Welcome to New Thought, Santa Fe... 
My name is Jim Nolan, and I am the President of Southwestern College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Southwestern College was founded as "Quimby College", first offering classes in 1979, and is now accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and the American Art Therapy Association.
Phineas Quimby was the modern day Father of New Thought and came from a long line of spiritual thinkers and healers. It seems like the great thinkers of all times shared some similar, fundamental understandings of how the universe works. There were times when these understandings were dangerous to espouse (due to the dogmatic ignorance of those in power) or dangerous to share (due to the possibility that people with dubious motives might use this power in a not-good way), or simply were NOT shared (because those who claimed to have special knowledge wanted to use it in a hierarchical way to hold power and influence over others) and so these understandings were taught and held largely in so-called "Mystery Schools", "Hedge Schools" Secret Societies and the like....
Here in the United States, these "Perennial Wisdom" teachings were re-discovered and cultivated in a uniquely American way, leading to a tradition in this country known as "New Thought." Quimby was known as the "Father", Emma Curtis Hopkins has been called the Founder of ORGANIZED New Thought, and Ralph Waldo Emerson has been called (at least once) the "High Priest of New Thought"....
Some of the key writers associated with New Thought :
--Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (Quimby College, now Southwestern College, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was named after him, originally...)
--Emma Curtis Hopkins (http://emmacurtishopkins.wwwhubs.com/) 
--Ernest Holmes (http://ernestholmes.wwwhubs.com/) 
--The Fillmores (http://www.unityofspringfield.com/charles_and_myrtle_fillmore.htm) 
--Malinda Cramer (http://malindacramer.wwwhubs.com/)
--Emmett Fox (http://emmetfox.wwwhubs.com/)
--Thomas Troward (http://thomastroward.wwwhubs.com/)
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (http://www.transcendentalists.com/1emerson.html)
--Abraham-Hicks (http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php)
