William Walker Atkinson's 1906 systematic statement of the Law of Attraction as he understood it — that thought is a form of vibrational energy with magnet-like power, that like attracts like in the mental as in the physical world, and that disciplined attention to one's habitual thought-tone is the operative mechanism of personal transformation. The book is structured as sixteen short chapters, each pairing a metaphysical principle with practical exercises in mental concentration and self-observation.
The central argument opens with an analogy between the law of gravitation and the law of mental attraction: just as physical bodies draw one another, thoughts of a given quality draw circumstances of the same quality. Atkinson moves from this premise through chapters on thought-waves, will-training, emotional transmutation, and the cultivation of desire as force, closing with a chapter titled "Law, Not Chance" that frames every outcome as a consequence of mental cause. Atkinson's authorial pluralism — he published under at least eight pseudonyms simultaneously — gives this single-name volume an unusually direct authorial voice among his many works.
When we come to see that Thought is a force — a manifestation of energy — having a magnet-like power of attraction, we will begin to understand the why and wherefore of many things that have heretofore seemed dark to us.
Chapter I, "The Law of Attraction in the Thought World"
First lines
The Universe is governed by Law — one great Law. Its manifestations are multiform, but viewed from the Ultimate there is but one Law. We are familiar with some of its manifestations, but are almost totally ignorant of certain others. Still we are learning a little more every day — the veil is being gradually lifted.
Contents
The Law of Attraction in the Thought World
Thought-Waves and Their Process of Reproduction
A Talk About the Mind
Mind Building
The Secret of the Will
How to Become Immune to Injurious Thought Attraction
The Transmutation of Negative Thought
The Law of Mental Control
Asserting the Life-Force
Training the Habit-Mind
The Psychology of Emotion
Developing New Brain-Cells
The Attractive Power — Desire Force
The Great Dynamic Forces
Claiming Your Own
Law, Not Chance
Reception
One of the original primary sources for the modern Law of Attraction tradition — predating Charles Haanel's Master Key System (1912) and well over a century before Rhonda Byrne's The Secret popularised the phrase to a mass audience. Read inside New Thought as one of the earliest clean statements of the doctrine; outside it, treated by historians of American religion (Catherine Albanese, Mitch Horowitz) as an artefact of the early-20th-century mental-science boom. Atkinson's authorial pluralism — he published under at least eight pseudonyms simultaneously — gives this single-name volume an unusually direct authorial voice.
Frequently asked
What is Thought Vibration about?
Atkinson argues that thought is a form of vibrational energy — that like attracts like in the mental world as in the physical. The sixteen chapters pair that central premise with practical exercises in will-training, emotional transmutation, and the cultivation of desire as an attracting force.
How does Thought Vibration relate to The Secret?
It is one of the primary sources from which the modern Law of Attraction tradition descends. Published in 1906, it predates Charles Haanel's Master Key System (1912) and Rhonda Byrne's The Secret (2006) by half a century and a full century respectively. Historians of American religion treat Atkinson's book as an early and unusually clean statement of the doctrine.
Who was William Walker Atkinson?
An American attorney and publisher who became a prolific writer for the New Thought movement in the early twentieth century. He published under at least eight pseudonyms — including Yogi Ramacharaka, Theron Q. Dumont, and Swami Panchadasi — and is also the presumed sole or principal author behind the Three Initiates of The Kybalion (1908).