Ralph Waldo Trine (1866–1958)

This book reads like a series of sermons and draws on the "law of attraction". Apparently, it inspired the book Think and Grow Rich. In its modern form, it might be compared to The Secret, but Trine was an academic and his practical influence inspired the likes of Henry Ford to greatness. This work is of the New Thought Movement which apparently developed from Christian Science. Members of the Christian Science church believe that illness can be cured by prayer alone and works best when not combined with medicine. Yet members of the congregation have often been in trouble with the law for refusing to give their children medicine. None of this is covered by Trine, but he too suggests that the ailments of the body are a result of poor living and can be cured through right living. When taken to the extreme, it seems that Trine's work is less helpful in a practical sense. However, Trine's work draws on the teachings of Jesus and his scholarly background is obvious. Trine states (p. 108):

It has been my aim to base nothing on the teachings of others, though they may be the teachings of those inspired.

Yet it is obvious that he was familiar with Stoicism and the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Trine's work is inspiring and I took copious notes. He suggests that all religions are based on a single truth and that it does not matter what religion one follows. He covers a lot of ground, including pedagogy (p. 67):

The true teacher is one whose endeavour is to bring the one they teach to a true knowledge of himself and hence of his or her own interior powers, that they may become their own interpreter.

He discusses the creation of art, literature, and music and suggests that great works emanate from one who knows both God and oneself, echoing the ideas of the ancient Greek philosophers. Further, his work echoes Nietzsche's concept of amor fati (p. 52):

You must recognise, you must realise yourself as one with Infinite Spirit. God's will is then your will, your will is God's will, and with God all things are possible.

While I will not be taking Trine's medical advice any time soon, there is much to be gained from a reading of this work. Originally published in 1897, it is one of the earliest self-help books I have read. Although he was at one time a salesman, Trine was no charlatan - he was a philosopher and a teacher and lived to the age of 92, realising in many ways what he argues in this book. This work amounts to a series of sermons based on some of the greatest philosophical ideas about the inner life. Although it is not referenced (although he occasionally refers to authors and prominent individuals), this is as good an overview of the inner life as I have read. The big lesson I take away from this book is to have faith and to be cautious of the thought-word-action cycle so as to avoid self-fulfilling prophecies. But make sure you go to the doctor if you get sick.… (mere)

The Recovery Bible: A Convenient Anthology

The Recovery Bible is an anthology of the original, first-edition Big Book (complete with stories) and works by William James (The Varieties of Religious Experience) and others who are said to have influenced early AA. The book’s main value is one of convenience, in that it brings these various works together into one volume. Until recently, a first- edition copy of the Big Book was difficult to find, but that is no longer a problem now that AA World Services has published the 75th anniversary edition of that work. All the other selections are available in various editions.

The six selections that accompany the Big Book fall into two groups. On one side is William James, Sam Shoemaker, and Henry Drummond, all of whom emphasize a practical, experience-based spirituality. James is recognized for his contribution to AA’s understanding of a spiritual experience and awakening, and its relation to the concept of surrender. Shoemaker was the Oxford Group’s leader in NYC with whom Bill W. worked very closely and to whom he attributed many of the ideas that went into the 12 Steps. His emphasis on a faith that works is also found in "The Greatest Thing in the World," by Henry Drummond. The latter places great stress on the virtues (e.g., humility, kindness, love) as spiritual principles and on the concept of practice as the means of acquiring and living them out. A common theme in all three works is the idea that to a great extent you are what you do. Hence the need for right action.

The other three writings represent ideas once linked to "New Thought" and now associated with the self-help and New Age movements. These are Ralph Waldo Trine’s “In Tune with the Infinite” (the law of attraction), Emmet Fox’s “The Mental Equivalent” (change your thought and your mind will follow), and James Allen’s As a Man Thinketh (as you think, so are you). These writings trade on the idea that who you are and what happens to you is to a great extent determined by the way you think. Thought is understood not so much in rational as in esoteric or metaphysical terms, as a universal force or cosmic stream with which we need to align our own thinking if we are to succeed in life.

Anthologies generally have an editor. This one doesn’t. That may account for its main deficiency, with is the absence of an introduction which would put each selection in context and show how the Big Book [and AA were] was influenced by it. The brief, one-paragraph biographical note for each author in the back of the book doesn’t compensate for this lack.

Notwithstanding that, the anthology is worth owning, though reading the six supplemental works (other than the Big Book) requires great commitment and patience.… (mere)

Although he authored dozens of books which sold millions of copies, and his ideas "influenced" Ernest Holmes (founder of Religious Science) and Henry Ford (bought his books en masse), Ralph Waldo Trine is now infamous as a prime source of material now released from copyright protection, being plagiarized by the current crop of "religious" preachers. The "New Thought" movement of the late 1800s was inspired and reflected in this work.

Trine rarely indulged in scholarship or science, or for that matter, theology or hermeneutics. He wrote for inspiration in hard times and for money. "The word heaven means harmony. The word hell is from the old English hell, meaning to build a wall around, to separate; to be 'helled' was to be shut off from." [14] This is incorrect etymology, cited without authority, but he makes such an upllfted point of it.

The following is a theme in all of his books, and one relentlessly plagiarized before and since: "This is the law of prosperity: When apparent adversity comes, be not cast down by it, but make the best of it, and always look forward for better things, for conditions more prosperous. To hold yourself in this attitude of mind is to set into operation suble, silent and irresistible forces that sooner or later will actualize in material form that which is today merely an idea. But ideas have occult power, and ideas, when rightly planted and rightly tended, are the seeds that actualized material conditions." [138]

RWT lived off his royalties and metaphysical seminars at Oscawana. He and his poet/wife Grace, moved to Claremont, California, in the "Plymouth Place" spiritual community, where he died at age 91 tending his garden.… (mere)