Affirmation · “The Subconscious Says Yes”
The Law of Increase
Deliberately praise and give thanks for what you already have and for what you desire — as though already received — to lift your own state of mind into a receptive, expansive condition and ‘increase’ the good in your life.
Law of Increase in brief: To get more of any good, praise it now. Take the little you have and bless it — sincerely, from the heart, not the lips. Give thanks for your desire as a PREVIEW, before it arrives, especially when things look worst. Retrain your eye to look for what’s worthy of praise in everything and everyone, and make praise a daily habit. “What you praise grows.” (Then act.)
What it is
In Working with the Law (1964), Raymond Holliwell devotes a chapter to the Law of Increase, whose operating instruction is a single deliberate act: praise.
His core claim is that “what you praise grows” — that sincere, joyful praise and thanksgiving “magnetizes all the good around you” and “transforms that good into usable, visible substance.” Crucially, Holliwell insists praise does not flatter or influence God; “Praise is not intended for God.
It is intended only for man and is an aid to enable man to lift himself upwards.” It is a state-shifting practice: you praise in order to raise your own consciousness into a receptive, expansive, grateful condition.
The most counter-intuitive instruction is the timing — praise before you receive, even in the face of trouble: a true thanksgiving “should not be a REVIEW, it should be a PREVIEW,” an expression of faith in the good still to come.
The Method
Drawn directly from Holliwell’s “Law of Increase” chapter:
- Choose what you want increased. Pick the thing, person, situation, or quality you desire more of — health, supply, a relationship, a struggling business, even an inanimate object you depend on. Holliwell applies praise to all of them indiscriminately: “The Law works without discrimination.”
- Take what little you have and build on it — with praise, not scorn. His central instruction: “When you learn to take what you have and build upon it, NOT with scorn and condemnation, but with praise and gratitude, you are working the Law.” He cites Jesus praising five loaves and a few fish before they multiplied: start by blessing the small amount at hand.
- Praise it sincerely, from the heart. Speak (aloud or inwardly) genuine appreciation for its good qualities. Holliwell is emphatic: “Praise with the heart is far more vital and effectual than praise with the head or praise from the lips.” Look for what is genuinely worthy of praise and name it.
- Praise in the present and future tense — before the result arrives. This is the “PREVIEW, not REVIEW” rule. Render thanks now, “in faith, not in the past, but in the present and in the future to come.” His model is Jesus at the tomb: “Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me” — thanksgiving offered before the visible answer.
- Praise especially when things look worst. “When one can sing praises in the face of adversity, the adversity will soon disappear.” Holliwell frames this as the real test: praising only when “the barns are well filled” reverses the Law; the point is to praise in scarcity, which “generates confidence, strengthens faith.”
- Make it a permanent habit, not a one-off. “Keep ever an attitude of praise and thanksgiving.” He warns that students stop getting results when they “become careless with the Law after they have enjoyed some blessing.” Praise the very least of things daily, and “the very most will come to you.”
- Default to praise over condemnation in all observation. As a lifestyle, retrain the eye: stop hunting for weaknesses and faults (yours and others’) and look for “the accomplishments, the good, and the beauty that is worthy of our praise.” Holliwell says this resets your habitual thinking so “it becomes habitual to think praises.” (Sourcing note: faithful paraphrase of Holliwell’s chapter, with short identifying phrases quoted. No extended passages reproduced.)
Source & Lineage
Dr. Raymond Holliwell (1900–1986) was an American New Thought / Divine Science teacher whose lessons became Working with the Law (1964), later kept in print and taught for decades as a study course (notably by Bob Proctor).
The praise method is explicitly rooted in scripture (Psalm 150, the fall of Jericho, the feeding of the 5,000, the raising of Lazarus, the ten lepers) and in the New Thought conviction that mind and feeling shape experience.
It restates the gratitude-and-praise emphasis found across New Thought — Charles Fillmore (Unity) on “the prosperity of praise and thanksgiving,” Emmet Fox, Catherine Ponder (later) — and the broader principle that an appreciative state precedes receiving.
The Traditions' versions
Gratitude journaling / “three good things” (positive psychology) — the secular, evidence-based cousin: deliberately appreciating what you have.
- “Living in the end” gratitude (Neville) — feeling thankful as though already received.
- Devotional praise (Psalms, hymnody, kirtan) — sustained praise as a state-lifting spiritual act, exactly the form Holliwell borrows.
- Prosperity praise (Unity / Ponder) — blessing money, work, and supply to “increase” it.
- Effort-praise (parenting / management) — praising effort to elicit better performance; Holliwell’s “trainer’s pat” and “praised servant” examples.
Common refinements
Praising from the lips only. Holliwell’s own caveat: head/lip praise is weak; it must be “with the heart.” Find something you can sincerely appreciate.
- Waiting until the good arrives. The whole method is to praise first (“PREVIEW, not REVIEW”). Reviewing a full barn is the easy, ineffective version.
- Quitting after one win. He explicitly warns that carelessness after a blessing stops the results; it’s a standing habit.
- Forced, manic positivity over real problems. “Praise in adversity” can curdle into denial. Pair praise with honest assessment and action — Holliwell’s successful examples always involve people doing something differently too.
- Praising the lack. Condemning what you have (“this old thing”) works the Law in reverse; bless the small amount at hand instead.