Appendix A

The books that made up this study and why you should read them.

One might think it odd that an author would suggest that someone to stop reading his book and go out to buy and read another instead. But that is the exact premise of this book. Many philosophers have covered these points throughout history. Much of this data has been lost and then recovered and republished in different form, even different languages. The authors I've quoted in this book are far more experienced than I, more widely read and these books often represent the acme of their success as an author.

This study was initially made up of best selling self-help classics who continued to sell and be distributed widely(for free in many cases) after the author's death. This gave us three key acid-tests:

1.The text was found appealing to its audience and purchased widely.

2.The text is continuing to be found as useful, regardless of grammar, language or style changes.

3.The sales of the book didn't depend on the personal charisma of the author or social fads and whims.

These requisites produced books which gave a body of data consistently found useful and workable by their readers. That was the premise of the study: there were possibly common datums in use throughout self-help texts that could lead to a single common philosophy or even science of self-improvement – something that anyone could apply and use, since these were then probably based on naturally occurring phenomenon or laws.

Once the bulk of the research was done, more recent books were compared to see if these data were being used in present time, which would explain current best-seller status, since they used workable principles. One was selected based on its all-time record-setting tape sales and continuing high sales years after it was originally published. It was found to have the same data as the older texts and so contributed proof to the study's premise.

This is not an exhaustive study of all possible self-help books or tapes. The subject of weight-loss was left alone, as well as many religious tracts and “occult” publications. However, the principles uncovered actually started explaining how some books were continuing best-sellers and others hit discount bins and clearance racks almost immediately after publication. As well, it explained how some works continued to be passed around on the Internet and republished even a century or more after the author died.

This particular book was written in the style and method of many modern computer books: “Learn _____ in X days/hours.” While this isn't particularly true (it factually takes years to get really professional at something), it does place introductory data into the hands of people who are currently pushed for time. This format doesn't give a person other than that introduction to the subject, so that he/she can then continue study on their own.

This is why I tell people to read the other books. They are the best work to study for that part of the whole body of self-improvement principles.

For instance,

• If you want to get wealthy, study Hill or Wattles.

• If your self-improvement is of a religious bent, study Peale.

• The best book to build a personal and business ethic is Covey.

• For the scientific, technical details of how self-help works, study Haanel.

• An overview and key explanation is found in Allen.

• In getting along with people, Carnegie is the best overall.

• For improving your outlook in life and general happiness, consult Carnegie and Peale.

These books overlap and cover different points in their own styles. That is the use of this book – to show you when and where to bridge off when certain personal points need attention. But I would recommend you study all these books in order to get a real conceptual understanding of all the principles outlined here.

This book I've written doesn't cover every single detail or the scientific theory and proven facts behind these 14 points. I've only taken the most common points and presented them in a style which is readable and easily digestible for our modern hectically-paced existence.

And I am not saying at any point that I am any past master of these points presented; I have my own row to hoe. This book is no perfect example of anything. At points, I've been perhaps too critical of certain institutions in society who could stand a great deal of improvement. I only point out in this book what I have found in a simple style which can be easily digested and hopefully used as a springboard for other study and self-improvement by the reader.

That is why I tell you: Buy and read the other books – make this a professional study. Prove these points to yourself, don't just accept my study as Law. Better yet, write your own book using these principles applied to your own area of expertise.

Appendix B

Brief history and apparent origin of American self-help

These books have common threads. The latest, Covey's 7 Habits (1989), was based on study of 200 years of self-help texts in America. In the 20th century we have Peale's Positive Thinking (1952), preceded by Hill's Think and Grow Rich (1937) and Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends (1937). Ten years earlier is James Allen's As A Man Thinketh (1923). Another decade prior were Charles F. Haanel's Master Key System (1912) and Wallace D. Wattles' Science of Getting Rich (1910).

Possible influences on these works can be attributed to the environmental influences of their times. Peale's influence might have been the Cold War mentality of the late 40's and early 50's. Hill, while starting his research twenty years earlier, published during the depression for the stated purpose of getting enabling people to start making money again. As well, this was the publishing time of Dale Carnegie. Allen published after World War I, while Haanel and Wattles published prior, during America's affluence period. While the later works all might be touted as responses to war and recovery, this theory doesn't hold for the earliest works, whose authors had never seen a whole world at war.

A more interesting line of approach is the common principles which have surfaced in the different books. Many of these authors are known to be included under the umbrella of “New Thought.” According to a pamphlet authored through the Calgary New Thought Center, Peale is also included as being heavily influenced by New Thought authors. Hill gives credit to Haanel, who himself references Judge (Thomas) Troward, one who lectured and wrote widely on the subject of “Mental Science” from 1902 to his death in 1916. The Calgary pamphlet credits Troward with being one of the two “taproots” of the New Thought movement. Other sources, such as the Santa Rosa Church of Religious Science, traces the history back through Troward to Emerson and Transcendentalism to Kant and then originally to Plato who first coined the term “transcendent.”

The other taproot was Phineas P. Quimby, who cured and trained many healers, who in turn were able to train others, forming organizations and churches as they spread. Of interest to this study is that the current form of spiritual treatment for one, the New Thought Church of Religious Science's, that of giving thanks after prayer, which is done in the past tense, that of having already received the object/request prayed for.

New Thought is itself inclusive of a wide-ranging span of thoughts and ideas, ranging from mystic to biblical to scientific and everything in between. It currently has perhaps the greatest collection of modern thinkers and philosophers willing to tackle the subject of the God directly.

It's not surprising particularly that New Thought ideas would then influence self-help so widely. What is surprising is that this one philosophic school would sprout continuing best sellers and/or be the source for underlying principles of self-improvement.

The conclusion of this study, regardless of the sources of the material, is that there is a simple system of self-improvement/self-help based on principles which are native to nature and can be proven scientifically to be effective where applied exactly.