Mind-healing movement that originated in the U.S. in the 19th century.
Its earliest proponent, Phineas P. Quimby (180266), was a mesmerist who taught that illness is mental. New Thought was influenced by philosophers ranging from Plato to Emanuel Swedenborg , Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , and Ralph Waldo Emerson and in turn influenced Mary Baker Eddy 's Christian Science . The International New Thought Alliance (formed 1914) asserts that sin and illness stem from incorrect thinking. New Thought groups emphasize Jesus as a teacher and healer and proclaim his kingdom as being within each person.