Imagination · “Feel It Real”
Wattles' Clear Mental Image
Form one clear, definite, detailed mental picture of the exact thing you want and carry it continually in mind — because (Wattles holds) you cannot transmit to the creative source an image you do not first hold clearly yourself.
Decide the definite thing you want — specific and detailed. Build the clearest mental picture of it you can, because you cannot transmit an image you don’t clearly hold. Carry that one picture continually, “as the sailor has in mind the port,” living in it mentally until it firms up. Re-sharpen whenever it blurs.
What it is
The first and most specific demand of Wallace Wattles’ Science of Getting Rich is definiteness of image. Before faith, before gratitude, before action, you must build one clear, detailed, definite mental picture of the exact thing you want — “as the sailor has in mind the port toward which he is sailing.” This entry isolates that single skill: the making and carrying of the definite picture.
It is distinct from the bundled (which runs the whole image-gratitude-faith-action loop) and distinct from generic or Neville’s: Wattles’ emphasis is not mood or sensory immersion but clarity and definiteness as a transmission requirement — “you cannot transmit an idea unless you have it yourself.”
The Method
- Decide the definite thing. “You must know what you want, and be definite.” A vague wish for “more” or “to be rich” cannot be pictured and so cannot be transmitted.
- Build the highest-resolution picture you can. Settle the specific thing, sum, house, or situation in detail — “form a clear and definite mental picture of what you want.” Wattles is blunt that “you cannot transmit an idea unless you have it yourself.”
- Carry it continually, like a sailing port. “That clear mental picture you must have continually in mind, as the sailor has in mind the port toward which he is sailing.” It is a steady reference, kept “continually,” not a one-off session.
- Live in it mentally until it firms up. “Live in the new house, mentally, until it takes form around you physically”; “See yourself as owning and using” the things.
- Keep refining toward clarity. When the picture blurs, return and re-sharpen it; the work is to make it more definite, never hazier. (Sourcing note: quoted phrases are verbatim from The Science of Getting Rich, Chapters 6 & 8; the numbered structure is an attributed paraphrase.)
Source & Lineage
Wallace Delois Wattles (1860–1911), American New Thought writer influenced by Hegel, Emerson, and Swedenborg. The “clear mental image” doctrine is the load-bearing first step of The Science of Getting Rich (1910) and reappears as “idealization” in The Science of Being Great and the health-image of The Science of Being Well.
Common refinements
Vagueness. “Be rich/well/great” is unpicturable. Specify the definite thing.
- Many shifting pictures. Wattles wants one steady port, not a rotating gallery; scattering dilutes it.
- A single session then forgetting. The picture is to be carried continually, the standing reference behind the day.
- Confusing clarity with elaborate fantasy. The aim is a definite, believable picture you can hold — not an ever-more-baroque daydream.