Editing New Thought

{{Short description|19th-century American spiritual movement}}
{{Distinguish|New Thinking}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{NewThought}}
{{Spirituality sidebar |western |width=22.0em}}

The '''New Thought''' movement (also '''Higher Thought''')<ref>{{Citation | first = Horatio Willis | last = Dresser | author-link = Horatio Dresser | title = A History of the New Thought Movement | publisher = TY Crowell Co | year = 1919 | page = 154 | quote = 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.}}</ref> is a [[new 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 as [[Classical Greece|Ancient Greek]], [[Culture of ancient Rome|Roman]], [[Culture of Egypt|Egyptian]], [[Chinese culture|Chinese]], [[Taoism|Taoist]], [[Hindus|Hindu]], and [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] cultures{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}} 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|date=August 2024}}

Although there have been many leaders and various offshoots of the New Thought philosophy, the [[History of New Thought|origins of New Thought]] have often been traced back to [[Phineas Parkhurst Quimby|Phineas Quimby]], or even as far back as [[Franz Mesmer]], who was one of the first European thinkers to link one's mental state to physical condition.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Prentiss |first1=Craig R. |title='The Full Realization of This Desire': Garland Anderson, Race, and the Limits of New Thought in the Age of Jim Crow |journal=Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions |date=Feb 2014 |volume=17 |issue=3 |page=87 |doi=10.1525/nr.2014.17.3.84 |jstor=10.1525/nr.2014.17.3.84 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2014.17.3.84 |access-date=21 June 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Many of [[List of New Thought denominations and independent centers|these groups]] are incorporated into the [[International New Thought Alliance]].<ref>[[J. Gordon Melton|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]."</ref><ref>Conkin, Paul K. American Originals: ''Homemade Varieties of Christianity'', The University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, NC (1997); p. 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'".</ref> The contemporary New Thought movement is a loosely allied group of [[religious denomination]]s, authors, philosophers, and individuals who share a set of beliefs concerning [[Supernatural|metaphysics]], [[Optimism|positive thinking]], the [[law of attraction (New Thought)|law of attraction]], [[healing]], [[Energy (esotericism)|life force]], [[Creative visualization (New Age)|creative visualization]], and [[personal power]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Controversial New Religions |title-link=Controversial New Religions |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-19-515682-9 |editor-last=Lewis |editor-first=James R. |editor-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |edition=1st |location=New York |language=en |editor-last2=Petersen |editor-first2=Jesper Aagaard |page=226}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=September 2024}}

New Thought holds that ''Infinite Intelligence'', or God, is [[omnipresence|everywhere]], [[Pantheism|spirit 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.<ref name = "newthoughtalliance.org">{{Citation | url = http://www.newthoughtalliance.org/about.htm | title = Declaration of Principles | publisher = [[International New Thought Alliance]] | date = 2008–2009 | access-date = 26 September 2008 | archive-date = 13 January 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100113022115/http://www.newthoughtalliance.org/about.htm | url-status = dead }}.</ref>{{failed verification|date=August 2024}}<ref name= "newthought.info">{{Citation | url = http://newthought.info/beliefs/nt_beliefs.htm | contribution = Statement of beliefs | title = New Thought info | date = 2008–2009}}.</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=August 2024}} Although New Thought is neither [[wikt:monolithic|monolithic]] nor [[doctrine|doctrinaire]], in general, modern-day adherents of New Thought share some core beliefs:

# God or Infinite Intelligence is "supreme, universal, and everlasting";
# [[divinity]] dwells within each person, that all people are spiritual beings;
# "the highest spiritual principle [is] loving one another unconditionally... and teaching and healing one another"; and
# "our [[mental state]]s are carried forward into manifestation and become our experience in daily living".<ref name = "newthoughtalliance.org" /><ref name="newthought.info"/>

[[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.<ref>{{Citation | first = William | last = James | author-link = William James | title = The Varieties of Religious Experience | pages = 92–93 | place = New York | year = 1929 | url = http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JamVari.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120709041858/http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JamVari.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all | url-status = dead | archive-date = 9 July 2012 | publisher = U Virginia }}</ref>

== Overview ==
{{Expand section|date=August 2024}}

[[William James]], in ''[[The Varieties of Religious Experience]]'' (1902), described New Thought:

{{Blockquote| [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 [[Ralph Waldo Emerson|Emerson]]ianism or New England [[transcendentalism]]; another is [[Subjective idealism|Berkeleyan idealism]]; another is [[Kardecist spiritism|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.<ref>{{Citation | first = William | last = James | title = The Varieties of Religious Experience | pages = 92–93 | place = New York | year = 1902 | url = http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JamVari.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120709041858/http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=JamVari.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2012-07-09 | publisher = U Virginia }}.</ref>}}

== History ==
{{Main |History of New Thought}}
[[File:Diagram_of_American_New_Religious_Movements.png|thumb|400px|right|Diagram of American [[new religious movements]], including New Thought and Quimby.]]

=== Origins === 
The New Thought movement was based on the teachings of [[Phineas Parkhurst Quimby|Phineas Quimby]] (1802–1866), an American [[mesmerism|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.<ref>{{citation|title=Phineas Parkhurt Quimby|access-date=16 November 2007|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566901/Quimby_Phineas_Parkhurst.html|work=MSN Encarta|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090829064252/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566901/Quimby_Phineas_Parkhurst.html|archive-date=29 August 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> His basic premise was:

{{blockquote|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.<ref>{{citation|last= Phineas|first= Quimby|year= 2008|title= The Quimby Manuscripts|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RKEYteW3oEMC|chapter= Christ or Science|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RKEYteW3oEMC&pg=PA183 |publisher= Forgotten Books|pages= 183|isbn= 978-1-60506-915-9|access-date = 2011-05-08}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=The Quimby Manuscripts|url=http://newthoughtlibrary.com/quimbyPhineas/manuscripts/pages/quimby-manuscripts-194.htm|publisher=New Thought Library|access-date=3 June 2015|archive-date=6 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200406193818/http://newthoughtlibrary.com/quimbyPhineas/manuscripts/pages/quimby-manuscripts-194.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

During the late 19th century, the metaphysical healing practices of Quimby mingled with the "Mental Science" of [[Warren Felt Evans]], a [[The New Church|Swedenborgian]] minister.{{citation needed|date=May 2014}} [[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.<ref>"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: [[Ann Taves|Taves, Ann]], ''Fits, 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).</ref>

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]] (the ''Institute of Religious Science and Philosophy'' was established in 1927).<ref name=lewis16>{{citation |title=Perspectives on the New Age |first=James R. |last=Lewis |author2=J. Gordon Melton |year=1992 |publisher=SUNY Press |pages=16–18 |isbn=0-7914-1213-X}}</ref> 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 Fillmore]], [[Malinda Cramer]], and [[Nona L. Brooks]];<ref name=lewis16/> with many of its churches and community centers led by women, from the 1880s to today.<ref name=Harley>{{citation| title=Emma Curtis Hopkins: Forgotten Founder of New Thought| first=Gail M. |last=Harley |author2=Danny L. Jorgensen |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]]| year=2002|isbn=0-8156-2933-8 |page= 79| author2-link=Danny L. Jorgensen }}</ref><ref>{{citation |title=The Religious Imagination of American Women |url=https://archive.org/details/religiousimagina00mary |url-access=registration |first=Mary Farrell |last=Bednarowski |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-253-21338-X |page=[https://archive.org/details/religiousimagina00mary/page/81 81]}}</ref>
[[File:The New Thought Simplified by Henry Wood, 1903.png|thumb|''The New Thought Simplified,'' by [[Henry Wood (author)|Henry Wood]]]]
Alongside these ecclesiastical developments, others like [[Henry Wood (author)|Henry Wood]] in Boston, provided some of the movement’s most systematic literary foundations. In works such as ''The Symphony of Life'', and ''New Thought Simplified'', Wood articulated a structured philosophy of mental causation grounded in disciplined thought and constructive affirmation. His writings presented New Thought not merely as devotional religion but as a practical mental science, emphasizing inner law, character formation, and the deliberate direction of consciousness. Through these works the principles of mental discipline and self-transformation became central to the movement’s broader development.<ref name=":7">[https://ia801705.us.archive.org/6/items/symphonyoflifese0000wood/symphonyoflifese0000wood.pdf ''The Symphony of Life''], Henry Wood, 1901. Lee & Shepard, Boston</ref><ref name=":42">{{Cite book |date=1903|last=Henry Wood|url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.49999|title=New Thought Simplified}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1900-01-26|title=Henry Wood on the New Thought movement|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-republican-press-henry-wood-on-the-n/188586392/|access-date=2026-01-31|work=The Republican Press|pages=2}}</ref>

=== Suggestive Therapeutics and Auto-Suggestion ===
The psychological framework that later entered New Thought through the language of affirmation, mental discipline, and self-transformation can be traced to the clinical work of the nineteenth century [[Nancy School]] in France. Physicians such as [[Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault]] and [[Hippolyte Bernheim]] advanced the position that hypnosis was a normal psychological state governed by [[suggestion]] rather than by occult force.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nancy School - Hypnosis in History|url=https://hypnosis.edu/history/the-nancy-school|access-date=2026-02-28|website=hypnosis.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nancy School. Liebeault, Bernheim and They Revolutionary Approach to Hypnotism|url=https://chmc-dubai.com/articles/nancy-school/|access-date=2026-02-28|website=CHMC Psychologist and Psychiatrist in Dubai|language=en-US}}</ref>

In the United States, these clinical principles were first institutionalized at the [[Chicago School of Psychology]], founded in 1896 by [[Herbert A. Parkyn]]. At a time when much of New Thought operated through churches and independent lecturers, the Chicago School framed mental influence in clinical and instructional terms, using the language of scientific psychology rather than theology. Its teaching emphasized that suggestion operated according to fixed mental laws that were termed the Law of Suggestion.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1898-05-08|title=The first independent school in the US to teach Hypnotism.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-des-moines-register-the-first-indepe/171797988/|access-date=2025-05-09|work=The Des Moines Register|pages=16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1896-08-04|title=Herbert A Parkyn's Chicago School|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/leader-telegram-herbert-a-parkyns-chica/169669184/|access-date=2025-04-22|work=Leader-Telegram|pages=2}}</ref><ref name=":32">{{Cite news |date=1896-07-19|title=Herbert A Parkyn opens the Chicago School of Psychology.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-herbert-a-parkyn-opens-t/169053370/|access-date=2025-04-22|work=Chicago Tribune|pages=33}}</ref><ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332519038_The_Chicago_School_of_Psychology_and_Hypnotic_Magazine_Suggestive_therapeutics_public_psychologies_and_new_thought_pluralism_1895-1910 The “Chicago School of Psychology” and Hypnotic Magazine]: Suggestive Therapeutics, Public Psychologies, and New Thought Pluralism, 1895–1910</ref>
[[File:New Thought Magazine, edited by Flower and Atkinson.png|thumb|''New Thought'' magazine, edited by Flower and Atkinson]]
Emerging from the Chicago School of Psychology were figures who carried its teachings far beyond the clinic and classroom. Among the most prominent was [[William Walker Atkinson]], who translated the school’s clinical principles of suggestive therapeutics into broader concepts of thought force, personal magnetism, and will development, presenting them as practical methods for everyday life rather than techniques confined to therapeutic treatment. Atkinson also joined with another of the school’s leading protégés, Sydney B. Flower, to establish ''New Thought'' magazine, which became the most influential journal of the movement.<ref name=":722">[http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/suggestion/suggestion_v6_n3_mar_1901.pdf "Character Building by Mental Control,"] by W.W. Atkinson in Suggestion March 1901</ref><ref name=":97">{{Cite news |date=1901-03-10|title=Parkyn's University of Psychic Science with Atkinson|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-parkyns-university-of-p/173497225/|access-date=2025-06-05|work=Chicago Tribune|pages=21}}</ref><ref name=":105">[http://iapsop.com/ssoc/1901__atkinson___series_of_lessons_in_personal_magnetism.pdf "A Series of Lessons in Personal Magnetism, Psychic Influence, Thought-Force, Concentration, Will-Power, and Practical Mental Science."] by William Walker Atkinson, Chicago 1901, University of Psychic Science.</ref><ref name=":106">[[iarchive:thoughtforceinb00atkigoog/page/n4/mode/2up|Thought-force in Business and Everyday Life: Being a Series of Lessons]], by William Walker Atkinson.</ref>

In 1905, Parkyn’s ''Auto-Suggestion'' set out the first sustained, systematic presentation of self-directed suggestion in American mental science. Building on the mental science formulations advanced by his close family friend Henry Wood in ''Ideal Suggestion Through Mental Photography'' (1893), Parkyn framed repeated affirmation and disciplined thought as a deliberate method for reshaping character, health, and circumstance, supplying what became the practical backbone of New Thought’s self-empowerment ethos.''<ref name=":1822">''[https://ia803405.us.archive.org/33/items/autosuggestionwh00park/autosuggestionwh00park.pdf Auto-Suggestion: What It Is and How to Use It for Health, Happiness and Success],'' by Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn. Suggestion Publishing Company, Chicago, 1905</ref><ref name=":1832">[http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/suggestion/suggestion_v15_n4_oct_1905.pdf Suggestion magazine issue V15 N4], October 1905</ref>''

===Growth===
[[File:NZ AK Higher Thought Temple (1).jpg|thumb|The historic Higher Thought Temple in [[Auckland]], New Zealand]]
{{see also|List of New Thought writers}}

New Thought is also largely a movement of the printed word.<ref name=Moskowitz>Moskowitz, Eva S. (2001) ''In Therapy We Trust'', The Johns Hopkins University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8018-6403-2}}, p. 19.</ref>

[[Prentice Mulford]], through writing ''Your Forces and How to Use Them'',<ref>{{citation|title=Your Forces and How to Use Them, Vol. 1|year=1888 |publisher=New York, F.J. Needham |url=https://archive.org/stream/yourforcesandho09mulfgoog}}</ref> a series of essays published during 1886–1892, was pivotal in the development of New Thought thinking, including the [[Law of Attraction (New Thought)|Law of Attraction]].

In 1906, [[William Walker Atkinson]] (1862–1932) wrote and published ''Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World''.<ref name=atkinson>[http://gitacademy.tripod.com/GodsInTraining/ThoughtVibration.htm William Walker Atkinson. ''Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction''. Advanced Thought Publishing. 1906.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930045418/http://gitacademy.tripod.com/GodsInTraining/ThoughtVibration.htm |date=30 September 2019 }} Full text public domain version online.</ref> Atkinson was the editor of ''New Thought'' magazine and the author of more than 100 books on an assortment of religious, [[Spirituality|spiritual]], and [[occult]] topics.<ref>[http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n88-661832 "William Walter Atkinson"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226053328/http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n88-661832/ |date=26 February 2020 }}, WorldCat. Retrieved 10 June 2011.</ref> The following year, [[Elizabeth Towne]], the editor of ''[[The Nautilus (magazine)|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."<ref name=maclelland>MacLelland, Bruce, ''Prosperity Through Thought Force'', Elizabeth Towne, 1907</ref>

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.<ref name=Moskowitz/> One [[Unity Church]] magazine, ''Wee Wisdom'', was the longest-lived children's magazine in the United States, published from 1893 until 1991.<ref name=Miller>Miller, Timothy (1995) ''America's Alternative Religions'', State University of New York Press, {{ISBN|978-0-7914-2397-4}}, p. 327.</ref> Today, New Thought magazines include ''[[Daily Word]]'', published by Unity (Unity.org) and the Religious Science magazine; and ''[[Science of Mind (magazine)|Science of Mind]]'', published by the [[Centers for Spiritual Living]].

=== Major gatherings ===
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]].<ref name=dresser>{{citation|last=Horatio Willis Dresser|url=http://archive.org/details/ahistorynewthou01dresgoog|title=A History of the New Thought Movement|date=1919|publisher=T. Y. Crowell Company|others=Harvard University|language=English}}</ref> By 1916, the International New Thought Alliance had encompassed many smaller groups around the world, adopting a creed known as the "Declaration of Principles".<ref name=lewis16/> 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".<ref name=lewis16/>

== Beliefs ==
{{New Thought beliefs}}

The chief tenets of New Thought are:<ref name="NewThought">{{citation|title=New Thought|access-date=16 November 2007|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571544/New_Thought.html|work=MSN Encarta|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091102072530/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761571544/New_Thought.html|archive-date=2 November 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* 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 ===
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.<ref>Houston, Jean. ''The Possible Human''. 1997.</ref>

=== Theological inclusionism ===
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]].<ref>{{citation|title=Our History|url=http://thehomeoftruth.org/id4.html|access-date=31 January 2023|website=thehomeoftruth.org|archive-date=18 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220418173129/http://thehomeoftruth.org/id4.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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".<ref>Home of Truth home page. Retrieved on 2007-09-20 from http://thehomeoftruth.org/.</ref>{{Failed verification|date=August 2011}} [[Joel S. Goldsmith]]'s [[The Infinite Way]] incorporates teaching from [[Christian Science]], as well.

=== Therapeutic ideas ===
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. {{Citation needed span|New Thought adherents believe that sickness is the result of the failure to realize this truth.|date=August 2024}} In this line of thinking, [[Faith healing|healing]] is accomplished by the affirmation of oneness with the Infinite Intelligence or God.{{Citation needed|date=November 2011}}

[[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|date=June 2011}} 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.<ref name="Atkinson">Dumont, Theron, Q. [pseudonym of [[William Walker Atkinson]]. ''Mental Therapeutics, or Just How to Heal Oneself and Others''. Advanced Thought Publishing Co. Chicago. 1916.</ref>

===Criticism===
{{More citations needed section|date=August 2024}}
The New Thought movement has been criticized as a "[[get-rich-quick scheme]]" as much of its literature contains [[Western esotericism|esoteric]] advice to make money.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Griswold, Alfred Whitney|year=1938|title=New Thought: A Cult of Success|journal=American Journal of Sociology|volume=40|issue=3|pages=309–318|doi=10.1086/216744 |jstor=2768263}}</ref>

Although the movement began with roots in feminism and socialism,{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} it increasingly attached itself to far right and racist ideology,{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} 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."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gill |first1=Gillian |title=Minds over Matter |journal=The Women's Review of Books |date=1999 |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=27–28 |doi=10.2307/4023353 |jstor=4023353 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4023353 |issn=0738-1433|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Movement ==
New Thought publishing and educational activities reach approximately 2.5 million people annually.<ref>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.</ref> The largest New Thought-oriented denomination is [[Seicho-No-Ie]], which was founded by [[Masaharu Taniguchi]] in Japan.<ref>"Masaharu Taniguchi." Religious Leaders of America, 2nd ed. [[Gale Group]], 1999. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008.</ref> Other belief systems within the New Thought movement include [[Jewish Science]], [[Religious Science]]/[[Centers for Spiritual Living]] and [[Unity Church|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 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.<ref>Vahle, Neal (1993). ''Open at the top: The life of Ernest Holmes'', Open View Press, 190 pages, p7.</ref> ''[[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]].<ref>Holmes, Ernest (1926) ''The Science of Mind'' {{ISBN|0-87477-865-4}}, pp. 327–346 "What the Mystics Have Taught".</ref> Unity, founded by [[Charles Fillmore (Unity Church)|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".<ref>DuPree, S.S. (1996) ''African-American Holiness Pentecostal movement: an annotated bibliography''. Taylor & Francis. p 380.</ref>

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* {{Annotated link|Idealism}}
* {{Annotated link|Jewish Science}}
* {{Annotated link|List of New Thought writers}}
* {{Annotated link|New religious movements}}
* {{Annotated link|Panentheism}}
* {{Annotated link|Prosperity theology}}
* ''The Secret'': 2006 [[The Secret (2006 film)|film]] and [[The Secret (Byrne book)|book]]
* {{Annotated link|Theosophy (Blavatskian)|Theosophy}}
* {{Annotated link|Universalism}}
{{div col end}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== General bibliography ==
* {{Citation |last=Albanese |first=Catherine |title=[[A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion]] |publisher=[[Yale University]] Press |year=2007}}.
* {{Citation | last = Albanese | first = Catherine | title = The Spiritual Journals of Warren Felt Evans: From Methodism to Mind Cure | publisher = [[Indiana University]] Press | year = 2016}}.
* Anderson, Alan and Deb Whitehouse. ''New Thought: A Practical American Spirituality''. 2003.
* [[Charles S. Braden|Braden, Charles S.]] ''Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought'', Southern Methodist University Press, 1963.
* {{Cite book |last=Harley |first=Gail M. |title=Emma Curtis Hopkins: Forgotten Founder of New Thought |date=2002 |publisher=Syracuse University Press |oclc=606778962 |isbn=0-8156-2933-8}}
* Judah, J. Stillson. ''The History and Philosophy of the Metaphysical Movements in America''. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1967. Review by Neil Duddy.
* {{Citation | last = McFaul | first = Thomas R | title = Religion in the Future Global Civilization | journal = The Futurist |date=September–October 2006}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Melton |first1=J. Gordon |title=Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions |date=2009 |publisher=Gale Cengage Learning |location=Detroit |isbn=978-0-7876-9696-2 |edition=8th |url=https://archive.org/details/meltonsencyclope0008melt}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Michell |first1=Deidre |title=New Thinking, New Thought, New Age: The Theology and Influence of Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849-1925) |journal=Counterpoints: The Flinders University Online Journal of Interdisciplinary Conference Papers |date=2002 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=6–18 |url=https://www.academia.edu/423344}}
* {{Citation | last = Mosley | first = Glenn R | title = New Thought, Ancient Wisdom: The History and Future of the New Thought Movement | publisher = Templeton Foundation Press | year = 2006 | isbn = 1-59947-089-6}}
* {{cite book |last1=Satter |first1=Beryl |title=Each mind a kingdom: American women, sexual purity, and the New Thought movement, 1875-1920 |date=1999 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-520-21765-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/eachmindkingdoma0000satt}}
* {{cite book |last1=Voorhees |first1=Amy B. |title=A New Christian Identity: Christian Science Origins and Experience in American Culture |date=2021 |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill |isbn=9781469662350}}
* {{Citation | last = White | first = Ronald M | title = New Thought Influences on Father Divine | type = Masters Thesis | publisher = Miami University | place = Oxford, [[Ohio|OH]] | year = 1980 | contribution-url = http://buildingutopia.org/ronwhite/father_divine_thesis/ | contribution = Abstract}}.

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{{Commons category|New Thought}}
{{Americana Poster|New-Thought}}
* {{Citation | url = http://www.agnt.org/ | title = Association for Global New Thought}}.
* {{Citation | url = http://www.websyte.com/alan/intachrt.htm | title = INTA New Thought History Chart | publisher = Web site | access-date = 18 September 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000824113817/http://websyte.com/alan/intachrt.htm | archive-date = 24 August 2000 | url-status = dead }}.
* {{Citation | url = http://library.lessonsintruth.info | title = New Thought Unity and Divine Science Writings | publisher = Piscean-Aquarian Ministry}}.

{{Religious Science footer}}
{{Unity footer}}
{{Divine Science footer}}
{{Universalism footer}}
{{New religious movements}}
{{Religion topics}}

[[Category:New Thought| ]]
[[Category:New religious movements established in the 1910s]]
[[Category:Panentheism]]
[[Category:Religious belief systems founded in the United States]]
[[Category:Western esotericism]]