A History of the New Thought Movement

Horatio W. Dresser's historical account of New Thought is astounding for its detail and authenticity; citing the original works of the movement's founder: Phineas G. Quimby.

In this book we receive an account of Phineas G. Quimby's life, and the growth of the New Thought movement. Quimby was a philosopher, tutor, mesmerist and inventor who held that the Lord and divine were present everywhere, in everything. Although a prominent figure in his locality of Maine, Quimby did not publish his manuscripts during his lifetime.

When his writings were discovered and published posthumously, their strikingly original attitude to the divine captivated many, and within a few decades the New Thought movement was formally established. Controversially, Quimby asserted that all sickness originated in the human mind and could be cured by thinking correctly rather than through use of conventional, scientific medicine.

Horatio W. Dresser was a leading proponent of New Thought who took up its cause in the late nineteenth century. He spent decades spreading the word of the movement through books, pamphlets and public lectures. Noted for his graceful demeanor and capacity of delivering lectures in a style comprehensible yet eloquent, Dresser contributed significantly to New Thought's development into a religious and philosophical movement.

In the modern day, most New Thought believers agree with Quimby's core thesis that God is himself an eternal summation of all things, and that love is the highest expression of the divine. Many philosophers, writers and intellectuals also agree with these core sentiments and have (formally or informally) subscribed to New Thought. However, Quimby's thinking on illnesses and disease - echoed in this book - have generally fallen out of favor over the years.