Plain, Registration Annoying, But Delivers – Daily Word From Unity Review

Like many Boomers, I grew up with Unity magazine. It wasn’t a bid deal, or a religion for my family. It was just a nice, uplifting, browsable little magazine that seemed to be sort of Christian without the guilt and Hell. It was nostalgic to get this app, and I was not disappointed. First, the presentation is functional and that’s all. No pretty background pictures or attractive buttons. White screen with text and some basic buttons at the bottom to play content. Second, many users report problems with logging in. Sure enough, it did not recognize my login information, even though the website did. A call to a pleasant tech support person got that sorted out, but by now they really shouldn’t still be having this problem. The content, however is excellent. It is typical New Thought, e.g. positive affirmations—a mini-meditation on a word or phrase accompanied by a nice, unobtrusive acoustic guitar. At the end is a Bible verse, but I would not call this Christian by any means. There is also a more lengthy guided meditation every week, plus some nice music to accompany different (brief) meditations on your own. The New Thought movement of the 19th century held few orthodox beliefs, and today Unity is downplaying any link to the “metaphysical Christianity” of people like Cady, Eddy, and Unity founders Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in favor of a scattershot pop New Age approach. However, the content of this particular app is more like “Original Recipe” Unity, so you’re not going to get quotes from the Gita or Spiritualists. (Their magazine, also available for online subscription, is very different.) If you’re “spiritual but not religious,” or religious but looking for something a little more positive, this might be for you. I enjoy starting off the day with the Daily Word. It sets a positive tone even thought I don’t buy into many New Thought beliefs. H. Emilie Cady’s Unity classic “12 Lessons” is a perfect example of the weak intellectual underpinnings of New Thought. Nonetheless, there is some wheat among a lot of chaff, especially when she stops trying to explain and just says, “look, you don’t don’t have to understand, just do it!” But the app avoids all of the confusion and just presents the wheat—if, that is, you can accept it as wheat.
Review by StCorbiniansBear on Daily Word From Unity.