Ernest Holmes’s 1926 systematic textbook of his Religious Science (later Centers for Spiritual Living) movement — the most ambitious single statement of New Thought metaphysics, with sections on the Spirit, the Soul, and Treatment (his term for affirmative prayer). Holmes’s project was to integrate Christian Science, Emersonian transcendentalism, the Emma Curtis Hopkins lineage and elements of Eastern philosophy into a single working system, organised as a complete course of lessons.
Substantially expanded in 1938 and again as the “Definitive Edition” (Tarcher, 1997), the book has remained in continuous print since first publication, making it one of the longest-lived primary texts in the New Thought corpus. It is the source from which the Centers for Spiritual Living curriculum is built, and the reference work that subsequent prosperity-and-affirmation writers — Murphy, Dyer, Ponder — most frequently cite as their lineage point.
Reception
Foundational to a still-active denomination (Centers for Spiritual Living) and to the wider New Thought publishing world; almost every prosperity-and-affirmation author from Joseph Murphy to Wayne Dyer cites Holmes as either direct teacher or indirect lineage. Academic religious studies treats him as a key figure in early-20th-century American metaphysical religion (Catherine Albanese’s A Republic of Mind and Spirit places him centrally). Critics in mainline Christian theology and in clinical psychology have flagged the same issues that haunt the broader New Thought tradition: unfalsifiable claims, unverifiable case studies, and an instrumentalising of prayer.
Frequently asked
What is The Science of Mind about?
Ernest Holmes’s 1926 systematic textbook of the Religious Science movement he founded — the most ambitious single statement of New Thought metaphysics. It is organised as a complete course of lessons on the Spirit, the Soul, and Treatment (Holmes’s term for affirmative prayer), and tries to integrate Christian Science, Emersonian transcendentalism, the Emma Curtis Hopkins lineage and elements of Eastern philosophy into a single working system.
Which edition should a new reader pick?
Two are in print and both are commonly recommended. The Definitive Edition (Tarcher, 1997, ISBN 9780874778656, 672 pages) is the longest and follows Holmes’s 1938 expansion; this is the version most Centers for Spiritual Living use. The Original 1926 Text (republished separately) is shorter and closer to Holmes’s first articulation — useful if you want to see the project before its later editorial layers.
Where does it sit in the New Thought lineage?
Holmes draws on Phineas Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy, Emma Curtis Hopkins and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and on his own teacher Christian D. Larson. Almost every later prosperity-and-affirmation author — Joseph Murphy, Catherine Ponder, Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer — cites Holmes as direct teacher or indirect lineage, which makes The Science of Mind the canonical reference work for the entire downstream stream.