The original text was by a man with the unfortunate name of Wallace Wattles. His book launched a whole body of material that has been called "the masculine arm of New Thought": books and lectures on how to create a prosperous life. It was also the book referred to in the film The Secret, as having turned Rhonda Byrne's life around at a particularly dark time.
I've understood and applied the principles he teaches for many years now, but it wasn't until I read (and rewrote) his first few paragraphs that I really got the fundamental basis he was working from
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Here's what Wattles has to say:
- No one is kept in poverty by limits in the supply of riches; there’s more than enough for all. …In truth, the visible supply is practically inexhaustible, and the invisible supply really is inexhaustible…
- Nature is an unlimited storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short…
- The formless substance responds to the needs of mankind; it will not let humanity be without any good thing…
- Nature exists for the advancement of life, and its primary impulse is the increase of life. Because of this, everything that can possibly enhance life is bountifully provided.