A course in New Thought

Clockmaker turned mental healer whose notebooks seeded the entire New Thought movement.

Swedenborgian minister who wrote the first systematic books of mental-cure philosophy.

Essayist who popularised 'thoughts are things' and the idea of mental forces.

Her recovery from tuberculosis through affirmative prayer began the Unity movement.

Indian-service judge whose Edinburgh Lectures gave New Thought a systematic metaphysics.

The 'teacher of teachers' who trained the founders of Unity, Divine Science and Religious Science.

Co-founded Unity with Myrtle Fillmore in 1889; built its prayer ministry and publishing house.

The Science of Getting Rich turned New Thought toward prosperity and later inspired The Secret.

Co-founded Divine Science and its Denver college of practitioners.

Prolific author who named the law of attraction and wrote as Yogi Ramacharaka.

Wrote As a Man Thinketh, the movement's most reprinted book.

Illustrator turned teacher whose parables made affirmation practice everyday.

Think and Grow Rich carried New Thought into business self-help; his sourcing remains disputed.

Filled New York auditoriums in the Depression; his writing shaped early Alcoholics Anonymous.

Founded Religious Science and wrote The Science of Mind, its systematic textbook.

The Power of Positive Thinking sold tens of millions and mainstreamed the movement.

Recast affirmation as subconscious programming for a postwar readership.

Taught imagination as the sole creative power; 'assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled'.

You Can Heal Your Life and Hay House globalised affirmation culture; its health claims are contested.

Unity minister whose prosperity books shaped late-century abundance teaching.

Founded Agape International and carried New Thought to a global multiracial audience.