Affirmation · “The Subconscious Says Yes”
Denials & Affirmations
When a fearful ‘report’ arrives — a diagnosis, a lack, a limiting belief — first deny it the power to define you (release the fear), then affirm the spiritual truth of God’s good as the reality, holding the two as one paired move.
Deny then affirm, in brief: When a fearful report comes, refuse it the last word — as Colemon refused the diagnosis — and let the fear ease. Then affirm the spiritual truth (God’s good, your wholeness) as already real, and feel it. Repeat gently through the day, and back it with real action. Release the fear, not the facts.
What it is
A denial in New Thought is “declaring not to be true a thing that seems true” — and an affirmation declares the desired good already real. Johnnie Colemon taught these as a paired move, sharpened by her own story: handed a fatal diagnosis in the early 1950s, she refused to accept the diagnosis as the truth — that refusal is the denial — and then affirmed God’s healing power and her birthright of health — the affirmation.
The denial is not pretending the appearance does not exist; it is withdrawing the appearance’s authority to be the final word, releasing the fear, so the mind is free to take the affirmation. Used as a small, repeated daily practice, denials clear and affirmations build, the two halves of one breath.
The Method
A faithful paraphrase of the deny-then-affirm pairing as Colemon used it (short attributed phrases only):
- Name the report. A “report” arrives — a diagnosis, a lack, a self-limiting belief (“I’ll never.”, “there isn’t enough”). State plainly what is being claimed.
- Deny it the final word. Refuse to accept the report as the truth of you, as Colemon refused the diagnosis. Inwardly release it: this appearance does not define me and has no power to fix my future.
- Feel the fear go. The work of the denial is to loosen the grip of fear; pause until the charge eases. Without this release the affirmation lands on tense ground.
- Affirm the spiritual truth. Declare the good as the reality, present tense, and feel it — for example along the lines of God’s good as her birthright, health and wholeness as already true in Spirit. Keep it simple and personal.
- Repeat, gently and often. Use the pair through the day — a few quiet moments rather than one strained session — so the new statement is re-impressed (The Inner Creates the Outer, The Inner Creates the Outer).
- Then do the footwork. Pair the inner work with the practical step the situation needs; her teaching is that principle is worked, not merely affirmed. (Sourcing note: structure is an attributed paraphrase of Colemon’s denial/affirmation healing practice in Open Your Mind and Be Healed and her teaching; the general definition of denial/affirmation is the shared Unity formulation.)
Source & Lineage
The denial/affirmation pair is foundational to Unity (H. Emilie Cady’s Lessons in Truth, the Fillmores) and reaches back to Emma Curtis Hopkins.
Johnnie Colemon (1920-2014), Unity-trained founder of UFBL, applied it especially to healing, documented in Open Your Mind and Be Healed (DeVorss), and taught it within her wider “work it” discipline (It Works If You Work It, UFBL Press).
The Traditions' versions
Deny-then-affirm runs through New Thought; the files differ by teacher and emphasis: - Cady’s denials & affirmations — the gentle, portable daily-course form Colemon inherited.
- Fillmore’s denials & affirmations in the silence — Unity’s denial/affirmation worked in the Silence.
- Nona Brooks / Hopkins denial-affirmation treatment — the Divine Science and Hopkins lineage forms.,
- Colemon’s distinctive angle is the healing-specific refusal of the negative report (the diagnosis) as the denial, drawn from her own recovery, then the affirmation of God’s good. The fuller six-step prayer treatment that contains this pairing is in
Common refinements
Denying the fact instead of the fear. The denial releases the power of the report over you, not the diagnosis itself. Keep your doctor, your bill, your plan.
- Affirming on tense ground. If the fear hasn’t eased, the affirmation feels hollow; spend longer on the release.
- Forcing or “shouting down” the appearance. Denial is a calm withdrawal of authority, not a struggle against the problem.
- Doing it once. The mechanism is repetition; use the pair lightly and often.
- Reading a persisting condition as failed faith. It is not. Hold the practice gently and keep taking real action.