The Secret exploded onto the scene in 2006 and took the world by storm.
A lot of the furor has died down now but the ideas put forth in the book (and the DVD and tons of other related items) are still followed, analyzed and tried.
Of course if you read any of The Secret material, you know that Rhonda Byrne herself said these techniques weren't new, but had been hidden for centuries.
Well in the 19th century, here in the United States, the ideas weren't hidden at all.
The New Thought Movement started late in the 19th century here and the organizers of the movement weren't trying to hide anything at all. They published books and pamphlets that became fairly popular.
Here are a few of the big names in those early years....

Thomas Troward (1847-1916)
One of the first New Thought Movement teachers was Thomas Troward.
Troward was Her Majesty's Assistant Commissioner and Divisional Judge from 1869 until his retirement in 1896 in British-administered India.
His hobby was metaphysical and esoteric studies and comparing religions.
The teachings of Christ, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism influenced his thinking and later writing.
Troward was born in Punjab, India to British parents, and he spent most of his life there.
When he retired in 1896, Troward threw himself into his hobbies, his research and painting.
He wrote several books and papers that inspired other teachers in the New Thought Movement, two of his most popular being Bible Mystery and Bible Meaning and The Creative Process in the Individual.

Frank Channing Haddock (1853-1915)
Frank Channing Haddock's father was a Methodist minister and like Thomas Troward, he studied law.
Actually Haddock started out training for the ministry, moved onto law and became an attorney, then went back to the ministry when his father was killed.
Haddock's contributions to the New Thought Movement included books like Business Power, Practical Psychology and Creative Personality.
The books were part of his Power-Book Library series.

Wallace Delois Wattles (1860 – 1911)
Wallace Wattles may have had a funny sounding name, but this man's work was a lot of the main thrust behind The Secret.
His 1910 book, The Science of Getting Rich, is still being read today.
Rhonda Byrne said the reading that book is what inspired her to write The Secret.
Wattles was said to use the technique of creative visualization (the practice of trying to affect the outside world by changing your inner thoughts).
One thing I like about Wattles is that he tells his readers to try his theories themselves then decide if they work, not just take his word for it.
And Wattles always said that his books were easy to understand and practical, in the forward to The Science of Getting Rich he said that his book was:

"Intended for the men and women whose most pressing need is for money; who wish to get rich first, and philosophise afterward. It is pragmatical, not philosophical; a practical manual, not a lot of theory. It is for those who have, so far, found neither the time, the means, nor the opportunity to go deeply into the study of metaphysics, but who want prosperous results and who are willing to take the conclusions of science as a basis for action."

The only thing that bothers me is that he ran for office in Indiana twice and lost both times, and that he died at age 51, just one year after publishing The Science of Getting Rich and ironically, The Science of Being Well.
(Although I have read the average life expectancy back then was thirty to forty years old. So if that's true, I guess he beat the odds)

Elizabeth Towne (1865 - 1960)
Elizabeth Towne was all over the New Thought Movement early on.
She founded and published Nautilus Magazine from 1898 to 1953.
Nautilus was a literal "who's who" of the New Thought Movement, publishing works by authors like Paul Ellsworth, Orison Swett Marden, William Walker Atkinson, Edwin Markham and Wallace Wattles.
Besides running a clearing house for the New Thought Movement, Towne also wrote books herself, including Your Character (How to Read Character), Just How to Concentrate and Practical Methods for Self-Development: Spiritual, Mental, Physical.
By the way, Towne was 95 when she died.

Charles Francis Haanel (1866 - 1949)
Charles F. Haanel was the author of The Master Key System.
This work is still popular today, even though it was published in 1912, and is available from many online sources for free.
When it first came out, Elizabeth Towne promoted it heavily in Nautilus Magazine.
Now if you want to talk about not just talking the talk, but walking the walk, according to author Walter B. Stevens...

"He (Haanel) was president of the Continental Commercial Company, president of the Sacramento Valley Improvement Company, and president of the Mexico Gold & Silver Mining Company."

AND Haanel died at the age of 83....I'm just saying.

I'm sure most of you have heard the rumor that while he was attending Harvard University, Bill Gates read The Master Key System, and that the book that inspired him to drop out of the University and pursue his dream of "a computer on every desktop.".
Well Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard in November 1975 and never returned, but as far as The Master Key System being the reason, I have seen no real proof either way.
Maybe in an interview one day some intrepid reporter will ask Bill about this and clear it up once and for all.

Napoleon Hill (1883 – 1970)
"What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve" was one of Hill's favorite sayings.
We know he read The Master Key System, and even sent Haanel a letter thanking him for the book.
But Hill was influenced by many, many others.
After meeting billionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie, Hill sought out and interviewed (with Carnegie's help and blessing) the major players of that time.
Men like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and George Eastman.
Hill, (who grew up in a one-room cabin in an Appalachian town) wanted to find out what made these movers and shakers tick.
I think that's called Neuro-linguistic programming now.
Anyway, Hill and Carnegie, published the work in 1928 as a study course called, The Law of Success and that later became the basis for the blockbuster Think and Grow Rich.
Hill never laid out his findings exactly as say Wallace Wattles and Charles F. Haanel did, he felt the readers needed to discover it themselves to give them more benefit.
He also wrote several other lesser known books including How to Sell Your Way through Life, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude and the interestingly titled The Master-Key to Riches.