Ernest Holmes is the founder of Religious Science whose spiritual philosophy is known as “The Science of Mind.” He was born in 1887, in Lincoln, Maine. He left school and family for Boston, Massachusetts at age 15. There he was introduced to Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health, as well as Christian Science.
In 1912 Holmes joined his brother Fenwicke in Venice, California. In addition to taking up a job with the city government, Holmes and his brother, a Congregationalist minister, studied the writings of Thomas Troward, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Walker Atkinson, and Christian D. Larson.
In 1927 he married Hazel Durkee Foster. She died in 1957. Holmes died on April 7, 1960.
After leading small private meetings throughout Los Angeles, in 1916, Ernest Holmes was invited to speak at the Metaphysical Library in Los Angeles. This led to repeat engagements, and a nationwide tour. In 1919 he published his first book, The Creative Mind, and after almost a decade of touring, Holmes committed to remaining in the L.A. area to complete his major work, The Science of Mind. It was published in 1926. That year Holmes started speaking each Sunday morning in a theatre in the Ambassador Hotel that seated 625. In November 1927, he moved to the 1,295-seat Ebell Theatre. Holmes’ lectures continued moving to ever-larger spaces, including Biltmore Hotel, and the Wiltern Theatre. which seats more than 2800.
In February 1927, Holmes incorporated the Institute of Religious Science and School of Philosophy, Inc., and later that year he began publishing Science of Mind magazine, which is still in publication today. In 1935 he reincorporated his organization as the Institute of Religious Science and Philosophy, and in 1954 it was reestablished yet again as a religious organization called the Church of Religious Science. Today the organization is known as The Centers For Spiritual Living.
Dr. Holmes developed a universal philosophy and tools for spiritual living that profoundly resonate to this day. His work provides us with a personal spiritual path, an understanding of our relationship with the Universe, and a connected and joyful approach to daily living.
The following is a statement of beliefs published by Ernest Holmes in the 1920s.
- I believe in God, the Living Spirit Almighty; one, indestructible, absolute and self-existent Cause. This One manifests itself in and through all creation, but is not absorbed by its creation. The manifest universe is the body of God; it is the logical and necessary outcome of the infinite self-knowingness of God.
- I believe in the incarnation of the Spirit in all, and that we are all incarnations of the One Spirit.
- I believe in the eternality, the immortality, and the continuity of the individual soul, forever and ever expanding.
- I believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is within me and that I experience this Kingdom to the degree that I become conscious of it.
- I believe the ultimate goal of life to be a complete emancipation from all discord of every nature, and that this goal is sure to be attained by all.
- I believe in the unity of all life, and that the highest God and the innermost God is one God.
- I believe that God is personal to all who feel this indwelling Presence.
- I believe in the direct revelation of Truth through my intuitive and spiritual nature, and that anyone may become a revealer of Truth who lives in close contact with the Indwelling God.
- I believe that the Universal Spirit which is God, operates through a Universal Mind, which is the Law of God; and that I am surrounded by this Creative Mind which receives the direct impress of my thought and acts upon it.
- I believe in the healing of the sick through the power of the Mind.
- I believe in the control of conditions through the power of the Mind.
- I believe in the eternal Goodness,
the eternal Loving-kindness and the eternal Givingness of Life to all. - I believe in my own soul, my own spirit, and my own destiny;
for I understand that the life I live is God.