If you're looking for the best of religion, science, and philosophy in one great package, New Thought may be just the ticket.

New Thought is a powerful, human-oriented spiritual path for the free seeker. Not for the faint of heart, this path begins where all others leave off. It challenges you to think about your relationship to the universe--to God--in novel and exciting ways. It asks you to take full responsibility for your choices and actions. It asks you to release your sense of victimhood and practice a kind of forgiving you never thought you'd be able to practice. New Thought challenges you to release your need for dependence and your need for independence; it prepares you for interdependence, the way of active love. Are you up for it, or are you content to rest in the old dogmas? "A belief is just a thought you keep thinking. Change your thinking, change your life." The way is open. And you're invited. . .

Rather than being dogmatically rigid, New Thought is open at the top. In recent years there has been a strong emphasis on manifesting material abundance. That way of thinking grew out resistance to the old "it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." But New Thought originally began as a way of healing all parts of our lives. The movement, now more than 150 years old, is growing wiser and more patient with age. People within the movement are recognizing the need for deep inner observation rather than trying to accumulate more things. In fact, when I hear self-help and pop psychology speakers talking about manifesting material abundance as if that were the main point, it sounds almost quaint. Most of my New Thought compatriots would agree. The emphasis is returning to its roots: healing of mind, body, spirit, as well as our material lives. Inner healing is the key to the healing of the world. We can't give what we don't possess.

Over the years, New Thought has been criticized by more traditional religionists for providing no solid moral code or law. Untrue. Though New Thought's 'code' is short, it is powerful. In a nutshell:

1. There is but One Power, One Presence, One Life. That life is my life now.

2. Change your mind, change your life.

3. Do the least harm and the most good.

4. Enjoy who you are, where you are, and what you have...now.

5. Observe with interest the world within you and the world around you. Pay attention.

6. Learn continually.

7. Help where you can. Be open to service. It always returns, manyfold.

8. Choose love. Love is the healer, the doer, the Way.

The rest is up to us, individually. How we apply this 'code' determines our level of fulfillment. As Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom...and all the rest will be added..." The kingdom is within; look there and be amazed!