Affirmation · “The Subconscious Says Yes”
The Affirmations of Science
To write the truth of an all-sufficient Good onto a mind already cleared by denial — claiming health, supply, freedom, and the divine self as present fact through bold spoken/written affirmation.
Affirmations of Science in 4 lines: After clearing error with the denials, write the truth in. Repeat through the day, boldly and in the present: “There is good for me, and I ought to have it.” Claim the specific truth you need — “God is my health / my supply; I am free; there is work for me and I do it with joy.” Think it, speak it, write it. Insist, daily.
What it is
Lesson III of Hopkins’s course is the Affirmation — the second stroke of her denial-then-affirm method. Once the mind has been cleared of error by the denials (Lesson II), you write the truth onto it: bold, present-tense declarations that the one Good is yours now.
Hopkins’s affirmations are emphatic and active — she taught “the spoken claiming of divine reality,” not passive devotion. Her single most famous affirmation, which she told students to repeat to themselves through the day, is: > “There is good for me, and I ought to have it.” She rooted it in nature itself, calling the conviction that good belongs to one “the unconscious instinct of the worm crawling at your feet” — every living thing carries the certainty that there is good belonging to it that it ought to have.
Around this core she taught a family of affirmations claiming health, freedom, supply, joyful work, and divine identity.
The Method
From Lesson III of Scientific Christian Mental Practice (short quotes attributed; rest faithful paraphrase):
- Affirm only after denying. Hopkins’s fixed order: clear the error with the denials first, then affirm — so the truth-statement meets no resistance. (The two lessons are designed as a pair.)
- Lead with the core affirmation. Take up her central statement and repeat it deliberately, in conviction: > “There is good for me, and I ought to have it.” She instructed students to repeat it to themselves throughout the day, not only in a sitting.
- Affirm the truth boldly and in the present. Her affirmations are stated as fact now, not as request or future hope. Documented examples she used and taught: - “God is my health; I cannot be sick.” - “There is no power in fear; God is the only Power.” - “I am the child of God, and therefore I do not inherit sickness.” - “I am free, for Truth makes me free.” - “There is work for me to do, and I do it with joy.” - “God is my source and supply.” - “I am the Christ of God.” 4. Speak them forth — claim, don’t beg. Hopkins emphasized vocal, confident declaration: the affirmation is a claim of what already is in Truth, made “without hesitation,” not a timid wish.
- Use all three modes — think, speak, write. Consistent with her threefold method, take a chosen affirmation, think it through, speak it aloud, and write it down. The writing fixes it (see the Statement of Being).
- Choose the affirmation that meets your need. Hopkins told students to take up “one lesson that resonates with individual disposition” — i.e., select the affirmation aimed at your particular fear or lack (health, supply, freedom) and work it.
- Insist — repeat persistently. The affirmations are “applied persistently to overwrite limiting beliefs.” This is conditioning by repetition, day after day, the new truth replacing the old verdict. (Sourcing note: “There is good for me, and I ought to have it,” the “worm crawling at your feet” image, the instruction to repeat it through the day, and the listed affirmations are documented Hopkins teaching. Wording outside quotes is faithful paraphrase.)
Source & Lineage
Hopkins (1849–1925), the “mother of New Thought,” made the affirmation-after-denial pair the engine of her twelve lessons. “There is good for me and I ought to have it” became one of the most repeated affirmations in the movement, carried forward by her students into Unity, Religious Science, and Divine Science.
Her bold present-tense claiming style shaped Florence Scovel Shinn, Catherine Ponder, and the whole affirmative-prayer tradition; it is the New Thought sibling of Coué’s autosuggestion, though Hopkins affirms specific truths boldly where Coué murmured a general formula effortlessly.
The Traditions' versions
Denials (the paired Lesson II) — the clearing stroke that precedes the affirmation.
- Coué’s autosuggestion — general, effortless, pre-sleep; Hopkins’s is specific, bold, daytime, claimed.
- Affirmative prayer (Unity / Religious Science) — declaring the good as already true; direct descendant.
- Self-affirmation (psychology) — affirming core values/desired self; the evidence-based parallel.
- I AM decrees — emphatic present-tense identity claims, structurally similar.
Common refinements
Skipping the denial. Affirming over un-cleared fear makes the statement bounce. Deny first (Lesson II), then affirm.
- Timid, future-tense wording. Hopkins claimed boldly in the present (“There IS good for me”). “I hope to.” dilutes it.
- One-off use. The affirmations are repeated “throughout the day,” persistently — it is conditioning, not a single recitation.
- Affirming against fierce disbelief. If a bold claim triggers strong “that’s a lie” backlash, soften toward a bridge (“I am open to good coming to me”) rather than forcing — or do more denial work first.
- Using it to deny real problems. “I cannot be sick” is a focusing claim, not a medical fact; pairing it with denial of symptoms is the dangerous misuse.