The inner life
New Thought
Direct answer
New Thought is an American religious movement that arose in the later nineteenth century, teaching that mind is the first reality and that right thinking brings health and prosperity.
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At a glance
- Also called
- mind cure movement
- Found in
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Related
- Law of Attraction, Manifestation, Affirmation
New Thought is an American religious movement that arose in the later nineteenth century, teaching that mind is the first reality and that right thinking brings health and prosperity.
A plain educational schematic; it does not diagnose a condition or replace professional care.
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What is New Thought?
New Thought is the name a loose family of teachers and churches gave themselves from the 1890s. They shared a few convictions: God or Mind is present everywhere, the human being is divine at root, illness and want begin in mistaken belief, and a changed mind changes a life. Practice meant affirmation, silent prayer and the denial of error.
New Thought’s churches, Unity, Divine Science and Religious Science, still meet. Its larger legacy lies outside them: positive thinking, prosperity teaching, much of self-help and the law of attraction all descend from it. William James called it the religion of healthy-mindedness.
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What sets New Thought apart
New Thought was never one church. It was a network of healers, lecturers, magazines and small congregations with no creed and no head, which is why its ideas travelled so easily into business books and the pulpit. A striking share of its founders were women, among them Emma Curtis Hopkins, Myrtle Fillmore, Malinda Cramer and Nona Brooks, at a time when few churches would ordain them. Its characteristic act is the paired affirmation and denial.
- Forerunner: Phineas P. Quimby (1802 to 1866), mental healer of Portland, Maine
- Teacher of teachers: Emma Curtis Hopkins, who taught in Chicago from the 1880s
- Churches: Unity (1889), Divine Science, Religious Science (Ernest Holmes, 1927)
- Named by William James: 'the religion of healthy-mindedness', in lectures of 1901 to 1902
- Alliance: International New Thought Alliance, formed 1914
Often mistaken for something else: Christian Science is one church with one textbook, founded by Mary Baker Eddy, and relies on prayer in place of medicine; New Thought is a loose family of groups with no single authority.
The story behind New Thought
New Thought’s usual starting point is Phineas Quimby, a Maine clockmaker and mental healer who died in 1866. Mary Baker Eddy, his former patient, founded Christian Science, which stands apart from New Thought. Emma Curtis Hopkins, who left Eddy in the 1880s, taught the founders of Unity (1889) and of other New Thought churches. The International New Thought Alliance was formed in 1914.
Why New Thought matters
Most of what is now taught as manifestation was first said by New Thought writers, so the name tells a reader where an idea comes from.
How to read New Thought
The term is a label of origin: readers apply it to a book or a teacher to place them in this line, and to ask what the line assumes.
New Thought in practice: an example
A reader who finds the same advice in a 1910 book and in this year's bestseller is looking at New Thought handed down.
Where readings of New Thought go wrong
New Thought’s claim that illness begins in belief is a religious teaching, and is no reason to delay or refuse medical care.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Consciousness & Spiritual Psychology
- Aliases
- new thought movement, new thought meaning, mind cure movement, new thought religion
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is New Thought?
It is an American spiritual movement of the later nineteenth century which teaches that mind or spirit comes first and that a person's thinking shapes their health and circumstances. Unity and Religious Science are its best known churches.
Is New Thought the same as Christian Science?
No. Both trace back to the healer Phineas Quimby, but Christian Science is a single church founded by Mary Baker Eddy with its own textbook, while New Thought is a loose family of teachers and churches.
Is New Thought the same as New Age?
No. New Thought is older, dating from the 1800s, and centres on mind and prayer. The New Age of the later twentieth century drew on it, along with astrology, Eastern religion and much else.
