Tradition

New Thought

Overview

The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a new religious movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from a variety of origins, such as Ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Chinese, Taoist, Hindu, and Buddhist cultures and their related belief systems, primarily regarding the interaction among thought, belief, consciousness in the human mind, and the effects of these within and beyond the human mind. Though no direct line of transmission is traceable, many adherents to New Thought in the 19th and 20th centuries claimed to be direct descendants of those systems.

Although there have been many leaders and various offshoots of the New Thought philosophy, the origins of New Thought have often been traced back to Phineas Quimby, or even as far back as Franz Mesmer, who was one of the first European thinkers to link one's mental state to physical condition. Many of these groups are incorporated into the International New Thought Alliance. The contemporary New Thought movement is a loosely allied group of religious denominations, authors, philosophers, and individuals who share a set of beliefs concerning metaphysics, positive thinking, the law of attraction, healing, life force, creative visualization, and personal power.

New Thought holds that Infinite Intelligence, or God, is everywhere, spirit is the totality of real things, true human selfhood is divine, divine thought is a force for good, sickness originates in the mind, and "right thinking" has a healing effect. Although New Thought is neither monolithic nor doctrinaire, in general, modern-day adherents of New Thought share some core beliefs:

God or Infinite Intelligence is "supreme, universal, and everlasting";

divinity dwells within each person, that all people are spiritual beings;

"the highest spiritual principle [is] loving one another unconditionally... and teaching and healing one another"; and

"our mental states are carried forward into manifestation and become our experience in daily living".

William James used the term "New Thought" as synonymous with the "Mind cure movement", in which he included many sects with diverse origins, such as idealism and Hinduism.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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The pair of thoughts will form an instance of what is called '_Association by Similarity_.'[484]
William James, The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1
States what New Thought is; the author is tied to New Thought in the knowledge graph.
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My second correspondent, also a woman, sends me the following statement:— “Life seemed difficult to me at one time. I was always breaking down, and had several attacks of what is called nervous prostration, with terrible insomnia, being on the verge of insanity; besides having many other troubles, especially of the digestive organs. I had been sent away from home in charge of doctors, had taken all the narcotics…
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience
States what New Thought is; the author is tied to New Thought in the knowledge graph.
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This psychological change was essential to the birth of the new point of view in science and philosophy. Yet alone it could hardly have produced the new method of knowing. But positive changes in the habits and purposes of life gave objective conformation and support to the mental change. They also determined the channels in which the new spirit found exercise.
John Dewey, Reconstruction in Philosophy
Close in meaning to New Thought; the term itself is not named.
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Philosophers who discussed New Thought

Swami Vivekananda

Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Feminist theology.

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