2 published verifications about New Thought New Thought ×
“The modern concept known as the Law of Attraction is a rebranding that draws heavily from older philosophical and spiritual traditions, including Ancient Greek philosophy, Hinduism and Buddhism, Hermetic philosophy, and the 19th-century New Thought movement, and it became mainstream in the 2000s partly through the 2006 book The Secret.”
The claim gets the big picture right: today’s Law of Attraction repackages older spiritual and philosophical ideas, and The Secret helped push it into mainstream culture in the 2000s. The strongest evidence ties it directly to New Thought and Western esoteric/Hermetic traditions. Links to Ancient Greek philosophy and Buddhism are plausible and commonly cited, but they are less firmly documented as direct lineages.
“The 19th-century New Thought movement, including Phineas Parkhurst Quimby and Mary Baker Eddy, influenced modern Law of Attraction teachings that the mind can affect health, wealth, and happiness.”
The core historical connection is well supported. New Thought figures, especially Quimby, helped popularize the idea that mental states can affect health and life outcomes, and later Law of Attraction teachings draw on that tradition. The main caveat is that Mary Baker Eddy's link to the specific Law of Attraction lineage is more indirect than the claim suggests.