Mind Science: A Brief History Of The New Thought Movement

Mind science has recently become the rage. Over the last 20 years, ever since science realizes that mind has far greater influence on the state our physical body and life than previously thought, there have been an increasing number of researches, experiments and studies done on the mind. The phenomenal success of The Secret movie that advocates that our mind is the creator of our realities and we have the power to be in control over our own destiny simply by mastering our own mind has further generated interest in this field.

However, not many know that mind science has been around with us for a long, long time.

The oldest document on this subject can be traced to the Emerald Tablet about 3,000 years ago. This tablet, attributed to the teachings of Hermes, the God of Wisdom of both the ancient Greece and Egypt, taught the Law of Correspondence which says "As Above, So Below; As Within, So Without". It says that the physical world is a mirror reflection of the spiritual world, and our own individual world is a reflection of our inner world of mind.

About 2,600 years ago, another man called Siddharta Gautama, realized this truth and more. Called the Awaken One, Gautama became the Buddha and taught in India for 45 years on the power of the mind, how to purify it and realize the ultimate truth. Thus became the spread of Buddhism.

Almost 600 years later, another man fully realized the link and relationship between spirit and matter, and with this knowledge was able to perform what has been regarded as miracles in feats and cures. Jesus of Nazareth became the Christ and son of God, teaching that the Son is the physical manifestation of the Father and that all human beings have this same relationship with the Divine.

In our own time, the New Thought movement began sometime in the mid 1800's when a man named Phineas P. Quimby began to teach that illnesses are merely due to errors in beliefs, and that by changing or correcting those beliefs, people can be healed. Quimby healed people in this way from 1840 to 1866, without the aid of medicine or rituals. So successful he was at healing that his fame grew to him patients from everywhere. Among some of his patients were Warren Felt Evans, J. Dresslers, Mary Baker Eddy and other notables who learned his techniques, modified them and used them for various purposes. Quimby's teaching was too far ahead of his time, and he himself did not publish his teachings in any book form although many of his writings were inherited by his son.

From this initial New Thought movement followed authors like Wallace D. Wattles who wrote his now famous "The Science of Getting Rich" book in 1910. Wallace also wrote "The Science of Being Great" and "The Science of Being Well". James Allen was another notable author who wrote "As a Man Thinketh". Over the Atlantic in England, a retired judge for the province of Punjab gave a series of lectures on mental science in Edinburgh and Dore, which was eventually published as "The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science" and "The Dore Lectures on Mental Science". This man, named Thomas Troward, is especially masterful in his clear and concise explanations and descriptions of how the mind affects the world we live in. These are only a few of the many authors who published their works on mental science. Ernest Holmes, another student of mental science, eventually founded the Church of Religious Science which flourishes even today.

However, it was the explosion of the Internet which eventually allows people from all over the world who have Internet access to read, practice and share these "new" teachings with others. It was also the Internet that helps to popularize The Secret movie to the world.

Within the scientific community, more and more scientists are now exploring the mind through various researches and studies with meditators and mind control experts. The 14th Dalai Lama has contributed extensively to these researches by allowing scientists access to his group of highly accomplished meditating monks and Buddhist scholars. Thus scientists are able to study the difference between an ordinary mind of the common man and that of a highly accomplished monk.

Indeed, mind science is the final frontier. It is limitless and the potential for greater things in life has yet to be fully explored.