[1][2][3] Rooted in universal science, early New Thought leaders shared a Romantic interest between metaphysics and American Christianity.
John Locke's definition of ideas as anything that existed in the mind that could be expressed through words;[4] and the transcendentalist belief that ideal spirituality "transcends" the physical and is realized only through individual intuition, instead of through religion.
The founder of the 18th century New Church, Emanuel Swedenborg, extended clear influence on many authors' New Thought writings on the Bible.
Born in Lebanon, New Hampshire but raised in Belfast, Maine, Quimby learned about the power of the mind to heal through hypnosis when he observed Charles Poyen's work.
[10] In 1882, Dresser and Annetta (his wife by then) began promoting what they called the "Quimby System of Mental Treatment of Diseases" in Boston.
[11] In 1862 Mary Baker Eddy, originally a Congregational Church member, came to Quimby hoping to be healed from lifelong ill-health.
From his writings in the White Cross Library, including Your Forces and How to Use Them,[15] the terms "New Thought" and the "Law of Attraction" first came to fruition.
[citation needed] After the philosophy of New Thought was established, several individuals and organizations rose to prominence to promote the beliefs.
Patterson, a Canadian expatriate who lived in New York City, was labelled the movement's leader when he died in the early 20th century.
[17] While Julius Dresser, and later his son Horatio, are sometimes credited as founders of New Thought as a named movement, others share this title.
She wrote High Mysticism and Scientific Christian Mental Practice and founded the Emma Hopkins College of Metaphysical Science, which graduated a large number of women.
Authors learned from Hopkins, too, including Dr. H. Emilie Cady, writer of the Unity textbook Lessons in Truth; Ella Wheeler Wilcox, New Thought poet; and Elizabeth Towne.
Considerably later, Ernest Holmes, who established Religious Science and founded the United Centers for Spiritual Living.
[22] In New York City, New Thought leaders created an umbrella organization called the League for the Larger Life.