In 1984, Louise Hay published You Can Heal Your Life, a guide to healing the thoughts and beliefs which psychologically support illnesses. Hay’s affirmations are designed to help the user re-program their thought patterns so that the harmful or negative beliefs which support the illness can be replaced with healing or positive beliefs which can remove the barrier to healing.

Affirmations are also referred to in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), which was developed in the early 1970s by John Grinder and Richard Bandler at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

In the 1980's and 1990's, Tony Robbins popularized the term Neuro Associative Conditioning “NAC,” which shared many similarities with NLP.

Rhonda Byrne’s book, The Secret was released in 2007. It was also a 2006 film. The Secret expresses ideas similar to those presented in Napoleon Hill’s classic book Think and Grow Rich. Byrne was inspired by New Thought pioneer Wallace Wattles’ 1910 book The Science of Getting Rich.

In August 2008, Esther and Jerry Hicks’s book Money and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Health, Wealth & Happiness appeared on the New York Times Best Seller list.