What is New Thought?: An Exercise in Googling

If you type this question into Google not surprisingly the first link that comes up is for the New Thought entry in Wikipedia. Once you click into the page the first thing you learn is that it is also referred to as Higher Thought. If you then take the term Higher Thought and place that into Google you will come across a page sharing oddball videos and photos of the meme variety. The 2nd link is to Chapter 24 of a Thomas Troward book called "The Hidden Power." He refers to a Kensington Higher Thought Centre and says the idea of Higher Thought is:

1. That Man controls circumstances, instead of being controlled by them
2. Whatever teaches us to rely on power borrowed from a source outside ourselves is not Higher Thought
3. Whatever explains to us the Infinite source of our own inherent power and the consequent limitless nature of that power is Higher Thought.

 According to Horatio Dressler who wrote the book, A History of the New Thought Movement, the name Higher Thought is the name originally preferred in England.

The 2nd entry that shows up in Google when you type the question "What is New Thought?", is a link to the New ThoughtAlliance page with the same question. They offer their "elevator answer" as follows:

“New Thought is an ever evolving understanding that all of life happens through us, never to us. It uses the term or word consciousness to further explain the process, often quoting Emmet Fox’s statement, ‘Life is consciousness,’ that leads one to the ever unfolding idea that in order to affect a change in our life, the realm of mind called consciousness must first change.”

According to Emmet Fox "Life is a state of consciousness. That is the beginning and the end."

In a nutshell as we pull out of the gate in an attempt to answer the question of "What is New Thought?" through an exercise in Googling, we find that it can also be referred to as Higher Thought although that term appears to have been hijacked by internetland. We see that Higher Thought at one time stood as a preferred term for at least one organization in England in the early 20th Century. According to Troward we are in control of our circumstances and this is the meaning of Higher Thought. He goes on to explain that our power relates with an infinite source which is limitless. According to the New Thought Alliance this evolving understanding happens through us meaning that we are active participants in this process. Emmet Fox refers to life as consciousness which is a state that acts as both the beginning and the end of the entire ball of wax.

Did you get all that?