Ernest Holmes (1887–1960) was an internationally renowned teacher of religious psychology, a beloved scholar, mystic, and prolific author, who founded the Science of Mind. He believed in a religion that was hopeful, practical, democratic, and all-encompassing, and built around a practice of prayer in which one “prays the answer instead of the problem.”

The Essential Ernest Holmes delves into all of Ernest’s writings, exploring his quiet, devotional writings as well as his impassioned, chalk in-hand teachings to future leaders. His love of people and facility for seeing past their problems into the heart of their eternal being anticipates modern psychology, while relating the human condition to a limitless ability to choose what to think and how to feel.

Figuring people out is like guessing the combination to a lock, where every number is infinity. Happily, the art of spiritual healing through affirmative prayer does not depend on unearthing the depths of complex human thought. Instead, one set of beliefs is simply exchanged for another. It’s that simple, although letting go of those thoughts and behaviors which no longer serve us can, at times, feel anything but easy. A person believing that he or she is of no worth, unappreciated and powerless, separate from God and the rest of creation, causes the self to pick its way through life so that impediments, betrayals, maladies, and overall emptiness follow, as if those beliefs were accurate and God-ordained, no matter that they are not.

It is not done unto us as we were taught to believe, nor as we hope to someday believe, but as we do believe in the here and now. Believing we’re worthless doesn’t make us worth any less than before, nor does believing we are wonderful make us any more wonderful than we already are. Each approach does, however, cause us to think and speak and act as though our beliefs were true, and thus to attract to ourselves (and attract ourselves to) corresponding predicaments or opportunities, as well as other people who are busy believing similarly.

This class is not really about Ernest Holmes, what he believed and why, and how we ought to place him on a pedestal. It’s doubtful that you’re interested in this class because you’re looking for a hero to worship. This class is about you, using Ernest’s writings as a foundation from which to create the life you aspire to; a life of expanded possibilities and greater fulfillment, one belief at a time.