First steps in mental science |
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Title : | First steps in mental science |
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Creator : | Benham, Agnes Nesbit | ||
Date of creation : | 1895 | ||
Format : | Book | ||
Dimensions : | 220 x 145 mm | ||
Catalogue record | |||
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Description : |
Agnes Benham was a socialist and radical. She came of a family who read widely about new thoughts in religion, sexuality and philosophy, and was a sister to the brilliant but unbalanced lawyer, Paris Nesbit. Agnes contributed to her brother's religious newspaper Morning (later re-named Century) in which many of their beliefs were disseminated. She was very interested in theosophy, believing that there must be a progression from the physical plane of the natural world to the non-physical plane of the world of the spirit. The task for human beings was to ascend to this spiritual plane, which was possible through the natural (and therefore good) phenomenon of love - the binding principle of nature. This was related to the 'New Thought' movement of the 1890s, which had much in common with theosophy, but believd in the mental potential of each individual. Benham wrote 'Our souls are individualised portions of Spirit - rays (from the Great Sun of Spirit we call God) projected far into matter' (Morning 17 October 1900). |
Subjects | |
Related names : | Benham, Agnes Nesbit, 1850-1932 Nesbit, Paris, 1852-1927 |
Coverage year : | 1895 |
Place : | Adelaide (S. Aust.) |
Further reading : | Geddes, Anne and Hammond, Margaret. 'Agnes Nesbit Benham: sexual reform and socialism in Adelaide,' Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, no. 15 (1987) pp. 110-123   Lewis, James R. Encyclopedia of cults, sects and new religions, Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1998   Loughlin, Graham. 'Nesbit, (Edward) Paris(s) (1852-1927)', Australian dictionary of biography, vol. 11, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1988, pp. 1-2   Morning, Adelaide: Carl Richter, 1900 |