The Secret of the Ages

The Secret of the Ages is the seven-volume mail-order self-improvement course written by the American New Thought author Robert Collier, self-published by Robert Collier Publishing in 1926. Collier presents what he calls the universal subconscious mind as the medium through which thought becomes circumstance, and instructs readers in a sequence of mental exercises — visualisation, affirmation, deliberate emotional saturation — meant to align personal intention with that universal substrate. The book is one of the most-read works of the second-generation New Thought movement, alongside Wallace Wattles's The Science of Getting Rich and Charles Haanel's Master Key System.

The seven volumes move from the existence of a universal Life Principle accessible to every mind, through the mechanics of desire, visualisation, and the law of attraction, to practical chapters on supply, success, and what Collier calls the secret of power. For a reader in the New Thought tradition, the book is notable for integrating biblical language and scientific-sounding claims about the subconscious into a single readable argument. Its mail-order format, reaching hundreds of thousands of subscribers before the commercial book edition, shaped how American popular self-help would be packaged and sold for the rest of the century.

All riches have their origin in Mind. Wealth is in ideas — not money.

Chapter I, "The World's Greatest Discovery"

First lines

What, in your opinion, is the most significant discovery of this modern age? The finding of dinosaur eggs on the plains of Mongolia, laid — so scientists assert — some 10,000,000 years ago? The unearthing of the Tomb of Tutankh-Amen, with its matchless specimens of a bygone civilization? No — not any of these.

Contents

Reception

The Secret of the Ages sold reportedly more than three hundred thousand copies through its mail-order subscription model in Collier's lifetime and has remained continuously in print since the 1948 reissue; it was a direct influence on Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich (1937), and is one of the named source texts behind Rhonda Byrne's 2006 film and book The Secret. Critics within and outside the New Thought tradition have argued that the book's strongest pages on attention, expectation, and emotional discipline are weakened by chapters that promise material wealth as a near-automatic consequence of right thought; later New Thought writers (Emmet Fox, Joel Goldsmith) deliberately recentred the lineage away from that 'demonstration of supply' register. The book is read today both as a foundational document of American manifestation culture and as a primary source for the lineage of mental causation that Wattles, Haanel, Hill, and Byrne all draw on.

Frequently asked

What is The Secret of the Ages about?

Robert Collier's 1926 self-improvement course in seven volumes argues that every person can draw on a universal subconscious mind through visualisation, affirmation, and deliberate emotional focus. The twenty-four chapters move from the existence of a universal Life Principle through desire, the law of attraction, and practical methods for health, success, and supply.

How was The Secret of the Ages originally published?

It appeared first as seven separate mail-order volumes, each mailed to subscribers who paid by instalment — a distribution model that reached over three hundred thousand readers before the book was reissued as a single volume in 1948. The original 1925 copyright used the title The Book of Life.

Did The Secret of the Ages influence The Secret?

It is one of the named source texts behind Rhonda Byrne's 2006 book and film The Secret. Collier's book also directly influenced Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich (1937), and the lineage of mental-causation writing it belongs to — alongside Wallace Wattles and Charles Haanel — is the primary source tradition for 20th- and 21st-century manifestation culture.