Metaphysics Meets Marketing: Spiritual Laws in Robert Collier’s Sales Letter ‘Secret of the Ages’

While ordinary men struggled to sell their products through the mail, in the 1920s Robert Collier was making millions for his uncle’s publishing house. But seeds for his prolific copywriting career were sown many years prior. 

In 1905, Collier was working as a mining engineer in the little town of Powellton, West Virginia. It was a tough business – and just like all the other mines in the area – they relied on brokers to sell coke and coal in the city. When business was good, they bid against other mines for labourers, and when it was bad, they underbid each other on price.

But then they had an unusually good grade of coal and it dawned upon them that manufacturers might happily pay a premium for this – if only they knew of its availability.

And so, Robert Collier wrote his first letter. A direct mailing to all the gas companies within several hundred miles of the mine, showing the owners how much more gas they could get per pound of Powellton coal.

After that, the orders started pouring in, and by 1907 the company was practically selling all goods from its stoves and mines via mail.

Collier, meanwhile, had not just made every possible improvement on the quality of coal and coke, but also studied System’s “Business Correspondence Library” to refine the art of letter writing.

He was an avid reader and firmly believed that the wisdom found in books could do more than help him learn to write letters for profit. He saw books as way to soak up knowledge on matters as varied as sales, science, relationships and spirituality.

Collier found two astute teachers to help him further hone his copywriting craft: Bruce Barton and Fred Stone. Both men knew much about circulars and advertisements after more than 25 years in the business. And by the time Collier worked in the advertising department of his uncle’s publishing house, Barton and Stone had become his mentors.

But his thirst for knowledge also led Collier on to more unusual pursuits. Having suffered from an undiagnosable illness in his youth, he set out to find a cure for his ailing – and rediscovered world’s spiritual knowledge, which he shared in a series of booklets that would later become “The Secret of the Ages”.

‘Secret of the Ages’ was a phenomenal success, owing both to the work itself and to the letters that Collier used to promote it. His copy brought order rates as high as 9 percent from cold lists, and within 6 months he had received over 1 million worth of orders!

But if writing and advertising spiritual books helped Collier see such phenomenal results – don’t you think he would have used the spiritual laws he discovered to increase sales through his letters? Of course, he would!

That’s why I’ve picked a sales letter for his book “Secret of the Ages” to show you how Robert Collier used the laws of the universe in his sales copy.

If you want, you can get the full sales letter here, but I’ll be quoting all the relevant passages – so you will learn exactly how Robert Collier used these spiritual laws, even if you don’t read the letter.

The ‘Secret of the Ages’ Letter

I bet you didn’t know that the ‘Secret of Ages’ would not have been written, had it not been for an idea Collier had to promote it.

Collier had been sitting on the idea for a metaphysical book for a while, but his commitment to advertising left little time to write hundreds of pages of a spiritual book.

It was only when he had an idea for a sales letter – that ‘Secret of the Ages’ would slowly start to come about. Collier quickly got down the idea on paper and realising how good his sales letter looked – he decided to try it on a list of a few thousand people. To his surprise, that letter pulled as high as 9% on a cold list, prompting Collier to actually write the book.

The launch of his book brought in over 1 million in orders in just a few months and continued to sell for the next two years. But then, sales started to dwindle and Collier was back at his craft. By now, he had changed things up several times and was writing fresh letters to promote his metaphysical work.

One of the more successful of those letters saw Collier using the same spiritual laws that he shared in ‘Secret of the Ages’ as part of his direct mail campaign.

Can you spot the first of these principles in the second line of the letter? If so, tell me what is going on here:

Which spiritual principle did Collier use in his anecdote about the little penny? Well, there’s two answers here.

For one, Collier works the reader’s greed glands by appealing to their desire to accumulate more and more wealth. He deliberately focusses on the “growth phase” of the cosmic cycle, in which goods and belongings increase, and puts aside periods of stability and decline – as these are perceived as ‘negative’ by most people.

After the selective description of the natural cycle, Collier swiftly follows with another spiritual law: that of karma. What would have happened to that penny (but didn’t) is a vivid depiction of how our actions unfold over time.

Just look at the next line and you’ll see how Collier uses the penny story to hint at a missed opportunity:

After all, the lack of investment then means that you can’t reap the benefits now. And seeing the cost of this missed opportunity, the reader will want to avoid missing out on the next chance they get. And so, after using the law of karma, Collier sets the stage for what will become his offer. In the line that follows, he highlights the next opportunity: “You can invest a few minutes in wisdom that was old when Christ was born”.

Collier then develops this idea using the law of perpetuity. This law states that energy can never be created or destroyed – it can only change its form. Everything in the universe already exists, and “new” things can only be uncovered.

Can you see how Collier uses the law of perpetuity in this quote?

It’s easy to spot, once you know its there. But why would Collier use it, you ask?

Well, in this case – the principle of perpetuity helps reduce resistance and doubt, suggesting to the reader that “timeless” wisdom has proven itself for many centuries. It also helps Collier manage expectations – and avoid refunds or complaints on the principle that the book offered nothing new.

So far, we’ve just looked at one scenario here – but did you know that Collier consistently uses spiritual laws to manage prospects’ and customers’ expectations? For example, “people smiled unbelievingly” later in the letter, is a classic way to use the law of attraction to reduce hesitancy. It works by acknowledging people’s doubts and concerns, so they feel heard and seen. They think of you as a friend, rather than a sales person, and they begin to trust you – because they feel like you ‘get’ them.

Now you say – we’ve seen 3 spiritual laws in introduction– but what about the next step, the build up to the sale? What law – beside karma, perpetuity and the cyclical nature of life – does Collier tap into, so readers order his book right now?

The law of polarity.

The law of polarity states that everything is on a spectrum between two extremes. A man can be poor or rich, sick or healthy, hungry or satiated. Strong or weak. And Collier questions if we can move from one extreme to the other – if there is a force that allows us to pick the more desirable of the two opposite ends.

While spiritual people acknowledge that “nothing is true without its opposite” – meaning we can only perceive poverty if I know what wealth is – the reader of Collier’s letter is probably not as a spiritually inclined.

As such, the potential promise of dramatic change is likely to have a much more profound impact on him than on the spiritual man, who knows about the relativity of perception. (You can feel poor when you are among the rich – but Collier gracefully brushes that aside in the lead up to his sale).

Instead, he asks the reader another question:

Here, Collier relates to the reader by portraying the strength of the mind in extreme situations. While a serious accident – on the surface, seems like a challenging experience – it also helps Collier show how intention precedes action. He demonstrates that sufficient mental power can lead to an immediate result, which corresponds to the promise Collier wishes to make.

With the value of his offer firmly established, Collier then draws his prospect in closer and sets up the sale. Can you see, for example, how he uses the law of attraction in this line? 

Notice the suggestive language – the instructions that Collier gives to his reader: “money … you part with it” and “you expect to pay to pay for it”. These instructions move Collier close to a successful sale – and allow him to price of his offer, which is exactly what he does in the next line.

See how Collier quotes the prices of other products before stating his? He anchors the price high, and then makes his offer seem like a bargain. That’s a smart way to use the law of relativity, or comparison.

So why does it work? It reduces resistance by showing customers what price range they can expect – and then uses a lower price as a pleasant surprise. This increases the perceived value of Collier’s offer.

But beside the price, Collier also continues his stroke of suggestive language. “…send [..] only $7.85” is his first, somewhat hidden, call to action that will ultimately help the metaphysical write close a sale. That call to action is then repeated, several times, more overtly, throughout the rest of the letter. After all, repetition has a hypnotic effect on the mind – and when done well, lulls the prospect into making a purchase.

As you can see – Collier has used a range of spiritual laws in his sales letter for “Secret of the Ages” – from the principle of polarity, to Yin and Yang, the law of perpetuity and the law of rhythm.