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TheNew Thought movement (alsoHigher Thought)[1] is anew religious movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from a variety of origins, such asAncient Greek,Roman,Egyptian,Chinese,Taoist,Hindu, andBuddhist cultures[citation needed] and their related belief systems, primarily regarding the interaction among thought, belief, consciousness in the human mind, and the effects of these within and beyond the human mind. Though no direct line of transmission is traceable, many adherents to New Thought in the 19th and 20th centuries claimed to be direct descendants of those systems.[citation needed]
Although there have been many leaders and various offshoots of the New Thought philosophy, theorigins of New Thought have often been traced back toPhineas Quimby, or even as far back asFranz Mesmer, who was one of the first European thinkers to link one's mental state to physical condition.[2] Many ofthese groups are incorporated into theInternational New Thought Alliance.[3][4] The contemporary New Thought movement is a loosely allied group ofreligious denominations, authors, philosophers, and individuals who share a set of beliefs concerningmetaphysics,positive thinking, thelaw of attraction,healing,life force,creative visualization, andpersonal power.[5][failed verification]
New Thought holds thatInfinite Intelligence, or God, iseverywhere,spirit is the totality of real things, true human selfhood is divine, divine thought is a force for good, sickness originates in themind, and "right thinking" has a healing effect.[6][failed verification][7][unreliable source?] Although New Thought is neithermonolithic nordoctrinaire, in general, modern-day adherents of New Thought share some core beliefs:
William James used the term "New Thought" as synonymous with the "Mind cure movement", in which he included many sects with diverse origins, such asidealism and Hinduism.[8]
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William James, inThe Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), described New Thought:
[F]or the sake of having a brief designation, I will give the title of the "Mind-cure movement." There are various sects of this "New Thought," to use another of the names by which it calls itself; but their agreements are so profound that their differences may be neglected for my present purpose, and I will treat the movement, without apology, as if it were a simple thing.
It is an optimistic scheme of life, with both a speculative and a practical side. In its gradual development during the last quarter of a century, it has taken up into itself a number of contributory elements, and it must now be reckoned with as a genuine religious power. It has reached the stage, for example, when the demand for its literature is great enough for insincere stuff, mechanically produced for the market, to be to a certain extent supplied by publishers – a phenomenon never observed, I imagine, until a religion has got well past its earliest insecure beginnings.
One of the doctrinal sources of Mind-cure is thefour Gospels; another isEmersonianism or New Englandtranscendentalism; another isBerkeleyan idealism; another isspiritism, with its messages of "law" and "progress" and "development"; another the optimistic popular scienceevolutionism of which I have recently spoken; and, finally,Hinduism has contributed a strain. But the most characteristic feature of the mind-cure movement is an inspiration much more direct. The leaders in this faith have had an intuitive belief in the all-saving power of healthy-minded attitudes as such, in the conquering efficacy of courage, hope, and trust, and a correlative contempt for doubt, fear, worry, and all nervously precautionary states of mind. Their belief has in a general way been corroborated by the practical experience of their disciples; and this experience forms to-day a mass imposing in amount.[9]
The New Thought movement was based on the teachings ofPhineas Quimby (1802–1866), an Americanmesmerist and healer. Quimby had developed a belief system that included the tenet that illness originated in the mind as a consequence of erroneous beliefs and that a mind open to God's wisdom could overcome any illness.[10] His basic premise was:
The trouble is in the mind, for the body is only the house for the mind to dwell in [...] Therefore, if your mind had been deceived by some invisible enemy into a belief, you have put it into the form of a disease, with or without your knowledge. By my theory or truth, I come in contact with your enemy, and restore you to health and happiness. This I do partly mentally, and partly by talking till I correct the wrong impression and establish the Truth, and the Truth is the cure.[11][12]
During the late 19th century, the metaphysical healing practices of Quimby mingled with the "Mental Science" ofWarren Felt Evans, aSwedenborgian minister.[citation needed]Mary Baker Eddy, the founder ofChristian Science, has sometimes been cited as having used Quimby as inspiration for theology. Eddy was a patient of Quimby's and shared his view that disease is rooted in a mental cause. Because of its theism, Christian Science differs from the teachings of Quimby.[13]
In the late 19th century, New Thought was propelled by a number of spiritual thinkers and philosophers and emerged through a variety of religious denominations and churches, particularly theUnity Church andChurch of Divine Science (established in 1889 and 1888, respectively), followed byReligious Science (theInstitute of Religious Science and Philosophy was established in 1927).[14] Many of its early teachers and students were women; notable among the founders of the movement wereEmma Curtis Hopkins, known as the "teacher of teachers",Myrtle Fillmore,Malinda Cramer, andNona L. Brooks;[14] with many of its churches and community centers led by women, from the 1880s to today.[15][16]
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New Thought is also largely a movement of the printed word.[17]
Prentice Mulford, through writingYour Forces and How to Use Them,[18] a series of essays published during 1886–1892, was pivotal in the development of New Thought thinking, including theLaw of Attraction.
In 1906,William Walker Atkinson (1862–1932) wrote and publishedThought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World.[19] Atkinson was the editor ofNew Thought magazine and the author of more than 100 books on an assortment of religious,spiritual, andoccult topics.[20] The following year,Elizabeth Towne, the editor ofThe Nautilus, published Bruce MacLelland's bookProsperity Through Thought Force, in which he summarized the "Law of Attraction" as a New Thought principle, stating "You are what you think, not what you think you are."[21]
These magazines were used to reach a large audience then, as others are now.Nautilus magazine, for example, had 45,000 subscribers and a total circulation of 150,000.[17] OneUnity Church magazine,Wee Wisdom, was the longest-lived children's magazine in the United States, published from 1893 until 1991.[22] Today, New Thought magazines includeDaily Word, published by Unity (Unity.org) and the Religious Science magazine; andScience of Mind, published by theCenters for Spiritual Living.
The 1915International New Thought Alliance (INTA) conference – held in conjunction with thePanama–Pacific International Exposition, aworld's fair that took place in San Francisco – featured New Thought speakers from far and wide. The PPIE organizers were so favorably impressed by the INTA convention that they declared a special "New Thought Day" at the fair and struck a commemorative bronze medal for the occasion, which was presented to the INTA delegates, led byAnnie Rix Militz.[23] By 1916, the International New Thought Alliance had encompassed many smaller groups around the world, adopting a creed known as the "Declaration of Principles".[14] The Alliance is held together by one central teaching: that people, through the constructive use of their minds, can attain freedom, power, health, prosperity, and all good, molding their bodies as well as the circumstances of their lives. The declaration was revised in 1957, with all references to Christianity removed, and a new statement based on the "inseparable oneness of God and Man".[14]
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The chief tenets of New Thought are:[24]
Adherents also generally believe that as humankind gains greater understanding of the world, New Thought itself will evolve to assimilate new knowledge. Alan Anderson and Deb Whitehouse have described New Thought as a "process" in which each individual and even the New Thought Movement itself is "new every moment". Thomas McFaul has claimed "continuous revelation", with new insights being received by individuals continuously over time.Jean Houston has spoken of the "possible human", or what we are capable of becoming.[25]
TheHome of Truth has, from its inception as the Pacific Coast Metaphysical Bureau in the 1880s, under the leadership ofAnnie Rix Militz, disseminated the teachings of theHindu teacherSwami Vivekananda.[26] It is one of the more outspokenly interfaith of New Thought organizations, stating adherence to "the principle that Truth is Truth where ever it is found and who ever is sharing it".[27][failed verification]Joel S. Goldsmith'sThe Infinite Way incorporates teaching fromChristian Science, as well.
Divine Science, Unity Church, and Religious Science are organizations that developed from the New Thought movement. Each teaches that Infinite Intelligence, or God, is the sole reality.New Thought adherents believe that sickness is the result of the failure to realize this truth.[citation needed] In this line of thinking,healing is accomplished by the affirmation of oneness with the Infinite Intelligence or God.[citation needed]
John Bovee Dods (1795–1862), an early practitioner of New Thought, wrote several books on the idea that disease originates in the electrical impulses of thenervous system and is therefore curable by a change of belief.[citation needed] Later New Thought teachers, such as the early-20th-century author, editor, and publisherWilliam Walker Atkinson, accepted this premise. He connected his idea of mental states of being with his understanding of the new scientific discoveries inelectromagnetism andneural processes.[28]
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The New Thought movement has been criticized as a "get-rich-quick scheme" as much of its literature containsesoteric advice to make money.[29]
Although the movement began with roots in feminism and socialism,[citation needed] it increasingly attached itself to far right and racist ideology,[citation needed] arguing that poverty was a sign of spiritual weakness, and that "for the sake of race improvement... poverty and suffering must not be alleviated by the state."[30]
New Thought publishing and educational activities reach approximately 2.5 million people annually.[31] The largest New Thought-oriented denomination isSeicho-No-Ie, which was founded byMasaharu Taniguchi in Japan.[32] Other belief systems within the New Thought movement includeJewish Science,Religious Science/Centers for Spiritual Living andUnity. Past denominations have includedPsychiana andFather Divine.
Religious Science operates under three main organizations: theCenters for Spiritual Living; theAffiliated New Thought Network; andGlobal Religious Science Ministries.Ernest Holmes, the founder of Religious Science, stated that Religious Science is not based on any "authority" of established beliefs, but rather on "what it can accomplish" for the people who practice it.[33]The Science of Mind, authored by Ernest Holmes, while based on a philosophy of being "open at the top", focuses extensively on the teachings ofJesus Christ.[34]Unity, founded byCharles andMyrtle Fillmore, identifies itself as "Christian New Thought", focused on "Christian idealism", with the Bible as one of its main texts, although not interpreted literally. The other core text isLessons in Truth byH. Emilie Cady. TheUniversal Foundation for Better Living, orUFBL, was founded in 1974 byJohnnie Colemon in Chicago, Illinois, after breaking away from theUnity Church for "blatant racism".[35]
In England the term Higher Thought was preferred at first, and this name was chosen for the Higher Thought Centre, the first organization of its kind in England. This name did not however represent a change in point of view, and the movement in England has been similar to the therapeutic movement elsewhere.
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