Florence Scovel Shinn and the Creative Power of the Spoken Word
Long before manifestation became mainstream language, Florence Scovel Shinn was quietly teaching a radical truth.
Your life is not happening to you.
It is happening through you.
Florence Scovel Shinn was an American artist and book illustrator who later emerged as one of the most influential New Thought spiritual teachers of the early 20th century. She lived and taught during a time of massive upheaval, including the Great Depression, yet her work consistently pointed people toward inner authority, faith, and the creative power of thought and spoken word.
She is best known for her book The Game of Life and How to Play It, published in 1925, a work that still resonates nearly a century later because it refuses to stay abstract. Shinn did not teach theory. She taught application.
Invisible Forces and the Power of Words
One of her most quoted passages reveals the foundation of her philosophy:
“The invisible forces are ever working for man who is always ‘pulling the strings’ himself, though he does not know it. Owing the vibratory power of words, whatever man voices, he begins to attract.”
To Shinn, words were not symbolic. They were active. Vibrational. Creative.
What you speak repeatedly, you energize.
What you energize, you draw toward you.
This was not about positive thinking as denial. It was about understanding spiritual law and learning how to work with it consciously.
She believed that thought manifests tangible resolution to every inequity through the power of God, not through force, struggle, or manipulation.
God Wants for You What You Want for Yourself
One of Shinn’s most liberating teachings was this:
God is not withholding from you.
God wants for you what you want for yourself.
If a desire has not yet manifested, she taught, it is not because the desire is wrong or selfish. It is because the individual has not yet learned how to properly connect with the power already given to them.
This creative power was, in her words, ordained by God as a gift to all mankind.
Not reserved for the elite.
Not limited by class, gender, or education.
Not dependent on external permission.
The work was internal alignment.
A Powerful Example of Inner Work in Action
Florence Scovel Shinn grounded her teachings in real-life examples, many drawn from people she personally worked with.
One of the most striking stories she shared involved a woman suffering from a severe and seemingly incurable skin disease.
Doctors had told her there was no cure.
She was an actress, and her condition threatened her livelihood.
Fear, despair, and resentment had taken root.
Despite this, she landed a strong stage engagement and on opening night was a great success. Critics praised her. She felt joy and relief.
The next day, she was abruptly dismissed.
A man involved in the production had become jealous of her success and orchestrated her removal. Rage, hatred, and resentment consumed her. She cried out internally, not for revenge, but for relief from hatred itself:
“God, don’t let me hate that man.”
That night, she went inward and worked “in the silence.” She did not rehearse anger. She did not replay the injustice. She sought peace.
She later said she entered a deep stillness, a sense of being at peace with herself, with the man, and with the world. She repeated this inner practice for two more nights.
On the third day, she discovered something astonishing.
She was completely healed of the skin disease.
Shinn explained this clearly: the disease had been rooted in subconscious resentment. When the woman asked for love and goodwill instead of revenge, she fulfilled the law.
“For love is the fulfilling of the law.”
The outer condition dissolved when the inner contradiction was resolved.
Holding the End Until You Connect With It
Florence Scovel Shinn emphasized a principle that would later be echoed by teachers like Neville Goddard, who was teaching during the same era.
You cannot manifest what you do not emotionally and mentally inhabit.
You must hold the end result until you connect with it internally. Not wish for it. Not chase it. Connect to it.
Manifestation collapses when the inner state contradicts the desired outcome. Fear cancels faith. Resentment cancels harmony. Doubt fragments intention.
This is not punishment. It is coherence.
Teaching Hope During the Great Depression
Florence Scovel Shinn and Neville Goddard were both teaching during one of the darkest economic periods in modern history. And yet, people using these principles still experienced healing, opportunity, and even wealth.
This matters.
It shows that circumstances do not have absolute authority. Consciousness does.
Even when systems fail, inner alignment can open unexpected paths.
Her Lasting Body of Work
Beyond The Game of Life and How to Play It, Shinn authored several other influential works:
Your Word Is Your Wand
The Secret Door to Success
After her death, Shinn Press released The Power of the Spoken Word, preserving her teachings for future generations.
Decades later, in 2013, Louise Hay published The Magic Path of Intuition after receiving a rare, unpublished, typewritten manuscript of Shinn’s final writings from a rare books dealer. Even in death, Shinn’s work continued to surface, guided by intention and timing.
Intention, Image, and the Creative Mind
At the heart of Florence Scovel Shinn’s teachings is this truth:
Intention guides the mind.
The mind forms the image.
The image connects to The Creator.
And creation follows.
This is not fantasy. It is spiritual law applied consciously.
Your words matter.
Your inner state matters.
Your willingness to release contradiction matters.
Florence Scovel Shinn did not promise magic. She taught responsibility paired with grace.
And that combination still changes lives.
Bring These Teachings Into Practice
Florence Scovel Shinn didn’t write to be admired. She wrote to be applied.
If this post stirred something in you, that’s awareness knocking. Insight alone doesn’t shift reality. Practice does. Repetition does. Inner alignment does.
The Awakening Collective is a living space for exactly this kind of work. We gather in focused intention, quiet the noise, form the image of the fulfilled desire, and hold it in certainty together. When intention is shared, doubt loses strength and coherence builds faster. This is the same principle Florence taught, amplified through community.
You’re invited to:
Join The Awakening Collective and practice conscious intention in a grounded, supportive space
Support this work with a donation so these teachings remain accessible, practical, and alive
Your word is your wand.
Your intention directs the power.
When you’re ready to move from knowing to doing, step in.