William Atkinson - The Complete Works of William Walker Atkinson

It is difficult to convey a hint of this Truth to any but those who are prepared to receive. To others it often seems like arrant folly. Emerson has well said: “Every man’s words, who speaks from that life, must sound vain to those who do not dwell in the same thoughts on their own part. I dare not speak for it. My words do not carry its august sense; they fall short and cold. Only itself can inspire whom it will. … Yet I desire by profane words, if sacred I may not use, to indicate the heaven of this deity, and to report what hints I have collected of the transcendant simplicity and energy of the Highest Law.”

“WHAT IS THE NEW THOUGHT?” Let us see. In the first place it is a name by which is best known that great wave of spiritual and psychic thought that is passing over the world, sweeping away antiquated dogmas, creeds, materialism, bigotry, superstition, unfaith, intolerance, persecution, selfishness, fear, hate, intellectual tyranny and despotism, prejudice, narrowness, disease and perhaps even death. It is the wave that is bringing us liberty, freedom, self­help, brotherly love, fearlessness, courage, confidence, tolerance, advancement, development of latent powers, success, health and life.

It stands for all that makes for Man’s Betterment— Freedom—Independence—Success—Health—Happiness. It carries the banner of Tolerance—Broadness—Brotherhood— Love—Charity and Self­Help. It teaches Man to stand upon his own feet—to work out his own salvation—to develop the powers latent within him—to assert his real Manhood—to be Strong, Merciful and Kind. It preaches the doctrine of “I Can and I Will”—the gospel of “I Do.” It calls upon Man to cease his lamenting and repining, and urges him to stand erect and assert his right to live and be happy. It teaches him to be brave, as there is nothing to fear. It teaches him to abolish Fearthought and Worry, and the other foul brood of negative thoughts, such as Hate, Jealousy, Malice, Envy and Uncharitableness, that have been keeping him in the mire of Despair and Failure. It teaches him these things, and much more. The New Thought stands for the doctrine of The Fatherhood of God—the Oneness of All—the Brotherhood of Man—the Kingship of Self.

The New Thought has no creeds or dogmas. It is composed of Individualists, each reserving the right to look at things with his own eyes—to see the Truth as it presents itself to him—to interpret that Truth by the light of his own reason, intuition and spiritual discernment, and to let it manifest and express itself through him in its own manner. Such a man cares nothing for institutions—he finds within that which he seeks. He does his own thinking, and recognizes no man or woman as an authorized interpreter of that which can only be interpreted by one’s own soul. New Thought people differ very materially from each other on minor points, words and manner of expression, but underneath it all they understand one another, and a close analysis shows that they are all standing firmly upon the sound rock of Fundamental Truth. They all have a bit of the Truth, but no one of them has all of the Truth. Each is working to the Centre in his own way—along his own path. And yet, seen from above, each is found to be walking along the Great Path toward the same Goal.

I will try to give you a hasty glance at what I conceive to be the fundamental principles underlying that which is called The New Thought, without considering the side­issues affected by many of us. My explanation must, of necessity, be crude and imperfect, but I will do the best I can to make at least a partially clear statement of the fundamental principle of The New Thought.

In the first place The New Thought teaches that there is a Supreme Power back of, underlying, and in all things. This Supreme Power is Infinite, Illimitable, Eternal and Unchangeable. It is, has always been, and always will be. It is Omnipresent (present everywhere); Omnipotent (all powerful, possessing all the power that is); and Omniscient (all­knowing, all-seeing, knowing everything, seeing everything). This Supreme Power— Universal Presence—All Mind—may be called MIND, SPIRIT, LAW, THE ABSOLUTE, FIRST CAUSE, NATURE, UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE, LIFE, or whatever name best suits the taste of the person using the term, but call it what you will you mean this Supreme Power—the Centre. Personally I prefer the word God, and have therefore used it in this book, but when I say God I mean this great Universal Presence, and not the conception of a limited God held by any man. I am not satisfied with any conception of God which limits him in the slightest. To me God must be illimitable, and all of the Universe must be an emanation of him. I cannot accept any partial idea of God—to me God must be the All. And I think that a careful inquiry will reveal the fact that this is a fundamental principle underlying The New Thought, remembering, always that words count for nothing and ideas for everything, and that the man or woman who claims to have outgrown “God,” and talks of Nature, Life, Law, or what not, means his or her conception of that which my inner consciousness tells me is, and which I mean when I say “God.”

The New Thought holds that Man is unfolding in consciousness, and that many have now reached that stage of spiritual consciousness whereby they become conscious of the existence and immanence of God, and thus know rather than entertain a belief based upon the authority, real or assumed, of other men. This God-consciousness to which the race is rapidly tending, is the result of the unfoldment, development, and evolution of Man for ages, and, when fully possessed by the race, will completely revolutionize our present conceptions of life, our ethics, customs, conditions and economics.

The New Thought teaches that God is not a being afar off from us, full of wrath and punishment, but that he is right here with us; all around us, yes, even in us; understanding us from the beginning; realizing our limitations; full of love; and patiently seeing the gradual growth and unfoldment which brings us into a clearer understanding of him. The New Thought does not know of the wrath of God—any such conception is cast into the shadow by the dazzling, overpowering sight of God’s love. As to the reason of God’s plans and laws, The New Thought does not pretend to have knowledge, holding that this cannot be known by Man in his present stage of development, although by reason and intuition he is beginning to understand that all is Good, and to see evidences of a loving, good, perfect, just and wise plan, in all the experiences of life. And having that Intelligent Faith which comes of the God-consciousness, it rests content, saying “God is—and all is well.”

The New Thought teaches that All is One—that all the Universe, high and low, developed and undeveloped, manifest and unmanifest, is One—all is an emanation of God. This brings with it the corollary that everything in the universe is in touch with every other thing, and all is in connection with the Centre—God. It holds, with modern science, that every atom is a part of a mighty whole, and that nothing can happen to any atom without a corresponding effect upon every other part of the whole. It holds that the sense of separateness is an illusion of the undeveloped consciousness, but an illusion necessary in certain stages for the working out of the plan, or as a recent writer has said, “the sense of separateness is a working fiction of the Universe.” When man has so far progressed in spiritual growth and unfoldment that certain heretofore dormant faculties awaken to consciousness, or rather, when man’s consciousness has so far developed that it takes cognizance of certain faculties the existence of which has heretofore been unknown to it, that man becomes conscious of the Oneness of All, and his relation to all that is. It is not merely a matter of intellectual conception, it is the growth of a new consciousness. The man who possesses this, simply knows ; the man who has it not, deems the idea allied to insanity. This Cosmic Knowing comes to many as an illumination; to others it is a matter of gradual and slow development.