People, Ideas, and Movements That Shaped New Thought
Founded in 1892 by Malinda Cramer, the International Divine Science Association was the first umbrella organization of the New Thought movement. It hosted landmark congresses and unified metaphysical healers, paving the way for later groups like the International New Thought Alliance.
Explore how visualization became a central practice in New Thought prosperity teaching, from its metaphysical roots to its institutionalization in Unity, Divine Science, and Religious Science, and its lasting influence on modern self-help culture.
Warren Felt Evans, author of The Mental Cure, synthesized mesmerism, transcendentalism, and Swedenborgianism into a spiritual healing philosophy that directly shaped Charles Fillmore’s Unity movement. This article traces Evans’s life, teachings, and his profound impact on Unity’s foundational thought.
Explore how Malinda Cramer’s Divine Science movement developed the ‘Christ Method’ of healing—a systematic practice of mental affirmations and spiritual treatments that shaped the New Thought movement and influenced modern self-help culture.
Founded in 1895, the Metaphysical Club of Boston was the first organized association devoted to New Thought, publishing the Journal of Practical Metaphysics and gathering pioneers like Horatio Willis Dresser before merging into The Arena in 1898.
Explore the life and teachings of Ernest Holmes, founder of Religious Science, and the enduring impact of his Science of Mind philosophy on the New Thought movement and modern self-help culture.
Ernest Holmes transformed the New Thought movement by synthesizing its diverse teachings into The Science of Mind, founding Religious Science and influencing generations of metaphysical and self-help thinkers.
Explore how the New Thought movement, born in 19th-century America, expanded globally through publications, organizations, and key figures, reaching England, South Africa, and beyond.
Before the New Thought movement acquired its familiar name, it traveled under a variety of labels—each reflecting a different stage of its evolution from healing practice to philosophical movement. This article traces those names, from Quimby’s ‘divine healing’ to the ‘mental science’ of his successors, and finally to the term ‘New Thought’ that unified the movement at the turn of the twentieth century.
This article traces the long-delayed publication of Phineas Quimby’s manuscripts, edited by Horatio Dresser in 1921, and explores how this edition settled debates about Quimby’s influence on Christian Science and solidified his place as a founder of the New Thought movement.