Emotional Release · “Die to Be Reborn”
The Key of Light
To pour out thanks, praise, and adoration to God continually and for its own sake — asking for nothing — until praise itself becomes the dominant felt state and lifts the soul out of fear and doubt into ‘the Light.
The Key of Light: Give thanks and praise to God continually, for its own sake, asking for nothing — “with every thought,” in wonder and joy at the privilege of being alive. Add any request only after the thanks. When fear rises, out-praise it. “Just give thanks constantly, if need be. This is the key of Light.”
What it is
This is Annalee Skarin’s foundational practice and the keynote of every book she wrote: a habit of continual thanks, praise, and adoration of God, poured out for its own sake and asking for nothing. Where most prayer petitions for a result, Skarin’s praise is requestless — you give glory, wonder, and gratitude simply because life and God are worthy of it.
She treats this not as a warm-up to “real” prayer but as the operative spiritual act itself: the deliberate, sustained kindling of love and joy that, she taught, lifts the soul out of fear and doubt and into what she called the Light.
In her own words the move from fear into the Light “is just a matter of worshipping and adoring, and praising and giving glory to God with every thought,” and “Just give thanks constantly, if need be. This is the key of Light.” It is an emotional-cultivation practice — feeling, not formula, is the force — which is why it sits among the emotional-release techniques: praise is the lever that releases fear’s grip.
The Method
From Ye Are Gods and her later writings (faithfully described; short quotes only):
- Begin with thanks, not requests. Open by giving thanks and praise. Skarin is explicit about the order: “Let your requests be added after your thanks and gratitude and praise have been expressed” — and even then, in “ever increasing wonder and joy in the privilege of living on this wonderful earth.”
- Praise for its own sake. Adore and glorify God with no transaction in mind. The praise is the point; you are not paying for an outcome.
- Let wonder build the feeling. Dwell on the goodness, beauty, and privilege of life until genuine wonder and joy rise. The aim is a felt adoration, not a recited one — “with every thought.”
- Make it continual. “Just give thanks constantly, if need be.” Return to praise through the day — in trouble especially — so that thanksgiving, not anxiety, becomes the background tone of the mind.
- Let praise lift you out of fear. When fear or doubt arises, do not argue with it; out-praise it. Skarin’s claim is that steady praise itself carries the soul up into the Light, dissolving the lower state.
- Hold nothing back. She frames the practice as wholehearted — heart, soul, and mind united in “this overwhelming love of devotion and joy” that “turns the key” of the inner powers. (Sourcing note: Skarin’s books are in print via DeVorss/Inner Sound Press; the lines above are attributed quotation and paraphrase, not full reproduction.)
Source & Lineage
Annalee Skarin (1899–1988), born Nansela Mathews, was an American mystical author raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and later excommunicated for her unorthodox teaching.
She self-published Ye Are Gods in 1948, followed by Secrets of Eternal Youth, The Temple of God, To God the Glory, and others. Continual love, praise, and gratitude is the through-line of all of them.
Her praise teaching draws on the Psalms and the Pauline “in everything give thanks,” routed through New Thought’s conviction that cultivated feeling is creative — but pushed to her own radical end, that sustained praise can transfigure the body itself.
The Traditions' versions
The lever of deliberate, sustained praise/gratitude as a transforming state recurs widely; Skarin’s version is distinctive in being requestless (glory first, petition only after, if at all) and continual (a background habit, not a sitting):
- Murphy’s “Thank you, Father” — thanks offered to impress the subconscious with the wish already granted; petition is the whole point. Skarin’s praise asks for nothing.
- Salzberg’s gratitude recollection — a timed meditation recalling a pleasant experience. Skarin’s is an all-day devotional outpouring, not a recollection exercise.
- Dionysius’ cataphatic praise-then-release — praise the divine names, then let them dissolve into silence. Skarin sustains the praise rather than releasing it.
- Besht’s joyful fervent prayer (simcha) — worship in joy as the gateway.
- Sadhguru’s gratitude as involvement — gratitude as a way of being engaged with life.
Common refinements
Sliding straight into asking. The whole distinctive move is thanks first, requestless. If every “praise” is really a veiled petition, you’ve lost the practice.
- Reciting without feeling. Skarin’s praise is emotional — “with every thought,” in wonder and joy. Flat verbal repetition won’t do the work; let real gladness build.
- Using praise to bypass. Forcing gratitude over genuine grief, fear, or injustice is spiritual bypassing. Feel what’s there; praise alongside it, not as a lid on it.
- Treating it as a vending machine. The point is not to praise so that something appears (that’s a later practice). Here, praise is the state itself.
- Doing it only when low. It works best as a continual background habit, so the lift is already in place before trouble hits.