Dymphna Lanjuran's Key Ideas from The Science of Getting Rich
by Wallace D. Wattles

• The universe desires you to have everything you want to have.
• Nature is friendly to your plans.
• Everything is naturally for you.
• Make up your mind that this is true.

You must want real life, not mere pleasure of sensual gratification.

Life is the performance of function; and the individual really lives only when he performs every function - physical, mental, and spiritual, of which he is capable, without excess in any (balance in all 3 is the key).

You want to get rich in order that you may eat, drink, and be merry when it is time to do these things; in order that you may surround yourself with beautiful things, see distant lands, feed your mind, and develop your intellect; in order that you may love men and do kind things, and be able to play a good part in helping the world to find truth.

1. No one lives completely who denies the impulses of the body a normal and healthful expression.
2. The man who lives for the pleasures of the intellect alone will only have a partial life, and he will never be satisfied with his lot.
3. The joys of the soul are only a part of life; and they are no better or nobler than any other part.
4. Extreme altruism is no better and no nobler than extreme selfishness; both are mistakes.

Get rid of the idea that God wants you to sacrifice yourself for others, and that you can secure his favor by doing so; God requires nothing of the kind. What he wants is that you should make the most of yourself, for yourself, and for others; and you can help others more by making the most of yourself than in any other way.

You can make the most of yourself only by getting rich; so it is right and praiseworthy that you should give your first and best thought to the work of acquiring wealth.

1. You must get rid of the thought of competition.
2. You are to create, not to compete for what is already created.
3. You do not have to take anything away from any one.
4. You do not have to drive sharp bargains. You do not have to cheat, or to take advantage.
5. You do not need to let any man work for you for less than he earns.

You are to become a creator, not a competitor; you are going to get what you want, but in such a way that when you get it every other man will have more than he has now.

Never get afraid that you will lose what you want because some other person “beats you to it”.

That cannot possibly happen; you are not seeking any thing that is possessed by anybody else; you are causing what you want to be created from Formless Substance, and the supply is without limits.

1. There is a Law of Gratitude, and it is absolutely necessary that you should observe the law, if you are to get the results you seek.
2. The law of gratitude is the natural principle that action and reaction are always equal, and in opposite directions.
3. The grateful outreaching of your mind in thankful praise to the Supreme is a liberation or expenditure of force; it cannot fail to reach that to which it addressed, and the reaction is an instantaneous movement towards you.

The whole process of mental adjustment and atonement can be summed up in one word, GRATITUDE.

1. First, you believe that there is one Intelligent Substance, from which all things proceed;
2. Second, you believe that this Substance gives you everything you desire; and
3. Third, you relate yourself to it by a feeling of deep and profound gratitude.

Many people who order their lives rightly in all other ways are kept in poverty by their lack of gratitude.

Having received one gift from God, they cut the wires which connect them with Him by failing to make acknowledgment.

• Gratitude will lead your mind out along the ways by which things come; and it will keep you in close harmony with creative thought and prevent you from falling into competitive thought.
• And if your gratitude is strong and constant, the reaction in Formless Substance will be strong and continuous; the movement of the things you want will be always toward you.

1. The Creative Power within us makes us into the image of that to which we give our attention.
2. We are Thinking Substance, and thinking substance always takes the form of that which it thinks about.
3. The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best; therefore it tends to become the best; it takes the form or character of the best, and will receive the best.

FAITH is born of gratitude.

• The grateful mind continually expects good things, and expectation becomes faith.
• The reaction of gratitude upon one’s own mind produces faith; and every outgoing wave of grateful thanksgiving increases faith.
• He who has no feeling of gratitude cannot long retain a living faith; and without a living faith you cannot get rich by the creative method, as we shall see in the following chapters.

• It is necessary, then, to cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you; and to give thanks continuously.
• And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.
• This will bring you into harmonious relations with the good in everything, and the good in everything will move toward you.

1. You must form a clear and definite mental picture of what you want; you cannot transmit an idea unless you have it yourself.
2. The more clear and definite you make your picture then, and the more you dwell upon it, bringing out all its delightful details, the stronger your desire will be; and the stronger your desire, the easier it will be to hold your mind fixed upon the picture of what you want.
3. Behind your clear vision must be the purpose to realize it; to bring it out in tangible expression.
4. And behind this purpose must be an invincible and unwavering FAITH that the thing is already yours; that it is “at hand” and you have only to take possession of it.

• You do not need to pray repeatedly for things you want; it is not necessary to tell God about it every day.
• Your part is to intelligently formulate your desire for the things which make for a larger life, and to get these desire arranged into a coherent whole; and then to impress this Whole Desire upon the Formless Substance, which has the power and the will to bring you what you want.
• You do not make this impression by repeating strings of words; you make it by holding the vision with unshakable PURPOSE to attain it, and with steadfast FAITH that you do attain it.
• The answer to prayer is not according to your faith while you are talking, but according to your faith while you are working.

1. You cannot impress the mind of God by having a special Sabbath day set apart to tell Him what you want, and then forgetting Him during the rest of the week.
2. You cannot impress Him by having special hours to go into your closet and pray, if you then dismiss the matter from your mind until the hour of prayer comes again.
3. Oral prayer is well enough, and has its effect, especially upon yourself, in clarifying your vision and strengthening your faith; but it is not your oral petitions which get you what you want.
4. In order to get rich you do not need a “sweet hour of prayer”; you need to “pray without ceasing.”
5. And by prayer I mean holding steadily to your vision, with the purpose to cause its creation into solid form, and the faith that you are doing so.
6. “Believe that ye receive them.”

1. The whole matter turns on receiving, once you have clearly formed your vision.
2. When you have formed it, it is well to make an oral statement, addressing the Supreme in reverent prayer; and from that moment you must, in mind, receive what you ask for.
3. Think and speak of all the things you have asked for in terms of actual present ownership.
4. Imagine an environment, and a financial condition exactly as you want them, and live all the time in that imaginary environment and financial condition.

• Mind, however, that you do not do this as a mere dreamer and castle builder; hold to the FAITH that the imaginary is being realized, and to the PURPOSE to realize it.
• Remember that it is faith and purpose in the use of the imagination which make the difference between the scientist and the dreamer.

1. To set about getting rich in a scientific way, you do not try to apply your will power to anything outside of yourself.
2. It is wrong to apply your will to other men and women, in order to get them to do what you wish done.
3. You have no right to use your will power upon another person, even “for his own good”; for you do not know what is for his good.
4. To get rich, you need only to use your will power upon yourself.
5. When you know what to think and do, then you must use your will to compel yourself to think and do the right things.

• Get rich; that is the best way you can help the poor. And you cannot hold the mental image which is to make you rich if you fill your mind with pictures of poverty.
• What tends to do away with poverty is not the getting of pictures of poverty into your mind, but getting pictures of wealth into the minds of the poor.
• If you want to help the poor, demonstrate to them that they can become rich; prove it by getting rich yourself.

1. Man must pass from the competitive to the creative mind; he must form a clear mental picture of the things he wants, and hold this picture in his thoughts with the fixed PURPOSE to get what he wants, and the unwavering FAITH that he does get what he wants, closing his mind to all that may tend to shake his purpose, dim his vision, or quench his faith.
2. That he may receive what he wants when it comes, man must act NOW upon the people and things in his present environment.