Ernest Holmes 1887 - 1960

The philosophy of Ernest Holmes, which was to make him a central figure in the emerging spiritual consciousness of the Twentieth Century, was one of fulfillment, joy and unity with all life.

Ernest Holmes founded the International Religious Science movement, wrote The Science of Mind and numerous other books on metaphysics, and originated the international periodical Science of Mind Magazine, which has been in continuous monthly publication since 1927.

Holmes’s Science of Mind™ teaching, recognized today as one of the leading viewpoints in modern metaphysics, is a spiritual philosophy that has brought to people throughout the world a working cosmology - a sense of their relationship to God and their place in the Universe - and a positive, supportive approach to daily living.

Ernest Holmes was born on January 21, 1887, on a small Maine farm, the youngest of the nine sons of William and Anna Holmes. With devoted, intelligent parents, the boys were happy and unaware of their poverty. A series of financial disasters forced the family to live a nomadic life for several years. They settled eventually in Bethel, Maine, where Ernest received his only formal education and encountered his first actual church. There, “hellfire” preaching was sometimes heard, and he said later, “Fortunately I was brought up by a mother who refused to have fear taught to her family.” Everyone in the family, including Ernest, was an avid reader. He asked so many questions that he became known as “the eternal question mark.”

At 17, Ernest was a student in Bethel preparatory school, but he spent most of his time out-of-doors, asking himself, “What is God?” “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” He mentally tangled with all the local preachers and doubted the answers he got in church. At the age of 18 he left school and formal education forever and set out on his lifelong course of independent thinking. He went to Boston, worked in a grocery store and pursued his studies relentlessly. A year later, he discovered Emerson. “Reading Emerson is like drinking water to me,” he said later. His metaphysical studies intensified, his quest for Truth leading him to - and through - literature, art, science, philosophy, and religion.

In 1914, at the age of 25, Ernest moved to Venice, California, to be near his brother, Fenwick, who was a Congregational minister there. Working for the City of Venice and pursuing his studies, he discovered the writings of Thomas Troward, which fed the flame ignited by Emerson earlier. Almost casually, he began speaking on Troward’s writings to small but ever-growing groups. Without ceremony, his lifetime of ministry had begun. Later, as his audience grew, he was ordained as a minister of the Divine Science Church.

Ernest published his first book, Creative Mind, in 1919, continued his studies, and lectured to growing crowds in California and Eastern cities. Meanwhile , he was writing The Science of Mind, which was to become the “textbook” of the Religious Science philosophy. Published in 1926, it was revised in 1938, is now in its 45th printing, and has been translated into French, German, and Japanese. At the time the book was published, his many enthusiastic students urged him to set up an incorporated organization. He refused at first, but eventually agreed, and the Institute of Religious Science and School of Philosophy was incorporated in 1927.

The year 1927 was notable for other reasons. Ernest founded Science of Mind Magazine and he married his beloved Hazel Foster, who would share his life until her transition in 1957. Ernest and Hazel were active in the burgeoning culture of Southern California - which included stars, Norman Vincent Peale, Albert Einstein, and the many university professors who taught at the Institute. Ernest could converse with anyone, but what he really wanted to talk about was Truth. It was his life.

The busy years went by. The Institute acquired a beautiful property at Sixth and New Hampshire, (now the Home Office of the International Centers for Spiritual Living). In 1953, the Institute became the Church of Religious Science. In 1957, Ernest lost his beloved Hazel, and life changed for him. In 1959, with his brother Fenwick, he completed an epic poem, The Voice Celestial, perhaps his greatest creative expression. In January 1960, he presided at the dedication of the beautiful Founders Church, adjacent to the Headquarters building. Three months later, on April 7, he made his transition. A few weeks earlier, he spoke of his vision for the Science of Mind™. “The human heart,” he said, “longs as a hungry man longs for bread, for spiritual food. It longs for that which will make it whole, and I think that’s what our teaching can do - reveal the Self to the self.

Abstracted from the booklet Path of Discovery, prepared by Scott Aubrey.
United Church of Religious Science, Los Angeles, 1987