The Game Of Life And How To Play It By Florence Scovel Shinn

This is a read-aloud of chapter 1 of the book, The Game, from The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn in 1925.
In Chapter 1, Florence Scovel Shinn explains her core idea: life works like a game, and the “rules” are spiritual laws. She says that what you think, say, and expect shapes what shows up in your life. If you speak fear, you attract fear. If you speak faith, you attract good.

She emphasizes how powerful words are. According to her, your words are basically commands that set events in motion. She pulls a lot from the Bible to make the point that people create their experiences by what they believe and declare out loud.

Shinn tells several short stories about clients who changed their situations—money problems, relationship issues, career challenges—by shifting their expectations and using positive, confident statements instead of worry or negativity.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to today's Read Aloud. Today we will be reading from The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scoville Shinn, Written in 1925. Chapter One, The Game. Most people consider life a battle, But it is not a battle, It is a game. It is a game, However, Which cannot be played successfully without the knowledge of spiritual law. In the Old and the New Testaments, Give the rules of the game with wonderful clearness. Jesus Christ taught that it was the great game of giving and receiving. Whatsoever a person soweth, That shall they also reap. This means that whatever one sends out in word or deed will return to them. What they give, They will receive. If one gives hate, One will receive hate. If one gives love, One will receive love. And if one gives criticism, One will receive criticism. If one lies, One will be lied to. If one cheats, They will be cheated. We are taught also that the imaging faculty plays a leading part in the game of life. Keep thy heart or imagination with all diligence, For out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 423. This means that what a person images sooner or later externalizes in their affairs. I know of a man who feared a certain disease. It was a very rare disease and difficult to get, But he pictured it constantly and read about it until it manifested in his body and he died. The victim of distorted imaging. So we see to play successfully the game of life, We must train the imaging faculty. A person with an imaging faculty trained to imagine only good brings into their life every righteous desire of their heart. Health, Wealth, Love, Friends, Perfect self-expression, Their highest ideals. The imagination has been called the scissors of the mind and it is ever cutting, Cutting day by day the pictures one sees there and sooner or later one meets their own creations in their outer world. To train the imagination successfully, One must understand the workings of their mind. The Greek said, Know thyself. There are three departments of the mind, The subconscious, Conscious, And superconscious. The superconscious is simply power without direction. It is like a stream or electricity and it does what it is directed to do. It has no power of induction. Whatever man feels deeply or imagines clearly is impressed upon the subconscious mind and carried out in the minutest detail. For example, A woman I know when a child always made believe she was a widow, She dressed up in black clothes and wore a long black veil and people thought she was very clever and amusing. She grew up and married a man with whom she was deeply in love. In a short time he died and she wore black in a sweeping veil for many years. The picture of herself as a widow was impressed upon the subconscious mind and in due time worked itself out regardless of the havoc created. The conscious mind has been called mortal or carnal mind. It is the human mind and sees life as it appears to be. It sees death, Disaster, Sickness, Poverty, And limitation of every kind and it impresses the subconscious. The superconscious mind is the god mind within each person and is the realm of perfect ideas. In it, The perfect pattern spoken of by Plato, The divine design, For there is a divine design for each person. There is a place that you are to fill and no one else can fill. Something you are to do which no one else can do. There is a perfect picture of this in the super conscious mind. It usually flashes across the conscious as an unattainable ideal. Something too good to be true. In reality, It is one's true destiny or destination flashed to them from the infinite intelligence which is within themselves. Many people, However, Are in ignorance of their true destinies and are striving for things and situations which do not belong to them and would only bring failure and dissatisfaction if attained. For example, A woman came to me and asked me to speak the word that she would marry a certain man with whom she was very much in love. She called him A. B. I replied that this would be a violation of spiritual law but that I would speak the word for the right man, The divine selection, The man who belonged to her by divine right. I added if A. B. Is the right man, You can't lose him and if he isn't, You will receive his equivalent. She saw A. B. Frequently but no headway was made in the friendship. One evening she called and said, Do you know for the last week A. B. Hasn't seemed so wonderful to me. I replied maybe he is not the divine selection. Another man may be the right one. Soon after that, She met another man who fell in love with her at once and who said she was his ideal. In fact, He said all the things that she had always wished A. B. Would say to her. She remarked it's quite uncanny. She soon returned his love and lost all interest in A. B. This shows the law of substitution. A right idea was substituted for a wrong one. Therefore, There was no loss or sacrifice involved. Jesus Christ said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. And he said the kingdom was within us. The kingdom is the realm of right ideas or the divine pattern. Jesus Christ taught that man one's words played a leading part in the game of life. By your words ye are justified and by your words ye are condemned. Many people have brought disaster into their lives through idle words. For example, A woman once asked me why her life was now one of poverty of limitation. Formerly, She had a home, Was surrounded by beautiful things and had plenty of money. We found she had often tired of the management of her home and had said repeatedly, I'm sick and tired of things. I wish I lived in a trunk. And she added, Today I am living in that trunk. She had spoken herself into a trunk. The subconscious mind has no sense of humor and people often joke themselves into unhappy experiences. For example, A woman had a great deal of money, Joked continually about getting ready for the poor house. In a few years, She was almost destitute, Having impressed the subconscious mind with a picture of lack and limitation. Fortunately, The law works both ways. In a situation of lack may be changed to one of plenty. For example, A woman came to me one hot summer's day for a treatment for prosperity. She was worn out, Dejected and discouraged. She said she possessed just $8 in the world. I said, Good, We'll bless the $8 and multiply them as Jesus Christ multiplied the loads and the fishes. For he taught that everyone had the power to bless and to multiply, To heal and to prosper. She said, What do I do next? Follow intuition. Have you a hunch to do anything or to go anywhere? Intuition means intuition or to be taught from within. It is one's unerring guide and I will deal more fully with it, Its laws in a following chapter. The woman replied, I don't know. I seem to have a hunch to go home. I've just enough money for car fare. Her home was in a distant city and was one of lack and limitation and the reasoning mind or intellect would have said, Stay in New York and get work and make some money. I replied, Then go home, Never violate a hunch. I spoke the following words for her, Infinite spirit, Open the way for great abundance. She is an irresistible magnet for all that belongs to her by divine right. I told her to repeat it continually also. She left for home immediately. In calling on a woman one day, She linked up with an old friend of her family. Through this friend, She received thousands of dollars in a most miraculous way. She has said to me often, Tell people about the woman who came to you with $8 and a hunch. There is always plenty on one's pathway, But it can only be brought into manifestation through desire, Faith, Or the spoken word. Jesus Christ brought out clearly that one must make the first move. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Matthew 7, 7. In the scriptures we read, Concerning the works of my hands, Command ye me. Infinite intelligence, God, Is ever ready to carry out one's smallest or greatest demands. Every desire uttered or unexpressed is a demand. We are often startled by having a wish suddenly fulfilled. For example, One Easter, Having seen many beautiful rose trees in the florist's windows, I wished I would receive one, And for an instant saw it mentally being carried in the door. Easter came, And with it a beautiful rose tree. I thanked my friend the following day and told her it was just what I had wanted. She replied, I didn't send you a rose tree, I sent you lilies. The man had mixed the order and sent me a rose tree simply because I had started the law in action, And I had to have a rose tree. Nothing stands between one and their highest ideals and every desire of their heart, But doubt and fear. When one can wish without worrying, Every desire will be instantly fulfilled. I will explain more fully in the following chapter the scientific reasons for this and how fear must be erased from the consciousness. It is one's only enemy, Fear of lack, Fear of failure, Fear of sickness, Fear of loss, And a feeling of insecurity on some plane. Jesus Christ said, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Matthew 8 26. So we can see we must substitute faith for fear, For fear is only inverted faith. It is faith in evil instead of good. The object of the game of life is to see clearly one's good and to obliterate all mental pictures of evil. This must be done by impressing the subconscious mind with the realization of good. A very brilliant man who has attained great success told me he had suddenly erased all fear from his consciousness by reading a sign which hung in a room. He saw printed in large letters this statement, Why worry? It will probably never happen. These words were stamped indelibly upon his subconscious mind and he has now a firm conviction that only good can come into his life. And therefore only good can manifest. In the following chapter I will deal with the different methods of impressing the subconscious mind. It is one's faithful servant but one must be careful to give it the right orders. One has ever a silent listener at their side, Their subconscious mind. Every thought, Every word is impressed upon it and carried out in amazing detail. It is like a singer making a record on a sensitive disc of the photographic plate. Every note and tone of the singer's voice is registered. If they cough or hesitate it is registered also. So let us break all the old bad records in the subconscious mind. The records of our lives which we do not wish to keep and make new and beautiful ones. Speak these words aloud with power and conviction. I now smash and demolish by my spoken word every untrue record in my subconscious mind. I now smash and demolish by my spoken word every untrue record in my subconscious mind. I now smash and demolish by my spoken word every untrue record in my subconscious mind. They shall return to the dust heap of their native nothingness for they came from my own vain imaginings. I now make my perfect records through the Christ within. The records of health, Wealth, Love, And perfect self-expression. This is the square of life, The game completed. In the following chapters I will show how one can change their conditions by changing their words. Anyone who does not know the power of the word is behind the times. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Proverbs 18. 21. Thank you for listening. Namaste.

Reviews

Thank you so much. I really appreciated your reading and your choice. Thank you in advance for chapter II .💜🙏💜✨🕊️😊😇

Wow that was powerful. Thank you for sharing this story with us all 🙏🏻❤️ I look forward to the next one. Blessings 🙏🏻

What a wonderful book! I love old books! Looking forward to the next reading! Thank you Garuda! 🧡🧡🙏