The New Thought Movement in Brief: Healing, Peace, and Happiness - Letting the Mind That Looks for the Good To Be In and Through You
by: Ber Stackhouse, MBA November 23, 2012
New Thought is a spiritual movement that at its start was uniquely connected with American thought and the “American spirit” of the time. A main postulate of New Thought consists of looking for the good in humanity, in one’s surroundings, and in oneself. In New Thought, with consciousness, it is presumed that one can truly live in heaven on earth right now. There is a way of living that is personally meaningful and that positively impacts others.
In New Thought from study and consideration of Philippians 2, NRSV:
•There is an awareness of humility or reverence for self, for others, for Life.
•There is regard for others and seeing the Christ in them as their true nature is God-awareness or Christ-Consciousness.
•This raising of Christ-Consciousness can then reveal more of Universal Good.
“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. (v.1-2)
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (v.5)
Therefore God also highly exalted him (v.9)
Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation (with fear and trembling); for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (v.12-13)
In which you shine like stars in the world. (v.15)
I am glad and rejoice with all of you – and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me. (v. 18)
Healing
Phineas P. Quimby, born in New Hampshire in 1802, practiced healing in Maine and other parts of New England. He “arrived at the basis of his theory of mental healing [after experimentation] which was the real beginning of the New Thought Movement. Quimby had come to his conclusions not from the Bible, or from any religious considerations, though he later identified his method as like that of Jesus.”[1]
Peace
“The great forerunner to the New Thought Movement, or the man who did more than any other thinker of our time to prepare the popular mind to accept the new practical idealism and gospel of optimism, was Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was the pioneer New World diffuser of metaphysical and transcendental thought and Oriental philosophy…. By nature a poet and spiritual philosopher, this one-time Unitarian clergyman had made an exhaustive study of Christian theological thought. He was ever broad-visioned and open-minded, ever looking for the good in the literature of aspiration.”[2]
Happiness
Liza J. Rankow, Ph.D. states that, “New Thought is a spiritual and philosophical movement associated with the founding of a number of ideologically-related churches in the late 19th and early 20th century United States…New Thought developed out of a post-Revolutionary War ethos of individualism and personal entitlement. The ideals espoused in the Declaration of Independence are evident in the New Thought belief that each person is divinely endowed with the right to happiness and the power of choice…”[3]
Jesus Showing the Way and The Christ
“In most New Thought denominations a distinction is made between the historical person, Jesus of Nazareth, and the Christ consciousness he is believed to embody. Jesus is regarded as the ‘divine example,’ a master teacher who exemplified what all of humanity is called to demonstrate as sons and daughters, expressions or emanations, of God. The Christ is understood as the consciousness of enlightenment, a universal principle of Spirit rather than an exclusive person. In the hermeneutic of New Thought, Jesus’ admonition to pray ‘in my name’ may be interpreted as “in my nature” – with the authority and integrity of the Christ consciousness.”[4]
Looking for the good as Healing, Peace, and Happiness continues in the New Thought approach and understanding of Mind and Spirit.
[1] Charles S. Braden, Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought (Dallas: Southern Methodist University, 1987), 47-49, 53.
[2] “A Biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1802-1883),” http://ralphwaldoemerson.wwwhubs.com/ (accessed November 23, 2012).
[3] Lisa J. Rankow, “Toward the Prophetic: A New Direction in the Practice of New Thought,” Religion-Online, http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3574, accessed November 23, 2012.
[4] Ibid.
