Vernon Howard (1918–1992)

Psycho-Pictography: The New Way to Use the Miracle Power of Your Mind
Vernon Howard
Parker Publishing Company
1965

Psycho-Pictography is defined by the author as a “tested science’ that “can change your life instantly.” “Psycho-Pictography is the use of Mental Pictures to convey spiritual and psychological truths that set a man free.” These Mental Pictures “provide the mind with powerful and active guidance.”
Psycho-Pictography claims to be “The first book to organize and present Mental Pictures as a practical science for self-enrichment.” “The science of Psycho-Pictography was developed by your author after many years of careful study and practice.”
The back cover delineates these areas of study. We are told that early in life the author “began searching for the scientific bases of occult, metaphysical, and mystical knowledge. His studies ranged from Alchemy to Voodoo and Zoroaster, from Lapland to the Congo, from prehistoric times to our day.” Years of experimentation enabled the author to “actually...materialize thought objects” and “he began spending all his spare time in scientific and occult libraries, reading everything that existed on materialization. He discovered no clues, until one day he came upon an article by an anonymous author which contained the first glimmer, the first specific evidence to explain what was happening.”
After developing a “method” the author is reputed to have “helped tens of thousands to find new hope and happiness.” The back cover claims that over 2 million copies of Howard’s works have been sold, and translated into 12 languages. Students of Howard are existent today through several non-profits and other small organizations dedicated to perpetuating his philosophy in Colorado, Oregon, on the Internet, and elsewhere. The foundation started by Howard, the New Life Foundation, continues to operate in Arizona.
Vernon Howard was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1918. In the 1940’s he authored humor and children’s books, and after a move to California in the 1950’s he began writing on principles of personal development. “In the 1960s, he began writing books that focused on spiritual and psychological growth. These writings emphasized the importance and practice of self-awareness. By the early 1970s, he had moved to Boulder City, Nevada and had begun teaching spiritual development classes after being contacted by numerous individuals interested in his writings.” (Wikipedia)
The basic premise of Psycho-Pictography is that illustrations (Mental Pictures) are used in enabling the mind to grasp truth. These illustrations “guide the individual into doing what is necessary in order to emerge with a new life.” (3) Illustrations “permit passage of the truth with minimum of resistance.” (4)
Speaking from a spiritual viewpoint, Howard writes “It is never wrong to be either physically or psychologically hungry. What is wrong is to accept a piece of fruit without determining whether it is real or artificial....The truth...already dwells within every man and woman.” (7)
The key to tapping into this indwelling truth is becoming “aware...that an entirely new world exists for him....This new world...appears when a man or woman becomes receptive to esoteric knowledge, secret knowledge....By using the Four Golden Keys (provided later) [emphasis Howard’s] he finally finds what he seeks.” (8)
The Four Golden Keys, then, are essential to Howard’s teaching. On page 12 he lists them as:
“1. A sincere desire for change
“2. Contact with workable principles
“3. Self-honesty
“4. Persistence”
The Four Golden Keys are necessary, says Howard, “for discovering the True Self, the Self that is free and happy.” (12)
Throughout the book Howard reiterates and reemphasizes these premises in various and even entertaining ways. Many of the illustrations are highly adaptable to other teaching methods and contexts. The illustrations are drawn from diverse sources which are primarily literary in scope: religious texts, poetry, sources from antiquity, and so forth. One is reminded of Albert Pike’s “Doctrine and Dogma,” a founding textbook of Freemasonry, which espoused its own collection of secret wisdom, supposedly from Solomon.
In making connections to these sources Howard displays his diverse reading background. By alluding to Bible texts and quoting specific verses familiar to people, especially in the heavily influenced Judeo-Christian West, he gives us the appearance of wisdom.
For instance, Howard wrote, “Your thinking habits determine the kind of life you lead.” (55) This is familiar to the biblical proverb, “As a man thinks in his heart, so he is,” Proverbs 23:7.
Throughout the book we find much of the “esoteric wisdom” which Howard encourages:
“Happiness comes as we toss away needless negatives.” (14)
“Do not strive to seek the true, only cease to cherish opinions.” (25)
“In life, the hero is the True Self.” (26)
“Do not permit a crisis to goad you...Think calmly and wisely.” (41)
“...see people as they really are, not as you may want them to be.” (68)
There were also some apparently contradictory aspects in Howard’s thinking. For instance, on page 55 we find “You are tied to a sad past by mental chains...Break them” but two points later we read “Listen to the secret message of your experiences. Let them help you build self-serving habits.” If one is to break the mental chains that bind him, severing all connections to a sad past how can a secret message remain? To compound examples is unnecessary, but the contradictions of Eastern Mysticism, and especially Buddhism, are rampant. One cannot stop thinking regardless of his efforts to do so. One may also question what fills the “emptiness” attained via these practices borrowed from Transcendental Meditation.
What good might be found in the many adages adduced is compromised when we come to statements such as:
“You can change into the kind of person you want to be. Let Psycho-Pictography aid you.” (28)
“You have a right to live your own life, as long as it harms neither yourself nor others.”
“Use the startling technique of not thinking.”
“Your True Self can meet and dissolve every crisis.” (41)
“When you find your True Self, all your human relations are cheerful and effective.” (68) [History is replete with the refutation of this idea, starting with the perfect God-man, Jesus, who, despite fully realizing his “True Self,” was unjustly put to death by the roman authorities, according to God’s secret wisdom, which is foolishness to men, Acts 2:23; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25.]
“...no effort at attending to the right things is lost.” (112)
“The great solution to all human problems is individual inner transformation.” (189)
According to God’s revealed Truth, the Bible, Man was created by God, and in the image of God. These ideas imply, first: The right of lordship belongs, by virtue of Creation, to the Giver of Life. Therefore, the teaching that a man has the right to live as he lists is a fallacy. Second, the historical fall of our first parents into sin and misery marred the image of God in man, and we lost our original knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. Our “True Self” was effaced by sin, and suffering came as a consequence of rejecting God’s good for us.
Our recovery is not attained by self-effort, but in the doing and dying of the Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the Restorer. The seeking of physical, psychological and spiritual life outside of Christ is a chasing after the wind. The Apostle John wrote

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:20-21)

Transformation—self-improvement and the betterment of ourselves—is available to us, but Howard’s work is completely devoid of the answer provided by our Creator and Savior God. Howard leaves God completely unknown, which sadly suggests Howard did not come to a saving knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, despite all his searching for truth.
There has never been, nor will there ever be, spiritual good in the practices of the occult, Eastern Mysticism, or the other belief systems that have arisen from the corrupt hearts of men. Only in God and His Truth can we hope for personal and spiritual restoration:

For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
(Isaiah 43:3)

Since he ate the forbidden fruit, Man has tried to hide from God. He seeks his salvation outside of God as an expression of his rebellion against God. His search for truth is hindered by his post-fall propensity to twist reality to his own self-serving purposes.

... unrighteousness ... men, ... by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:18-23)

The teaching of this passage is not that God’s verdict on humanity is that we can redeem ourselves through self-realization. Our sin—our transgression—gives rise to God’s divine wrath (v. 18). In our own experience we find examples of transgression like ingratitude (v. 21) and idolatry (v. 23). Sexual sins, such as homosexual behavior, are depicted as detestable in God’s sight (vv. 26–27). There is not anyone among men who is innocent of a number of the sins described (see vv. 28–31). Although we may not practice every sinful deed found in this passage, we sometimes approve and even envy others when they do such things. In doing so we fail to love God (breaking his commandments) and we fail to love our neighbor (because we support them in their sins). God’s verdict is judgment.
There is knowledge in the world around us (Isaiah 28:23-29), and there is knowledge in the collective thoughts and insights found in philosophy, the arts, literature, sciences, and the offerings of the cultures of this world (Isaiah 19:11-13; Jeremiah 49:7; Daniel 2:12-13, 5:7). But as “The fear [reverent awe] of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Proverbs 9:10) only that man who starts with “the secret of [knowing] the Lord” may possess true wisdom.

The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant. (Psalm 25:14)

Trusting in “esoteric knowledge, secret knowledge” (8) as Howard taught is the substitution of an idol for the true knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. There is salvation in no other.
Man does not need secret knowledge. He needs the Gospel, God’s good news, which offers true healing from the lies we believe. It is “tough news” to learn we are all implicated in acts and attitudes that God has promised to punish. But, he freely offers us his grace.
We are personally, psychologically and spiritually not whole, and cannot be unless Jesus Christ, offered to us in the Gospel, is embraced. The Gospel is the divine antidote, and we may grow in the richness of knowing only by being known by and in Jesus Christ.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)

For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. (1 Timothy 4:10)… (altro)