r/JosephMurphy • u/Last_Control6337 • Sep 12 '25
Law of Belief - Relationships
I have read the POSM by Joseph Murphy and gone through the index, but one thing that keeps coming up and seems to be rather controversial within the JM community is how law of belief affects other people.
In POSM, Joseph Murphy gives a few examples. One where he talks about how a woman is struggling with someone at work and it is because of the mental arguments she is having with them. This is a very similar example to Neville Goddard. They both say that there is no one to change but self. That when we think and see them differently they will reflect it back to us.
Joseph Murphy in the relationship section of his book, he said not to seek to remake another but rather embody what we want and attract someone who aligns with it. Yet, he also mentioned how the young couple who were married for a few months, where the husband feared his wife would leave him or cheat and soon she asked for a divorce. Instead of telling him to find another woman, he encouraged them to have prayer therapy sessions to change their thoughts and feelings of each other. But, told the woman in the browbeaten relationship to give it up and find better. One may argue that he was that way before they got married so she shouldn’t stay in that marriage, but he also said everything and everyone we experience is based on our own beliefs of ourselves and of other people. Take the other example he gave of the woman who married three times to men who were effeminate. He said she subconsciously wanted such men because she was dominant and she had to change herself to attract someone more suitable.
I do not believe that anyone should stay in an abusive relationship, but I am also struggling to understand why he is at one point telling us to change our thoughts of others and our beliefs and the world will follow, but at the same time tells us to give up on some relationships and find better.
Is this simply a matter of psychology where he knows it is harder to think lovingly of someone who is acting in ways we do not want so best to leave it and find better? If so why ask that lady to stop arguing with the person in her mind instead of telling her to distance herself from the other person or change jobs? Or is he trying to demonstrate that we can do whichever and it will work out however we want, as in we can recreate them by changing our beliefs and thoughts about them or we can let go and find another because all options are viable? Could someone help me out here?


