International New Thought Alliance/International Metaphysical League

Charles Brodie Patterson (1854–1917) was a Canadian expatriate New Thought publisher, author, and editor. Patterson, a Canadian expatriate who lived in New York City, was labelled the movement's leader when he died in the early 20th century.
Patterson was born in 1854 in Nova Scotia. After graduating from the Pictou Academy in Pictou, Nova Scotia, Patterson pursued mercantile activities. At 31, he moved to Hartford, Connecticut for treatment from a mental healer. He studied at the Mental Science Institute in the city and attended the Alliance of Divine Unity.
He died June 22, 1917, in New York City.

In 1888, Patterson established the Metaphysical Alliance of Hartford, and served as president until 1904. In 1893, he opened the Alliance Publishing Company in New York City. He published books by New Thought and metaphysical authors including Horatio Dresser, Ursula Gestefeld, and Augustus Le Plongeon. Patterson published 15 books on New Thought, including The Measure of a Man, The New Way to Educate Children, and The Rhythm of Life. Patterson was labelled the New Thought movement's leader when he died in the early 20th century.
He edited Mind magazine and the Library of Health journal, as well as Arena, the most influential New Thought publication of its time.
In addition to serving as a past president of the International New Thought Alliance(along with such stalwarts as W.W. Atkinson, Horatio Dresser, Christian D. Larson, and Annie Rix Militz), Patterson was president of the International Metaphysical League from 1899 to 1903, and the later, the New Thought Federation.

All existence is interpretation. As living human beings we are interpreters of our own nature through experience of its possibilities. Confronted by its depths, we are attracted to its heights through the drawing power of our ideals, a power that impels us upward, however strong the gravity of our sensuous nature, What is natural is succeeded by what is possible.

From METAPHYSICS OF BALZAC
BY
URSULA N. GESTEFELD [1898]

Ursula N. Gestefeld (1845 - 1921) was a greatly talented healer and teacher. In 1888, Gestefeld published a book under the title, "Ursula N. Gestefeld's Statement of Christian Science," and although she gave full credit to MEB as its founder, she incurred MEB’s wrath who practically cut her off from the movement. Gestefeld , like a great number of New Thoughters, looked elsewhere and studied Honoré de Balzac to rationalize her experience.