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 doctrine of no salvation outside the church, Murphy leaves seminary.
Circa 1916–1918 — Murphy works as a pharmacist for England’s Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I.
1918–1921 — Murphy works as a in pharmacist in Dublin. He earns a monthly salary of about $10.
1922 — Dissatisfied with traditional religion and finding limited opportunities to practice as a chemist, Murphy just shy of age 24 arrives in New York City on April 17, 1922. He is accompanied by his wife, Madolyn, who is eight years his senior (wedding date unknown). He arrives with $23. Applies for citizenship in August.
1923–1938 — Murphy works as a pharmacist in New York City including at a pharmacy counter at the Algonquin Hotel. He deepens his study into metaphysics and years later recounts having studied with the figure of Abdullah, a black man of Jewish descent whom Murphy’s contemporary and fellow New Yorker, Neville…
