That school of thought asserted the reality of a spiritual world, the importance of mystical experience, and the healing value of invisible forces operating on the mind and body. Without going into detail, the metaphysical tradition expressed great interest in astrology, early explorations with hypnotism, and fascination with various forms of psychic phenomena. Often there is an attempt to take belief in psychic phenomena or subjective experience and assign it explanations claiming to be hard science. The result is a kind of pseudo-science that is very familiar in popular culture. There are key ideas that occur frequently in various groups.
Spirit takes priority over matter and is the truly real.
Sickness, evil, and death are actually errors in understanding. This spiritual understanding is seen as necessary in understanding Scripture. Christian Science under Eddy sought to combine a focus on Spirit or Mind while maintaining much of her Congregational background. Its tenets affirmed the inspired Bible as the sufficient rule leading to eternal life, the one supreme and infinite God, salvation through Christ, and the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. A movement later developed that used Christian Science as a point of departure but was strongly influenced by Spiritualists, theosophists, and even a few Christian healers.