The Science Of Getting Rich

Wallace Wattles wrote his book “The Science of Getting Rich” back in 1910, but it’s amazing how accurately he described the principles that we’d recognize today as being those we use in the Law of Attraction.

His book is long since out of copyright, so if you’re interested in reading more about it, you can easily find it on the Internet – but I’m going to give you a brief summary here because there are so many truths in it that are well worth reviewing.

Wattles starts by saying that his book is intended for men and women whose most pressing need is to get rich – and he says you can, if you want, learn about the mechanism of how his system works afterwards.

So this really is a practical manual for manifestation – and Wattles makes it quite explicit that he expects the reader to take his fundamental statements on what to do and how to do it without question. (The ultimate act of faith, yes?)

And that’s an interesting challenge for a modern reader, because his book was written a long time ago when science was far in its infancy – and our level of knowledge so much less than today. But, even so, we can see so much of our current thinking around manifestation and our beliefs about how the universe works set out in Wallace’s writing.

For example, he talks about the monistic theory of the universe – that One is All, and All is One – and that the energy of One manifests in the material world.

That’s very similar to the beliefs we hold about the universal intelligence, or the cosmic consciousness, or whatever you choose to call the underlying energetic field from which all manifestation takes place (he calls it the Intelligent Substance, among other things!)

So with this principle established, let’s move on to

Chapter 1: The Right To Be Rich

Wattles is very disparaging about the concept of poverty – he speaks quite frankly about his belief that nobody can fulfil their real potential unless they have wealth.

And he’s quite explicit about what he means by this: no man, he says, can be satisfied with a little if he is capable of using and enjoying more. Every man should have all that can contribute to the power, elegance, beauty, and richness of life. Indeed, he says, to be content with less is sinful. (See some wise words about the morality of wealthhere.)

What I believe Wattles was doing here was effectively giving his readers permission to be wealthy, a fact which may be due to the shame associated with wealth in that era .

Indeed, I think there’s still an element of that around today – wealth can be a route to corruption, so it doesn’t surprise me to see Wattles emphasize that really, you know, money is OK, and everyone needs to know how to get rich.

Good for all of us, then, that he’s going to set out The Science Of Getting Rich in his book.

So far so good, but just what is Wattle’s Science Of Getting Rich?

Well, he makes clear something that’s been known to students of the Law of Attraction for a long time: the ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in (as he says) a “Certain Way”, and those who do things in this certain way – whether by accident or on purpose – get rich …. while those who do not do things in this certain way, no matter how hard they work or how able they are, remain poor .

This is a natural law: it’s infallible, it’s universal, and it works for everybody who applies it.

Oh, so that must be the universal Law of Attraction at work in manifestation!

And he also makes the point that opportunities are not monopolized by certain individuals – opportunity is, in fact, available to everyone.

Again, this is probably a reflection of the time in which Wattles was writing – the idea was commonplace that opportunity was only available to people who were privileged in some way – and this looks very much like a belief which still prevails in some quarters, even today.

Video – Manifesting Money With Attraction

No wonder, then, he made a great deal of effort to encourage people to see that they were not limited by their circumstances – for example, as he rightly observed, if a man worked in a steel plant he had very little chance of becoming the owner of that plant, but on the other hand, if he behaved in “a certain way” he could soon leave the employment of the steel mills, buy a farm, for example, and become a producer of food.

And to anyone who said that that would be impossible – Wattles’ retort was simple: “I’m going to prove to you that it is possible, and that you can certainly get a farm if you go to work in a certain way.”

So right from the start he is adamant that his system works – and of course, just like Napoleon Hill, who was equally adamant about the need for complete conviction and belief, he is setting the stage already for many familiar aspects of the Law of Attraction – things which many of us would recognize even today.

As Wattles rightly observes, no one is kept in poverty by shortness of riches – there is more than enough for all. (Whether or not the supply of material is inexhaustible is an irrelevance in any case, because as he also says, the law of wealth creation is the same for everyone, but few people choose to learn how to use it.)

You are creator – video

The Universal Mind, or God, Allows Us To Attract What We Want.

And the really important statement he makes is one that many of you will recognize from your readings about Law of Attraction today – everything you see on Earth comes from one original substance, out of which all things proceed. Today we’d call this the Universal Mind or Cosmic Energy Field or something similar.

New physical forms are constantly being made, and older ones are “dissolving”, he says, but all are formed out of the Oneness – which he calls Formless Substance Or Original Substance. Like I said, today we might call it the Cosmic Intelligence or the Universal Mind.

And this brings us on to the first “principle” in the science of getting rich:

Thought is the only power which can produce tangible riches from the formless substance. The very act of thinking about something in material form will produce it.

That’s quite a statement, and considering that it was written in 1910, even more amazing for its prescience.

Although Wattles went to some trouble to elaborate his thinking for the people of the time, who presumably did not have great levels of education (or perhaps because he wanted to make his book look more like the science of getting rich, the truth of the matter is very simple: he is telling us that thought creates form and that the physical reality we create emerges from a formless substrate in which everything exists in potential reality.

Sidebar: It’s interesting, by the way, to look at the derivation of Napoleon Hill’s Think And Grow Rich, which was clearly influenced a large extent by what Wattles had written about 20 or 30 years earlier.

However, to reiterate, Wallace’s clear and obvious conclusion is that the form of matter in our world is shaped by thought energy.

True – that’s what we call the Law of Attraction!

I also think it’s interesting that Wattles is so clear about asking his readers to take what he says at face value. It’s not as though he’s presenting any evidence or even any experience as to the truth of these matters – he’s simply presenting them as fundamental laws of the universe.

Again, in this he seems to be well ahead of his own time.

Manifestation Is Not Always Easy!

Why do so few people manage to manifest reality? Well, because it’s necessary to think in a very specific way to be able to create a new or different physical reality out of the energetic void.

Every man has the inherent power, as our erudite author Mr Wattles so astutely observed, to think what he wants to think – but this kind of thinking takes far more effort than everyday, commonplace casual thinking – which is based on immediate impressions and the sensual appearance of the world.

To be directive or focused in your thinking is, as Wattles observes, much harder: “It requires the expenditure of more power than any other work man is called upon to perform.”

Clearly this manifestation business is not work for the faint-hearted !

Like Attracts Like

And he then makes the point, quite rightly, that if you think about poverty you will get poverty – and if you think about abundance you will get abundance.

So of course you should only think of only health when you are surrounded by the appearance of disease, and only think of riches when surrounded by poverty… and so on.

Sure, this requires considerable effort of will – but mastering this way of thinking allows any man or woman to conquer fate and have what he or she wants.

Chapter 5

In Chapter 5 Wattles behoves us to dismiss the “old idea” that there is a deity whose will it is that we should be poor, or who has some mysterious purpose which is served by keeping us in poverty.

He justifies once again the desire for riches by telling us that it is simply a natural expression of an innate desire to enlarge our lives and seek fulfilment through complete personal expression.

But what this says to me is something different: it simply says just as many people then as now were ashamed of wealth or believed they could not have it!

And the principles Wattles sets out to counter this belief are things that even today students of the esoteric and the Law of Attraction will recognize as fundamental truths: the universe gives you everything you want to have – if you ask in the right way….. 

• Nature is friendly to your plans
• Everything is naturally available to you
• Make up your mind that this is true
• And make sure that your purpose harmonizes with the purpose that is in All

In other words, Wattles is saying something which other people have said for generations – that you should not want the mere pleasure of sensual gratification, but you should want “real-life” … by which he means an existence which holds some deeper meaning or purpose for you.

This is not just about fulfilling or gratifying your basic desires – even though they are a normal part of our expression as human beings.

You see, the desires to be rich simply to gratify ambition, or to outshine others, or to be famous, are not, in their own right, enough, no matter how legitimate they may be.

Equally, you don’t want to get rich solely for the good of others, or to experience the joy of philanthropy or to lose yourself for the salvation of mankind.

As Wattles says, desires which aim for fulfillment of the joys of the soul are only a part of life – and, like the desires of the intellect or the desires of the physical body, they are no better or nobler than any other kind.

There’s an interesting circularity in Wattles’ argument which goes something like this: being rich is good, and you can make the most of yourself only by getting rich, so it’s right and praiseworthy that you should give your attention to the work of acquiring wealth.

But at the same time you mustn’t get rich at the expense of anyone else, and you’re mustn’t do it solely for personal gratification. (As if self-indulgence is bad?)

Here’s another important point: since we live in a world where material wealth matters, and since it which emerges from the unlimited resources of the Formless Substance (which I prefer to call the universal intelligence), then nobody can prevent you from getting rich.

To Summarize

Here, in essence, is what Wattles wrote about the science of getting rich:

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

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

Man can form things in his thoughts, and, by impressing his thoughts upon Formless Substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created.

And that, of course, is manifestation using the Law of Attraction!