The dawn of the twentieth century witnessed the birth of a unique development in the history of success literature. Ideas and concepts that can be found in both the Transcendentalist and New Thought movements steadily came to be applied to the end-goal of success and wealth creation. This unique synthesis also led to the development of a peculiar science, or what I will refer to as a theology, which was intended to support it.1 In the wider scheme, technological innovations and continuing industrialization led to an expanding scope of economic and sociological change. Among these changes is the growing use of the telephone and electricity, the development of the automobile and airplane, the age of radio and broadcasting, the rise of the motion picture and the film industry of Hollywood.2 The growth of corporations and mass production yielded an ever-expanding set of commodities and consumer goods, in turn leading to the arrival of the professional salesman–a unique sociological type which provided perhaps the first popular audience for the burgeoning industry of success literature.3
In 1903 James Allen published his third and what would become his most influential book, As a Man Thinketh.4 Allen’s work is often associated with the New Thought movement in America, although I am unable to find any direct links. A native of England, Allen seems to have come out of nowhere, unprecedented. Yet his thought is almost a mirror–perhaps even a deeper and more penetrating one–of New Thought itself. With Allen, we encounter a philosophy of individualism and personal power rooted in an understanding of self. Central to Allen’s thought are notions of character, self-mastery, aligning oneself with reality, et al., ultimately culminating in a kind of self-authenticity reminiscent of Nietzsche. Though not ignored, any success orientation found in his writing almost always appears on the margins. Thought itself, and the effect of thoughts on the world, form the underlying basis of his work. “What you are, so is your world. Everything in the universe is resolved into your own inward experience. It matters little what is without, for it is all a reflection of your own state of consciousness. […] Your own thoughts, desires, and aspirations comprise your world, and, to you, all that there is in the universe of beauty and joy and bliss, or of ugliness and sorrow and pain, is contained within yourself. By your own thoughts you make or mar your life, your world, your universe. As you build within by the power of thought, so will your outward life and circumstances shape themselves accordingly.”5
By the time As a Man Thinketh was published, notes of personal success and achievement begin to appear. “All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts. […] There can be no progress, no achievement without sacrifice, and a man’s worldly success will be in the measure that he sacrifices his confused animal thoughts, and fixes his mind on the development of his plans, and the strengthening of his resolution and self-reliance. And the higher he lifts his thoughts, the more manly, upright, and righteous he becomes, the greater will be his success, the more blessed and enduring will be his achievements. […] A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. […] He who cherishes a beautiful vision, a lofty ideal in his heart, will one day realize it.”6
At about the same time, William Walker Atkinson published Thought Vibration or The Law of Attraction in the Thought World (1906). Atkinson was heavily involved in the New Thought movement in America, even at one time acting as President of the International New Thought Alliance.7 He also appears to be the first writer to include affirmations, auto-suggestions,8 and exercises in his book, intended to help the reader apply the principles he is discussing. There is a certain similarity between his work and the work of James Allen, though to my knowledge there is no connection of influence in either direction. Both thinkers are concerned with the power of thought, and its power and effect on the individual and the external world. But where Allen is content to assert his own perspectives as though they are obvious, Atkinson seeks to establish a scientific basis for much of what he says.9 “When we think we send out vibrations of a fine ethereal substance, which are as real as the vibrations manifesting light, heat, electricity, magnetism. […] And when we understand the laws governing the production and transmission of these vibrations we will be able to use them in our daily life, just as we do the better known forms of energy. […] Each form of vibration requires its own form of instrument for registration. At present the human brain seems to be the only instrument capable of registering thought waves, although occultists8 say that in this century scientists will invent [an] apparatus sufficiently delicate to catch and register such impressions. […] Just as we here on earth are surrounded by a great sea of air, so are we surrounded by a great sea of Mind. Our thought waves move through this vast mental ether, extending, however, in all directions […], becoming somewhat lessened in intensity according to the distance traversed, because of the friction11 occasioned by the waves coming in contact with the great body of Mind surrounding us on all sides.” This “great body of Mind” will later emerge as a theology of sorts. He continues, “We are largely what we have thought ourselves into being, the balance being represented by the character of the suggestions and thought of others, which have reached us either directly by verbal suggestions or telepathically by means of such thought waves. Our general mental attitude, however, determines the character of the thought waves received from others as well as the thoughts emanating from ourselves. […] The man who thinks success will be apt to get into tune with the minds of others thinking likewise, and they will help him, and he them. The man who allows his mind to dwell constantly upon thoughts of failure brings himself into close touch with the minds of other ‘failure’ people, and each will tend to pull the other down still more.”12 As we will see, this type of thinking will have a pronounced affect on thinkers in the coming decades.
It is with the work of Wallace D. Wattles that the end-goal of personal success and wealth creation comes to be interwoven for the first time with the individualism and power of New Thought, Transcendentalism, and others. Wattles–whose best-known work is The Science of Getting Rich (1910)–became associated with New Thought thinkers, such as Elizabeth Towne, Orison Swett Marden, and William Walker Atkinson while writing for The Nautilus, a popular New Thought magazine. He also explicitly states he was influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.13 Thus, in Wattles’s work we find evidence for a direct causal connection between the work of his predecessors and contemporaries, and himself.
In the Preface to his book, The Science of Getting Rich, we read: “This book is pragmatical, not philosophical; a practical manual, not a treatise upon theories. It is intended for the men and women whose most pressing need is for money; who wish to get rich first, and philosophize afterward.”14 The reader is instructed to take the statements he reads “upon faith”, and “that he will prove their truth by acting upon them without fear or hesitation. Every man or woman who does this will certainly get rich; for the science herein applied is an exact science, and failure is impossible.”15 At this point I will emphasize three things. First, is the disdain for anything theoretical. What matters is not theory, but action. Get rich now, think later. Over time the championing of the practical while dismissing the theoretical becomes increasingly common in self-help literature. Second, for the first time money and “get[ting] rich” takes center stage. Third, the assertion that what follows is an “exact science”, and that consequently “failure is impossible”. If you act as instructed, “without fear or hesitation”, those who follow through will “certainly get rich”.16 Wattles goes on to say in Chapter 2 that there “are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches; once these laws are learned and obeyed by any man, he will get rich with mathematical certainty.”17 Again, as time passes this formula-for-success becomes a hallmark of this type of literature.
But the surface has barely been scratched. If we continue beyond the Preface, we find the right to be rich is as inalienable as the right to life itself. “[I]t is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. […] The object of all life is development; and everything that lives has an inalienable right to all the development it is capable of attaining. Man’s right to life means his right to have the free and unrestricted use of all the things which may be necessary to his fullest mental, spiritual, and physical unfoldment; or, in other words, his right to be rich. In this book I shall not speak of riches in a figurative way; to be really rich does not mean to be satisfied or contented with little. No man ought to be satisfied with a little if he is capable of using and enjoying more. The purpose of Nature is the advancement and unfoldment of life; and every man should have all that can contribute to the power, elegance, beauty, and richness of life; to be content with less is sinful. […] Man’s highest happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on those he loves; love finds its most natural and spontaneous expression in giving. The man who has nothing to give cannot fill his place as a husband or father, as a citizen, or as a man. It is in the use of material things that man finds full life for his body, develops his mind, and unfolds his soul. It is therefore of supreme importance to him that he should be rich. […] It is perfectly right that you should give your best attention to the Science of Getting Rich, for it is the noblest and most necessary of all studies. If you neglect this study, you are derelict in your duty to yourself, to God, and to humanity; for you can render God and humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself.”18 Here we have found, spelled out very plainly, an almost quasi-Puritan duty to succeed.19 One must do everything one can to accomplish as much as possible; anything less is sinful.
In Chapter 6, aptly titled “How Riches Come to You”, Wattles describes a process of using the so-called “law of attraction” to obtain what you want. In one example he writes “if you want a sewing machine, hold the mental image of it with the most positive certainty that it is being made, or is on its way to you. After once forming the thought, have the most absolute and unquestioning faith that the sewing machine is coming; never think of it, or speak of it, in any other way than as being sure to arrive. Claim it as already yours. It will be brought to you by the power of the Supreme Intelligence,20 acting upon the minds of men.”21 This, of course, extends to getting rich in general, through focusing on one’s overall purpose.
The underlying basis of this law is described in a way similar to Atkinson: “There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. Man can form things in this thought, and by impressing his thought upon the formless substance can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. In order to do this, man must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; otherwise he cannot be in harmony with the Formless Intelligence”.22 This idea of an underlying thought substance–a universal “One”–takes on the role of God as the ultimate explanation of everything that exists. It is also seen as a wellspring of infinite power, to be used and instrumentalized; to serve one’s own ends and purposes–especially that of wealth creation. In this sense, I refer to this overall schema developed in early twentieth-century self-help and success literature as a theology.
But in 1910, this proto-New Age thinking can presumably only get you so far. Wattles eventually ties God back into the duty of getting rich, albeit in an odd pantheistic way. “God, the One Substance, is trying to live and do and enjoy things through humanity. He is saying, ‘I want hands to build wonderful structures, to play divine harmonies, to paint glorious pictures; I want feet to run my errands, eyes to see my beauties, tongues to tell mighty truths and to sing marvelous songs,’ and so on. […] He wants all these things because it is Himself that enjoys and appreciates them; it is God who wants to play, and sing, and enjoy beauty, and proclaim truth, and wear fine clothes, and eat good foods. […] Your part is to focalize and express the desires of God. […] All that there is of possibility is seeking expression through men.”23 That this sort of thinking rests on a peculiar theological basis should, at this point, I hope, be quite clear.
Next (and finally, for now) we move to Charles F. Haanel, who, in many ways embodies the totality of thought which came before him. He draws, for instance, upon the work of nearly every writer I have examined so far, including Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Samuel Smiles, Prentice Mulford, Orison Swett Marden, James Allen, and William Walker Atkinson. Best known for his book, The Master-Key System (1912), Haanel had a great influence on many writers who came after him. He is less obsessed with getting rich than Wattles, but makes up for it by his preoccupation with personal power through aligning oneself with–or tapping into–the “Universal Mind” or “Supreme Intelligence”.24 The focus, again, remains on the infinite power of thought and is examined and applied through recommended exercises, such as visualizations.25 Although the prescription that it is our duty to get rich is not present in Haanel’s work, the same theology which underlies the work of both Atkinson and Wattles underlies the work of Haanel. In other words, the somewhat inchoate idea of tapping into the power of the universal mind found in Atkinson and later developed by Wattles comes to be delineated further still by Haanel. “It is through the subconscious that we are connected with the Universal Mind and brought into relation with the Infinite constructive forces of the Universe.[…] All power is from within, and is absolutely under your control; it comes through exact knowledge and by the voluntary exercises of exact principles.[…] This system will bring you into a realization of power which will be yours when you understand this relation between the world without and the world within. The world within is the cause; the world without the effect. To change the effect, you must change the cause.”26
Thus, the initial ideas found in nineteenth-century Transcendentalism and New Thought have, by the early twentieth century, developed into ideals of self-realization, personal power, and autonomy through allegedly harnessing and instrumentalizing the so-called power of thought itself (explained, as we have seen, on the basis of a peculiar theology). This is then applied to the arena of personal success and wealth creation, and becomes wedded to an organized, practical approach–that of an “exact science”–purported to yield results via absolute control (Haanel) and mathematical certainty (Wattles). In a society increasingly structured by money and consumerism, the promise of success or wealth with absolute certainty and tried and true formulas is not easily resisted. Indeed, it has come to be embraced. But this is merely the first phase of changes in success literature that occurred during the twentieth century. In my view, at least two more phases occur in America before the close of the millennium.
Notes:
1. This can be considered in two ways. First, there is the purportedly scientific explanation of how thoughts have their causal efficacy. Underlying this is a theology of monism and at times pantheism. Second, the formulas of success are equally purported to be scientific in that if such things are followed, they result in success in a necessary way. The same theology underlying the first must underlie the second. Here there are clear indications of Eastern influence, especially Hinduism and sometimes Buddhism.
2. Each of these could easily be considered as a separate phenomenon, the affect of which is hard to overstate. In this context it is not difficult to see that a perfect storm of conditions existed for the birth of success literature.
3. Due to conditions of brevity I will not consider the sociological type of the professional salesman during this essay.
4. As a Man Thinketh is Allen’s most succinct work, and clearly embodies the basics of his thought in one small volume. His first two books, From Poverty to Power and All These Things Added, express the same ideas as his third, but in a less concise format. From what I can tell, As a Man Thinketh has never been out of print since 1903, although it now exists in the public domain.
5. See James Allen, From Poverty to Power.
6. See James Allen, As a Man Thinketh.
7. The International New Thought Alliance still exists today. See https://newthoughtalliance.org/.
8. The connection between the “autosuggestions” common in self-help or success literature and the work of Émile Coué remains obscure, though there appears to be some connection to his popular mantra “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better”. Coué‘s book, Self-Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, did not appear until the 1920s, though his work on developing autosuggestion appears to date back as far as 1900.
9. In other words he attempts to explain how things like the law of attraction actually works. The so-called scientific basis of Atkinson’s work appears to, in fact, be a form of pseudoscience.
10. Note that in this context occultists are being referenced as a form of visionary.
11. Note that thought vibrations are here considered as though they were subject to the laws of physics, and therefore physical in nature. Again, this is an attempt to clothe the theory in a purportedly scientific understanding.
12. See William Walker Atkinson, Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World.
13. See Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich, Preface.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Implicit in this is the total and complete responsibility of the individual. If you fail, you must have done something wrong, not sufficiently committed, acted without faith, and so forth.
17. See Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich, Chapter 2.
18. See Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich, Chapter 1. Italics added for emphasis.
19. This is a kind of secular version of the theology of Richard Baxter. In his A Christian Directory, Baxter writes “if God shew you a way in which you may lawfully get more than in another way”–without “wrong to your soul or to any other”–then “if you refuse this, and choose the less gainful way, you cross one of the ends of your Calling, and you refuse to be God’s steward.”
20. “Supreme Intelligence” is here used as a substitute for the word “God”. There appears to be many motivations for doing this, one of which is to avoid any connection to organized religion, but also in such a way as not to exclude it.
21. See Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich.
22. Ibid.
23. Ibid. This, it seems, reveals Wattles debt to Hegel.
24. Atkinson’s “great body of Mind” is sometimes spoken of as “THE ABSOLUTE”, a connotation that appears to impart a kind of providential force or directing intelligence on the thought world. Wattles speaks of “Original” or “Formless Substance” as a kind of ocean of thought, but later adds “Formless Intelligence”, rendering it a quasi-providential-divinity that all mankind can tap into. Haanel calls this the “Universal Mind” or “Supreme Intelligence” connecting and pervading all things. See William Walker Atkinson, Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World, Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich, and Charles F. Haanel, The Master-Key System.
25. Here there is some connection with Atkinson, as both employ creative exercises or visualizations to help tap the infinite power of thought or the “Universal Mind”.
26. See Charles F. Haanel, The Master-Key System.