Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Wattles' Idealization & Identification
Form the highest conception of the person you want to be, hold it as a present thought-form / fact about yourself, and consciously identify that self with the One Mind (‘the principle of power’) that seeks expression through you.
Decide who you most want to be — your own verdict, not others’. Form the highest conception of that self and hold it as a present fact: a thought-form, “the real truth about yourself.” Then deliberately, daily, identify that self with the One Mind that seeks expression through you — and keep it humble by aiming it at service, not dominion.
What it is
From The Science of Being Great (1911), this is Wattles applied to the self rather than to wealth. Two joined moves: Idealization — form the highest conception of the person you want to be and hold it as a present fact about yourself; and Identification — consciously recognise that self as one with “the Highest,” the One Mind/God who seeks expression through you.
Where pictures an external thing, this practice builds and inhabits an ideal identity and roots it in Wattles’ monism (“the principle of power”). It sits in embodiment state because the work is to be the ideal now, as habitual self-thought.
The Method
- Decide what you want to be — yourself, not others’ verdict. “DO NOT LET OTHER PEOPLE DECIDE WHAT YOU ARE TO BE. BE WHAT YOU FEEL THAT YOU WANT TO BE.”
- Form the highest conception and make it a thought-form. “When you have fully decided what thing you want to be, form the highest conception of that thing that you are capable of imagining, and make that conception a thought-form.”
- Hold it as the truth about yourself. “Hold that thought-form as a fact, as the real truth about yourself, and believe in it.” Set the ideal “as near to perfection as your imagination is capable.”
- Consciously identify with the Highest. “You must consciously identify yourself with the Highest. This is not some false or untrue position to be assumed; it is a fact to be recognized.” “Man is of one and the same stuff with God, and so all the talents, powers, and possibilities that are in God are in man.”
- Make the identification by deliberate recognition. “Your identification of yourself with the Infinite must be accomplished by conscious recognition on your part” — a daily, deliberate act, not a passing thought.
- Anchor it in service and consecration. Wattles guards against ego: “He that will be great among you let him serve,” and the consecration formula “I surrender my body to be ruled by my mind; I surrender my mind to be governed by my soul.” Greatness is service, not dominion. (Sourcing note: quoted phrases are verbatim from The Science of Being Great, esp. “Idealization,” “Identification,” “Consecration,” and “Jesus’ Idea of Greatness”; the structure is an attributed paraphrase.)
Source & Lineage
Wallace Delois Wattles (1860–1911), American New Thought writer. The Science of Being Great (1911) is the middle book of his trilogy, turning the SGR method inward: the same “one substance” monism, now applied to becoming a great soul through an ideal self-conception identified with the One.
Common refinements
Borrowing someone else’s ideal. Wattles insists the ideal be yours, self-chosen.
- Ego inflation. “Identifying with the Highest” can curdle into grandiosity; Wattles binds it to humility, consecration, and service — keep that anchor.
- A vague ideal. As with the wealth-image, definiteness matters: form the highest, clearest conception, not a fog.
- Recognition once, then drift. Identification is a deliberate, recurring act; it fades without daily renewal.