The Master Key System

The book describes many New Thought beliefs such as the law of attraction,{{cite book|title=Where´d He Get That, by Margo Ruark, page 210|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spQRBAAAQBAJ&dq=haanel+%22where%C2%B4d+he+get+that%22&pg=PA210|accessdate=3 August 2015|isbn = 9780615742625|last1 = Ruark|first1 = Margo|date = 2010-06-04}} creative visualization and man's unity with God, and teaches the importance of truth, harmonious thinking and the ability to concentrate.{{cite web|title=A Brief History of Visualization Techniques|url=http://easyvisualizationtechniques.com/a-brief-history-of-visualization-techniques/|publisher=easyvisualizationtechniques.com|accessdate=3 August 2015}}{{cite web|title=C.F Haanel, retired author buried. |url=http://www.haanel.com/images/Haanel_Obituary.gif |publisher=Unknown newspaper, 12 January 1949 |accessdate=3 August 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070104124414/http://www.haanel.com/images/Haanel_Obituary.gif |archivedate=January 4, 2007 }} Each of the 24 chapters contains an introduction, followed by a sequentially numbered section which includes an exercise towards the end, followed by a section with questions and answers. At the beginning of the book is a Psychological Chart which readers are encouraged to complete, providing a self-evaluation of their creative power, time efficiency, health, mental ability and capacity to concentrate.{{cite book|title=Master Key Arcana, by Anthony R. Michalsk. ISBN 978-0967851440.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wy0n-1y-F8UC&dq=%22master+key+arcana%22+brochure&pg=PA9|accessdate=3 August 2015|isbn = 9780967851440|last1 = Michalski|first1 = Anthony R.|year = 2004}} The book ends with a glossary and general question-and-answers section. Every chapter includes a quotation from people such as Jonathan Edwards, Lilian Whiting and Amos Bronson Alcott.{{cite web|title=The Master Key System|url=http://newthoughtlibrary.com/haanel-charles/Master-Key-System/audioEbook/master-key-systemRAW.pdf|publisher=New Thought Library|accessdate=6 August 2015}}

Each chapter ends with an exercise which the reader is encouraged to undertake every day for the following 4–7 days. The exercises are meditations{{cite web|title=Interview: Kevin Gates Talks 'By Any Mean,' Jail Time and Slanging The D'|url=http://www.vibe.com/2014/04/interview-kevin-gates-talks-any-mean-jail-time-and-slanging-d/|publisher=Vibe magazine, 8 April 2014|accessdate=17 July 2015}} that require the reader to first sit comfortably in a chair.

The sequence of exercises in each chapter is as follows:

1. Sitting still
2. Inhibiting all thought combined with previous exercise
3. Releasing physical tension combined with previous exercises
4. Letting go of all negative emotions combined with previous exercises
5. Visualising a pleasant place
6. Remembering details from a photo of someone
7. Visualising positive facial expressions on the face of a friend
8. Visualising everything that leads to the construction of a battleship
9. Visualising a flower growing from seed
10. Visualising certain geometric forms
11. Concentrating on a quote from the Bible; Mark 11:24
12. Contemplating your unity with Omnipotence
13. Contemplating being part of the Whole
14. Focusing on harmony
15. Contemplating the fact that knowledge needs to be applied to be useful
16. Contemplating that happiness and harmony are states of consciousness
17. Focusing on the object of your desire
18. Focusing on your power to create – create a logical basis for your faith
19. Total concentration on what you want
20. Focusing on "In Him we live and move and have our being"
21. Focusing on truth
22. Concentration on a Tennyson quote: "Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and spirit with spirit can meet, Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet."
23. Contemplating the fact that man is a spirit with a body
24. Realising that this is a wonderful world

The ideas behind the book mainly come from New Thought philosophy, but there are influences from other sources such as Hinduism, Masonism and Rosicrucian teachings, Theosophy, and the Bible.{{cite web|title=The History of The Master Key System and Its Influence on Future Generations|url=http://www.haanel.com/history-influence/|publisher=haanel.com|accessdate=17 July 2015}}

Along with The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace D. Wattles, The Master Key System inspired much of the content of Rhonda Byrne's film The Secret (2006), which was later followed by a book of the same name.{{cite web|title=$150 million battle to keep The Secret|url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/05/17/1210765254572.html|publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 May 2008|accessdate=17 July 2015}}{{cite web|title=The Master Key System|url=https://www.waterstones.com/audiobook/the-master-key-system/charles-f-haanel/erik-synnestvedt/9781469000381|publisher=Waterstones|accessdate=17 July 2015}}{{cite web|title=The Secret Behind Many Law of Attraction Experts – The Master Key System|url=http://www.elevatedexistence.com/blog/2011/10/31/the-secret-behind-many-law-of-attraction-experts-%E2%80%93-the-master-key-system/|publisher=Elevatedexistence.com|accessdate=17 July 2015}}{{cite web|title='The Secret' author Rhonda Byrne's Montecito estate to hit market for $23.5 million|url=http://www.realtytoday.com/articles/5882/20140530/secret-author-rhonda-byrne-s-montecito-estate-hit-market-23.htm|publisher=Realty Today|accessdate=17 July 2015}}The Secret of The Secret: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Runaway Bestseller, page 91 (2007) Kelly, Karen, Macmillan,{{ISBN|0-312-37790-8}}

It is claimed on the website haanel.com that Charles Haanel received a letter in 1919 from Napoleon Hill, who later went on to write one of the best-selling books of all time, Think and Grow Rich, saying that his own success was due to the principles laid down in The Master Key System.{{cite web|title=Napoleon Hill letter|url=http://www.haanel.com/history-influence/|publisher=haanel.com|accessdate=25 July 2015}}The Secret of The Secret: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Runaway Bestseller, page 186 (2007) Kelly, Karen, Macmillan,{{ISBN|0-312-37790-8}}

Actor Terry Crews has described The Master Key System as his favorite book among hundreds of personal development books, saying that it showed him "how to visualize, contemplate, and focus on what I really wanted" and that he rereads it "probably once a month to keep my vision clear".{{Cite book|last=Timothy|first=Ferriss|title=Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=2017|isbn=978-1-328-99496-7|location=New York|pages=19|author-link=Timothy Ferriss}}

There are many editions of the book. Modern editions mostly do not include the three-part introduction, the psychological chart, the question-and-answers section at the end of the book, or the glossary. Some modern editions also include 4 additional chapters which come from chapters 11–14 of another book Haanel wrote called A book about you. The first British Empire edition, printed in 1933 by The Master Key Publishing Company, is called The Master Key with no mention of the word "system".{{cite book|title=The Master Key|date=1933|publisher=The Master Key Publishing Company|edition=First British Empire}}

The book contains many quotations. Some are printed at the end of chapters while others are in the main body of the text. This list shows all the people quoted in the 1919 edition, and the chapter or part of the book in which the quotes are found.{{cite book|last1=Haanel|first1=Charles|title=The Master Key System|date=1919|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/nth/mks/|accessdate=19 November 2015}} Some editions arrange the quotations in slightly different orders and some have quotes that do not appear in the 1919 edition; for example, many have a quote by Benjamin Disraeli at the end of chapter 23.{{cite web|title=The Master Key System|url=http://newthoughtlibrary.com/haanel-charles/Master-Key-System/audioEbook/master-key-systemRAW.pdf|publisher=New Thought Library|accessdate=6 August 2015}}{{cite book|last1=Haanel|first1=Charles|title=El Sistema de la llave maestra|date=2009|publisher=Selector|isbn=978-607-453-008-7}}

{{div col|colwidth=15em}}

• Seneca, Introduction
• James J. Hill, Introduction
• Elbert Gary, Introduction
• Walter Colton, 1
• Professor Davidson, 2
• James Allen, 2,7
• Prentice Mulford, 2,16
• Thomas Troward, 3
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, 3,5,10,17 & 19
• Walker, 3
• Herbert Spencer, 4
• Lyman Abbott, 4
• Helen Wilmans, 4
• Christian D. Larson, 6
• William Shakespeare, 6
• Nikola Tesla, 7
• George Matthew Adams, 8,14
• Kālidāsa, 8
• Frederick Andrews, 9
• James McCosh, 9
• A. B. Alcott, 9
• Henry Drummond, 10
• Thomas Huxley, 10
• John Tyndall, 10
• Lillian Whiting, 10
• Floyd Baker Wilson, 12
• Herbert Kaufman, 13
• Benjamin Franklin, 13
• Charles Mackay, 13
• Jacques Loeb, 15
• Horatio Bonar, 15
• Henry Flagler, 16
• H. W. Beecher, 16
• William Dunkerley, 16
• Christian Bovee, 17
• John Ambrose Fleming, 18
• G. A. Sala, 18
• Marcus Antonius, 18
• South, 19
• Johann Lavater, 20
• Johann Goethe, 20
• Orison Swett Marden, 21
• Frank Haddock, 21
• Alfred T Shofield, 22
• Alfred Tennyson, 22
• Alexander Pope, 22
• William Channing, 22
• William Walker Atkinson, 23
• Francis Larimer Warner, 23
• Samuel Smiles, 24
• Isaac Funk. Glossary
• Alexander Winchell. Glossary
• G. C. Robertson. Glossary
• William Inge. General questions & answers
• Jonathan Edwards. General questions & answers
• Joseph Joubert. On 'Go Slow' page, printed 12 times throughout book.

{{div col end}}

In addition to these quotations, the book quotes the Bible 23 times.

• Abundance and Prosperity - The Master Key System Decoded, by Prof. C. W. Haanel Mentz {{ISBN|1-4257-1035-2}} {{cite book|title=How to Master Abundance And Prosperity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WH1MUtHSejUC|accessdate=25 July 2015|isbn = 9781425710354|date = March 2006}}
• The Electronic Master Key System in 24 Parts - Re-Edited, by Anthony R. Michalski.{{cite book|title=The Electronic Master Key System|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ya5aAQAAQBAJ&dq=The+Master+Key+System++Anthony+R.+Michalski&pg=PA5|accessdate=25 July 2015|isbn = 9780967851402|last1 = Haanel|first1 = Charles F.|date = December 2002}}
• Master Key Arcana, by Anthony R. Michalski.{{cite book|title=Master Key Arcana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wy0n-1y-F8UC&q=The+Master+Key+System|accessdate=25 July 2015|isbn = 9780967851440|last1 = Michalski|first1 = Anthony R.|year = 2004}}
• Master Key System (28 Part Complete Deluxe Edition) - Ishtar Publishing (July 2007) {{ISBN|978-0-9780535-8-1}}
• The Master Key System 2012 Centenary Edition, edited, illustrated and annotated by Helmar Rudolph (January 2011) {{ISBN|978-1-4563360-4-2}}.{{cite web|title=The Master Key System Centenary Edition|url=http://www.masterkeysystem.tv/pdf/The-Master-Key-System-Sample.pdf|publisher=masterkeysystem.tv|accessdate=25 July 2015}}
• Tapping the Source (2010), by William Gladstone, Richard Greninger, John Selby and Jack Canfield,{{cite web|title=Tapping the Source: Using The Master Key System for Abundance and Happiness|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4027-7883-4|publisher=Publishers Weekly|accessdate=17 July 2015}}
• The Master Key System Summarized & the Science of Getting Rich Decoded, by George Mentz.{{cite book|title=The Master Key System Summarized & the Science of Getting Rich Decoded|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9wXRPQAACAAJ&q=The+Master+Key+System|accessdate=25 July 2015|isbn = 9780615159881|last1 = Mentz|first1 = George|date = August 2007}}
• Masters of the Secrets Expanded, by Wallace Wattles, Charles Haanel, Thomas Troward, C. Wattles Haanel Mentz.{{cite book|title=Masters of the Secrets Expanded -|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ygFC2DEPWX8C&dq=Masters+of+the+Secrets+Expanded&pg=PA130|accessdate=1 August 2015|isbn = 9780615148137|last1 = Haanel|first1 = Wallace Wattles Charles|last2 = Troward|first2 = Thomas|last3 = Wattles Haanel Mentz|first3 = C.|date = May 2007}}

Master Key System and Mental Chemistry, being published prior to 1923, are considered to be in public domain,{{cite web|url=http://www.charleshaanel.com/ |title=www.charleshaanel.com |publisher=www.charleshaanel.com |date= |accessdate=2013-01-26}} but several of his other books, being currently in distribution, are still covered by copyright law timeframe.{{cite web|url=http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm |title=Cornell University notes on copyright laws and public domain time frame |publisher=Copyright.cornell.edu |date= |accessdate=2013-01-26}}

• Mental Chemistry
• The New Psychology
• A book about You
• The Amazing Secrets of the Yogi

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.psitek.net/pages/PsiTekTMKSContents.html The Master Key System, in free weekly lessons], Psi-Tek

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Category:New Thought literature

Category:Self-help books

Category:1912 non-fiction books

Category:1916 non-fiction books