Nona Coxhead

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Biographical Information

Nona Coxhead died in 1998.

"By the mid-Sixties, Coxhead was at a low point in her life, having separated from her last husband. It was then that she encountered the metaphysical teachings of Ernest Holmes, known as Science of Mind, and trained under the legendary minister Raymond Charles Barker. Science of Mind, a system of constructive thinking, should not be confused with Scientology. It originated at the end of the 19th century with a series of lectures delivered by Judge Thomas Troward. In them he laid out his beliefs that there is one spiritual "power" that comes from God and which is inherently good, and that it can be harnessed for the benefit of mankind and individuals.

"Nona Coxhead came to England in 1968, where she found a small but flourishing Science of Mind group run by Dr Winifred Layton Gaubert. On Gaubert's retirement Coxhead started lecturing on the subject herself, first in conjunction with Michael Grimes and later on her own.

"She was ordained as a Minister of Religious Science in 1968, and until the end of her life devoted herself wholeheartedly to this metaphysical teaching and as lecturer, teacher, counsellor, healer and leader gave unstintingly of herself, her time, her substance and her energy, helping people make profound changes in their lives.

"Her writings expanded into studies of the mind - Mind Power: the emerging pattern of current research (1976) and The Awakened Mind: biofeedback and the development of higher states of awareness (1979), based on the work of Maxwell Cade and written in conjunction with him (he got in touch with her after reading Mind Power). The Relevance of Bliss (1985) was a study of mystical experiences and showed how common such experiences were; Beyond Psychology: the potential of conscious thinking (1991) showed clearly the way that we can control our lives by conscious thinking and self-direction.

"She continued to write fiction too - short stories that appeared in Woman and other magazines and a best-selling novel, The Richest Girl in the World, which was based loosely on the life of Barbara Hutton (1978).

"In Big Time Baby (1981), No Ordinary Madness (1982), The Passionate Search (1983) and Command Performance (1986) Coxhead drew on her broad knowledge of Hollywood, show business, the 1920s and 1930s, but her non-fiction books were meticulously researched. She made tapes of her teachings which she marketed in a modest way and which sold well.

"Nona Coxhead was passionately concerned with animal welfare and in America was for a time one of the editors of the magazine Pet Fair. In England she campaigned vigorously against battery hens."