THE SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH Wallace D. Wattles

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Challenge your thinking. Change your life.
In the spring of 1998, a man I'd never met sent me a book I'd never heard of, written long ago by a man who's now been dead nearly 90 years.
That little book changed my entire life. As I put into practice the principles you'll learn about in this book, the results were astonishing — and they began almost instantly and continue to this day.

Hello! I'm Rebecca Fine, and I am so pleased to introduce you to this exciting forgotten classic!

When The Science of Getting Rich arrived in the mail that afternoon I immediately ripped open the package, sat down, and read it with an open mind — mostly because the title was just so intriguing. And even though I must admit I found some of the oldfashioned language and some of the ideas in the first part a bit confusing, there was something about it that compelled me to reread those little confusing bits two or three times until ... I got it!

Once I'd done that, I couldn't stop reading until I'd read the whole thing!

 

Everything changed.

Right away I began to put into practice what the book outlines ... and everything began to change. "Coincidences" happened — happy ones that led to connections with people ... that led to more connections ... that led to money beginning to flow toward me in increasingly larger amounts and from several sources, including new and unexpected ones.

And even though changing your habitual thinking is difficult and I'm still not as good at it as I intend to be, my businesses began to "click," my income doubled, then tripled, and continues to rise ... my cramped city apartment gave way to a spacious and peaceful waterfront home ... I've established rewarding new relationships with many generous, successful, wealthy people ... and opportunities to be, do, have, and give more continue to show up at my doorstep almost daily.
It's amazing — and wonderful!

Work with the law, go with the tide.

Until this book arrived, nothing I had ever read or heard before had explained to me so clearly that there are universal laws at work regarding wealth and success and that if we'll just work with those laws — go with the tide instead of trying to swim against it (usually unknowingly) — the results we want will begin to come to us. That if we will scientifically reproduce the causes of wealth, we will invariably reproduce the results.
Now right off the bat, author Wallace D. Wattles says that instead of questioning how these principles work, you'll need simply to accept them and begin to practice them. So I did that, even though as I read I did find myself resisting from time to time and thinking, "Well, I don't know if I can agree with that." But I'd already decided just to accept each premise as if I thoroughly believed it.
Can you handle the challenge?

By the time I finished the book I understood why he had included that warning. You see, some of what you'll read or hear will most likely challenge some of your previous thinking. That seems to be the case for most people — and I think Mr. Wattles designed it that way! But keep on, and you'll soon see how Mr. Wattles beautifully builds each chapter on what he presents in the preceding ones. I think you'll find yourself saying — as I and many others have — "Oh, now I see why he said that. Now I see how it all fits together."

Become rightly rich.

I believe also that you'll find it absolutely refreshing to know that to get rich by the method outlined here, it is essential that you embrace and practice what we all know as the Golden Rule ... that the daily practice of gratitude is one of the conduits by which your wealth will come to you ... and that by accomplishing your financial dreams through this method, everyone with whom you come into contact will also have more.

A far cry from the dog-eat-dog, claw your way to the top, anything for a buck mentality so many believe to be the only way to wealth!

Pay close attention to the message of this book with an open mind. Get a free copyof the entire printable version right here — and read it. Print it out and give it to your friends.

Link to it on your own website if you like. Focus constantly on your own personal vision and share that vision with other like-minded people who are doing the same. You WILL see results!

You already have within you everything you need ...

... to turn your dreams into reality. You are a person of infinite worth and unique possibility. Even if you don't think of yourself as a creative person, and even if you've failed before, and even if you think you've tried everything, open your mind to this book.
You've probably heard the saying, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." That has certainly held true for me and many, many others, and perhaps you're ready, too — right now. If you're not yet where you want to be in terms of income and your own personal success, the problem may not be WHAT you're doing so much as HOW you're doing it. And that begins with how you THINK.
If you want to change your life, you may just need to change your mind!

Rebecca Fine
from the new Introduction
November, 1999 Olympia, Washington, USA (I'm in Seattle now!)

CHAPTER 1 The Right To Be Rich

WHATEVER MAY BE SAID IN PRAISE OF POVERTY, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich.

No one can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money, for to unfold the soul and to develop talent he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with. A person develops in mind, soul, and body by making use of things, and society is so organized that man must have money in order to become the possessor of things. Therefore, the basis of all advancement must be the science of getting rich.

The object of all life is development, and everything that lives have an inalienable right to all the development it is capable of attaining. A person’s right to life means his right to have the free and unrestricted use of all the things which may be necessary to his fullest mental, spiritual, and physical unfolding; or, in other words, his right to be rich. In this book, I shall not speak of riches in a figurative way. To be really rich does not mean to be satisfied or contented with a little.

No one ought to be satisfied with a little if he is capable of using and enjoying more. The purpose of nature is the advancement and unfolding of life, and everyone should have all that can contribute to the power, elegance, beauty, and richness of life. To be content with less is sinful. The person who owns all he wants for the living of all the life he is capable of living is rich, and no person who has not plenty of money can have all he wants.

Life has advanced so far and become so complex that even the most ordinary man or woman requires a great amount of wealth in order to live in a manner that even approaches completeness. 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 be all that we can be. Success in life is becoming what you want to be. You can become what you want to be only by making use of things, and you can have the free use of things only as you become rich enough to buy them. To understand the science of getting rich is therefore the most essential of all knowledge.

There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for riches is really the desire for a richer, fuller, and more abundant life — and that desire is praiseworthy. The person who does not desire to live more abundantly is abnormal, and so the person who does not desire to have money enough to buy all he wants is abnormal.

There are three motives for which we live: We live for the body, we live for the mind, and we live for the soul. No one of these is better or holier than the other; all are alike desirable, and no one of the three — body, mind, or soul — can live fully if either of the others is cut short of full life and expression. It is not right or noble to live only for the soul and deny mind or body, and it is wrong to live for the intellect and deny body or soul.

We are all acquainted with the loathsome consequences of living for the body and denying both mind and soul, and we see that real life means the complete expression of all that a person can give forth through body, mind, and soul.

Whatever he can say, no one can be really happy or satisfied unless his body is living fully in its every function, and unless the same is true of his mind and his soul. Wherever there is unexpressed possibility or function not performed, there is unsatisfied desire. Desire is possibility seeking expression or function seeking performance.

A person cannot live fully in body without good food, comfortable clothing, and warm shelter, and without freedom from excessive toil. Rest and recreation are also necessary to his physical life. One cannot live fully in mind without books and time to study them, without opportunity for travel and observation, or without intellectual companionship.

To live fully in mind a person must have intellectual recreations, and must surround himself with all the objects of art and beauty he is capable of using and appreciating. To live fully in soul, a person must have love, and love is denied fullest expression by poverty. A person’s highest happiness is found in the bestowal of benefits on those he loves; love finds its most natural and spontaneous expression in giving. The individual who has nothing to give cannot fill his place as a spouse or parent, as a citizen, or as a human being.

It is in the use of material things that a person finds full life for his body, develops his mind, and unfolds his soul. It is therefore of supreme importance to each individual to be rich. It is perfectly right that you should desire to be rich. If you are a normal man or woman you cannot help doing so. It is perfectly right that you should give your best attention to the science of getting rich, for it is the noblest and most necessary of all studies. If you neglect this study, you are derelict in your duty to yourself, to God and humanity, for you can render to God and humanity no greater service than to make the most of yourself.

CHAPTER 2 There Is A Science of Getting Rich

THERE IS A SCIENCE OF GETTING RICH, and it is an exact science, like algebra or arithmetic. There are certain laws that govern the process of acquiring riches, and once these laws are learned and obeyed by anyone, that person will get rich with mathematical certainty.

The ownership of money and property comes as a result of doing things in a certain way, and those who do things in this certain way — whether on purpose or accidentally — 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.

It is natural laws that like causes always produce like effects, and, therefore, any man or woman who learns to do things in this certain way will infallibly get rich. That the above statement is true is shown by the following facts: Getting rich is not a matter of environment, for if it were, all the people in certain neighborhoods would become wealthy.

The people of one city would all be rich, while those of other towns would all be poor, or all the inhabitants of one state would roll in wealth, while those of an adjoining state would be in poverty. But everywhere we see rich and poor living side-by-side, in the same environment, and often engaged in the same vocations.

When two people are in the same locality and in the same business, and one gets rich while the other remains poor, it shows that getting rich is not primarily a matter of environment. Some environments may be more favorable than others, but when two people in the same business are in the same neighborhood and one gets rich while the other fails, it indicates that getting rich is the result of doing things in a certain way. And further, the ability to do things in this certain way is not due solely to the possession of talent, for many people who have great talent remain poor, while others who have very little talent get rich.

Studying the people who have gotten rich, we find that they are an average lot in all respects, having no greater talents and abilities than other people have. It is evident that they do not get rich because they possess talents and abilities that others do not have, but because they happen to do things in a certain way.

Getting rich is not the result of saving, or thrift. Many very penurious people are poor, while free spenders often get rich. Nor is getting rich due to doing things which others fail to do, for two people in the same business often do almost exactly the same things, and one gets rich while the other remains poor or becomes bankrupt.

From all these things, we must come to the conclusion that getting rich is the result of doing things in a certain way. If getting rich is the result of doing things in a certain way, and if like causes always produce like effects, then any man or woman who can do things in that way can become rich, and the whole matter is brought within the domain of exact science.

The question arises here as to whether this certain way may not be so difficult that only a few may follow it. As we have seen, this cannot be true (as far as natural ability is concerned). Talented people get rich, and blockheads get rich; intellectually brilliant people get rich, and very stupid people get rich; physically strong people get rich, and weak and sickly people get rich.

Some degree of ability to think and understand is, of course, essential, but insofar as natural ability is concerned, any man or woman who has sense enough to read and understand these words can certainly get rich. Also, we have seen that it is not a matter of environment. Yes, location counts for something. One would not go to the heart of the Sahara and expect to do successful business.

Getting rich involves the necessity of dealing with people and of being where there are people to deal with, and if these people are inclined to deal in the way you want to deal, so much the better. But that is about as far as environment goes. If anybody else in your town can get rich, so can you, and if anybody else in your state can get rich, so can you. Again, it is not a matter of choosing some particular business or profession. People get rich in every business and in every profession, while their next-door neighbours in the very same vocation remain in poverty.

It is true that you will do best in a business you like and which is congenial to you. And if you have certain talents that are well developed, you will do best in a business that calls for the exercise of those talents. Also, you will do best in a business which is suited to your locality: An ice cream parlor would do better in a warm climate than in Greenland, and a salmon fishery will succeed better in the northwest than in Florida, where there are no salmon. But, aside from these general limitations, getting rich is not dependent upon your engaging in some particular business, but upon your learning to do things in a certain way. If you are now in business and anybody else in your locality is getting rich in the same business, while you are not getting rich, it is simply because you are not doing things in the same way that the other person is doing them. No one is prevented from getting rich by lack of capital. True, as you get capital the increase becomes more easy and rapid, but one who has capital is already rich and does not need to consider how to become so. No matter how poor you may be, if you begin to do things in the certain way you will begin to get rich and you will begin to have capital. The getting of capital is a part of the process of getting rich and it is a part of the result that invariably follows the doing of things in the certain way. You may be the poorest person on the continent and be deeply in debt.

You may not have friends, influences, or resources, but if you begin to do things in this way, you must infallibly begin to get rich, for like causes must produce like effects. If you have no capital, you can get capital. If you are in the wrong business, you can get into the right business. If you are in the wrong location, you can go to the right location. And you can do so by beginning in your present business and in your present location to do things in the certain way that always causes success. You must begin to live in harmony with the laws governing the universe.

CHAPTER 3 Is Opportunity Monopolized?

NO ONE IS KEPT POOR BECAUSE OTHER PEOPLE HAVE MONOPOLIZED THE WEALTH and have put a fence around it. You may be shut off from engaging in business in certain lines, but there are other channels open to you. At different periods the tide of opportunity sets in different directions, according to the needs of the whole and the particular stage of social evolution, which has been reached. There is abundance of opportunity for the person who will go with the tide, instead of trying to swim against it. So workers, either as individuals or as a class, are not deprived of opportunity.

The workers are not being “kept down” by their masters; they are not being “ground” by the trusts and big business. As a class, they are where they are because they do not do things in a certain way. The working class may become the master class whenever they will begin to do things in a certain way. The law of wealth is the same for them as it is for all others. This they must learn, and they will remain where they are as long as they continue to do as they do.

The individual worker, however, is not held down by an entire class’s ignorance of these laws; he can follow the tide of opportunity to riches, and this book will tell him how. No one is kept in poverty by shortness in the supply of riches; there is more than enough for all. A palace as large as the capitol at Washington might be built for every family on earth from the building material in the United States alone, and under intensive cultivation this country would produce wool, cotton, linen, and silk enough to clothe each person in the world finer than Solomon was arrayed in all his glory, together with food enough to feed them all luxuriously.

The visible supply is practically inexhaustible, and the invisible supply really is inexhaustible. Everything you see on earth is made from one original substance, out of which all things proceed. New forms are constantly being made, and older ones are dissolving, but all are shapes assumed by one thing. There is no limit to the supply of formless stuff, or original substance. The universe is made out of it, but it was not all used in making the universe. The spaces in, through, and between the forms of the visible universe are permeated and filled with the original substance, with the formless stuff — with the raw material of all things. Ten thousand times as much as has been made might still be made, and even then we should not have exhausted the supply of universal raw material. No one, therefore, is poor because nature is poor or because there is not enough to go around. Nature is an inexhaustible storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short. Original substance is alive with creative energy, and is constantly producing more forms. When the supply of building material is exhausted, more will be produced. When the soil is exhausted so that foodstuffs and materials for clothing will no longer grow upon it, it will be renewed or more soil will be made. When all the gold and silver has been dug from the earth, if humanity is still in such a stage of social development that it needs gold and silver, more will produced from the formless.

The formless stuff responds to the needs of mankind; it will not let the world be without any good thing. This is true of man collectively. The race as a whole is always abundantly rich, and if individuals are poor it is because they do not follow the certain way of doing things that makes the individual rich. The formless stuff is intelligent; it is stuff which thinks. It is alive and is always impelled toward more life. It is the natural and inherent impulse of life to seek to live more; it is the nature of intelligence to enlarge itself, and of consciousness to seek to extend its boundaries and find fuller expression. The universe of forms has been made by formless living substance throwing itself into form in order to express itself more fully.

The universe is a great living presence, always moving inherently toward more life and fuller functioning. Nature is formed for the advancement of life, and its impelling motive is the increase of life. Because of this, everything, which can possibly minister to life, is bountifully provided. There can be no lack unless God is to contradict himself and nullify his own works. You are not kept poor by lack in the supply of riches. It is a fact that I shall demonstrate a little farther on that even the resources of the formless supply are at the command of the man or woman who will act and think in a certain way.

CHAPTER 4 The First Principle in The Science of Getting Rich

THOUGHT IS THE ONLY POWER WHICH CAN PRODUCE TANGIBLE RICHES from the formless substance. The stuff from which all things are made is a substance that thinks, and a thought of form in this substance produces the form. Original substance moves according to its thoughts; every form and process you see in nature is the visible expression of a thought in original substance. As the formless stuff thinks of a form, it takes that form; as it thinks of a motion, it makes that motion. That is the way all things were created. We live in a thought world, which is part of a thought universe.

The thought of a moving universe extended throughout formless substance, and the thinking stuff — moving according to that thought — took the form of systems of planets, and maintains that form. Thinking substance takes the form of its thought, and moves according to the thought. Holding the idea of a circling system of suns and worlds, it takes the form of these bodies, and moves them as it thinks.

Thinking the form of a slow-growing oak tree, it moves accordingly, and produces the tree, though centuries may be required to do the work. In creating, the formless seems to move according to the lines of motion it has established. In other words, the thought of an oak tree does not cause the instant formation of a full-grown tree, but it does start in motion the forces, which will produce the tree, along established lines of growth. Every thought of form, held in thinking substance, causes the creation of the form, but always, or at least generally, along lines of growth and action already established.

The thought of a house of a certain construction, if it were impressed upon formless substance, might not cause the instant formation of the house, but it would cause the turning of creative energies already working in trade and commerce into such channels as to result in the speedy building of the house. And if there were no existing channels through which the creative energy could work, then the house would be formed directly from primal substance, without waiting for the slow processes of the organic and inorganic world.

No thought of form can be impressed upon original substance without causing the creation of the form. A person is a thinking centre and can originate thought. All the forms that a person fashions with his hands must first exist in his thought. He cannot shape a thing until he has thought that thing. So far, humankind has confined its efforts wholly to the work of its hands, applying manual labour to the world of forms and seeking to change or modify those already existing.

Humankind has never thought of trying to cause the creation of new forms by impressing thought upon formless substance. When a person has a thought-form, he takes material from the forms of nature and makes an image of the form which is in his mind. People have, so far, made little or no effort to cooperate with formless intelligence — to work “with the Father.”

The individual has not dreamed that he can “do what he sees the Father doing.” An individual reshapes and modifies existing forms by manual labor and has given no attention to the question of whether he may produce things from formless substance by communicating his thoughts to it. We propose to prove that he may do so — to prove that any man or woman may do so — and to show how. As our first step, we must lay down three fundamental propositions. First, we assert that there is one original formless stuff or substance from which all things are made. All the seemingly many elements are but different presentations of one element.

All the many forms found in organic and inorganic nature are but different shapes, made from the same stuff. And this stuff is thinking stuff — a thought held in it produces the form of the thought. Thought, in thinking substance, produces shapes. A human being is a thinking center, capable of original thought. If a person can communicate his thought to original thinking substance, he can cause the creation, or formation, of the thing he thinks about. To summarize this: There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought. A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. It may be asked if I can prove these statements, and without going into details I answer that I can do so, both by logic and experience. Reasoning back from the phenomena of form and thought, I come to one original thinking substance, and reasoning forward from this thinking substance, I come to a person’s power to cause the formation of the thing he thinks about. And by experiment, I find the reasoning true. This is my strongest proof. If one person who reads this book gets rich by doing what it tells him to do, that is evidence in support of my claim, but if every person who does what it tells him to do gets rich, that is positive proof until someone goes through the process and fails. The theory is true until the process fails, and this process will not fail, for everyone who does exactly what this book tells him to do will get rich. I have said that people get rich by doing things in a certain way, and in order to do so, people must become able to think in a certain way. A person’s way of doing things is the direct result of the way he thinks about things. To do things in the way you want to do them, you will have to acquire the ability to think the way you want to think.

This is the first step toward getting rich. And to think what you want to think is to think TRUTH, regardless of appearances. Every individual has the natural and inherent power to think what he wants to think, but it requires far more effort to do so than it does to think the thoughts, which are suggested by appearances. To think according to appearances is easy; to think truth regardless of appearances is laborious and requires the expenditure of more power than any other work we are called upon to perform. There is no labour from which most people shrink as they do from that of sustained and consecutive thought. It is the hardest work in the world.

This is especially true when truth is contrary to appearances. Every appearance in the visible world tends to produce a corresponding form in the mind that observes it, and this can only be prevented by holding to the thoughts of TRUTH. To look upon the appearances of poverty will produce corresponding forms in your own mind, unless you hold to the truth that there is no poverty; there is only abundance. To think health when surrounded by the appearances of disease or to think riches when in the midst of the appearances of poverty requires power, but whoever acquires this power becomes a mastermind. That person can conquer fate and can have what he wants.

This power can only be acquired by getting hold of the basic fact which is behind all appearances, and that fact is that there is one thinking substance from which and by which all things are made. Then we must grasp the truth that every thought held in this substance becomes a form, and that man can so impress his thoughts upon it as to cause them to take form and become visible things. When we realize this we lose all doubt and fear, for we know that we can create what we want to create, we can get what we want to have, and can become what we want to be. As a first step toward getting rich, you must believe the three fundamental statements given previously in this chapter, and in order to emphasize them, I repeat them here: There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates, and fills the interspaces of the universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

A person can form things in his thought, and, by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created. You must lay aside all other concepts of the universe, and you must dwell upon this until it is fixed in your mind and has become your habitual thought. Read these statements over and over again. Fix every word upon your memory and meditate upon them until you firmly believe what they say. If a doubt comes to you, cast it aside. Do not listen to arguments against this idea.

Do not go to churches or lectures where a contrary concept of things is taught or preached. Do not read magazines or books that teach a different idea. If you get mixed up in your understanding, belief, and faith, all your efforts will be in vain. Do not ask why these things are true nor speculate as to how they can be true. Simply take them on trust. The science of getting rich begins with the absolute acceptance of this.

CHAPTER 5 Increasing Life

YOU MUST GET RID OF THE LAST VESTIGE OF THE OLD IDEA that there is a Deity whose will it is that you should be poor or whose purposes may be served by keeping you in poverty.

The intelligent substance, which is all, and in all, and which lives in all and lives in y