Merriam Webster, 2016 definition: "a philosophy which says that thought and spiritual things are more real than ordinary human experience and material things." Strongly influenced by Hindu texts on philosophy of the mind and spirituality, Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, among others often associated with the UU movement. Today's speaker is a Thoreau scholar and an author and editor in topics related to the Transcendentalists.