One Simple Idea

by Mitch Horowitz

  For a movement so relatively small, Jewish Science has inspired a secondary literature of considerable quality. Of great help was Rebecca Trachtenberg Alpert’s previously cited doctoral thesis (1978). Equally indispensable was From Christian Science to Jewish Science: Spiritual Healing and American Jews by Ellen M. Umansky (Oxford University Press, 2005); Umansky dedicates significant study to the career of Tehilla Lichtenstein, a key figure in the history of Jewish Science, whose life I am limited by space from exploring further here. Also of help were “Unity in Zion: A Survey of American Jewish Metaphysical Movements” by Richard L. Hoch, JSSMR, Fall 1995; and “Christian Science and the Jews” by John J. Appel, Jewish Social Studies, April 1969. Rabbi Maurice H. Harris is quoted from Central Conference of American Rabbis Yearbook 1927, vol. 37, edited by Rabbi Isaac E, Marcuson (CCAR, 1927). Rabbi Alfred Geiger Moses published two versions of his Jewish Science, the first in 1916 and a longer revision in 1920, from which I quote. The 1925 resolution on the founding of the Witt committee and the comments of Rabbi Philip Waterman are from Alpert (1978). Rabbi Louis Witt’s committee report and personal testimony of June 26, 1927, are quoted from the Central Conference of American Rabbis Yearbook (1927), as cited above. For purposes of clarity, I made a few minor punctuation changes to the transcript of Witt’s talk. On the progress of pastoral training, I am again indebted to Alpert (1978), who is quoted from her thesis. Also helpful are the historical notes of Rev. Robert Leas at the website of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (www.​acpe.​edu/​cpehistory.​htm). My references to pastoral counseling among military chaplains are from A History of Pastoral Care in America by E. Brooks Holifield (Wipf & Stock, 1983).

  A vast amount of literature exists on the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is a tribute to the integrity that Bill Wilson brought to AA that the “approved literature” issued by the AA General Service Conference, rather than having the intellectual vacuity of most official publications, is surprisingly open about Wilson and Smith’s spiritual experiments, including their forays into Spiritualism, séances, mysticism, and Bill’s experiments with LSD. In her biography, My Name Is Bill (Washington Square Press, 2004), Susan Cheever ably notes elements of Bill’s life that are not included in the official literature, such as his struggles with depression and marital fidelity.

  Important AA-approved literature includes Pass It On: The Story of Bill Wilson and How the AA Message Reached the World (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1984), and Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1980). Also helpful is the pamphlet “Three Talks to Medical Societies” by Bill W. (Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, undated), from which I quote Bill on his awakening experience from a 1958 address to the New York Medical Society on Alcoholism. This talk also contains Bill’s remark that he “devoured” the work of William James. Bill referred to James as an AA founder in Bill W.: My First 40 Years (Hazelden, 2000). Bill’s reference to Jung’s influence is from his letter of January 23, 1961. I have benefited from Lois Wilson’s recollections in Lois Remembers (Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, 1979), which is helpful on the Wilsons’ split with the Oxford Group. Lois also notes that Emma Curtis Hopkins’s family farm, High Watch, became an AA-based treatment center in 1940, a topic that deserves more attention than I am able to give it here. Also helpful on Lois’s upbringing in the Swedenborgian Church is Wings & Roots: The New Age and Emanuel Swedenborg in Dialog by Wilma Wake (J. Appleseed & Co., 1999), from which Lois is quoted.

  The Oxford Group and, more particularly, Frank Buchman remain a source of controversy. An important critique of Buchman and Oxford appears in Tom Driberg’s The Mystery of Moral Re-Armament (Secker and Warburg, 1964), which reprinted the 1936 New York World-Telegram piece containing Buchman’s infamous quotes. Important as his book was, Driberg, a British Labour MP, was deeply critical of the Oxford Movement. Any writer or researcher approaching Buchman’s life and Oxford’s influence on AA must cast a broader net. The works of Dick B., a contemporary historian who has doggedly catalogued the spiritual roots of AA, are a helpful window on Oxford’s influence and its innovative spiritual program. Dick B.’s works include Dr. Bob and His Library (Paradise Research Publications, 1992, 1994, 1998); The Books Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth (Paradise Research Publications, 1993, 1998); and the comprehensive Turning Point: A History of Early AA’s Spiritual Roots and Successes (Paradise Research Publications, 1997), from which I quote Bill Wilson’s recollections of the encounter between Rowland Hazard and Carl Jung. Also helpful on the Oxford Group is Charles Braden’s These Also Believe (1949).

  Additional sources on the history of AA include New Wine: The Spiritual Roots of the Twelve Step Miracle by Mel B. (Hazelden, 1991); Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous by Ernest Kurtz (Hazelden, 1979, 1991); AA: The Way It Began by Bill Pittman (Glen Abbey Books, 1988); AA’s Godparents: Carl Jung, Emmet Fox, Jack Alexander by Igor I. Sikorsky Jr. (CompCare Publishers, 1990); and Ebby: The Man Who Sponsored Bill W. by Mel B. (Hazelden, 1998). I benefited from the reissued 1939 first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, published by Anonymous Press, and the fourth edition of the “Big Book” published by AA.

  Except where noted, Glenn Clark is quoted from his autobiography, A Man’s Reach (Macalester Park Publishing Company), originally issued in 1949 and published posthumously with an epilogue by Marcia Brown in 1977. Charles Braden’s Spirits in Rebellion (1963, 1987) considers the careers of Clark and F. L. Rawson. Bob Smith’s affinity for Clark and Camps Farthest Out appears in Dr. Bob and His Library (1992, 1994, 1998). Clark’s comments on Mussolini and appeasement are from his essay “Let Us Fight Hitler with Power,” Clear Horizons, September 1940. Also helpful is J. Gordon Melton’s article on Clark from Religious Leaders of America, second edition, edited by Melton (Gale Group, 1999).

  Sources on Ernest Holmes include Neal Vahle’s important biography Open at the Top (Open View Press, 1991); Ernest Holmes: His Life Times by Fenwicke Holmes (Dodd, Mead, 1970); In His Company: Ernest Holmes Remembered by Marilyn Leo (M Leo Presents, 2006); Gordon Melton’s biographical article in Religious Leaders of America (1999); and Ernest Holmes: The First Religious Scientist by James Reid (Science of Mind Publications, undated). For an overview of Holmes’s religious development, see Arthur Vergara’s series of historical articles published in the Cornerstone column of the 2011 and 2012 issues of Creative Mind magazine. On Fenwicke Holmes’s securities scandal see these New York Times articles: “Pastor Fights Suit to Stop Stock Sale,” May 3, 1929; “Pastor Fights Ward Move,” May 9, 1929; “Fenwicke Holmes Subpoena Vacated,” May 15, 1929; “Court Finds Pastor Sold Bogus Stock,” July 4, 1929; “Stock Fraud Bureau Finds W. H. Holmes,” July 11, 1929; “Minister’s Tactics in Stock Deal Told,” February 1, 1930; “F. L. Holmes Church Loses 4 Trustees,” February 6, 1930; “Pastor Is Indicted in Sale of Stock,” March 19, 1930; “F. L. Holmes Leaves Church Pending Trial,” March 24, 1930; “F. L. Holmes Case May 28,” May 13, 1930. Also on Fenwicke Holmes see “Pastor Grilled About His Stock Sales to Flock,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 1, 1930. High and Low Financiers, cited in the chapter, was published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1932. Joseph Campbell’s recollection is from A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell by Stephen and Robin Larsen (Doubleday, 1991). For a further perspective on Fenwicke see Jesse G. Jennings’s article “Finding Fenwicke,” Science of Mind, August 2008, and Jennings’s introduction to The Science of Mind: The Definitive Edition (Tarcher/Penguin, 2010). For Barry Zito’s and Yolanda King’s interest in Ernest Holmes see my interviews with them in, respectively, the September 2003 and April 2005 issues of Science of Mind.

  The phrases noted from Christian D. Larson’s work appear in The Ideal Made Real (Progress Company, 1909), with the exception of “be all that you can be,” which is found in Your Forces and How to Use Them (Progress Company, 1910). Sources on Larson’s background and career include the transcript of a 1940 interview/oral history that Larson gave to Maude Allison Lathem—a literar
y collaborator to Ernest Holmes—as part of an “Extension Course in the Science of Mind” offered by Holmes’s Institute of Religious Science. Also helpful are two highly engaging profiles: “The Living Legacy of Christian D. Larson” by Mark Gilbert, Science of Mind, October 2011, and “The Pathway of Roses and Christian D. Larson’s Journey in New Thought” by Jessica Hatchigan, which appeared in Science of Mind, April 2005, and was reprinted in a reissue of Larson’s The Pathway of Roses the same year by DeVorss. Also see “The Literature of ‘New Thoughters,’ ” by Frances Maule Björkman, The World’s Work, January 1910. Progress Company’s involuntary bankruptcy is reported in “Progress Company in Bankruptcy,” The Inland Printer (Chicago), September 1911. In her history paper, Lathem reports that “the plant burned to the ground”; in the same oral history Larson described relocating to Los Angeles in August 1911. Also in that interview Larson identified the circulation of his magazine as 250,000—a remarkable figure but one that squares with the overall finances of his company. Sorting through Larson’s trail of copyright registrations and re-registrations entailed reviewing U.S. copyright data, library catalogue entries, publishing trade notices, and various editions of his books. In July 1912, The Editor, a literary trade journal, noted that Larson was restarting Eternal Progress; that article also reported his essay contest. Fenwicke Holmes discussed Larson’s influence in his Ernest Holmes (1970). For further background on Larson’s “Optimist Creed” (originally published as “Promise Yourself”) see my discussion with journalist David Crumm at http://​www.​readthespirit.​com/​explore/​2012/​6/​28/​christian-​larson-​meet-​the-​ultimate-​pioneering-​optimist.​html; and the Larson anthology The Optimist Creed (Tarcher/Penguin, 2011).

  Virtually no biographical literature exists on Roy Herbert Jarrett. My account is assembled from sources including U.S. Census data for 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930; Los Angeles County birth and death records; Indiana state marriage records for 1900 and 1905; Rochester Chamber of Commerce Directory (1900–1901); U.S. copyright records and copyright data from various editions of It Works and The Meaning of the Mark; and Beverly Hills, California, real-estate records and listings. Jarrett published It Works independently in 1926 under the Larger Life Library; in about 1948 the book was licensed to the Los Angeles–based publisher Scrivener & Co.; and by 1978 it was published by the California press DeVorss, which retains the license today. These dates are sometimes difficult to pin down, as DeVorss also distributed the work at various points and records overlap among the various publishers. Sales estimates are based on information that Scrivener and DeVorss periodically provided to the book trade, along with an estimate of more recent sales through BookScan. Jarrett published The Meaning of the Mark in 1931 under his Larger Life Library; those rights, too, passed to Scrivener for a time beginning around 1948. Jarrett is reported joining the Jewell F. Stevens Company in the trade journal Printers’ Ink, May 14, 1931. For information on the American Multigraph Company I drew upon company brochures and users’ bulletins from 1919; “Multigraph Hundred Pointers Hold Big Convention,” Office Appliances, September 1922; “District Meeting for Multigraph,” Office Appliances, May 1927; and “Graphic Merger,” Time, November 24, 1930, from which Tim Thrift is quoted. Jarrett’s cause of death appears on his death certificate, dated August 28, 1937.

  Emile Coué is quoted on will and imagination from his book Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion (Malkan Publishing Co., 1922). Coué is quoted in Chicago from “Coué Proves Theory Worth,” Los Angeles Times, February 7, 1923 (I altered the article’s amusing use of the phonetic “ze” for “the” in its attempt to capture Coué’s French accent). Additional articles on Coué’s first American tour (he returned briefly in 1924) include “Crowd in Orchestra Hall Cheers Coué as His First Attempt in Chicago to Effect Cure Seems a Success,” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 7, 1923; “Youth’s Tremors Quieted by Coué,” New York Times, January 14, 1923; and “Emile Coué Dead, a Mental Healer,” New York Times, July 3, 1926. For an engaging look back at Coué’s Chicago visit see “Emile Coué: Chicago’s Miracle Man” by John R. Schmidt at www.​wbez.​org/​blog/​john-​r-​schmidt/​2012-​02-​06/​emile-​Coué-​chicagos-​miracle-​man-​95980. The headline from Marcus Garvey’s Negro World appeared September 15, 1923, and the editorial quote is from February 10, 1923—for both references I am indebted to Robert A. Hill’s Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, vol. 10 (University of California Press, 2006). Coué is quoted on his American audiences from My Method, Including American Impressions (Doubleday, Page & Company, 1923). Additional sources on Coué include The Scientific Explanation of Mind Healing by Albert Amao, Ph.D. (Quest, 2014); The Practice of Autosuggestion by C. Harry Brooks (Dodd, Mead and Company, 1922); “Bypassing the Will: The Automatization of Affirmations” by Delroy L. Paulhus from The Handbook of Mental Control edited by Daniel M. Wegner and James W. Pennebaker (Prentice Hall, 1993); Suggestion and Autosuggestion by Charles Baudouin (George Allen & Unwin, 1920); “Emile Coué’s Method of ‘Conscious Autosuggestion’ ” by Donald Robertson, 2006-2009, posted at the website of the UK College of Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy (http://​ukhypnosis.​wordpress.​com/​2009/​06/​17/​emile-​coues-​method-​of-​%E2​%80%​9Cconscious-​autosuggestion​%E2​%80​%9D/); and Huber’s The American Idea of Success (1971, 1987).

  Frank B. Robinson is quoted on his money-back guarantee from “ ‘Money-Back’ Religion,” UPI, March 30, 1936. Robinson is quoted on his awakening experience from The Strange Autobiography of Frank B. Robinson (Psychiana, 1941); also helpful on Robinson’s conversion is They Have Found a Faith by Marcus Bach (Bobbs-Merrill, 1946). Robinson is quoted on “the creative God-law” from his lesson plans, with thanks to John Black at www.​johnblack.​com/​Psychiana/​lessons.​html. Robinson’s call for “a workable, useable God” is from Bach (1946). Robinson’s plan to help Finland is from “Idaho Publisher Offers Finns Plan to Beat Reds,” UPI, December 3, 1939. On Robinson’s finances and the Holmes-Robinson collaborations, I benefited from a wide range of Psychiana papers, correspondence, and transcripts of the Holmes-Robinson speaking appearances, archived at the University of Idaho Library Special Collections. I have written more extensively about Robinson’s financial affairs in Occult America (2009). Marcus Bach’s eulogy is from his “Life and Death of Psychiana,” Christian Century, January 2, 1957. Other key works on Robinson include These Also Believe by Charles S. Braden (Macmillan, 1949); the pamphlet “Psychiana: The Psychological Religion” by Keith P. Petersen (Latah County Historical Society, 1991); and Bach’s Strange Sects and Curious Cults (Dodd, Mead, 1961). Key articles include “Psychiana—The New Religion” by Clifford M. Drury, The Presbyterian Banner, August 3, 1933; “Moscow, Idaho, Once Home to a Booming Religion Known as Psychiana” by Rich Roesler, [Spokane] Spokesman-Review, September 3, 1996; “Money-Back Religion,” Time, January 17, 1938; “Death of Psychiana,” Newsweek, March 24, 1952; “Mail-Order Messiah” by Fred Colvig, Sunday Oregonian, December 26, 1937; and “A Visit to the Man Who Talked with God” by Herman Edwards, Sunday Oregonian, December 24, 1939.

  On the career of the Fillmores, I have benefited from Charles Fillmore by Hugh D’Andrade (Harper & Row, 1974); James W. Teener’s doctoral dissertation, Unity School of Christianity (University of Chicago Divinity School, 1939); The Unity Movement by Neal Vahle; and The Household of Faith by James Dillet Freeman (Unity School of Christianity, 1951). Charles Fillmore is quoted on his “chronic pains” from D’Andrade, and on “Pure Mind Healing” from Freeman. Sidney Sheldon’s recollections are from an undated interview at www.​harpercollins.​com/​author/​authorExtra.​aspx?​authorID=​18495&​isbn13=​9780060559342&​displayType=​book​interview. Marcus Bach is quoted from his book Report to Protestants (Bobbs-Merrill, 1948).