New Thought · 1898-1981
This Is It: The Art of Metaphysical Demonstration
Murphy's first book - the philosophical architecture that his later bestseller simplified. Written after his military service in World War Two, it presents the art of 'demonstration' as a precise, repeatable science. Denser and more Trowardian than anything he wrote after 1960. Now in the public domain.
What Murphy Got Right
Why This Is It: The Art of Metaphysical Demonstration still matters
Murphy correctly identified the Law of Reversed Effort as the mechanism that explains why mental techniques often backfire. When you strain toward a desired outcome, your anxiety signals a belief in not having it. The deeper mind responds to that underlying feeling rather than your stated words.
His pre-sleep technique is confirmed by what we now understand about the brain just before sleep. That drowsy window, when the analytical mind is quieting, is where new impressions reach the deeper mind most easily. Murphy understood this decades before the research existed to confirm it.
He was also right about the contrast between straining and allowing. 'If you try too hard to hear the telephone ring, you cannot' describes something real. Effort directed at the wrong level creates the very block it is trying to remove.
Murphy's framing of demonstration as effortless alignment rather than willpower was ahead of its time. Cognitive research on what happens under mental strain confirms his observation: force produces resistance. Reception requires a different starting point entirely.
Core Principles
The 3 core principles of This Is It: The Art of Metaphysical Demonstration
The Law of Reversed Effort
The harder you chase a mental result, the more the effort signals a belief in not yet having it. That signal is what the deeper mind encodes, not your stated intention. Ease in this context is not passivity. It is what working with the subconscious actually requires.
The pre-sleep window
Just before sleep, the analytical part of your mind quiets and the deeper mind becomes more open. Murphy said to use that window for new impressions rather than waking, alert effort. One word or image, held with quiet certainty as you drift toward sleep, is the method. Research on the brain at that threshold confirms why it works.
Guidance arrives spontaneously, not under pressure
Murphy used religious language for what is essentially the experience of intuition when you are calm. When your thinking mind is not fighting itself, answers arrive differently - as a flash, unannounced. You do not manufacture this. You stop blocking it long enough for it to surface.
Quotes
Worth sharing
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“If you try too hard to hear the telephone ring, you cannot.”
“The inner voice of intuition speaks like a flash - it is always spontaneous and unannounced.”
“We breathe air without effort. Likewise we must let the Divine Light flow through our intellect without tension.”
What Was Missing
What Murphy could not have known
Murphy told you to relax without giving you any practical way to actually do it. If your body is already carrying real stress, the instruction to 'enter a state of peace' cannot land. The preparation that needs to come before the technique is missing entirely.
His theological framework sits between the reader and the practical method. Heavy biblical allegory and references to Religious Science work for some readers and lose others entirely. The underlying idea functions regardless of the packaging, but not everyone can get past it.
He gives no account of why old patterns return after a period of successful practice. That return is not a failure of faith. It is the body still holding the older pattern, and Murphy never addressed what to do with that.
Who This Is For
Who gets the most from This Is It: The Art of Metaphysical Demonstration
- ✓You have read The Power of Your Subconscious Mind and want the deeper philosophical framework behind it
- ✓You suspect the reason your techniques are not working is that you are trying too hard
- ✓You want a short, dense philosophical text rather than a self-help programme with case studies
- ✓You find Murphy's later books too simplified and want the harder, more direct version
- ✓You are drawn to the idea that reception, not effort, is what the deeper mind responds to
The DAR Response
We applied CBT, NLP & somatic work to This Is It: The Art of Metaphysical Demonstration
We brought body-based and NLP practices to Murphy's framework specifically to solve the preparation problem he left out. You cannot reach the subconscious layer he describes from a place of anxiety. The body needs to feel safe before the impression can take hold.
The pre-sleep window he correctly identified is more accessible when you arrive there already settled. The workbooks below build that sequence: body first, then the subconscious impression. That ordering is what makes the technique work consistently rather than occasionally.
Go deeper
Apply This Is It: The Art of Metaphysical Demonstration with DAR
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Questions Answered
Questions about This Is It: The Art of Metaphysical Demonstration
How does This Is It differ from The Power of Your Subconscious Mind?+
What is Murphy's Law of Reversed Effort?+
Who influenced Joseph Murphy in writing This Is It?+
Is This Is It in the public domain?+
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