The Master Key, authored by Charles F. Haanel was originally distributed as a mail order course  in 1912, then published in book form in 1917.  Along with Wallace Wattles’ “The Science of Getting Rich” (1910), Haanel’s The Master Key was primary source material and inspiration behind the creation of Rhonda Byrne’s “The Secret“, the real secret being that she left the best parts out!  It is the belief of many, that Ms. Byrne decided that, in order for The Secret to be the international best-selling phenomenon that it, indeed, turned out to be, that she failed to include  more of the, shall we say, ‘metaphysical’ teachings that are part and parcel of, not only The Master Key and The Science of Getting Rich, but practically all of the major works of the New Thought movement, upon which The Secret drew heavily from.  Many believe that, in her quest to produce a best-seller, she ultimately did a dis-service to the people  who, in their quest for greater success, bought her magnum opus with the hope of learning the true secret of success, only to be left short of the deeper truths these books contain that reveal the genuine science of attaining wealth, happiness and personal freedom.  This includes Prentice Mulford’s classic Thoughts are Things, along with many, many others that Ms. Byrne references throughout her books and DVD’s.  To her enduring credit, Ms. Byrne continued the conversation she began with The Secret and gets closer to the ‘heart’ of the matter with her follow-ups The Power and The Magic.  For those interested in more metaphysical/spiritual lines of enquiry connected with The Secret, Mel Gill’s The Meta Secret wwwTheMetaSecret.com  is highly recommended, as well as James F. Twyman’s The Moses Code book and DVD.

Bottom line: more power to Ms. Byrne, and to the people that have benefited from being exposed to The Secret, and perhaps more importantly, through it, the earlier works that inspired it.  This is why the history of the New Thought movement, along with a survey of it’s more important proponents and teachings, are included in Module III of the M.O.S.T. Seminar.