Chicago Tribune, February 16, 2007

Unlocking the Mind's Power

Last Sunday, as members of the Center for Spiritual Living gathered in an auditorium on Chicago's North Side, a soloist sang the classic gospel hymn "Amazing Grace."

About 200 people swayed to the music, some lifting their hands in praise. Founding minister Mark Anthony Lord asked, "God is good, yes?" Everyone shouted, "Yes!"

"It looks like a church. It walks like a church," Lord said of the center.

But is it really a church?

To some, the center's tenets may sound more like self-help philosophy. The 3-year-old community is part of the New Thought tradition, which believes the mind can heal the body and spirit, as well as attract abundance and prosperity. Affirmations such as "Wholeness and wellness are mine" play a big part in the movement.

Interest in New Thought principles has grown with the success of "The Secret," a documentary that promotes the idea, known as the law of attraction, that you can draw good things to yourself by thinking, speaking, and feeling as if you already have them.

Oprah Winfrey and Larry King have featured "The Secret" on their shows, and a book version of the movie has spent several weeks on The New York Times best seller list.

"'The Secret' is about teaching people how to have a life that is great," Lord told the crowd. "We form our reality with our word. So what are you talking about?"

The New Thought movement, not to be confused with New Age faiths, has been around since the late 19th Century.

"At a time when doctors were quite ineffective, religious seekers came up with the idea that they could cure themselves through meditation," says Beryl Satter, associate professor of history at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J. "It took no time at all to realize that if you can meditate to improve your health, why not meditate to improve other parts of your life?"

But there's more to New Thought than the power of the mind. The movement asserts the truth of several other core principles, among them:

"There's nothing to heal. There's only God to reveal," Lord said during the center's services on Sunday.

Early leader linked to Chicago

One of New Thought's early leaders was Emma Curtis Hopkins, who was influenced by Christian Science beliefs in the healing power of prayer. She ran a New Thought seminary in Chicago at 2019 S. Indiana Ave. in the late 1800s.

Many of her students went on to found their own branches of New Thought, such as the Unity School of Christianity and Religious Science. The Center for Spiritual Living is affiliated with the latter.

New Thought's influence is evident in everything from Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking" to the affirmations of Alcoholics Anonymous, Satter said.

Lord is a former student of Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith, who appears in "The Secret." Beckwith leads one of the largest New Thought communities, the 8,000-member Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City, Calif. Beckwith will speak Friday night to a sold-out audience in the auditorium of the Agassiz School of the Fine and Performing Arts, 2851 N. Seminary Ave. This location is also where the Center for Spiritual Living holds its Sunday morning services.

Before members of the center gathered Sunday, a DVD of "The Secret" played on a TV in the lobby. Volunteers staffed tables with literature on center classes with titles such as "Beyond Limits" and "Financial Freedom."

New Thought adherents say they are sometimes mischaracterized as using their faith only to acquire material goods.

"That is so far from the truth," Beckwith said. "It's actually really about the unfolding of one's soul. Prosperity is just a dimension of that."

Many members of the center found their way to the community after growing away from the religious traditions of their upbringing. Michelle Schrag, 36, of Roscoe Village, was attending her Catholic church only on holidays when a neighbor invited her to the center.

"It took me a few months to get used to the format. But now I can't imagine being anywhere else," she said. "It's like a vitamin every week. I feel a sense of oneness. I look at everyone, and I see God."

Darrell Jones, 33, of Lincoln Square, felt so much at home at the center that he quit his administrative assistant job to work as the community's sound engineer and office assistant. For him, New Thought is about "freeing yourself from whatever you've been holding yourself hostage to," he said, like negative thinking or fearfulness.

Like several others at the center, Jones is training to become a practitioner--a counselor of sorts who practices a form of healing prayer called "spiritual mind treatment." After services, practitioners pray with others on request. They also are available through the community's prayer hot line.

'We use all books'

For many, a particularly appealing aspect is the center's acceptance of all faith traditions.

The center's services frequently include practices from Judaism, Buddhism and other traditions as well as Christianity. Sunday's gathering began with meditation and concluded with the singing of "Om shanti," a Hindu peace invocation.

Lord said he doesn't believe spiritual truth is limited to one set of scriptures. "The cool thing is we use all books," he said.

"We reference the Bible. We reference [Ralph Waldo] Emerson. We use current psychology books, books by Deepak Chopra, by Marianne Williamson. Truth comes through all people."

Another part of New Thought's appeal, Satter said, stems from its ability to "give people a sense of power and control over their lives."

But, she adds, it has the potential to blame the victim. That is, "If you follow the precepts and things don't work out, then what's wrong with you?"

But Lord said that's not what he teaches. When bad things happen, "the opportunity is not to ask, 'Why did I draw this to myself?'" he said. "That's a victim question. The opportunity is to respond, to forgive."

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Anne Ford is a full-time freelance writer in Chicago.

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