Introduction: The secret is out -- Why the secret, and why now? -- From down under to on top : how the secret spread -- A culture of hope -- Does it work? -- The ideas behind the secret -- Wallace Wattles & Co. -- What the @%&*$ does science have to do with the secret? -- From Buddha to the Bible : religious roots of the secret -- Geniuses, philosophers, madmen, and robber barons : did they really know the secret? -- Creative types -- Beethoven, Shakespeare & Emerson -- Men who changed a century -- Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill and Einstein -- The secret business of money -- Andrew Carnegie, William Clement Stone, Henry Ford -- Conclusion: Are we a secret society?