Thomas Troward, who was a strong influence in the New Thought Movement, claimed that thought precedes physical form and "the action of Mind plants that nucleus which, if allowed to grow undisturbed, will eventually attract to itself all the conditions necessary for its manifestation in outward visible form."
From 1901 to 1912 the English New Thought writer James Allen wrote a series of books and articles, after which his wife Lilly continued his work. Allen is best known for writing "As a Man Thinketh" in 1902.
Richard Weiss states in his book, The American Myth of Success, that the "principle of "non-resistance" is a popular concept of the New Thought movement and is taught in conjunction with the law of attraction.
Israel Regardie published many books with the Law of Attraction theme as one of his prevailing Universal Laws. His book, The Art of True Healing: A Treatise on the Mechanism of Prayer and the Operation of the Law of Attraction in Nature (1937), taught a focused meditation technique to help the mind to learn to heal itself on both a physical and spiritual level. Regardie claimed further that The Law of Attraction was not only a valid method for attracting good physical health but for improvement in any other aspect of one's life.
Napoleon Hill published two books on the theme. The first was The Law of Success in 16 Lessons (1928), which directly and repeatedly referenced the law of attraction and proposed that it operates by use of radio waves transmitted by the brain. Then in 1937, he published Think and Grow Rich, which went on to become one of the best selling books of all time, selling over 60 million copies. In this book, Hill insisted on the importance of controlling one's own thoughts in order to achieve success, as well as the energy that thoughts have and their ability to attract other thoughts. In the beginning of the book, Hill mentions a "secret" to success and promises to indirectly describe it at least once in every chapter of the book. It is never named directly, for he says that discovering it on one's own is far more beneficial. Many people have argued over what the secret actually is, some claiming that it is the law of attraction. Hill states the "secret" to which he refers is mentioned no fewer than a hundred times, yet reference to "attract" is used less than 30 times in the text. Most students of the book claim the secret is hidden in its title: THINK (i.e., thinking the right thoughts).
The Secret (2006) was a film based on the law of attraction. It was then developed into a book of the same title in 2007. The movie and book gained widespread attention in the media, from such diverse outlets as Saturday Night Live to The Oprah Winfrey Show in the United States; Winfrey devoted two episodes of her show to discussing the film and the law of attraction, talk show host Larry King also discussed it on his show with Bob Solis, but criticized it for several reasons, pointing to the sufferings in the world and asking: "If the Universe manifests abundance at a mere thought, why is there so much poverty, starvation, and death?
[This information is taken from Wikipedia ]
