New Thought: Its History and Principles

I. THE MESSAGE OF THE NEW THOUGHT.

TO THE STUDENT of philosophical and metaphysical thought, one of the most interesting incidents in the rise of systems of thought is the rapid development and growth of the great movement known as "The New Thought." Springing into popular notice and favor a few years ago, it has permeated all phases of thought and work, and has exerted a marked effect upon the modern view of the meaning and purpose of life. Spreading far in all directions from its center, it has manifested its influence in current literature, the drama, art, and popular expression. Originally confined to a small circle of supposedly peculiar people, it has become a part of the gospel of everyday life with many of the most practical persons in the world.

To the man on the street, the most perplexing and annoying features of the New Thought movement are the apparent vagueness of its general fundamental principles, and the lack of clear information regarding its origin. To such a person, it seems as if the essence of the thought continually escapes the mental fingers of him who strives to grasp it. He is also perplexed by the oft repeated remark that "there is nothing new about the New Thought." Nevertheless, he feels that there must be some firm, fixed, fundamental truths underlying the philosophy of the movement; and, in spite of the assertions to the contrary, he is impressed with the certainty that this strange thought, and the manifestations thereof, must be new, else it would have been heard of long before.

The student of the history of thought, remembering the difficulty that perplexed the followers of Emerson and the Transcendental Movement when they attempted to define their principles, and their complacency under the charge that there was nothing new in their philosophy, smiles at the repetition that history has manifested, and realizes that while it may be impossible to refute the charge that the New Thought is very old indeed, and that its essence is difficult to ex press in words, yet its power is manifesting over a wide area, and that it has all the force and initiative of an entirely new school of thought.

Someone has said that when a new and striking truth first presents itself, its opponents ridicule it, then fight it vigorously, then claim that it is not new at all, and finally assert that they themselves have always held to it and taught it. The truth of this somewhat cynical criticism would seem to be exemplified in the history of the New Thought movement. Originally ridiculed as visionary and impracticable, later vigorously opposed as heretical and revolutionary, it, in turn, was met with the charge that it was really the oldest kind of thought and that its name was unjustified and unwarranted.

Now we find it voiced by many of its original opponents, without credit being given it; these good folks claiming that they have always believed these truths and have always taught and preached them. In view of the perplexity manifested by many who find themselves attracted by this new school of thought, we have thought that a brief consideration of its origin, fundamental principles, and general trend, might prove interesting and useful to these seekers for information.

In the first place, the New Thought has its origin much further back in the pages of history than is generally thought. The roots of its idealistic philosophy reach far back to the oldest philosophical systems of the race; its stem made its appearance in America in the first part of the nineteenth century. About 1800-25, there was manifested in New England a strange revival of transcendental thought. This revival may be traced directly to the interest in Arminianism and Arianism evinced a full century before by New England thinkers, an interest which spread out in two directions, one branch bearing the fruit of Unitarianism, the other more slowly budding into the revival of interest in Neo-Platonism which later bore the full flower of the Transcendental Movement of Emerson and his associates.

In the earlier years of the nineteenth century, New England thought began to escape from the influence of Locke and Bentham, which had previously dominated the philosophical thought of the time and place. A new interest was manifested in the ideas of the newer schools of English and German thought. Many old ideas went by the board, and were replaced by new conceptions. In the field of literature a similar revolution was manifested. Many old idols were overthrown, and it began to be popular for persons to display a keen and lively interest in the writings of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Herder, Goethe, and others who held certain ideas fitting well into the new conceptions. But most strongly in evidence was a strange revival of interest in Neo-Platonism, that school of thought which has had a number of unexpected revivals in its history, each revival being the starting point for an upheaval in many fields of contemporary thought. Whenever and wherever NeoPlatonism is revived we may look for a renewed interest in mysticism, idealism, and the idea of an immanent God.

These awakened New Englanders were attracted by Coleridge's idea of a higher reason or transcendental intuition, which was a manifestation of the indwelling spirit, and by means of which one might experience an immediate perception of things above the plane of the ordinary senses and reason. Coleridge also taught them that there was a great Universal Spirit, which was reflected in the spirits of all men. Wordsworth presented to them an attractive form of higher pantheism—a nature in which was immanent the One Spirit of the Universe; a universe animated by a Universal Mind, proceeding under Universal Law and Order. The writings of the Neo-Platonists planted many fertile seeds of future development in the rich soil of the New England mind which had been prepared for this day by the influence under way for a century. It is significant that the term "new thought" was used even in that early day; not, however, as indicating a cult or particular school of thought, but rather as a term describing the newly awakened tendency, and in contrast to the "old thought" of Calvinism and the old schools of philosophy. The early Unitarians also used the term "new thought" in the same way, as applied to their teachings.

This "new thought" interest and tendency began to take upon itself outward form and shape about 1830, when the various elements found themselves attracted to each other in what was afterward the Transcendental Movement. Emerson's work had attracted much attention, and his writings served as a nucleus around which sympathetic thinkers grouped themselves. Channing and Ripley, Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Brownson and Hedge, all well known in connection with the "new thought" of that, day, met and considered the advisability of forming a general society. For a number of years the work of these writers created great interest, and a loosely organized following gathered around them.

The Brook Farm Community, founded by George Ripley, in 1841, played an important part in the work, attracting, as it did, such men and women as Hawthorne, Alcott, Curtis, Channing, and Margaret Fuller, in addition to its founder. In 1840, "The Dial" was founded, with Margaret Fuller as the first editor, and such men as Emerson, Channing, Alcott, Theodore Parker, Ripley, and Thoreau, as contributors. Afterwards, Emerson became the editor. This journal was the official organ of the Transcendental Movement, and served to fasten the attention of the nation upon it and its principles. This time may be considered as the real date of the birth of the modern New Thought movement.

From the beginning, the critics were puzzled when it came to a statement of the principles of Transcendentalism, but the followers of the school smiled at the bewilderment of the critics and went on their way happy and filled with the joy of the new truth which had come to them. Some of them even went so far as to defy the critics to define their principles and beliefs, so far above the understanding of the common herd did they feel these principles to be. Transcendentalism is defined by the dictionary makers as: "The philosophical conception that there can be knowledge of transcendental elements, or matters wholly beyond the ordinary experience of the human mind." But the Transcendentalists went much further than this. Margaret Fuller, in her memoirs, says:

"Transcendentalism was an assertion of the inalienable integrity of man; of the immanence of Divinity in instinct ... On the somewhat stunted stock of Unitarianism, whose characteristic dogma was trust in human reason, as correlative to Supreme Wisdom, had been grafted German Idealism, as taught by masters of most various schools—by Kant and Jacobi, Fichte and Novalis, Schelling and Hegel, Schleirmacher and de Wette, by Madame de Stael, Cousin, Coleridge, and Carlyle; and the result was a vague yet exalting, conception of the god-like nature of the human spirit. Transcendentalism, as viewed by its disciples, was a pilgrimage from the idolatrous world of creeds and rituals to the Temple of the Living God in the soul."

The essence of the Transcendental movement may be found in the essays of Emerson, particularly in his essay on the "OverSoul," in which is sounded the dominant note of the later New Thought. Emerson was essentially an idealist and a mystic. As Cooke says of him:

"Emerson belongs in a succession of Idealists. That company he loves wherever its members are found, whether among Buddhists or Christian mystics, whether Transcendentalist or Sufi, whether Saadi, Boehme, Fichte, or Carlyle. These are the writers he studies, these the men he quotes, these the thinkers who come nearest his own thought. He is in the succession of minds who have followed in the wake of Plato, who is regarded by him as the world's greatest thinker. More directly still, Emerson is in that succession of thinkers represented by Plotinus, Eckhardt, and Schelling, who have interpreted Idealism in the form of Mysticism."

The broadness and catholicity of Emerson's thought has descended in a direct line to the New Thought movement of today, which draws upon all sources for its truth, taking its own wherever it finds it, "whether on Christian or on heathen ground." Emerson drew largely from the fountains of ancient Greece, but the distinct flavor of Oriental idealism pervades his thought. It were as if his thought had seeped up through the deep sands of Oriental thought, rising and filling a basin of the purest Greek design, from thence bubbling and pouring forth in a way distinctively his own. In his conception of the One he is a Hindu, but in his expression of the Life of the Many he is filled with the true Greek spirit. In his message the Pipes of Pan may be heard playing, always accompanied by the deeper and dimmer droning worship-note of the Temple of Brahm.

And this has been passed on to the New Thought—this strange mingling of the Orient and Ancient Greece—the calm, serene majesty of Brahm, and the leaping, joyous, living, loving, changing form of Pan. In the first aspect, we see Brahm the Unmanifest, brooding over his creations, breathing outward and inward, in aeonic rhythm, throughout all eternity. In the second, we see Pan, the expression of Manifest Life, who sings: "I am the joy of life! The joy of being! Today this; yesterday a pine upon a mountain crag; tomorrow a butterfly; a blade of grass; a rainbow over a waterfall; a lizard warming on a rock; the rock itself; a beam of the moon! I am nothing because I am everything; everything because I am nothing."

By one of those peculiar coincidences or correspondences which are noticed by all students of the history of thought, the rise of Emerson's Transcendentalism was accompanied by an equally striking development of what may be known as "The New Psychology." The peculiar features of this last named phase of thought were: (1) the idea that the mind has a direct and positive effect upon the body; that physical conditions, in health and disease, depend materially upon mental states; (2) that the mind possessed many latent powers which are capable of development and manifestation along lines running above the more common natural processes; (3) that man, by the exercise of his will and imaging faculties, may transform his character and nature, and literally "make himself over." These three principles were expounded by numerous teachers, under many names, and theories, some quite scientific and others almost grotesque.

A study of the writings and teachings along these lines, in the middle part of the nineteenth century gives one an idea of the intense interest being manifested in these subjects. There was no apparent connection between them and the Transcendental Movement, except that as a rule the same persons were likely to be attracted toward both. But both movements were destined from the first to coalesce, blend together, and unite into one common and larger movement.

The first indication of the blending was the appearance of persons in various parts of the country, who met with great success in the healing of diseases by means of the methods of the New Psychology, based, however, on the fundamental principles of Transcendentalism.

The two streams united at this point, but just where or how it is almost impossible to state as the traces and records have been lost in the passage of the years. But the union and blending is unmistakable—the waters of the two streams may be clearly distinguished as they are seen flowing, side by side, along the new channel. And, here, as is always the case in new movements in which the healing element enters, the phase of healing for a time overbalanced and outshone the philosophical phase. It has been so in all new religions, and it was so in the new religio-philosophy, the New Thought. The people were first attracted by the promise of the healing of their bodily ills, and afterward remained to absorb the philosophy.

It is to be regretted that we are not able to name many more of the prominent mental healers of about fifty or sixty years ago, who were the first to make the natural connection between the transcendental philosophy of Emerson and his followers and the application of mind-power to the healing of disease.

They did their work well, and others followed in the steps without thinking it worthwhile to record the names of the original teachers. Quimby, Dresser, Evans, and a few others are remembered—the others are forgotten. All served their purpose in the great plan, however, and made the connecting link between the two schools of thought.

Mrs. Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, undoubtedly did more than any other one person to make popular the healing of the body by metaphysical methods, and her insistence upon her basic philosophy was aninspiration to others who agreed with her in the main, but who differed from her regarding certain points of doctrine and organization.

Many of Mrs. Eddy's pupils separated from her organization, and formed schools of their own, or else practiced and taught independently. Others, not her pupils, but influenced by the movement which she has initiated, also founded similar organizations and associations. Many while retaining allegiance to the orthodox churches, nevertheless availed themselves of the benefits of mental or spiritual healing, their work being known as "faith healing," "mind-cure," "mental science," "divine science," etc. Differing widely regarding details of theory, all made cures and attracted a following. In New England, especially, the healing of disease by the power of the mind assumed the nature of a "fad," and became widely known as "the Boston craze."

The investigators of psycho-therapy in the ranks of the medical fraternity in France and other European countries, added new interest to the subject, and many physicians sought an explanation for the wonderful successes of the mind-healers in the new theories and methods of Suggestive Therapeutics. Writers began to publish magazine articles and books showing that diseases had been cured by mental methods, in all times and in all ages, regardless of special theories or doctrine. This, however, did not discourage the new movement as intended, for its own writers soon pointed out that these ancient cures, as well as many modern ones, were made by reason of a great natural principle of Mind which many had stumbled upon and used in ignorance of its real nature. These discussions, however, served a useful purpose in informing the public that these strange cures were based upon perfectly natural, and not super-natural, principles; and that they did not depend upon any special creed or dogma for successful application. Accordingly, the workers in the independent field increased rapidly in number, and thousands of earnest persons who were cured helped to spread the tidings of the New Thought as it then began to be called the old term being given a new application.

The influence of Theosophy also must be taken into consideration when we look back over the history of New Thought. While not adopting the doctrines of Theosophy, the adherents of the New Thought found much in the new Theosophical teachings to corroborate their own ideas. This is not to be wondered at, considering that both schools drew freely from the same original ancient sources. In the same way, the renewed interest in the teachings of certain sects of the Early Christian Church, brought to light many points of resemblance between some of the beliefs of the old Fathers of the Church and the New Thought teachings. This, also, was to be expected, in view of the fact that both teachings were largely influenced by Neo-Platonism. The popular works of Prentice Mulford served to bring into still wider prominence that phase of the New Thought teaching which deals with the influence of the mind regarding one's environment, success, etc. His essay, "The Drawing Power of The Mind," opened a new world of thought to many. Many magazines devoted to the subject were published, and quite a number of books dealing with the question were written and circulated.

Gradually, but steadily, the interest of New Thought people was extended to the spiritual phases of the philosophy, and to the phase of self-help and character-building, the healing phase, however, maintaining its original importance. A new interest in the philosophies of the past and present was shown by a large portion of the public, and a marked increase in the production and sale of metaphysical books was noticed. One of the most striking manifestations of the new spirit abroad in the land was the rise of the Spirit of Optimism. People who never heard of the New Thought found themselves impressed with the importance of Being Cheerful, Looking on the Bright Side, and Keeping Sweet. "Don't "Worry" signs and motto-cards were noticed on all sides. And, also, a new spirit of Self-Reliance and Self-help was manifested. It is difficult for a young person to realize the change in the public opinion regarding these things from that of twenty-five years ago. A new spirit animates the people, and, although many know it not, they owe it all to the New Thought teachings.

The wonderful success of the Christian Science Church is an indication of the great interest in the new philosophy manifest on all sides. But the bulk of the New Thought following are not connected with any organization ' whatsoever. Many are independents; many retain their relations with the orthodox churches. New Thought is not an organization-it is a MENTAL ATTITUDE. Many manifest "New Thought" principles with success in their everyday lives—and yet do not realize that New Thought has had anything to do with their views. They have simply absorbed the New Thought spirit which surrounds them on all sides. The orthodox pulpits echo NewThought sermons every Sunday, although the term is never mentioned—and this, too, is well, for New Thought is, and should be, as free as air, and the property of all.

The very name, "New Thought," may even pass away—but the spirit will remain, and the work will be done. The'' Emmanuel Movement," which is really an application of certain New Thought principles, has beeninstituted in certain churches, and thousands have been healed thereby. The theology of the day has been strongly influenced by the New Thought teachings, and the rapid face about noticed by all students of the Protestant Churches, is due almost entirely to this general spirit set into activity by the New Thought movement. Professor William James says:

"Those of us who are sexagenarians have witnessed in our own persons one of those gradual mutations of intellectual climate, due to innumerable influences, that make the thought of a past generation seem as foreign to its successor as if it were the expression of a different race of men. The theological machinery that spoke so livingly to our ancestors, with its finite age of the world, its creation out of nothing, its judicial morality and eschatology, its relish for rewards and punishments, its treatment of God as an external contriver, an 'intelligent and moral governor, ' sound as odd to most of us as if it were some outlandish savage religion . . .

The only opinion quite worthy of arresting our attention will fall within the general scope of what may roughly be called the pantheistic field of vision, the vision of God as the indwelling divine rather than the external creator, and of human life as part and parcel of that deep reality." Prof. Charles W. Eliot, late President of Harvard, in his celebrated address on "The Religion of the Future," says:

"The New Thought of God will be its most characteristic element. This ideal will comprehend the Jewish Jehovah, the Christian Universal Father, the modern physicist's omnipresent and exhaustless Energy, and the biological conception of a Vital Force. The Infinite Spirit pervades the universe, just as the spirit of man pervades his body, and acts, consciously or unconsciously in every atom of it. The twentieth century will accept literally and implicitly St. Paul's statement, 'In Him we live, and move, and have our being.'

The new religion is therefore thoroughly monotheistic, its God being the one infinite force; but this one God is not withdrawn or removed, but indwelling and especially dwelling in every living creature . . . This central idea of a new religion will therefore be a humane and worthy idea of God, thoroughly consistent with the nineteenth century revelations concerning man and nature, and with all the tenderest and loveliest teachings which have come down to us from the past."