The Life of Wallace D Wattles and Getting Rich

According to the 1880 US Federal Census, Wallace was living with his parents on a farm in Nunda Township of McHenry County, Illinois and working as a farm laborer. His father is listed as a gardener with his mother 'keeping house'. Wallace is listed as being born in Illinois, while his parents are listed as born in New York. No other siblings are recorded as living with the family.

In 1896,when he attended "a convention of reformers" in Chicago, he met George Davis Herron, a Congregational Church minister and professor of Applied Christianity at Grinnell College who was then attracting nationwide attention by preaching a form of Christian Socialism. Thereafter, Wattles became a social visionary.

Wattles was associated with the Chicago-based school of New Thought that centered around the teachings of Emma Curtis Hopkins. Through his personal study and experimentation, he claimed to have discovered the truth of New Thought principles and put them into practice in his own life and wrote books outlining these principles.

Wattles practiced the technique of creative visualization and the use of focused thought that he explains in his books, to create the life he wanted.

Wallace Delois Wattles wrote a number of books including The Science of Getting Rich, "The Science of Being Great", "The Science of Being Well", and a novel, "Hellfire Harrison".

Little is known about Wattles' life. He was born shortly after the civil war, and experienced much failure in his earlier years. Later in his life he took to studying the various religious beliefs and philosophies of the world including those of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Swedenborg, Emerson, and others.

It was through his tireless study and experimentation that he discovered the truth of New Thought principles and put them into practice in his own life. He began to write books outlining these principles. He practiced the technique of creative visualization. It was then that he formed his mental picture. He saw himself as a successful writer, a personality of power, an advancing man, and he began to work toward the realization of this vision.

The Secret and the Laws of Attraction in essence is that we all contain the divine spark. Our creator created us in his own image, and we have that creative spark within us. Our creator used thoughts to create the universe and this world. He is a vibrational energy which caused the physical plane to come into existence by use of this thoughts, which are a form of that energy. We also have this facility to create events and objects on the physical plane by use of our thoughts.

However, we can only create on this level if our thoughts are focused on what we want. When we worry or think negatively, we throw up negative images, and so our unconscious mind thinks that is what we are trying to create. The Law of Attraction states that we attract that upon which we focus. No wonder that we attract into our lives that which we most dwell upon! So we must guard our thoughts so that we focus on what we want in our lives, so that we become the creative force that we were born to be. If we harness our powers, we can become co-creators of our lives.

Elizabeth Towne, in her magazine "Nautilus", published the articles of Wallace D. Wattles in almost every issue in the early 1900's, until his death in 1911. Here are excerpts from a letter written to Mrs.Towne by his daughter, Florence, shortly after his death.

She writes:

My dear Mrs. Towne,

Your letter of the 14th received . . . perhaps a little later I can write the romantic story of my Father's life and make it really worthwhile. You knew, didn't you, that he lost a good position in the Methodist Church because of his "heresy"?

He met George D. Herron at a convention of reformers in Chicago in 1896 and caught Herron's social vision. I shall never forget the morning he came home. It was Christmas. Mother had put her last dollar into a cuff box and we had placed it beneath an evergreen branch which served for our Christmas tree and which we had illuminated with tallow candles and strung with popcorn. Finally Father came. With that beautiful smile he praised the tree, said the cuff box was just what he had been wanting - and took us all in his arms to tell us of the wonderful social message of Jesus, the message which he later embodied in "A New Christ."

From that day until his death he worked unceasingly to realize the glorious vision of human brotherhood. For years his life was cursed by poverty and the fear of poverty. He was always scheming and planning to get for his family those things which make the abundant life possible.

In the first chapter of "How to be a Genius" he says: "Man's greatest happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on those he loves." The supreme faith of the man never left him; never for a moment did he lose confidence in the power of the master Intelligence to right every wrong and to give to every man and woman his or her share of the good things of life.

When we came to Elwood (Indiana) three years ago, Father began a Sunday night lectureship inn Indianapolis. This was our only source of income. Later he began to write for Nautilus and to word out his own philosophy. He wrote almost constantly. Then it was that he formed his mental picture. He saw himself as a successful writer, a personality of power, an advancing man, and he began to work toward the realization of this vision . . . . He lived every page of "How to be a Genius." In the last three years he made lots of money, and had good health, except for his extreme frailty.

I have written this hurriedly, but I think it will give you an idea of the life struggle of a great man - his failure and success. His life was truly THE POWERFUL LIFE, and surely we can say, at least in Elwood, "The name of him who loved his fellow men led all the rest."

With all good wishes, I am,
Very sincerely,
FLORENCE A. WATTLES

It was from the letters of Wattles' daughter, Florence, to Elizabeth Towne, editor of the New Thought magazine "Nautilus", that we learn a little about his life. We learn that he was born shortly before the American Civil War. He experienced much failure in his earlier years', and later in life began to study the various religious beliefs and philosophies of the world, including those of Descartes, Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Swedenborg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and others.

Florence explained:-

He wrote almost constantly. It was then that he formed his mental picture. He saw himself as a successful writer, a personality of power, an advancing man, and he began to work toward the realization of this vision. He lived every page ... His life was truly the powerful life.

Florence describes him as having "good health, except for his extreme frailty" in the three years before he died, which occurred in 1911 (the year after the publication of The Science of Getting Rich

Rhonda Byrne told a "Newsweek" interviewer that her inspiration for creating the 2006 hit film The Secret, and the subsequent book by the same name, was her exposure to The Science of Getting Rich and the works of another New Thought author, William Walker Atkinson.[citation needed] Byrne'sdaughter, Hailey, had given her mother a copy of the Wattles book to help her recover from her breakdown.

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Wattles' best known book, The Science of Getting Rich is a down-to-earth, clear-cut and practical guide. A mental and spiritual approach on how to become rich. No bones about it, when you follow the thoughts presented in this book, you too will become rich, without the feelings of guilt. As a matter of fact, the author writes that the poverty-stricken (and even the middle class) should be the ones to feel guilty by not living up to their true potential as Thinking Beings.

Wattles says his book is "Intended for the men and women whose most pressing need is for money; who wish to get rich first, and philosophise afterward. It is pragmatical, not philosophical; a practical manual, not a lot of theory. It is for those who have, so far, found neither the time, the means, nor the opportunity to go deeply into the study of metaphysics, but who want prosperous results and who are willing to take the conclusions of science as a basis for action.

"Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. You cannot rise to your greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless you have plenty of money. For to unfold your soul and to develop talent you must have many things to use, and you cannot have these things unless you have money with which to buy them."

Wattles died not long after the 1910 publication of The Science of Getting Rich, but his books, along with those of another well-known prosperity writer of that time, Orison Swett Marden, have had a remarkable effect on people, and much of the success and self-development literature of the past 100 years by the likes of Napolean Hill, Robert Schuller, Anthony Robbins, etc., owes a great debt to these two writers.

Dr. Judith Powell, a recognized Wallace Wattles expert, has updated Wattles' works including: The Science Of Becoming Excellent and The Science Of Well Being. Together with The Science of Getting Rich, this trilogy covers health, wealth and happiness.

There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates and fills the inter-spaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.

In order to do this, a person must pass from the competitive to the creative mind. He must form a clear mental picture of the things he wants, and hold this picture in his thoughts with the fixed purpose to get what he wants, and the unwavering FAITH that he does get what he wants, closing his mind to all that may tend to shake his purpose or dim his vision.

We must live and act in the certain way. So that he may receive what he wants when it comes, a Person must ACT now upon the people and things in his present environment.

The Science of Getting Rich is a powerful little book. It is easily over-looked.

However, read it and put it into practice, and it continues to change lives for the better. It shows you how to become a co-creator of your life.

As it was written in 1910, much of the language seems archaic now. So I have spent time in re-drafting it into a more modern and concise format.

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I hope you find it useful.

Put it into practice, and it will change your life for the better!




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