New Thought

—New Thoughter, New Thoughtist.

a system of doctrine and practice originating in the 19th century and stressing the power of thought to control physical and mental events.

[1885-90]

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Mind-healing movement that originated in the U.S. in the 19th century.

Its earliest proponent, Phineas P. Quimby (1802–66), was a mesmerist who taught that illness is mental. New Thought was influenced by philosophers ranging from Plato to Emanuel Swedenborg, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Ralph Waldo Emerson and in turn influenced Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science. The International New Thought Alliance (formed 1914) asserts that sin and illness stem from incorrect thinking. New Thought groups emphasize Jesus as a teacher and healer and proclaim his kingdom as being within each person.

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▪ religious movement

Introduction

      a mind-healing movement that originated in the United States in the 19th century, based on religious and metaphysical (concerning the nature of ultimate reality) presuppositions. The diversity of views and styles of life represented in various New Thought groups are difficult to describe because of their variety, and the same reason makes it virtually impossible to determine either membership 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, 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.

      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 and idealism of the 19th century also influenced the New Thought movement, of which Phineas P. Quimby (Quimby, Phineas Parkhurst) (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 illness is a matter of the mind. Quimby's influence may be seen in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy (Eddy, Mary Baker) and in the development of Christian Science (which she founded), although Mrs. Eddy retracted acknowledgment of dependence on her teacher. Quimby's influence was readily acknowledged by others. Warren F. Evans (1817–89), a Methodist and then a Swedenborgian minister (leader of a theosophical movement based on the teachings of the 18th-century Swedish scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg), published a number of works exploring and systematizing the ideas of Quimby. These included Mental Cure (1869), Mental Medicine (1872), and Soul and Body (1876).

      Julius Dresser (1838–93) was a popular lecturer who emphasized the theories of Quimby, and his son Horatio (1866–1954) spread the elder Dresser's teachings and later edited The Quimby Manuscripts (1921).

New Thought teachings and practices.

      Elements of New Thought may be traced to Platonism, based on the Idealism of the 5th–4th-century-BC Greek philosopher Plato, who held that the realm of 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 Orientalism, involving spiritual teachings of 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.

      Though 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 is the nature of truth.

      Moreover, New Thought does not oppose medical science, as Mrs. 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 was printed in New Thought until revised in the 1950s.

      This purpose and these principles emphasized the immanence of God, the divine nature of man, the immediate availability of God's power to man, 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, man 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. Reference to Jesus or the Christ is totally omitted in the principles, however, as revised in 1954. New Thought leaders—unlike Quimby, it should be noted—have increasingly stressed material prosperity as one result of New Thought.

      New Thought implies a kind of monism, or view of the oneness of the world, but it also has strong Gnostic (i.e., dualistic, matter being opposed to spirit) undertones; that is, though New Thought is open to all, spiritual healing and strength of mind and body are available only to those who have the insights and who have been initiated into the movement at some point. 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.

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