Although Prentice
Mulford was one of the earliest pioneers of the New Thought
teaching, he is still comparatively little known or read.
Prentice Mulford was
described as the strangest of men. He envisioned the airplane and
radio and prophesized mental telepathy and practiced it. At the age of
22, Prentice sailed to California. Here he was a gold miner, cook, school teacher, lecturer and observer
of human nature, but made his fortune not from gold but by his
interesting and imaginative articles and books. He was a fixture in
San Francisco literary circles with the likes of Twain, Harte, and the
Bohemian set in the 1860's. He wrote dozens of humorous short stories
for the Overland Monthly, Golden Era, Californian, and other local
journals. He referred to himself as "Dogberry".
In 1865 he became
interested in mental and spiritual phenomena and lived in an old
whaleboat cruising San Francisco Bay. After returning from a trip
abroad, Prentice Mulford lived for the next 17 years as a hermit in
the swamps of Passaic, New Jersey. It was there that he wrote some of
his finest works on mental and spiritual laws dealing in the topic
Thought Currents and How to Use Them.
His essays embody a
particular philosophy, and represent a peculiar phase of insight into
the mystery which surrounds man. The essays were the work, as the
insight was the gift, of a man who owed nothing to books, perhaps not
much to what is ordinarily meant by observation, and nearly everything to reflection nourished by contact with nature. To
many his thoughts may seem but dreams; to others they are priceless
truths.
Mulford was a wise
teacher, which is apparent from his words: "In the
spiritual life every person is his or her own discoverer, and you need
not grieve if your discoveries are not believed in by others. It is
your business to push on, find more and increase your own individual
happiness."
To him
is due the credit of having been a pioneer in the thought that is now
influencing people throughout the world, and his influence is very
apparent in the writings of all the teachers of the same school that
have followed him.
At age 57, Mulford
decided to return to Sag Harbor where he passed away peacefully,
without any apparent illness or pain, alone in his boat en route.
After 30 years in an unmarked grave, Mulford's body was taken to
Oakland Cemetery in Sag Harbor where a large stone was placed on his
grave with these words: "Thoughts are Things".
Your
Forces and How to Use Them (1907)
Thoughts
Are Things