"Your Twelve Powers." Narrated by Dr Joseph Murphy, most probably in the 1970s. Originally released on audio cassette. All rights reserved.

Divine Science minister, lecturer and author Dr Joseph Murphy was one of the giants of the New Thought Movement. His most famous book is The Power of Your Subconscious Mind (1963). During the many years that Dr Murphy was MinisterDirector of the Church of Divine Science in Los Angeles, thousands of people would crowd into the WilshireEbell Theatre to hear his message, and millions tuned in to his daily radio program.

Dr Murphy also lectured throughout the world, including making two lecture trips to my country Australia in 1955 and 196263 under the auspices of New Thought Centres, Australia.
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What are the twelve powers?

According to Unity cofounder and author Charles Fillmore the twelve powers are the twelve fundamental attributes of Divine Mind (Universal Intelligence) that form our spiritual nature and express themselves through our minds and also our bodies as creative ideas, powers and faculties.

In his book The Twelve Powers of Man (1930), Charles Fillmore writes that each of the twelve powers or "department heads" has control of a certain function in soul or body, working through an aggregation of cells that physiology calls a "ganglionic centre" (or nerve centre). He states:

"Each of the twelve fundamental faculties of man has an ego that reflects, in a measure, the original man idea in God. In the body consciousness the twelve apostles, as egos, have twelve centres, or thrones, from which they exercise their power. The will expresses its dominion from the head; love, from the breast; and power ... from the throat."

Fillmore also writes, "These twelve powers are all expressed and developed under the guidance of Divine Mind." NOTE. The number "twelve," as Dr Emmet Fox has pointed out, is the number of spiritual fulfilment, and corporate completeness. The number "seven" is the number of individual completeness, perfection of the human soul, and fulness in the world of phenomena.

In his book Diagrams for Living (1968), Emmet Fox points out that the twelve tribes of Israel stand for the "foundation faculties of the human soul.” He goes on to write:

"... [U]nless all your faculties are oriented toward one point, you are not going to conquer the heathen within yourself. You are not going to win freedom, health, and spiritual development. If you allow any of your faculties to take the easy way, you are not going to get the victory."

The twelve powers are variously expressed by different authors and practitioners. In Unity, the twelve powers and their corresponding disciples and locations in the human body are said to be as follows:

1. POWER Philip root of tongue.
2. FAITH Peter centre of brain/close to pineal gland.
3. WILL Matthew centre of left forebrain.
4. DISCRIMINATION/GOOD JUDGMENT/WISDOM James, the son of Zebedee pit of stomach (solar plexus).
5. UNDERSTANDING Thomas – right forebrain.
6. ORDER James, the son of Alphaeus – behind the navel.
7. PURITY/RENUNCIATION/ELIMINATION Thaddaeus abdominal region (lower bowels).
8. STRENGTH Andrew – loins (the small of the back).
9. LOVE John back of the heart.
10. LIFE/LIFE CONSERVER/REGENERATION Judas – reproductive organs.
11. IMAGINATION Bartholomew between the eyes (“third eye”).
12. ZEAL/ENTHUSIASM Simon the Cananaean back of the head/base of the brain (medulla oblongata/hypothalamus).