A Teacher
Charles Brodie Patterson
Controlled breath as outward sign of controlled mind, the path to dominion
The transmission
Charles Brodie Patterson (1854-1917) was a Canadian-born New Thought author, editor, and lecturer who became one of the movement’s leading early figures.
He edited the influential periodicals Mind and Arena and the Library of Health series, and was widely regarded as a central spokesman for New Thought at the time of his death in New York in 1917.
His books include Dominion and Power, or, The Science of Life and Living (1901), The Will to Be Well (1902), and The Rhythm of Life (1915). In Dominion and Power Patterson devotes sustained attention to breath control as a discipline of self-mastery.
He notes that most people use only a fraction of their lung capacity, teaches diaphragmatic breathing “with the abdomen drawn in and body held erect,” and stresses that “the outgoing breath. requires the most attention.” Crucially, he insists the causal arrow runs from mind to breath: “the controlled breath is always the external evidence of the controlled mind,” and “it is not the long deep breath that makes one think in a strong true way, but rather the strong, buoyant, hopeful thinking that causes the strong, deep breathing.” Breath and thought-mastery together, for Patterson, are the road to “dominion and power” over one’s life.
What they gave
Breath as mirror of mind: Framed controlled breathing as the outward evidence of a controlled, ordered mind.
- Mind-to-breath causation: Argued that quality of thought governs quality of breath, not merely the reverse.
- Diaphragmatic, rhythmic method: Gave concrete instruction on deep, erect, attention-led breathing centered on the exhale.
- Editorial reach: Through Mind, Arena, and Library of Health he shaped the movement’s wider conversation.
In their words
The outer world is a picture of the inner world. If our thoughts are neither strong, happy, nor wholesome we can not expect to express health and strength in the body.
The line they stand in
Influenced by: the Quimby mental-healing lineage; the broader New Thought movement; loosely, yogic breath traditions then entering Western circles. Influenced: the New Thought breath-and-thought strand; later mind-body breathing practices.
Revelations they taught
Essential Works
- The Will to Be Well1901
- Dominion and Power1902
- A New Heaven and a New Earth1909