the secret
A March issue of Newsweek magazine says of "The Secret" that: "Oprah lives by it. Millions are reading it. The latest self-help sensation claims we can change our lives by thinking. But this 'new thought' may just be new marketing."

I remember Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking, published in 1952. I don't remember back much farther than that, but I know that the "ask, believe, receive" train of thought has been around since long before there were trains.

In These Happy Golden Years (Chapter 26, "Teachers Examinations"), Caroline Ingalls says to Laura: "A body makes his own luck, be it bad or good.... I have no doubt that you will get as good as you deserve."

Laura thought about what she wanted. She thought about it all night, and the next morning, she was offered the Wilkins School.

There you go.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:27 AM