[ This post is a part of Jenny Mannion's Heroes of Healing Group Writing Project. ]
Hero Of Healing – Ernest Holmes
The teachings of Dr. Ernest Shurtleff Holmes (1887-1960) can be summed up by the following quote:
“There is a power greater than you in the universe, and you can use it.”
He was a leader in the New Thought movement, codified the “Science of Mind” philosophy, and founded The Church of Religious Science.
Dr. Holmes referred to his “Science of Mind” philosophy as being “open at the top” – in other words, it wasn’t a hard coded, unchanging doctrine, but a living thing that could be added to as new information came to light, or taken away from if evidence was presented that contradicted it.
There were three major influences on Dr. Holmes:
- Christian Science – When Holmes lived in Boston, he studied public speaking, and his teacher was a reader at the Christian Science Mother Church. He attended one Sunday in order to see his instructor in action, and ended up being fascinated by Mary Baker Eddy’s philosophy.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson – Holmes said that “Reading Emerson is like drinking water to me.” I remember reading somewhere that The Over-Soul was one of his favorites.
- Thomas Troward – Troward’s Doré Lectures and Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science brought the above ideas together in Holmes mind, and helped him to finally put together The Science of Mind.
Holmes was a true independent thinker. He called his philosophy a science because he believed it could be proved experientially, and was more interested in results than in the philosophy itself. Another interesting fact is that he never planned on starting a church – he originally wanted to set them up as teaching centers, but was influenced otherwise. It seems that currently, many Religious Science churches have gone the way of calling themselves “centers.”
[ Disclaimer for those who need it: the above is *not* intended to be a scholarly examination of Holmes' life, just a few interesting facts that I've picked up from the internet, books, sermons, and lectures. Just picture a big old Wikipedia style *citation needed* after every statement 
]
Video
I couldn’t find any publicly available video (or even audio) of Dr. Holmes. There are quite a few Religious Science churches who make their sermons and teachings available, but none of Ernest Holmes himself. If you have a link to freely available audio or video, please feel free to let us know about it in the comments section.
Resources
- The International Centers for Spiritual Living and The United Centers for Spiritual Living are the two organizations which grew out of Ernest Holmes’ original Church of Religious Science.
- The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes
- Creative Mind by Ernest Holmes
What I (Lyman Reed) learned From Ernest Holmes
Like the quote way up there says – I learned that there truly is a power greater than me in the universe, and that I can use it.
Holmes’ core concepts were a very radical departure from my previous beliefs (I used to be a fundamentalist Christian), and one of the reasons that his work was so fascinating to me is it’s openness and practicality. If it works, use it. If not, toss it.
I also remember finding out that he considered himself more of a collector and synthesizer of information than a creator. He understood that there really is nothing new under the sun, and that all we do is put concepts that already exist together in new ways. The truth is already out there – we just need to discover (and use) it!
When I was early in my sobriety, attending The DuPage Church of Religious Science (now the DuPage Center for Spiritual Living) was vital to my survival. I regularly saw one of their practitioners who charged me next to nothing (and often nothing). It’s not an exaggeration to say that Rev. Kathy Mertes was one of the major players in saving my life.
I no longer attend a Religious Science church on a regular basis, but the teachings still guide my life. It really was an honor for me to be able to do a little writing about Ernest Holmes for the Heroes of Healing Project, and I hope that if his work sounds interesting you’ll take some time and explore his ideas further.
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Hi Lyman, Thank you so much for your inspiring post on Ernest Holmes. I am definitely interested in learning even more about him now! Thank you also for contributing to the Group Project — I can see many people being inspired by Ernest Holme’s work. It has been wonderful to work with you and I hope we can do more together in the future. Gratefully, Jenny
Interesting man. I had never heard of him till now. What a forward thinker.
I heard a lot about Ernest Holmes before, but you really shed some light about his past. I like his teachings, so thank you for reminding me of him.
@Jenny – Thanks again for inviting me to participate! I *so* want to send people to the new page for the project right now, but I’ll be good and wait.
And I’d be happy to work with you again on anything.
@Peter – Many people haven’t heard of Holmes… he was much more about the message than the messenger, and that applied to himself as well. I’m glad you enjoyed learning about him.
@Nathalie – Happy to jog the memory (when it’s helpful, at least.)
hey cool – I like those New Thought kind of old school dudes. I hadn’t heard of this guy before so I will have to check him out some more. I also used to be a fundamentalist Christian kind of by default though being a child of FC parents. I got the hell out by the time I was 14 and never went back (out of the Church not my parent’s house, they’re cool).
@Seamus – I’m glad you liked it. My own parents were/are pastors (dad’s dead, mom still is) in the United Church of Christ, which is one of the more “liberal” Christian denominations… so a big part of my own going conservative was some kind of rebel thing, probably.
After a lot of exploring and coming across Religious Science, for a while I thought of it as “Unitarian Christian Science.”
Thanks for the comment!
As a Religious Science minister, I am delighted to see an article written about Dr. Holmes that is accurate and up to date. This teaching has dramatically changed my life for the good. I was raised an Orthodox Jewish girl and this teaching just resonated with me. It never contradicted anything I learned growing up in Judaism. And, because it is “open at the top” we consider ourselves a church of choice. As Dr. Holmes said/wrote in his final piece of writing, “the sermon by the sea” ….
“we stand for something and not against anything”.
Glad you are spreading the news of who and what we are. I believe people are ready in a BIG way for our principles.
Well done; thank you– blessings, Rev. Iris
Maryland
Rev. Iris – thanks so much for your comment. It’s pretty cool knowing that someone on the “inside” thought that this was a decent write up.
“We stand for something and not against anything.” That’s just outstanding. Thanks for sharing that as well.
I love what you wrote about Ernest Holmes. He has been a huge influence in my life since the early 1970’s. I studied him and changed my life and went on to become a Minster. I am in St. Louis and I do have some audio tapes of Ernest Holmes.
Blessings,
Rev. Marigene
Thanks, Rev. Marigene… I’m listening to your New Years message right now. One of these days, I’m going to darken the door of a Religious Science Center again.
If I’m ever anywhere near St. Louis, I’m definitely going to swing by ask if I can borrow one or more of those tapes!
I’d love to hear them.