Many inaccuracies appear in bio briefs of the influential New Thought writer and minister Joseph Murphy (1898–1981), author of the 1963 mind-metaphysics classic, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind.
Various sources have the Irish-born seeker studying with Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) or English judge and mystic Thomas Troward (1847–1916) — both of whom lived and worked at disparate times and distances from Murphy — or offer dubious details about his childhood home and education.
This timeline presents the fullest information I could locate through immigration records, Murphy’s few interviews, and cross-referenced statements and historical sources.
It traces the journey and prolific output of one of the last century’s best-known and most significant metaphysical voices.
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1898 — Joseph Denis Murphy is born on May 20, the fourth of five children (three girls and two boys) to a devout Catholic family on the Southern Coast of Ireland in Ballydehob, County Cork. Murphy’s father was headmaster of a local boys high school.
Circa 1914–1915 — After being educated locally, Murphy studies chemistry in Dublin. Bowing to his parents’ wishes he enrolls briefly in a Jesuit seminary. Dissatisfied with his studies, and unbelieving of the…
