The Secret?

Once upon a time there was DVD that came out. I didn’t buy into because the introduction reeked of the power of suggestion. In my studies of ancient history I’d never encountered anyone dying to cover up the law of attraction. The book was interesting due to the black and white pictures in the back. Who were these people?

The book "The Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D. Wattles (1860–1911), published by Towne in 1910, espouses the principle that truly believing in the object of your desire and focusing onto it will lead to that object or goal being realized on the material plane. He mentions in the book if you don’t like it you can return it. He came from a poor farm beginning and established himself as a writer. His publisher was Elizabeth Towne.

Wattles died in Ruskin, Tennessee on Feb 6, 1911, of complications arising from hookworm. He starved to death, in a manner of speaking.

You Can Catch Things From People Who Don't Belong To Your Church: The Death of Wallace D. Wattles (1860-1911)

Charles F(rancis) Haanel (1866– 1949) wrote the book “The Master Key System”. If he actually ran a course based on these principles for $1500 per person then that would have been the approximate cost of a first class ticket on the Titanic. He was associated with Elizabeth Towne's New Thought magazine The Nautilus. 

 

Notes on Charles F. Haanel: Part One -- The Canonical Version

Notes on Charles F. Haanel: Part Two -- Mister Blue Sky

Prentice Mulford (1834–1891) was a noted literary humorist and California author who wrote “Thoughts Are Things”. He abandoned life and went into the woods, only to discover that in the wilds everything has a mate and he didn’t. He wrote of life.

Some Pages of Brown Paper: The Death of Prentice Mulford, May 1891

Robert Collier (1885 – 1950) wrote “The Secret of the Ages” and “Riches Within Your Reach”. He wanted to write books based on practical psychology.Collier was cured from food poisoning or tainted food through Christian Science, he became interested in health products and felt that 98% of our illnesses came from chemically treated, denatured foods. From this illness came the desire to investigate how the Mind could so quickly and surely cure a trouble that doctors had been working on for months--that there must be powers in the Mind he had never even suspected; and if it had dominion over his physical self, why could it not cure business problems too? Why could it not correct any financial lack? Why could it not bring him anything of good that he might wish?


She may be the original self-help guru, but Genevieve Behrend was born in 1881 in Dresden Ontario..#2
She billed herself as the only personal student of Judge Thomas Troward[1], although Troward considered Archdeacon Wilberforce a student. Troward had the ability to explain rather complex metaphysical ideas in a way that even a child could understand.
From 1912 onward she taught a practical daily application of the metaphysics. She established ‘The School of the Builder’ in New York in 1925 and for the next 35 years she toured, lectured, had a correspondence course and was popular on the radio.
LibriVox recording of Your Invisible Power, by Genevieve Behrend. Read by Algy Pug. here
She says to meditate every morning at 5 AM. Horatio W. Dresser said the same thing.

Collier with his connection to Christian Science we trace to MEB who started Christian Science and from her we go back to Phineas Parkhurst Quimby of whom she was a patient.

On the other hand, Behrend is connected to Troward, who was a member of the “Higher Thought Centre” in England which was the equivalent of the Mental Science or New Thought movement in America and Phineas Parkhurst Quimby is generally recognized as the father of the movement.

Quimby taught Health and Happiness. You have an ego and a spiritual side. Dis-ease he called an error due to ignorance of the Truth about what you really are. He died before he could teach this to the world. His “new thought” has become tainted with occultism, tarots, spiritualism, reincarnation and other elements.

The “secret” was “the father within that does all the work”
or the “Christ dwelling within”.

Essentially Elizabeth Towne published anything. William Atkinson is a prime example. He wrote books classified as “New Thought” but also wrote books on the occult using an alias. People do have to make a living.

My journey has led me to the founders of Unity, Church of Truth, Home of Truth, Divine Science and Religious Science and others.
And it continues.

[1] Troward, intellectualized God and the Universe based on his understanding of the Bible and metaphysics he picked up on while in India. For that matter William James and Horatio W. Dresser both, too, intellectualized God rather the exponential experience of God. People like Nona Brooks, H. Emilie Cady and Malinda E Cramer wrote of the experience of God or how to experience God. As did many others of the “New Thought”

2

See

How To Be and Have What You Want.

Or

Rev. Harry Gaze