Mind Cures

Like so many young people of my generation, I was swept up in the popular trends of self-help back in the sixties and seventies. Those champions of mind-control, critical analysis and self-direction seemed to have the answers to all those questions bouncing around inside my head.

From a hip ghetto priest to a Mexican shaman to a wealth-analyzing rabbi, I was buying the whole package. I wanted to be rich and successful, or so I thought, just like everyone else around me. There was religious advice, medicinal advice, and common-sense advice; all packaged in easily readable chapters. About the same time, reel-to-reel audio tapes grew in popularity and whole audio packages were tailored to the consuming public eager for ‘the answer’ to success.

Yet even before that ‘something new’ packaging caught the public’s attention; I was aware of such classics as ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napolean Hill from 1937. Examples before that like Horatio Algier and other champions of Great Depression cemented that picture of young entrepreneurial men seeking the golden ring of life.

The 1980s saw a rebirth of that theory of mind over matter with champions of the cause like Zig Zigler, Brian Tracy, ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff’ and ‘Chicken soup for the soul,’ etc.

Back in the eighties, while marketing my own video productions, I toyed with the idea of adding a whole new line of self-help books and tapes to my distribution channel. Unfortunately, the competition was fierce and I didn’t have the capitol available for that side venture. So, I remained a buyer instead of a seller.

So, while the basics of a good work ethic was always there, these new approaches seemed much easier and more appealing. Guess I wasn’t the only one sucked into that cauldron of ‘something for nothing.’

Truth is, this capitalistic stance of ‘too good to be true’ and ‘gotta have’ material goods has been around since the first caveman found a pedestal upon which to preach. What’s interesting is that its most current revival began back in the late 1800s. From a recent reading of ‘Land of Desire,’ a history of Merchants, Power, and the rise of a new American Culture’ I gleamed a fascinating insight into the growth of the self-help movement in American beginning in the 1870s.

“Psychologist William James first called attention to the mind-cure movement in a notable way in his 1902 book ‘The Varieties of Religious Experience.’ The term had already been in vogue before, but James secured its place in history.

Mind-cure groups, he observed, consisted of several religious sects that maintained that men and women could, merely by acts of will and conviction, cure their own diseases and create heaven on earth.

Mind curers were also described as “new healers” or, later, as positive thinkers; they were more in touch than traditional religions with what was going on in America; and they proved more creative in taking advantages of new spiritual opportunities. Translation: a buck to be made.

The mind-cure groups grew out of the great religious turmoil of the 1870s and 1880s, a turning point in American religious history that not only saw the advent of many homegrown religious sects (from Ethical Culture to Jehovah’s Witnesses) but marked the decline of the preeminence of Protestantism, its earliest splintering into modernist and fundamentalist camps, and the rise of other religious communities and ideas.

Where there’s a will and a way, and in capitalistic America, money can be made with the informed offering something’ new’ to the uninformed. There were few counter-balances back at the turn of the century who were willing to shout their concerns into the wind. One of them was Thorstein Veblen, one of America’s most original economists of his time.  While he agreed that ‘the ancient Christian principles of humility, renunciation, abnegation or nonresistance had been virtually eliminated from the moral scene, he did not agree that the new capitalist world was ensuring abundance for all.’

Veblen despised this new class of business broker for shifting the economy away from making useful goods to making money or profit. These new brokers, he argued, ’knew nothing about workmanship but everything about profit, volume turnover, and the chemistry of wishes.’

Mulling over that history lesson harkens me back to my grade school years and all that indoctrination from my teachers and the adults around me. Those were the lessons of hard work, determination and some luck in finding success in life. Two different sets of directions to the road to success. While I bought into some of the positive mindset commandments, I never believed that Las Vegas crap tables, flipping old houses or gold bullion were the answers for me. It always remained balanced investments, budgeting, and a realistic lifestyle for Sharon and I.

2008 saw another blip in the ‘road to easy success’ with adjustable-rate mortgages, buying on credit, nothing down, etc. (same game plan – same result). Lately, it’s been flipping real estate, Bitcoin, ATFs, Robinhood and other exotic money-sucking ventures; all the newest versions of ‘spin the bottle.’ Something for nothing, easy way out, let someone else have the control and do it for you.’

Today’s latest high priest of mind cure unwraps itself under the banner of mindfulness. The biggest difference between then and now seems to be an appreciation for the ever-present simple things we all possess. It’s a present-day, realistic attitude for the gift of life itself. It’s an inward focus on self and one’s own control there-in verses outside influences that usually come at a cost or words from the pulpit that simply echo ancient voices of our for-profit past.