Florence Wattles wrote that her father was born in the U.S. in 1860, received little formal education, and found himself excluded from the world of commerce and wealth.

[13] As a Midwesterner, Wattles traveled to Chicago, where several leading New Thought leaders were located, among them Emma Curtis Hopkins and William Walker Atkinson, and he gave "Sunday night lectures" in Indiana;[3] however, his primary publisher was Massachusetts-based Elizabeth Towne.

"[15][16] Through his personal study and experimentation Wattles claimed to have discovered the truth of New Thought principles and put them into practice in his own life.

He wrote books outlining these principles and practices, giving them titles that described their content, such as Health Through New Thought and Fasting and The Science of Being Great.

In his daughter Florence's words, he "formed a mental picture" or visual image, and then "worked toward the realization of this vision":[3] He wrote almost constantly.

[18] He argued that energy and strength is not drawn from food but from a "mysterious power", a life force that is received into the body during sleep via the brain by God.

[18] He advocated the then-popular theories of "The Great Masticator" Horace Fletcher as well as the "No-Breakfast Plan" of Edward Hooker Dewey,[19] which he claimed to have applied to his own life.

Rhonda Byrne told a Newsweek interviewer that her inspiration for creating the 2006 hit film The Secret, and the subsequent book by the same name, was her exposure to Wattles's The Science of Getting Rich.