desire. I know the deeper wisdom of my subconscious is now responding” (24).

Murphy defines autosuggestion as “suggesting something definite and specific to oneself” (18). Constructive autosuggestion is a reconditioning therapy that Murphy explains in his discussion of how to free oneself from addiction and phobias. It involves identifying negative thoughts and then replacing them with positive ones through mental images and spoken affirmations.

The conscious mind is the mind of which someone is aware. It can also be described as the subjective, waking, or voluntary mind. It reasons and makes choices and decisions. To achieve a specific goal, a thought must first be formed vividly in the conscious mind. Murphy compares the conscious mind to the captain of a ship, whose decrees are carried out by his crew.