Murphy was born in Ballydehob, County Cork, Ireland, the son of a private boys' school headmaster and raised a Roman Catholic.
However, by the time he reached his late teen years, he began to question the Catholic orthodoxy of the Jesuits, and he withdrew from the seminary.
In his twenties, before being ordained a priest, an experience with healing prayer led him to leave the Jesuits and emigrate to the United States in 1922.
[1] Murphy traveled to India and spent a lot of time with Indian sages, learning Hindu philosophy.
A person who had a particularly strong influence on Murphy was Thomas Troward, who was a judge as well as a philosopher, doctor, and professor.
He became an active member of this order, and over the years rose in the Masonic ranks to the 32nd degree in the Scottish Rite.
This movement was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by many philosophers and deep thinkers who studied this phenomenon and preached, wrote, and practiced a new way of looking at life and obtaining desires.