1. Transcendentalism
1830’s

2. Transcendentalism is a group of ideas in literature and philosophy that developed in the 1830s and '40s as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular

3. Among transcendentalists' core beliefs was the belief in an
ideal spiritual state that "transcends" the physical and empirical and is realized only through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions

4. Transcendentalists were strong believers in the power of the individual and divine messages

5. Father of Transcendentalist Literature Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. In Nature, Emerson explains how every idea has its source in natural phenomena, and that the attentive person can "see" those ideas in nature.
Intuition allowed the transcendentalist to disregard external authority and to rely, instead, on direct experience.

7. Emerson, and others, believed in what he called the Oversoul.
The divine "spark" within, and connecting, all facets of nature, including humankind, makes up the Oversoul.
One's own "spark," and connection, can be discovered not through logical reasoning but only through intuition: the creative insight and interpretation of one's own inner voice

8. The 19th century Transcendentalists called for an independence from organized religion; they saw no need for any intercession in the relationship between God and the individual man.
In the aptly titled "Self-Reliance," Emerson urges his reader to "trust thyself."

9. Henry David Thoreau