The Law of Attaction in the Thought World: Thought Vibration

Dubbed by William James “the religion of healthy-mindedness” in his pioneering study The Varieties of Religious Experience, New Thought was one of the very first spiritual movements developed on this side of the Atlantic, in the newly formed United States of America. The movement originated in the first decades of the 19th century and is thought to have been derived from the unpublished works of Phineas Quimby, a mesmerist and inventor. By the beginning of the next century, when William Walker Atkinson became the editor of the popular New Thought magazine (December 1901), the movement was already a nationwide phenomenon. However, Atkinson became such a prominent member and advocate that today he is widely regarded as one of the creators and pioneers of the movement. By 1901, Atkinson hadn’t published a single book, but during the next three decades (he died in 1932) he wrote and published at least one hundred. Though quite short (no longer than 100 pages in any edition), Thought Vibration is one of the most remarkable ones he ever penned, both in terms of sheer power and creativity. In essence, it says nothing that previous books on the subject hadn’t said (or modern “Law of Attraction” books haven’t copied), but it says it in so many beautiful and forceful sentences that it does look as if this must be the book where it all started.