Wallace Wattles's 1910 health-focused companion to The Science of Getting Rich, presenting his New Thought metaphysics applied to physical wellbeing. The book argues that there is a 'Principle of Health' inherent in every person, that disease results from misalignment with this principle through wrong thinking, eating and breathing, and that systematic mental and behavioural correction will restore the body's native functioning. The framework is pure New Thought monism — mind as primary, body as effect.
The lesser-known of Wattles's three 'Science of' books (Getting Rich, Being Well, Being Great), all published in the year before his death from tuberculosis at age 51 — a fact that has not gone unremarked in critical reception. Read inside New Thought and the modern Law of Attraction revival as part of Wattles's primary corpus; the post-2006 sales surge driven by Rhonda Byrne's The Secret extended to this title alongside the more famous Getting Rich. Mainstream medicine has treated the book's specific health claims as harmful when followed in lieu of clinical care; New Thought practitioners read it as principles rather than prescription.
The perfectly natural performance of function constitutes health; and the perfectly natural performance of function results from the natural action of the Principle of Life.
Chapter I: The Principle of Health
First lines
In the personal application of the Science of Being Well, as in that of the Science of Getting Rich, certain fundamental truths must be known in the beginning, and accepted without question.
Contents
I. The Principle of Health
II. The Foundation of Faith
III. Life and Its Organisms
IV. What to Think
V. Faith
VI. Use of the Will
VII. Health from God
VIII. Summary of the Mental Actions
IX. When to Eat
X. What to Eat
XI. How to Eat
XII. Hunger and Appetites
XIII. In a Nutshell
XIV. Breathing
XV. Sleep
XVI. Supplementary Instructions
XVII. A Summary of the Science of Being Well
Reception
The lesser-known of Wattles's three 'Science of' books (Getting Rich, Being Well, Being Great), all published in the year before his death from tuberculosis at age 51 — a fact that has not gone unremarked in critical reception. Read inside New Thought and the modern Law of Attraction revival as part of Wattles's primary corpus; the post-2006 sales surge driven by Rhonda Byrne's The Secret extended to this title alongside the more famous Getting Rich. Mainstream medicine has treated the book's specific health claims as harmful when followed in lieu of clinical care; New Thought practitioners read it as principles rather than prescription.
Frequently asked
What is The Science of Being Well about?
It is Wallace Wattles's application of New Thought metaphysics to physical health. The central argument is that every person contains a 'Principle of Health' whose natural action produces perfect function, and that disease results from disrupting this principle through wrong thinking, eating, or breathing. Seventeen chapters cover mental alignment, diet, breathing, and sleep as means of restoring the body's native functioning.
What is the "Principle of Health" in Wattles's framework?
Wattles defines the Principle of Health as a universal Life Substance — a diffusible ether permeating all things — from which human vitality draws. When a person thinks in alignment with this principle (holding a mental image of health rather than disease) and follows natural habits of eating and breathing, the principle operates without interference and health is the result. The framework is monist: mind governs matter.
How does The Science of Being Well compare to The Science of Getting Rich?
It applies the same New Thought monist framework — right thinking produces right results — but shifts the domain from wealth to health. The two books share their metaphysical premise (a universal Life Substance responsive to thought) and their tone (practical handbook rather than philosophical treatise). The Science of Getting Rich has far outsold it, partly because wealth is a more legible metric than health and partly because Rhonda Byrne's The Secret drew primarily from the wealth book.