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Claude M. Bristol and the Metaphysics of Necessity
Life was not always ‘magic’ for the mind-power author — but he left an important self-help legacy
The American metaphysical scene has produced no other figure quite like Claude M. Bristol (1890–1951). He did not write as a spiritual visionary or scientist but rather as a journalist and businessman who related to the needs of everyday people — and who discovered a personal metaphysics that he believed could be broadly applied.
Bristol gave full voice to his ideas in his 1948 mind-power classic, The Magic of Believing, a book that has never been out of print. Bristol’s guide to the actualizing powers of thought won legions of readers, including celebrities from Liberace to Arnold Schwarzenegger. As a writer and seeker on the contemporary metaphysical scene, I encounter a surprising range of people who swear by Bristol’s insights.
The Magic of Believing is as much memoir as metaphysical guidebook and it must be understood in connection with the man himself. Bristol’s life was at once testament to his ideas — and to their limits.
Bristol was born in Portland, Oregon, on March 8, 1890. He spent most of his career as a journalist, businessman, and lawyer. The author was widely known throughout the West as a crack newspaper…
