Walter C. Lanyon

Walter Clemow Lanyon (October 27, 1887 – July 4, 1967) was a prolific New Thought author of the movement’s mystical, Christ-consciousness wing, credited with more than forty books. Of Cornish stock, he was educated in the United States, France, and England and worked for a time as an interpreter and foreign correspondent, traveling widely to study Christian-based mystical teaching.

He framed his lectures as resting, in his words, “solely on the revelation of Jesus Christ,” reading the Gospels as an inward map of consciousness rather than external history. Lanyon’s writing centers on inner unfoldment, the “new birth,” and the recognition of an already-present divine reality within, themes carried in books such as I Came (the opening volume of a trilogy with That Ye Might Have and Life More Abundant) and Out of the Clouds.

He is associated with the broader mid-century current that read manifestation and healing as the natural fruit of realized Christ-consciousness rather than of mental technique. Though most of his work fell out of print, it remained valued within New Thought circles for its emphasis on self-reliance and the inner Christ.

(Note: the title Out of the Clay could not be verified; the verified related title is Out of the Clouds.)