A Christian Critique of the Power Of Positive Thinking and the "Supreme Secret" of Napolean Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale, and others adapted from a book by Allan Turner ( http://www.allanturner.com/ )

"Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve." -- Napoleon Hill

According to Norman Vincent Peale, author of popular books expounding the philosophy of "Positive Thinking" and "Positive Imaging," which, according to Peale, is "Positive Thinking" taken one step further:

There is a powerful and mysterious force in human nature...a kind of mental engineering....a powerful new-old idea....The concept is a form of mental activity called imaging....

It consists of vividly picturing, in your conscious mind, a desired goal or objective, and holding that image until it sinks into your unconscious mind, where it releases great untapped energies....

When the imaging concept is applied steadily and systematically, it solves problems, strengthens personalities, improves health, and greatly enhances the chances for success in any kind of endeavor.

The idea of imaging has been around for a long time and it has been implicit in all the speaking and writing I have done in the past. [1]

What Peale called a "powerful and mysterious force," Napolean Hill, the granddaddy of PMA (Positive Mental Attitude), called the "Supreme Secret" (i.e. "Anything the human mind can believe, the human mind can achieve"). [2] As a matter of fact, in another book he co-authored with W. Clement Stone, Hill said:

This is a universal law....that we translate into physical reality the thoughts and attitudes we hold in our minds, no matter what they are. [3]

Of course, if Napolean Hill is correct about us achieving anything we can conceive (and I don't for a moment think he is), then we must, indeed, be Gods (cf. Genesis 3:5).

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and the "Supreme Secret" of Napolean Hill