Progenitor of a "wild anglo-saxon" stereotype, George was ever surrounded by strong capable men who wanted to accomplish whatever "little general" James visioned. George Wharton James celebrated the good life

Links to George Wharton James's Works:

• How I Eliminated Fear

while exploring trails and Sacred Places of the Southwest..He could out drink, out smoke and out wit every man among them and this was considered a major asset to those who learned his philosophy of "Joyful Living." George Wharton James (1858–1923) was a prolific & popular New Thought lecturer and journalist. James wrote more than 40 books and many articles and pamphlets on California and the American Southwest.HIs writing is romantic by nature, embued with his love of naturalism, James idealized aboriginal life styles appreciating a variety of art and literature. He explored herbalism, and the latest fads in a burgeoning alternate health product industry. At this time Kellog and others were developing and flogging ways to restore health or improve it. At times including patent medicines, yet almost always part of a method based on a "deeper understanding of the body" and often involving whole wheat and other grain diets accompanied by Yogurt or coffee enema. Marketed alternately as a "return to nature" or an "advance through science" Some of these methods surviive today, while others have faded away in a survival of the fittest with the pageantry of the absurd.

Born in Lincolnshire, England, James was an ordained Methodist minister who came to the United States in 1881 and subsequently served in several parishes in Nevada and southern California. George had a lovely voice described as "deep and melodious." This could have been partly informed by the fact that English people, especially those with a bit of training tend to use more intonation within their vocal expression, wheras speakers from other parts of the world tend to flatten their speech.

About 7 years into his American adventures George's life began to presage many of the lives of people living in the free world today. He was accused of adultery and "moral terpitude." It was said that he had not only engaged in "sexual misconduct" with a number of "wild women" who were "known for their loose and lascivious conduct," but that upon "being accosted by a local lawman" had used force to maintain his freedom.

He subsequently underwent an extrajudicial trial by ecclesiastical inquisition. During this non-state trial, he was accused variously of real estate fraud, fake credentials, using nom de plum and lastly and most importantly: "conveyance of teachings contrary to established church doctrine," including: personal will and responsibility, denial of predestination, promotion of "doctrines of indecency" (generally associated with delighting in the "joys of women"}, as well as denying that all life unfolds as part of a Divine Plan under the Will of God.

Although the inquisition, (somewhat like a Consciousness Committee) could not determine that George had actually taught people that they were responsible for their own lives, he was still defrocked. George Wharton James was one of the first New Thought sharers to evolve from an Abrahamic teaching into New Thought.

It should be noted that George Wharton James was never convicted of anything and that the court was ecclesiastical meaning it was applying religious law in the same vein as Catholic Cannon Law or Shariah Law and thus it was not an actual court of law. Rev. James was later reinstated.

James' books include The Wonders of the Colorado Desert (1906), Through Ramona's Country (1909), In & Out of the Old Missions of California (1912), and The Lake of the Sky (1915).

His work was characterized by an intelligent and compassionate insight into Native American Life and a prescient understanding of nutrition that prefigured much of today's mind/body research.

The California State Library and the University of California, Berkeley have collections of James' books and pamphlets. A collection of his photographs is on file at the University of New Mexico. The Southwest Museum in Los Angeles also has some of his papers and photographs.