Seeking the restoration of an early 19th century movement of rebellious idealism.

Transcendentalists desire to ground their religion and philosophy in principles not based on, or falsifiable by, physical experience, but deriving from the inner spiritual or mental essence of the human. The transcendental movement can be described as an American outgrowth of English Romanticism.

Transcendentalists believe that society and its institutions—particularly organized religion and political parties—corrupt the purity of the individual. They have faith that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. It is only from such real individuals that true community can form. Even with this necessary individuality, transcendentalists also believe that all people possess a piece of the "Over-soul" (God). Because the Over-soul is one, this unites all people as one being.

The most well-known figures of the transcendentalist movement include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and Margaret Fuller.

Transcendentalism[en.wikipedia.org]