Prosperity Book Review: The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace D. Wattles
February 10, 2007
Every person naturally wants to become all that they are capable of becoming. This desire to realize innate possibilities is inherent in human nature; we cannot help wanting to become all that we can be. Success in life is becoming what you want to be.
- Wallace D. Wattles
The Science of Getting Rich, originally published in 1910, was Wallace D. Wattles’ statement on what we now call manifesting abundance. Currently popularized by The Secret, an Australian movie featuring experts in the art of creating wealth, manifesting has become big business on the internet and in books. Wattles’ early work is substantiated by information put forth by theoretical physicists in another popular movie, What The Bleep Do We Know. There are many experts these days teaching what manifesting is, how to do it, and why it is possible.
I first read The Science of Getting Rich last year, and I’m re-reading it now. The principles put forth in the book lead us to prosperity consciousness, and need steady review to be mastered. The book is simple — consisting of seventeen very short chapters — and since there is no longer a copyright on books written so long ago, the book is available for reading free, right here on the internet. You can use Google to find it or go straight to The Science of Getting Rich Network where you will be able to sign up for a free book and newsletter.
In The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace insists that you can get rich, if anyone else can, in your current location and job. He doesn’t recommend moving or changing jobs right away. Instead he says that anyone who follows the steps in his book will, without a doubt, get rich. To understand the steps you must realize that everything is made from a “universal raw material”, the supply of which is inexhaustible. This formless stuff is intelligent and alive, and “always impelled toward more life”. It responds to our needs. By our ability to create thought forms in this universal raw substance, we can bring into being anything we want for our life.
Of course there’s more to it. We must deal with others fairly, giving everyone more ‘use value’ than we take from them in cash value. There’s absolutely no need to cheat anyone in order to get rich because there’s plenty of the “universal raw material” to create wealth for everyone. And we must be grateful for everything we’re manifesting, even before we get it.
Wallace D. Wattles lived from 1860 to 1911. Though he lived in poverty most of his life, in his later years he indeed got rich, showing us it can be done and that he knew how to do it. He wrote a few other books including The Science of Being Well, Health Through New Thought and Fasting, and The Science of Being Great.
Unfortunately, this book is nothing else but a panreligious book with a massive selection of circular arguments in business jargon. Since I don’t use profanities, let me just say that I buried it in my garden next to my potatoes in the hope that they will grow better.
A generalized example of these circular arguments: if you want a red car you should never get a green car, because a green car can never be a red car. Only if the car you select is red, will it be a red car, because then you will not have selected a green car. Some people may believe that a green car can be a red car, but you cannot have a red car if it is green. The green in the car will always be green and not red. Evolution has shown that a fox is red, not green, proving beyond all doubt that what you must select is the red car… and so on, ad infinitum.
Science NEVER relies on belief alone, yet that is what this book asks you to do, with lots of references to “the original stuff, the thinking formless substance”=god, and a lot of bible quotes.
Sorry, but I can’t recommend this book to anyone, except as an example of how to write selfevident gobbledigook.
I will shorten the whole contents of the book into one short line: do what you can do, as well as you can do it, with the resources you have.
Comment by Steve — July 18, 2007 @ 2:48 am
What gets into print has become a lot more competitive than during Wattles’ time, and the rules for good writing are more strict. But this is a period piece, not expected to live up to the standards of our time. I think for this reason many readers have forgiven some of its literary shortcomings. I also do not recall it being too heavily invested in Christian or Biblical references. I am not a Christian and would have found that to be oppressive.
Comment by Geniyyah — July 18, 2007 @ 6:36 am
I think this is a very straight forward book that far surpasses many of the gobbledigook that is out there today, like The Secret. I appreciate that Waddle accomplished three very important things that are needed when trying to sucessfully acheive any endeavor. One, repetition. Repetition is the key to success. No matter what may seemingly hamper or deny you your particular quest, you must try again and again, until you achieve it. It will not “magically” appear just because you think you want it as suggested in The Secret. Another impressive quality I found was his repetitive impression to the idea of focus. Nothing should deter your focus, no matter how bad a situation may seem. That it is your responsibility to remain focused to the end result. How many people do you know today that have that ability? And finally, for a book that was written in the early 1900, to suggest God to be a loving ever expanding entity was remarkable. That He/She/It is willing to offer this ever expanding energy to anyone who wishes to grow, and that to do otherwise is against the nature of God and the natural order of creation was pretty profound for the times considering most people were preaching hellfire and damnation.
Comment by Nathan — September 5, 2007 @ 10:05 pm