New Thought · 1860-1911

The Science of Being Well

The third in Wattles' trilogy, applying the creative thought framework to physical health. Belief in health, not disease, is the fundamental condition for physical wellbeing.

What Wattles Got Right

Why The Science of Being Well still matters

Wattles understood that obsessively monitoring symptoms creates a stress loop that makes you feel worse. Modern pain science confirms this: attention directed at pain amplifies it through the brain's threat-detection system.

His instinct to eat only when genuinely hungry - not by schedule or habit - matches what research on mindful eating now supports.

His sleep advice to rest in a well-ventilated room, enter sleep with gratitude, and allow full restoration maps closely onto modern sleep hygiene principles.

He correctly identified that fear-driven health rules create an anxious mental state that works against the body feeling safe - modern research confirms that chronic low-level fight-or-flight response degrades immune and cardiovascular function.

His emphasis on deep, conscious breathing anticipates breathwork research showing that slow nasal breathing shifts your body away from the fight-or-flight response.

Historical Context

How The Science of Being Well came to be written

Wallace D. Wattles wrote The Science of Being Well in 1910 as part of his matching trilogy alongside The Science of Getting Rich and The Science of Being Great. All three were published by the Elizabeth Towne Company in Holyoke, Massachusetts - the hub of New Thought publishing in the early twentieth century.

Wattles was a farm labourer's son from Illinois who had spent years in poverty before finding his voice as a writer and lecturer. By 1910 he had settled in Elwood, Indiana, where he wrote intensely while his own health was failing. He died in February 1911 at 51, just months after the trilogy was complete.

The New Thought movement he wrote within emerged partly as a response to the anxiety of rapid industrialisation. As factory work stripped ordinary people of a sense of control over their lives, writers like Wattles offered frameworks that placed power back in the individual mind. Health, like wealth, could be a predictable outcome of the right mental approach.

Wattles was also a committed Christian Socialist who ran twice for office on the Socialist Party ticket. He rejected competitive fear-based systems in every area of life - including medicine. His wellness philosophy was an extension of his politics: health was a right, available to all, not a commodity rationed by class.

The book's reach was modest in Wattles' lifetime but expanded significantly after Rhonda Byrne's 2006 film The Secret cited The Science of Getting Rich as her primary source. Interest in the entire trilogy surged, bringing The Science of Being Well to a new generation of readers who found his core mind-body instincts broadly consistent with what they were reading in modern integrative health.

Core Principles

The 7 core principles of The Science of Being Well

Health Is Your Natural State

Wattles believed your body wants to be well and will move toward health when you stop getting in its way. You do not need to earn health - it is what the body does when the conditions are right.

Think Health, Not Disease

Directing your attention toward illness makes it more present in your experience. Choosing to picture yourself well - not wishing you were, but seeing it as already true - shifts what your brain looks for and finds.

Eat by Hunger, Not by Habit

Wattles argued that eating only when you feel genuine physical hunger, and stopping when satisfied, is the most natural health practice available. Modern intuitive eating research agrees with this core idea.

The Will Directs Attention, Not the Body

You cannot force your body to be well by willpower. What you can do is direct your attention toward images of health rather than images of illness. The body follows where the mind consistently points.

Sleep Is Restoration

Wattles treated sleep as the primary healing window - a time to release the day's concerns and allow the body to restore itself fully. He advised entering sleep in gratitude rather than worry.

Breathe Deliberately and Deeply

Conscious, deep nasal breathing was central to his daily practice. It is also one of the most evidence-based tools we have today for shifting the body out of the fight-or-flight state.

Health Habits Must Come From Desire, Not Fear

Doing health things out of anxiety about illness keeps you in a fearful mental state. Wattles argued that health practices only work when they come from genuine desire - not from rules and worry.

Chapter by Chapter

What's inside The Science of Being Well

Chapter 1 - The Principle of HealthWattles introduces the central claim: there is an innate life force in every person that naturally directs the body toward health. Every genuine recovery happens through this principle, whatever treatment appears to cause it.

Chapter 2 - The Foundations of FaithThe philosophical base: the universe is made of one intelligent substance and health is its natural expression. To heal, you accept that health is available to you right now.

Chapter 3 - Life and Its OrganismsThe relationship between mind and body. The body is governed by the mind - not by willpower, but by the habitual mental images you hold about yourself.

Chapter 4 - What to ThinkRemove thoughts of disease from your consciousness entirely. Do not think about symptoms, study illness, or discuss your ailments. Redirect attention to the picture of health instead.

Chapter 5 - FaithThe difference between intellectual belief and active faith. Do not hope to get well. Claim health as your present reality and live from that picture.

Chapter 6 - Use of the WillWillpower has one role: directing your attention. It cannot force the body to heal. Use it only to keep your mind focused on health rather than illness.

Chapter 7 - Health from GodWattles frames health as a spiritual inheritance. You receive vitality in proportion to your openness and gratitude - not as reward, but as natural inflow.

Chapter 8 - Summary of the Mental ActionsA practical recap: hold a vivid picture of your healthy self, maintain faith in it as present reality, direct the will to keep the picture clear, and sustain daily gratitude.

Chapter 9 - When to EatEat only when you experience genuine, earned hunger. Eating by schedule, social habit, or emotional cue is a primary source of digestive stress.

Chapter 10 - What to EatEat simple, natural foods common to your region. Avoid complex or heavily processed meals. No single diet suits every person - trust your own body's responses.

Chapter 11 - How to EatChew each mouthful thoroughly before swallowing. This begins digestion properly and naturally prevents overeating. Eat with full attention, not distraction.

Chapter 12 - Hunger and AppetitesThe distinction between genuine physical hunger and appetite driven by habit, boredom, or emotional need. Learning to recognise the difference is a foundational health skill.

Chapter 13 - In a NutshellA condensed reference summary of every mental and physical principle in the book. Useful as a daily reminder of the core practices.

Chapter 14 - BreathingBreathe deeply and consciously through the nose. Seek fresh, well-ventilated air. Treat breathing as an active health practice, not an automatic background process.

Chapter 15 - SleepSleep is the primary restoration window. Ventilate the room, enter sleep with gratitude, and allow full rest. The body heals most effectively during undisturbed, peaceful sleep.

Chapter 16 - Supplementary InstructionsWattles instructs readers to avoid medical literature, pathology discussions, and sceptics. This is the most dated and most dangerous advice in the book - read it as a historical artefact, not a recommendation.

Chapter 17 - A Summary of the Science of Being WellThe complete blueprint in brief: align your mental picture with health, act from desire not fear, eat mindfully, breathe well, sleep fully, and trust the body's natural tendency toward vitality.

Legacy

The legacy of The Science of Being Well

The Science of Being Well is one of the earliest popular texts to connect mental state with physical health in a systematic, accessible way. It preceded the psychosomatic medicine movement by decades and anticipated several principles that behavioural medicine would later confirm.

Its practical advice on sleep hygiene, mindful eating, and deliberate breathing has aged better than its metaphysics. Modern sleep research supports his ventilated room and gratitude-before-sleep practices. Intuitive eating research supports his hunger-only principle. Breathwork research supports his deep breathing recommendation.

The book's most important lasting contribution is the idea that the mind's relationship to the body matters - not as spiritual magic, but as a measurable, practical fact. Chronic stress degrades health. Focused attention shapes experience. The body responds to the stories you tell about it.

Its biggest failure is also its most important warning: Wattles' claim that disease is always the result of wrong thinking has no scientific basis and causes genuine harm to people living with conditions that have nothing to do with their mental patterns. Read critically, the book is valuable. Read literally, it encourages people to avoid care they need.

The Science of Being Well sits at the beginning of a lineage that runs through Norman Cousins' Anatomy of an Illness, Candace Pert's research on neuropeptides, and the current field of psychoneuroimmunology. Wattles got the general direction right a century before the science caught up - even if the mechanism he described was not quite real.

What Was Missing

What Wattles could not have known

Wattles had no knowledge of pathogens, genetics, or the structural causes of disease. His claim that illness is purely the result of wrong thinking ignores biology entirely.

His advice to avoid all medical literature was dangerous in 1910 and remains so now. Modern medicine saves lives that mental focus cannot.

He implied that anyone who stays ill is thinking incorrectly - a form of blame that causes real harm to people living with chronic or genetic conditions.

His understanding of how the body processes food was pre-scientific. The 'life force absorbed during sleep' idea does not reflect how metabolism works.

Who This Is For

Who gets the most from The Science of Being Well

✓You believe your mental state affects your physical health but want to understand how
✓You have read The Science of Getting Rich and want to apply the same framework to wellbeing
✓You are curious about the roots of mind-body medicine before it had that name
✓You struggle with health anxiety and want a framework that shifts focus from illness to vitality
✓You want a short, readable book that treats health as your natural state rather than something you chase
✓You are interested in where New Thought ideas overlap with modern integrative health

The DAR Response

We applied CBT, NLP & somatic work to The Science of Being Well

Where Wattles says 'think health', DAR asks: what story are you telling about your body? Old stories like 'I am always tired' or 'I never sleep well' run on repeat and shape what you notice and expect.

The body-based work DAR draws on explains what Wattles could not: chronic stress keeps your body in a low-level fight-or-flight state. This is not a moral failing - it is a learned pattern that can be changed.

Wattles' Principle of Health is real, but it works through the nervous system rather than through metaphysics. When your body feels safe, it can restore itself. The DAR framework gives you practical tools to help your body feel safe.

His advice on mindful eating maps directly onto modern intuitive eating practice. Pay attention to genuine hunger, eat without anxiety, and trust your body's signals - the science supports all three.

The DAR approach bridges his mental focus techniques with NLP and CBT tools that work with your nervous system, not against it - so the shift he described actually happens in the body, not just the mind.

Go deeper

Apply The Science of Being Well with DAR

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Questions Answered

Questions about The Science of Being Well

Is the health advice in The Science of Being Well safe?+

Most of it is harmless and some of it is genuinely good - the mindful eating, the sleep hygiene, the breathing practice. The dangerous parts are his instruction to avoid doctors and his claim that illness is caused by wrong thinking. Neither of those holds up. Read it as a historical text on the mind-body connection, not as a substitute for medical care.

What did Wattles actually get right about health?+

His instinct that chronic worry and fear make you physically worse is correct. The fight-or-flight response, when it runs constantly, degrades immune function, disrupts sleep, and increases inflammation. His advice to shift attention away from illness and toward a picture of health is a simplified version of what modern cognitive approaches to chronic pain and illness now formalise.

Why does he say not to read medical books?+

Wattles was concerned that studying disease would fill your mind with images of illness rather than health. There is a small kernel of sense here - health anxiety is a real phenomenon where excessive symptom-monitoring makes you feel worse. But his conclusion - avoid all medical knowledge - goes far beyond what that observation supports. Please see a doctor when you need one.

How does this book connect to the DAR body-based approach?+

Wattles understood the direction: your mental state shapes your physical experience. DAR adds the mechanism he was missing - the nervous system. When your body is stuck in a low-level fight-or-flight state, it cannot rest or find its rhythm. The tools DAR draws on help your body feel safe at the level where it matters, which is what Wattles was reaching for with his Thinking Well approach.

Is this book relevant if I have a diagnosed physical condition?+

The mindset principles - reducing health anxiety, building a positive relationship with your body, supporting good sleep and breathing - are relevant to almost anyone. But they complement medical care, they do not replace it. Wattles wrote in an era before antibiotics, before germ theory was fully accepted, before modern diagnosis existed. Some of his claims reflect that ignorance. Use what helps, and stay in conversation with your doctor.

What is the difference between this and The Science of Getting Rich?+

The same mental framework applied to a different domain. In Getting Rich, you hold a vivid mental picture of wealth and act from gratitude rather than fear. In Being Well, you hold a vivid mental picture of health and build physical habits from desire rather than anxiety. The philosophy is identical - Wattles believed one 'Certain Way' of thinking governed all areas of life.

Why did Wattles write this book while his own health was failing?+

His daughter Florence noted that he achieved significant financial success and relative health through his own practices, but suffered extreme physical frailty in his final three years. He died at 51. This is the honest tension at the heart of the book - the man who wrote most clearly about thinking yourself well was himself unwell. His ideas point toward something real, but the system he built around them overstated what mental focus alone can achieve.

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