Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism... maintains that man has ideas, that come not through the five senses, or the powers of reasoning, but are either the result of direct revelation from God, his immediate inspiration, or his eminent presence in the spiritual world. It asserts that man has something besides the body of flesh, that he has a spiritual body, with senses to perceive what is true, and right and beautiful, and a natural love for these, as the body for its food.

A loose knit group of writers, artists and reformers who believed that the human mind is the most important force in the universe.

The TranscendentalistsMeetings of Great Minds

Henry David Thoreau

Sarah Margaret Fuller

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Branson Alcott

The Visionary……

Ralph Waldo Emerson……

Grief stricken by the loss of his first wife this preacher dropped out of society and turned to nature for solace.

Emerson believed the human mind could unlock any mystery and that every creature in nature was a part of a universal spirit he called the “over-soul”.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson bought a large house with the money he inherited from his wife and lent an open door to all writers and thinkers. His Concord home was dubbed the “Athens of America”, the birthplace of Transcendentalism

Emerson held a strong belief in self-reliance and the importance of individuality

The Concord House

Emerson’s Study

An eccentric rebel discovered by Emerson while a student at Harvard in his 20’s

Father of the non-violent civil disobedience movement

Philosopher

Abolitionist

Naturalist

Henry David Thoreau

WaldenPond

Thoreau built a cabin and lived alone “untied by material things” for two years while he wrote “Walden”

Thoreau tried to test Emerson’s Transcendentalism by “stripping away all superfluous luxuries, living a plain, simple life in radically reduced conditions.”

Bronson Alcott

Bronson was a Progressivist teacher who believed that students should not be taught through routine memorization but should be challenged to think, debate, discuss

Alcott moved his family to Fruitland one of two failed Transcendentalist Utopian societies

Fruitland

Brook Farm

Brook Farm

Civil Disobedience

After spending the night in jail in protest against slavery Thoreau wrote On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Thoreau’s views on Civil Protest were later used by leading social activists of our time.

A Lasting Legacy

Nelson Mandela

Mahatma Ghandi

Mahatma Ghandi

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Cesar Chavez

Chris McCandless

Modern Day Transcendentalism

At the age of 20 McCandless gave up all his worldly possessions, gave up his family in Atlanta and walked, hitchhiked and boated to Alaska with nothing but a 10 pound bag of rice….

Like Emerson and Thoreau, McCandless viewed the wilderness as a sanctuary of solace from the harsh realities of life….the true reality.

No phone, no pool, no pets. Ultimate freedom…..And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights…And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.— Alexander Supertramp (Chris McCandless) May 1992