There are several national or international organizations that have formed around New Thought, and here I wanted to share with you the Principles of the International New Thought Alliance (INTA) to give you an idea what a more formal stance from New Thought might look like......
The INTA Declaration of Principles reads as follows (In the white are the principles, in the darker font are my comments and observations...):
1. We affirm God as Mind, Infinite Being, Spirit, Ultimate Reality.
2. We affirm God, the Good, is supreme, universal, and everlasting.
3. We affirm the unity of God and humanity, in that the divine nature dwells within and expresses through each of us, by means of our acceptance of it, as health, supply, wisdom, love, life, truth, power, beauty and peace. (Of course one can hear here the Unity Church language as it was developed by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, becoming the largest New Thought lineage in the world...)
4. We affirm the power of prayer and the capacity of each person to have mystical experience with God, and to enjoy the grace of God. (This speaks to the democratic, more modern American New Thought position of moving away from hierarchy, Mystery School structure, guruism and the like. I liked Connie Buffalo's language: "Dis-intermediation"--that is, no longer needing a translator, tour guide, guru, go-between to have an experience with God. We can all have the Mystical Experience, that is, the direct experience of Divinity...We are reminded here, too, that Quimby, a huge fan of the man, Jesus, whose high level of evolution earned him the title of "The Christ", despised Christian churches and the priesthood, not to mention physicians, which two groups he blamed as the biggest creators of disease during his time...
5. We affirm the freedom of all persons as to beliefs, and we honor the diversity of humanity by being open and affirming of all persons, affirming the dignity of human beings as founded on the presence of God. (This clearly underscores that New Thought was not tied into creeds, dogma or -isms, but allowed for the Truth brought forth or illuminated by any traditionthat did so....)
6. We affirm that we are all spiritual beings, dwelling in a spiritual universe, that is governed by spiritual law, and that in alignment with spiritual law, we can heal, prosper, and harmonize.
7. We affirm that our mental states are carried forward into manifestation and become our experience in daily living. (This is common in many New Thought streams and is central to Law of Attraction, as articulated by William Walker Atkinson in 1907, and later Abraham-Hicks in their popular writings. It is also found in the Bible...)
8. We affirm the manifestation of the kingdom of heaven here and now. ("Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21)
9. We affirm the exprression of the highests spiritual principle in loving one another unconditionally, promoting the highest good for all, teaching and healing one another, ministering to one another, and living together in peace, in accordance with the teachings of Jesus and other enlightened teachers.
10. We affirm our evolving awareness of the nature of reality and our willingness to refine our beliefs accordingly. (This open-ness to new manifestations of perennial truths is central to New Thought, and is perhaps most neatly captured in Ernest Holmes' "open at the top" metaphor...)
