Sacred Texts: New Thought

Creative Mind and Success: Part I: How To Attain Strength

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This is an excerpt from a 1919 New Thought self-help text by Ernest Shurtleff Holmes, founder of the Religious Science movement, written in the devotional-instructional tradition of early 20th-century mind-power literature. Its central argument is that human consciousness is unified with an infinite divine Mind, and that this unity means thought directly creates material reality through an impersonal mental law — whatever one thinks consistently will manifest in one's life. Holmes instructs readers to reject any thought of weakness, limitation, or failure, since dwelling on such thoughts is precisely what produces them; success comes to those who discipline their thinking to match only the outcomes they desire. A distinctive claim is that God operates with no opposing force and no doubt, and that humans who grasp their oneness with God must reason identically — certainty, not hope, is the operative mental stance. The text also insists that forgiving past mistakes (one's own and others') is practically necessary, not merely morally advisable, because resentment and self-reproach are themselves failure-generating thoughts. Holmes closes by citing Henley's "Invictus," anchoring the spiritual argument in the rhetoric of personal sovereignty.

Creative Mind and Success: Part I: How To Attain Strength

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