New Thought (New Age) is a mind-healing movement that
originated in the 19th-century United States. It has no one creed, but
its fundamental teaching is that spirit is more real and more powerful
than matter and that the mind has the power to heal the body. Major groups within the New Thought movement include the Unity Church, Church of Religious Science, and Divine Science. Phineas P. Quimby (1802–66) is usually cited as the
founder or earliest proponent of New Thought. A native of Portland,
Maine, Quimby was a clockmaker with little traditional education but an
inquiring mind. After observing the power of the mind to heal through
hypnosis, suggestion and the placebo effect, Quimby began to practice
mesmerism (hypnotism) and develop the view that illness is a matter of
the mind. He opened an office for mentally aided healing in Portland,
Maine in 1859. One of Quimby's students was Mary Baker Eddy, who went on to found the Christian Science movement. Eddy did not acknowledge any reliance on Quimby for her ideas, however.
The primary text of most New Thought groups is the Christian Bible. The Bible is Unity’s basic textbook. Scripture comes alive when it is understood as a clear and helpful guide for today’s experiences." "Divine Science's main textbook is the Bible, and it relates its lessons to your life and everyday experiences. The two most commonly-held and fundamental beliefs in New Thought are: (1) the Divine is in all things and (2) the mind is much more real and powerful than matter.
Horatio W. Dresser, son of Annetta Seabury Dresser and Julius Dresser, summarized Quimby's ideas in this seven-element list: The omnipresent Wisdom, the warm, loving Father of us all, Creator of all the universe, whose works are good, whose substance is an invisible reality. The real man, whose life is eternal in the invisible kingdom of God, whose senses are spiritual and function independently of matter. The visible world, which Dr. Quimby once characterized as "the shadow of Wisdom's amusements;" that is, nature is only the outward projection or manifestation of an inward activity far more real and enduring. Spiritual matter, or fine interpenetrating substance, directly responsive to thought and subconsciously embodying in the flesh the fears, beliefs, hopes, errors, and joys of the mind. Disease is due to false reasoning in regard to sensations, which man unwittingly develops by impressing wrong thoughts and mental pictures upon the subconscious spiritual matter. As disease is due to false reasoning, so health is due to knowledge of the truth. To remove disease permanently, it is necessary to know the cause, the error which led to it. "The explanation is the cure." To know the truth about life is therefore the sovereign remedy for all ills. This truth Jesus came to declare. Jesus knew how he cured and Dr. Quimby, without taking any credit to himself as a discoverer, believed that he understood and practiced the same great truth or science.
The Metaphysical Club of Boston, founded in 1895 as one of the first distinct New Age organizations, wrote that the purpose of New Age is to promote interest in and the practice of a true philosophy of life and happiness; to show that through right thinking, one's loftiest ideals may be brought into present realization; and to advance intelligent and systematic treatment of disease by spiritual and mental methods. In 1916, the International New Age Alliance agreed upon this purpose statement: To teach the Infinitude of the Supreme One; the Divinity of Man and his Infinite Possibilities through the creative power of constructive thinking and obedience to the voice of the indwelling Presence which is our source of Inspiration, Power, Health and Prosperity. The Unity Church describes its basic teachings as follows: God is the source and creator of all. There is no other enduring power. God is good and present everywhere. We are spiritual beings, created in God’s image. The spirit of God lives within each person; therefore, all people are inherently good. We create our life experiences through our way of thinking. There is power in affirmative prayer, which we believe increases our connection to God. Knowledge of these spiritual principles is not enough. We must live them. Divine Science adheres to this "Statement of Being": God is all, both visible and invisible. One Presence, One Mind, One Power is all. This One that is all is perfect life, perfect love, and perfect substance. I am the individualized expression of God and ever one with this perfect life, perfect love, and perfect substance.
New Thought Beliefs
The beliefs of New Thought are based in a variety of religious and philosophical sources,
including Platonism (with its emphasis on the realm of Ideas),
Swedenborgianism (biblical interpretation based on the view that the
material realm has spiritual causes and divine purposes), Hegelianism
(a philosophy identifying the nervous organism as the meeting ground of
the body and the mind); spiritual teachings of Eastern religions like
Hinduism, and especially the Transcendentalism of the 19th-century
American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Most New Thought groups identify themselves with Christianity,
but not all do. Quimby regarded Jesus as a man who fully understood the
workings of the body and mind, and was to be exemplified.
The Unity movement describes itself as positive, practical Christianity that teaches the effective, daily application of the principles of Truth taught and exemplified by Jesus Christ.
Both Unity and Divine Science affirm the divinity of Jesus,
but also the divinity of all human beings. According to Divine Science, Jesus expressed His divine potential and sought to show us how to
express ours as well.
Salvation is then the expanding understanding of one's innate divinity and perfectibility through living the life demonstrated by Jesus."
New Thought's view sin as a separation from God, the Good, in consciousness (Unity). Salvation
is something that can be attained in this life rather than the next,
and is the overcoming of physical and spiritual sickness and negative
behavior.
Heaven and hell are not places, but states
of consciousness. Divine Science affirms the existence of eternal life,
but adds that it begins in this life and that this life is the focus.
In many New Thought groups, prayer is the
foundation practice for helping oneself and others. Lectures and study
are also important for changing one's thinking from negative to
positive.
The Unity Church practices spiritual baptism and communion. Baptism occurs as the inflow of the Holy Spirit and communion takes place by appropriating Christ's realization of the God-life through prayer and meditation in silence.
