Prosperity Book Review: The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace D. Wattles

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.