Where Did the Law of Attraction Originate?

As I'm currently updating my book Daily Life Manager: Adding Action to the Law of Attraction to publish on Kindle, I have been on a quest to ensure that the material from the original book and any new material is as accurate as possible. This search has been quite enlightening. In particular, I have discovered some of the roots of how the Law of Attraction came to be discovered.

From my research, it appears that the Law of Attraction started in New England in the mid-nineteenth century (that's around 1850 for those who need a translator for terms not frequently used) as part of mental healing experiments. This movement became the New Thought movement. The basic premise of this movement is that thoughts are causative (thoughts are things). For the first half of the twentieth century, the Law of Attraction was called Positive Thinking. I know the purists will disagree that these are the same thing due to the addition of feelings or emotions in the equation, which is not generally emphasized in the Positive Thinking books.

However, it's impossible to ignore that Norman Vincent Peale's extraordinary work, The Power of Positive Thinking was anything but the Law of Attraction. Another example in this vein (albeit from a British Philosopher) is As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. These books are a fabulous foundation if you are interested in learning more about the why of this philosophy.

The book referenced by The Secret is the Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles. We know little about his background but I did find it interesting that he ran for Congress on the Socialist Party ticket. One of my favorite philosophers is William James (whom some believe to be the Father of American Psychology). He was apparently was part of the New Thought movement as well and was an experimenter in mental healing. I think one of the secrets missing from The Secret is the role of habits as shown by this quote:

Sow an action and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny. - William James

Regardless of your view on the New Thought movement, or the Law of Attraction, it's hard to overstate the impact that just a few of the authors identified above have had on the current self help movement today and the success that many people have enjoyed from the application of the principle that thoughts are causative. It's really fascinating to me (if the research is accurate) that the timing of the New Thought movement coincides with the Industrial Revolution. I'm not saying there is a link but it is curious, don't you think?