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The Game of Life and How to Play it (1925) by Florence Scovel Shinn

Channel: Master Key Society
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJa5Ch0O4BI

Florence Scovel Shinn's New Thought classic, read by Sarah Partridge: life is not a battle but a game of giving and receiving, won by knowing "spiritual law" - your word, your mental images, and your feelings shape the subconscious, which then externalizes them as your circumstances. The whole book is illustrated with anecdotes from Shinn's practice as a metaphysical healer/teacher and framed with Bible verses read as psychological law.

Key points

  • The game and the three minds. Whatsoever a man soweth, that he reaps - what you send out in word or deed returns to you. The imagination is "the scissors of the mind," ever cutting the pictures you later meet in the outer world, so train it to image only good. The mind has three parts: the subconscious (power without direction, an impersonal servant that carries out whatever you feel deeply or image clearly, with no sense of humor - people joke or complain themselves into misfortune); the conscious or "carnal" mind that sees appearances (death, lack, disease); and the super-conscious or "God mind," the realm of perfect ideas holding the "divine design" for each person.
  • The power of the word. "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." Man is continually making laws for himself by his speech (the man who always misses the car; the woman who wished she "lived in a trunk" and did). After you know this you cannot be too careful of your words - use them only to heal, bless, or prosper. Affirm and speak your good aloud "with power and conviction"; break the old subconscious records and make new ones.
  • Prosperity and active faith. God is your supply and there is "a supply for every demand," released by the spoken word held in perfect faith. You must ACT your faith - "dig your ditches" before the rain (the woman who bought blankets before getting the apartment; ordering the expensive lunch while awaiting $3,000). Man can only receive what he sees himself receiving; hold the vision of the journey's end and give thanks it is already done. It is easier to demonstrate for another than for yourself, so ask a friend/healer to hold the vision with you - "no man can fail if some one person sees him successful."
  • Non-resistance. "Resist not evil" - there is no evil to resist; it is a false belief in "two powers." Whatever you resist persists ("if he runs away from it, it will run after him"); bless and "baptize" every adverse event "success" and it falls away of its own weight. Fearlessness dissolves the thing feared (the ladder that vanished). Live fully in the now - the past and future are "the robbers of time."
  • Karma and forgiveness. The game is a game of boomerangs; your thoughts, words, and deeds return with accuracy (karma = "comeback"). But Christ's law of grace/forgiveness transcends karma - "under grace and not under law" - letting man neutralize his mistakes (the counterfeit bill returned after she forgave). Anything forced through personal will is "ill-got"; demand only "that which is mine by divine right" and relinquish personal will ("not my will but Thine").
  • Casting the burden. The quickest way to impress the subconscious with good: cast the burden (an adverse thought/condition) onto the "Christ within" / super-conscious, where it dissolves into "its native nothingness." Repeat the affirmation over and over, silently or aloud, "like winding up a Victrola," until the vision clears. "Darkness before the dawn" is old doubts rising from the subconscious to be put out - give thanks anyway. Faith without works is dead: show active faith (setting a place at the table for the absent husband; buying Christmas seals before the money comes).
  • Love. Every man is "taking his initiation in love." Real love is selfless, demands no return, and is "the strongest magnetic force in the universe." Jealousy, resentment, and criticism are boomerangs that come back as sickness and sorrow - "every disease is caused by a mind not at ease" (skin disease healed by releasing hatred; unforgiveness as "the most prolific cause of disease"). Bless your enemy and you rob him of his power to harm you. Money is "God in manifestation" and must circulate; hoarding "reacts with grim vengeance" (the woman with 67 unworn necklaces whose arms became paralyzed).
  • Intuition or guidance. Speak the word, then take no action "until you get a definite lead" - a hunch, a chance remark, a passage in a book. Follow it even against reason ("never violate a hunch"). Ask for the RIGHT position/home/friend (the divine selection), not just any. Giving opens the way for receiving; tithing (one-tenth) is a reliable investment. Avoid the "psychic plane," horoscopes, and numerology - they keep man on the karmic/mortal plane; a prophecy of evil can be dissolved by declaring it undivine.
  • Perfect self-expression / the divine design. There is a place each man must fill and a thing only he can do - his destiny, held as a perfect idea in divine mind. Demand "the divine design of my life"; the supply for it comes because "man comes into the world financed by God." Do not force or dictate the channel ("my way, not your way"); poise is power. There is a terrible penalty for burying one's talent.
  • Denial and affirmation. All good is already an accomplished fact in divine mind, released by recognition and the spoken word - so word demands carefully and always add "under grace in a perfect way" (the woman who demanded $1,000 and got it as accident indemnity). Begin at the journey's end - declare you have ALREADY received and give thanks rather than plead. Man limits himself by his own expectancies ("the gold nugget" that was only brass, yet made the first man rich because he felt rich). Never waver, compromise, or turn back; demonstrations often come "at the 11th hour" once man lets go and stops reasoning. Follow every denial with an affirmation. The book closes with a list of set affirmations for prosperity, health, eyesight, hearing, guidance, right work, and freedom from bondage. "The simple rules are fearless faith, non-resistance and love."

Note: the book is New Thought / mental-science doctrine presented as literal law; its many "case" anecdotes are the author's own and are offered as proof. Reported here as her teaching, not endorsed.

Reception

  • Overwhelmingly reverent and grateful; the comments read like a testimony wall. Many say the book "found" them at the exact moment they needed it - "when the student is ready the teacher appears" - and marvel that a text nearly 100 years old is this powerful ("if you don't want people to know anything, hide it in a book").
  • A striking recurring theme is addiction recovery: multiple listeners credit the book/recording with getting them sober (3.5 years, 2 years, "1 year 3 months sober from drugs and the street life"), and others share ongoing struggles and relapses while thanking the community for encouragement.
  • Many report concrete "manifestation" results and testimonies - jobs, money arriving as exact-amount checks or gifts, an "impossible" dream job landed - and several urge others to just pick one affirmation and repeat it, "don't try to automate it, just do the work." Favorite quoted lines include "If one asks for success and prepares for failure, he will get the situation he has prepared for" and the affirmation "I cast this burden of lack on the Christ within and I go free to have plenty."
  • Listeners use it as a repeat/ritual text: they "like" their own comment so they can return and re-listen to "refresh the subconscious," and say they will play it until it is "burned into" them. Many leave blessings on future readers ("whoever sees this, may all your dreams come true").
  • A large share come from a Christian frame and praise the biblical grounding, though several note it rewards anyone "religious or not." Appreciation is repeatedly voiced for narrator Sarah Partridge's reading and for the author being a woman. One commenter posted a full chapter timestamp index that others rely on.