2022/09/08

(History of) New Thought - Wiki Encyclo Britannica

History of New Thought - Wikipedia


New Thought


The history of New Thought started in the 1830s, with roots in the United States and England. As a spiritual movement with roots in metaphysical beliefs, New Thought has helped guide a variety of social changes throughout the 19th, 20th, and into the 21st centuries. Psychologist and philosopher William James labelled New Thought "the religion of healthy-mindedness" in his study on religion and science, The Varieties of Religious Experience.[1][2]

Contents


Roots[edit]

Rooted universal science, early New Thought leaders shared a Romantic interest between metaphysics and American Christianity. In addition to New Thought, Christian Science, transcendental movement, theosophy, and other movements were born from similar interests, all in the late 18th and early 19th century. John Locke's definition of ideas as anything that existed in the mind that could be expressed through words;[3] and the transcendentalist belief that ideal spirituality "transcends" the physical and is realized only through individual intuition, instead of through religion.[4]

Founding figures[edit]

Before anyone practiced New Thought as a set of beliefs there were a few influential figures whose teaching later contributed to the movement. The founder of the 18th century New Church, Emanuel Swedenborg, extended clear influence on many authors' New Thought writings on the Bible.[5] Ralph Waldo Emerson was also influential, as his philosophical movement of transcendentalism is incorporated throughout New Thought.[6] Franz Mesmer's work on hypnosis drove the work of Phineas Quimby, who was influenced in part by hearing a lecture by Charles Poyen.[7]

Phineas P. Quimby is widely recognized as the founder of the New Thought movement. Born in Lebanon, New Hampshire but raised in Belfast, Maine, Quimby learned about the power of the mind to heal through hypnosis when he observed Charles Poyen's work.[8] About 1840, Quimby began to practice hypnotism, or mesmerism as it was called. Through this practice and further study, he developed the view that illness is a matter of the mind. He opened an office for mental healing in Portland in 1859.

Calvinistic Baptist ministerial candidate Julius Dresser and his future wife Annetta Seabury Dresser came from Waterville, Maine to be healed by Quimby in 1860. They were healed in a short time.[9] In 1882, Dresser and Annetta (his wife by then) began promoting what they called the "Quimby System of Mental Treatment of Diseases" in Boston. Their son Horatio figures importantly as New Thought's first historian. Horatio, a popular lecturer, edited The Quimby Manuscripts, which Quimby wrote between 1846 and 1865.[10]

In 1862 Mary Baker Eddy, originally a Congregational Church member, came to Quimby hoping to be healed from lifelong ill-health. In later years Eddy went on to found Christian Science. Because of this, while not seen as a New Thought denomination, Christian Science is largely regarded by New Thought followers to be heavily driven by New Thought beliefs. Christian Scientists disagree, frequently stating that Eddy was not influenced by Quimby.[11] In 1875 Eddy published Science and Health, thus establishing Christian Science as a denomination.

A former Methodist minister and Swedenborgian minister named Warren Evans came to Quimby for healing in 1863. When he was healed shortly after, he started writing New Thought literature immediately. One source names him as the first person to publish a clear philosophy based on Quimby's practices.[12][13]

Prentice Mulford was pivotal in the development of New Thought thinking. From his writings in the White Cross Library, including Your Forces and How to Use Them,[14] the terms "New Thought" and the "Law of Attraction" first came to fruition.[citation needed]

Movement leaders[edit]

After the philosophy of New Thought was established, several individuals and organizations rose to prominence to promote the beliefs. However, there is no consensus on who founded the New Thought movement. Charles Brodie Patterson has been credited. Patterson, a Canadian expatriate who lived in New York City, was labelled the movement's leader when he died in the early 20th century.[15] One of Eddy's early Christian Science students, Ursula Gestefeld, created a philosophy called the "Science of Being" after Eddy kicked her out of her church. Science of Being groups eventually formed the Church of New Thought in 1904, which was the first group to refer itself as such.[16] While Julius Dresser, and later his son Horatio, are sometimes credited as founders of New Thought as a named movement, others share this title. Horatio wrote A History of the New Thought Movement, which was published in 1919, and named his father an essential figure in founding the movement. Emma Curtis Hopkins is also considered a founder.

Hopkins, called the "Teacher of Teachers", was a former student of Mary Baker Eddy. Because of her role in teaching several influential leaders who emerge later in New Thought movement history, she is also given credit as a mother of the movement. Inspired by medieval mystic Joachim of Fiore, Hopkins viewed the Christian Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Mother-Spirit. She wrote High Mysticism and Scientific Christian Mental Practice and founded the Emma Hopkins College of Metaphysical Science, which graduated a large number of women.[17]

Organizations[edit]

Numerous churches and groups developed within the New Thought movement. Emma Curtis Hopkins is called the "Teacher of Teachers" because of the number of people she taught who went on to found groups within the New Thought movement. After learning from Hopkins, Annie Rix Militz went on to found the Home of Truth. Another student, Malinda E. Cramer became a co-founder of Divine Science, along with Mrs. Bingham, who later taught Nona L. Brooks, who co-founded Divine Science with Cramer. Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, who went to Hopkins together, went on to found the Unity School of Christianity afterwards. Authors learned from Hopkins, too, including Dr. H. Emilie Cady, writer of the Unity textbook Lessons in Truth; Ella Wheeler Wilcox, New Thought poet; and Elizabeth Towne. Considerably later, Ernest Holmes, who established Religious Science and founded the United Centers for Spiritual Living.[18]

The Unity Church is the largest New Thought church today, with thousands of members around the world. It was formed by the Fillmores in 1891. Divine Science was also founded in the late 19th century by Melinda Cramer and Nona Brooks. The United Centers for Spiritual Living was founded by Ernest Holmes in 1927. A similar organization, the Society for Jewish Science, originally conceived by Rabbi Alfred G. Moses in the early 1900s, the movement was institutionalized in 1922 with Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein's. The New Thought movement extends around the world. The largest denomination outside the U.S., Seicho-no-Ie, was founded in 1930 by Masaharu Taniguchi in Japan. Today, it has missions around the world, including the U.S.[19] Smaller churches, including the Home of Truth founded in 1899 in Alameda, California continue successfully,[20] as does the Agape International Spiritual Center, a megachurch led by Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith in the Los Angeles-area.

A variety of umbrella New Thought organizations have existed, including the International New Thought Alliance, which existed in some form as early as 1899. The Affiliated New Thought Network was formed in 1992 to provide an overarching New Thought organization. Since 1974 the Universal Foundation for Better Living has been a gathering of Christian New Thought congregations around the world.[21] In New York City, New Thought leaders created an umbrella organization called the League for the Larger Life. It lasted from 1916 through the 1950s.

There have been many New Thought schools. The most famous may be the Unity School of Christianity in Missouri, founded in the early 20th century. The Emerson Theological Institute has operated since 1992.[22] At the turn of the 20th century Horatio Dresser ran an organization called the School of Applied Metaphysics.[23]

Psychiana was a mail-order denomination operated by Frank B. Robinson that taught and spread the word about New Thought through the U.S. Postal Service.[citation needed]


Gallery[edit]


References[edit]

  1. ^ James, W. (1902) "The religion of healthy-mindedness", The Varieties of Religious Experience. Retrieved June 12, 2011.
  2. ^ "Our history" Archived 2010-10-03 at the Wayback Machine. NewThoughtHistory.com. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  3. ^ "John Locke's Theory of Knowledge". WallaceProvost.com. 2016. Archived from the original on September 19, 2016. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
  4. ^ Braden, C.S. (1963) "A Brief History of The New Thought Movement" Archived 2012-03-10 at the Wayback Machine, Spirits In Rebellion. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  5. ^ Mosley, G. (2006) New Thought, Ancient Wisdom: The History and Future of the New Thought Movement. Templeton Foundation Press. p 131.
  6. ^ Mosley, G. (2006) p. 132.
  7. ^ Fuller. (1982) Mesmerism and the American Cure of Souls. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
  8. ^ Fuller. (1982)
  9. ^ (1999) "Horatio Willis Dresser", Religious Leaders of America 2nd ed. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group.
  10. ^ Quimby, P.P. (1921) The Quimby Manuscripts. Edited by J. Horatio and H. Horatio. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  11. ^ Gottschalk, S. (1973) The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 130.
  12. ^ Teahan, J.F. (1979) "Warren Felt Evans and Mental Healing: Romantic Idealism and Practical Mysticism in Nineteenth-Century America", Church History. Vol. 48, No. 1.
  13. ^ Also see Albanese, Catherine (2016). The Spiritual Journals of Warren Felt Evans: from Methodism to Mind Cure, Indiana University Press.
  14. ^ "Your Forces and How to Use Them, Vol. 1".
  15. ^ Mount, N.J. and Mount, N. (2005) When Canadian literature moved to New York. University of Toronto Press, 2005 . p 91.
  16. ^ Braden, C.S. (1963) "A Brief History of The New Thought Movement" Archived 2012-03-10 at the Wayback Machine, Spirits In Rebellion. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  17. ^ Harley, G.M. (2002) Emma Curtis Hopkins: Forgotten founder of New Thought. Syracuse University Press. p 53.
  18. ^ Braden, C.S. (1963) "A Brief History of The New Thought Movement" Archived 2012-03-10 at the Wayback Machine, Spirits In Rebellion. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  19. ^ (1970) Rice University Studies, Volume 56, Issues 1-2. p. 210.
  20. ^ Keller, R.S., Ruether, R.R., and Cantlon, M. (2006) Encyclopedia of women and religion in North America, Volume 2. Indiana University Press.
  21. ^ DuPree, S.S. (1996) African-American Holiness Pentecostal Movement: An annotated bibliography. Taylor & Francis. p 380.
  22. ^ Mosley, G. (2006) New Thought, Ancient Wisdom: The History and Future of the New Thought Movement. Templeton Foundation Press. p 141.
  23. ^ Tumber, C. (2002) American feminism and the birth of new age spirituality: searching for the higher self, 1875-1915. Rowman & Littlefield, 2002. p. 126.
  24. External links[edit]INTA New Thought History Chart


show
v
t
e
Religious Science/Science of Mind

Unity Church

Church of Divine Science

History of religions

Categories: History of religion
New Thought

Navigation menu

New Thought   From Wikipedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought)[1] is a spiritual movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was preceded by "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from a variety of origins, such as Ancient GreekRomanEgyptianChineseTaoistVedicHindu, and Buddhist cultures and their related belief systems, primarily regarding the interaction between 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 from those systems.

Although there have been many leaders and various offshoots of the New Thought philosophy, the origins of New Thought have often been traced back to Phineas Quimby, or even as far back as Franz Mesmer. Many of these groups are incorporated into the International New Thought Alliance.[2][3] The contemporary New Thought movement is a loosely allied group of religious denominations, authors, philosophers, and individuals who share a set of beliefs concerning metaphysicspositive thinking, the law of attractionhealinglife forcecreative visualization, and personal power.[4]

New Thought holds that Infinite Intelligence, or God, is everywherespirit is the totality of real things, true human selfhood is divine, divine thought is a force for good, sickness originates in the mind, and "right thinking" has a healing effect.[5][6] Although New Thought is neither monolithic nor doctrinaire, in general, modern-day adherents of New Thought share some core beliefs:

  1. God or Infinite Intelligence is "supreme, universal, and everlasting";
  2. divinity dwells within each person, that all people are spiritual beings;
  3. "the highest spiritual principle [is] loving one another unconditionally... and teaching and healing one another"; and
  4. "our mental states are carried forward into manifestation and become our experience in daily living".[5][6]

William James used the term "New Thought" as synonymous with the "Mind cure movement", in which he included many sects with diverse origins, such as idealism and Hinduism.[7]

Overview[edit]

William James, in The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), described New Thought as follows:

[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 the four Gospels; another is Emersonianism or New England transcendentalism; another is Berkeleyan idealism; another is spiritism, with its messages of "law" and "progress" and "development"; another the optimistic popular science evolutionism 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.[8]

History[edit]

Origins[edit]

The New Thought movement was based on the teachings of Phineas Quimby (1802–1866), an American mesmerist 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.[9] 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.[10][11]

During the late 19th century, the metaphysical healing practices of Quimby mingled with the "Mental Science" of Warren Felt Evans, a Swedenborgian minister.[citation needed] Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian 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.[12]

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 the Unity Church and Church of Divine Science (established in 1889 and 1888, respectively), followed by Religious Science (established in 1927).[13] Many of its early teachers and students were women; notable among the founders of the movement were Emma Curtis Hopkins, known as the "teacher of teachers", Myrtle FillmoreMalinda Cramer, and Nona L. Brooks;[13] with many of its churches and community centers led by women, from the 1880s to today.[14][15]

Growth[edit]

New Thought is also largely a movement of the printed word.[16]

Prentice Mulford, through writing Your Forces and How to Use Them,[17] a series of essays published during 1886–1892, was pivotal in the development of New Thought thinking, including the Law of Attraction.

In 1906, William Walker Atkinson (1862–1932) wrote and published Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World.[18] Atkinson was the editor of New Thought magazine and the author of more than 100 books on an assortment of religiousspiritual, and occult topics.[19] The following year, Elizabeth Towne, the editor of The Nautilus, published Bruce MacLelland's book Prosperity 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."[20]

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.[16] One Unity Church magazine, Wee Wisdom, was the longest-lived children's magazine in the United States, published from 1893 until 1991.[21] Today, New Thought magazines include Daily Word, published by Unity and the Religious Science magazine; and Science of Mind, published by the Centers for Spiritual Living.

Major gatherings[edit]

The 1915 International New Thought Alliance (INTA) conference – held in conjunction with the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, a world'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 by Annie Rix Militz.[22] By 1916, the International New Thought Alliance had encompassed many smaller groups around the world, adopting a creed known as the "Declaration of Principles".[13] 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".[13]

Beliefs[edit]

The chief tenets of New Thought are:[23]

  • Infinite Intelligence or God is omnipotent and omnipresent.
  • Spirit is the ultimate reality.
  • True human self-hood is divine.
  • Divinely attuned thought is a positive force for good.
  • All disease is mental in origin.
  • Right thinking has a healing effect.

Evolution of thought[edit]

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.[24]

Theological inclusionism[edit]

The Home of Truth has, from its inception as the Pacific Coast Metaphysical Bureau in the 1880s, under the leadership of Annie Rix Militz, disseminated the teachings of the Hindu teacher Swami Vivekananda.[25] 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".[26][failed verification] Joel S. Goldsmith's The Infinite Way incorporates teaching from Christian Science, as well.

Therapeutic ideas[edit]

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. 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 the nervous 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 publisher William Walker Atkinson, accepted this premise. He connected his idea of mental states of being with his understanding of the new scientific discoveries in electromagnetism and neural processes.[27]

Criticism[edit]

While the beliefs that are held by practitioners of the New Thought movement are similar to many mainstream religious doctrines, there have been concerns raised among scholars and scientists about some of the views surrounding health and wellness that are perpetuated by the New Thought movement. Most pressing is the New Thought movement's rejection of empirically supported scientific theories of the causes of diseases. In scientific medicine, diseases can have a wide range of physical causes, from abnormalities in genes and in cell growth that cause cancer, to virusesbacteria, and fungi that cause infections, to environmental toxins that can damage entire organ systems.[28][29][30] While it has been empirically supported that the psychological and social health of a person can influence their susceptibility to disease (e.g., stress can suppress immune function, which increases risk of infection),[31] critics allege that mental states are not the cause of human disease, as is claimed by the New Thought movement.[citation needed]

Equally concerning, critics argue, is the New Thought movement's emphasis on using faith and mental states as treatments for all human disease. While it has been supported that the use of relaxation therapy and other forms of alternative health practices are beneficial in improving the overall well-being of patients with a wide variety of mental and physical health conditions (e.g., cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder), these practices are not effective in treating human disease alone, and should be undertaken in conjunction with modern medical therapies that have empirical support.[32] This rejection of scientifically supported theories of disease and disease treatment is worsened by the New Thought movement's assertion that mental states, attitudes, and faith in New Thought are the sole determinants of health.

The New Thought movement has received criticism akin to that levied against the holistic health movement that in claiming that sickness is caused by a person's attitudes, mental states, and faith, it is easy to place blame on patients for not adopting a correct attitude, thought processes, and/or lifestyle.[33] Blame can have powerful psychological effects – with stress and isolation seen in victim blaming being the largest issues that arise and the most concerning in terms of effect on patients' health.[34] Further, holding beliefs that health and disease is controlled by faith in a higher power can create an external locus of control (i.e., believers may feel as though they themselves cannot prevent disease, and that any illness or disorder that they encounter is an act of the higher power's will). This external locus of control can create learned helplessness in believers that has been shown to exacerbate mental and physical health conditions via several mechanisms – including reduced incidence of help-seeking behaviour.[35] Overall, the New Thought movement's position on the etiology and treatment of disease is not empirically supported.

Movement[edit]

New Thought publishing and educational activities reach approximately 2.5 million people annually.[36] The largest New Thought-oriented denomination is the Japanese Seicho-no-Ie.[37] Other belief systems within the New Thought movement include Jewish ScienceReligious ScienceCenters for Spiritual Living and Unity. Past denominations have included Psychiana and Father Divine.

Religious Science operates under three main organizations: the Centers for Spiritual Living; the Affiliated New Thought Network; and Global Religious Science MinistriesErnest 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.[38] The Science of Mind, authored by Ernest Holmes, while based on a philosophy of being "open at the top", focuses extensively on the teachings of Jesus Christ.[39] Unity, founded by Charles and Myrtle 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 is Lessons in Truth by H. Emilie Cady. The Universal Foundation for Better Living, or UFBL, was founded in 1974 by Johnnie Colemon in Chicago, Illinois after breaking away from the Unity Church for "blatant racism".[40]

See also[edit]

Persons[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ Dresser, Horatio Willis (1919), A History of the New Thought Movement, TY Crowell Co, p. 154, 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.
  2. ^ Melton, J. Gordon; Clark, Jerome & Kelly, Aidan A. New Age Almanac; New York: Visible Ink Press (1991); pg. 343. "The International New Thought Alliance, a loose association of New Thought institutions and individuals (approximately 350 institutional members), exists as a voluntary membership organization [to advance New Thought ideals]."
  3. ^ Conkin, Paul K. American Originals: Homemade Varieties of Christianity, The University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, NC (1997); pg. 269. "An International New Thought Alliance still exists, with offices in Arizona, a periodical, and around 200 affiliated societies, some of which still use the label 'church'".
  4. ^ Lewis, James R; Peterson, Jesper Aagaard (2004), Controversial New Religions, p. 226.
  5. Jump up to:a b Declaration of PrinciplesInternational New Thought Alliance, 2008–2009.
  6. Jump up to:a b "Statement of beliefs", New Thought info, 2008–2009.
  7. ^ James, William (1929), The Varieties of Religious Experience, New York: U Virginia, pp. 92–93, archived from the original on 2012-07-09
  8. ^ James, William (1902), The Varieties of Religious Experience, New York: U Virginia, pp. 92–93, archived from the original on 2012-07-09.
  9. ^ "Phineas Parkhurt Quimby"MSN Encarta. Archived from the original on August 29, 2009. Retrieved November 16, 2007.
  10. ^ Phineas, Quimby (2008). "Christ or Science"The Quimby Manuscripts. Forgotten Books. p. 183. ISBN 978-1-60506-915-9. Retrieved 2011-05-08.
  11. ^ "The Quimby Manuscripts". New Thought Library. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  12. ^ "Quimby’s son and defender said categorically, 'The religion which [Mrs. Eddy] teaches certainly is hers, for which I cannot be too thankful; for I should be loath to go down to my grave feeling that my father was in any way connected with "Christian Science." ...In [Quimby's method of] curing the sick, religion played no part. There were no prayers, there was no asking assistance from God or any other divinity. He cured by his wisdom.'" (Dresser, Horatio W., ed. The Quimby Manuscripts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company Publishers, 1921. - p436). "Christian Science is a religious teaching and only incidentally a healing method. Quimbyism was a healing method and only incidentally a religious teaching. If one examines the religious implications or aspects of Quimby’s thought, it is clear that in these terms it has nothing whatever in common with Christian Science." (Gottschalk, Stephen. The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. p. 130). A good composite of both Quimby, and the incompatibility of his ideas and practice with those of Eddy, can be found in these sources: Taves, AnnFits, Trances, & Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James. Princeton University Press 1999 (pp 212-218); Peel, Robert. Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery. Boston: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966 (chapter: "Portland 1862"); Gill, Gillian. Mary Baker Eddy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Perseus Books, 1998 (pp 131-146 & 230-233).
  13. Jump up to:a b c d Lewis, James R.; J. Gordon Melton (1992). Perspectives on the New Age. SUNY Press. pp. 16–18. ISBN 0-7914-1213-X.
  14. ^ Harley, Gail M.; Danny L. Jorgensen (2002). Emma Curtis Hopkins: Forgotten Founder of New ThoughtSyracuse University Press. p. 79. ISBN 0-8156-2933-8.
  15. ^ Bednarowski, Mary Farrell (1999). The Religious Imagination of American Women. Indiana University Press. p. 81ISBN 0-253-21338-X.
  16. Jump up to:a b Moskowitz, Eva S. (2001) In Therapy We Trust, The Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 978-0-8018-6403-2, p. 19.
  17. ^ "Your Forces and How to Use Them, Vol. 1".
  18. ^ William Walker Atkinson. Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction. Advanced Thought Publishing. 1906. Full text public domain version online.
  19. ^ "William Walter Atkinson", WorldCat. Retrieved June 10, 2011.
  20. ^ MacLelland, Bruce, Prosperity Through Thought Force, Elizabeth Towne, 1907
  21. ^ Miller, Timothy (1995) America's Alternative Religions, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-2397-4, p. 327.
  22. ^ Dresser, Horatio, History of the New Thought Movement, 1919
  23. ^ "New Thought"MSN Encarta. Archived from the original on November 2, 2009. Retrieved November 16, 2007.
  24. ^ Houston, Jean. The Possible Human. 1997.
  25. ^ The Home of Truth, Our History
  26. ^ Home of Truth home page. Retrieved on 2007-09-20 from http://thehomeoftruth.org/.
  27. ^ Dumont, Theron, Q. [pseudonym of William Walker AtkinsonMental Therapeutics, or Just How to Heal Oneself and Others. Advanced Thought Publishing Co. Chicago. 1916.
  28. ^ Cohen, M. (2007). Environmental toxins and health: The health impact of pesticides. Australian Family Physician, 36(12), 1002-4.
  29. ^ Playfair, J., MyiLibrary, & ProQuest. (2007). Living with germs in health and disease. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
  30. ^ Tsiftsoglou, A., NATO Scientific Affairs Organization. Scientific Affairs Division, & NATO Science Institute "Regulation of Cell Growth, Differentiation, Genetics in Cancer". (1996). Tumor biology : Regulation of cell growth, differentiation, and genetics in cancer (NATO ASI series. Series H, Cell biology; v. 99). Berlin; New York: Springer.
  31. ^ Friedman, H., Klein, T., & Friedman, Andrea L. (1996). Psychoneuroimmunology, stress, and infection. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
  32. ^ Taylor, S., Thordarson, D., Maxfield, L., & Fedoroff, I. (2003). Comparative efficacy, speed, and adverse effects of three PTSD treatments: Exposure therapy, EMDR, and relaxation training. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71(2), 330-338.
  33. ^ Gilovich, T. (1993). How we know what isn't so : The fallibility of human reason in everyday life (1st Free Press paperback ed.). New York: Free Press.
  34. ^ Hortulanus, R., Machielse, A., & Meeuwesen, L. (2006). Social isolation in modern society (Routledge advances in sociology; 19). London; New York: Routledge.
  35. ^ Henninger, D., Whitson, H., Cohen, H., & Ariely, D. (2012). Higher Medical Morbidity Burden Is Associated with External Locus of Control. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 60(4), 751-755.
  36. ^ Goldberg, P. (2010) American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. Random House Digital, Inc. p 62.
  37. ^ "Masaharu Taniguchi." Religious Leaders of America, 2nd ed. Gale Group, 1999. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008.
  38. ^ Vahle, Neal (1993). Open at the top: The life of Ernest Holmes, Open View Press, 190 pages, p7.
  39. ^ Holmes, Ernest (1926) The Science of Mind ISBN 0-87477-865-4, pp. 327–346 "What the Mystics Have Taught".
  40. ^ DuPree, S.S. (1996) African-American Holiness Pentecostal movement: an annotated bibliography. Taylor & Francis. p 380.

General bibliography[edit]

  • Albanese, Catherine (2007), A Republic of Mind and SpiritYale University Press.
  • Anderson, Alan and Deb Whitehouse. New Thought: A Practical American Spirituality. 2003.
  • Braden, Charles S. Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought, Southern Methodist University Press, 1963.
  • Judah, J. Stillson. The History and Philosophy of the Metaphysical Movements in America. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1967. Review by Neil Duddy.
  • McFaul, Thomas R (September–October 2006), "Religion in the Future Global Civilization", The Futurist.
  • Mosley, Glenn R (2006), The History and Future New Thought: Ancient Wisdom of the New Thought Movement, Templeton Foundation Press, ISBN 1-59947-089-6
  • White, Ronald M (1980), "Abstract"New Thought Influences on Father Divine (Masters Thesis), Oxford, OH: Miami University.
  • Albanese, Catherine (2016), The Spiritual Journals of Warren Felt Evans: From Methodism to Mind CureIndiana University Press.

External links[edit]



New Thought
religious movement

By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 


Summary

New Thought, a mind-healing movement, based on religious and metaphysical presuppositions, that originated in the United States in the 19th century. The great diversity of views and styles of life represented in various New Thought groups makes it virtually impossible to determine the number of the movement’s members or adherents. The influence of the various New Thought groups has been spread by its leaders through lectures, journals, and books not only in the United States but also in the United Kingdom, continental Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Many adherents of New Thought consider themselves to be Christian, though generalizations about their relations to Christianity have been questioned.

Origins of New Thought

The origins of New Thought may be traced to a dissatisfaction on the part of many persons with scientific empiricism and their reaction to the religious skepticism of the 17th and 18th centuries. The Romanticism of the 19th century also influenced the New Thought movement, of which Phineas P. Quimby (1802–66) is usually cited as the earliest proponent. A native of Portland, Maine, Quimby practiced mesmerism (hypnotism) and developed his concepts of mental and spiritual healing and health based on the view that physical illness is a matter of the mind. Quimby’s influence was reflected in the writings of Warren F. Evans (1817–89), a Methodist and then a Swedenborgian minister (a leader of a theosophical movement based on the teachings of the 18th-century Swedish scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg), who published a number of works exploring and systematizing Quimby’s ideas, including Mental Cure (1869), Mental Medicine (1872), and Soul and Body (1876). Other proponents of Quimbian New Thought were Julius Dresser (1838–93), a popular lecturer, and his son Horatio (1866–1954), who spread the elder Dresser’s teachings and later edited The Quimby Manuscripts (1921). The extent of Quimby’s influence on Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, was a matter of controversy in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when many of Quimby’s followers accused her of failing to acknowledge her religion’s basis in Quimby’s ideas. With the publication of The Quimby Manuscripts, however, it became possible to see Eddy’s (and New Thought’s) radical departure from Quimby’s main emphases. Recent evaluations of Eddy recognize that Quimby was an important stimulus to Eddy’s development but that the religious teaching of Christian Science as it finally emerged was essentially foreign to Quimby’s thought.

Teachings and practices of New Thought

Elements of New Thought may be traced to Platonism, based on the idealism of the 5th–4th-century-BCE Greek philosopher Plato, who held that the realm of forms, or “ideas,” is more real than that of matter; to Swedenborgianism, especially Swedenborg’s view that the material realm is one of effects whose causes are spiritual and whose purpose is divine; to Hegelianism, based on the views of the 18th–19th-century German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, especially those concerning the external world, mental phenomena, and the nervous organism as the meeting ground of the body and the mind; to the spiritual teachings of certain Eastern religions (e.g., Hinduism); and, particularly, to the Transcendentalism (a form of idealism) of the 19th-century American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Although it is difficult to summarize New Thought beliefs, since they are so varied and to so large a degree individualistic, it is possible to summarize some of the more prevalent views. As far as Christian Science is concerned, New Thought adherents do not accept Mary Baker Eddy’s teaching or any other formulation as the final revelation. Rather, truth is viewed as a matter of continuing revelation, and no one leader or institution can declare with finality what the nature of truth is. Moreover, New Thought does not avoid medical science, as Eddy did, and it is essentially positive and optimistic about life and its outcome.

In 1916 the International New Thought Alliance (formed 1914) agreed upon a purpose that embraces some central ideas of most groups:



To teach the Infinitude of the Supreme One; the Divinity of Man and his Infinite Possibilities through the creative power of constructive thinking and obedience to the voice of the indwelling Presence which is our source of Inspiration, Power, Health and Prosperity.

In 1917, at the St. Louis (Missouri) Congress, the alliance adopted a “Declaration of Principles.” It was modified in 1919 and again in 2000.

This purpose and these principles emphasized the immanence of God, the divine nature of humanity, the immediate availability of God’s power to humans, the spiritual character of the universe, and the fact that sin, human disorders, and human disease are basically matters of incorrect thinking. Moreover, according to New Thought, humans can live in oneness with God in love, truth, peace, health, and plenty. Many New Thought groups emphasize Jesus as teacher and healer and proclaim his kingdom as being within a person. New Thought leaders—unlike Quimby, it should be noted—have increasingly stressed material prosperity as one result of New Thought. There are no established patterns of worship, although the services often involve explication of New Thought ideas, testimony to healing, and prayer for the sick.



The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Brian Duignan.



Phineas Parkhurst Quimby
Introduction
Fast FactsFacts & Related Content
MediaImages
MoreMore Articles On This Topic
Contributors
Article History
Related Biographies
Mary Baker Eddy
American religious leader

Jesus
See All
HomePhilosophy & ReligionSpirituality

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby
American cult leader
Print Cite Share Feedback

By The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaEdit History

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby
See all media
Born: February 16, 1802 Lebanon New HampshireDied: January 16, 1866 (aged 63) Belfast MaineSubjects Of Study: New Thought
See all related content →


Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, (born February 16, 1802, Lebanon, New Hampshire, U.S.—died January 16, 1866, Belfast, Maine), American exponent of mental healing who is generally regarded as the founder of the New Thought movement, a religio-metaphysical healing cult.


Quimby employed hypnosis as a means of healing but discovered that he could also heal by suggestion. He held that all illness is basically a matter of the mind and that it results from the patient’s mistaken beliefs. Hence, cure lies in discovering the truth. Although not religious in the orthodox sense, he believed he had rediscovered the healing methods of Jesus. He became a controversial figure when Mary Baker Eddy, who had sought him out for treatment and had been for a time a disciple, denied that her discovery of Christian Science was influenced by him. The Quimby Manuscripts (1921, ed. by H.W. Dresser) include his philosophy. The first edition contains a number of Eddy’s letters to Quimby and others not found in later editions.This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.



faith healing
Introduction
Fast FactsRelated Content
MoreMore Articles On This Topic
Contributors
Article History
HomePhilosophy & ReligionSpirituality

faith healing
Print Cite Share Feedback

By The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaEdit History
Key People: Jesus Mary Baker Eddy John Alexander Dowie Shirdi Sai Baba Zhang DaolingRelated Topics: medicine healing cult sand painting
See all related content →


faith healing, recourse to divine power to cure mental or physical disabilities, either in conjunction with orthodox medical care or in place of it. Often an intermediary is involved, whose intercession may be all-important in effecting the desired cure. Sometimes the faith may reside in a particular place, which then becomes the focus of pilgrimages for the sufferers.

Faith in the healing power of natural springs is long-standing and widespread. In ancient Egypt and Greece, temples erected to Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine, were often near such springs, and festivals in his honour have been located as far apart as Ancyra in Asia Minor and Agrigentum in Sicily. The cult was introduced in Rome to relieve a plague in 293 BC.

In Christianity, faith healing is exemplified especially in the miraculous cures wrought by Jesus (40 healings are recorded) and by his Apostles. The early church later sanctioned faith healing through such practices as anointing and the imposition of hands. Faith healing has also been associated with the intercessionary miracles of saints.



During the 19th and 20th centuries, faith healing has often motivated pilgrimages and healing services in many Christian denominations. The apparent healing gifts of individuals have also attracted wide attention: Leslie Weatherhead, Methodist pastor and theologian, and Harry Edwards, spiritualist, in England; Elsie Salmon, wife of a Methodist minister, in South Africa; Oral Roberts, a converted Methodist and mass-meeting evangelist, Agnes Sanford, wife of an Episcopal rector, and Edgar Cayce, a clairvoyant of Presbyterian background, in the United States. A different approach to the idea of divine healing is represented by the metaphysical healing movement in the United States called New Thought. Phineas P. Quimby and Mary Baker Eddy (a former patient of Quimby’s who founded the Christian Science movement) published numerous tracts exhorting their followers to beliefs that stressed the immanence of God and a link between bodily ills and mistaken convictions. Christian Science was unique in its view of sickness as a material state, subject to the transcendental power of the individual’s spiritual being.
===