Wallace Delois Wattles (; 1860 – 7 February 1911) was an American

New Thought The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a new religious movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy ...

writer. He remains personally somewhat obscure, but his writing has been widely quoted and remains in print in the New Thought and

self-help Self-help or self-improvement is "a focus on self-guided, in contrast to professionally guided, efforts to cope with life problems" —economically, physically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. When ...

movements. Wattles' best known work is a 1910 book called ''

The Science of Getting Rich ''The Science of Getting Rich'' is a book written by the New Thought Movement writer Wallace D. Wattles and published in 1910 by the Elizabeth Towne Company. The book is still in print. According to ''USA Today'', the text is "divided into 17 ...

,'' in which he explains his spiritual ideology on how to become wealthy.

Life and career

Wattles' daughter, Florence A. Wattles, described her father's life in a "Letter" that was published shortly after his death in the New Thought magazine ''

Nautilus A nautilus (; ) is any of the various species within the cephalopod family Nautilidae. This is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and the suborder Nautilina. It comprises nine living species in two genera, the type genus, ty ...

'', edited by

Elizabeth Towne Elizabeth Jones Towne (May 11, 1865 – June 1, 1960) was a writer, editor, and publisher in the New Thought and self-help movements. Early life Elizabeth Jones was born in Oregon, the daughter of John Halsey Jones. She first married at age 1 ...

. ''The Nautilus'' had previously carried articles by Wattles in almost every issue, and Towne was also his book publisher. Florence Wattles wrote that her father was born in the U.S. in 1860, received little formal education, and found himself excluded from the world of commerce and wealth. According to the 1880 US Federal Census, Wallace lived with his parents on a farm in

Nunda Township, McHenry County, Illinois Nunda Township is located in McHenry County, Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and ...

, and worked as a farm laborer. His father is listed as a gardener and his mother as "keeping house". Wallace is listed as being born in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

while his parents are listed as born in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. No other siblings are recorded as living with the family. According to the 1910 census, Wattles was married to Abbie Wattles (née Bryant), 47. They had three children: Florence Wattles, 22, Russell H. Wattles, 27, and Agnes Wattles, 16. It also shows that at the time Wallace's mother Mary A. Wattles was living with the family at the age of 79. Florence wrote that "he made lots of money, and had good health, except for his extreme frailty" in the last three years before his death. Wattles died on February 7, 1911, in Ruskin, Tennessee, and his body was transported home for burial to

Elwood, Indiana Elwood is a city in Madison County, Indiana, Madison and Tipton County, Indiana, Tipton counties in the U.S. state of Indiana. The Madison County portion, which is nearly all of the city, is part of the Indianapolis metropolitan area, Indianapoli ...

.. As a sign of respect, businesses closed throughout the town for two hours on the afternoon of his funeral. His death at age 51 was regarded as "untimely" by his daughter; in the previous year he had not only published two books (''The Science of Being Well'' and ''The Science of Getting Rich''), but he had also run for public office..

Christian Socialism

In 1896 in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Wattles attended "a convention of reformers" and met George Davis Herron, a

Congregational Church Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...

minister and professor of Applied Christianity at

Grinnell College Grinnell College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalis ...

who was then attracting nationwide attention by preaching a form of

Christian Socialism Christian socialism is a Religious philosophy, religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe cap ...

. After meeting Herron, Wattles became a social visionary and began to expound upon what Florence called "the wonderful, social message of Jesus." According to Florence, he at one time had held a position in the

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

, but was ejected for his "heresy". Two of his books (''A New Christ'' and ''Jesus: The Man and His Work'') dealt with

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

from a

Socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

perspective. In the 1908 election, he ran as a

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of America ...

candidate in the Eighth Congressional District; in 1910 he again ran as a Socialist candidate, for the office of Prosecuting Attorney for the

Madison County, Indiana Madison County is a county in the U.S. state of Indiana. The 2020 census states the population is standing at 130,129. The county seat since 1836 has been Anderson, one of three incorporated cities within the county. Madison County is includ ...

50th court district. He did not win either election. Florence Wattles remained a Socialist after his death, and was a delegate to the Socialist Party National Committee in 1912 and 1915.

New Thought

As a Midwesterner, Wattles traveled to Chicago, where several leading

leaders were located, among them

Emma Curtis Hopkins Josephine Emma Curtis Hopkins (September 2, 1849 – April 8, 1925) was an American spiritual teacher and leader. She was involved in organizing the New Thought movement and was a theologian, teacher, writer, feminist, mystic, and healer; who ta ...

and

William Walker Atkinson William Walker Atkinson (December 5, 1862 – November 22, 1932) was an attorney, merchant, publisher, and writer, as well as an occultist and an American pioneer of the New Thought movement. He is the author of the pseudonymous works attribute ...

, and he gave "Sunday night lectures" in Indiana; however, his primary publisher was

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

-based

. He studied the writings of

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy and t ...

and

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

,Sullivan, Dr. Gary (2007) ''A Christian Study of Wallace D. Wattle's Science of Getting Rich'', Gold Stag Communications, , p. 31. and recommended the study of their books to his readers who wished to understand what he characterized as "the

monistic Monism attributes oneness or singleness () to a concept, such as to existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished: * Priority monism states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them; e.g., in Neoplatonis ...

theory of the

cosmos The cosmos (, ; ) is an alternative name for the universe or its nature or order. Usage of the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity. The cosmos is studied in cosmologya broad discipline covering ...

." Through his personal study and experimentation Wattles claimed to have discovered the truth of

principles and put them into practice in his own life. He wrote books outlining these principles and practices, giving them titles that described their content, such as ''Health Through New Thought and Fasting'' and ''The Science of Being Great''. His daughter Florence recalled that "he lived every page" of his books. A practical author, Wattles encouraged his readers to test his theories on themselves rather than take his word as an authority, and he claimed to have tested his methods on himself and others before publishing them. Wattles practiced the technique of

creative visualization Creative visualization is the cognitive process of purposefully generating visual mental imagery, with eyes open or closed, simulating or recreating visual perception, in order to maintain, inspect, and transform those images, consequently mod ...

. In his daughter Florence's words, he "formed a mental picture" or visual image, and then "worked toward the realization of this vision":

Diet

Wattles held pseudoscientific ideas about diet and was an advocate of

fasting Fasting is the act of refraining from eating, and sometimes drinking. However, from a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (before "breakfast"), or to the metabolic sta ...

. He argued that

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

and strength is not drawn from food but from a "mysterious power", a life force that is received into the body during sleep via the brain by God. Wattles believed that fasting opened the door to the possibility of spiritual immortality. He advocated the then-popular theories of "The Great Masticator"

Horace Fletcher Horace Fletcher (August 10, 1849 – January 13, 1919) was an American Fad diet, food faddist who earned the nickname "The Great Masticator" for his argument that food should be chewed thoroughly until liquefied before swallowing: "Nature will ...

as well as the "No-Breakfast Plan" of Edward Hooker Dewey, which he claimed to have applied to his own life.

Influence

Rhonda Byrne Rhonda Byrne ( ; née Izon; born 1951, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian television writer and producer. Her book '' The Secret'' is based on the pseudoscientific belief of the law of attraction, which claims that thoughts can change a p ...

told a ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' interviewer that her inspiration for creating the 2006 hit film '' The Secret'', and the subsequent book by the same name, was her exposure to Wattles's ''The Science of Getting Rich''. Byrne's daughter, Hayley, had given her mother a copy of the Wattles book to help her recover from her breakdown. The film itself also references, by re-popularizing the term ''The Law of Attraction'', a 1908 book by another New Thought author,

, titled ''Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World.''

Bibliography

* Wattles, W. D (1904). ''Scientific marriage.'' Marion, Ind.: W.D. Wattles.

OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...

34051696. *Wattles, W. D (1905). ''Jesus, the man and his work,''. Cincinnati?.

44771853 (A long speech made into a pamphlet, and the base of "A New Christ"). *Wattles, W. D (1907). ''The new science of living and healing''. Holyoke, Mass.: Elizabeth Towne.

173248799. republished as *''Health Through New Thought and Fasting'' (Elizabeth Towne, 1924) *Wattles, W. D (1909). ''Making the man who can''. Holyoke, Mass.: Elizabeth Towne.

15166857. republished later as ''How to Promote Yourself'' (Elizabeth Towne, May 5, 1914) *Wattles, W. D (1910). ''What Is Truth?'' (1909) (serialized in '' The Nautilus Magazine,'' Holyoke, Mass.: Elizabeth Towne) *Wattles, W. D (1910). "Perpetual Youth" (1909, in ''The Cavalier''), an early

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

story. * Wattles, W. D (1910). ''A new Christ''. United States: publisher not identified.

71205618. *Wattles, W. D. (1910). ''Hell-fire Harrison ... Illustrated and decorated in colors by Frank T. Merrill''. Boston: L. C. Page & Co.

1158155497 * Wattles, W. D (c.1910). ''Letters to a Woman's Husband'' (pamphlet) *Wattles, W. D (c.1910). ''The Constructive Use of Foods'' (pamphlet) *Wattles, W. D (n. d.). ''How to get what you want''. Holyoke, Mass.: Elizabeth Towne Co.

80529245. "The Science of" trilogy: * *Wattles, W. D (1910). ''

''. Holyoke, Mass.: E. Towne.

7806018. Republished posthumously in 1915 as ''Financial success through creative thought''. San Gabriel, Calif.; Los Angeles: Willing ; Distributed by Scrivener.

36936118. * Wattles, W. D (1910). ''The science of being well''. Holyoke, Mass.: Towne.

9139133. *Wattles, W. D (1911). ''The science of being great''. Holyoke, Mass.: E. Towne.

5883077.

References

External links

* * * ;Individual works
''The Science of Being Great''
(

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)
''The Science of Being Rich''
(Wikicommons)
''Hell-fire Harrison''
(

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)
''The Science of Getting Rich''
(Obooko) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wattles, Wallace 1860 births 1911 deaths American Christian socialists American finance and investment writers American motivational writers American self-help writers American spiritual writers Fasting advocates New Thought writers People from Elwood, Indiana Pseudoscientific diet advocates Socialist Party of America politicians from Indiana