This article appeared in the October 2012 edition of Science of Mind Magazine & was written by Reverend Dr. Christian Sorensen
Growing up in Hollywood, I used to run around what was once the home office for Ernest Holmes and the Institute for Religious Science and School of Philosophy. The building, which was affectionately called the headquarters building, sat on the corner of 6th Street and New Hampshire in the city block our movement once owned in the heart of Los Angeles, right off Wilshire Boulevard. The walls were decorated with priceless gifts of art that Ernest’s friends had given him. Dr. Holmes’s big desk still sat in his corner office with an elaborately carved wood ceiling. It was a magical experience to give one of my first talks in the 1970s in the upstairs auditorium where Dr. Holmes would often lecture. In those days, everyone seemed to talk about their time with Ernest and how he had influenced their lives. My father, Rev. Paul Sorensen, spoke about the magnetism and charisma that exuded from this legendary man. His legacy, materially and spiritually, speaks volumes of the success of the teaching of the Science of Mind.
The rich heritage of Religious Science comes from the mystical weaving and synthesizing of Truth. Dr. Holmes was inspired from a higher realm in his bringing together of the universal timeless truths that had been concealed in the great religions and philosophies. This ancient wisdom has been passed down through the ages, reemerging with the renaissance of the New Thought movement of the nineteenth century. Ernest was capable of transcending time to enter the timelessness of consciousness and hear what the great thinkers could hear and the mystics could see. He would converse with the brilliant minds of his day, accompanied by enchanting rhetoric and prophetic vision of the greater-yet-to-be.
New Thought’s Turning Point
The Ancient Wisdom teachings were once publicly veiled under the term “High Thought” until the nineteenth century, which is when the new Thought movement began to gain traction among some forward-minded thinkers such as Emerson, Hawthorne, and Thoreau. The New England area was referred to as the New Athens. Something seemed to happen when Religious Science entered the picture – it became the tipping point. Perhaps, it was Ernest Holmes’s ability to draw crowds on the East and West coasts with his clear and logical approach to metaphysics as applied to one’s personal life, or maybe it was his recognition among the Hollywood crowd or the scientific community that was talking the philosophy of “healthy minded” people, as William James had called it. Either way, the concept of our inherent goodness was catching on. It eventually became the liberating concept “change your thinking: change your life.”
What differentiated us from the early ancestors of New Thought was that Ernest made the philosophy more than philosophical, but also intuitive and practical. It was no longer just theoretical and conceptual for the educated elite in secret societies, but was now available and understandable to anyone. Healing was actually taking place through a teachable method. Ernest took the brilliance and logic of the Transcendentalist who brought the wisdom of the ages in to the pubic conversation and made it usable! He was a visionary in his ability to relate and communicate teachable methods, logical approaches in the application of the universal spiritual principles to the needs and aspirations of everyday life of all people. What made Religious Science the tipping point was its capacity to deliver a replicable method for anyone who was serious about creating a life of spiritual freedom.
Religious Science grew into prominence because it was more than words; it evolved into a daily approach for richer living, enabling healing and spiritual renewal. It taught how to create and “demonstrate the Truth.” Freedom was an essential part of the teaching. Ernest Holmes’s book, The Science of Mind, became the teaching text for a growing movement. On the first page, he clearly lays out the mission of this philosophy where he mentions freedom six times: “The Divine Plan is one of Freedom: bondage is not God-ordained. Freedom is the birthright of every living soul. All instinctively feel this. The Truth points to freedom, under Law. Thus, the inherent nature of man is forever seeking to express itself in terms of freedom.” He wanted all to be liberated from the mental and physical pains that constrict the heart and soul with a manipulative fear paralyzing people’s lives.
What made Science of Mind the turning point was that it pointed seekers to their own inherent nature of Wholeness that was found within them. It was not based on dogma or outside intermediaries going to a higher place on one’s behalf. It was about coming back into direct alignment with one’s own Wholeness of Being. It didn’t need to make anyone else’s God or approach to healing wrong for it to work. It took its authority through demonstration, and not he flowery and impressive words and principles it professed. Ernest Holmes emphasized being present for the Divine realization and the Grace of God – awareness that will reveal one’s true mystic nature.
The Legacy Continues
This October marks eighty-five years of continuous monthly publications, during which time this magazine has delivered the soul-stretching, logical teachings for a better life that Ernest Holmes brought to this world. For the first fourteen months of its existence, Science of Mind magazine was published under the name Religious Science and sold for twenty-five cents a copy. The magazine supported the expanding interest in the Religious Science Institute. Dr. Holmes stated in the first magazine in 1927 that its mission was to “seek to promote that universal consciousness of life which binds all together in one great Whole.” He also laid out what he believed, which became the Declaration of Principles for this growing movement. These revolutionary ideas are the same spiritual principles that master teachers and healers have used through the ages, but what was different was that Dr. Ernest said, “You, too, can use them.”
The use of an impersonal principle seems obvious today, but was groundbreaking, if not blasphemous, in its time. Yet, those who could think outside the societal box of religious orthodoxy found this philosophy to be refreshing, exciting, and absolutely liberating for creating a better life. As the demonstrations began to manifest all around those who took a more conscious approach to living, this teaching circulated from the avant-garde crowd into the mainstream. Teaching chapters for the Science of Mind began to spring up all over the country, because healing was no longer dependent on a spiritual leader or guru, but was a proven method of consciousness that was applicable for anyone who used it.
Ernest Holmes was an evolutionary visionary. In 1927, the Institute for Religious Science and School of Philosophy was officially launched. It was not based on an outside authority, but rather upon what could be manifested by those who applied the impersonal universal laws of the universe. Dr. Holmes taught that you could not see these spiritual laws, but you could see their results. It was put to an immediate test, since the Institute just happened to incorporate prior to the Great Depression of 1929. His affirmative approach to living was profoundly empowering and transformative for those who were challenged during those times. The philosophy brought comfort during World War II and other subsequent wars. Science of Mind continued to prove the test of time throughout Ernest Holmes’s life. He knew the importance of remaining open to the evolving understanding and application of the principles of Truth. Rather than a rigid and closed philosophy, he stated that we must remain “open at the top.”
Transformative Power
After Ernest moved on from this world in 1960, his visionary leadership was put to the test of time. Would his organization of the ageless wisdom and spiritual laws remain strong enough to stand on its own without his charismatic influence? Was his mission clear enough for those who were close to Dr. Holmes to carry the torch of the teachings to this next generation? Religious Science now stands on the shoulders of those spiritual giants who came before us and brought forth Ernest’s demonstrable truth of love and the law. Knowing God is omnipresent, multidimensional, and all there is, it would seem logical that there could be no otherness and nothing to overcome – only Spirit to recognize and align with. In this personal experience of God and true realization, all sense of separation dissolves into the nothingness from which it came. What remains is the field of Spirit or the Grace of God.
Ernest was a bridge from a time in history when the consciousness of the United States was not the predominant leader it is in the world today. During his era, he delivered universal spiritual principles that helped people move into their magnificence. He gave us the repeatable approach to personal healing, whether in our bodies or personal affairs. He taught that your inner wisdom always rises to meet whatever challenge is before you and how an understanding of one’s difficulties can be the catalyst for releasing blocks to healing.
This was transformative to the collective cultural consciousness of his time. He helped to bring forth an era of personal empowerment where one claims responsibility for one’s life, spiritually and materially. When we take responsibility for whatever we are going through, we have the power to free ourselves from the apparent negative experiences. Science of Mind helped people move from being victims to becoming conscious creators of their lives. Ernest reminded us that it is all God, it all Good, and there is no large or small to the Mind that is all. Healing is Life’s natural, logical, and necessary unfoldment. The personal approach to healing became our tipping point that returned the power back into the hands of those who would change their thinking; they were the ones who would change their lives. This personal acceptance and new confidence transcends denominations and weaves itself into the lives of the “cultural creative” of today.
We are journeying through time together, ever moving into greater understanding and cooperation with our brothers and sisters across this planet. Dr. Holmes clearly pointed out in his literary masterpiece, The Voice Celestial, that what is being taught is beyond doctrines and creeds and is at the core of the great religions – the Timeless Spiritual Truths for joyous living. Expanding and learning how to apply these spiritual principles of Truth on an ever-larger scale will truly make the borders on our planet irrelevant. Ernest said in his Sermon by the Sea, “There is a Law that backs up the vision, and the Law is immutable. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. There is a Power transcendent beyond our needs, our little wants. Demonstrating a dime is good if one needs it, or healing oneself o f a pain is certainly good if one has it, but beyond that, at the real feast at the tabernacle of the Almighty, in the temple of the living God, in the banquet hall of heaven, there is something beyond anything that you and I have touched.”
We stand at the threshold of the next generation of Ernest’s vision. We are moving from individual to global consciousness. Dr. Holmes clearly taught about the power of collective consciousness and the ability of an individual to impact and influence the larger picture. It’s time for the Centers for Spiritual Living to once again be the tipping point in applying these relevant and applicable teachings of a New Thought, a high thought and a new perspective, to help free those who are being sucked into the trance of hypnotic fears of headlines. Religious Science offers a choice and an answer for a hurting world. It’s time to share resources with those who hunger. It’s time to see peace as a viable option to war. It’s time for cooperation instead of exploitation. It’s time for a conscientious and balanced use of earth’s resources and to honor intelligent ecology. With a new thought, we can create a new world.
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