Ernest Holmes, founder of the Religious Science movement, was born the youngest of nine sons on a farm in Maine in 1887. He grew up in a home environment that encouraged his avid curiosity and, eager to learn yet finding school dull, he abandoned formal education and set out on a lifetime of independent study—a course that led him eventually to delve deeply into all the great philosophies and religions of the world.

Discovering Ralph Waldo Emerson, especially his essays "Oversoul," "Self-Reliance," and "The Law of Compensation," crystallized Holmes' intellectual and spiritual development. In 1912 he moved to Los Angeles, and inspired also by the writings of New Thought writer, Thomas Troward, Holmes began lecturing on metaphysics.

Growing demand led Holmes, in 1927, to establish the Institute of Religious Science and School of Philosophy, which later became the Church of Religious Science. That same year he also founded Science of Mind Magazine, and since then both the church organization and the publication have reached thousands of people worldwide.

Ernest Holmes is the author of numerous books, including the well-known spiritual classic, The Science of Mind, reprinted many times since its publication in 1938 and translated into Spanish, German, French, Russian, and Japanese.

A student of the world's religions and philosophies, Holmes believed they ultimately spoke a single universal Truth—the oneness of all of life. This Truth forms the basis of the Science of Mind teaching.