Affirmation · “The Subconscious Says Yes”
Directing the Thought-Current
Deliberately hold and dwell in constructive thoughts — treating each thought as a real ‘thing’ or current that attracts more of its own kind — and refuse to feed fear, gloom, and worry.
Thoughts are things — and thought “runs in currents as real as those of air and water.” Each morning, choose the current you want to live in. Dwell on it; return to it all day. When fear or gloom rises, don’t argue — turn back to your chosen thought and starve the other one of attention. Watch your talk and your company, for like thought gathers like.
What it is
Prentice Mulford’s most famous slogan is the title of his book: thoughts are things. He meant it almost literally — that a thought is a real emanation with substance and direction, and that “thought runs in currents as real as those of air and water.” Of whatever we habitually think and talk, he held, “we attract to us a like current of thought,” and that current “acts on mind or body for good or ill.” This practice is the everyday application of that idea: instead of letting the mind drift into whatever fear or grievance is loudest, you choose the quality of thought you keep — and you keep returning to it until it becomes the current you live in.
The Method
- Accept the premise: thought is a force, not idle noise. Begin from Mulford’s claim — “thought runs in currents as real as those of air and water.” Treat each mood as something you are actively sending out, not merely suffering.
- Choose the current you want. Decide, in plain words, the state you intend to live in today — courage, health, cheer, expectancy. This is the “thing” you mean to think into being.
- Dwell on it deliberately. Hold that chosen thought in mind on waking and return to it through the day. “Of what we think and talk we attract to us a like current of thought,” so you feed the chosen current by repeatedly putting attention on it.
- Refuse the opposite current. When fear, gloom, or grievance arises, recognize it as a draining current and decline to dwell — turn the mind, gently and repeatedly, back to the thought you chose. You are not arguing with the bad thought; you are starving it of attention.
- Mind your talk and your company. Because “persons similar in temperament, character and motive are in the same literal current of thought,” watch what you discuss and with whom — speaking the fear amplifies it; speaking the good reinforces it. (Sourcing note: quoted phrases are verbatim from the essay “Thought Currents” in Thoughts Are Things; the numbered structure is an attributed paraphrase of Mulford’s scattered counsel.)
Source & Lineage
Prentice Mulford (1834–1891) — Gold Rush sailor, humorist, and later hermit-essayist — wrote the White Cross Library pamphlets collected as Thoughts Are Things (1889) and Your Forces, and How to Use Them.
His phrase “thoughts are things” became a founding motto of the New Thought movement and a direct ancestor of later “law of attraction” teaching.
Common refinements
Fighting the bad thought. Wrestling a fear keeps attention on it. The move is to turn toward the chosen thought, not to argue with the unwanted one.
- Choosing too vaguely. “Be positive” is no current to ride. Name a specific state (courage, ease, expectancy) you can actually picture and return to.
- Forgetting the day. A morning intention drains away without renewal; the practice is the repeated turning, all day, not a single resolve.
- Talking the leak. Rehearsing the worry aloud, even to “vent,” re-strengthens that current.