The best books on manifesting are the ones that teach you something true about how your inner world shapes your outer world. The classics on this list all do that. Think and Grow Rich, The Science of Getting Rich, The Secret and the others each give you a real piece. But each one also leaves something out, and the missing piece is often the reason the reading did not change the bank balance.
This page walks through ten well-known manifestation books, in the order they came out. For each one you get the author, the year, what the book gives you, and what it leaves out. The judging is done through the view of David Cameron Gikandi, who wrote A Happy Pocket Full of Money and was the Creative Consultant on The Secret. His own book is on the list too, with its gap.
How each book is judged here
Every book below is judged against one idea. It sits at the heart of everything David teaches:
Because manifesting is as natural as breathing. The work is releasing the brakes, rising above the conditioning, and building real structure and flow around abundance.
So for each book we ask three things. Does it help you see the old conditioning that your manifesting already runs on? Does it help you release the brakes that come on near success? And does it help you build the outer structure that money needs: the mindset, the financial plumbing, the entrepreneurial steps?
No book does all three. That is not a flaw in the authors. Each one set out to do a certain job, and most of them did it well. The “leaves out” notes below are David’s view of the gap, not a verdict on the person who wrote it.
The early classics
The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles (1910)
What it gives you: Wattles says that getting rich is a science, and that wealth comes from creating rather than competing. He teaches what he calls thinking in a “Certain Way”. To his credit, he also has chapters on gratitude and on acting in the Certain Way, so it is not a book about thought alone. Rhonda Byrne has said it was one of the books that inspired The Secret, and David’s own book quotes Wattles.
What it leaves out: It treats the right way of thinking as a choice you can simply make. For someone who learned as a child that wanting money was greedy or unsafe, that choice keeps getting overruled. The book does not explain why.
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (1937)
What it gives you: A clear set of steps to riches, built around desire, faith, autosuggestion, planning and persistence. It is one of the best-known books on wealth and the mind ever written. David’s own book quotes Hill on imagination and on faith.
What it leaves out: Hill does name fear. He ends with what he calls the six ghosts of fear, from the fear of poverty to the fear of criticism. What is missing, in David’s view, is where those fears came from. A fear learned at seven does not live in our ideas. It lives in the body and in old relationships, and it tends to come back near success, no matter how strong the decision was.
Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz (1960)
What it gives you: Maltz was a plastic surgeon. He noticed that many patients expected surgery to solve their problems, and often it did not. That led him to the self-image: the picture we hold of who we are sets the limits of what we will reach. He taught people to rehearse success in the mind. In our view, of the classics, this one comes closest to how David sees it, because it puts identity first.
What it leaves out: Why the self-image formed the way it did, and why it fights back when you try to change it. It also says little about money systems or business steps.
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy (1963)
What it gives you: Murphy’s picture is simple and useful. Thoughts are seeds, and the subconscious is the soil. Plant good seeds through affirmation and imagery, and good things grow.
What it leaves out: The soil is not empty. Seeds were planted long before we chose any. Many of them were planted in childhood, and they keep growing while we plant new ones on top. We go deeper into this on our page about how to reprogram your subconscious mind.
The spiritual turn
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra (1994)
What it gives you: Seven short principles, including giving, intention and desire, and detachment. It is gentle and clear. David quotes Chopra in his courses on the practice of witnessing your own thoughts and moods. Our page on the law of detachment looks at the sixth law in depth.
What it leaves out: The practical side of money. A law of least effort can be read as “no need for structure”. In David’s view, that is exactly the half that many conscious entrepreneurs are missing.
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (1997)
What it gives you: This is not a manifesting book, and it does not pretend to be. It teaches you to step back from the thinking mind and be present. David has said in one of his courses that he has read many of Tolle’s books and speaks of him warmly, though he never met him. He uses the same starting point in his teaching: “awareness is the first step to freedom”.
What it leaves out: Money and business, because that was never its aim. Presence helps you see a brake. It does not build the offer, the price or the savings account.
Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks (2004)
What it gives you: An emotional guidance scale that shows where you are. It also has 22 processes to help you move to a better-feeling place. David thinks highly of the teaching behind it. In one of his courses he calls the Abraham-Hicks approach “by far the best system I’ve seen for aligning our vibration to what we do want.”
What it leaves out: Some feelings are not just a low mood. They are old alarms from childhood, held in the body. A better-feeling thought often cannot reach them on its own. And, like most books here, it leaves the financial plumbing to you.
The modern law of attraction books
The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (2006)
What it gives you: The book came out in late 2006, after the film of the same name. It told millions of people that their inner life matters. That was a gift, and David believes the core idea. He was the Creative Consultant on the film, and we tell that side of the story on our page about The Secret movie.
What it leaves out: All three pieces, in David’s view. The popular version focuses on thought and feeling. It says little about conditioning, about the brakes that come on near success, or about building somewhere for money to land. Our page on the law of attraction goes through each one.
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Joe Dispenza (2012)
What it gives you: Its title says it well. The hardest habit to break is being yourself, because the old self runs on habit in the mind and the body. David teaches this idea in his own course work, in a lesson called “Rise Above The Old”. Of all the books here, it comes nearest to the Because.
What it leaves out: The outer half. It is a book about changing the inner person through meditation. It does not help you set up money systems, write an offer or hold a price.
And David’s own book: A Happy Pocket Full of Money (1999)
David wrote A Happy Pocket Full of Money in 1999. It became an international bestseller. You can listen to it on this site: A Happy Pocket Full of Money.
What it gives you: A full picture of wealth consciousness. Its core line is that “wealth is first a state of being which is then experienced”.
What it leaves out: David is the first to say it. For years, readers wrote to him with the same question: “I’ve read your book. I understand it. So why am I still stuck?” His answer, in his own words, was that “the principles were never the problem. Integration was the problem.” He lived it too. A few years before 2022, after the book and after The Secret, his own finances came down hard. What he learned was this: “I didn’t need to learn how to manifest better. I need to learn how to become aligned, how to get out of my own way.”
What every book on this list leaves out
Put the gaps side by side and the same three things keep showing up.
- Conditioning. Manifesting is already running. It runs on what we were handed as children. Those old instructions are louder than the new ones we read about.
- Brakes. These are old safety habits. They kick in near success. We go quiet before a launch. We cut the price before anyone asks.
- Structure. A clear offer, a price that holds, and a way to keep money once it comes. David calls part of this financial plumbing. His course Clean Up Your Money Plumbing sets up a simple three-bucket account system.
So read the books. They are worth it. Just read them as one part of the work, not all of it. If you have read many of them and still feel stuck, it is not you. David’s course Why Manifesting Hasn’t Worked For You helps you find your own pattern.
Questions people ask
What is the best book on manifesting for beginners?
Start with one classic, such as The Science of Getting Rich or Psycho-Cybernetics. Both are short and clear. Then notice what happens inside you when you try to live it. That reaction is where the real work begins.
Which law of attraction book should I read first?
The Secret is the easiest way in. Ask and It Is Given goes into more detail. Whichever you pick, pair it with one real step in the outer world. Then the idea has somewhere to land.
Do I need to read all of these books?
No. Manifesting needs no lesson, because it is already running. More books rarely help once you know the ideas. What helps is releasing the brakes and building the structure.
Where to go from here
The Abundance GPS masterclass puts the missing pieces in one place. It shows why so many good books stall, and what to do instead.
And if you want to do the work with others, the Abundance GPS community on Skool is where it happens. We help conscious entrepreneurs with adverse childhood experiences get out of their own way and release their brakes — so they can multiply their income and magnify their impact. Every tier opens with a 7-day free trial. Visit the Abundance GPS community.
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