The Creative Process in the Individual

by Thomas Troward

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Spirituality, Self Help, Metaphysics, Design

74 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 30, 2010

About the author

Thomas Troward was a judge in British-administered India, where he made a personal study of the teachings of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. After retiring from the bench in 1896, he applied his legalistic mind to matters of philosophy, and began lecturing and publishing on "Mental Science," eventually becoming president of the International New Thought Alliance.

Reviews

[Bassaidai88 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not easy reading but within the prose lies incredible insight. Basically, Troward teaches that self-contemplation, to know yourself, is the essential step to unlock your inner creative process. This echos what the ancient Greeks said (think back to Plato, Aristotle and Socrates) as well as the Eastern teachings of Bodhidharma, Funakoshi and Lao Tzu. Without that first step, nothing else will follow. Through self-contemplation, the finding of our innermost Spirit, thoughts can be transformed from the immaterial to the material. Powerful book. Unless you are knowledgeable of various philosophies, such as the teachings mentioned above, this book may be very difficult to comprehend.

[c.cobb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional book...Ernest Holmes wrote "The Science of Mind," and this is certainly the physics behind the science. If you find the writing style difficult, try reading commas as semi-colons, semi-colons as periods, and periods as paragraph breaks.

[Suze · Rating 2 out of 5]

Troward may be one of the brilliant founders of New Thought a century ago, but I drowned in the archaic writing style and got through only 60% of the book. The bits I found most helpful were those that used examples to demonstrate his concepts such as “Principle is not bound by precedent” … using the example of an old belief that heavy machines cannot fly. Although I’ve studied Ernest Holmes’ Science of Mind, I couldn’t follow Troward’s sequence of principles of Spirit, and found it a tough slog.

[Valerie Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read for anyone who wants to undertand more about the creativity of thought. Please note that I'm co founder of The Thomas Troward Society, although I have not been actively involved in the society since 1993.

[Wendy 'windmill' · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting

A really interesting book if you like all things esoteric. Although Troward raises a lot from the bible, his writing is not biblical; he shows, clearly, the workings of the world through what is written in the bible.

[Kurtis Vanderpool · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brilliant. So brilliant I can barely follow it.

[Lenin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't get through this. The text is too dense and feels complex unnecessarily.

[J.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Verbose, but enlightening.

[Natalie Gunderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative

This book contains information you didn’t even know you wanted to know. This book has the power to uplift and change your mindsets. It isn’t the quickest read but well worth it.

[Angelica Taggart · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic!

[Sue Dounim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was originally published back in 1915 and I have two hardcover editions, 11th and 25 printings. Most "New Thought" writing left me very cold; it being neither full-blooded religious or full-blooded occultism. But of all the tedious vaporings that unfortunately characterized this genre, this one book made an impact on me that persists even after 4 decades. Maybe it has more to do with the state of my mind at the time I first read it and says more about me than anything else, but I always have to write these long caveats to my "reviews" since people are so different.

Briefly, what Troward does uniquely in this book is connect a clearly observed feature of the Universe -- that is; its seemingly incessant and irresistible impulse for fecundity, variation, growth, multiplicity -- with the theory that since we humans are creations of this same unnamed Impulse, by studying its characteristics and operations we can basically "go along for the ride" and take our own small part of the abundance and creativity that appears to be the natural operation of the Creative Spirit; or God, or whatever you want to call it.

So basically I guess you could very approximately say that he is preaching the "Prosperity Gospel", but he's not blaming it on God and the Bible, but on what he sees as natural forces.

I think his theory is worth considering from a metaphysical point of view, and it would be interesting to revisit it in light of the scientific discoveries of the last 105 years and see if still holds up.

I recommend it to people who believe there may be some additional Force in the Universe over and above the chemistry, physics, and biology which seems to explain so much of it so well, but aren't ready to capitulate that all the things we don't know at present are due to a particular God or Gods.

[Finally, let me just add that of course I sought out other books by Troward and I have six of them. None of them made the impact that this one did. In fact if I had read any one of them first, I doubt that I would have searched any further for his books; so this one was a happy accident from my point of view.]

[Yazaid Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned from this book that the entire manifestation of dreams and desires begins with thought and contemplation. This book describes the process of that. I gave it 3 because at times I was not able to connect the dots and understand exactly what the author was saying. However I got the big picture of the book.

The only point where it could have improved is that if the book backed it up with evidence whenever it talked about "spirit" because sometimes I did not agree at all with the concept of spirit mentioned in the book.

[Bob Kittridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is an interesting thought process on how we create our lives

[Cordell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional read.

[Desiree Finkbeiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can see the influence of Troward in many writers of the age. Excellent concepts! Worth re-reading again later. I really enjoyed this.

[Velvetink]

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