One Simple Idea (42 page)

A work as famous as
As a Man Thinketh
would seem to have an easily verifiable date of first publication, but sources conflict. Various records use the years 1902 or 1904. I have cited 1903, which represents the earliest verifiable year of publication based on records from the James Allen Archive at the Ilfracombe Library in Devon, England. Savoy Publishing Company of London issued it that year. Another historical complexity in Allen’s life is the precise date when his father, William, reached New York. Lily Allen pegged William’s arrival, and subsequent murder, to
when James was age fifteen, which he turned on November 28, 1879. Passenger ship records show two men named William Allen reaching New York from the United Kingdom in that year: one, age forty, arrived from Liverpool on April 28, and another, age forty-seven, arrived from ports in Scotland and Ireland on November 1. The latter arrival better fits the time frame that Lily provided. The matter of exactly when William arrived requires further historical research.

Wallace D. Wattles’s
The Science of Getting Rich
appeared at number one on the
BusinessWeek
paperback bestseller list on September 10, 2007. Sources on Wallace D. Wattles include these articles from the
Fort Wayne Sentinel
: “Leaves the Methodists,” June 27, 1900; “News Paragraphs,” June 13, 1908; “Totals on District Vote,” November 15, 1908; “Trouble at Elwood,” July 12, 1909; and “Indiana Socialist Dies,” February 8, 2011. “Hoosier Writer Is Dead” appeared in the
Indianapolis Star
, February 9, 1911. His daughter, Florence Wattles, appears in “Says Even Dead Voted in Recent Elwood Election,” January 29, 1911,
Indianapolis Star
(from which she is quoted), and “Woman Socialist Speaks to Kendallville Audience,” July 12, 1911,
Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette
. Eugene V. Debs is quoted from
The Other American: The Life of Michael Harrington
by Maurice Isserman (Public Affairs, 2000).

Sources on Elizabeth Towne include “The Literature of ‘New Thoughters,’ ” by Frances Maule Björkman,
The World’s Work
, January 1910, from which I quote Towne’s reply to “A Weakling”; also “Elizabeth Towne: Pioneering Woman in Publishing and Politics” by Tzivia Gover,
Historical Journal of Massachusetts
, vol. 37, Spring 2009;
Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts
, vol. 3, edited by William Richard Cutter and William Frederick Adams (Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910); “Elizabeth Towne, Author, Leader in Religion, Dies” by the Associated Press,
North Adams Transcript
, June 1, 1960;
Experiences in Self-Healing
by Elizabeth Towne (Elizabeth Towne Publishing Company, 1905); and Materra (1997); Satter (1999); and Parker (1973).

On the topic of New Thought and Marcus Garvey I am indebted to the work of UCLA historian Robert A. Hill. Hill has painstakingly assembled
and annotated the invaluable
Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers
for the University of California Press. Volumes 1 (1983) and 7 (1990), in particular, trace Garvey’s connections to New Thought. Hill’s volume with Barbara Bair,
Marcus Garvey Life and Lessons
(University of California Press, 1987), is also of great value. As noted above, I further consider Garvey and New Thought in
Occult America
(2009).

Rev. Al Sharpton is quoted from the
New York Times
feature column Sunday Routine: “Al Sharpton: The Wake-Up Is a Victory” by David M. Halbfinger, March 6, 2011.

The most complete study of Father Divine’s connection to New Thought is Ronald Moran White’s master’s thesis, “New Thought Influences on Father Divine” (Department of Religion, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, 1980). Jill Watts’s biography,
God, Harlem U.S.A.: The Father Divine Story
(University of California Press, 1992) is invaluable as a measured and reliable overview of Father Divine’s life. Also helpful are accounts of Father Divine in
These Also Believe: A Study of Modern American Cults and Minority Religious Movements
by Charles Braden (Macmillan, 1949), and
They Have Found a Faith
by Marcus Bach (Bobbs-Merrill, 1946). Braden and Bach, two of the twentieth century’s most thoughtful observers of nontraditional religions, were among the very few journalists who grasped Father Divine’s ties to New Thought. Father Divine is quoted (“this table is but the outer expression”) from White (1980). For further information on Baird T. Spalding see my
Occult America
(2009). Of Walter C. Lanyon’s many books, those most directly influenced by Father Divine are
It Is Wonderful
(E. K. Reader, 1931),
The Eyes of the Blind
(L. N. Fowler, 1932; Inspiration House, 1959), and
Behold the Man
(L. N. Fowler, 1933). Union Life Ministries reissued several of Lanyon’s books in 1977, including
The Eyes of the Blind
. A “publisher’s preface” replaces Lanyon’s original forewords to the 1931 and 1959 editions, in which Lanyon acknowledged the influence of Father Divine and attributed italicized portions of the book to him. The elimination of those forewords obfuscates a critical link in New Thought history. The anti-Bilbo hymn appears in Braden
(1949). Robert Collier’s statement “Mind is God” is from his
The Secret of Gold
(1927).

Louis Schneider and Sanford M. Dornbusch are quoted from their book,
Popular Religion: Inspirational Books in America
(University of Chicago Press, 1958). Actor Sherman Hemsley is profiled in “Don’t Ask How He Lives or What He Believes In” by Dwight Whitney,
TV Guide
, February 6, 1982. For additional background on
The Kybalion
see my
Occult America
(2009) and
The Kybalion: The Definitive Edition
by William Walker Atkinson writing as Three Initiates, edited and introduced by Philip Deslippe (Tarcher/Penguin, 2008).

Horatio Dresser is quoted from his
A History of the New Thought Movement
(Thomas Y. Crowell, 1919). William James is quoted from his lecture and essay “The Gospel of Relaxation,” first published in
Talks to Teachers on Psychology: And to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals
(Henry Holt and Co., 1899). Emma Curtis Hopkins is quoted from her
Class Lessons 1888
(1977). Quimby is quoted from
The Quimby Manuscripts
(1921). Wilcox is quoted from her
The Heart of the New Thought
(1902). For Protestant attitudes toward spiritual healing see “Medicine and Christianity in the Modern World” by Ronald L. Numbers and Ronald C. Sawyer from
Health/Medicine and the Faith Traditions
edited by Martin E. Marty and Kenneth L. Vaux (Fortress Press, 1982).

On the career of Richard C. Cabot, I benefited from Ian S. Evison’s doctoral dissertation,
Pragmatism and Idealism in the Professions: The Case of Richard Clarke Cabot
(University of Chicago Divinity School, 1995). In an age when academic specialization has sequestered too much scholarship behind inscrutable terminology and ever-narrowing topic areas (trends that Cabot himself foresaw), Evison’s study is a marvel of clarity across a wide breadth of subjects. Also of significant help were “The Conceptual Underpinnings of Social Work in Health Care” by Sarah Gehlert
from
Handbook of Health Social Work
edited by Sarah Gehlert and Teri Arthur Browne (John Wiley & Sons, 2006); “The Emmanuel Movement, 1906–1929,” by John Gardner Greene,
New England Quarterly
, September 1934; “ ‘A Bold Plunge into the Sea of Values’; The Career of Dr. Richard Cabot” by Laurie O’Brien,
New England Quarterly
, vol. 58, no. 4, December 1985; “Richard Cabot: Medical Reformer During the Progressive Era” by T. Andrew Dodds, M.D., M.P.H.,
Annals of Internal Medicine
, September 1, 1993; and “Clinical Pastoral Education” by Rodney J. R. Stokoe,
Nova Scotia Medical Bulletin
, vol. 53, 1974. William James’s statement on the “cash-value” of an idea is from his “Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results,”
University Chronicle
, vol. 1, no. 4, September 1898. James’s article is the text of a talk he delivered on August 28, 1898, at the Philosophical Union of UC Berkeley, where he outlined his philosophy of pragmatism; the event is worthy of a book in itself. Cabot’s statement on “a thousand pities” is from Evison (1995). Cabot’s statements on “moral or spiritual” diseases, and his passage on “functional” versus “organic” disease, are from his
Psychotherapy and Its Relation to Religion
(Moffat, Yard & Company, 1908). Cabot’s book was one of a series of titles on medicine and religion published as a project of the Emmanuel Movement. Ted Kaptchuk is quoted from “Why Placebos Work Wonders” by Shirley S. Wang,
Wall Street Journal
, January 3, 2012. Charles Dean Young is quoted from his article “The Emmanuel Movement,”
Boston Medical and Surgical Journal
, February 18, 1909. Both Freud and William James are quoted from Nathan G. Hale’s
Freud and the Americans
(Oxford University Press, 1971). Peter D. Kramer is quoted from his
Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind
(HarperCollins, 2006). On Cabot’s advocacy of pastoral clinical training I benefited from Stokoe (1974) and from the outstanding dissertation
From Jewish Science to Rabbinical Counseling: The Evaluation of the Relationship Between Religion and Health by the American Reform Rabbinate, 1916–1954
, by Rebecca Trachtenberg Alpert (Department of Philosophy, Temple University, 1978). Carl J. Scherzer is quoted from his article, “The Emmanuel Movement,”
Pastoral Psychology
, vol. 2, no. 11, February 1951. The survey of healing practices among
Protestant ministers is detailed in Charles S. Braden’s “Study of Spiritual Healing in the Churches,”
Pastoral Psychology
, May 1954.

For a movement so relatively small, Jewish Science has inspired a secondary literature of considerable quality. Of great help was Rebecca Trachtenberg Alpert’s previously cited doctoral thesis (1978). Equally indispensable was
From Christian Science to Jewish Science: Spiritual Healing and American Jews
by Ellen M. Umansky (Oxford University Press, 2005); Umansky dedicates significant study to the career of Tehilla Lichtenstein, a key figure in the history of Jewish Science, whose life I am limited by space from exploring further here. Also of help were “Unity in Zion: A Survey of American Jewish Metaphysical Movements” by Richard L. Hoch,
JSSMR
, Fall 1995; and “Christian Science and the Jews” by John J. Appel,
Jewish Social Studies
, April 1969. Rabbi Maurice H. Harris is quoted from
Central Conference of American Rabbis Yearbook 1927
, vol. 37, edited by Rabbi Isaac E, Marcuson (CCAR, 1927). Rabbi Alfred Geiger Moses published two versions of his
Jewish Science
, the first in 1916 and a longer revision in 1920, from which I quote. The 1925 resolution on the founding of the Witt committee and the comments of Rabbi Philip Waterman are from Alpert (1978). Rabbi Louis Witt’s committee report and personal testimony of June 26, 1927, are quoted from the
Central Conference of American Rabbis Yearbook
(1927), as cited above. For purposes of clarity, I made a few minor punctuation changes to the transcript of Witt’s talk. On the progress of pastoral training, I am again indebted to Alpert (1978), who is quoted from her thesis. Also helpful are the historical notes of Rev. Robert Leas at the website of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (
www.​acpe.​edu/​cpehistory.​htm
). My references to pastoral counseling among military chaplains are from
A History of Pastoral Care in America
by E. Brooks Holifield (Wipf & Stock, 1983).

A vast amount of literature exists on the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is a tribute to the integrity that Bill Wilson brought to AA that the “approved literature” issued by the AA General Service Conference, rather than having the intellectual vacuity of most official
publications, is surprisingly open about Wilson and Smith’s spiritual experiments, including their forays into Spiritualism, séances, mysticism, and Bill’s experiments with LSD. In her biography,
My Name Is Bill
(Washington Square Press, 2004), Susan Cheever ably notes elements of Bill’s life that are not included in the official literature, such as his struggles with depression and marital fidelity.

Important AA-approved literature includes
Pass It On: The Story of Bill Wilson and How the AA Message Reached the World
(Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1984), and
Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers
(Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1980). Also helpful is the pamphlet “Three Talks to Medical Societies” by Bill W. (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, undated), from which I quote Bill on his awakening experience from a 1958 address to the New York Medical Society on Alcoholism. This talk also contains Bill’s remark that he “devoured” the work of William James. Bill referred to James as an AA founder in
Bill W.: My First 40 Years
(Hazelden, 2000). Bill’s reference to Jung’s influence is from his letter of January 23, 1961. I have benefited from Lois Wilson’s recollections in
Lois Remembers
(Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, 1979), which is helpful on the Wilsons’ split with the Oxford Group. Lois also notes that Emma Curtis Hopkins’s family farm, High Watch, became an AA-based treatment center in 1940, a topic that deserves more attention than I am able to give it here. Also helpful on Lois’s upbringing in the Swedenborgian Church is
Wings & Roots: The New Age and Emanuel Swedenborg in Dialog
by Wilma Wake (J. Appleseed & Co., 1999), from which Lois is quoted.

The Oxford Group and, more particularly, Frank Buchman remain a source of controversy. An important critique of Buchman and Oxford appears in Tom Driberg’s
The Mystery of Moral Re-Armament
(Secker and Warburg, 1964), which reprinted the 1936
New York World-Telegram
piece containing Buchman’s infamous quotes. Important as his book was, Driberg, a British Labour MP, was deeply critical of the Oxford Movement. Any writer or researcher approaching Buchman’s life and Oxford’s influence on AA must cast a broader net. The works of Dick B., a contemporary historian who has doggedly catalogued the spiritual roots of AA,
are a helpful window on Oxford’s influence and its innovative spiritual program. Dick B.’s works include
Dr. Bob and His Library
(Paradise Research Publications, 1992, 1994, 1998);
The Books Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth
(Paradise Research Publications, 1993, 1998); and the comprehensive
Turning Point: A History of Early AA’s Spiritual Roots and Successes
(Paradise Research Publications, 1997), from which I quote Bill Wilson’s recollections of the encounter between Rowland Hazard and Carl Jung. Also helpful on the Oxford Group is Charles Braden’s
These Also Believe
(1949).