Introduction:

In the first part of this article I covered the biblical admonitions regarding the obtaining of wealth, a brief biological sketch of Napoleon Hill, followed by a survey of his ideas on business success. Part one focused on the positive contribution Hill made. Now in Part Two of the article I will cover the negative and out right dangers in Hill’s philosophy. In addition, I will provide two appendixes which will answer an anticipated question plus documentation of Hill’s progression into increasingly non-biblical thought.

The Negatives and Dangers found in Hill’s ideas:

Hill’s idea on auto-suggestion and visualization especially in the area of steps to stimulate your subconscious mind into obtaining a certain amount of money will strike many people as bizarre. It seems a little weird to visualize a stack of money and repeating to yourself day and night that you are going to get it. Hill, at least as of the writing of this book, did see not this visualization process as disconnected or separate from the real world of offering hard work and quality service in exchange for money. So unless you were willing to follow time tested real world business preparation, no amount of visualizing money and saying you are going to get it will work.

We can say with certainty that the teaching of the Bible in this area could be stated as: you make plans to achieve a goal and then first and foremost start by placing them in God’s hand and asking for the fulfillment of these plans to happen according to His will. Hill’s auto-suggestion technique at this point in his life may simply been a device for mental discipline in the area of goal setting. If so, I would not have a problem with the concept if reformulated utilizing the teaching of Scripture on discipline and framed in Biblical prayer rather than a rote mental exercise. In the Bible we are taught to discipline our minds and to be diligent. We are to bring our petitions before God on a daily basis. This would include asking God’s blessings on our business endeavors. Nevertheless, I believe Hill’s ideas on auto-suggestion, visualization and his imaginary counsel meetings is where a number of dangerous errors started developing in his philosophy. In my opinion, these ideas were nothing short of idolatry!

Along this line of thinking, as Hill’s ideas on auto-suggestion and visualization developed into increasingly unbiblical areas, which included contact with invisible spiritual beings, I have concluded that in the end Hill was promoting outright idolatry by his technique of auto-suggestion and visualization. In Scripture we are taught to set our affection upon the Lord God and Him only. As stated in the beginning of this review as Christians we are instructed to “seek first the Kingdom of God” Matt. 6:33. It seems as though in Hill’s work, he was promoting seek first material wealth!

Going on in my evaluation of Hill, one of the most demonstratively false and dangerous things in the book is Hill’s idea that “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” This is a serious Biblical error. In the Garden, the Serpent convinced Adam and Eve that they could become gods. No amount of conceiving and believing will ever make a finite person into a god. In fact, this lie of Satan is the chief lie that all human presuppositions starts with. Since Hill was allegedly a Christian, it is unfortunate that he did not qualify some of his ideas with Biblical limitations. Since he failed to do this, one has to question Hill’s understanding of the Christian Faith

In addition, another problematic area for a Christian is where Hill moves into some really strange and unproven ideas. He talks about a universal type of energy and powers such as telepathy, which can be supposedly used to reach into a higher consciousness, and getting in touch with the minds of the great leaders in history. Hill’s imaginary counsel of leaders during the evening is an area that is where I believe he let his imagination run completely wild. He claimed that these evening meetings were purely imaginary. Some researchers believe that this practice by Hill bordered on the occult. There is strong evidence that in his future writings he did move into what can be called spiritism or occultism. From a Christian perspective, Hill’s time could have been much better spent in prayer seeking that his desire for success would truly bring glory to God.

Hill was supposedly a Christian and said that his book was not a course on religion, nor meant to interfere with a person’s religion. In spite of his disclaimers, Hill’s use of the term infinite intelligence rather than God is evidence that he had parted from any belief he had in the Christian Faith. Even if he had used the term God it would not be possible to fit the Biblical concept of God into some of his thoughts on the subject of obtaining success. Hill seems to see this infinite intelligence as some kind of force that permeates the cosmos and in which all great minds are connected. This seems strikingly similar to the philosophy of idealism a concept or theory, in which all reality is ultimately reduced to a universal mind.

As stated earlier, Hill is considered the father of the positive thinking movement. This movement has led to all manner of wild speculations and metaphysical assertions which by their very nature are unproven. Some followers of Hill’s theories on auto-suggestion have developed this into what appears to be nothing more than magical secret incantations to obtain material wealth and developing relationships and following the guidance of your inner-self. Developing and following guidance from your inner-self is the door-way into occultic spiritism or in another sense a sign of a mental disorder.

In the closing section of his book, some of his views discussed in the Six Ghost of Fear are interesting and reflect reality for many people. However, he denigrates the Biblical concept of divine justice in this section the fear of death which is for me was another tip off that Hill’s belief system was far removed from the Christian Faith.

A section in the Elwell Evangelical Dictionary has this to say that is relevant to a Christian analysis of positive thinking and thus to portions of Hill’s work:

Theologically, positive thinking encourages a form of humanism that has often led to the development of heretical movements along the lines of New Though, Christian Science, and a variety of semi-Christian groups today. It overlooks biblical teachings about sin and the sovereignty of God to emphasize the essential goodness of humanity and the ability of people to solve their own problems through faith in their own abilities. In its Christianized form this self-faith is mediated through reference to Christian symbols, which upon closer examination are devoid of their original meaning.

The above quotation gets to the crux of the matter on the dangers inherent in the positive personal empowerment movement. We learn in Scripture that God is a sovereign God and any philosophy of personal empowerment or achievement that denigrates this has to be spoken against. If the vocation and calling you have is in business, you should strive for excellence and success all with the vision and goal of doing what is pleasing to God and for His Glory. We should always preface our plans in prayer asking first and foremost for God’s will to be done.

In fairness, Hill’s formula for business success in the book under review should not be understood simply as repeating some kind of mantra about obtaining wealth, although there are reasons that someone may believe this. At least in this book, Hill does a fair job of guarding against this type of simplistic understanding by qualifying and stressing the necessity of planning, focusing on goals, obtaining specialized knowledge, surrounding your self with like-minded business partners and constant persistence and hard work. In reality, much of the book is about self-discipline and how to prepare your-self for leadership which is no easy task, yet this has been seen in all successful business leaders. In my opinion, this is where the value of the book is found.

In summary, on the one hand, if you approach the book with some practical caution and especially Biblical awareness there are many good things you can learn from this book. On the other hand there are certainly dangers involved with an uncritical acceptance of Hill’s philosophy of success. In this writer’s opinion, Hill should have cut about one third of the speculative philosophy of success out of Think & Grow Rich” and just dealt with what he learned from his interviews with successful business leaders. It would be a good project if an abridged version of “Think & Grow Rich” could be edited and released which just contained the wisdom gleaned the 500 successful business leaders minus the unbiblical speculative philosophy. Because of the errors and the seeds of even more serious deviations from Biblical truth, I can give only a very limited and qualified favorable review of sections of “Think & Grow Rich.” Hill in my opinion was clearly a genius, yet in the end instead of glorifying God, he exalted his own finite mind. As in cases like Hill’s you have what can be described as genius run amok.

See the appendix # 1 for documentation on how Hill moved into the occult which seems to be case as evidenced in his later works. It is a tragedy for someone such as Hill who articulated so well what is involved in real world business success to ultimately discredit himself with his involvement in occultic spiritism. Hill, in his later books, claimed to be given information from spirit guides or ascended masters (in reality demons). As Christians, we are commanded by God to stay away from this type of communication. For example:

And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people…. A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:6, 27

See Appendix # 2 for my response to an anticipated question about this review.

Appendix # 1:

Material from The ChristianExpositor (TCE) dialogue with one of their readers about where Hill taught things about his communication with the ascended spiritual masters.

28th April, 2004 – TCE replies:

Thank you for your inquiry and we apologize for the delay in replying.

The answer to your questions can be found in the book in question: ”Grow Rich with Peace of Mind.”

Depending on the version read (probably between pages 158 to 162), you will find the following statements:

“Now and again I have had evidence that unseen friends hover about me, unknowable to ordinary senses. In my studies I discovered there is a group of strange beings who maintain a school of wisdom which must be ten thousand years old, but I did not connect them with myself. Now I have found there is a connection. I am not one of them! – but I have been watched by them. Here is how I found this out. I finished this book. I was alone in my study and all was very still. A voice spoke. I saw nobody. I cannot tell you whence the voice came. First it spoke a password known to few men that riveted my attention.”….. “I have come,” said the voice, “to give you one more section to include in your book…. I whispered; “Who are you?” In a softened voice, which sounded like chimes of great music, the unseen speaker replied: “I come from the Great School of the Masters. I am one of the Council of Thirty Three who serve the Great School and its initiates on the physical plane….The School has Masters who can disembody themselves and travel instantly to any place they choose…. Now I knew that one of these Masters had come across thousands of miles, through the night, into my study.”

“You have earned the right to reveal a Supreme Secret to others,” said the vibrant voice. “In the journey through life there is a Jungle of Life, a Black Forest through which every individual must pass alone. In the Black Forest he overcomes enemies and his own inner opposition and turmoil…. And now I shall name the enemies who must be met and conquered in the journey… The foremost is fear.” He went on to name intolerance, egotism, lust, anger and hatred and a total of 26 enemies….”Know that one who seeks earnestly to conquer these twenty six lurking enemies becomes an Initiate of the Great School. We know him, and he has access to the mind of a Master.” The Master concluded after another pause in the deep silence, and said: “He will not only understand the true purpose of life, but also he will have at his command the power to fulfill that purpose without having to experience another incarnation on this earthly plane. And the Masters of the Great School, on this earthly plane and all other planes, will rejoice at his triumph and will bid him God speed toward his own mastership.”… The voice ended. I began to hear little sounds of the world around me, and I knew the Master had returned to the Great School of the Masters.

Hill made similar statements in chapter two of the book “The Master Key to Riches” when he unconditionally represents ‘Eight Princes’ as distinct entities and (page 28) “my friends who have done most for me in preparing my mind for the acceptance of riches. I call them the Eight Princes. They serve me when I am awake and they serve me while I sleep.”

He further states on page 29, “My greatest asset consists in my good fortune in having recognized the existence of the Eight Princes….” Hill opens the chapter by saying that you can call them other names beside “princes” but he specifically gives them attributes of distinct beings that can impute knowledge and have powers to affect physical events. Hill states that Andrew Carnegie “was blessed with the services of the Eight Princes. The Prince of Overall Wisdom served him so well that he was inspired not only to give away all his material riches, but to provide the people with a complete philosophy of life through which they too might acquire riches.” He communicated with these beings every day expressing gratitude to each one for the named function. The exact words he used in addressing these beings are given on pages 27 through 29.

Hill refers to his communication as a “ceremony” on page 30 where he states: “Observe that I ask for nothing from the Princes, but I devote the entire ceremony to an expression of gratitude for the riches they have already bestowed upon me.” He gives further credit to theses beings: “The Princes know my needs and supply them!… Yes, they supply all of my needs in overabundance.” While discussing the philosophy of life that the princes gave, he states: “It supports all religions yet it is a part of none!”

Hill has stated in other books that he rejected the religion of his youth and believes that he is not associated with any religion but has knowledge that “supports all religion”. He states, in his early writings, that he never met these beings face to face. In other books, however, he describes how beings actually materialized in front of him and talked with him. He is clearly communicating with spiritual beings and pays some kind of homage to them, thus practicing a very old religion currently called by many “New Age” religion.

In about 1937 he wrote “Think and Grow Rich” and was communicating with an “imaginary cabinet” made up by himself of nine individuals who were long dead. He imagined them talking to himself. He claimed that knowledge came from them that he was not able to get from just thinking. He wrote (page 216) in ‘Think and Grow Rich’: “In these imaginary council meeting I call on my cabinet members for the knowledge I wished to contribute, addressing myself to each member in audible words….”

“The Master Key to Riches”, was copyrighted in 1967 by Hill and he had now, apparently, stopped talking to an “imaginary cabinet” and was talking with actual unseen beings. So Hill’s journey into communication with these spirits apparently began at least as early as his 1937 book and was continued into the creation of “Grow Rich With Peace of Mind”.

Yours sincerely

TCE

Appendix # 2 an anticipated question:

I fully anticipate a question to rise along the lines of: how can I even partially endorse something that contains serious errors and the seeds of even more error?

This is a good and fair question. As Christians we are to be conversant and to be able to speak accurately about the issues of our day. In doing this, we must be able to accurately state positions that we disagree with. This requires reading and studying material we may have substantial disagreements with. As a Christian, I do not like to have my position misrepresented or misunderstood. We should be careful to extend the same courtesy to others. If there are truths stated in an author’s work, we should be able to thank and show appreciation for the things we see as true.

For example, in the area of philosophy, Christian apologists should read and be conversant in the Greek philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. Plato and his student Aristotle were clearly two of the most brilliant minds who have ever lived. Their philosophy was so persuasive that modern philosophers have never been able to fully escape the ideas of these original Greek thinkers.

Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies are false, they nevertheless, were formally correct at various points. Plato in particular was formally correct in beginning his reasoning process starting from the world of eternal ideas and moving to and interpreting the temporal earthly forms in terms of the eternal. The Christian presuppositionalist argues in a similar process.

Returning to my anticipated question, can a Christian encourage people to read Plato and Aristotle? Of course they can, as long as qualified much like my review of Hill’s book. I trust this digression helps answer any questions that may be raised about my review of Hill’s book.