Florence Scovel Shinn - The New Game of Life and How to Play It

OTHER TITLES IN THE

L IBRARY OF
HIDDEN KNOWLEDGE

The New Master Key System

The New Science of Getting Rich

Natural Abundance

Coming in 2012

As We Think, So We Are

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INTERPRETATIONS
Modernized for the Twenty-First-Century Reader

ORIGINAL TEXT
As Published in 1925

F lorence Scovel Shinn wrote in a comfortable, colloquial style. She drew heavily on examples that matched the experience of the readers of her time but that dont always make sense to the twenty-first-century reader. In creating this updated version, Ive used quotations from a variety of spiritual traditions as well as some modern terms and concepts (for example, nuclear power) that didnt exist in her day but make her points relevant to our current experience. The Unity tradition in which she worked says that all spiritual traditions contain the whole perennial philosophy but that each one offers its own perspective and teaching: theyre unique paths leading to the same central core. While her audience wasnt aware of much beyond the Judeo-Christian perspective, we are, and Ive honored that fact here by bringing in teachings from other traditions. Similarly, while she described situations using electricity and telephones back in 1925, later inventions are my additions.

This intermixing of modern ideas with her older text may be a little confusing for some readers because much of what she says is expressed in the first person, as I was seeking an opportunity... My advice is to envision that shes sitting here with you today, in the twenty-first century, because what Florence Scovel Shinn had to say is timeless; its as useful now as it was almost a hundred years ago when she was writing it.

You may find it easiest to read the whole first section, the updated version, first. You may wish to do some of the exercises at the end of each chapter to get a feel for what shes teaching and then read her original text, which is the second section of the book. You can also go back and forth between her language and examples in the original text and the updated version, to make comparisons or choose which version of a particular point resonates best with you.

At the end of the first section youll find a list of the statements, which she called affirmations, that she used to help her students and clients change their habits of thought. These have been pulled from the text to make them easy to access as you move through your own Game of Life. Theres also a list, with definitions, of the Spiritual Principles she refers to in the text and relied on for transforming different situations. Most of these principles are explained in the text as well. Finally, before you get to her original text, youll find a brief overview of experimental research done over the past fifty years supporting the principles and methods she put forth in this book.

You are about to embark on a remarkable journey of discovery. There are tools offered here that, if applied as directed, can completely transform your life. May you be empowered and enthused along the way!

Ruth L. Miller

Theres a new kind of understanding emerging about how the world works, an understanding thats based on ancient ideas. The evidence no longer justifies the popular belief that we live in a dog-eat-dog world, one of continuous struggle for survivalin fact, cooperation and symbiosis appear to be the norm in the natural world, rather than competition and mutual destruction.

At the same time, more and more people are becoming aware of the power that our own mental model of the world has in shaping our lives and influencing the world around us. Through the popular writings of such famous doctors and therapists as Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer, and the powerful teachings of films like Pay It Forward and The Secret , many people are beginning to realize that what we think about profoundly influences what we experience.

This is not a new idea. In fact, its been present in the many sacred texts of the world for thousands of years. The American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson brought this way of thinking into the industrialized world in the mid-1800s, and many schools of thought have since grown from his work.

The original author of this book, Florence Scovel Shinn, was profoundly influenced by Emersons ideas. Applying them in her own life, she got powerful results and wanted to help others use them. In order to do so, she decided to help people shift from the battle model of life to a healthier, less destructive model and came up with the idea of a game as the easiest, most effective way to understand and apply the methods she was recommending.

As she conceived it, the Game of Life is a series of actions you can take to move from a life of lack and dis-ease to one of wealth and well-being, which she called Completion. Completion of the Game comes when weve achieved well-being in the four main areas of lifeHealth, Wealth, Love, and Perfect Self-Expressionthrough the mastery of Spiritual Principles.

In modern times, with so many of us playing video games, the idea of life as a great game is even more appropriate. This game is one in which, at each level, we follow clues and develop skills and understandings that allow us to move on to the next level. No matter where we start, we can find a principle or idea that will help us overcome the obstacles at that level, practice it in a variety of situations, and achieve a new level of accomplishment. Then we find new clues, new principles, and new ways of applying them that help us move to an even greater level of fulfillment. The difference between Shinns Game of Life and the average video game, however, is that it gets simpler as we move from level to level, rather than more difficult. Now isnt that refreshing?

Shinn studied with Emma Curtis Hopkins, the teacher of teachers in a peculiarly American spiritual movement called New during the 1910s and early 20s. Hopkins had a school in Chicago during the 1880s and 90s where she taught thousands of people her unique integration of Emersons ideas with ancient mystical and spiritual traditions, along with the mental healing methods developed in the mid-1800s by Phineas Parkhurst Quimby of Maine. During the last few years of her life, Hopkins lived each winter in New York, and Shinn met her there.

Hopkins taught that when we look closely at the various spiritual traditions of the world, we realize that they all offer paths to a mental and physical state of peace and well-being. From the guidelines in the most ancient text, the Hindu Vedas, to the teachings of the most modern, the Quran, weve been offered ways of thinking and acting that will lift us out of the cultural programming of the subconscious mind and into the freedom of the superconscious mind, allowing us to live in harmony with our true nature.