Self Help

Chicken Soup for the Soul in Vietnamese

2012-01-20T00:16:00.000-08:00

My intense interest in the reading of American self-help in Asia sees me haunting bookstores in Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Bangkok, seeing just what is translated, how it is presented, and who is buying it.

The Chicken Soup for the Soul books are ubiquitous in Vietnam. In my book Destination Saigon I mention how young students in Hanoi sit around the gardens of the Temple of Literature reading them. Bookstores carry shelves full of them, and they are always presented in bilingual editions. I suspect the simplicity of their stories has great appeal for the English-language learner.

Interestingly, they seem to have received endorsement from all of the main religions, because I have seen them for sale in Catholic and Buddhist bookstores alike.

Vietnamese friends who read them, even quite uneducated and unsophisticated people, are enthralled by the stories in the books and absolutely love them. I once watched a young fisherman lie down and read a pile of them in one afternoon, completely absorbed. When I ased him what he thought of them, he said: "They're brilliant. The most fascinating stories of foreigners and the amazing things they do. Foreigners are so interesting..." For him it was total escapism, an adventure in the exotic. The themes and messages of the stories seemed to have no relevance to his actual life. He was reading them as fantasy.

Aldous Huxley - The Perennial Philosophy

2012-01-09T17:12:00.000-08:00

I am using Aldous Huxley's extraordinary book The Perennial Philosophy for my chapter on the uses of Buddhism in Western self-help.
I have never read it before, and will admit that it's a little heavy-going. It's one of the most peculiarly constructed books - quite a post-modern artefact. There are long passages of reflection and explication, chunks of quotation from the spiritual classics to illustrate his proposition, and then snatches of quotation from other spiritual traditions that further flesh out his theme.
I am surprised, however, by the relative sophistication of his understanding of Buddhism. At first I was put off by the generalisations he was making about the tradition (asserting its godlessness etc.), commonplace observations that have become cliches by now. But he soon delves into it much more deeply, trying to find a place in Buddhism for soul and God so that he can fit it into his scheme of a universal spiritual philosophy that unites humanity. In fact, some of his equivalinces and comparisons are quite clever, but perhaps that's because I agree with them.
The Perennial Philosophy was written in 1945, by which time Huxley was well and truly in his mystic phase having dabbled in the Vedanta school of Ramakrishna (to which he introduced Christopher Isherwood). It harks back to an old idea that there are core similarities that unify all of the religious traditions, and so point to a unified creative source that might be called God. It had been an idea much vaunted by the earlier Theosophists.
It was a reasonably popular book, and became immensely influential on the New Age scene. It was one of those books that was rediscovered and taken up with great enthusiasm by the counter-culture of the 1960s. Huxley sought to prove to Christians that spiritual truth existed in all the great religious traditions, and that the West had as much to learn from the East as vice-versa. In many ways it was a re-statement of the American Transcendentalist philosophy of the late nineteenth century (for more on that, read Richard G. Geldard's excellent The Essential Transcendentalists).

Louise Hay in Vietnam

2012-01-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

While in Vietnam recently I was pleased to see that the self-help sections in bookstores had grown significantly.
Amongst the offerings were these parallel texts of Louise L. Hay in Vietnamese and English. I couldn't resist.

I wonder if they are licensed?
I have actually bought quite a few copies of these to distribute to friends in Vietnam, and the reaction has mostly been very positive - in fact, the ideas are quite radical to them. Some, however, scoffed after reading and said "It's all very well for foreigners to think like this..."

Thea Stanley Hughes

2011-12-30T03:50:00.000-08:00

A name that is largely forgotten now in the annals of Australian literature is Thea Stanley Hughes.
Hughes was an innovator, a feminist, a dancer, a prolific author and proponent of self-help philosophies.
She came to Australia as a teacher of dance, establishing the Women's League of Health, an organisation that taught a style of dance-exercise that was, in many ways, the equivalent of aerobics in 1930s Australia. She was an advocate of the hygienics movement, a popular fad that endorsed clean living, healthful diet (mostly based around vegetarianism) and plenty of exercise and outdoors experience.
She remained an exercise and dance teacher for many years, but slowly she became an author as well. Developing some of the ideas of hygienics, Hughes began to write about the great and the self-reliant who she saw embodied in the explorers of early Australia. She used their biographies as guides to self-help and moral development.

This style of writing had a great pedigree, of course, having been perhaps most successfully done by the original self-help writer Samuel Smiles.
Thea Stanley Hughes moved on to more didactic material that was modelled closely on the conventional self-help books coming out in Australia in the 1970s.
Significantly, Hughes was an Anthroposophist, and most of her writings reflect the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, to a greater or lesser extent. Towards the end of her life she became a quasi-mystical figure and developed something of a cult following. She was involved with the Christian Community, an Anthroposophical offshoot that sought to explore Christianity more deeply.
I am discussing Hughes' work in the current chapter of my thesis, which explores the New Age and the significance of minority religiuous traditions in Australian writing, most notably Theosophy, Swedenborgianism, Spiritualism and, as embodied in Huges, Anthroposophy.

Daily Word for the Spirit

2011-12-17T02:32:00.000-08:00

I have blogged before about the Daily Word, the bi-monthly magazine of affirmations produced by the Unity Church. It is one of the longest-lived New Thought periodicals, and is a charming remnant of really pure New Thought ideas.
The enormous amount of inspirational content produced by the magazine is being used, these days, in a series of spin-off books. Each book is developed around a theme (in this case the rather nebulous "For the Spirit" - I also own the much more solidly focused Daily Word for Weight Loss) and provides a "best-of" selection of stories and affirmations from the mag.

I have just finished Daily Word for the Spirit, which was also a Unity FM book club choice on the Hooked on Classics show, so I had the opportunity to read it closely and hear it explained by the editor and some of the people whose stories are featured, week by week. I really enjoy this process, and am a solid fan of Hooked on Classics - though I'm always running months behind.
This particular book was interesting because it contaned a chapter from Iyanla Vanzant, herself a bestselling self-help writer and once Oprah Winfrey's favoured spiritual teacher. Vanzant's chapter falls toward the end of the book, and in it she details some of the struggles she has faced in her life. She talks about the power of generosity and of supporting others, and here she says something really interesting:

"I talked to them about...the strength derived from loving yourself and other people - giving and serving not because of the rewards, but because you love it and it feels good."

New Books - The Last Batch?

2011-12-09T02:04:00.000-08:00

This might be it. My dissertation is due on February 9, and I have reached the point where I really just have to write up all teh research I have already done - there is no time to embark on some new tangent.
So here is the last hurrah (hopefully) - the last few books I have purchased for my own research.
From the top:

How I Would Help the World by Helen Keller - I think this is just her book My Religion re-titled and re-packaged for a more secular 21st century audience. In it she expounds her understanding of Swedenborg's theology and how it impacted her life and made her the person she was.

Tiffany's Swedenborgian Angels by Mary Lou Bertucci and Joanna Hill - A beautiful book which discusses the symbolism of the exquisite stained-glass angel images Tiffany created for a Swedenborgian church in the USA.

Flow-dreaming by Summer McStravick

Hegel's Political Philosophy ed by Walter Kaufmann

Goethe's Poems

Joel Goldsmith's Christianity

2011-12-01T23:19:00.000-08:00

It's interesting as a blogger to see what gets commented on most.
And for me it is my posts about Joel Goldsmith.

There are obviously many dedicated readers and students of Goldsmith's work out there.
One of the comments I got on the blog yesterday prompted me to do this post, as it addressed a question I have myself been considering for many years: Can Joel Goldsmith be called a Christian?
Rhoberta, the commenter, mentioned that Goldsmith himself rejected the label. This doesn't surprise me, as almost all of the New Thought teachers saw themselves as universalists who drew on all the world's religious traditions and whose teachings were in turn accessible across the board. And while this sentiment was admirable, in practise the written work and the rhetoric of Goldsmith, Fillmore and others was so rooted in Christianity and in Biblical reflection that it makes their work very difficult for the non-Christian to negotiate.
I worked for many years in a New Age bookshop, and Goldsmith was always shelved there in the "Christianity" section. I had not read him at this stage, but was fascinated by his books because they were among the only ones that ever sold from that section. I remember asking customers on several occasions what Goldsmith was all about and they suddenly grew very mysterious, and so I was left none the wiser. I read at some stage a passing reference to him in another book as a "Christian Sience writer" and this made him even more mysterious, as Christian Science was by that stage (in mid-90s Australia) an almost entirely forgotten tradition, and I was intrigued as to why we sold so many copies of The Infinite Way.
I'd actually be really interested to see some specific references to Goldsmith's denial of his Christianity, as I have been unable to find any in the books in my collection. I would suggest that his teaching is entirely grounded in the Christian tradition, via the heterodox theology of Mary Baker Eddy. Like his predecessor Charles Fillmore (who had also emerged out of Christian Science), he invoked the Christ ideal in his writing. Australian journalist Tess Van Sommers, in her quaint 1966 overview of Religions in Australia, sums up this theology perfectly, writing "Jesus Christ is not regarded...as a Divine personage. He is looked on as the man who developed the power of divinity within himself to the fullest possible extent. Christ is regarded as the power of God within Jesus, and potentially within all humans, which can enable them to demonstrate their oneness with God."
Goldsmith writes frequently about this idea of an inner Christ, of "the Christ in each one" (Gift of Love, 1975). While it is far from orthodox Christian theology, it is nonetheless an idea entirely focused on the Christian ideal, employing Christian language, and it is rarely expressed in any other way (unlike, for example, in the work of Ernest Holmes, which occasionally makes reference to Buddha-nature and other Eastern spiritual concepts).
Goldsmith describes Christ, or the Christ-ideal, as the ultimate in spiritual attainment, the summit of spiritual perfection, writing in Practising the Presence:

"I was led ultimately to that grandest experience of all, in which the great Master, Christ Jesus, reveals that if we abide in the Word and let the Word abide in us, we shall bear fruit richly..."

Finally, I wanted to make the point firmly that Goldsmith was for many years a conventional Christian Science practitioner, as described so interestingly by Lorraine Sinkler in The Spiritual Journey of Joel Goldsmith, Modern Mystic. One of my other readers, Jean F., rightly castigated me for previously dismissing Goldsmith's Christian Science period as a brief blip in his spiritual development.
So yes, I would suggest that, in all outward forms and for all basic purposes, Goldsmith was a Christian. Certainly, if you pressed one of his books into the hands of an average 21st century secular reader they would be incapable of distinguishing his writing from that of the devotional tracts of more conventional Protestant clergymen - which is why you will normally find his books mouldering away in the "Christianity" section of second-hand bookstores. But I absolutely accept that, on a a more careful analysis, he was a deeply heterodox religious thinker who, perhaps, saw himself as a universalist and whose personal theology was so removed from conventional Christian thinking as to be rejected by most mainstream-Christians as entirely heretical and outside the fold.

Dr. John Harrison

2011-11-30T23:43:00.001-08:00

I have begun my chapter on the intersection between health and self-help, and one of the authors I want to explore is the Australian Dr. John Harrison.
Harrison was something of a medical celebrity in Australia in the late 1980s, and through the advocacy of Louise Hay he became a worldwide influencer in the field of alternative health and the mind-body interaction. His magnum opus is a book called Love Your Disease It's Keeping You Healthy, and I hope to look at this book in some depth in this chapter.

It was an immensely influential book in its time, selling over 100,000 copies and becoming a bestseller in America.
Harrison seemed to have been combining New Thought ideas with fashionable psychology, naturopathy and Eastern-influenced health advice (he speaks glowingly of the concepts of Traditional Chinese Medicine). Indeed, his seeming "blame-the-victim" rhetoric is quite stark in the book, and quite unembarrassed. It is not the sort of thing that would be published now.
Harrison's reputation was later destroyed through some extremely questionable accusations of sexual misconduct, and Australian journalist Sue Williams wrote a fascinating book about this case called Death of a Doctor (2005), in which Harrison is vindicated and posited as something of a victim of the conventional medical establishment.
It's interesting to examine an Austraian book which had a great influence on American self-help writing and publishing - quite a reversal of the usual state of affairs.

November 2: Reading Notes

2011-11-01T15:45:00.001-07:00

I am quite close to finishing this chapter on the self-help literature of business, sales and marketing, and I do think it is making for quite a fascinating chapter. I am, of course, running well behind schedule, and I really have to try to speed things up somewhat.

There are a number of Australian business people who have written self-help books intended for a more mainstream audience, as well as more specialised books directly targeted at a readership of salespeople or small businesspeople. The first book I am looking at is John McGrath's You Inc. McGrath is a Sydney real estate tycoon, and he once came to speak at a conference I was organising when this particular book was released. I remember that he didn't at all conform to the stereotype of the business go-getter. He was quiet, reserved and even shy. He was addressing an audience of booksellers, a breed known for its complete cynicism, and there wasn't much connection going on. They were horrified at his ideas of laminating your goals and putting them inside your shower for you to read while you are soaping up your extremeties.

Paul Hanna is the main focus of this chapter, and I find him an intriguing character. Again, I have seen him in action, and he conforms completely to the stereotype of the motivational speaker. He is garrulous, loud and totally guileless. And perhaps because of these qualities I watched him actually win over another audience of sophisticated cynics. He also portrays himself as the failure, which is an interesting trope in self-help literature - the little man who overcomes in spite of the odds. You Can Do It! and Don't Give Up! are both highly autobigraphical, and so rich sources for my study.

I've wanted to read Anita Bell's work for some t ime, especially her books about paying off your mortgage in 5 years. The idea appeals to me, though the reality is starkly horrible. Basically you reach real-estate success by starving yourself and not leaving the house except to work. Your Success in Five Years or Less is ostensibly about a more general plan for success in five years or less, but it's really just about paying off your mortgages quickly and investing in more real estate.

Networking books are a whole sub-genre, and I have read many of them. How to Master Networking is by an Australian author, and is filled with practical tips. It's actually an incredibly useful book and as a result I haven't read it with much of an eye towards theory but to actually employing some of Robyn Henderson's methods.

New Books for the Thesis

2011-10-27T01:27:00.000-07:00

The end is in sight, but if anything that means I need even more books. I've had it with going to the library by now - I am at home writing up, and when I need a book I want it right next to me with a cup of coffee and my favourite harp concerto.
So here's what I decided I couldn't live without, and what I will be reading over the next couple of weeks:

The Heart of William James ed. by Robert Richardson - My obsession with William James continues apace.

Inevitable Grace by Piero Ferrucci - Ferrucci was a student of Assagioli, a radical Italian psychotherapist who was a major influence on the work of Australian author Stephanie Dowrick.

Derrida for Beginners by Jeff Collins and Bill Mayblin - Here I am almost at the end and I still don't really have my head around theory or philosophy. I keep bumbling ahead, however, doing my level best. And still I'm at this level.

George Herbert Mead: A Unifying Theory for Sociology by John D. Baldwin - Just looking at this book terrifes me.

How to Know God by Deepak Chopra - Much more familiar terrain here.

Reason in the Age of Science by Hans-Georg Gadamer - What the hell was I thinking? I remember - Stephanie Dowrick references Gadamer in her book on Rilke, and he seemed fascinating. Now he just seems terrifying.

The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore - No idea.

Self-Help Inc. by Micki McGee - I have actually read this book several times over, but always from the library. I figured it was time to get my own copy.

Peace in the Present Moment

2011-10-26T03:29:00.001-07:00

Peace in the Present Moment is a beautiful little hard-covered gift book, and it is a meditation experience all on its own. The words of famous New Age writers Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie are matched with the most incredible flower photographs of Michele Penn - photos that are described as "soul shots" of flowers.
It's a beautiful introduction to the world-changing work of these two authors, offering the reader nice digestible chunks of their wisdom which will almost certainly cause you to investigate their writings further. The quotes in the book are all from Eckhart Tolle's Oprah-changing international bestseller A New Earth and Byron Katie's less well-known A Thousand Names for Joy (a book I happen to like very much).
The book begins with a lovely, lyrical introduction from Stephen Mitchell, acclaimed translator and Katie's husband. In it he talks about the flower as symbol of enlightenment, and provides the loveliest quote from Iris Murdoch:

"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have the things about us."

Isn't that beautiful? I am already something of a stopper-and-admirer of flowers, but that has encouraged me to cherish flowers even more for the wonderful little miracles that they are.
Some of my favourite quotes from the book:

"There is a perfection beyond what the unquestioned mind can know. You can count on it to take you wherever you need to be..." Byron katie

"When you hate what you are doing, complain about your surroundings, curse things that are happening or have happened, or when your internal dialogue consists of shoulds and shouldn'ts, of blaming and accusing, then you are arguing with what is, arguing with that which is already the case. You are making life into an enemy and life says, "War is what you want, and war is what you get."" Eckhart Tolle

This book would make a lovely gift to a more spiritually inclined person.

Walter Mason to talk on Angkor Wat

2011-10-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

I hope you'll indulge me in a cross-post to let you know that I am giving a talk on Monday the 24th of October, 2011, in Sydney. Details:

Angkor Wat: The Beauty and Spiritual Significance of Cambodia's Great Forgotten City

At the Southern Cross Academy of Light
Monday, 24th October 2011
St John’s Uniting Church Hall, cnr of Yeo Street and Barry Street, Neutral Bay. Enter off Barry Street. Session starts 7:30pm. Entry Fee: $15, concession $10.

Forgotten for centuries in the jungles of Cambodia, Angkor Wat was once the world's greatest and most sophisticated city. Re-discovered by French explorers in the nineteenth century, this massive stone structure was both a political and a religious centre, built to illustrate the creation myths of Hinduism, and later accommodating many of the schools of Buddhism. In this fascinating talk Walter will take us through the stories, history and meanings of the great temple of Angkor Wat.

Walter Mason is a travel writer whose book on Vietnam, Destination Saigon, was named by the Sydney Morning Herald as one of the 10 best travel books of 2010.
Walter is currently at work on his next book, a spiritual journey through Cambodia. He is also in the final stages of writing his doctoral dissertation at the University of Western Sydney's Writing & Society Research Group, where he is writing a history of self-help literature in Australia."

The Importance of Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures

2011-10-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures, which Mark Twain famously described as “chloroform in print,” is one of the most tremendously influential texts in the histroy of self-help literature. These days, with Christian Science fading from public consciousness, it is easy to forget the tremendous influence this philosophy had on the popular cultural imagination, and just how many of the ideas contained in the book were absorbed into the understanding of alternative health, spirituality and self-help. Its author, and the eventual founder of the Christian Science Church, was Mary Baker Eddy, an impoverished New Englander with a patchy matrimonial history and a lifelong history of largely psychosomatic illness.

I think we have hugely underestimated the cultural power that Eddy’s movement maintained over Western culture up to the 1960s, including here in Australia. Writers, celebrities and Hollywood stars were all drawn to this religion that validated women and denied the dogmas of the traditional churches. This was the case, too, in Australia, where Christian Science churches and reading rooms popped up in every capital city. In Science and Health... Eddy sets forth her theological understanding that all that is good is of God, and all that is bad is illusion, for God is the only reality:

"all real being is in God, the Divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-present."

This huge, prolix and immensely difficult book became almost an instant bestseller, establishing the market for spiritually-inspired books of self-help healing that continues till this day. The success of the book and of the religious movement it inspired meant that by the end of the nineteenth century Mary Baker Eddy was ver rich, powerful and influential.

The crest on the front of the book reads:

"Heal the Sick, Raise the Dead, Cast Out Demons, Cleanse the Lepers."

These, of course, being the miracles of Christ, which Mary Baker Eddy believed all of her followers should be able to emulate. To this end she forbade the use of conventional medicine, though she herself famously visited the dentist towards the end of her life.

Eddy’s empire was, however, not without its critics. In Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality, Leigh Eric Schmidt makes the old point that Eddy's book was largely influenced by the work of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, a travelling New England healer who was immensely popular in the middle of the nineteenth century and who was responsible for many of Eddy's own cures. Eddy later rejected this notion, claiming that all of the ideas in the book were her own, divinely inspired. She said that the book was "hoplessly original," perhaps hinting that even she was aware of some of it stylistic shortcomings. And in denying sin, suffering and evil, the book was, of course, entirely heretical and opposed to any mainstream theology. In rejecting the notion of original sin, Horton Davies, in his book Christian Deviations, wrote that:

"Christian Scientists are tone-deaf to the tragic notes of our human symphony. Life's foes demand to be faced with bracing realism, not evaded by Christian Science escapism."

October 14: Reading Notes

2011-10-14T00:21:00.000-07:00

This week I've been working on my chapter on the literature of sales, management and prosperity, and if I say so myself it is shaping up to be an interesting section. I have decided to explore 5 main themes in the chapter (this is usually the way I do it, though one or other of the themes normally fades away from lack of interest): Playing the Game of Life; Being Valued; The Book as Agent of Improvement; Controlling Our Reality; and The Moment of Success.

The main author I am using in this chapter is Paul Hanna. He is an absolutely intriguing figure, and I once attended a conference where he spoke, so I feel I have more of a handle on his whole technique. I will be drawing principally from his books You Can Do It, Don't Give Up and The Sales Motivator.

Another author I am using is the flamboyant advertising man Siimon Reynolds, especially his books Become Happy in Eight Minutes and Why People Fail.

The last person I am examining at any length is Sydney real-estate tycoon John McGrath and his book You Inc. Again, I have seen him in action at a conference, and his style is nothing like Paul Hanna's - he is quiet and shy and does a whole understated act.

I suppose that people imagine such books would be terrible, but in fact they are very effectively written, filled with quotes and case-studies and lots and lots of motivating exhortation. All of the above writers are actually quite good at what they do, and I would suggest deserve more respect than they will probably ever get from the literary establishment.

The central book I am comparing them all to, and the book they themselves cite frequently, is Napoleon Hill's classic Think and Grow Rich.

How Orison Swett Marden Wanted Us to Create Miracles

2011-10-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

Orison Swett Marden is a name almost completely unknown now, but in the early part of the 20th century and well into the 1930s he was a bestselling writer in the mental science/New Thought field. He was quoted extensively in other self-help books, and was really one of the greatest of the early self-help gurus. For some reason, however, his books simply haven't stood the test of time, and he has none of the continued fame of the writers he had influenced, such as Napoleon Hill or Dale Carnegie. This is sad, because Marden is quite a good writer and a clear communicator, and his books would be quite suitable to modern audiences.
Possessed of the most wonderful name that must, all on its own, have been something of an inspiration (an "Orison" being a special kind of prayer of supplication), Marden preached success from a position of knowledge - he had been both a successful doctor and later a wealthy hotelier. Marden had been inspired by the work and example of Samuel Smiles, another medical man, and the inventor of the term "self-help." Marden established Success magazine to chronicle positive stories about success, and it is still in publication today, having been revived by W. Clement Stone.
At present I am writing a chapter on the literature of sales and prosperity in Australia. I am using Marden's book The Miracle of Right Thought as my historical counterpoint, and thought I'd share some of its wisdom, and give you a taste of Orison Swett Marden's worldview.

1. If you constantly think about the bad aspects of your life, you will continue to experience misfortune Marden says, "Prosperity begins in the mind, and is impossible with a mental attitude which is hostile to it." This is one of the central tenets of New Thought, of course, and one which some modern readers find makes them uncomfortable.

2. If we open our mind to good and beautiful things, we will experience them As Marden says, "Our circumstances in life..are all very largely the offspring of our thought."

3. The Infinite Source (God) is exactly like a loving parent We mostly limit ourselves by harbouring a fearful idea of God, and "do not expect half enough of ourselves; we do not demand half enough..." If we only asked for it, God would give us everything we desired, and more.

4. Pessimism is a dangerous and life-destroying mental quality Quite a gloomy outlook for those who spread gloomy thoughts, I'm afraid. Marden says: "A fatal penalty awaits those who always look on the dark side of everything, who are always predicting evil and failure, who see only the seemy, disagreeable side of life."

5. Those who keep their goals in sight will be victorious What is required is resilience and persistence, and a belief in the ultimate certainty of our best and greatest hopes and desires. Those who create a vision of the future actually do end up creating their futures, for "A man was not intended to be a puppet of circumstances, a slave to his environment, he was intended to make his environment, to create his condition."

New Books

2011-09-27T00:54:00.000-07:00

I am madly, madly scurrying to finish my thesis, and beginning to realise the annoyance of not having key books at home. So in my attempt to remedy this I have a new pile of books exclusively for research. From the top:

Jung and Tarot by Sallie Nichols - Jung becomes increasingly important as my dissertation progresses, so I am trying to buy what I can cheaply. And this subject would normally intrigue me anyway.

On The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The thing that bothers me with this is that I once owned a copy (from my old days of studying political science) but got rid of it in one of my book purges. Never do a book purge.

The Rampa Story by Lobsang Rampa - I think I read this when I was a teenager. When I was putting together a seminar on Buddhism and self-help I suddenly found myself referring to Rampa a lot - have to go back and re-visit the old rogue.

The Mystic Life of Alfred Deakin by Al Gabay - Theosophical history in Australia.

True You by Janet Jackson - Well....it IS self-help, though. I love Janet!

Thorson's Principles of Jungian Spirituality by Vivianne Crowley - I'm a bit of a dunce, and when I discovered this one at the Theosophical Society library I actually found it immensely helpful in understanding Jung, so I bought my own copy.

The Buddha Book by Lillian Too - This is just such a beautiful book! Ostensibly for my chapter on Eastern Religion.

Four Archetypes by C. G. Jung - My supervisor was very keen on me extending on the uses of Jungian archetypes in self-help, so I thought I'd better read up.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - Funny how this has been revived in recent years as a self-help book. One discoveres it cited everywhere now. Thought I should actually read the whole thing.

Sartre in the Seventies by Jean-Paul Sartre - The seventies were pretty cool, and I wanna get a bit of Sartre in to my thesis.

Mysticism: The Experience of the Divine - This is very slight, and not at all what I expected. Doubt it will be useful.

Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre by Simone de Beauvoir - See above.

C. G. Jung Speaking by William McGuire and R. F. C. Hull

Aion by C. G. Jung

Walter Mason now has a Tumblr Account

2011-09-14T19:41:00.000-07:00

For what it's worth, I have just started a Tumblr account, where I post moderately interesting stuff every day.
Do come over and visit and even follow me if you like.

waltermason.tumblr.com/

Some new books to explore

2011-09-08T16:27:00.001-07:00

In the absence of time to read a lot of books very carefully and provide detailed, academic and nuanced reviews, here are some overviews of books I've been looking at:

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway is one of the self-help classics of the 1980s. Apart from having an exceptionally good title, it is also written in a lively and engaging manner, is intensely practical and on the whole was probably deserving of its bestseller status. The author Susan Jeffers is a psychologist, and uses her autobiography quite skillfully in the book as inspiration and moral lesson. Like some other self help greats (How To Win Friends and Influence People), Feel the Fear... started life as a course at a community college, and is filled with stories of students and patients that Jeffers has known in the course of her professional life. I've actually read the book several times, and have found it incredibly helpful over the years. Indeed, it is one that I often recommend to people. Strangely, I haven't quite been able to situate it in my thesis, and so far it remains un-referenced in my dissertation. I continue to read it, however (and I have the audio version, too!).

The use of axiom, proverb and pithy sayings is endemic in self-help literature, and whenever I come across a particularly hoary old one I am always drawn back to Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack, the source of so many nuggets of popular wisdom, such as:

"Light purse, heavy heart." "To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals."

and

"He that won't be counsell'd, can't be help'd."

This collection of folk sayings was drawn from Franklin's years of publishing a popular yearly almanac. It really is the most extraordinary book, and quite fun. I recommend you read it.

I have been aware of the work of Geneen Roth for many years. She was big in the 80s and popularised the idea of compulsive eating. She seems to have moved beyond the addiction model now, and in this, her most recent bestselling book, she seems to be associating obesity with a lack of spirituality. Oprah loved this book and featured an interview with Roth talking about Women, Food and God in her final series, thereby guaranteeing the book's enormous success. Like many of the writers that emerged from the recovery movement, Roth is compulsively confessional (her books are very similar in style to those of Melody Beattie), and she uses this confessional mode to establish quite an intense intimacy with her readers. This book is quite mystical in tone, as the title would warn, and veers occasionally into the downright enigmatic, with Roth toying with ideas that seem inspired by both Zen Buddhism and Vedanta. Interesting that the publisher took the risk of identifying this book as being solely for women, when in fact its content is not so exclusive that it would rule out a male readership. They obviously know who's going to be buying the book. Still, I'm not sure I would have chosen that title, and as it is I am too embarrassed to read the book on the train.

Just a gripe - this book's jacket design does what every bookseller in the world hates the most: it puts the subtitle ("50 Lessons to Find and Hold Happiness") above the book's actual title (Life's Little Detours) and in clearer font. This means that 90% of people will remember the book by the subtitle (I do), which means when they look for it on-line or go into a shop and ask for it...well, you can figure out why this is a disaster. It's a lovely little book, in the age-old "Numbered List" format ("50 Lessons...") which seems to be eternally popular. Each lesson started life as a newspaper column, and the author's sparing, journalistic style makes this book all the more successful and readable. I bought it on a whim when I was absently wandering through a bookshop, and liked the few pages I read. Not sure that it belongs anywhere in my dissertation, though.

You Can Create an Exceptional Life

2011-08-28T02:09:00.000-07:00

Though she has established a self-help publishing empire, legendary author Louise Hay has herself written just a few books, and is really only known for one - the paradigm-changing and trend-setting You Can Heal Your Life, originally published over 20 years ago, and in recent years turned into a really very good movie.
I recently saw Ms. Hay live on stage at the I Can Do It! Conference in Sydney, and she was looking sprightly for an 80-something woman. She announced and launched her brand new book that day, a small dialogue with Life Coach and Oprah favourite Cheryl Richardson called You Can Create an Exceptional Life.
Though slight it is a well-edited and quite fascinating book, teaching many of the basic principles of New Thought and filled with autobiographical detail about Louise Hay, much of which real fans have heard before. The fresh re-telling actually works well, however, putting the stories of rising above hardship into a new context, and giving the much younger co-author Cheryl Richardson something to bounce off and react to.
The book is basically created from a series of Skype conversations between the two women, much of the time while both were in pyjamas, apparently. I hope they recorded the sessions - what a vision for future generations!
There is in the book a hint of defiance, a creeping weariness with the cynics and nay-sayers who instinctively dismiss everything the two women represent. Richardson says, "I no longer defend the spiritual principles that have guided and shaped my life. They work and I know it." In an age of radical atheism and hegemonic negativity, I am beginning to notice that advocates of a more feel-good spirituality and world-view are becoming ever-so-slightly radicalised. It would be interesting to chart this new turn.
Both women credit the influence of the great New Thought ideas and thinkers, in particular the work of Emmet Fox and Florence Scovel Shinn. At the heart of those teachings is the idea that most humans are possessed of enormous potential powers to re-shape the world and to create a life of abundance and happiness.

Andrew Jackson Davis

2011-08-04T16:22:00.001-07:00

One of the grandfathers of self-help writing is Andrew Jackson Davis.

Known as the "Poughkeepsie Seer," Davis is seen by many as the father of spiritualism and at the height of his career he was a prominent figure throughout America. His long and rambling books (one of which I've read at the University of Sydney's Fisher Library) were exceedingly popular. Davis helped popularise in the new world ideas of mesmerism and animal magnetism.

He was a student of the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg and could quote passages from Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia by heart, complete with page references. Such was the learning style of the day. Davis set about copying Swedenborg's methods of spiritual contemplation, entering into altered states of consciousness where he said secrets of the universe were revealed to him by divine entities.

Interestingly, Davis was later to deny his own study, claiming that he was functionally illiterate and that his wisdom came direct from the heavens. But those who knew Swedenborg's work (and in the mid-nineteenth cntury Swedenborg's writings had quite a following in America) saw too much of it in Davis' philosophies to believe his claim of ignorance.

New Books - Self Help

2011-08-01T20:59:00.000-07:00

Here are my new acquisitions for August reading. From the top:

From Entrepreneur to Infopreneur by Stephanie Chandler - A book describing the new way of thinking about making money, through selling books and information. Should be quite interesting from a perfectly selfish level, and also will help me when I do my chapter about wealth and business books.

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh - This book has done really well in America, though largely unheard of here.

Anything You Want by Derek Sivers - From Seth Godin and Amazon's Domino Project, this book has the most fabulous cover.

Space Clearing by Stella Martin - When all of my electronic and mechanical goods began breaking down last month, someone told me I needed to do some space clearing, so I got this book. And of course, it fits in to my occult chapter.

Change Anything by Kerry Patterson et al - Don't really know anything about this one, but it's received pretty prominent placement in Australian bookshops so I thought I'd better read it.

Life's Little Detours by Regina Brett - Gorgeous cover.

Free Your Creative Spirit by Vivianne and Christopher Crowley - I often teach creative writing classes, so am always looking for new ideas. The authors are prominent Wiccans.

You Can Create an Exceptional Life by Louise Hay and Cheryl Richardson - I was at Louise Hay's I Can Do It! Conference on the weekend, and this book was launched early in Australia especially to cash in on it. I managed to buy the very last copy! I'd better read it quickly so I can tell a waiting world what it's about.

I Can Do It 2012 Calendar by Louise L. Hay - A year's worth of tear-off information, this desk calendar is a perennial bestseller.

July 25: Reading Notes

2011-07-24T23:57:00.000-07:00

This week I am hoping to finish chapter 5 of my thesis, which is discussing the work of bestselling self-help author Stephanie Dowrick. And so I have been immersed in her books, most of which I have read before. I am using her 1992 book Intimacy and Solitude as my anchor text, though I will be drawing extensively on all of her other books - perhaps even her novels. As always, my task is to find patterns, repetitions and echoes of former writers in the books, as well as teasing out the influences and the traditions to which they belong.

Dowrick's work is especialy helpful on this front (representing rich pickings for me) because she clearly cites her influences, and there are many other writers and thinkers quoted in her work. As a theme for the chapter, and the filter through which I am interpreting Dowrick's work, I am taking "the return of the sacred" - a theme which is, helpfully, the subject of her most recent book Seeking the Sacred.

As with every chapter, I take a four-tiered approach to reading and collecting my research: First I read the primary texts of the author being discussed. I will also include here relevant, connected, material by other Australian writers. Secondly I read critical and historical material relevant to the particular chapter, including similarly-themed books published in America and the UK. Thirdly I hunt down journal articles relevant to the author and her themes. I have been greatly aided in this process by comments by Dowrick herself in her books - she is a clear sign-poster of the sources of her ideas and inspiration. In particular there is a passage in her 2004 book Free Thinking where she cites her influences as: "Alfred Adler...Martin Seligman, Carol Tavris, Robin Skynner and Thich Nhat Hanh." A neat little reading list, to which I would probably add Rumi, Roberto Assagioli and Rainer Maria Rilke.

The War of Art

2011-07-15T03:35:00.000-07:00

When this book came out I was working in a new age bookshop, and it was one of those titles that come out of nowhere - no hype, no warning, just suddenly everyone was calling up and ordering it. I wasn't much interested then - the title kind of put me off, and I assumed it was aimed purely at visual artists.
Fast forward four years or so, and the author, Steven Pressfield, has shot to prominence one more with his rather daring new book Do the Work. Endorsed by Seth Godin, published by Amazon & Godin's new outfit The Domino Project and sponsored by GE, it represented a whole new type of book. I haven't read it yet, but am very keen to.
But all the renewed talk of Pressfield brought The War of Art to prominence once more, and after listening to him interviewed on a couple of podcasts, I knew I had to get it.
And yes, having read it I have become, instantly and unchangeably one of the members of the cult of Pressfield.
Put simply, this book will change your life and the way you look at your work. A few pages in I was shaken by how simple and how true it all was. It was as though the author was writing specifically about me and my own life history. And the thing is, EVERYONE says the same thing about the book. It really is that extraordinary.
What is its central message? That we all have a "work" within us that we were put on this earth to do, and unless we start doing it our lives will be frustrating, unhappy and ultimately destructive. Pressfield says that the task we resist the most is the one we are meant to do, and that we should do it first thing every day, thereby fulfilling our sacred role on earth.
And you don't need to be an artist, a writer or an opera singer to be able to get something out of this book. Pressfield is adamant that we all have an important task to do, even if it isn't what society would call "creative." Whatever you feel called to do - dance, travel, teach or (Pressfield's favourite example) run a plumbing business - you need to get out there and start doing it now. Your life depends on it.
I was so inspired by this book, but also gained some solid practical advice from it. He suggests we treat ourselves as our own company, and every Monday morning have a weekly task meeting for ourselves, writing out our list of jobs and duties that need to be completed by the end of the week, I am definitely going to start doing this.
The dangers that threaten to steer us from our true course are legion, and Pressfield is merciless in demanding that we jettison all of them. From being overly-sensitive to criticism to being lost in procrastination, The War of Art identifies all of these as traps, as part of the "resistance" that we cultivate, and allow to drive us from our best work .
You simply must read this book. It is by far the most inspirational book I have read in many years, and it has already had a huge effect on my life and output. All writers and creative workers will benefit from its advice.
The man is a genius.

Discover the Gift

2011-07-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

Discover the Gift by Shajen Joy Aziz & Demian Lichtenstein

This is the kind of product that will be instantly recognisable to many – it is a book to accompany an inspirational film, a genre established simultaneously by The Secret and What the Bleep Do We Know.

And as in both of those 2 instances, the book stands alone as its own inspirational and motivating read. I was drawn in almost from the beginning as the brother and sister authors told their own personal stories of alienation and then renewed love and closeness.

And, like The Secret, Discover the Gift brings together some really big spiritual teachers who talk about our reasons for being on this earth. Not just a movie, not just a film, the authors describe this as a MOVEMENT! Some of the featured teachers include: Barbara De Angelis, the Dalai Lama, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Mary Manin Morrissey and my personal favourite Michael Bernard Beckwith.

So we’re in something that’s very much an established and popular tradition tradition. But that’s not to say that it’s not good – it is. Very stimulating, incredibly inspiring. Let’s face it, we always need reminding of these ideas:

· That choice is possible, and that our choices direct our lives

· That life is the most precious, wonderful gift

· That we need to express our gratitude for all of the wonderful things in our lives

That we need to practice more solitude and focused thinking

The Book describes 8 Distinct Universal Spiritual Steps:

1. Receptivity

2. Intention

3. Activation

4. Feedback

5. Vibration

6. Adversity and Transformation

7. Compassion

8. Love

I particularly loved Jack Canfield’s contributions – he's the Chicken Soup for the Soul man, and if you haven’t read his newer book The Success Principles I really recommend it, as it will change your life. In Discover the Gift he is talking about establishing newer, more positive and productive habits in our lives, jettisoning the old conditioning.

One of the authors, the sister, Shajen Joy Aziz, stresses the importance of constant action in pursuit of our gift. Too often we let our talents lie fallow, when we should be employing them every day. She urges to do one thing, no matter how tiny, to keep the momentum of our dreams, and to keep us on that path of realisation.

"Am I Going Mad?" by Marlyse Carroll

2011-06-22T02:34:00.000-07:00

More than anything, Australian author Marlyse Carroll's book Am I Going Mad? offers a very nice overview of psychology, incorporating lots of the ideas of Jung and criticising the western mania to label things as “sick” when they are merely different or a little difficult. Marlyse points out that the spiritual journey has always been a difficult one, with many phases along the way, but in recent years we have been encouraged to think that somehow any divergence from the norm is somehow “sick.”

She tells lots of wonderful stories – some of them quite distressing and outrageous – based on her own experiences. These are often quite archetypal in nature, reflecting the universality of the Jungian journey. She also recounts some wonderful experiences, like learning to dance as a simple expression of the soul.

The overwhelming message of the book is that fundamentally Jungian one of embracing the shadow self.

The whole book is describing the intense spiritual journey in a very honest way, highlighting the challenges and the pitfalls, and assuring the reader that they are all worth it. Carroll is actually a solid and scholarly writer, and this book is quite serious in its intent. She draws from many of the best spiritual, psychological and scientific thinkers to present this overview, and it is really quite an impressive effort.

She sites mystical consciousness (as opposed to mental illness) in Jung’s described space of the transpersonal. At least, I think I got that right - like I said, this is weighty stuff.She also incorporates ideas of kundalini, using the chakras to illustrate the stages of a person’s journey towards true selfhood.

Chapter headings include:

"How do we know when we experience an archetypal encounter?"

· "Science and spirituality" ( how many physicists are almost mystics, and how the two subject areas almost meet at the other end)

· "Nothing ever happened!" (how so often we stop halfway along the spiritual journey, sometimes totally rejecting it because we are tired or afraid or it has shaken things up too much. Jung recognised this as a common event).

· "Use wisely the extra physical energy now at your disposal."

From the author's website:

Finally, a book that sheds light on the dark side of spiritual evolution...

A book that bridges science and spirituality in an entertaining way!

This work has mostly taken place through the INNER PEACE Institute for Wellbeing, a non-sectarian educational organization based in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1995 by my husband Michael Carroll and I, its aim is to teach meditation, spirituality and wellbeing.

Practical information relating to the subject of spiritual evolution and its crises.

M. Scott Peck's 'thought of the day'

2011-06-06T05:28:00.001-07:00

M. Scott Peck's 'thought of the day', a photo by maggie jones. on Flickr.

I am reading M. Scott Peck's self-help classic "The Road Less Travelled" for my chapter on pop-psychology. I was pleased to see that he is being quoted in a train station - for the inspiration of commuters, I suppose.

The influence of Emanuel Swedenborg on the Literature of Self-Help

2011-06-05T00:53:00.000-07:00

Swedenborg and Self-Help: The Influence of Emanuel Swedenborg on the Modern Literature of Self Improvement

Speaker: Walter Mason

FRIDAY 24TH JUNE 2011 at 7.45pm
Swedenborg Centre, 1 Avon Road, North Ryde
Cost: $7; concession $5 (including refreshments)

While most imagine that self-help books are something new, emerging fully-formed at some mysterious point in the late 1960s, they are, in fact, a venerable literary form with their roots stretching back into the 18th century. Many of the earliest self-help writers were students of Swedenborg's writings, and his ideas have filtered into our culture via the medium of popular self-help, from "How to Win Friends and Influence People" to "The Secret."
In this talk Walter Mason, who is completing his doctoral dissertation on the history of self-help literature in Australia, will discuss the people and ideas that have connections to Swedenborg and that have gone on to make up part of the rich history of popular non-fiction in the West.

Swedenborg Association of Australia Inc.
North Ryde Group - Telephone: (02) 9888 1066
website: www.swedenborg.com.au

Friends and Enemies by Dorothy Rowe

2011-05-31T04:06:00.000-07:00

The chapter I am really struggling with at the moment is on "Popular Psychology."
Now, the term "popular psychology" is sometimes interchangeable with self-help, but in my dissertation it is referring to books that specifically draw upon the writings of Freud and Jung, normally written by trained psychologists and psychotherapists.
The author I am using principally is Dorothy Rowe, an Australian clinical psychologist who established a very successful academic career in the UK and has been a prolific writer of books of popular psychology.
I have been reading her book Friends and Enemies: Our Need to Love and Hate, but have been finding it terribly hard to really get writing the attendant chapter. I guess I feel a little uncertain because I don't really know much about psychology. Of course, I am not pretending to make any comment on psychology, as I am looking at quite distinct aspects of the books - but at the back of my mind is always this lingering fear that I am out of my depth.
Fortunately Rowe is an Anglican, and makes reference to her religious life in her books, so that is helpful - gives me an angle.
But every day I sit in front of my computer, a huge pile of books at my elbow and think, "I can't do this." I am having a crisis, I guess. The psychologists I am writing about would probably thoroughly approve.
Friends and Enemies is a long and meandering book whcih drifts from psychological analysis to political commentary and autobiography. Rowe frequently references Australia and her life in Australia, so that is helpful - that is what I wan to be writing about.
It is a book about personal growth in relation to groups, and the ways in which we operate as a member of the group and the community. Quite a quirky topic, I guess, and periodically fascinating.
Rowe wants us all to "understand the nature of our existence" so that we may grow and become better adjusted and happier people. Of course, at the basis of all this is the assumption that growth is what we should be aiming for - the basis of all self-help books. Psychological evolution is taken for granted.
It's hard to place Rowe's own philosophy. At times she can be painfully politically correct, with the exact assortment of right-on plolitical positions that go much of the way to building a somewhat cliched vision of the world. And, as I mentioned before, she also admits in the book that she is a Christian, with an affiliation to the rituals of High Anglicanism. And so I am perplexed when I come across a phrase like:

"I do not create theories that have to do with the influence of the planets or evil spirits or God's mysterious ways..."

The absence of God's mystery leaves me wondering about the nature of her Anglicanism.
Anyway, leave me with the book for some time longer (not too much longer - I am already behind schedule) and I may have figured out just what exactly her theories are.

New Books - Self Help

2011-05-29T01:47:00.000-07:00

Oh dear.
Here is the pile of books I need to knock over for June. There are actually more - these are just the new ones. No wonder I get to feeling a little anxious. Anyway, from the top:

The Power of Intention by Dr. Wayne Dyer - I bought this one at the books stand when I took my mum to Dr. Brian Weiss' day-long workshop in Sydney. I quite enjoy Dyer's recent work, and find his drift towards a more overt religious expression quite interesting. And I love this kind of large-format Hay House production.

4 Dale Carnegie books - The Leader in You, Pathways to Success, How to Enjoy Your Life & Your Job and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Rich Brother, Rich Sister by Robert & Emi Kiyosaki - One is a stock trader the other a Buddhist nun. I love the conceit of this book, and it almost perfectly describes the trajectory of my thesis. I have been wanting to read it for ages.

Worshipping Walt by Michael Robertson - I heard the author being interviewed by Ramona Koval on ABC Radio National's The Book Show ages ago, and it sounds absolutely fascinating. An account of the bizarre people who gathered around Walt Whitman and became his acolytes.

Prayer & Living Without Fear by Ernest Holmes - Now that I have finally finished The Science of Mind I can probably start reading Holmes' other books more closely.

Pragmatism by William James

The Art of Spiritual Healing by Keith Sherwood - My chapter on self-help and health is coming up soon.

Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina

Success is Not an Accident by Tommy Newberry

Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy - I have doscovered that Brian Tracy is one of the clearest and most concise communicators of self-help currently working. Even in my cynicism I find myself called to action by his books. This one will fit into my business chapter.

Representative Men by Ralph Waldo Emerson - This will come in handy because I am delivering a lecture next month on Emanuel Swedenborg's influence on self-help writing, and Emerson includes him as one of his Representative Men.

Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer - I have only recently discovered Schopenhauer. Of course, I have always seen his name bandied about, but once I finally started reading him I couldn't believe how practical and "self-help" his philosophy was. Quite a fascinating figure.

New Religions and the Theological Imagination in America by Mary Farrell Bednarowski

Evil Plans by Hugh MacLeod - I have heard this one being discussed on many of the podcasts I listen to. Actually, this one is more for pleasure/interest.

Steering by Starlight by Martha Beck

The Tyranny of Guilt by Pascal Bruckner - Promises to be a controversial read.

Stoking the Creative Fires by Phil Cousineau - Also because I am researching a possible book on creativity.

Daily Word for the Spirit by Colleen Zuck - Also a Unity FM Hooked on Classics book that I have to catch up on.

The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse by Debbie Ford.

"The Map of the Soul" by Tricia Brennan

2011-05-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

I have noticed lately that one of the more significant trends in self-help books is the elevation of intuition as the main force behind finding one's true life purpose. Australian Paul Fenton-Smith has just published a book called Intuition, and British author Angela Donovan has written a book called The Wish which sets about helping the reader get into touch with her intuititive side.
Adding to the zeitgeist is this handsomely produced new book from Australia's Rockpool Publishing. Tricia Brennan, the author, is described as an "intuitive counsellor" and the entire book is about using intuition to help recognise the forces and conditions that most fully resound with your life's central purpose.
It is a rigorous 12 level program for personal discovery, and I think that following such a program would indeed prove enormously beneficial. It is certainly a book meant to be read over an extended period, as each level requires a signifcant commitment of time and personal exploration. Brennan is a geat exponent of many of my own enthusiasms, including journalling, meditation and the use of affirmations.
The central premis of the book is that we need to get into alignment with our "Authentic Self" - the premise of many self-help books, of course, and one that intrigues and perplexes those who don't understand the genre.
This isn't really the kind of book to buy and read on the train. It requires a large amount of practical engagement, and following the program would appear to be a significant commitment.
Brennan is a subtle writer, and she explores the different shades of self-enquiry with sensitivity and intelligence. She is also not a propnent of self-indulgence, as is evidenced when she says:

"Feeling genuinely compassionate toward yourself is what alters negative behaviour - not self-pity but compassion."

A fine point, and one worth making.
How do we shift our lives "from mediocre to magical?" Uncover a practical plan to lead us toward our true purpose in life? Discover once again the great depths of meaning in which we used to dwell? Tricia Brennan's practical book will show you how.

The Daily Word

2011-05-05T17:30:00.000-07:00

Probably the most influential work of the New Thought church The Unity School of Christianity is its monthly prayer guide and day-book The Daily Word. This little square journal has been in print since 1924, and its influence has been credited by people as diverse as Will Smith and Toni Morrison! Rosemary Fillmore Rhea tells a great story in her autobiography about meeting Robert Wagner's mother at a Beverly Hills hotel and discovering that not only was she a long-time subscriber, but had given gift subscriptions to all of the hotel staff.
The Daily Word is a pocket-sized monthly magazine (which has recently become bi-monthly, and is also available on-line) which provides a daily inspirational quote and a relevant section of scripture.

The page-a-day format makes it pretty much a modern-day version of the antique format of the almanac.
Its longevity has afforded it a special place in American popular religious culture, and by all accounts it has fans across the Christian spectrum, despite its central theology being decidedly unorthodox. Each issue starts out with a couple of stories by devoted readers who credit the miraculous effect of The Daily Word during specific periods of struggle or hardship in their lives. The little journal seems to hold for some a talismanic power, an I have read stories of people giving away its pages to those they perceive to be in need.
The magazine also serves a function within the structure of the Unity church itself. It is the focal point of prayer and meditation for all members, and it is freely available to newcomers and visitors to the church.
The vast amount of text that must have been produced in creating the magazine over the years has been put to good use in recent times with the compilation of book-length guides on specialist topics, a la Chicken Soup for the Soul. Daily Word for Weight Loss and The Daily Word for Women are two examples.

In Tune With the Infinite - Ralph Waldo Trine

2011-03-19T04:17:00.001-07:00

I am slowly working my way through the classics of New Thought, and have just finished what is probably the grandaddy of them all, Ralph Waldo Trine's 1897 In Tune With the Infinite.
In Tune With the Infinite is one of those books that you see referenced everywhere. Quotes from it regularly start chapters of New Thought books, and Trine's name is invoked even now in all kinds of self-help books. In Tune With the Infinite was motor magnate Henry Ford's favourite book of all time, and he gave copies of it to all of his executives, insisting they read it. Ernest Holmes, founder of the Church of Religious Science, was great fan of Trine's work, and to date In Tuune With the Infinite has sold over 2 million copies.
That said, it is not an easy book to read. Written in the slightly flowery language of its day, In Tune With the Infinite probably deserves some more careful re-reading to get past its stylistic failings. And yes, I acknowledge that it's foolish to criticise an author for conforming to the literary conventions of his day, just because expectations are different now. I just feel I should warn prospective readers that an amount of patience is needed when reading the book. Though not long, it is packed with ideas, and really is in many ways the sourcebook of New Thought teaching.
Trine was s tudent of world religions, and one thing that really does shine through the book is his deep indeptitude to the ideas of the Eastern faiths, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism. In many ways In Tune With the Infinite is a reworking of the doctrine of karma, renderng it in a more theistic way and making the idea more palatable to a Western mind trained in conventional Christian ideas.
And like most New Thought writers of the time (and since), Trine was keen to emphasise that he was not advocating a new religion or a new set of dogmas and fanciful supernatural ideas. He advocated rationality in the face of the mystical, and the book is surprisingly free of the overtly devotional language that one encounters when reading Charles Fillmore or any of the later New Thought writers. He saw the new attitude as one of science and reason yoked to a spiritual vision based on quite a sophisticated understanidng of God and the universe:

"Reason is not to be set aside, but it is to be continually illumined by this higher spiritual perception, and in the degree that it is thus illumined will it become an agent of light and power.

An advocate of science and reason, Trine could also see the dangers of a more thourough materialism, and wanted his readers to negotioate a western Middle Way between the two. And while convinced of the infinite possibilities of the human mind, he was also no advocate of magical thinking. Like his more stolid Victorian forebears, people such as Samuel Smiles, he endorsed hard work as the very best way to ensure happiness, prosperity and good fortune.
Self-help critic Micki McGee suggests that Trine's work popularised the transcendentalism of his namesake Ralph Waldo Emerson, and melded it with a more materialist philosophy, the fusion becoming the very essence of New Thought.
"Thoughts are forces, subtle, vital, creative, continually building and shaping our lives according to their nature" says Trine, setting out clearly what would become the ultimate trope of self-help writing until the present day - the notion that our material reality is a producto of our own thinking. As problematic an assertion as that is, it is one that carried (and continues to carry) and immense cultural power, and Trine's influence on the modern imagination and concepton of the self has been immense, and immensely undervalued.

New Thesis-Related Books for March

2011-03-17T17:39:00.000-07:00

I am in a state of false security, having sent a chapter through to my supervisor last week. I really can't afford to feel self-satisfied, because I need to be sending him another chapter in about 3 weeks, but the mind plays tricks on one, and I can't help but feel I have all the time in the world. Here are some new books I have purchased for research. From the top:

Christopher Johnson Derrida - Philosophy is my weak point, modern philosophy especially so. To that end I am trying to educate myself with brief and simple introductions to key philosophers, in the hope that I'll be working up from there.

Robert Holden Be Happy - My next chapter is on pop psychology, and this book is perfectly suited. On a personal level, it looks interesting, useful and fun.

Louis Menand The Metaphysical Club - I was led to this book after reading Courtney Bender's fascinating new book The New Metaphysicals. Once Bender wrote about it and teh controversy it caused, I knew I had to read it.

Creative Mind by Ernest Holmes

2011-03-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

Creative Mind was Ernest Holmes' first published book, written long before he was a celebrity preacher with a massive following. It's a nice little book which, considering how early along in his career he wrote it, stands as a surprisingly good (and wonderfully concise) introduction to Holmes' philosophy. Interestingly, it is said that Norman Vincent Peale read this book when he was a young man, and that it had a profound influence on him.
The book is an extended discussion of the New Thought idea of the creative mind - that Divine Mind which is innately creative and to which we are all (or at least should be) connected to. God - or Mind - is constantly creative, and this creation moves in an upward direction. We are all evolving into better beings and it is through our connection to Creative Mind that this happens.
In many ways this book sticks much more closely to a Christian Science idea of the Universe, which is not surprising because it was around this period that Holmes was studying with Emma Curtis Hopkins, the grandmother of New Thought and a woman who had once been Mary Baker Eddy's closest associate.
For the early Holmes the Universe was all spirit, and nothing material was reality - a notion familiar to anyone who has studied Christian Science. He says:

"There is no physical explanation for anything in the universe; all causation is Spirit and all effect spiritual. We are not living in a physical world but in a spiritual world peopled with spiritual ideas."

This is, of course, a reasonably complex and sophisticated theological vision, and one that is, if anything, even more difficult to grasp in our inherently materialist age than it would have been in 1918. In the book Holmes is radically anti-clerical as well, insisting that the path to realisation was available to us all, with absolutely no intermediary force required. He actually retained this hostility to religious organisation and institutonalisation all his life, though a huge church somehow managed to build itself up around him.
Holmes despised dogma, and he particularly despised the dogmatic churchmen of his day, who he saw as wilfuly misinterpreting scripture and trying to stop people from having a real and dynamic connection with God. He saw himself more as a man of science, and his method as genuinely scientific - hence calling his philosophy The Science of Mind. As he saw it, the metaphysician was dealing with immutable laws and principles, not the arbitrary judgements and positions more characteristic of conventional religion. He saw God as a complete reality, one who would ultimately be discovered by science. Holmes was the perfectly modern man, in love with the new ideas of his age. Science, he said, could never destroy true religion, because it "is man's true experience of Reality" (Living the Science of Mind, p. 40). Religion might peddle its false dualities and its childish fears, but ultimately science would expose us all to the truth of God.
Healing, too, is presented in this book as the ultimate outcome of a genuine understanding of God. For in our illness we are merely allowing ourselves to dwell in error, to grasp onto a false premise. The laws of the Universe must always be productive of good, and so once we abide by these laws we are healed as a matter of course. Health is our primal state of being.
Anyone familiar with The Secret will also find much in this old book that is familiar. Holmes sets out the Law of Attraction, and assures readers that what is needed is to speak into the Universe all that we require, and it will be supplied to us. Proving, of course, that The Secret is a very old idea indeed, with a substantial literature and religious culture behind it.

The Science of Mind on Personality

2011-03-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

"Personality is the objective evidence of individuality. Our personality is the use we make of our Divine Individuality. Just as a fine architect uses only the best materials, and plans most carefully how to construct his building, so should we, in the building of personality, choose most carefully the kind of materials we wish to use. Each one builds according to the pattern of his own desires."

~ The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes, p. 618

Harmony in The Science of Mind

2011-02-28T21:51:00.000-08:00

Christian Science and the diverse New Thought movements that sprang out from under it have been described by theorists as the Harmonial religions. They are described thus because they claim that the human's central purpose in this life is to be at harmony with universal laws. This harmony, once established, is representative of the pattern of the entire universe. God did not create chaos, but complete harmony - it is up to the believer to realise this and to fall into line with it.
Unsurprisingly, 'harmony' is a concept that arises regularly in The Science of Mind, and Holmes' concept of it is revealed bit by bit as the massive book unfolds. Just as the theorists contend, Holmes is convinced of the inherent harmony of the universe, though such harmony is hidden from our clumsy, unrefined eyes. It is, however, a mere moment away, and could be ours, "Would that some Voice were sweet enough to sound the harmony of life" (p. 512). With this wistful statement, Holmes seems to be suggesting that no human voice is capable of properly capturing the beauty of the Universal essence, and so this beauty remains hidden to the bulk of humanity. Our all-too-human voices succeed only in obfuscating or denying the harmony that is at work even as we deny it. Life itself, despite how it might be characterised in scientific literature, is an exercise in harmony. As always, those in the world mischaracterise it.
In his book This Thing Called You (1948), Holmes writes: "Love is the fulfillment of the law, that is, it is only through love that the law can fulfill itself in your experience, because love harmonizes everything, unifies everything. It gives to everything, flows through everything" (p. 93). Love, then, is the cause of harmony that is so essential to a sacred life. Unless we are loving we cannot be operating in accordance with the dictates of divine law, and so are doomed to a disharmonious existence. In our own worldly existence we, through the gift of free will, are inclined to make clumsy errors and to experience pain and suffering. On the divine level - a level which we are all capable of inhabiting in the here and now - there is none of this erroneous thought and belief. Once we are channeling divine love we are operating according to law, not error, and "There is no over-action or inaction in Divine Law, for everything moves according to perfect harmony" (Science of Mind, p. 524). It is worth noting that the promise is not of a largely happy life, or a mostly happy one - harmony will be present in all that we do, once we are operating in accord with the laws of the Universe. Such a promise is quite attractive.
The last part of The Science of Mind is taken up with meditations and affirmations for all kinds of problems and conditions. The meditation "On Being One With Perfect Action" asks the practitioner/reader to declare daily that "God's own harmonious actions can operate through us" (p. 525). This notion is, of course, essential to the harmonial project - it is not enough that God in heaven experiences perfection. We are capable of being agents of that same perfection, thatt harmony. We pray not to be delivered to God, but to become a part of Her. Thus mankind is capable of this evolution into Divine being in the here and now, where "'Universal harmony' is an attribute of God, and so a definition of spirituality" (Living the Science of Mind, p. 33).
More and more I am beginning to realise that the demands made upon the practitioner and student of New Thought are incredibly demanding, and these examples point out that what is expected of the truly spiritual person is no less than Divine Perfection. Far from being the light-weight religious option that it is characterised as being by its critics, it would seem to me a particularly gruelling path, leaving the follower no room to call on the mercy of shared human foibles. Reading the history of Holmes' movement, however, exposes many who were all-too-human in their conduct, however, and fell short of the Divine ideal they were meant to be modelling. Even this microcosm of harmonial understanding was filled with people who, according to Holmes' lifelong companion Reginald Armor, "were not infrequently out of harmony with the vocabulary of metaphysics..." (That Was Ernest, p. 162). This lack of a unified front pained Holmes, though he always insisted on the freedom of choice of all beings, including those who were members of his own church.
In The Sciene of Mind harmony seems to be the codeword for all that is positive in the Spiritual universe. It is an embodied quality, and also a section of the great goodness we can all expect in our lives when we increase in spiritual knowledge and practice. It is a gift from God, and "It is the Father's goodpleasure to give me the Kingdom of Heaven, or harmony and abundance..." (SOM, p. 556).

(Image from nonprints.com)

Practising the Presence - Joel Goldsmith

2011-02-21T22:43:00.001-08:00

Joel Goldsmith is a fascinating figure in New Thought, one I have written about before.
Growing up in a Jewish home in New York, Goldsmith became a Christian Science healer as a young man, having witnessed his own father's miracle cure at the hands of Christian Scentists. He would quite quickly, however, break away to establish his own school named, after his bestselling book, The Infinite Way.
His books definitely lie at the more mystical end of New Thought teaching, and Goldsmith and his followers seem to have been always aligned more closely to Christian Science than to the more free-wheeling milieu of New Thought. Indeed, much of his philosophy seems to me to be almost entirely a re-iteration of Mary Baker Eddy's teachings, though with a slightly less dogmatic spin, and a more willing and enthusiastic nod towards the richness and validity of other relgious traditions.
After The Infinite Way, Practising the Presence is Goldsmith's most popular and frequently cited work. As the title would suggest, it deals very much with the same territory as that great Catholic mystical classic The Practice of the Presence of God. Oddly, Goldsmith never mentions it.
Like all of Goldsmith's work, Practising the Presence is a meditative, poetic and brief text, dealing, in several small chapters, with the different ways the spiritual practitioner might be able to deepen her experience of the Christ within. It is actually quite beautifully written, its concise nature making it constantly inspirational and giving the reader pause to reflect on their own exercise of spiritual discipline - most specifically prayer and meditation. In fact, the practice of prayer and meditation take up two full chapters, and is dealt with extensively in the others.
A note on the title: I read a 1958 edition published in England, and it is spelled "Practising" - later US editions seem to spell it "Practicing." This is the eternal England/US practise/practice controversy that I still haven't quite got my head around, but I felt I should mention it for the sake of any spelling nazis lurking amongst my readership.
The book's central message is that we need not worry about anything because ultimately we do and control nothing - all is in God's hands. Our lives would improve immeasurably if we would only abandon any sense of ownership of our actions. As soon as we allow the universal love of God to flow through us we become spiritual beings, and our anxieties are at an end. One of the book's prayers says:

"I am not concerned with whether anybody is grateful or anybody is loving or anybody is just. I renounce all that. I look for love, justice, recognition, reward, and compensation in, of, and from God."

So we should not look without for solutions or satisfactions. The ultimate satisfaction lies with God, who is within us at all times. This is, of course, enormously comforting in a religious sense, though people of a more political turn of mind could (and would) criticise such an attitude as a form of ideological escape, as a disengagement from the world's very real problems. It is hardly a charter for social justice.
What it is, quite specifically and quite obviously, is a mystic's charter. Goldsmith himself was a supremely unwordly figure, and Practising the Presence frequently reads like the manifesto of a monk or saint. It says that the only relationship that will ever count in our lives is the one we have with God.
Goldsmith was, in fact, a popular religious figure in his day, and was famously followed by Doris Day and other celebrities in the 50s.
The book sets out to be little more than a devotional guide, a collection of moral musings on the technology of prayer and the necessity of turning everything over to Christ. It is still in print, though the Christian rhetoric would probably be difficult for most 21st century readers to cope with. Stripped of its Christian jargon I suspect it would read very much like Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now, which it constantly reminded me of.
The whole Goldsmith-ian theology is quite fascinating, veering as it does between Christian Science certainty, soft-boiled New Thought assurance and a more deeply mystical reflection perhaps inspired by Goldsmith's own Judaism. Like many New Thought books (and as illustrated in so much camp glory in the film Magnificent Obsession), there is a peculiar insistence on secrecy in our spiritual and charitable actions. This fascinating philosophical thread is one I would like to explore more closely, perhaps in a full-length scholarly paper. Goldsmith confidently declares in the book that:

"Secrecy and sacredness go hand in hand."

But do they, really? It is an odd motif that I notice repeated throughout the literature. Goldsmith tells us it is better to pray in private, and to be circumspect in sharing our spiritual realisations with others - mostly because he insists that people need to reach their own conclusions, and so can never be forced along the path of progress.
The overriding message of the book is, to the seasoned reader of New Thought, not a radical one. We are possessed of a Divine energy which we need establish a reasonably constant contact with, and this contact is most efficiently made in prayer and meditation.

Jesus' Path to Success

2011-02-18T22:59:00.000-08:00

The Sermon on the Mount: The Key to Success in Life by Emmet Fox

This unlikely little book is one of the great classics of New Thought literature, and Fox one of its most eminent teachers. He is frequently cited in contemporary self-help literature, and his teachings and methods have been particularly advocated by Louise Hay. The Sermon on the Mount is his classic work, considered to be the best example of his teaching, and is still in print.

Fox himself, however, has faded somewhat into obscurity. Perhaps because, unlike other New Thought teachers of the early part of the Twentieth Century, he never successfully established his own personal school or church. He was a minister of the Divine Science sect of Nona Brooks. He may well have been the first to establish a really successful "Hotel ministry" - whereby he gave his lessons and services in rented function rooms or concert halls - something that was to become a feature of New Thought ministries, and used with particular success by Ernest Holmes, founder of the Church of Religious Science.

Fox died in 1951, just as Holmes was beginning to take off, and we can assume that he was a great influence on the work and style of Holmes and others. He was also influential in the beginnings of the Alcoholics Anonymous movement, and many early AA members adopted his Sunday services as their home church. Fox's influence was greatest in the 1920s and 30s - The Sermon on the Mount was first published in 1938 - and in her wonderful scholarly study of the life and influence of Norman Vincent Peale, God's Salesman, Carol V. R. George suggests that Fox's writing and ministry were also an influence on the then-young and impressionable Peale.

Like most New Thought books of the era, The Sermon on the Mount is filled with Christian imagery and language. Of course, the whole thing is based on Christs's Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, and offers a new, "metaphysical" reading of the message of the Beatitudes. It is a canny offering, because many of the seemingly anti-materialist statements of the Sermon must have sat at odds with some of New Thought's this-wordly aims - especially those of prosperity, success and abundance. Fox, in this intriguing little book, re-casts the Sermon on the Mount as the ultimate New Thought text, and re-casts some of the interpretations of the text, rejecting traditional readings as both faulty and horribly superficial. The book came with an addendum, a long exegisis on the Lord's Prayer, which is particularly fascinating and quite hard-hitting.

For all of the accusations against New Thought as being a feelgood path for the undisciplined, Fox's message of, and insistence upon, total forgiveness of one's enemies (as prescribed in the Lord's Prayer) comes across as particularly forceful.

"Search and see if you are not really holding a grudge (it may be camouflaged in some self-righteous way) against some individual, or some body of people, a nation, a race, a social class, some religious movement of which you disapprove perhaps, a political party, or what-not. If you are doing so, then you have an act of forgiveness to perform..."

Such an injunction strikes guilt into my own heart, and would certainbly be salient advice to many modern advocates of spirituality. In a tradition dating back to the 18th century writings of Swedenborg, Fox in this book is decrying what he sees as overly-literalist and decidedly unsophisticated Biblical analysis. He asserts that the Beatitudes, the most-loved and familiar list of Christian advice, are almost entirely misunderstood by those who claim to be Christians. He posits the text instead as a prescription for success in life, part of the great New Thought project of reclaiming the Bible as historic self-help book.
I don't think it's unfair to say that the book is somewhat dated now, its overtly devotional tone making it an uncomfortable read for a secular audience. And of course the author assumes a great deal of Biblical knowledge which simply doesn't exist among a 21st century readership. Nonetheless the book's chatty, elder-brother tone still works its charm, and its frequent rallying cries and urgings are still efective as motivational tools and inspirers of thought. Ironically, his re-reading of the message of the Sermon on the Mount is even more counter-cultural now than it would have been in 1938. In many ways this particular part of the Bible has been re-claimed by Christian progressives who cast it as the ultimate anti-establishment and anti-materialist teaching of Jesus Christ. It is fascinating to hear it being cast in this book as somewhat the opposite, as "The Key to Success in Life," and a tool to successful negoitiation in the material world.

"That Was Ernest" by Reginald C. Armor

2011-02-09T03:06:00.000-08:00

There is surprisingly little biographical material about the early figures of the New Thought movement, so I was intrigued to read this eccentric little memoir about Ernest Holmes by his longtime associate and lifelong devotee Reginald C. Armor.
Armor was one of Holmes' first and most devoted followers, and one of the first official "practitioners" of Religious Science, the philosophy invented and taught by Ernest Holmes. That Was Ernest is the account of an unusual life spent entirely in the shadow of a great man and a forceful personality, and serves more as a hagiogrphy than serious critical biography.
That said, it is a fascinating read, packed with information not just about the beginnings of the Science of Mind movement, but also about Holmes the man, his foibles, vanities and absolute sincerity.
Starting life in a dull clerical job in local government, Holmes took advantage of his light duties to read the great spiritual and metaphysical classics in his office, eventually becoming convinced of a unified philosophy that he saw lying behind each of the world's religious systems. He saw God and the Universe in terms of laws and principles which all people had access to, and which they could turn to their advantage (and, it must be stressed, spiritual and moral advancement).
By 1935 Religious Science - the movement Holmes had begun to teach these universal spiritual principles - had become phenomenally successful in California, teaching the New Thought philosophies of Emma Curtis Hopkins, Thomas Troward and, of course, Holmes' own unique take on things.
Armor tells us that by the 1950s Religious Science had become a huge religious institution, much to the discomfort of Holmes himself, who was uncomfortable with officialdom and dogma, and wanted only to see people educate themselves to make the best possible decisions. Indeed, after the death of his wife Holmes began to explicitly reject the church and its work, returning instead to the closer and older circle of original students who, while less well-trained than the new generation of Ministers that served his church, were more sympatico with the original spirit of the movement.
Armor, the book's author, was involved with the Holmes family from childhood, being a parishioner at Ernest's brother Fenwicke's small Congregational Church. Obviously in thrall to this charismatic, clever and religiously obsessive family, Armor quickly became enamoured of the older Ernest, who made himself known by curing Armor of his warts by advising him:

"You practice not seeing it. Think of it each day as being gone."

Armor's position is surely unique in having known and worked with such an influential figure for such a long period, and through such diverse experiences. It is this incredible insight into the man Holmes that makes this book, as quaint as it may occasionally appear, so fascinating, and such a rich resource for the scholar of twentieth century American religion.

What I'm Up To: Gordon Powell

2011-01-19T14:11:00.000-08:00

I'm committed now to writing one chapter a month in order to have my thesis finished by February 2012, so there's no time for dilly-dallying.
This month's chapter is focused on the writing of Australian Presbyterian clergyman Gordon Powell. Largely forgotten now, Powell was one of the most prominent and progressive clergymen in Australia in teh 50s and 60s, and he modelled his ministry very closely on that of Norman Vincent Peale. Rising to fame as the minister in charge of the beautiful art-deco St. Stephen's church in Macquarie Street, Sydney, Powell finally moved on to Melbourne, where he spent most of the rest of his life at the Collins St Independent Church.
He was a forward-thinking man, and for many years his lunchtime services at St. Stephen's were broadcast on radio stations throughout Australia. This was, of course, the kind of thing that Peale had done before him in America. And also like Peale, he branched out into popular self-help writing, creating books that taught the Christian message in an accessible, non-nonsense manner focused on psychology, happiness and the art of living.
In this chapter I am comparing Powell's work with that of Peale's, and I am describing the way that mainstream religion absorbed the ideas of New Thought in an effort to modernise and popularise its image. Norman Vincent Peale was heavily influenced by the philosophy and life of New Thought legend Ernest Holmes, though as a conservative Christian he was very wary of admitting this influence.
The key ideas of this chapter are:

The introduction of overt and orthod Christian ideas into self-help literature
The repetition of Bibical verse and its use as affirmation
The emphasis on the power of faith and communal worship
The notion of positivity
Christianising psychiatry

Plus a few others that I probably won't get around to.
Powell, like Peale before him, was a lively writer, and the books are actually a pleasure to read. It fascinates me that these books were ever released by a mainstream publisher in Australia, because to a twenty-first century reader they seem so laden with religious talk and imagery, so much talk of prayer and miracles. They would never be released today.

New Purchases - Thesis Related

2011-01-16T21:29:00.000-08:00

I'm probably quite fortunate in that I'm dealing with a topic that is based on mass-market books, so second-hand bookstores are usually a treasure-trove for me of interesting and related material. And from this pile you can see that I've been a very busy little bee indeed. So, from the top, here are the thesis-related books I've bought this month:

True North by Paul Fenton-Smith
The Breakthrough Experience by Dr. John F. Demartini: Demartini is a prolific American self-help author who publishes with Hay House. A chiropractic doctor, he was married to Australia's own fabulous Athena Starwoman until her untimely death.
The Tibetan Art of Positive Thinking by Christopher Hansard: This is for my chapter on the Eastern influence in self-help. My thesis being that Eastern religion in the West is frequently packaged as self-help rather than religion. This being the perfect example.
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran: Having been inspired by the gorgeous exhibition at the NSW State Library I bought this cheap little Penguin Classic edition. After Emerson and the Bible, The Prophet is just about the most quoted text in self-help literature.
How to Use Your Twelve Gifts From God: This is meant to be a New Thought classic.
4 Books by Robert Schuller: Schuller is relevant to the chapter I am currently working on, which is an examination of how mainstream Christianity co-opted the New Thought ideas and gave them a more orthodox Christian veneer. Schuller was a master at this.
Rev. Ike's Secrets for Health, Happiness and Prosperity: Rev. Ike was a tremendously important figure in African-American history, and he popularised New Thought ideas among black churchgoing communities.
New Thought, Common Sense by Ella Wheeler Wilcox: Wilcox was one of the pioneers of New Thought.
Letters from Emerson to a Friend: As noted, Emerson is really the moving hand behind New Thought and therefore behind all contemporary self-help.
Rip This Page by Karen Benke: Actually, I think I bought this one for me, as I felt I needed some creative inspiration.
Enlightenment to Go by David Michie: Perfect for my Eastern Religion chapter.
God's Salesman: A serious examination of the life and work of Norman Vincent Peale, who is the main focus of my current chapter.
Love & Law by Ernest Holmes: Holmes was one of Peale's uncredited influnences, and his work is essential to any understanding of slef-help literature.
Ernest Holmes, His Life & Times
Out on a Limb by Shirley Maclaine: One of the great books from my teenage years, I rescued this book from the reject sale at the Neilson Hays Library in Bangkok. It is a lovely edition, and I felt I owed it to Shirley. Plan on re-reading it 'cos I loved it so much as a teenager.
Seth Godin omnibus: Godin is one of THE most iunfluential thinkers of the moment. I have followed his blog for a long time now, so thought it was time I read some of his books.

What If It All Goes Right?

2011-01-05T00:19:00.000-08:00

Mindy Audlin was one of the founders of Unity FM, and she has invented a New Thought process called 'What If Up' that has been in use among church and corporate groups for some time now. Her book What If It All Goes Right? is a fleshing out of the thinking behind the process, and is a fascinating explication of a new spiritual technology, one that is particularly representative of New Thought thinking and expressive of the New Thought world-view.
Having recently been the featured book on Unity FM's Hooked on Classics book club, I spent quite some time reading this book, exploring the process for myself and following the exercises the book provides. This kind of involved reading, which transcends the simpler method of passive reading that is usually associated with the consumption of books, is in a way the very benchmark of the self-help process, and is the way that most self-help books are intended by their authors to be studied. Of course, whether or not the average reader does in fact extend their experience beyond the perusal of the written word is impossible to gauge. But certainly the presence of an on-line study group and the prolonged examination of the book on the Hooked on Classics radio show helped to ensure a more thorough and prolonged engagement with the text than might usually be the case.
And what is Audlin's method? Basically it's an extension of a very old idea, one set forth most strikingly in the Pollyanna story (and I must admit here that I've only ever seen the wonderful movie): instead of finding reasons to quelch an idea or tear it apart, we should instead engage in Audlin's 'What if Up' process, and think of reasons why situations, projects, goals and dreams might, in fact, work out positively. It is a brain-storming process, and one which the author keenly advises us to practice in groups. So that one person might stand in the centre of a group of supportive friends while everybody contributes a positive spin to the idea, problem or desire recently anunciated.
Audlin admits that the basic idea for this process came from her involvement with mastermind groups. Such groups evolved from the thought of Napoleon Hill, of Think and Grow Rich fame. He advised that each of us establish a core of supportive friends who meet regularly to encourage each other, share ideas, and offer each other positive emotional support. Hill thought that people with such a supportive group of peers must necessarily have greater moral and emotional strength than those who seek to do everything alone, fearing the input and derision of others.
Audlin's book works through some standard New Thought tropes, and is actually quite a concise and clear explicaton of New Thought ideals and their practical application to modern life. One of the things the author asserts is that:

"We're working with spiritual laws in a world that is goverened by cause and effect...Just don't say I didn't warn you...The universe can pack a wallop!"

Those who have been following this blog or who are keen students of New Thought & Self-Help literature will recognise two key ideas here: the notion that what is being taught is in fact an indisputable law (an assertion that goes all the way back to Mary Baker Eddy); and the recurring convention of discussing theistic ideas but replacing the word "God" with more palatable concepts like "The universe."
Along with law there is the usual attendant invocation of the notion of science, in the case of this book a surprisingly insistent one. The use of scientific language reassures the modern reader, and takes teh book's discourse out of the realms of assertion and religio-mythic ideas. But in fact much of what is discussed has its roots in nineteenth century American Protestantism.

"The subatomic substance of the universe...responding to the focus and intensity of your dominant feelings."

Now, before you write in I do not mean to poke fun at the author or the book. I am merely identifying a recurring motif that is as old as self-help books themselves - the justification of opinions by the invocation of scientific rhetoric. I would suggest that what is being described is not, in fact, a scientific truth involving subatomic substances, but a metaphysical assertion.
Interestingly, Audlin herself invokes the figure of Pollyanna:

"Let me warn you that at first glance, the techniques you will discover in this book might seem a bit Pollyannaish. You may wonder how we could possibly solve the major problems of our time with a tool that is so simple and easy to implement. Surely, our complex issues require a more complex remedy?"

But no, as you may have guessed, the book assures us that in fact what is most needed is the very simplicity and good faith characteristic of that great cultural archetype Pollyanna. The meme of Pollyanna is one regularly invoked by both critics and advocates of self-help ideas, and I really must explore this further. Perhaps in a journal article? I will have to grab a copy of the book.
This kind of reductive approach to life is, of course, characteristic of self-help, and is the source of much of its criticism. But as always, critics would be missing the point that what the book inetnds to do is not address the misfortunes and inequities of a suffering world (though later chapters invoke the notion of global healing). What it seeks to do is merely equip the individual with tools to help her achieve more and maintain a more positive and productive state of mind. And it seems to me that this is a goal that is hard to criticise. In the self-help world global change is wrought, not by collective action, but by individual transformation and its subsequent flow-on effect.
It's an interesting book and, with its heavy emphasis on practice it is ultimately a useful one. It is also, undeniably, inspirational, and in the last analysis is describing that quality that I am coming more and more to realise is at the heart of self-help thinking - the idea of grace. I think it would actually be of tremendous use to someone struggling with depression or overwhelmed by bad conditions in their life. It is unashamedly and relentlessly "Pollyannaish," and to my mind that's no bad thing.

"This Thing Called You" by Ernest Holmes

2010-11-21T14:07:00.000-08:00

Ernest Holmes, founder of the Church of Religious Science and all-round California legend, was a prolific writer. Indeed, Holmes seems to have been an overachiever on almost every front - he was a tireless preacher and self-promoter and established a religious empire which continues to have an affect on contemporary popular culture. Of course, his magnum opus The Science of Mind is a book I've been reading slowly all year and blogging along the way. This Thing Called You is a much smaller work, a slim book made up mainly of affirmations, meditations and prayer treatments intended to improve the reader's life and strengthen her sense of living spiritually.
And where The Science of Mind, a vast book in every sense, tends toward the wordy and prolix, this smaller book is actually quite elegant and sparse, setting out in simple language Holmes' own views on how exactly the Universe (not my capital "U") functions. Indeed, it is a terrific read at times, inspiring and thoughtful, providing a very clear and practical path of spiritual practice.
In every piece of Holmes' writing that I have read thus far it is clear that his philosophy owes a debt primarily to Emerson and Mary Baker Eddy (though probably through the medium of her student and later rival Emma Curtis Hopkins). Indeed, he is free in his references to Emerson, as are most New Thought writers. He is less forthcoming in his recognition of the guiding hand of Eddy - if she is mentioned at all it is in elliptical and disapproving references.
The book's primary theme is, as always, that each of us represents the Universe in its entirety, that, to quote Emerson (as Holmes does) "...every man is a doorway to the inifinite." This infinitude which we represent (and which we are, at the most basic level) needs only to be awakened to. We need not go on any spiritual search, says Holmes, because:

"...the thing you are after is already here, within you. The only things that stand between you and it are the accumulated thoughts, beliefs and emotions of the ages" (p.13).

More than a slight impediment, one would imagine, but Holmes is eternally optimistic that the human is moving ever forward (or should that be inward) toward full knowing of her own divinity. Holmes says that the problem of our future lies not in being selfish or unfairly possessed of good fortune. The real problem is that we do not wish for more and better for ourselves and others. Our wishes, desires and thoughts create our own reality, and so communal ideas (memes, I suppose we'd call them now) are merely these same false constructs writ large. Poverty and suffering exist only because we continue to acknowledge their reality. All that is good and perfect already exists - is, in fact, all that is real - we have simply failed to arrange the world and our lives in the correct way. Holmes advocates not revolution, but the rearrangement of mental furniture (p.17).
We encounter exactly those things we imagine, says Holmes, "If you believe that wherever you go you will meet with love and friendship, with appreciation and gratitude, then this will become...your law" (p. 18). This is, of course, a classic New Thought assertion, and it also speaks of exactly the sort of folk wisdom common not only to early twentieth century Americans, but to most of us now. Common sense and theological assertion, however, do not make for much of a scientific case, and those more cynically minded might be happy to point towards plenty of examples of the gullible and the kind meeting sticky ends, despite their best feelings.
But Holmes would stand his ground, I imagine, and in this book brooks no oppositional voice, nor even raises the spectre of an alternative (and much less comforting) viewpoint. For the practitioner of Science of Mind, as for all of the early exponents of New Thought, it is the matter of belief which shapes our physical world, our mental universe, and the reality we continue to experience. It may be cold comfort, but for the experiencer of misfotune, harrassment or slander, Holmes' has simple and constant advice:

"...everything in your life depends on belief...it is done unto you as you believe. Change your belief and you can change your world" (p. 25).

The Science of Mind's Meditation for Happiness

2010-11-19T16:15:00.000-08:00

Happiness and Completion

I am happy and complete, today and forever.
Within me is that which is Perfect and Complete.
It is the Spirit of all Life, Truth and Action.
I am happy in the certain knowledge of this Inner Light.
I cannot be sad nor sorry, but must radiate Joy and Life,
For Life is within me now.

I am happy and complete.

Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind, p. 511

"The Treatment" in the Science of Mind

2010-11-15T01:15:00.000-08:00

Perhaps the central spiritual technology of Science of Mind is The Treatment. This is a collection of affirmations and statements of "spiritual truth" asssembled by a Science of Mind practitioner explicitly for the use of a particular person. The practitionar speaks this Treatment in their own prayer for a designated time, and the person being treated is also given the Treatmet to read and reflect on in their private worship time.
In his books, Ernest Holmes presents hundreds of Treatments for specific problems or for those desiring specific positive outcomes. These are frequently the basis of any tailor-made Treatment.
Much care is taken by Holmes to stress that the Treatment is not a work of incantatory or intercesionary prayer. It is not a magical spell, recited in the hope that God might hear the words and change your condition. The purpose of the Treatment is to re-align the subect's thoughts. These Treatments are, in fact, statements of fact, not lists of desires. When the Practitioner speaks the treatment in her own period of practice, she declares that "It is already Done." She is not praying that a subject be changed or saved - she is making a declaration that this is already a fact. By writing down and speaking these "Facts" the people involved fall back into harmony with Divine Perfection.
Another important element of the Treatment is that they are not to be simply spoken aloud. The thoughtless repetion of a Treatment is completely pointless. The person using the Treatment must attempt to genuinely believe the words being read and spoken. It is an exercise not in recitation, but in the manipulation of feeling and emotion. So it is not efficacious to simply say "I am slim and healthy" over and over again. One must really believe it to be already true. Indeed, if one can convince oneself of the truths of the Treatment, then no repetition at all is necessary - it is spoken and it is believed, and the job has already been done.
Practitioners distinguish Treatment from prayer by pointing out that the Treatment is a genuine engagement in self, with the God within. Prayer is a form of communication with an outward God, a deity that does not exist in New Thought.
Here is a sample Science of Mind treatment written by Sylvia O'Neal, a Religious Science Practitioner*:

"God is total peace, heart felt love, absolute calm, breathtaking beauty and unending joy. I have a consciousness of Oneness. All that God is, I am. As I feel complete peace in mind, heart and soul, a feeling of well being fills my world. Peaceful is my way of life. My thoughts, actions and words of peace express my God nature, the truth of who I am. As I focus my inward thoughts of peace in my life, my family, community the Universe becomes more peaceful. I give thanks for the peace in my world. With a consciousness of peace I release this into the Law of Mind. And so it is."

* Source: http://www.ehow.com/about_5087000_science-mind-treatments.html

Evil in the Science of Mind

2010-11-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

Probably the greatest theological problem faced by New Thought is the question of the existence of evil. This same problem dogs orthodox Christianity, of course, but at least itcan fall back on the doctrine of original sin. That doctrine is rejected by New Thought, which teaches that we are all created perfectly, not just in the image of God but as manifestations of God - a part of creation which is eternal, wholly good and perfect. The existence of bad thinsgs in such a schema would seem to be a fundamental stumbling point. It was exactly this point that many of the early critics of Christian Science (most notably Mark Twain, to the consternation of his devoutly Christian Science daughter) harped on, and it continues to be the achilles heel of New Thought philosophy. If God is Good and good is our natural state of being, why do we witness so many bad things in our world?
"Evil is man created," says Ernest Holmes in The Science of Mind (p. 499). He goes on to explain "God - the eternal goodness - knows nothing about it. He is too pure to behold evil and cannot look upon it. Evil is the direct and suppositional opposite to good, and has no reality behind it, or actual law to come to its support." This is the standard explanation, and is pretty much the same thing you'd hear from a Christian Scientist or, for that matter, a Swedenborgian. God is only goodness, so anything that we might interpret as evil is created by us, and is, in fact, an illusion. This seems an adequate response, but I always want to ask, "Yes but why? Why do we have to suffer these delusions? If God is Good and wants only happiness for us why has he allowed us to create these phantoms of unhappiness?" The response to this is that we have been afforded free will - that free will is, in fact, the one essential aspect of our being as humans, the thing with which God has gifted us. This is an idea which derives clearly from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. We are free to choose at any moment between good and evil. Interestingly, this same notion of free will is essential to most Buddhist thinking - that conditions, circumstances and karma are all very real, but equally real is that moment of volition when we can choose between a wise or a foolish action.
It is interesting to note, as well, that in this passage Holmes seems to be anthropomorphising God, something strictly frowned upon in New Thought theology. This turn of phrase is undoubtedly reflexive, but it betrays an older way of thinking about God, creation and the problem of evil. God in this description is definitely a pure deity, one who knows only good, and cannot see imperfection. But to my mind it begs the question - because it is unseen, does it mean it doesn't exist? In the rest of his writing (and in New Thought in general) Holmes absolutely rejects a dualistic vision of the universe as divided between good and evil. The problem is always in human perception, in our own misunderstanding of circumstances. In an essay on The Impersonal Face of God, Holmes writes:

"We are not dealing with a negative as well as a positive Power—not two powers but one; a power that sees neither good nor evil as we see it. It knows only that it is all, and since it is all, it creates whatever is given it. From our limited standpoint we often think of good and evil; not realizing that, as yet, we do not know the one from the other. What we call good today, we may call evil tomorrow, and what we think to be evil today, we may tomorrow proclaim as the greatest good we have known. Not so with the Great Universal Power of Mind; It sees only Itself and Its infinite ability to create."

To further refine his explanation in The Science of Mind, Holmes goes on to make a distinction between God, which is all good, and Universal Law, which is objective and unchangeable. "The law is no respecter of persons and will bring good or evil to any, according to his use or misuse of it" (SOM, p. 500). So God is the source of all good, but his agency is the action of Universal Law. It is the duty of the human to work with these immutable laws and fall into harmony with them - thus bringing ourselves the promised perfection.
So serious is this question of evil (and, probably, so recurrent were the questions surrounding it) that Holmes devotes a whole section of The Science of Mind to it. Here he underlines the notion of evil as an unwise use of life's laws and conditions. It is nothing in and of itself - it is a fiction. It is the word we use to describe a whole host of results, the causes of which are mysterious to us. Evil is a destructive meme, and the student of Religious Science can leave the concept behind forever. "To turn from evil and do good is the desire of every soul who is consecrated to the Truth; this we can do only as we cease talking about, believing in, or doing evil."

Maggie Hamilton - An Introduction

2010-11-11T03:41:00.001-08:00

One very important element of self-help writing that I will be exploring in my thesis is the influence of what is commonly known as the "New Age." Anyone who has had anything to do with books in the last 20 years will know that this segment of the publishing industry has had an explosion in popularity. Though this popularity has died down somewhat, it is still a very important section of the market, and most publishers have an imprint (or two) devoted especially to New Age titles.
Indeed, at some point in the 80s the literature of self-help and the New Age became blended in the minds of publishers, retailers and book buyers, and these days the distinctions between them are hard to define.
The central author I'll be concentrating on in my chapter on the New Age is Maggie Hamilton. Now, in the spirit of full disclosure I must mention that Maggie is not only a personal friend, but also my publisher. This leaves me in the unenviable position of analysing closely and critiquing the work of a friend! But the thrust of my thesis is not to in any way tear down or dismiss the genre of self-help. On the contrary, the fundamental idea of my thesis is that these books represent important cultural artefacts, and document a popular literary history of Australia. Nonetheless, I am reading them closely for patterns and intertextuality, for derivations and similarities - no author could be comfortable with that kind of analysis!
Like that other great icon of Australian self-help, Stephanie Dowrick, Maggie emerged from the publishing industry. They also both hark from New Zealand, which is another fascinating coincidence - and quite possibly material for an entire journal article. But I digress.
Having achieved some success as a children's author, Maggie published her first book spiritual self-help book, Coming Home, in 2002. Very much a book of its time, it combined a whole host of spiritual influences in describing a spiritual journey "Home" to the soul. Elegantly written and beautifully produced in its first edition (complete with Pre-Raphaelite detail on the cover), Coming Home represented the fruits of Maggie's own spiritual journey, with Shamanic, Spiritualist and New Age Christian ideas peppered throughout.
Maggie later branched out into a more practical (and to some, more accessible) format of writing books of more specifically focused (and less overtly spiritual) advice. The first was Love Your Work in 2004, followed by What Men Don't Talk About in 2007. This excursion into the problems of gender prompted Maggie to continue to tease out these questions, and she has produced two highly successful books specifically addressing the problems of parenting: What's Happening to Our Girls (2008) and What's Happening to Our Boys (2010). In the interim she has also continued to write in the areas of spirituality and self-help, producing a small book of inspirations in 2004, Magic of the Moment, and a wonderfully eclectic and wide-ranging collection of essays and encounters with the sacred, A Soft Place to Land (2007).
Importantly, Maggie's influence on the world of New Age publishing continues behind the scenes. She is the director of the New Age imprint at Allen & Unwin, Inspired Living, and in that capacity has published a number of important Australian books in the area.
She also excels as a speaker and teacher, and is much sought after in that capacity.
I look forward to reading her books more carefully as I attempt to identify their influences and place them more exactly on the continuum of self-help literature in Australia. The breadth of her influences and the widespread success of her work make her a perfect case study for my thesis.

That's Just How My Spirit Travels

2010-11-10T00:48:00.000-08:00

At first Rosemary Fillmore Rhea's book That's Just How My Spirit Travels seems a peculiar kind of memoir. Hers is not a big name in any area (except, perhaps, within the management of the Unity church), and her life has not been one of any dramatic peaks and troughs. But after a while the book begins to charm and eventually the reader is left utterly absorbed in the life and spiritual vision of someone with a truly unique insight into a modern American spiritual movement which, though small and relatively unknown, has had an immense influence on Western culture.
Rhea is the grandaughter of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, co-founders of the Unity church, the largest organised religious movement based on the teachings of New Thought. She was, naturally, born into the movement, and so this memoir is a fascinating insight into the life and ideas of someone who from the cradle has been taught the precepts of New Thought: that the world is perfect, that our thoughts create our circumstances, and that God is within us.
That's Just How My Spirit Travels has some wonderful stories about the Fillmores and the early days of Unity (the church is based in its own mini-town on the outskirts of Kansas City called Unity Village). Rhea recalls entertaining in her living room (she was married to a Unity Minister, and became one herself, eventually) extraordinary people such as Alan Watts, Victor Frankl and Norman Vincent Peale. The celebrity spotting doesn' stop there. Rhea and her husband branched out into television in the seventies, and this saw them moving into a more elevated world of showbiz, and soon we meet people like Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood and (my personal favourite) Jennifer Jones. The short segments that they filmed with fading movie stars and other celebrities were broadcast across America as 'The Word from Unity' (based on Unity Church's venerable inspirational monthly almanac The Daily Word), and these short spots have since moved into the realms of nostalgic reverence, their style lampooned most famously by "The Church Lady" on Saturday Night Live.
She is suprprisingly honest in her assessment, not only of the spiritual empire built up around her family, but of the difficulties and challenges an advocate of New Thought faces in dealing with life's less-than-pleasing complexities. Herself a divorcee who lost her mother as a child, occasionally she expresses the frustration with this essential conflict between the reality of loss and the rigid worldview of New Thought that doesn't allow for disappointment. Rhea attempts to explain it by saying (in this case in relation to the death of Natalie Wood) "Why people have to experience such tragedy is inexplicable, but there must be reasons that only our soul knows and perhaps at some point in time we will understand why every experience is a necessary part of our journey" (186). It is a brave and eloquent explanation, but I fear it wouldn't cut the mustard with the Dawkins-inspired neo-atheists who currently hold the hegemonic upper hand in present-day discourse.
Like most advocates of New Thought, Rhea's own politics veer toward the liberal and she is an enthusiast for international friendship groups and such like, as practical ways of establishing relationships between different cultures. She is also a staunch supporter of non-violence, tracing back the roots of discord to our own mental unrest, and crediting her grandfather with bringing this fact to the attention of the world.
Using the example of her own humble life, imperfectly lived, Rhea seeks in her memoir to establish some kind example of how New Thought philosophy might play out through the period of a lifetime. She sees a continuum between the radical religious ideas of Tolstoy, the practical spiritual philosophy of her grandparents and the more radical and political path of Gandhi and the later generations of 1960s America. For Rhea violence manifest in the world is, in the ultimate analysis, "Violence against our inner self" (228). She is at pains to acknowledge the real presence of anger and social injustice in our world, but her philosophy encourages her to see an end to this imperfection, and to dwell on practically solving their problems rather than dwelling on the fact of injustice.
That's Just How My Spirit Travels is a charming and old-fashioned read. You can download the two episodes of 'Hooked on Classics' from Unity FM to hear Rosemary Fillmore Rhea herself interviewed. In many ways she is the last of her kind - a living and very involved link to the great blossoming of New Thought that reaches back into the mid-nineteenth century. For the student of modern religion it is a fascinating book, and on a personal level I came away quite in love with this honest and unpretentious woman who has, despite appearances, led a truly extraordinary life.

The Science of Mind on Strange Ideas

2010-11-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

"We are not to be afraid of strange ideas or doctrines, but are to prove them and accept only that which is true. We are to analyze, dissect and investigate until we know the Truth and then hold fast to It. In this way, all advances must come, whether in science, philosophy, religion or anything else."
~ Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind, p. 498

Heaven in The Science of Mind

2010-11-05T21:46:00.000-07:00

The New Thought idea of heaven represents quite a departure from the standard Swedenborgian visions which initially inspired the movement. By the time Holmes was writing The Science of Mind, the vision of heaven being enunciated was a distinctly Buddhistic one, described more as a state of mind and being than as an actual place.
Holmes writes that "Only that can return to heaven which was born in heaven, and since heaven is not a place, but a state of consciousness, the return must be a recognition that heaven is already within" (SOM p. 472). This is a further illustration of Holmes' central idea (via Mary Baker Eddy and a host of New Thought writers) that the process of self-improvement is not one of seeking outward advances, but of returning to an already existing state of perfection. Holmes criticises orthodox religion because it most often externalises the spiritual quest. In Holmes' philosophy all of the things that people have considered to be outside them - God, Heaven, even Christ - are in fact already in place in our spirit. We have forgotten that we are simply expressions of these qualities, and so we foolishly pursue an outward quest to discover something we are in fact carrying with us constantly. More than being a place on earth, heaven is our own mind, if we will allow it to re-unite with Original Mind.
Holmes says that we are unaware of these truths because centuries of conditioning have rendered us incapable of comprehending the true spiritual message of Christianity. It is only in this modern age, when our world is advancing and our minds improving, that teachers like Holmes and others are able to finally explain the truth. Those who refuse to believe are simply emulating the thick-headed listeners spoken about in John3:12 "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" We struggle with the ideas of illusion, when we could be falling into accord with the realities of heaven.
For Holmes the world that is real - the world we know now - is in fact the illusion. It is maya, and it is merely a distraction. But if the ways of the world hurt us, if we know sorrow and difficulty, this may be a good thing. Such sufferings may be what inspire us to begin on the spiritual path. Many of us are doomed to learn to the fullest extent the impossibility of a worldly outlook, but hopefully once we see the futility of materialism, "the lesson will be learned and we shall enter the paradise of contentment" (SOM p. 491).
Like all other Biblical concepts and imagery, heaven is for the most part a symbol for Holmes. It is the code word for all that is good, and all that which is most spiritual. "The time will come when we will let our "conversation be in heaven," and refuse to talk about, read or think about, those things that ought not to be" (SOM p. 55), says Holmes, describing one of New Thought's more controversial edicts: avoiding and denying those things which aren't in accord with perfection. The heavenly state is one in which positive thought, feeling and action are constantly at work. The metaphysician (for so Holmes describes the student of New Thought) must choose always the heavenly path, and to dwell always in heavenly qualities, though the truth around her may be quite different. It is Holmes' point that this "truth" of suffering, of lack and discontent, is in fact truly false. That which is not good is error - only the good is heavenly.
In fact, the effort to improve, to become a truly good person, is itself a daily struggle, a daily spiritual journey from the earthly to the heavenly. In his 1957 book How to Change Your Life, Holmes wrote that "...being lifted up from the earth means uniting with heaven. This daily lifting up of your thought is necessary if you wish to unite yourself and everything you are doing with the Divine..." (p. 252). Holmes seems to be suggesting that in manipulating our thoughts and the direction and intention of our daily tasks, we re-orient ourselves heavenward, and can be immersed once again in the divine perfection from which we emerged.

The Wizard of Oz as a New Thought Text

2010-10-26T15:26:00.000-07:00

The Wizard of Oz is one of those books so rich in symbolic possibility that it has been claimed for many a cause. For years it was read as a kind of political/economic commentary, based on a very clever and convinving essay by Henry Littlefield in 1964. Though this essay evinces a rich imagination and a nice grasp of symbolic possibility (hence the popularity and longevity of its proposals), most agree that it is a bit wide of the mark. There is no evidence to suggest that L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz, was in any way interested in politics or economics. What he was interested in was the new religious movements that were becoming quite popular and influential at the time he was writing. Specifically, Baum was deeply influenced by Theosophy and New Thought, and it was these ideas that were being represented in his wonderful books for children.

I have been reading the book (for the first time) with New Thought philosophy in mind, and the parallels seem obvious, though of course I could be accused of reading meaning into a simple story. But to me The Wizard of Oz is an obvious parable about human potential, the realisation of innate perfection, and persistence in the journey towards success.

The harmless munchkins are, in fact, the ultimate negative thinkers. Their small stature is illustrative of their small minds. They see danger all around them, and have hemmed themselves into a world dominated by a wicked witch. When Dorothy arrives to save them they are grateful, but they still attempt to dissuade her from pursuing her own dreams - they find it impossible to conceive of personal transcendence. In the north, south, east and west they see nothing but danger, and the idea of ever reaching the Emerald City is almost an impossibility. The munchkins represent the great bulk of the population who, according to New Thought philosophy, choose to restrict themselves to a cramped existence and live constantly in fear.

The Emerald City is, of course, the great possibility. In fact, the City is really God. It is all goodness and all perfection, and looms distant in our horizons. There is a clear path to this City, but most choose not to travel it. In fact, they trust the care of this City to the Wizard, who is ultimately exposed as a simple mortal like all of us. He lives within the City, but so can we all. The great City is Emerald, and this is just one example of the great deal of description of colour in the book, which points towards Baum's interest in colour and its symbolic meanings. This kind of thing was very popular in Theosophical circles, and someone better versed in this lore would be able to read much more into Baum's use of colour than I can.

Each of Dorothy's travelling companions is missing an important quality, but of course we soon realise that these limitations are all in their heads. The Tin Woodman who has no heart is emotional, gentle and compassionate, the Scarecrow with no brain is resourceful and clever and is the one to come up with all of the solutions, and the Cowardly Lion is brave and self-sacrificing, constantly coming to the aid of others. These creatures illustrate the self-imposed negative beliefs we all carry about ourselves. Our limitations are self-imposed, and often we are the exemplars of the very qualities we crave. All we need to do is realise it - but of course, we don't, and we imagine that any gains can only be made by difficult journeys to mythical lands and consultation with people we imagine to be much greater and wiser than ourselves. This is all basic New Thought philosophy rendered beautifully and simply in Baum's fable.

The Yellow Brick Road obviously represents the path toward our ultimate goal: that of goodness, perfection; of God. This journey toward the Emerald City is not an easy one - we travel through dark forests and are swept away by wild rivers. But Baum's message is that we must never despair at these diversions - they are to be enjoyed and cherished as part of our story. Not too much, though, as the field of dangerously seductive poppies proves - the path of sensuality is an easy and terrible trap, and we must keep our focus on getting back to the Yellow Brick Road.

Each of the characters represents an element of the human struggle - even Toto who is, according to the Theosophists, representative of a more primitive instinctual knowledge. Baum's characters were representative of the great human spirit and the will to progress. Dorothy's longing to return home is representative of a universal human longing to be united with God, to return to our spiritual birthplace. Our quest to find the City is ultimately a desire to return to ourselves.

It's a beautiful, lyrical little book, and with its great potential for deeper understandings it's no wonder it has become one of the great classics of children's literature, and its imagery entered into the popular imagination. I encourage you to read it for yourself (it is only a short book, and there are some really beautiful versions of it around) and see if you can arrive at some of your own meanings.

Eric Butterworth - Discover the Power Within You

2010-10-25T14:06:00.001-07:00

Eric Butterworth was one of the most influential New Thought preachers of the mid-twentieth century, as well as being a prolific author. His influence on the Unity movement was enormous, and continues to the present day. Unity FM has just started a whole radio show devoted entirely to the teachings of Butterworth, and recently the 'Hooked on Classics' book club on that same station studied his 1968 classic Discover the Power Within You.
It is actually quite an impressive work, a carefully laid-out view of New Thought spirituality, especially the central notion that "You ask for success by getting into the consciousness of success" (p.114). Butterworth was obviously a great scholar, and his writing is based on an easy grasp of literature and religion. Despite its corny title, this is actually quite an erudite work, and its argument quite compelling.
Butterworth excels at putting some pretty difficult New Thought notions into plain language, evincing a grasp of aphorism and folksy philosophy that is a very old part of American literary culture. The book is intended as a practical guide, and so encourages people to apply their spiritual views to their daily lives. Reading the book one is constantly discovering areas in which the author seems to be speaking directly to us. I am also conscious that he is enunciating New Thought philosophies that date back to Mary Baker Eddy, though with far more accessible language. For example:

"When we realize that evil is simply the concealment of good, then any person who is unloving, vicious, or unjust is actually a person who is good but doesn't know it. In a very real way, we can change him - at least as far as we are concerned. We can see him with the "single eye" that relates only to the good and the true" (p. 124).

This is basic Christian Science thinking - that there is only goodness in God's creation, and that all of us, being a part of this creation, must at heart be good. The error is in the seeing; we choose to see bad. It is a challenging philosophy, and one difficult to apply, but I think Butterworth describes quite a noble effort in this passage.

One of the constant criticisms I hear about self-help books is that they pander to the selfish side of humanity, that they encourage materialism and tacky consumerist desires. This frustrates me because any careful reading of almost any self-help book exposes a constant injunction to develop the spiritual above all other attributes, and to see growth in metaphysical rather than materialist terms. It is a point that Butterworth himself drives home over and over again: "Success cannot be measured by what you have amassed" (p.131). This is, above all, a devotional work, a book that is about the development of a complete spiritual worldview, the growth of a soul. As such it illustrates perfectly one of the central points of my thesis, that self-help books are in fact quasi-religious texts that offer practical moral teachings and metaphysical worldviews.

The author has sought with this book to describe a practical, progressive and positively-focused Christianity. There is a surprising amount of theology in the book, much of it of a decidedly Girardian flavour. I know that would shock my academic friends, but I stand by my assessment. Butterworth's book is a lyrical, complex and deeply thoughtful text which challenges the authority of mainstream Christianity, as well as the easy laziness of reflexive individualism and the unexamined life.

40 Day Mind Fast Soul Feast

2010-10-09T00:13:00.000-07:00

The almanac and the devotional day-book are key ancestors of self-help books, and their continued existence in the 21st century interests me greatly.
Since the birth of printing people have been able to get religious day-books intended to help with prayer and contemplation. A quote from scripture was provided for each day of the year, and the book served as a spiritual companion for the literate person who may not have had access to a full version of the Bible.
Almanacs had evolved in China, where they were (and still are) cheaply printed and produced daily guidebooks showing the phases of the moon, the astrological significance of the day (including what is and isn't lucky for that day) and snatches of poetry and philosophy.
At some point in the West the two types of book combined, and almanacs became filled with pious injuctions and pieces of folk-wisdom, along with recommendations for farming and housekeeping. Almanacs became popular in Elizabethan times, and they really took off later in America, the most famous being produced, of course, by one Mr. Benjamin Franklin.
My own grandmother was a great fan of day-books, and throughout my childhood she used Francis Gay's Friendship Book. I was always fascinated by the quote of the day, and many of them have stayed with me. I fancied myself a deep thinker as a child.
In recent years the devotional/inspirational/self-development day-book has experienced something of a resurgence, thanks in part to the output of Hay House, Louise Hay's new-age publishing company. They have breathed new life into this quaint form by producing colourful and attractive (and eminently saleable) hardcover day-books featuring the words of their most popular authors.
I have recently completed Michael Bernard Beckwith's perpetual day-book 40 Day Mind Fast Soul Feast. As the title would suggest, the book covers a 40-day period. Naturally the siginificance of the 40 days is obvious to anyone from a Christian background, and the book was obviously concieved as a kind of lenten guide, though Beckwith is not coming from any kind of conventional Christian perspective.
The book is posited as a practical guide to spiritual living, a guide to "how to arrive at profound inner fulfillment." This is quite a claim, but it is exactly the sort of claim that most self-help books make. The claim promises to turn reading from an act of education, enjoyment or distraction into something altogether more metaphysical: reading as enlightenment.
Michael Bernard Beckwith would be familiar to many as one of the most popular faces in Rhonda Byrne's film The Secret. He is the head of the hugely popular Agape church in California, and is one of the superstars of 21st Century New Thought Christianity. He teaches a supremeley palatable philosophy of positive thinking, easy-going spirituality and inclusive, progressive Christianity. His worship style draws on the great traditions of African-American church worship, with high-energy oratory and incredible music (provided by his equally brilliant wife, Rickie Byars Beckwith). And while his preaching style is steeped in the traditions of African-American oratory, the Agape community itself is multi-racial, creating quite a new vibe in American worship.
Each day this book provides a central idea to contemplate, followed by a brief exegesis by the Rev. Beckwith. Themes include: "Service, Not Servitude", "Birthless, Deathless Eternality" and "Spiritual Loyalty." Each day is opened with a quote gleaned from spiritual classics East and West, and closes with a brief affirmation to work with that day. Beckwith's texts are strongly and conventionally New Thought in content and expression, and some of it would be bewildering to a reader not familiar with the tradition and its philosophy. The intent of the book is clearly to fire the reader up to do good each day, and to excel at personal development. Its purpose is strongly motivational, and as such it serves as an interesting example of book as spiritual technology. This is a book not simply meant to be read - it is meant to be used as inspiration for a life better lived. It prescribes techniques, thoughts and concepts to help the reader live each day in a more spiritual (and more happy) state of mind.
Beautifully packaged as a small, sturdy hardcover, it is interestingly free of the floral flourishes that distinguish the Hay House efforts in this same genre. In fact, the brown wash of the cover design would indicate to me that the book is intentionally aimed at a male as well as a female readership - a reasonable rarity when it comes to modern self-help books.

Etiquette Books

2010-10-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

The second chapter of my thesis is on etiquette books.
I've long been obsessed with etiquette books. As a child I would regularly borrow an enormous pink edition of Miss Manners from my local library, fascinated by the almost mythical moral quandaries it discussed. It was as removed from my world as any science fiction book, and I became lost in its social possibilities. Later I discovered the Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette, and was instantly absorbed in its extraordinarily demanding universe of correct stationery and forms of address. The only stationery we had in our house was a large ruled writing pad from Woolworth's, but that didn't stop me dreaming of engraved calling cards!
So where do etiquette books fit in to my thesis? Well, chronologically they are a good fit with New Thought books - though in reality etiquette and conduct manuals were being printed long before New Thought was even imagined. My suggestion is that etiquette books describe a sense of longing, and also a kind of narrative about class and aspiration. The thrust of the books is every bit as metaphysical as the much more overtly religious New Thought texts.
Etiquette books claim to provide a kind of blueprint to a better life through a minutely codified way of being, and a stark insistence on the improving benefits of a carefully lived civility. Manners and courtesies are the things we cling to in an effort to convince ourselves that there is some kind of superior state of being in this world - they prove (we hope) that we are more than animals. In a settler society like Australia's, etiquette manuals take on an extra element of urgency, describing poignantly a barely-possible world of balls and suppers and lawn parties. The Australian was struggling with an identity crisis as early as the 1850s, and etiquette books were already emerging in this period telling the anxcious social climber exactly how she (and it was invariably a "she" being addressed) should be behaving.
I am mainly relying on a massive 1950s tome called Woman's World, because it is a reliably camp extoller of cliched ideas of refinement. I am contrasting it with Marion Von Adlerstein's infinitely more sophisticated (and more subtly anxious) Penguin Book of Etiquette, published in Australia in 2002.
The chapter is meant to be finished with already, but I am still struggling along with it - I have promised myself it will be done by Wednesday.
Until then, I spend all day every day lost in a fantasy world of perfect manners and the adequate terms of address for a Governer-General's soiree.

How To Win Friends and Influence People

2010-09-21T04:50:00.000-07:00

For many (me included), How To Win Friends and Influence People is the archetypal self-help book. Whenever people ask me what I mean by self-help (and I am constantly surprised by how few people have a clear understanding of what a self-help book is) I mention this book and they understand instantly where I'm coming from.
The elements that make the book a quintessential example of the self-help genre include:

It is filled with potted biographies telling of how people have changed their lives and succeeded
The author is incredibly self-referential - many of the success stories stem from people who have won out in life through taking Dale Carnegie's own courses
It promises something enormous and quite intangible - let's face it, 'influencing people' is a pretty grand and indefinable claim
It attempts to cover many different aspects of life experience - work, marriage, conversation, friendship, social life - all are addressed by Mr. Carnegie, and solutions for improving them all are offered

First published in 1937, How To Win Friends... has been a perpetual bestseller almost ever since. There are various updated versions around, but these are almost more dated than the original, with their clumsy references to new-fangled things like VCRs. I prefer the good old fashioned original, complete with its occasional lapses into sexism and racism.
Carnegie was also one of the earliest examples of that peculiar self-help phenomenon - the person who becomes rich and famous through telling others how to get rich and famous. He had begun life in humble circumstances, and started his career as a self-improvement guru by teaching courses in public speaking at the YMCA.
Once his book had rocketed him to fame he established his own training institute, which still exists today, training businessmen in the quaint 1930s manners and courtesies which must be even rarer now than when Carnegie first started out.
Some have accused the book of being Machiavellian, encouraging people to manipulate others by cultivating reactions and responses intended to please and, ultimately, influence. Carnegie's methods have also been hailed as an early form of NLP, exhibiting a sophisticated understanding of human psychology - and frailty.
The most famous injunction form the book is to always be "hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise." Carnegie contends that we gain more influence and regard by praising and encouraging than criticising and fault-finding. But he always stresses that any such praise should be based in genuine feeling, because "Flattery is counterfeit, and like counterfeit money, it will eventually get you into trouble if you try to pass it on."
And from all the accusations of cynical manipulation of the feelings of others, I feel I must defend Carnegie. What he is really encouraging is that we should all take a genuine interest in the stories and ideas of others. He is talking about the cultivation of a more open mind, and championing the art of interested listening. Yes, he says that such an interest in others will bring with it social rewards, but it may also bring about an improvement in character and learning in the practitioner.
In many ways it is a more conversational, and more detailed, examination of the hierarchical structures in which we all live, the systems of power that had been mapped out more conventionally (and less interestingly) in the etiquette books of the 19th century. Carnegie, a smart man of humble birth, had worked out that a species of power lay in acknowledging and feeding the power fantasies of others. Indeed, the whole book could be read as a Foucauldian exercise in rallying opower to the cause of one's own social advancement.
Carnegie was a gifted and charming writer, and even now the book is a very easy read, filled with nuggets of folk wisdom and constant references to the life lessons to be gleaned from notable figures in history.
15 million people have read How To Win Friends.. since its release, and it is almost certainly the most influential self-help book ever published.

The Infinite Way

2010-09-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

The Infinite Way is one of the great classics of self-help literature - indeed, it is one of the books on the 'Timeline of Self-Help Writing' that I put together for my thesis.
Based largely on the teachings of Christian Science, it is a slender book, quite poetic in its content and deeply mystical. Though not a formal exponent of Christian Science, Joel Goldsmith was influential in Christian Science circles. His works were great favourites of Doris Day, who said she went to bed every evening listening to audio recordings of Goldsmith's lectures. But in rejecting the formal affiliation with the church, Goldsmith places this, his most famous and enduring work, in the canon of New Thought, and it's is still read and enthusiastically recommended by serious students of New Thought.
Though short, it is reasonably dense, and is really meant to be read slowly and reflectively. Indeed, since its publication groups have sprung up devoted to the reading and study of the book, establishing around Goldsmith a quasi-religious structure. Such groups were active in Sydney well into the 1990s, though I'm not aware that there are any still going.
The central message of the book is the basic Christian Science doctrine that we are merely expressions of God, and therefore perfect. Goldsmith tells us that God's reality is all-good, and so the only truth is in abundance, health, happiness and prosperity. The only truth is God, expressed in many different ways. "God, Consciousness is forever expressing Itself and Its qualities. Consciousness, Life, Spirit, can never fail. Our task is to learn to relax and let our Soul express itself" (38).
The book is really an extended meditation in that same style - there is little that is practical here, for Goldsmith returns again and again to his central theme: we need only awaken to God, who is already in us. It is a devotional text rather than an instructive text. And as such it frequently transports the reader with great gusts of hope, and with a carefully constructed mystical longing. This is Goldsmith's power as a writer - he can make his particular philosophy, singular as it may be, distinctly beguiling.
"We must begin our days with the inner reminder of our true identity. We must identify ourselves as Spirit, as Principle, as the law of Life unto our affairs. It is a very necessary thing to remember that we have no needs: We are infinite, individual, spiritual consciousness embodying within ourselves the infinity of good..." (80). The Infinite Way (Goldsmith's first book), then, serves as a textual way to remind us of this heavenly identity. There is much of Swedenborg in this, as of course there is in the work of Mary Baker Eddy.
There is some discussion of healing in the book, and it seemed as though healing was a central part of Goldsmith's lectures, but he tends not to be too specific in The Infinite Way. The book takes an extreme position: there is no illness, and all healing is but the return to the promised spiritual state of perfection.
Goldsmith was a prolific author, and many of his books remain in print. The Infinite Way remains his greatest achievement, however, and is an absolutely intriguing exercise in New Thought absolutism.

Ask Yourself This - Wendy Craig-Purcell

2010-09-07T04:13:00.000-07:00

Ond of the podcasts I listen to religiously is Unity FM's Hooked on Classics. It is a weekly book club that examines books by and about the Unity Church and New Thought. From the point of view of my thesis writing it is a valuable process, because it really examines New Thought ideas in depth, and from a number of different perspectives. On a personal level, I enjoy the whole process of reading a book very closely over a couple of months and hearing it analysed week-by-week. I've always wanted to be in a book group, but my insane schedule doesn't allow for it. This is the perfect compromise.

One of the books recently studied was Wendy Craig-Purcell's Ask Yourself This. Craig-Purcell is a Unity Minister, and spoke about her own book on several of the shows. Needless to say I found this a prticularly fascinating exercise, a kind of anti-Barthesian commentary that actually says a lot about self-help writing and it's excessive intertextuality and self-referencing.

The premise of the book is that it represents a series of personal questions that the reader should ask herself. These questions are challenging and are meant, naturally, to facilitate personal and spiritual growth. As well as exploring the questions at length in print, the reader is also asked to meditate on each question and to journal on the reflections, thereby deepening the impact of the reading process.

The questions are not particuarly innovative or unusual, but they are broad enough to be quite challenging to answer, and spending time in wondering about them causes any number of additional questions to be formed in the mind of the engaged reader. Questions include such things as:

"What am I looking for?
Who am I trying to change?
If I knew I would be successful, what would I be saying "yes" to?"

The final chapter of the book is a peculiar diversion into the area of home schooling, something about which the author is passionate. Home schooling is a hot topic in America, and Craig-Purcell is keen to explore it as a religious person who is neither conservative nor fundamentalist. I must say that this section seems to sit awkwardly with the rest of the book, however, and for this reader at least added nothing to the process being explored. And certainly in Australia, where home schooling is a non-issue, this whole bit can profitably be ignored, and the book be wound up at the end of chapter 7.

Ask Yourself This is interesting because it is not a practical self-help book. Published by Unity House, the Unity School of Christianity's own publishing arm, the book is decidedly spiritual in bent, and the questions are intended to inspire prayer and reflection rather than specific action. This leaves the whole process of reading the book and folllowing its suggestions a much more open-ended process, and one I think would be quite attractive to many readers, particularly if they are of a more mystical bent.

I enjoyed the book, and interestingly I read most of it while I was on retreat at a Benedictine monastery, and it was the perfect companion on such an occasion. Slim and easy-to-read, Ask Yourself This is an excellent primer in New Thought and a nifty text for helping the reader to explore some of the more challenging (and more grandly focused) spiritual niches of the mind.

Emma Curtis Hopkins

2010-08-31T15:57:00.000-07:00

Probably the most famous obscurity in the history of self-help literature, Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849-1925) is known as "the teacher of teachers" and was responsible for the training of many of the stellar figures in the New Thought movement.

A quiet, reclusive wopman, Hopkins had for a time been Mary Baker Eddy's right-hand woman. Eddy banished her, however, when Hopkins made it clear that she would not become a mindless devotee. Never one to brook opposition, Mrs. Eddy became furious when she learned that Hopkins was devising some of her own ideas, and so caused the division which would help shape a whole new movement (New Thought) and probably, ulitimately, guaranteed the eventual obscurity and decline of Christian Science.

While she always propagated the general ideas of Christian Science, Emma Curtis Hopkins was much more committed to ideas of personal choice and individual free will, and lacked Eddy's famously dogmatic personality. Travelling from city to city, Hopkins would set up shop in a genteel hotel and set about teaching lessons in 'Christian Healing' to select groups of students. In this quiet way she lived out her life, earning a living from teaching her lessons and spending much of her time alone and in prayer.

Painfully shy, Hopkins (who had left her husband years ago in order to follow Mary Baker Eddy) spent most of her time her room, occasionally releasing a book. These books were extraordinarily dense and difficult to read (inspired, most probably, by the style of her great mentor), but their subject matter continues to influence the content and ideas of self-help, though most authors are completely unaware of it. Though gentle and retiring, she must have been possessed of a great charisma, because she taught and inspired people like Charles & Myrtle Fillmore, Nona Brooks and, right at the end of her life, Ernest Holmes.

Her own books are really exercises in theology, and barely fit the mould of self-help at all. They explore biblical stories and the sayings of Jesus in-depth, in a manner obviously inspired by Eddy. Because of the radical nature of her views and the popular manner of their propagation, she is yet to be recognised as a theologian, though I would suggest she is, perhaps one of the greatest and most influential biblical scholars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her continued obscurity is testament to the shameful gap in knowledge about New Thought and its importance on the behalf of most historians and scholars of religion. This obscurity was, however, addressed brilliantly by Gail M. Harley in her scholarly 2002 biography of "The Forgotten Founder of New Thought."

Hopkins was as well a committed 'womanist', a proto-feminist whose inspiration and ideas helped shape the New Thought movement into the female-dominated domain it was and is.

Norman Vincent Peale

2010-08-31T01:29:00.001-07:00

One of the giants of self-help writing is Norman Vincent Peale. He almost single-handedly defined the genre in the 1950s and 60s, starting off with his monumental bestseller The Power of Positive Thinking, and he established for decades a particular style of self-help writing, a style which is still being emulated today.

I have written before of the overt religiosity of Peale's writing, and his radical re-casting of Christianity as a positive aid to lifestyle and success both captured the zeitgeist of mid-20th century America and helped, in part, to shape it. The stolid Protestant friendliness of Peale's utterances, coupled as they were with just the right degree of acknowledgement of science and medicine, set the minds of a generation at ease. His great genius of expression inspired other writers, most notably the Catholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, who sought to do with Catholicism what Peale had done with mainline Protestantism. In Australia Peale's style was copied by the Presbyterian clergyman Gordon Powell.

Peale sought to reconcile Christianity with psychiatry, something M. Scott Peck managed so successfully a generation later with The Road Less Travelled. Peale established the American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry right next door to his church, and from here he attempted a kind of Christian psychotherapy, employing professionals from both camps. It would seem that counselling was his great passion, and his books are filled with case studies of people he had counselled. He seemed inordinately proud of the new hybrid he had created. Of course, this movement seems these days to have come to nothing and at the very most Christian-tinged counselling and psychology has acquired a dubious name, associated as it has become with the extreme right-wing fringe of Christianity, and the mental and spiritual abuse of young women and gay people.

Peale, I think, would have been shocked by the state of things now. He was most certainly not a fundamentalist, and saw himself as a part of the great tradition of American liberal Protestantism. Though the language of his books is almost shocking to a contemporary secular audience, it's worth keeping in mind that his reading of the Bible and his theological understanding was distinctly progressive. Though he claimed all his life to be a conventional Protestant clergyman, and was lionised by people like Billy Graham and Ronald Reagan, he was deeply influenced by the ideas of New Thought, and was for a time a student of Ernest Holmes.
Like most successful self-help writers, he diversified into other forms of media, and was particularly successful on radio, where his program 'The Art of Living' ran for 54 years. He was also one of the first to produce audio versions of his books, and you can still buy recordings of him reading The Power of Positive Thinking.

These days Peale is deeply unfashionable, though his books remain in print. It is hard to imagine that his worldview, as unashamedly religious as it was, will ever again be mainstream.

The Law of Attraction

2010-08-25T00:21:00.001-07:00

Probably one of the most vilified tenets of self-help philosophy is the concept of The Law of Attraction. This "Law" has achieved a significant amount of cultural currency in recent years due to The Secret - basically, the Law of Attraction WAS The Secret (sorry if that's a bit of a plot spoiler!), and many millions of people encountered the idea for the first time there.
But it is a mistake to think it is a recent invention. Rhonda Byrne herself freely admits that she came across the idea of LOA while reading the works of Wallace Wattles, books published around the turn of the 20th century. The idea in its recognisable form can probably be dated back to Charles and Myrtle Fillmore and the Unity School of Christianity in the closing decades of the nineteenth century.
What is the Law of Attraction? Simply put, it is the idea that whatever you think about, you attract. As the Buddha used to say in the opening credits of Monkey, "With our thoughts, we create the world."
This idea goes well beyond the pioneers of New Thought, of course. This kind of "mind only" philosophy has a long history in Buddhism and, before that, Advaita Vedanta schools of Hinduism. I think the real difference between these Eastern and Western forms is where the emphasis lies. For the most part, this realisation in Hinduism and Buddhism is meant to lead the seeker to try and transcend this world, realising that ultimately nothing is real, and all is meaningless, a creation of our desire. Law of Attraction as it has manifested in popular American thought has been directed in a thoroughly more worldly manner: since we're creating our world, how about we create a really nice one.
Nothing wrong with that, of course. Indeed, many of the spiritual practices of Mahayana Buddhism involve just this process, visualising the jewelled Buddha lands and the extraordinary treasures of various divine realms. The Law of Attraction enthusiasts are, if anything, a shade more honest than most of their consumerist counterparts, by recognising that they want nice things in their world, and seeking to create these things at a metaphysical level. Whether or not you believe this is possible is a whole other question, and one in which I do not engage.
What I do find interesting is the vehemence with which such beliefs are denounced by those who don't share them. As religious beliefs go, I consider the Law of Attraction a pretty benign one. It certainly beats a whole lot of other worldviews, including those of most who pour such scorn on the LOA scene.
At its simplest I really just see LOA as a Western re-casting of the same ideas of karma and rebirth that are subscribed to by pretty much most of the Hindu and Buddhist world. As such, it attracts many of the same criticisms and is subject to all the same shaky logical and philosophical premises. It's just that, being an idea seen (incorrectly) as the product of modern consumer culture, it is subjected to the kind of paternalistic scorn that people would never dare direct toward a Hindu or a Buddhist.
The fact that it is always described as a "Law" is also significant. The new religious movements that emerged in America at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries were all, to some extent, responding to modernity. One of the ways they did that was by casting their new ideas not as religious revelations, but as much more scientific-sounding "Laws", "Principles" and "Sciences."
Apart from The Secret, the great proponents these days of the Law of Attraction are a cuddly pair of middle-American trance channelers called Esther and Jerry Hicks. Esther channels the voice of a disembodied entity called "Abraham" and this material sells wildly throughout the world, making the Law of Attraction more and more one of the strongest contemporary popular religious beliefs.

Yes You Can! - Behind the hype and hustle of the motivation biz

2010-08-03T01:14:00.000-07:00

From where I sit here in Australia, one of the most esoteric and quintessentialy American occupations must be that of professional speaker. It almost seems unbelievable that someone can earn their living from talking to rooms full of people. It seems to hark back to an earlier age, to the times when Dickens, Wilde and Twain travelled the US lecturing to vast audiences.
In Yes You Can! ex-Playboy editor Jonathan Black examines this amazing industry, and is drawn into its high-energy milieu to the point of seeking to become a motivational speaker himself.
Refreshingly, he never sets out to "expose" the industry, or to tear it apart. As he points out, he simply never met anyone who was manipulative, hypocritical or unusually avaricious. The motivational speaking industry is like any other, and Black does a brilliant job in explaining just how mundane - and often corny - its particular machinations are.
The speakers, both obscure and struggling and stellarly successful and wealthy, are shown here to be a wonderful crowd of eccentrics, each constantly working an angle and trying to stand out in a monstrously competitive field. His descriptions of their schtick are somethimes hilarious, and Black retains a cynic's eye throughout. But along with him you can't help but admire the incredible drive of these people to be successful.
Conceding that it is the type of career that normally attracts a bad rap, he speaks about the efforts being made to quantify the impacts of motivational speakers on company morale and - ultimately - profit. Unsurprisingly, this still looks like being almost impossible.
I was conscious throughout of the ways in which the self-help industry employ a wide range of media and technology to spread its message and, of course, to make money. The presence of so many celebrity speakers reminds us that this whole philosophy was born on the pulpit something which Black himself ultimately realises, in a moment of great personal significance. The speakers promote their audio material and their books, and vice versa, ad infinitum. This multiplicity of media marks motivation and self-help as distinctly modern phenomena, born in the age of modernity and in reaction to the changes it forced upon society.
Yes You Can! is a great book - well written, well researched and sensitively rendered. Jonathan Black has approached the subject in a uniquely thoughtful way and offers, for a change, some genuine insight into the business of self-help, instead of the usual blanket condemnation.

The Science of Mind on The Universe

2010-07-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

"The Universe gives us what we ask; experience alone will teach us what is best to have."

The Science of Mind, p. 462

Each Mind a Kingdom

2010-07-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

One of the things that is most apparent when studying the history of self-help literature is the dominance of women. Since the earliest days of New Thought women have been the movement's principal leaders and followers. Certainly in the early literature of Australian self-help, immersed as it is in the philosophy of New Thought, women are the real pioneers.
American historian Beryl Satter has written an excellent book called Each Mind a Kingdom, which details the phenomenon of women in the New Thought movement.
In my research on Sister Veni Cooper-Mathieson, a wonderfully eccentric Australian author, publisher and spiritual leader, I noticed that she led something called the White Cross Crusade. I was surprised to discover that this was a society to promote celibacy aming young women. They met weekly in the Domain, and there was a companion group for young men. By the brevity of the mentions, I can only assume that both movements were not particularly well subscribed. Sister Veni wrote extensively on the subject of female emancipation, a key component of which she saw as being chastity among the young.
It wasn't until I read Satter's fascinating book that I realised that these crusades for morality and celibacy were an intrinsic part of the New Thought movement in America. Indeed, the position was seen as a progressive one, helping to combat the problems of unwanted pregnancy, venereal disease and the abandonment of unmarried mothers.
The New Thought movement saw itself as ushering in a new, purer age, in which women were empowered, and would no longer be enslaved to what was characteristically cast as the baser sexual demands of men.
Physical desire - and sexuality in general - was posited in this early movement as a problem, something to be overcome. It is fascinating how these early feminist visions were tied in with ideas of chastity and sexual purity.

Stephanie Dowrick - An Introduction

2010-07-15T04:27:00.000-07:00

Australia's leading writer on matters of spirituality and personal transformation is without a doubt Stephanie Dowrick. Her lyrical and frequently literary books are also bestsellers, though they sometimes defy categorisation in any of the usual sub-genres of self-help. Drawing from a deep understanding of religion, mythology, psychology and literature, Dowrick's oeuvre is pretty much all her own, and is these days increasingly imitated.
Dowrick emerged from a background in publishing, which probably goes some way to explaining the great commercial success of her books. There is no doubt she has a flair for marketing, publicity and promotion which has seen her emerge as one of Australia's leading media commentators. In London in the 70s Stephanie was the founder and first Managing Director of The Women's Press, proving her pedigree as a feminist. It is that aspect of her writing that particularly interests me academically. I think she was among the first in the self-help genre to really speak to a female readership, though the books are in no way intended for women only. I am interested in reading the books closely to find out in what ways (if any) feminist ideas are engaged and explored.
She later worked as a publisher at Allen & Unwin in Australia. This, too, would be an interesting avenue to explore, though I doubt I'll have the space in my thesis. Maggie Hamilton is another publishing industry executive who went on to write self-help books. And, perhaps obliquely, Rhonda Byrne was a successful television producer before she branched out into the field of personal transformation. It's certainly an interesting phenomenon, and I wonder if I could find parallels in America or the UK.
These days Stephanie Dowrick is one of the pioneers of the burgeoning Interfaith movement, and noting the different religious references in her books would also be a fascinating endeavour. She has a background in Jungian psychology, and has been deeply influenced by Quaker thought. She also seems to have a clear understanding of both Buddhism and Sufism, which speaks to the extraodinary depth of her learning and her spiritual understanding.
I plan on bringing you a few little potted analyses of some of Stephanie Dowrick's books as I slowly piece together my PhD thesis. I hope you'll find them as interesting as I do.

The Eternal Mind in The Science of Mind

2010-07-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

Holmes' own specialised terminology flows thick and fast throughout his mammoth text The Science of Mind. I suspect that at times terms are interchangeable, but I may be wrong - he may be completely thorough and consistent in his subtle use of terminology. I would have to read the book many times over to be able to ascertain that, and to be honest I don't think that's going to happen.
There are many terms for God, and they are quickly identified by the capitalisation of the first letter. One of the most common is Mind, occasionally more clearly signified as Eternal Mind. This Eternal Mind is the creative, unifying force at work in the universe, the thing to which we are all attached, and from which we all emerged. It is separate from the small-m mind that we all possess, but only because we have limited our material minds, and enforced our own separation. In fact, the goal of Science of Mind (i.e. Holmes' philosophy) is to re-unify us with the Eternal Mind, so that we can experience one-ness with the absolute.
Holmes tells us that "the Eternal Mind knows all things" and this assures the reader that what we are talking about here is the old-fashioned God, re-cast as something more scientific, less loaded. It is subtle theology, and I imagne quite effective - few could quarrel with the notion of the mind, something we all possess.
These two minds - the material and the Eternal - are the essence of Science of Mind philosophy. What the spiritual practitioner is doing is training the small mind (Holmes says "renewing") to work in accord with the Eternal Mind, so that we might recognise our own divinity. This is an individual project, and the work can only ever be done by the individual - we cannot hope to change the mind of another.
By turning our thoughts toward good, the mind is retrained, and material circumstances are changed. In Holmes' philosophy (as in the Fillmores' and Mary Baker Eddy's) good must always trump evil - a good thought held in the mind will drive out all evil, for only good is real. Good is of the Eternal Mind - it is its essential nature.

The New Testament in The Science of Mind

2010-06-08T15:57:00.000-07:00

The Fifth part of Ernest Holmes' The Science of Mind is taken up with a more in-depth exploration of the New Testament, dwelling particularly on the healing stories of Jesus. Citing chapter and verse, Holmes attempts a metaphysical explanation of these familar stories, stressing the ways in which they might show us that the healing powers of God are available to us all. Because Christ consistently healed the pathetic, the outcast and the seemingly unworthy, Holmes sees this as evidence that the Love if God is complete and all-encompassing - no-one is unworthy in the eyes of the Divine.
He says adamantly that "God knows no evil" (p. 438), and this kind of rhetoric is directly traceable to his teacher Emma Curtis Hopkins, who herself learned it from Mary Baker Eddy. Holmes says that Jesus was teaching this reality as he healed - by pointing out that people themselves laboured under the delusions of sin, sickness and unforgiveness. Jesus freed them from these self-imposed states of misery by making them realise that in God's eyes they were entirely perfect.
He reads Matthew 9:16 as an injunction to abandon old spiritual ideas. For Holmes the new is invariably the right, because the human is forever on an evolutionary path. Those new realisations we gain are to be embraced, and not mixed up with the old cloth of old, limiting beliefs.
This section is using the New Testament to reinforce Holmes' New Thought ideas about spiritual healing and the perfected self. he uses Christ healing sytories to reinforce the idea that our miseries are only ever illusory, and can be dropped in a moment with the right inspiration.

The Quest for Meaning

2010-05-21T04:36:00.000-07:00

I am quite a devotee of Unity FM, the on-line radio station run by the Unity School of Christianity, an American church that propagates the teachings of New Thought. The church has been around for over 100 years, and as churches go it is on the extreme-liberal end of things, with openly gay clergy and a reasonably open-ended theology that encourages people to seek their own spiritual truths. The church exists more to encourage positive thinking and the cultivation of spiritual technologies such as prayer and reflection. Unity is the largest and most widespread of the New Thought denominations.
Their radio station is reasonably new - I think it's been running for about two years now - and for me it offers a fascinating insight into American self-help culture. I especially enjoy it when they discuss books, and one of the shows, Hooked on Classics, is devoted solely to the study of New Thought books, normally reading one particular title over a number of weeks in a kind of on-line bookclub.
The output of Unity FM is quite impressive, and I am invariably weeks behind in my listening. So it is that I've just finished Jim Rosemergy's book The Quest for Meaning, which was the book being discussed a couple of months ago!
Until then I'd never heard of Jim Rosemergy, a Unity Church minister who turns out to have been an extremely prolific author. This book is about the notion of vocation and mission, and how we might view our lives and our work as some kind of spiritual mission. Interestingly, at exactly the same time I have also been reading Micki McGee's academic study of self-help writing, Self-Help Inc., and in it she discusses this very trope.
As one would expect from the pen of a mnister, this book is overtly religious, and targeted I would imagine primarily at church members. He discusses the classic New Thought notion that we are all children of God, and that all of us are blessed with a special mission that we should do our best to fulfill. This idea is much older than Unity, of course - I can trace it back at least as far as Swedenborg, and almost certainly way before. At the end of each chapter he provides a series of questions for reflection and topics for prayer, a set of work he refers to as an "Adventure." This kind of structure is quite typical of self-help writing, though in this case a number of the questions were quite esoteric - sometimes almost koan-like.
Rosemergy quotes the special notion of mission that Unity Church's founders, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, lived with. He includes their extraordinary "covenant" - a document they wrote together which set forth their life's plan and all that they were prepared to do to achieve it. This was written in 1892, and serves as an early example of the "mission statement" that all corporate entities are encoraged to committ to paper these days.
The Quest for Meaning is an interesting little book, and would fascinate a conventional theologian with its very specific - and very specifically New Thought - Christology.

The Secret

2010-05-16T04:52:00.000-07:00

I've just read all the way through The Secret. This book will take up the entirety of the final chapter of my thesis, and it is a fascinating object of study.
Of course, part of its interest to the literary scholar is the fact of it being so excessively - and unashamedly - intertextual. There is really very little in the book that is original prose - most of it is quotes from motivational speakers, or excerpts from much older New Thought books. This makes it a treasure-trove for me, allowing me to mine it for its influences and its references, all of which it wears very much on its sleeve.
The Secret still manages to infuriate people, and whenever I mention I am working on self-help books for my PhD, 8 people out of 10 will bring up The Secret. Such a powerful cultural artefact is a rare thing indeed, and I am always fascinated to hear why people dislike it so. They have invariably never read it, and have no idea about the social, cultural and religious movements that inform its philosophy. But its enormous popularity seems to give people some sense of ownership over it, and everyone seems to have an opinion one way or another.
My take on The Secret? Well obviously I can't give a whole chapter's worth of critical analysis here (mostly because I am yet to write that chapter!), but I see it as a manifestation of quasi-religious faith, and hope for a pleasant future in a world that offers people very little of either. Most people that read and enjoy The Secret and view the movie do not, in my experience, belong to any particular church or espouse any particular religious faith. And so the message of The Secret is something quite new to them, and something to which they can respond positively.
When I was in Melbourne recently a dear friend told me that The Secret was listed on a website called Things Bogans Like, and I was fascinated by this. Because I think that this encapsulates a large part of why self-help - and The Secret in particular - is so derided in some sectors. It is consumed by working-class people, and speaks largely to their hopes and dreams. As such it falls well outside of what is designated as high culture - particularly any kind of literary culture - and so is still open to the kind of paternalistic condemnation that other genres were once subject to.

The Science of Mind on Thought

2010-05-08T20:24:00.001-07:00

"Thoughts of lack, poverty and limitation contain within themselves the conditions necessary to produce lack, poverty and limitation."

The Science of Mind p. 402

Intuition in The Science of Mind

2010-04-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

Holmes declares that intuition is in fact the presence of God within us. If we listen to our intuition, we are in fact listening to God, and following the path of all the spiritual greats that went before us. "Intuition is God in man" he says (p. 342), and he allys it with mystical consciousness.
This consciousness, because it comes from God, is always true and eternal, and cannot harm us or lead us astray. Because it is God, it can also never be contradictory; once we experience contradiction we are in the reralm of the psychic, which Holmes derides as facile, dangerous and even cowardly. The psychic stands at the door calling, he says, while the mystic walks right inside the heart of God.
Our spiritual duty, then, is to listen to our intuitive impulses, to believe them, act on them and declare them. Once we are living intutively, we are living in full acceptance of the Divine.

The Science of Mind on Spirituality

2010-04-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

"Spirituality is not a thing; It is the atmosphere of God's presence, goodness, truth and beauty."

The Science of Mind, p. 308