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Ernest Holmes

Ernest Shurtleff Holmes (1887-1960) was the founder of a movement known as Religious Science, also known as "Science of Mind", a part of the New Thought movement. He is well known as the author of The Science of Mind and numerous other metaphysical books, and as the founder of Science of Mind magazine, in continuous publication since 1927. His books remain in print, and the principles he taught as "Science of Mind" have inspired and influenced many generations of metaphysical students and teachers. Holmes had previously studied another New Thought teaching Divine Science, Holmes was an ordained Divine Science Minister. His influence beyond New Thought can be seen in the self-help movement.

Life

Holmes was born January 21, 1887 in Lincoln, Maine to a poor family. Holmes left Maine for Boston when we was 15 and, at the age of 21, he took a two-year course in public speaking at the School of Expression, where he was introduced to Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health.

In 1912, Holmes joined his brother, Fenwicke, in Venice, California. There Ernest and his brother, a Congregationalist minister, studied the writings of Thomas Troward, William Walker Atkinson, and Christian D. Larson.

Teachings

In the 1920s, Holmes published the following statement of beliefs:

Through his research, Holmes created a "structure of concepts" based on the religions and philosophies of human history , sometimes correlating his findings with the then-emerging "new" physics. He named the teaching a science because he believed that its principles were scientifically provable in practice. He wrote, "I would rather see a student of this Science prove its Principle than to have him repeat all the words of wisdom that have ever been uttered.

Holmes ultimately came to believe in a "core concept" -- what he saw as a "Golden thread of truth" that ran through all of the world's religions as well as in science and philosophy.