Title The Game of Life and How to Play it

Author Florence Scovel Shinn

Year Published 1975

Kind of Book Self-help/Mindset

How strongly I recommend it 8/10 

My Impressions There were a few “aha” moments in this book for me. I liked how she explained the Law of Karma and the Law of Use ie. The idea that hoarding and not using what we have (be it possessions or knowledge) goes against the Universal law. Like many books written in this genre, I struggled with some of the anecdotes she told. If you believe there’s no such thing as luck and everything that happens to you is created by your thoughts (as she did) you find yourself coming up with some pretty wild theories for why babies get sick and die (as she does.)

Date Read Dec 2021

Practical Takeaways

  • Train the imagining faculty

  • Never violate a hunch

  • Erase fear from consciousness

  • Substitute faith for fear.

  • See clearly your good and obliterate all mental pictures of evil

  • Act as if you had already received

  • Order an expensive lucheon (even if you can't afford it yet)

  • Prepare yourself for the thing you've asked for

  • Act as if you're going to get the thing you want

  • Buy wrapping paper for gifts (even if you don't have money for gifts yet)

  • Talk about you want, not what you don't want

  • Don't talk about disease (you will attract it by speaking of it)

  • Don't hold one critical thought towards man. Bless him all day

  • Don't run away from your problems (accept them)

  • Don't try to change others. Change yourself

  • Bless the past and forget it. Bless the future, knowing it has is store endless joys. Live fully in the now

  • Make an affirmation immediately upon waking "Today is a day of completion; I give thanks for this perfect day, miracle shall follow miracle and wonders shall never cease."

  • Only use an affirmation if it is satisfying and convincing to your own consciousness

  • Affirmation: "I have a wonderful work, in a wonderful way, I give wonderful service, for wonderful pay!"

  • When reading Bible passages substitute the word 'law' for the word 'lord' or 'God'

  • Only desire what is yours by divine right (eg. Desire a lovely spouse, not someone else's spouse)

  • Don't run what you are afraid or. Walk up to it and face it

  • Watch yourself closely and ask yourself if your motive for action is fear or faith

  • Don't violate the law of use. Ie. Use everything you own. Do not hoard (material things OR knowledge)

  • Pay your bills cheerfully and without fear

  • (Parents) Never force careers and professions upon your children

  • (if you have many talents and are not sure which one to focus on) Say, "Infinite Spirit, give me a definite lead, reveal to me my perfect self-expression, show me which talent I am to make use of now."

  • Give with out thinking of returns, but accept returns which come to you

Big Ideas

  • You need to understand the spiritual law to successfully play the game of life

  • The Old and New Testaments explain the spiritual law

  • We receive from others/the world what we put out

  • If we give hate we will receive hate

  • If we give love we will receive love

  • If we give criticism we will receive criticism

  • If we lie to others others will lie to us

  • If we cheat others will cheat on us

  • If we judge others others will judge us

  • Whatever man imagines externalizes in reality (sooner or later)

  • The subconscious does whatever it is directed to do (ie. Its impressionable)

  • The subconscious takes what we say and think literally

  • People often think or say things as jokes and the subconscious makes them a reality

  • We all have infinite intelligence within ourselves

  • We get what we DESIRE deep down (not what we say we want)

  • If we can wish for something without worry, it will be instantly fulfilled

  • Fear is the only enemy

  • We get what we prepare for (not what we ask for)

  • We can only receive something if we can see ourselves receiving it (imagine)

  • We attract what we think about

  • We attract the fears we think about

  • Law of nonresistance: When you face a situation fearlessly the challenge goes away

  • We attract the things we talk about

  • If you talk about disease you will attract disease

  • What we wish done to others will happen to us (positive or negative)

  • Every external internal comes from an internal inharmony

  • Every disease starts in the mind

  • Little Children attract illness because they absorb their parents fears

  • People who are free of fear and send out only good thoughts for others cannot be affected by other people's negative thoughts

  • When you bless your enemies they are powerless to harm you

  • Whatever we resist will follow us around unless we accept it

  • When we accept what we resist we will be undisturbed by it

  • If you run away from what you're afraid of it will follow you around

  • If you face what you're afraid of it will go away

  • When you change the people you want to change will change

  • When able to notice our faults in others easier than ourselves

  • Many passages in Bible make more sense if you substitute the word 'law' for 'God'

  • We suffer when we violate a law of the Universe because we are going against the law, not because a God somewhere is punishing us

  • We are only affected by germs if we are living in fear

  • Real love is selfless

  • Real love is free from fear

  • Jealousy is the worst enemy of love

  • What you give may come back to you from the person you give it to OR from someone else

  • Fear is the natural state of most people

  • Having faith requires will

  • [The Bible] is a book telling man how to release his soul (or subconscious mind) from bondage

  • Anger causes many diseases

  • Anger causes people to make bad decisions

  • Not accepting gifts/returns from others violates the law of karma

  • A prayer is a command

  • A prayer is a form of giving thanks in advance

Unknown Terms

Subconscious "The _____ mind, is simply power, without direct. It is like steam or electricity, and it does what it is direct to do; it has no power of induction."

Conscious "[the _____mind] is the human mind and sees life as it appears to be."

Superconscious "The _____ mind…is the real of perfect ideas. It usually flashes across the conscious as an unattainable ideal—'something too good to be true."

Law of nonresistance: When you face a situation fearlessly the challenging aspect of it goes away

"Face a situation fearlessly, and there is no situation to face; it falls away of its own weight."

Law of Use: a universal law of the universe which states that one must use what they own and not hoard eg. Her closets were filled with clothes she never wore, and jewels which never saw the light."