What does Edgar Cayce have in common with Stephen Covey? If you've studied the habits of any seven effective people you may recognize the teachings of Norman Vincent Peale, or maybe even Benjamin Franklin. You've probably heard of Mary Baker Eddy, and Emmet Fox, perhaps, but what about Phineaus Quinby? Antoine Mesmer? What all these people have in common is their shared relationship to "New Thought."

New Thought is as old as the quote from Romans 12:2 which provides the title of this essay. New Thought is as contemporary as the New Age and finds expression in current bestselling teachers such as Anthony Robbins and creation theologist Mathew Fox. Edgar Cayce's own teachings has its orgins within the same Mesmerism as New Thought and many of his tenets are indistinguishable from New Thought If the story of Edgar Cayce finds its home as a chapter in the history of hypnosis, then the chapter on hypnosis in the history of spirituality would devote many pages to the story of "New Thought."

I have found the recent book New Thought: A Practical American Spirituality (Crossroad Publishling) to be an excellent historical overview on the New Thought movement. The authors, C. Alan Anderson (Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Curry College, Milton, Massachusetts) and Deborah G. Whitehouse, present an excellent philosophical perspective on the ideas within New Thought and their relation to other approaches to spirituality.

William James considered New Thought to be the one truly original contribution made by American to spiritual philosophy. New Thought is truly a do-it-yourself path, built by many uneducated, simple people who pioneered on the frontiers of the American soul. Today its creative spirit continues to build new inroads into a practical, creative spirituality.

Hypnosis marks its orgins to Antoine Mesmer's work in France back in the mid-1700s. Benjamin Franklin went to France to investigate Mesmerism. By the turn of the 19th century this "new" healing phenomenon had sparked many enthusiasts within the United States. New Thought typically marks its beginnings to Phineas Parkhurst Quinby, born in Lebanon, New Hampsire in 1802. In his thirties he was introduced to Mesmerism by a traveling show. He practiced magnetic healing, but then innovated the approach with his own insight that the healing was direct, mind to mind. Later he concluded that it is "truth" that is the real cure. He believed he had re-discovered the healing power of Jesus.

Among Quinby's patients was Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, and Emma Curtis Hopkins, who as "teacher of teachers of New Thought," had among her pupils Ernest Holmes (author of Science of Mind and founder of the Church of Religious Science) and Myrtle and Charles Fillmore.(founders of Unity church). Today, the New Thought Alliance has many members, and quite an extensive range of thought, including debate over particulars. Although there is a common spirit to the various New Thought camps and many New Age movements, practitioners and philosophers separate themselves from the others on the basis of a postulate here, a practice there. The debates keep things interesting.

The fundamental psychology of New Thought is that the mind is the builder, that what you expect is what you get, that your beliefs create your reality. Its metaphysics is that of "idealism," (shared by Plato, Cayce and Jung), which assumes that a non-material dimension of psychic images is the primary reality, and that physical matter is a resultant manifestation. New Thought has a mysticism, too, which holds that unity or harmony with the Creator God is the fundamental requirement for both the pleasurable and practical transformation of one's life.

Not one to rest on its scriptures, New Thought keeps thinking new thoughts. A major innovation is "Process" New Thought, to be distinguished from "Substance" New Thought. In keeping with new philosophical trends and scientific developments, such as quantum physics, among others, Process New Thought emphasizes that the soul is less a "thing" than a history of experiences. The personal nature of the Creator and the personal nature of human beings is what Creator and creature have in common, and the co-creative companionship between the two gives reality a run for its money. We're always making up something new!

Just as I have found the study of Carl Jung to give an important added dimension to the spiritual terrain covered by Cayce, so too the study of New Thought adds historical breath to the religious implications of the Cayce material. In There is a River, it describes Edgar Cayce as feeling "creepy" when he read about the amazing similarities between his life and work and that of Andrew Jackson Davis, who also stumbled upon Mesmerism and began giving trance-induced psychic discourses. It is not simply a matter of those who are ignorant of history being doomed to repeat it, but also a fact that there are certain patterns within Creation that seem to beg for recognition and expression. A historical and comparative approach can help us provide that awareness and co-create the underlying reality.

Just Surfing the Book Columns?
Try These Links:
Read Next Article
Read Previous One

Buy New Thought: A Practical American Spirituality now!