John S. Haller Jr., in his book The History of New Thought: From Mind Cure to Positive Thinking and the Prosperity Gospel (2012), regrettably misses the mark. A secular humanist tasked with studying the history of American religion and medical humanities, he lacks a good ear with regard to what was actually attractive about New Thought during the tail end of the nineteenth century and beyond and he hasn’t actually engaged in the practices (like positive visualization, affirmations, experiencing gratitude, and so forth) regularly propounded by New Thought authors.

We had better begin, however, with the shenanigans. It’s reasonable to argue that by the latter part of the twentieth century, New Thought books had fallen into crass decadence. Have a desire (regardless of its content) and get what you want if you want it badly enough. Or: your strong thought about wealth will, like a magnet, attract great wealth unto you. Or: visualize success, refuse to entertain doubts, disregard all setbacks, and success shall ultimately be yours. Or: since the inner is said to be the cause of the outer, if you think positively, then physical health shall be reflected accordingly.

The strong claims give us reason to wonder whether there is simply too much salesmanship going on, and we should naturally doubt the aims of those “entrepreneurs” who are trying to sell us monorails.

However, once we sweep off to the side the overblown claims and ridiculous promises, we’ve made room for taking a second, more sober look. My interpretation of New Thought is yogic. Here goes:

You feel limited, cramped, constrained. Indeed, if you’re living in 1800s America and if you’ve gotten sick, you’ve no doubt tried some quack medical doctors–but to no avail. Or if you feel poor at heart, as if you’ll never have enough during the 1920s or indeed 2026, then you might find something about “the prosperity gospel” that’s calling you. Or perhaps you’re gripped by helplessness and long for “success.” Or you can’t seem to shake guilt or shame and wish that you were a morally upright individual. Or, finally, you can’t seem to get over your suspicion of other people even though something within says that they can’t all be “like this.”

In short, you can’t seem to shake what ails you.

My argument is that what New Thought, when properly understood and when assiduously practiced, can offer is the dissolution of this preoccupation, of this ego tendency. Using thought in creative ways, New Thought amounts to mind training, the effect of which is to have a sattvic (calm, serene, purified) mind.

The requisite practices can wait for another day. Below, I simply list the transformations in mind to be effected:

• “My body is sickly.” One ceases to “accept” (a New Thought term) this false belief, and one may slowly yet surely come to assert, affirm, and thereby accept: “My entire body is perfect. Its natural state is wellness.”
• “I will never have enough,” an ego tendency I discuss in Chop Wood, Carry Water. The point of the prosperity gospel is to move from a “poverty mindset” to a “gift mindset.” One’s experience is that there’s always enough to go around and therefore that there’s often to be given out. (Ralph Waldo Trine’s In Tune with the Infinite provides us with a sketch of a gift economy, I’d argue. In this way, he avoids that erroneous abundance-as-hoarding view that comes later on.)
• “I am powerless. I can’t do anything.” On the contrary, one discovers that one is benevolent power. One can do what is beneficial for others. The life current can start to flow–and to flow outward.
• “I am guilty.” Or: “I am deeply ashamed.” No, one can come to the point of believing that within one is a “basically good” nature.
• “Other people cannot be trusted.” Without becoming Pollyanna, one can come to give trust by granting others the benefit of the doubt.

Time and again, it feels as if New Thought overshoots the mark. It promises the moon and fails to deliver. However, if we “clip its wings” and ask what it’s actually good at, then I’d say, to sum up, that (a) it dissolves, sometimes uproots ego tendencies and (b) it trains the mind to move in the groove of cheerfulness.

Of course, one needs to take New Thought in a yogic direction. This means that when New Thought authors speak of taking a few quiet moments to engage in practice, one needs to see this as woefully inadequate. Instead, the Yogic view is that one must carry on unceasingly and muscularly with the practice until it sticks. And then carry on further.