Affirmation · “The Subconscious Says Yes”
Praising the Good into Being
To take a desired good or quality and, instead of begging for it, repeatedly praise and give thanks for it as already God’s gift — letting love and gratitude ‘fulfil the law’ so the good grows ever more real in experience.
Praising the Good into Being: Choose the good you desire; stop begging for it. Praise and thank God for it as already given, with love and wonder, repeating it in gladness — “as he praises it, and thanks God for it, it will become ever more manifest” — until you “walk in the majesty of true assurance.” Love, not strain, “turns the key.” Give thanks outward; never clutch the result. Then act.
What it is
This is Annalee Skarin’s applied praise practice — the point where her “key of Light” is turned toward a particular good. Rather than petition for what you lack, you take the desired good or quality (health, a virtue, a needed provision, an answered situation) and praise and give thanks for it as though it were already God’s settled gift, repeatedly, with love — and so, she taught, it “becomes ever more manifest.” Skarin grounds this in her version of the law of love / giving: love freely poured out is “the fulfilling of the law,” and “the very power of the heart, soul and mind united in this overwhelming love of devotion and joy turns the key and fulfils all the laws.” Her line on the mechanism is concrete: as one “praises it, and thanks God for it, it will become ever more manifest in his daily activities until he can walk in the majesty of true assurance.” It is an affirmation-by-gratitude: not “give me,” but “thank you, it is so” — sustained in love until the assurance is real.
The Method
From Ye Are Gods and her later writings (faithfully described; short quotes only):
- Choose the good — then stop begging for it. Name the quality or condition you desire. Drop the posture of lack and asking.
- Praise and thank for it as already given. Give thanks for the good as God’s present gift, with love and wonder — the same requestless, glad spirit as her “key of Light,” now pointed at this one thing.
- Repeat it, in love. Return to the praise again and again. Skarin’s claim is cumulative: “as he praises it, and thanks God for it, it will become ever more manifest in his daily activities.”
- Let love do the lifting. Pour out love and devotion, not strained will. “Love is the fulfilling of the law”; the heart “united in this overwhelming love of devotion and joy turns the key.”
- Grow into assurance. Continue “until he can walk in the majesty of true assurance” — i.e., until the inner certainty (not anxious hoping) is settled and steady.
- Give, don’t grasp. Keep the spirit one of giving thanks and love outward, never clutching at the result — grasping reinstates lack. (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), raised LDS and later excommunicated for her mystical teaching, published Ye Are Gods (1948) and several later works in which love, praise, and gratitude are the operative powers.
This applied form fuses the New Thought practice of present-tense, feeling-toned affirmation with the biblical “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10) and “in everything give thanks” (1 Thess. 5:18), under her own conviction that cultivated love-and-praise is the master key to every law.
The Traditions' versions
The move of giving thanks for the good as already received, rather than petitioning, is a New Thought staple; Skarin’s version is distinctive in routing it through love/devotion as the operative “fulfilling of the law” and in framing it as continual, requestless giving rather than a targeted impression technique:
- Murphy’s “Thank you, Father” — thanksgiving to impress the subconscious with the wish fulfilled; mechanism is re-impression. Skarin’s is love-as-law, not subconscious programming.
- Lanyon’s “It is wonderful” — affirming the good with delighted certainty.
- Collier’s “give thanks, then release” — thank, then let go. Skarin sustains the grateful praise rather than releasing it.
- Hagin’s “believe you receive” — thank for the answer as already had.
- Bhakti yoga’s loving devotion — love poured to the divine as the path itself.
Common refinements
Praising at an outcome you’re secretly anxious about. If the “thanks” is really clutching, you’ve reinstated lack. The spirit is giving, not grasping.
- Words without love. Skarin’s mechanism is love and devotion, not recitation. Flat affirmation won’t “turn the key”; let real gladness and affection rise.
- Quitting at the first non-result. The claim is cumulative (“ever more manifest”); she expects sustained praise growing into assurance, not one-shot success.
- Skipping the action. Praising for health or provision is not a reason to skip the doctor, the work, or the practical step. Let assurance fuel action, not replace it.
- Self-blame when it doesn’t come. “Praise it and it manifests” implies failure means you praised wrong. Drop that; outcomes have many causes.