Christian D. Larson

Christian D. Larson (1874–1962) was an American New Thought author of remarkable productivity, raised in Iowa and briefly trained for the ministry before turning to metaphysics.

He founded the New Thought Temple and Eternal Progress magazine in Cincinnati and wrote dozens of books in the early decades of the twentieth century. He is widely remembered as the author of the “Optimist Creed” (“Promise Yourself”), later adopted by Optimist International, which captures the keynote of his entire philosophy.

Larson’s specific contribution to reality-creation mechanics was his emphasis on sustained emotional tone and continuous mental expansion as the operative variable. Where some New Thought writers stressed a single act of visualization or a discrete affirmation, Larson argued that the subconscious obeys the most dominant and continuous emotional atmosphere a person maintains—so the practical task is to cultivate deep, unbroken optimism and an ever-expanding sense of possibility as a constant background state rather than an occasional exercise.

This “dominant tone” model influenced the young Ernest Holmes, who credited Larson as a formative source, and fed forward into the broader positive-thinking and affirmation traditions.