Herbert A. Parkyn

Herbert A. Parkyn
Parkyn in 1900
Born	(1870-12-24)December 24, 1870 Goderich, Ontario, Cananda
Died	December 22, 1927(1927-12-22) (aged 56) Highland Park, Illinois, U.S.
Resting place	Cimetière Mont-Royal
Occupation	Doctor author
Alma mater	McGill University
Period	1896–1926
Subject	Psychology suggestion autosuggestion hypnosis
Literary movement	New Thought New Psychology
Notable works	Auto-Suggestion; What it is and How to Use It for Health, Happiness and Success A Mail Course in Suggestive Therapeutics and Hypnotism
Relatives	S. Hollister Jackson (cousin) H. Nelson Jackson (cousin) J. Holmes Jackson (cousin)
Signature

Herbert Arthur Parkyn (December 24, 1870 – December 22, 1927) was a Canadian psychologist, author, and early ice hockey organizer who became a prominent figure in the New Thought movement in Chicago and a leading proponent of auto-suggestion. In 1896 he founded the Chicago School of Psychology, the first institution in America to teach and accredit doctors in the practice of hypnotism and suggestive therapeutics. The school and its free daily clinic became a leading center for research, education, and treatment in the mental sciences. Dr. Parkyn trained and worked with many influential figures of the New Psychology movement, including his protégés William Walker Atkinson and Sydney Blanshard Flower, as well as collaborators such as Dr. William Xavier Sudduth, Thomson Jay Hudson, and Stanley LeFevre Krebs. Parkyn was also part of establishing The Hypnotic Magazine, the first journal in the country dedicated to the study of hypnosis, and later launched Suggestion magazine, which became one of the most influential periodicals of advanced thought. With his book Auto-Suggestion, he introduced the systematic study of self-suggestion through affirmations, preceding by decades the international recognition later given to the work of Émile Coué.

In addition to his medical and publishing career, Parkyn was a prominent college athlete, winning championships in both hockey and football. He is widely credited with organizing the first international hockey game and played a significant role in establishing the sport as a major fixture in Canadian and American athletics. Parkyn was also involved in forming and running several large companies, including the Motzorongo Plantation Company and The Black Sands and Gold Recovery Company.

Herbert A. Parkyn was born in Goderich, Ontario, to Margaret Beale Atkinson and Colonel James Parkyn. His family was well established in Canadian industry and played a key role in the early development of Montreal. His paternal grandfather, William Parkyn, was responsible for launching the first iron steamships on the Saint Lawrence River and for harnessing the hydraulic power of the Lachine Canal at Cote Saint Paul, Montreal. There, the Parkyn family built the Mount Royal Mills, one of the most extensive milling operations in Canada and developed the surrounding town which is now an affluent neighborhood of Montreal, including constructing, Saint Paul's Union Church, a large Gothic church where his grandfather, William Parkyn, served as a deacon.^{[1] : 47 [2][3][4][5]}

His father, James Parkyn, managed and expanded the family's large milling enterprises. In 1885 he took over management of the Lake of the Woods Milling Company and from 1888 to 1893, he oversaw the construction of the Lake of the Woods Mills in Keewatin, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, which was regarded at the time as the largest milling facility in the world.^[4][6][7]

On his mother's side, his uncle William Kirby Atkinson was the mayor of Ailsa Craig, Ontario and later the owner and editor of the Leader-Telegram, a major daily newspaper in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.^{[8]: 92 [9][10][11]}

• Parkyn and Brodie, Cote Saint Paul Flour Mills
• The Mount Royal Mills Company, Montreal.

Herbert Parkyn maintained close ties with his Jackson relatives, who exerted a lasting influence on his life. His paternal aunt Mary Ann Parkyn married Rev. Samuel Nelson Jackson in 1866, and the couple settled in the family's Côte Saint-Paul community. Rev. Jackson was both a medical doctor and a leading Congregational minister with national and international standing. He served as Chairman of the Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec, editor of the Canadian Independent, and president of the Congregational Publishing Company. As General Secretary of the Congregational Missionary Society, he helped establish the Pan-Congregational Council, the first body to unite Congregational churches worldwide. He also spent eighteen years as a director and faculty member at the Congregational College at McGill University, where he authored A Handbook of Congregationalism.^{[1][3][12][13]}

Herbert spent much of his youth among his Jackson cousins, including Samuel Hollister Jackson, later the 56th Lieutenant Governor of Vermont; Horatio Nelson Jackson, who gained national recognition as the first person to drive an automobile across the U.S., and later a co-founder of the American Legion and owner of the Burlington Daily News; and John Holmes Jackson, who twice served as mayor of Burlington, Vermont. The family connections deepened when Herbert's sister, Mabel Maude Parkyn, married their 1st cousin Samuel Hollister Jackson, making the two men both cousins and brothers-in-law. Parkyn and his Jackson cousins would maintain a close personal and professional relationship throughout their lives.^{[1]: 48–60 [14][15][16][17][18]}

Herbert Parkyn's influence within the New Thought movement was also shaped by the wider Jackson family, particularly the two brothers of his uncle-in-law, Rev. S. N. Jackson. The eldest, Joseph Addison Jackson, graduated from Barre Academy in the same class as Henry Wood, who would later become one of the most widely read New Thought writers and is often regarded as a foundational figure of the movement. The family connection with Henry Wood was further deepened when, Dr. John Henry Jackson, the youngest brother, married Henry Wood's cousin, Cora Augusta Wood in 1869. The Jacksons and the Woods would remain closely connected through religious, civic, and business associations throughout their lives.^{[19][1][3][20][21][22][23][24]}

In 1888 Herbert Parkyn entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. That same year his father moved to Winnipeg to oversee construction of the Lake of the Woods Mills, leaving Herbert with his Jackson relatives who had moved to Kingston when Rev. S. N. Jackson became pastor of the First Congressional Church of Kingston. Also enrolled at Queen's at the time was Joseph Wells Jackson, the eldest son of Dr. John Henry Jackson, who likewise pursued medicine. After graduating in 1891, Parkyn completed the examinations of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario the following year and received his medical degree from the Queen's University Faculty of Medicine.^{[25][26][27][7][28][6][29][30][31]} 

Herbert then undertook postgraduate studies at McGill University Medical College in Montreal, following a well established Jackson family pattern of medical training, as both Dr. John Henry Jackson and Dr. Joseph Addison Jackson, had completed postgraduate work at McGill's medical college. He then continued his medical education at the University of Toronto Medical College, where he was active for several years in the medical department, specializing in the research of anesthesia and the science of hypnotism. Early in his medical studies, Parkyn had become intensely interested in the psychology of the mind and undertook a focused study of the science of hypnotism. He continued to develop his understanding of suggestive therapeutics and psycho-therapeutics throughout his entire academic training.^[1][3]

While completing this postgraduate work at the University of Toronto Medical College, he was also beginning his education in running a medical practice and starting businesses. From 1892 to 1894 he maintained his own medical practice in Toronto, focusing on psycho-therapeutics and reporting a record of more than 240 successful hypnotic cases during this period. He also started and managed the Incandescent Gas Light Exchange in Toronto to compete against a monopoly in the Canadian lighting trade. In 1894, Parkyn relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and enrolled in the University of Minnesota, where he began working closely with the dean of the dental school, Dr. W. Xavier Sudduth, on experiments with hypnosis.^{[32]: 6 [26][33][34][35][36]}

During his entire medical training, Parkyn was a classmate of Dr. Hugh A. Stevenson, with whom he shared a parallel medical education and a research interest in hypnotism as an anesthesia. Stevenson followed the same institutional path, studying medicine at Queen's University in Kingston, undertaking postgraduate work at McGill, and completing further medical training at the University of Toronto. Dr. Hugh Stevenson would later practice medicine and serve as a three term mayor in his home town of London, Ontario. For many years he worked in professional partnership with his younger brother, Dr. William J. Stevenson, a physician of international reputation who would later study at Parkyn's Chicago School of Psychology and also pursued advanced study in suggestive therapeutics in Nancy, France, under Hippolyte Bernheim.^{[37][38][39][40][41]}

Both Hugh and William Stevenson were closely involved with Richard Maurice Bucke, a well known psychiatrist, philosopher, and founder of the medical school at the University of Western Ontario in London. Through his close association with the Stevensons, Parkyn was strongly influenced by the ideas of Bucke who spent thirty years developing his evolutionary theory of consciousness that was eventually published in 1901 as Cosmic Consciousness.^[42][43][44]

Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke proposed that humanity progresses through successive stages of awareness culminating in what he termed cosmic consciousness. At the time, the term and concept were not established in psychology and entered modern discourse through Bucke's work. Parkyn adopted this framework and expressed a conviction that human consciousness was evolving toward higher states, a belief that was a foundational element of Parkyn's psychological and therapeutic outlook.^[45][46]

At the same time Parkyn was establishing himself as a doctor of psychology, he was also highly active as a collegiate athlete, excelling in hockey and football and recognized not only for his athletic performance but also for his role in organizing some of the earliest hockey and football games in both Canada and the United States.

Parkyn served as president and secretary on many clubs, positions that in the era of organized amateur sport was typically held by an active player rather than a separate administrator. The secretary of a club functioned as its chief administrative officer, responsible for correspondence with other clubs and governing bodies, arranging fixtures and travel, maintaining players, and ensuring compliance with club and league rules. This work required Parkyn to oversee both personnel and operations within established institutions, experience he later drew upon when creating and managing his own schools, publications, and professional organizations.^[47][48][49]

While at Queen's University, Parkyn organized one of the first recorded hockey games in North America, a 1886 match against the Royal Military College on Kingston Harbour. It has been recognized as the first organized game between two Ontario teams and the beginning of the oldest rivalry in hockey. In 1888, as captain and secretary of the Queen's University Hockey Club, Parkyn led the squad to the first Kingston championship, facing the Rideau Hall Rebels, a team that included two of Lord Stanley’s sons.^[50][51][52]

• Queen's University was the Kingston Hockey Champions in 1888. Herbert A. Parkyn, bottom right.
• Victoria Hockey Club of Toronto, 1893. Parkyn is lying across the bottom.

He continued his hockey career at the University of Toronto, where he captained both the Varsity and University College clubs and served as secretary of the newly formed Ontario Hockey Association. In that role, he helped establish rules for Ontario's participation in the Stanley Cup and coordinated intercollegiate and club play across the province.^{[53][54][55][48][49][56][57]}

Parkyn was equally prominent in football during the era when the Canadian game still resembled rugby. Playing center halfback and fullback, he was Queen's leading scorer and helped the team reach the 1890 Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) Cup final. In 1892, he played for the University of Toronto "Varsity" team that defeated Ottawa College for the ORFU Cup, and in 1893 he returned to Queen's as honorary vice president, contributing on the field as the team won both the ORFU Cup and the Dominion Football Championship. That same year, he also played with the Toronto Athletic Club. Parkyn earned a reputation as Ontario's finest football kicker of the time.^{[58][59][60][61][62]: 76 [63]}

His brother, William Parkyn II, was also a football star, captaining the Windsor University team before his sudden death from malarial fever in 1885 after returning from a game against the Michigan Wolverines.^[64]

Parkyn was also a standout Canadian cricket player. In 1894 he became assistant secretary of Toronto's Rosedale Cricket Club, where he played alongside Hall of Famer George Lyon, who that year set a Canadian record of 238 not out that stood for four decades.^[65][66]

In 1894, Parkyn enrolled at the University of Minnesota, and joined the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team. The university welcomed him enthusiastically, seeing his presence as a way to strengthen and expand their developing program. Although Minnesota had fielded its first team a decade earlier, football was still establishing itself in the region.

• 1894 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team; Parkyn is circled.
• 1895 Minnesota Golden Gophers football team; Parkyn is in the middle of the back row.

Unlike the long-standing programs of the Ivy League and Canadian universities, Midwestern teams depended on recruiting experienced players and faculty from those regions to build credibility. Parkyn, a former member of the celebrated "Canadian Eleven" and widely regarded as one of Canada's finest players, immediately elevated Minnesota's profile and recruiting power.  

Parkyn played fullback, handling most of the running, punting, and kicking duties and was known for reliably drop-kicking goals from up to 40 yards. His notoriety on campus for hypnotism earned him nicknames such as "the Hypnotizer" and "Svengali Parkyn" which were used widely in press coverage and chanted by hundreds during games. Parkyn led the team in scoring in 1894 and in the 1895 season in which Minnesota captured the Northwest championship.^{[67][68][69][70][71][72][73]}

In December 1894, Parkyn was chosen to organize the University of Minnesota's winter sports program, with his main goal being the creation of a hockey team. Drawing on the skills of football players familiar with ice polo, he proposed forming a squad that could compete with Canadian teams. In January 1895, Parkyn secured Athletic Park in Minneapolis as a venue and was elected director of Minnesota's first hockey team.^{[74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81]}

Parkyn then staged a series of games that are among the first organized hockey contests in Minnesota and the United States. Historians note that the University of Minnesota was likely the nation's second college to play the sport, following Johns Hopkins in December 1894. On February 18, 1895, Parkyn brought the Winnipeg Victorias to Athletic Park for what has been called the first international hockey match.^{[74][78][79][82]} The matchup drew wide attention in the region, and while Parkyn's team lost 11–3 to the Winnipeg Victorias, the game firmly established ice hockey at the University of Minnesota and in the region. The Winnipeg team would shortly after claim the Stanley Cup and be crowned "champions of the world."^{[74][76][78][79][80][83][84]}

In 1896, after moving to Chicago, Parkyn would found a hockey team affiliated with the Chicago Athletic Association. Taking on the dual roles of manager and captain, he led the team for several years, organizing high-profile matches in many cities, such as Montreal, Toronto, Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis.^[85][86] In 1901 he established a hockey team at the Kenwood Country Club in Chicago that would play regional matches against other local club teams in Chicago. Opponents included teams from Hyde Park, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Evanston, Riverside, and Washington Park, contributing to the development of competitive hockey across the region.^{[87][88][89][90][91][92]}

While at the University of Minnesota, Parkyn became the focus of a national controversy over amateur athletics. After the Gophers' 1895 championship season, Harper's Weekly reporter Caspar Whitney accused the school of paying Parkyn $500 to play football, calling him a "tramp athlete." Although such payments were not yet prohibited, the article fueled growing debates over amateurism. Minnesota denied the charge, and urged Parkyn to remain silent.^[93][94]

Harper’s Weekly targeted Parkyn because of his growing national reputation, using him and his close friend, Roger Sherman, as centerpieces of its exposé on corruption in college athletics. The scandal ignited a national debate and became one of the main sparks that led to the formation of the Big Ten Conference.^[95][96]

When Parkyn was finally able to present his side, he revealed that Minnesota had promised him $500 to return for the 1895 season, intended to cover his travel costs and support his medical studies after he had already relocated to Chicago. The university not only failed to honor this agreement but also publicly denied it. The magazine exposed this breach and the university's attempts to silence Parkyn. After the season, Parkyn left Minnesota football and continued playing with the Chicago Athletic Association. The episode set a pattern of press conflict and defamation that followed Parkyn throughout his life.^{[97][98][99][100][101][102]}

While excelling in athletics at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Parkyn was also advancing in his research into suggestive therapeutics and hypnotism. His previous experience running a medical office in Toronto, had made him one of the recognized leaders in the field at a young age. His growing reputation was based on a demonstrated ability to place subjects into deep hypnotic states with unusual speed and consistency.

By the time he began collaborating with established practitioners in America, he was already regarded as one of the most skilled practitioners, prompting the well-known stage mentalist Newmann the Great to declare years later that there was no better hypnotist than Dr. Parkyn.^[32][1][3]

In 1894, Parkyn joined the University of Minnesota's Dental School to study under Dean William Xavier Sudduth, a noted scientist and lecturer who had spent fifteen years researching hypnotism. Sudduth had trained in Vienna, Berlin, and Heidelberg, and had studied suggestive therapeutics under Ambroise Liébeault and Hippolyte Bernheim at the Nancy School, which had influenced physicians such as Albert Moll of Berlin, Auguste Forel, Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Sigmund Freud of Vienna.^{[103][104][105][32][106][107][108][109]}

Parkyn's connection to Dr. Sudduth came through his cousin, Dr. John Holmes Jackson, who had studied under Dr. Sudduth at the Philadelphia Dental College from 1886 to 1890.^[110][111] Before taking up his post in Minnesota in 1890, Sudduth was the head of the Dental and Anatomy departments of the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia which had absorbed the Philadelphia Dental College in 1886.^{[32][106][107]} In the 1860s, hypnosis was introduced at the Philadelphia Dental College by John H. McQuillan (1826–1879), who held the position of Professor of Physiology. McQuillan, along with William Henry Atkinson (1815–1891), the first president of the American Dental Association, studied the use of hypnosis as a method of anesthesia in dental procedures. They also drew on elements of mesmerism and Swedenborgianism in their teaching.^{[112][113][114]}

Sudduth and Parkyn developed a lifelong friendship through their collaboration at the university. Sudduth's involvement with Parkyn extended beyond academic work into athletics, where he traveled with the football team as its mascot and served as president of the newly formed hockey team that Parkyn had established in Minnesota. During train journeys with the teams, they would entertain and astonish teammates with impromptu demonstrations of hypnotism performed on fellow players.^[115][116]

By 1894, Dr. Sudduth was well established at the University of Minnesota but had not yet introduced hypnotism into its public clinical work. Just as Parkyn arrived though, he obtained permission from the university president to conduct hypnotic-therapeutic experiments in the medical department's daily public clinics. This would be the first public clinic in the United States to use hypnotism and suggestion in treatments.^[117]

Over the next year, Sudduth and Parkyn performed more than a thousand experiments, testing hypnosis as an alternative to chemical anesthetics in dental and surgical operations. They held public demonstrations, and procedures ranging from complex tooth extractions to tumor removals. Most of their procedures were reported as successfully completed with hypnosis alone, and patients reporting no pain. They also applied hypnotism to mental afflictions, including addictions and stammering, and even used it to improve musical ability.^{[117][118][119][120][121][122]}

Both Dr. Sudduth and Dr. Parkyn where deeply influenced by the work being done at the School of Suggestion in Nancy, France. There Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault, know as the "father of modern hypnotherapy," and Hippolyte Bernheim had rejected the older theories of mesmerism and animal magnetism, embracing instead a psychological understanding of hypnotism they called suggestive therapeutics.

Observing clear parallels between natural sleep and hypnotic trance states, they viewed hypnosis as a condition that could be reliably induced through suggestion. It was with the publication of Bernheim's Suggestive Therapeutics in 1886 that hypnotic-therapeutics started to be treated as a legitimate scientific practice.^{[123][124][125][126]}

At a private lecture before 50 doctors, attorneys, and professionals, Dr. Sudduth and Dr. Parkyn rejected the idea of hypnotism as a valid legal defense, arguing that moral consciousness remains intact and that crime cannot be compelled under suggestion. They cited sensationalized cases, including one in Eau Claire that had received national attention but was dismissed as hysteria after Dr. Parkyn had gone to investigate it.^[127] To test the limits of suggestion to induce criminal behavior, they staged live experiments where subjects under hypnosis were instructed to commit small crimes, such as stealing a watch or handkerchief, but they consistently refused, sometimes even angrily confronting Dr. Parkyn. The subjects would react violently to imaginary threats like rats or wolves, but refused to harm a human figure, even when threatened with fake stage weapons.^{[128][127][129]}

• Dr. Parkyn trying to get a hypnotized subject to steal a handkerchief.
• Parkyn telling two subjects that they are going to steal a watch
• Dr. Parkyn trying to get a subject to attack him while holding a prop knife

Other demonstrations highlighted the power that suggestion could have to sway testimony in court. One subject was told he was magnetically drawn to a chair and crashed into it to fulfill the command. A Yale-educated attorney was influenced to perform absurd actions purely through verbal suggestion. The demonstrations proved that hypnotism could strongly influence behavior but not override moral restraint.^[129]

The hypnotism experiments of Dr. Parkyn and Dr. Sudduth at the University of Minnesota soon drew controversy. Local dentists and members of the Minneapolis Dental Society resented the attention the university clinic was receiving and used the press to cast the work as dangerous and unscientific. Although the university's president and the Dental Society's president defended the research, sensational reports shifted public opinion and the university was forced to ask them to stop all hypnotism experiments on campus. To continue their work, Dr. Parkyn opened a medical office in Minneapolis, where he and Dr. Sudduth continued their clinical use of suggestion and hypnosis privately.^{[130][131][132][133]}

Unable to continue his research into hypnotism within the university environment, Dr. Sudduth resigned as dean of the Dental School in the spring of 1895 and relocated to Chicago, where the intellectual climate was more receptive to experimental psychological work. He joined the University of Chicago as a lecturer and researcher, while maintaining close collaboration with Dr. Parkyn, who also moved to Chicago. Together they opened a joint office at 100 State Street in Chicago and began planning the establishment of a dedicated hypnotic sanitarium.^[132]

In April 1895, the two physicians staged a private demonstration at Chicago's Midland Hotel for an invited audience. Framed as an educational exhibition rather than public entertainment, the event explored claims of telepathy, mind reading, and hypnotism. Parkyn and Sudduth demonstrated blindfolded object location, card identification, and apparent thought reading, then explained how such effects could be produced through psychological and physiological means, including muscle reading, sleight of hand, and impressions transferred through writing surfaces. Hypnotic demonstrations were also performed to show how trance states could heighten perception and sensory acuity. Although the presentation was intended to demystify these phenomena, several attendees remained unconvinced, highlighting the enduring power of illusion and suggestion.^[134]

In June 1895, after both men received certification from the Illinois State Board of Health, Parkyn and Sudduth formally began treating patients at their offices in the Reliance Building at 100 State Street, as well as at the Oak Park sanitarium. Their proposed hypnotic sanitarium soon attracted the support of Dr. William F. Waugh, dean of the Illinois Medical College, who partnered with them and offered Parkyn the first chair of psycho-therapeutics at an American medical school.^{[135][136][137]}

The project was abruptly delayed in September 1895 when Dr. Sudduth's father died, requiring him to travel to San Francisco to settle the large estate. Sudduth then decided to also travel abroad for several months, undertaking advanced study in hypnotism at the leading centers in Paris, Nancy, and Berlin. With the sanitarium plans suspended during his absence, Dr. Waugh agreed to defer the Parkyn's faculty appointment until Sudduth's return.^{[132][138][135][32]: 6 [139][140]}

This delay freed Parkyn to return to the University of Minnesota for the 1895 football season, in which the university agreed to provide $500 to cover his travel and office expenses, and later triggered the widely publicized pay-to-play controversy. The resulting scrutiny drew both Dr. Waugh and Dr. Sudduth into the dispute and forced each to issue public statements defending Parkyn and their roles. After the conclusion of the football season, Parkyn relocated permanently to Chicago in January 1896. He resumed his medical practice at the offices in the Reliance Building and offered hypnotic treatment at the Hyde Park sanitarium.^[141][140]

By the 1890s, Chicago was already a center of the ideas that Dr. Parkyn would devote his career to exploring. In the mid-1880s, Emma Curtis Hopkins, a former student of Mary Baker Eddy, had founded the Emma Curtis Hopkins College of Christian Science and the Hopkins Metaphysical Association, helping to establish the city as a hub for mental science. In 1893, the Parliament of the World's Religions, held during the Chicago World's Fair, marked the first formal gathering of Eastern and Western spiritual leaders and introduced a wide audience to themes of religion, esotericism, and the occult. Many participants remained in Chicago following the event, contributing to the growth of a spiritual and metaphysical movement that quickly gained momentum in the city.^[142][143]

This movement would come to be known as New Thought, a term that Dr. Parkyn and his collaborators would help to popularize. Rooted in the belief that thoughts shape reality, it emphasized mental healing, positive thinking, and the use of suggestion as a tool for both physical and emotional well-being. The city became home to a growing network of metaphysical schools, mind-curists, lecturers, and publishers who sought to merge the new ideas in psychology with spiritual insight and esoteric occult traditions like hermeticism, kabbalism and theosophical philosophy.^[32][144]

In February 1896, Dr. Parkyn became chair of psycho-therapeutics at the Illinois Medical College, a position offered by Dean William F. Waugh months earlier.^[145][146] Dr. Parkyn arranged to include hypnotism treatments in the school's public clinics, which the press, including the Chicago Tribune, praised as progressive and comparable to French medical practice. Inside the college, however, conservative faculty members opposed the plan, fearing reputational harm. Physicians spoke out in the press, and many threatened to resign, forcing the school to cancel the initiative. Parkyn was not discouraged, viewing the effort as a step toward his larger goal of founding a private clinic where research could proceed without restriction. There were no hard feelings, and Parkyn remained with the college for several months as "Lecturer on Psycho-Therapeutics," while Dean Waugh continued as his collaborator for years to come.^{[147][148][149][150][151]}

In March 1896, Dr. Parkyn took part in a pioneering experiment in Chicago that produced the first X-ray image of the ribs of a living person, achieved through hypnosis to maintain stillness during the long exposure. While earlier X-ray photography had captured hands, feet, and joints, chest imaging had failed due to breathing and tissue depth. Parkyn collaborated with electrical experts from the Ozone Company and photographer Fred D. Foss, using a Crookes tube and induction coil. By hypnotizing the subject into a deeply relaxed state with slowed pulse and breathing, he enabled a multi-hour exposure that produced the first rib image ever taken through a living body. The team then refined their methods to capture an image of the entire living skeleton.^[152][153]

In late 1895, Sydney Blanshard Flower became Dr. Parkyn's publicist and business manager in preparation for Parkyn's plans to open a school of psychology and a public clinic in Chicago the following year. Flower had previously worked as the sports reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press, where he had worked with Parkyn in promoting and covering the international hockey match between the Winnipeg Victorias and the University of Minnesota. The two developed a personal bond with having similar backgrounds in championship sports. Flower was the lawn tennis champion of both Manitoba and the Dakotas and also played cricket for the English national team that was formed by the best English immigrant players in Canada to compete against the best Canadian born players.^{[154][155][156][157][158]}

Alongside his journalism, Flower had spent several years writing editorials and short fiction for regional newspapers. Through his association with Parkyn, he developed a strong interest in hypnotism and recognized the potential for publishing works on the subject. In December 1895, Flower left the Winnipeg Free Press and relocated to Toronto, where he began his formal collaboration with Parkyn by writing the books, Hypnotism Up to Date and A Study in Hypnotism, as promotional works outlining Parkyn's theories and methods of hypnotic therapeutics.^{[159][160][161][162][163][164]}

Hypnotism Up to Date was written as dialogues between Flower, as the "skeptical inquirer", and Parkyn, as "the doctor," explaining hypnosis. It was first released only under Sydney Flower's name, but later advertised as co-authored with Dr. Parkyn, as the book is largely made up of dialogue by Parkyn. In the introduction, Flower calls himself Parkyn's "mouthpiece," and credits the valuable work Parkyn has done with rescuing hypnotism from charlatans and presenting it in its true form.^[162][165]

The book follows Dr. Parkyn's teaching that hypnotism is a natural mental state, and not a supernatural power and insists that hypnosis cannot compel crime or reveal secrets and that it is perfectly safe when practiced correctly. Hypnotism is presented as both a moral and medical force that can cure bad habits, relieve pain, and restore health. Finally, it criticizes the use of hypnotism in popular fiction like Conan Doyle’s A Parasite, for spreading false ideas about control and danger, asserting that hypnotism, rightly understood, is a valuable aid to science and human progress.^[162][166]

A Study in Hypnotism follows a fictional narrative, tracing the experiences of a hypnotist named Richard Robinson who debates the power of suggestion with skeptics, while also falling into a romantic relationship with a beautiful high-society patient. The narrative is filled with debates over the mysterious power of hypnotism with Robinson arguing its genuinely scientific, entirely non-mystical nature, while his women patients repeatedly urge him to preserve the mysterious and supernatural aspects popularly associated with it. They insist that the sense of enchantment is part of the experience and that the occult atmosphere makes surrender both psychologically easier and socially permissible.^[164]

The novel draws on the well-known nineteenth-century archetype of "Richard Robinson," a young, well-dressed and educated man who moves easily between respectable society and its hidden erotic underworld. This figure originated in the 1836 murder of Helen Jewett, a beautiful young New York prostitute, whose death and subsequent trial of the accused young clerk, Richard Robinson, became one of the earliest media sensations of the penny press.^{[167][164][168]} By the 1890s the popular image of the hypnotist had become closely intertwined with the Robinson archetype. Hypnotists in fiction and in sensational journalism were often portrayed as the libertine seducer and fashionable dandy whose mastery of hypnosis granted them unusual access to the private thoughts and emotions of women and rivals. Parkyn would work hard to transform this image into the idea that the modern hypnotist was a disciplined figure who uses suggestion in a clear, non mystical way for practical and therapeutic purposes.^[164]

• Hypnotism Up To Date by Flower and Parkyn, 1896
• A Study in Hypnotism by Sydney Flower, 1896

In the spring of 1896, Sydney Flower joined Dr. Parkyn in Chicago, where Hypnotism Up to Date was issued in April by Charles H. Kerr & Company, followed a month later by A Study in Hypnotism. Both works were soon republished by the Psychic Publishing Company, which Parkyn and Flower founded together in June 1896 as the publishing arm of their work in psychology and suggestion.^[169][170]

Throughout their association, Parkyn and Flower remained closely tied to organized athletics. Roger Sherman, a longtime friend of Parkyn and secretary of the Kenwood Country Club, arranged for Flower to compete in championship tennis events at the club and for Parkyn to organize a hockey team under its auspices. Sherman was a former star football player for the Michigan Wolverines and also served as head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes. He remained a close ally of Parkyn in later years, as an Assistant State's Attorney for Chicago and as president of the Illinois State Bar Association.^{[171][172][173]}

In June 1896, Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn founded The Chicago School of Psychology, the first American institution to teach suggestive therapeutics. Sydney B. Flower would serve as secretary of the school. It was financed by Parkyn's father, James Parkyn, who had relocated from Toronto to Chicago in early 1896 with his wife and two daughters to support Herbert's enterprise. The family resided in the upper floors of the school building, and James Parkyn served as president of the school.^{[174][175][7][28]}

Originally located at 255 Bowen Street near Cottage Grove Avenue, it soon outgrew the space and by 1897 moved a few blocks away to a large estate at 4020 Drexel Boulevard, one of Chicago's most prestigious avenues. That same year, the First Church of Christian Scientists began building its midwestern headquarters across the street, making the area a major center for the mental sciences.^{[176][177][178]}

The core principles of the Chicago School of Psychology centered on the idea that the effectiveness of all healing systems rests on a single foundation: "the power of the mind to help itself, and so to help the body." This power was described as an inherent human faculty, "a part of the divine nature which is every man’s birthright," and that it operates independently of religious belief, being "as perfect in the atheist as in the religious fanatic." Suggestive Therapeutics was described as "the Aaron’s rod of medical science," asserting that psychology is present in every effective system of healing and that no method of treatment is complete without an understanding of mental law. Parkyn criticizes both traditional physicians for neglecting the body's natural recuperative force and metaphysical healers for rejecting the legitimate use of medicine, stating that "the wise man is he who bends all things to his service in the evolution of good."^[179]

The school emphasized that mental power alone is not relied upon in every case, giving the example that if "a man’s hand were dirty, all the faith in the world would not cleanse it" and that physical means remain necessary. Similarly, the body is compared to an electric railway in which the brain is the dynamo and the organs the streetcars; if the trouble lies in the dynamo, psychological treatment is required, but if the obstruction is mechanical, then local physical treatment must be used, stating that "psychology and medicine together are well nigh invincible, and the one acts as a support and a stay to the other."^{[179][180][181][182]}

A central feature of the institution was its free public clinic, which operated three mornings a week. Patients attended from Chicago and distant cities, as well as visiting physicians who often observed or brought their own chronic cases. The clinic averaged twenty-five patients per session. All cases were treated exclusively through verbal suggestion, with no concurrent use of medicine or electricity. Clinic records showed high success rates. Treatments were conducted using verbal suggestion, with the patient seated or reclined, and usually without the use of deep hypnosis. Emphasis was placed on the use of "normal" or waking suggestion.^{[183][184][176][185][186][187]}

The Chicago School of Psychology granted the degree of Doctor of Psychology to students who completed its full course in Suggestive Therapeutics and passed a formal examination. At a time when medical authorities were attempting to suppress drugless healing, this credential was designed to withstand legal and professional scrutiny. Issued as an engraved sheepskin diploma bearing Dr. Parkyn's signature and an official seal, it became widely regarded as one of the strongest credentials available for legitimizing practitioners of suggestion and hypnotism under growing regulatory pressure.^[189]

Instruction at the clinic was hands-on, with students observing treatments and discussing diagnoses and interventions. The operating room was arranged like a quiet chapel, with dim lighting to aid suggestibility, and treatments were delivered in a steady, prayer-like tone to promote relaxation. The approach rejected stage-style trances or mesmeric displays, favoring a rational clinical process.

Parkyn mostly avoided eye-fixation and physical manipulations, instead inducing suggestibility subtly and respectfully. He was also among the first to promote auto-suggestion as a scientific method, teaching that repeated, self-directed affirmations could influence health and behavior by acting on the subconscious. Unlike hypnosis, auto-suggestion emphasized voluntary internal influence over external control and required focused attention, emotional conviction, and consistency.^[187]

More than a thousand students studied under Dr. Parkyn at his Chicago School of Psychology, including prominent physicians, hypnotists, educators, spiritual teachers, and business leaders of both sexes. Many went on to become leading figures in the emerging New Thought movement. The school's reputation was known throughout the world, and its graduates would emphasize their training there in professional advertisements.^{[190][191][192]}

After returning from Europe in April 1896, Dr. W. Xavier Sudduth renewed his close collaboration with Dr. Parkyn. He lectured at the Chicago School, contributed to its affiliated publications, and, together with Parkyn, operated a local branch of the Society for Psychical Research.^[193][194]

Working from their shared offices at 100 State Street, their research focused on the scientific investigation of ideas associated with occult and esoteric teachings, based on a shared belief that emerging scientific methods were approaching the ability to provide tangible explanations for these traditions. According to Parkyn, psychology was expected to "furnish the guides to lead us toward the truth" in the study of occult science. His stated objective was "to find a basis of fact on which to govern all theories regarding metaphysical and psychical processes and to account for all occult phenomena on purely scientific lines."^[195][196]

Their research included observations on the parallels between religious and ceremonial practices and therapeutic suggestion. They studied elements of Catholic, Evangelist, and Ceremonial rituals, such as posture, music, incense, and sacramental rites, as structured techniques that induced a suggestible mental state, functioning in ways comparable to methods used in psychological therapy.^[195]

They also explored how sound vibrations, light, and movement could influence mental and emotional states. This was influenced by the theory of the ancient Greeks, particularly the belief that harmony is the fundamental key of nature and that all organisms are expressions or manifestations of harmony. They had seen how using "sensitive electrical devices" to record musical notes onto a prepared plate, had produced forms resembling flowers. Specifically, they found that each note corresponded to a certain form, and that with each upward movement in the musical scale, a new petal was added to the flower shape. Other recordings showed shapes resembling marine shells, with spirals marked as delicately as those found in nature. These visual results were presented as evidence of a broader harmony in natural forms corresponding to musical vibration. For them this validated the ancient assertion of Solomon that "there was nothing new under the sun."^{[197][198][199][200][201][202]}

Their work included psycho-physical exercises that combined controlled breathing, movement, and vocalization as therapeutic tools. Patients performed rhythmic motions while sustaining musical tones, with each individual's "keynote" identified using a phonautograph to measure vocal vibration. Parkyn held that every person was attuned to a particular vibration or note, and that suggestions delivered in this pitch were more effective. Parkyn stated in early 1898 that he had proved conclusively that every human being was attuned to a certain note. Treatment also incorporated light and color therapy using a McIntosh electro-thermal cabinet, with colored bulbs applied for specific effects, red for stimulation, blue for calming, and green for reducing activity.^{[203][204][202][200][205]}

Dr. W. Xavier Sudduth served as the principal link between the Chicago School of Psychology and mainstream medical institutions and scientific societies. While collaborating closely with Dr. Parkyn, Sudduth simultaneously held respected positions within orthodox medicine and professional institutions that allowed the School's work in hypnotism and suggestive therapeutics to circulate within established settings rather than remaining isolated at the margins.

Dr. Sudduth served as an extension lecturer for the University of Chicago, chairman of the Psychological Society of the Medico-Legal Society of New York, and professor of morbid psychology at the Chicago Post-Graduate Medical School. These roles placed him in direct professional contact with leading medical and psychological authorities. At the Post-Graduate Medical School, he worked alongside Dr. Mark Henry Lackersteen, one of Chicago's most prominent physicians, and within the Medico-Legal Society he worked directly with Thomson Jay Hudson. He was also a member of a large number of medical and scientific societies, both in this country and in Europe such as the Society for Psychical Research and the Chicago Esoteric Extension Association, which was devoted to the study of sacred books, mysticism, and the esoteric occult aspects of sociology, ethics, and philosophy.^{[206][207][208][209]}

By maintaining credibility within orthodox medical circles while actively collaborating with Parkyn on experimental and clinical work, Sudduth provided the Chicago School with legitimacy, visibility, and access to professional networks that would otherwise have been closed to it.

As part of his broader investigation into the scope of hypnotic and suggestive influence, Dr. Parkyn conducted a sustained series of experiments applying suggestion to animals, using his fox terrier, Esau, as the primary subject. Parkyn approached the work as a test of whether the same psychological principles he observed in humans could operate in non-human minds under controlled conditions. He argued that dogs, because of their capacity for focused attention, emotional responsiveness, and learned association with human cues, were the most suitable animals for such research.

Beginning when the dog was young, Parkyn trained Esau exclusively through suggestion rather than physical conditioning or coercion. Over time, the dog acquired more than thirty distinct responses, including the ability to act on written commands, barking specific numbers, imitating prayer, executing somersaults, yawning at a verbal cue, and engaging in conversational mimicry. Dr. Parkyn emphasized that these responses were not the result of repetitive drilling, but of directed mental impression and expectation.

Parkyn presented Esau's training as experimental evidence that suggestion could shape behavior beyond the human subject, extending into animal psychology. He argued that the same principles governing attention, expectation, and unconscious response were operative across species, differing in degree rather than kind.^[211][210]

As drugless healing systems expanded in the United States, Dr. Parkyn became concerned that his scientifically framed approach to suggestion was being confused with the metaphysical claims of Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science, whose national headquarters were located across the street from his Chicago School. In response, Parkyn lectured and wrote extensively to distinguish suggestive therapeutics from religious healing systems.^[178]

Parkyn argued that reported Christian Science cures resulted from what he termed "masked suggestion," an unconscious psychological process rather than divine intervention. He criticized Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures as internally inconsistent and unsupported by science or theology, objecting in particular to its denial of matter, disease, and death, and questioning how the system accounted for illness in infants, animals, or the mentally ill. Parkyn further criticized the movement's organizational structure, including Eddy's control over its teachings and publications. He concluded that Christian Science was neither a coherent medical system nor a consistent theology, but rather a belief system relying on unacknowledged psychological influence.^[212]

In August 1896, Dr. Parkyn and Sydney Flower founded The Hypnotic Magazine as an extension of the Chicago School of Psychology. Edited by Flower and published by the Psychic Publishing Company, the magazine was directed toward physicians and promoted the medical use of hypnotism and suggestion, featuring regular contributions from prominent figures in psychology, medicine, and psychical research including Dr. Thomson Jay Hudson, Dr. W. Xavier Sudduth, Dr. Mark Henry Lackersteen, Dr. George Wyld, Clark Bell (President of the Medico-Legal Society), Henry H. Goddard, William Lee Howard, Xenophon LaMotte Sage, and Edward B. Warman.^[214][215]

The central feature of each issue were the detailed reports from Dr. Parkyn on his most recent clinical cases, documenting the application of suggestion in treating physical and nervous disorders. These regular case records became an important resource for physicians and students throughout the world by providing systematic evidence of the practical results achievable through psychological treatment based on suggestion.^{[215][32][214]}

Through the magazine, Parkyn and Flower led a public campaign to legitimize hypnotism as a scientific practice, distancing it from mesmerism, stage performance, and fraudulent claims. The publication documented demonstrations showing limits of hypnotic suggestion, including resistance to criminal acts, and reported controlled investigations into telepathy, combining experimental inquiry with skepticism toward unverified claims.^{[216][217][218]}

In January 1898, the magazine was renamed The Journal of Medical Hypnotism to distinguish medical hypnotism from unregulated drugless healing movements and to support a growing network of affiliated schools of suggestive therapeutics across multiple North American cities.^{[219][220][221][222][223][224]}

Later that year, it was renamed The Journal of Suggestive Therapeutics, reflecting the Chicago School's emphasis on verbal or waking suggestion and its decision to move away from the term "hypnotism," which Parkyn stated carried negative public associations. The new title identified suggestive therapeutics as the central focus of instruction at the school and aligned the magazine with affiliated schools, serving as the unofficial organ of institutions teaching the Chicago School's system.^[225][226]

In June 1900, Suggestive Therapeutics was investigated by postal authorities following a complaint from a competing magazine. Although no fraud charges were filed, the journal's second-class mailing privileges were revoked in July 1900 after investigators concluded it primarily functioned as a promotional outlet for The Chicago School of Psychology. The loss of mailing privileges led to the magazine's closure by the end of 1900 after existing subscriptions were fulfilled.^{[227][228][32][229][230]}

In August 1898, Dr. Parkyn launched the magazine Suggestion (initially titled Suggestions), intended to complement The Journal of Suggestive Therapeutics. Edited by Parkyn, the magazine focused on advanced and experimental inquiry into suggestive therapeutics, hypnotism, telepathy, education, dreams, and psychical phenomena, while explicitly excluding spiritism. Parkyn argued that many phenomena labeled supernatural could be explained through natural psychological laws and warranted systematic scientific study.^{[231][232][233][234]}

Suggestion attracted contributions from figures active in mental science and related fields, including W. Xavier Sudduth, Thomson Jay Hudson, William Walker Atkinson, Stanley LeFevre Krebs, Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, Edwin Hartley Pratt, and George W. Carey. With its growing network of respected voices, Suggestion quickly established itself as the foremost journal for serious, scientifically grounded exploration of the mental sciences.^[234]

A distinctive feature of the magazine was the "Occult World" department, written anonymously by Dr. Parkyn under the pseudonym "Astra." The term astra was drawn deliberately from Hindu and broader yogic and Hermetic traditions, where it referred to a weapon or force projected by will, mantra, and focused intention rather than by physical means alone. In yogic philosophy, astra signified the outward projection of thought and consciousness, a subtle force directed through disciplined mental control and operating through what was understood as the astral or subtle plane between mind and matter. Parkyn used this concept to frame telepathy as a natural process of psychic projection rather than a supernatural anomaly.^[235]

Writing as Astra, Dr. Parkyn traced telepathy to ancient Hindu yogic practices, in which adepts were said to transmit vivid mental impressions directly from one mind to another without sensory mediation. He presented these traditions as early empirical observations of a latent human faculty, later rediscovered and partially validated by Western research, particularly that of the Society for Psychical Research. The series argues that emotional bonds, heightened states of consciousness, and extreme circumstances allow the mind to bypass the physical senses and communicate directly with another. It closes with a strong challenge to the scientific orthodoxy arguing that the weight of documented cases had grown too large to dismiss, and that true progress in psychology would depend on taking these "occult" phenomena seriously.^[235]

Dr. Parkyn was deeply influenced in his study of yogic and Eastern mental traditions by Dr. M. H. Lackersteen, who had grown up in Calcutta and served for fifteen years as Surgeon-Major in the British Army in India during the Sepoy mutiny. Dr. Lackersteen moved to Chicago in the 1880s and was a key figure, along with his close friend, Jenkin Lloyd Jones, in organizing the Parliament of World's Religions at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Dr. Lackersteen was one of the most prominent physicians in Chicago and a founder and professor at the Chicago Post-Graduate Medical School, where Dr. Sudduth was professor of morbid psychology. He had a lifelong interest in hypnotism and became an early and influential supporter of Parkyn, acting as one of his strongest advocates in the city. Lackersteen also played a major role in securing the residence at 4020 Drexel Boulevard for the Chicago School of Psychology and lived next door at 4010 Drexel Boulevard. After Lackersteen's death in December 1897, Parkyn's adoption of the Astra pseudonym in mid-1898 served as a way to carry forward and publish ideas connected to Lackersteen's deeper knowledge of Eastern mental philosophy.^{[236][237][238][239][240][241][242][243]}

In 1898, with the launch of his new periodical Suggestion, Dr. Parkyn also issued his Special Mail Course in Suggestive Therapeutics and Hypnotism. It was presented as the first complete standalone system of instruction in suggestive therapeutics. The course comprised forty-one lessons, drawn from Parkyn's treatment of more than 5,000 cases, and was described as unlike anything previously published. Students were trained not only in what to say but in how and when to say it, using simple, believable, and confidently delivered suggestions without exaggeration or mystical phrasing. Rhythm, repetition, tone of voice, and mental attitude were treated as essential to effective suggestion. Throughout, Parkyn stressed scientific observation, clinical experience, and clear, rational language, insisting that suggestion could be practiced without reliance on trance states, altered consciousness, or metaphysical explanations.^{[244][245][246]}

Doctors and students from across the country praised the course for its clarity, practicality, and power. Many noted that it surpassed the works of Hippolyte Bernheim, Thomson Jay Hudson, and Charles Lloyd Tuckey, in its straight forward explanation of the scientific theory behind suggestion and its direct step-by-step methods that could be easily understood and applied.^[244][245]

Dr. Parkyn was among the first to teach and use the term auto-suggestion, which he defined as the process by which individuals influence their own involuntary mind and make possible all mental and physical change. He distinguished between voluntary auto-suggestion, the deliberate repetition of desired thoughts to reshape behavior or bodily function, and involuntary auto-suggestion, which arises unconsciously from repeated daily impressions. Central to his teaching was the principle that the mind tends to act automatically on the dominant ideas impressed upon it.

Parkyn taught that suggestion was not limited to spoken commands, declaring that "anything that suggests is a suggestion," since all sensory impressions and surroundings shape mental states. For this reason, he cautioned against negative suggestions, noting that telling someone what not to do only reinforces the undesired idea. Instead, he urged giving positive directives, saying what you truly wish to happen, such as "I can" and "I will," and repeating them until they were impressed upon the involuntary mind and carried out in action.^[244]: 51

From Dr. Parkyn's A Mail Course in Suggestive Therapeutics and Hypnotism, his most famous and most re-quoted idea, "Thought takes form in action," was born. In these lessons, Parkyn first set out the principle that every thought impressed upon the mind, whether by voluntary repetition or unvoluntary acceptance, ultimately shapes behavior, health, and perception. He taught that this was not simply a figure of speech but a demonstrable law governing all human conduct.

By this phrase, Parkyn meant that the mind is constantly translating ideas into physical expression. Repeated thoughts become habits. Mental attitudes produce measurable effects on the body and nervous system. Any suggestion, whether positive or negative, tends to work itself out in the form of action. He insisted that this process is automatic and impartial. Just as constructive affirmations strengthen and heal, careless or pessimistic statements can generate limitation and illness.^[244]

Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn stated:

"Thought tends to take form in action. Get the thoughts you wish a patient to entertain drilled into his mind, keep them stimulated by repetition, and the desired action is almost certain to follow. Anything that suggests is a suggestion, therefore be careful when in the presence of a patient or a child never to say anything yourself or allow anyone else to say anything that you do not wish to take form in action."^[244]: 79 "Thoughts take form in action. The converse of this is true also, for our actions take form in the thoughts of others."^{[247]: 270–273}

Parkyn's insistence on this principle formed the foundation of his therapeutic system. Every technique of suggestion, every exercise in auto-suggestion, and every regimen of mental discipline he prescribed rested on the conviction that the mind impresses its dominant content on the body and conduct, inevitably and without exception. The phrase also became a motto within the New Thought movement, anchoring its understanding of the power of thought.^{[244][248][249]}

"In using thought in curing disease, we are putting in practice a fundamental law capable of demonstration in many ways, i. e., that thought takes form in action, and presses outward for expression in physical conditions." Dr, Herbert A. Parkyn, June 1900.^[212]: 35

Dr. Parkyn taught that health depended on supplying the body with what he termed the "life essentials": fresh air, sunshine, water, food, and exercise. He held that although the mind could exert a powerful influence over physiological processes through suggestion, this influence could function fully only when these essentials were adequately supplied. He argued that healthy thought stimulated nutrition and elimination, while fear and unhealthy thinking disrupted appetite for the life essentials and weakened the body.^[250][246]

Parkyn closely aligned this system with the ancient Hermetic doctrine of the five elements, which held that all matter and natural processes arise from Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Aether or Spirit. These elements were understood not merely as substances but as dynamic forces acting within the human organism. Parkyn taught that each life essential was a direct practical expression of one of these elemental principles: fresh air and deep breathing corresponded to Air; sunshine and light to Fire; water intake and purification to Water; nourishment to Earth; and exercise, movement, and mental activity to Spirit or Aether. Disease, in this framework, arose when these elemental forces fell out of balance.^{[32][251][246][252]}

Drawing further on Platonic philosophy, Dr. Parkyn referenced the traditional association of the five elements with the five Platonic solids, which were regarded as the pure geometric forms through which elemental forces are expressed in both nature and the structure of thought and space. He viewed this system as supporting the idea that health resulted from harmony between visible physical conditions and invisible mental and vital forces. Dr. Parkyn also connected his teachings to the Ayurvedic philosophy of the Pancha Bhuta, the five elements that make up all of creation in Hinduism.^[253][246]

In the fall of 1899, Dr. Parkyn became chair of Suggestive Therapeutics at the College of Psychical Sciences and Unfoldment, founded by J. C. F. Grumbine on Chicago's South Side. Located at 3960 Langley Avenue, a few blocks from Parkyn's own school, the college taught psychometry, clairvoyance, and psychopathy as part of Grumbine's broader "Philosophy of Divinity."

The college functioned both as a correspondence school and as the headquarters of the Order of the White Rose, a Rosicrucian society led by Grumbine since the 1883. Alongside its formal curriculum, the college held "Parlors of the Order of the White Rose," which provided advanced instruction and initiation focused on spiritual illumination and personal development. It promised adepts revelation of "the secrets and mysteries of Magic and Occultism" and access to "the mystic and potential powers of Divinity and Illumination." Membership in the Order was restricted to those who completed its full course of instruction and demonstrated mastery of its principles. As professor, Parkyn was closely tied to the Order and studied esoteric teachings drawn from Hermetic and Hindu traditions.^{[254][255][256]}

Parkyn and Grumbine had a shared commitment to distinguishing serious psychical research from what both men viewed as the excessive mysticism dominating turn-of-the-century occult literature. Grumbine had criticized the "occult rubbish" of the contemporary occult revival for misleading seekers, particularly targeting Theosophy and what he described as its overuse of "Oriental phraseology" and "mystic or cabalistic symbology," which he believed obstructed direct spiritual realization. Their emphasis was not on rejecting ancient wisdom, but on clarifying that spiritual and psychological influence depended on disciplined practice aligned with natural law, and a mastery of one's own mental and moral faculties rather than mystical speculation.^[254]

The philosophical alignment between Dr. Parkyn and Grumbine extended into their publishing efforts. In September 1898, Parkyn endorsed Grumbine's periodical Immortality, stating, "I consider Immortality the very best of the psychical publications." The magazine, launched as the official voice of the Order of the White Rose, was devoted to the metaphysical study of Mental Science, Divine Science, Psychopathy, Theosophy, Occultism, Mysticism, and Spiritualism.^[257]

William Walker Atkinson became involved with Dr. Parkyn in the spring of 1900, when he arrived at Parkyn's Chicago School of Psychology in search of mental therapy. It was there that Atkinson received the therapeutic help he had been searching for and would also become a student at the school learning directly under Dr. Parkyn. The training in both Parkyn's clinical applications and philosophical theories would shape Atkinson's future writings and establish many of the core beliefs and methods he would continue to promote throughout his career. Atkinson would collaborate for many years with Dr. Parkyn and emerge as one of his most visible protégés.^{[258][32][259]}

Before 1900, Atkinson was a successful Pennsylvania attorney specializing in debt enforcement and creditor litigation. In 1899 he was blocked from resuming practice with an old partner by new residency and exam requirements by the local bar association, and in protest he dissolved his partnership and moved with his family to Philadelphia. There he worked as regional manager for the North American Mercantile Agency, but the episode left him depressed, leading to what he described as a nervous prostration from the mental stress.^{[260][261][258][32]}

On May 9, 1900, Atkinson vanished, last seen leaving his office with law books and $500. Despite police alerts and widespread press coverage, he remained missing for six weeks. His family recalled a similar disappearance at age 21 after a personal crisis. On June 21 he reappeared at the New York office of the North American Mercantile Agency, claiming no memory of the past six weeks except a vague sense of being in Chicago. Soon after, he moved permanently to Chicago with his wife and child to study and work with Dr. Parkyn.^{[262][263][258]}

In December 1900, Atkinson's first published work on New Thought appeared in Suggestion magazine under the title "The Law of Mental Control." This would be a series of four articles with the titles "The Functions of the Mind," "The Real Self," "Character Building by Mental Control," and "I Can and I Will." This series presented Dr. Parkyn's main concepts behind the field of suggestive therapeutics and would soon be expanded into the book, A Series of Lessons in Personal Magnetism, Psychic Influence, Thought-Force, Concentration, Will-Power and Practical Mental Science. The ideas in this series and the following book created the foundation for the teachings and methods that would define Atkinson's writing career, and was the key to his rise to prominence within the New Thought movement.^{[264][265][266][267][268]}

In 1900, Dr. Parkyn established the University of Psychic Science, with goals closely aligned to those of Grumbine's College of Psychical Science. Located at 3975 & 3977 Cottage Grove Avenue, just around the corner from Parkyn's Chicago School, the university was created to serve as the primary center for demonstrations in the fields of personal magnetism, mental influence, will power, concentration, hypnotism, and the practical applications of the mental sciences in everyday life. It would also delve into the esoteric and metaphysical branches of mental science, including Yogic and occult teachings. Parkyn envisioned it as the nucleus of a broader network of affiliated Schools of Psychic Science, Psychic Research groups, and Psychic Clubs throughout the United States and abroad.^{[269][270][271]}

Sydney B. Flower was sent to multiple cities to organize affiliated Schools of Psychic Science and to establish the Psychic Club of America, which later published the widely circulated New Thought magazine as its official organ.^{[272][273][274]}

William Walker Atkinson was appointed the first instructor at the University of Psychic Science. He was charged with teaching Parkyn's system of the Law of Suggestion and extending its application beyond therapeutic use into the domains of self culture, thought-force, and psychic phenomena. Under Parkyn's direction, Atkinson offered series of lessons at the university that blended practical psychology with the emerging theories of vibration, thought-transference, and mental polarity. The material that Parkyn and Atkinson developed for these lectures was compiled into the book A Series of Lessons in Personal Magnetism, published through Parkyn's University of Psychic Science with Atkinson listed as the author. This was the first book issued by William Walker Atkinson and marked the beginning of his long literary career and collaboration with Dr. Parkyn in psychological and metaphysical studies. The book was soon retitled Thought=Force in Business and Everyday Life to reach a broader readership.^{[275][276][269][270][271]}

• William Walker Atkinson at Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn's University of Psychic Science
• Thought = Force in Business and Everyday Life by William Walker Atkinson

In mid-1900, Dr. Parkyn developed and patented a device he called the Magnetic Healing Cup, which he promoted as both a therapeutic instrument and an applied experiment in psychic and suggestive medicine. Advertisements frequently referred to it as "The last and greatest discovery of the nineteenth century." The device was marketed through the Magnetic Healing Cup Company, headquartered at offices at 4000 Cottage Grove Avenue in Chicago. Parkyn described the cup as a means of testing whether a physical object could intensify the effects of suggestion by giving patients a tangible focus for belief and expectation. He viewed the cup as a tool for concentrating what he called the vital healing force and directing it into the subconscious mind, with the act of drinking from it serving as a ritual designed to activate the body's natural recuperative processes.^{[277][278][279][280]}

The Magnetic Healing Cup was promoted as a scientific advance in suggestion-based healing. Parkyn claimed it could magnetize liquids, producing what he termed "liquid magnetism" or "liquid life." Promotional materials described the cup as containing an exceptionally strong magnetic force, asserted to be capable of moving large weights at a distance and generating a measurable magnetic field extending several feet. The magnetized liquid, prepared using a tasteless solution of magnetic metal salts, was said to carry this energy into the bloodstream, revitalizing the body, stimulating circulation, and restoring health by recharging the organism's vital force.^[281][282]

Parkyn distributed the cups without charge as part of a systematic effort to collect observational data. Patients were invited to write to him describing their ailments and, in return, received the cup along with detailed instructions and explanatory literature. This correspondence allowed Parkyn to gather reports on outcomes while simultaneously publicizing his broader system of psychic and mental healing. He also organized a network of agents to distribute the cups nationally, promoting them as drug-free, safe, and compatible with other forms of treatment. Although the device was marketed commercially, Parkyn presented the Magnetic Healing Cup as a controlled experiment intended to study how belief, when focused through a symbolic physical object, might enhance responsiveness to mental and suggestive therapeutic methods.^[283][284]

Dr. Parkyn made the critical investigation of claimed psychic phenomena a central part of his research. Beginning in the late 1890s, he conducted controlled examinations of trance mediums, clairvoyants, and stage mentalists who claimed spirit communication, automatic writing, telepathy, or mind reading. His aim was to determine whether such effects reflected genuine psychological processes or deliberate deception.^[285]

Parkyn demonstrated that many celebrated psychic performances relied on mechanical tricks, misdirection, and cooperation between performers rather than supernatural forces. One of his most detailed exposures involved the Bangs Sisters, Chicago spiritualist mediums known for slate-writing séances. Between 1899 and 1900, Parkyn, Sydney B. Flower, and Stanley L. Krebs showed through controlled tests that spirit messages only appeared when the slates were not fully secured. Parkyn later reproduced the entire method publicly at his Chicago School, demonstrating how sealed letters were secretly removed, answered by an accomplice, and returned without detection.^{[286][287][288]}

Parkyn also publicly tested claims of telepathy. In 1901, he challenged the British performer Maud Lancaster, known as the "Lady Sherlock Holmes," who claimed she had assisted Scotland Yard with her psychic abilities. After Dr. Parkyn and William Walker Atkinson attended her exhibition, Parkyn stated that her results could be explained through refined sensory perception, involuntary cues, and suggestion rather than telepathy. In a widely publicized second test held by Dr. Parkyn and Atkinson at the Palmer House Hotel, Lancaster failed to reproduce her feats when deprived of auditory and visual cues. The event became a prominent example of public psychic claims being subjected to controlled observation.^{[289][290][291][292]}

Although Parkyn rejected supernatural explanations, he consistently emphasized his respect for the psychological skill of accomplished performers. He argued that successful mentalists demonstrated exceptional mastery of suggestion, muscle reading, attention control, and sensitivity to unconscious physical cues.

In 1900, he anonymously authored a mind reading course for the Psychic Research Company, drawing directly on his investigations. In this work, he explained that so-called mind reading was based on interpreting involuntary muscular responses, framing it as an expression of his principle that thought naturally manifests in action. He also disclosed practical methods behind dramatic feats such as the blindfolded carriage drive, showing how such acts relied on carefully designed techniques rather than clairvoyance.^[293][294]

Parkyn maintained that these abilities, while often misrepresented as supernatural, reflected genuine psychological development achieved through disciplined practice. He regarded the study of such techniques as valuable training in perception, concentration, self-control, and the scientific understanding of suggestion, rather than mere exposure of fraud.^[293]

In 1903, Parkyn and his new manager and assistant editor, Elmer Ellsworth Carey, worked to unite the Midwestern and Western New Thought movement with established Eastern leaders who had previously attempted national organization through the Metaphysical League of Boston. That league had grown out of the Metaphysical Club formed in 1895 by prominent East Coast figures including Horatio W. Dresser, Charles Brodie Patterson, and Parkyn's close family friend, Henry Wood. The league sponsored early conventions in Boston and New York between 1899 and 1900, but efforts to extend these conventions westward, however, stalled amid the strong independence of Midwestern and Western practitioners, leading to the cancellation of planned meetings in 1901 and 1902.^{[295][296][297]}

In June 1903, Parkyn and his close collaborators Carey, Sydney B Flower and William Walker Atkinson held a large banquet of more than a thousand people to welcome Elizabeth Towne, editor of The Nautilus, on her visit to Chicago and also to inaugurate what would come to be called the Union New Thought meetings. These were once a month meetings held in the large rooftop hall of the Masonic Temple building attended by 1,200 participants representing about twenty New Thought organizations. From these gatherings Parkyn and Carey proposed for an International New Thought Convention, which was unanimously approved.

Carey, working as the assistant editor for Parkyn's Suggestion magazine, was appointed as the committee's secretary and would be the main point of communication for all convention business and advertising. The convention was held in Chicago in November 1903, which resulted in the formation of the World New Thought Federation and the formal merger of the Metaphysical League into the new body.^{[298][299][300][296]}

Plans were subsequently made for additional World New Thought Federation conventions to be held in St. Louis in 1904, in conjunction with the World's Fair and the St. Louis School of Suggestive Therapeutics; in Nevada, Missouri, in 1905, in partnership with the Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics; and again in Chicago in 1906, coordinated with the Chicago School of Psychology.^[301][302]

In the fall of 1905, Dr. Parkyn published Auto-Suggestion: What It Is and How to Use It for Health, Happiness and Success. The book drew largely on articles he had contributed in recent years to Suggestion magazine, each examining the theory and practice of auto-suggestion. Parkyn presented auto-suggestion as a universal psychological mechanism behind all healing and personal transformation. Whether through medicine, faith, magnetic healing, or mental science, he argued, the real agent of change was the individual's belief, activated through auto-suggestion. He emphasized that the process operates continuously, both voluntarily and involuntarily, shaping health, behavior, emotions, and outcomes. Applied deliberately, it could overcome illness, banish fear, form new habits, and achieve personal goals. Mastery of this inner process, Parkyn stated, was the key to lasting well-being.^[303][304]

"The most practical, helpful little book in the English language" The Nautilus^[305]

Auto=Suggestion would become Dr. Parkyn's most successful and enduring publication. The book quickly gained wide recognition and became one of the most influential texts within the New Thought and mental science movements. Its appeal cut across audiences, from physicians and psychologists to everyday readers seeking tools for self-improvement. Within its first two years of publication, Auto-Suggestion sold more than thirty thousand copies.^[304]

Dr. Parkyn's call to mankind in Auto-Suggestion

"Let us arise, then, and see what we can do by new auto-suggestions to stamp out these old absurd notions, first in ourselves, and then, by precept and practice, endeavor to assist our fellow men to free themselves from self-imposed burdens." "Let us examine ourselves to discover the part played by superstitious, absurd childish impressions, and habits formed in childhood, in making us miserable or unhealthy, or in retarding our progress in this world. Then let us make ourselves over again by constantly repeated auto-suggestions in the form of affirmations that we are masters of our own destiny."^[303][306]

• Ad for Auto-Suggestion
• The title page of Auto-Suggestion

Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn developed and formally taught the principles of auto-suggestion beginning in the mid-1890s, more than twenty years before the international rise of Émile Coué. Building on concepts associated with the Nancy School, Parkyn expanded therapeutic suggestion beyond practitioner-directed treatment into a deliberate, self-directed system that he termed "auto-suggestion." His codified system included techniques such as daily affirmations, vivid visualization, focused verbal repetition, emotional reinforcement, and conscious habit replacement, all aimed at influencing the body and mind through persistent internal command.^[303]

In 1922, Émile Coué achieved international fame with the publication of Self-Mastery Through Conscious AutoSuggestion, triggering what was described as the "autosuggestion craze." In America he found himself as one of the most famous people in the country, with millions of Americans grabbing their string of rosary-like "Coué beads" and standing in front of the mirror repeating his famous self-affirmation: "Day by day in every way, I am getting better and better."^[307][308]

Numerous commentators noted that Coué's emphasis on daily affirmations, verbal repetition, and mental visualization closely mirrored techniques that Dr. Parkyn had been teaching and publishing decades earlier. Even Coué's famous mantra closely echoed Parkyn's earlier phrase: "Every day I am growing better, brighter, and happier."^{[309][303][310][311][312]}

Coué's borrowing from Dr. Parkyn extended beyond techniques and mantras to language that had already been closely associated with Parkyn's published work. Coué used the subtitle "For Attaining Health, Success, and Happiness," for his book, closely mirroring Parkyn's earlier subtitle, "How to Use It for Health, Happiness and Success." Even more notably, Coué reworded Dr. Parkyn’s most important maxim, "Thought tends to take form in action, and if the thoughts are earnest and determined the action is almost certain to follow." while Coué expressed the same idea as, "Every thought entirely filling our mind becomes true for us and tends to transform itself into action." ^{[313][308][303]}

Charles Baudouin, Émile Coué’s closest collaborator, played a central role in documenting the relationship between Coué’s system and the earlier work of Dr. Parkyn. Baudouin, a French psychologist raised in Nancy near the original Nancy School, published Suggestion and Autosuggestion in 1920 as a formal psychological and educational treatment of Coué’s methods. Throughout the book, he repeatedly cited and quoted extensively from Parkyn’s earlier work Auto-Suggestion, explicitly crediting Parkyn with developing many of the techniques later associated with Coué’s system.^[314]

As Coué’s popularity expanded in the early 1920s, Parkyn publicly addressed these parallels. In 1923, he appeared on a nationally broadcast radio program to explain his original system of auto-suggestion and to distinguish it from Coué’s public demonstrations. Around the same time, he resumed publishing on the subject with Sydney B. Flower in their magazine The Thinker.^[315][316]

Parkyn attributed Coué’s dramatic public successes to his reliance on individuals Parkyn had earlier identified and classified as "suggestible somnambules," a highly receptive psychological type prone to rapid and striking responses to suggestion. According to Parkyn, Coué’s clinics and demonstrations consistently drew upon this group, whose compliance created the appearance of universal effectiveness. Parkyn emphasized that true auto-suggestion required conscious self-control and self-mastery rather than passive responsiveness to another’s influence. This assessment was also supported by an interview of Coué conducted in 1922 by Claude William Chamberlain, a former student of Parkyn, who stated that Coué’s success depended largely on his ability, conscious or not, to select such highly suggestible subjects.^[317][311]

As advertising schools, business colleges, and salesmanship institutes began to formalize psychological training in the early twentieth century, many drew directly from Dr. Parkyn's teachings and from graduates who had studied under him at the Chicago School of Psychology. Parkyn himself was affiliated with the Sheldon School of Scientific Salesmanship in Chicago, which incorporated his methods into its instruction on influence, buyer psychology, and persuasive presentation. Across these programs, the principles of suggestion were treated as the foundation of effective salesmanship, emphasizing that the same mental laws governing therapeutic change also shaped attention, persuasion, and consumer behavior. Parkyn's maxim, "Thought takes form in action" became one of their most frequently cited examples, used to illustrate how repeated ideas structure behavior.^{[319][318][320]}

Building on this momentum, Parkyn adapted his phrase into a national marketing campaign for banks that promoted what was called the "savings habit" or "cash habit," which encouraged the public to open and maintain savings accounts, framing it as a trainable habit shaped through repetition. The campaign became the earliest large-scale applications of suggestive therapeutics in American advertising, demonstrating how Parkyn's psychological system could be translated directly into commercial behavior-shaping strategies. Other phrases that Dr. Parkyn popularized within the New Thought movement, that became widely used in commercial campaigns, included, "I can and I will," "Do it Now," "Are you a Thinker," and "Health, Happiness, and Success."^[321][322]

• Ads with "Thought takes form in action, repeated actions become habits"
• Ads using Dr. Parkyn's campaign of "Do it now"
• Ads using the campaign of "Are you a thinker"

Beginning in 1902, Dr. Parkyn and his father, James Parkyn, became involved in large-scale agricultural investment ventures in Mexico during a period of widespread American enthusiasm for tropical land development. The initial phase followed successful mining investments made by Parkyn's cousin, Horatio Nelson Jackson, and soon expanded into agriculture with the formation of the La Luisa Plantation Association in the Veracruz district. Dr. Parkyn served on the board of the association, while his father acted as its principal promoter.^{[323][324][325]}

This marked the first sustained use of Parkyn's own publishing network to promote investment ventures. Advertisements soliciting stock subscriptions for the La Luisa Plantation Association began appearing in Suggestion magazine in mid-1902. The same La Luisa advertisements also appeared prominently in the June 1902 issue of The Nautilus, coinciding with investment advertisements placed by Sydney B. Flower and occupying much of the final page of the magazine.

This noticeable shift in The Nautilus' advertising content prompted an editorial comment from its editor, Elizabeth Towne, who stated that she was not offering financial advice but disclosed that she had personally invested in both enterprises. She cited favorable reports from James Parkyn following his inspection of the property and stated that both Parkyn and Flower were honorable and capable men, expressing optimism about the potential returns on her investments.^[326]

Investor response was strong, enabling the La Luisa Association to acquire the much larger Motzorongo Plantation, a 165,000-acre estate in Veracruz that became the largest American-controlled agricultural property in Mexico. Reorganized as the Motzorongo Plantation Company, the enterprise was promoted as a cooperative society emphasizing shared benefit among investors, managers, and laborers. Parkyn continued to use Suggestion magazine to report on the plantation's progress, advertise its stock offerings, and organize inspection excursions for subscribers. Within a short period, more than $250,000 in shares were sold directly to readers of Suggestion.^{[327][328][329][330][252]}

The board of the Motzorongo Plantation Company included several prominent Midwestern figures whose participation added financial strength and public standing to the venture. Among them was Harry W. Huttig of the Huttig Manufacturing Company, one of the world's largest and most technologically advanced lumber manufacturing companies, and a regular business partner of Dr. Parkyn in his major commercial enterprises. Also serving on the board was Edgar Young Mullins, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, whose involvement linked the project to established religious and educational leadership.^{[331][332][333][334][335][336]}

The company later expanded its holdings to approximately 360,000 acres, more than 560 square miles, with the purchase of the neighboring Hacienda Josefina. James Parkyn remained in Mexico as general manager overseeing its development and died there of typhoid fever in 1909. In 1914, the Motzorongo Plantation became the focus of national attention during the Motzorongo Incident, when reports that General Victoriano Huerta’s troops had captured and executed twenty American employees at the plantation nearly triggered armed conflict between the United States and Mexico before the reports were proven false.^{[337][338][339][340][341][342][343][344][345][346][347]}

• U.S. Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan forwarded the news to Dr. Parkyn in a telegram.^[342]
• The Montzorongo incident is catalysts for a possible war with Mexico. American troops were sent to Vera Cruz.

On December 18, 1902, Dr. Parkyn married Aura L. Parks, a wealthy young widow heiress who had come to him initially as a patient, seeking treatment for melancholia that followed the suicide of her husband. In 1896, at the age of twenty-seven, Aura had married Robert W. Hamer, the president of the Chicago and North-Western Railroad who was sixty four years old. In October 1897, Hamer committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart. Aura had discovered his body and the shock initiated a prolonged period of severe trauma. Parkyn treated her for approximately two years before their marriage.^[348][349]

In April 1905, just over two years after their marriage, Aura also took her own life. Less than a year earlier, the death of her mother had triggered a serious recurrence of her melancholia. While traveling in Indiana to visit her mother's grave, Aura registered at the Barnett Hotel, dressed for the evening, and summoned the bellboy. As he knocked at the door, she lay down on the floor and shot herself with a revolver purchased earlier that day. She left a letter addressed to Dr. Parkyn stating, "You are tired of me… it is best that I stand in your way no longer… I regret nothing."

From the first headlines, the case was treated as a scandal. Newspapers across the Midwest and nationally accused Dr. Parkyn of neglect, of infidelity, of exploiting his wife financially, and of hypnotizing her to suicide. Other reports asserted that he refused to view her body at the morgue and that her wealth had been diverted into Mexican mining and plantation ventures. These claims appeared under bold headlines such as "Jealousy the Cause of Suicide" and "What Drove Mrs. Parkyn to Suicide?," long before the facts were known.^{[350][351][352][353][354]}

These allegations were later proven false. Sworn statements, affidavits, and official records established the confirmed facts of the case. Aura's attorney verified that the estate inherited from her first husband remained intact, was held in trust, and had not been accessed or controlled by Dr. Parkyn. Statements from the undertaker and other witnesses confirmed that Parkyn was present immediately following her death, personally attended to her remains, and viewed her body without delay. Friends and relatives testified that Aura retained control over her own property and that there were no disputes over money. Financial records further demonstrated that Dr. Parkyn's personal income substantially exceeded Aura's, contradicting claims that he depended upon or exploited her wealth.^{[355][356][357]}

It was also shown that Aura's will had been executed more than a year before her death and that she left the bulk of her estate to Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones of All Souls Church for missionary and philanthropic purposes. Aura had been studying at All Souls Church under Jones for two years prior to her death. The will stated that her husband, Dr. Parkyn, had sufficient means of his own. Although Dr. Parkyn had the legal right as her husband to contest the will or claim a substantial portion of the estate, he chose not to challenge it. Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones was a professional and personal associate of Parkyn and had been a close personal friend of the late Dr. M. H. Lackersteen, one of Parkyn's strongest early supporters.^[358][359]

Following the exposure of false reporting, The Star Press, one of the principal newspapers responsible for the accusations, issued a full retraction and formal apology, acknowledging that its coverage had been inaccurate and had unjustly damaged Dr. Parkyn's reputation.^[357]

After observing and documenting how readers reacted to sensational news reports, Dr. Parkyn argued that newspapers exerted a direct and harmful psychological influence on the public through negative suggestion. He maintained that repeated exposure to vivid descriptions of murder, suicide, assault, and other violent acts implanted mental images in readers, especially those he regarded as highly suggestible. Parkyn claimed that such individuals often imitated what they encountered in print, producing measurable increases in similar crimes. He cited cases in which multiple razor blade murders and wire strangulations occurred shortly after newspapers printed detailed accounts of similar crimes, noting that the use of such devices in those days had become infrequent. He further observed that clusters of murders and suicides appeared in direct proportion to the influence of recent newspaper suggestions.^[360]

Dr. Parkyn argued that newspaper reporting shaped public attitudes as well as behavior. He maintained that prolonged exposure to war coverage and accounts of revolutionary violence reduced the perceived value of human life and created a demand for sensational material. When newspapers stopped reporting on war events, he stated, public interest dropped immediately, and editors responded by supplying domestic violence, scandal, and criminal trials to satisfy the appetite they had helped create.^[360]

Dr. Parkyn further claimed that newspapers harmed health through suggestive advertising. Patent medicine advertisements persuaded readers that common sensations were signs of a serious disease, inducing symptoms through auto-suggestion and fostering long-term debility or drug habits. He cited a kidney-cure promotion titled "A Silent, Unseen Foe," which presented ordinary changes in urine or back pain as certain signs of kidney disease, and the laxative advertisement "TOO LATE?," which used the image of a mother at a dying child's bedside and claimed that many childhood illnesses were caused by constipation and was marketed as a "fragrant little candy tablet," that was aimed at encouraging habitual laxative use in both mothers and their children.^[360]

Parkyn also identified "Lost Manhood" advertisements as a source of severe psychological distress, arguing that fear-based sexual-health ads caused many young men to suffer silently for years under the belief that they were irreparably damaged.^[360]

• "A Silent, Unseen Foe," ad by Doan's Kidney Pills
• "TOO LATE?," ad by Cascarets laxative pills
• Ads for patent medicine cures for "Lost Manhood"

As a remedy, Parkyn urged the removal of detailed crime reporting and deceptive medical and sexual-health advertisements. He proposed public education on the effects of suggestion and recommended postal or legal restrictions, such as denying second-class mailing privileges, to curb what he saw as widespread social harm created by the press.^[360]

In November 1906, Dr. Parkyn announced to his readers that he had sold Suggestion magazine to Henry Clay Hodges, a Detroit multi-millionaire and industrialist. In his final editorial, Parkyn wrote that the decision was made with deep regret and explained that he had made a promise several years earlier to devote his time and financial resources to assisting a close personal friend in a business venture. He stated that the combined demands of maintaining the magazine and fulfilling this obligation would be too great, making the sale necessary. The venture he referred to was the Black Sands and Gold Recovery Company.^[361][362]

Parkyn emphasized that the sale did not represent a retreat from the mental sciences. He assured readers that he intended to devote himself more fully to writing and developing his ideas in book form and that they would continue to hear from him through future publications. He expressed strong confidence in Hodges as the new owner, noting that Hodges held long-standing respect for the magazine and that its declaration of principles would remain unchanged. Parkyn predicted that Hodges's energy, enthusiasm, and substantial financial resources would significantly expand the magazine's reach within a short period.^[361]

Henry Clay Hodges had been closely associated with Suggestion for several years prior to the purchase. He was a frequent advertiser through his multi-volume book series Science and Key of Life and a contributor of articles on astrology and related subjects. His interests extended broadly across esoteric fields rooted in Hermetic, Rosicrucian, and Hindu philosophy, including astrology, numerology, vibration, color, sound, and cosmic influences on the mind.^{[363][364][365]: 165 [366]}

After assuming control, Hodges renamed the magazine The Stellar Ray and added a regular department devoted to astrology, reflecting his primary area of study. Beyond these changes, the publication remained continuous with Suggestion in both tone and purpose. It featured many of Dr. Parkyn's closest associates with a Department of Psychic Research headed by Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, a Department of Psychical Sciences and Unfoldment led by J. C. F. Grumbine, and a Department of New Thought directed by Charles Brodie Patterson. Regular contributions also came from well-known writers including Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Eleanor Kirk, and Yogi Ramacharaka. The magazine maintained Parkyn's original emphasis on mental science, natural law, and the application of thought as a formative force, while benefiting from Hodges's financial backing and expanded editorial scope.^[367][368]

A few months before Dr. Parkyn sold Suggestion in 1906, he began publicly promoting The Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company through the magazine, introducing it with a lengthy editorial and advertisement. He explained that, although the magazine avoided speculative mining ventures, he made an exception because the company's officers and operations were personally known to him. The enterprise was organized to recover gold, iron, and other minerals from the black sands of the Pacific Coast using the patented Lovett Magnetic Separator.^{[362][369][370][371][372]}

The company was built around the work of Chicago engineer Thomas J. Lovett and businessman John H. McFarland, both of whom lived directly across the street from Parkyn on Drexel Boulevard. Parkyn had been closely familiar with Lovett's separator for years and had promised Lovett that when U.S. government investigations confirmed the commercial value of black sands, he would help finance and organize a company to bring the invention into large-scale operation. That opportunity arose after official U.S. reports validated the mineral content of black sand deposits in 1905.^{[373][374][375][376]}

Parkyn's involvement with the Lovett Magnetic Separator had begun in 1903, following a Canadian government report confirming valuable metals in the black sands along the north shore of Lake Superior. Parkyn worked with Lovett and a group of Midwestern investors to organize the North Shore Reduction Company. Promotion and investor solicitation for the earlier venture were conducted through New Thought magazine, with Sydney B. Flower serving as fiscal agent, using the magazine's large subscription base. Flower had proved to be an unsuitable choice for managing large-scale business finances, as he diverted nearly $100,000 of investor funds into speculative horse-track gambling and high-risk stock market activity, rather than delivering it to the company as intended.^{[377][378][379][380]}

• An ad for The North Shore Recovery Company using Lovett's Magnetic Separator in New Thought magazine, July 1903. With Sydney B. Flower as the fiscal agent.
• An ad for The Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company using Lovett's Magnetic Separator in Suggestion magazine, Nov. 1906. With Parkyn as the fiscal agent.

The Black Sand and Gold Recovery Company was incorporated in 1906 with a capital stock of five million dollars. Parkyn served as fiscal agent and used his publishing platform to attract investors. The company's board included Parkyn and his longtime business associate Harry William Huttig, along with other prominent industrial and technical figures such as, William Hoskins, National Vice President of the American Chemical Society providing scientific and metallurgical expertise and Henry W. Hoyt, a top vice-president of Allis-Chalmers, contributing expertise in large-scale industrial machinery and manufacturing. In 1910, Parkyn and his partners reorganized their mining interests as the American Placer Corporation and expanded operations into the Southwest.^{[381][372][382][383]}

Later in 1910, Parkyn led a promotional expedition to the company's remote operation at Lees Ferry, Arizona, accompanied by Thomas J. Lovett, Harry W. Huttig, William Hoskins, Jay V. Daniels of the Psychic Research Company, and his cousin Horatio Nelson Jackson who had become nationally famous in 1903 as the first person to drive an automobile across the United States. Parkyn arranged for a Thomas Flyer automobile to meet the group in Flagstaff to prove that supplies and machinery could reach Lees Ferry by motor car. The journey drew widespread attention, with reports describing how the Jackson and Parkyn party became the first to bring a horseless carriage as far as the Little Colorado and had crossed it at the Tanner Crossing.^{[384][324][385][386][387]: 230}

• Horatio Nelson Jackson at Lees Ferry, AZ., in 1910.^[388]
• Jay V. Daniels with Parkyn at Lees Ferry, AZ., in 1910. (Parkyn is holding the hose)^[389]

In November 1913, Herbert A. Parkyn and Harry W. Huttig became the central financial and organizational figures in the formation of the Southwestern Pacific Railroad, a large rail and industrial project intended to connect Denver and Salt Lake City with the Pacific coast at San Diego. Parkyn and Huttig had partnered on the project with its promoter, Rollo Eugent Clapp, a civil engineer who had spent several years surveying the Colorado River basin and adjacent territories in preparation for railroad development.^[390][391]

The Southwestern Pacific Railroad was planned as part of an integrated rail-industrial system spanning 2,200 miles of track at an estimated cost of $105 million. The route was designed to serve coal fields in western Colorado and southern Utah and iron deposits in Washington and Iron counties, Utah, with affiliated plans for coal processing facilities, a major steel plant in southern Utah estimated to cost $20 million, and additional steel production at San Diego. Large irrigation projects were also included, covering more than 700,000 acres, to support agriculture, industrial water needs, and land development along the line, with expenditures estimated at $22 million. The overall enterprise was estimated as a “billion-dollar affair.”^{[392][393][394]}

In 1914, articles of incorporation were filed for the Southwestern Pacific Railroad in California and Utah. Parkyn was the dominant shareholder in the enterprise, with 21,000 shares valued at $2.1 million, paid as $1.9 million in cash and $200,000 in property consisting of surveys, maps, engineering plans, and compiled data relating to the proposed territory it would traverse. David Charles Collier, a San Diego industrialist and former director general and president of the Panama-California Exposition, served as president of the railroad. Parkyn was named vice president and director. Other officers and directors included; Parkyn's longtime business associate Harry W. Huttig; Charles C. Carnahan, a prominent Chicago attorney active in corporate and civic affairs; and Thomas Marioneaux, a former judge with long experience in the railroad industry who served as resident director in Utah. Rollo E. Clapp was appointed chief engineer.^[395][396]

In early 1915 the Department of the Interior became directly involved in reviewing the requests for rights-of-way for the Southwestern Pacific Railroad under Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane. In April 1915, the principal figures connected with the railroad, including Parkyn, Carnahan, Huttig, and Clapp, held a farewell dinner at the Union League Club for Stephen Tyng Mather on the eve of his departure to Washington, D.C., where he was to assume duties as Assistant Secretary of the Interior. Mather, a millionaire industrialist through his ownership of the Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company and later the first director of the National Park Service, was a longtime Chicago associate of Carnahan and Parkyn. Later that year the requests from the Southwestern Pacific Railroad were approved by the Department of the Interior, including rights-of-way, options on 8 million acres of public and grazing land along the route at $1.25 and acre, Federal subsidies for construction of the railroad, and access to government land to support irrigation and settlement.^[397][398]

Despite advanced planning and formal organization, the project stalled in mid-1915. The outbreak of the First World War disrupted European capital that had been expected to finance a substantial portion of the railroad. In June 1915, Clapp resigned as chief engineer, stating that wartime conditions made the financing of a transcontinental railroad impracticable. The company announced that no effort would be made to finance or construct the line until after the conclusion of the war. While the officers and directors, including Parkyn and Collier, remained formally in place, the Southwestern Pacific Railroad enterprise was not started again after the war.^[399][400]

While operating his various business ventures, Parkyn continued to work within the New Thought movement, largely out of public view. He wrote and published under pseudonyms and acted as a financial backer and organizer for several New Thought schools, periodicals, and publishing companies. His role was structural rather than public, focused on setting up institutions, coordinating operations, and providing capital. These efforts were particularly concentrated in Denver and Los Angeles, where he helped establish and sustain schools and publications that became important regional centers for the New Thought movement.^[32]

In the 1920s, Dr. Parkyn publicly reentered the mental sciences discussion following the national autosuggestion movement associated with Émile Coué. In 1923, he appeared on a nationally broadcast radio program on KYW Chicago to explain his original system of auto-suggestion and to distinguish it from Coué's public demonstrations. During this period, Parkyn also conducted what were regarded as the first radio-based therapeutic broadcasts, dubbed "hypnotic radio clinics." Through these programs, he addressed a wide range of mental and physical concerns, including nervous conditions, confidence, assertiveness, willpower, success, improvement in material welfare, and harmony in personal and domestic life.^[315] Parkyn explained these broadcasts as a practical application of collective suggestion, stating that;

“thought takes form in action and our thoughts sent out to others react on ourselves; therefore, with the minds of all the listeners working harmoniously as a unit and holding certain helpful thoughts at the same instant for those needing help, there will be real power in the thoughts and some remarkable results should follow.”^[315]

In late 1923, Herbert A. Parkyn reunited with longtime collaborators Sydney B. Flower and William Walker Atkinson in a renewed publishing partnership centered on the magazine The Thinker. Flower assumed editorial control, while Parkyn contributed a year-long series on Auto-suggestion that restated and clarified the system he had developed decades earlier. W. W. Atkinson contributed a year-long series titled Self-Treatment Through Thought=Force, that restated the approach to mental self-regulation and applied psychology that had been taught at Parkyn's University of Psychic Science decades earlier.^[316]

The first issue published under the title The Thinker appeared as Volume IV, continuing the numbering sequence that had begun in 1920 with the revival of the New Thought magazine, which had ceased publication in 1910. With Parkyn's public return to active authorship in late 1923, the magazine was formally rebranded as The Thinker and given a new descriptive subtitle identifying it as “The World’s Leading Magazine of Constructive Thinking, Psycho-Analysis, Health, Hygiene, Happiness, and Success.” The language closely echoed the phrasing Dr. Parkyn had used consistently since the 1890s in his earlier books, journals, and promotional literature, signaling a continuity with this earlier work.^[401][316]

The publication also brought together a familiar circle of contributors from their earlier publishing ventures. Longtime associates such as Ella Wheeler Wilcox and Charles Edmund DeLand returned to its pages, while newer and contemporary voices expanded the magazine's scope. These included a serialized contribution by Margaret Sanger on birth control and several articles by prominent journalist Arthur Brisbane.^{[402][316][401]}

Parkyn on December 22, 1927, at his home in Highland Park, Illinois, from pneumonia.^[403] Following his death, his cousins, John Holmes Jackson and Horatio Nelson Jackson, traveled to Chicago to oversee the return of his body to Montreal. Parkyn was buried in the family lot at Cimetière Mont-Royal.^[404] His death came during a period of significant loss for his sister and the extended Jackson family. Less than a month earlier, the family had buried Samuel Hollister Jackson, Parkyn's cousin and brother-in-law, who had died in November 1927 during the Great Vermont Flood while serving as Lieutenant Governor of Vermont.^[405][406] Parkyn was survived by his second wife Mary Arenberg and his two sisters, Mabel Maude Jackson and Margaret Winnifred B. Parkyn.

Parkyn's legacy rests in his role as one of the earliest architects of modern suggestive therapeutics and auto-suggestion in North America. Decades before these ideas achieved international popularity, he had already developed a structured, clinical system integrating psychology, medicine, and disciplined mental training. Through his schools, journals, correspondence courses, experiments, and later radio work, he shaped a generation of practitioners and publishers in the mental sciences. Although many of his methods were later repackaged or popularized by others, his influence persisted through the institutions he founded, the students he trained, and the language and techniques that became foundational to twentieth-century self-help and applied psychology movements.

• The Chicago School of Psychology statement of principles pamphlet, by Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn (1896)
• The Hypnotic Magazine 1896–1897 Monthly, Chicago, IL. Publisher: Psychic Publishing Co. Editor: Sydney B. Flower
• Suggestion Magazine 1898–1906 Monthly, Chicago, IL. Publisher: Suggestion Publishing Co. Editor: Herbert A. Parkyn
• A Mail Course in Suggestive Therapeutics and Hypnotism by Herbert A. Parkyn, 1898 and 1900,
• Auto-Suggestion; What it is and How to Use it for Health, Happiness and Success" by Herbert A. Parkyn (1905)
• Hypnotism Up to Date by Sydney Blanshard Flower and Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn, (1896) Charles H. Kerr & Co., Chicago.
• A Study in Hypnotism by Sydney Blanshard Flower (1896) Psychic Publishing Co.
• The Journal of Suggestive Therapeutics 1898-1900 Psychic Publishing Company. Editor: Sydney B. Flower
• New Thought magazine 1901-1910 New Thought Publishing
• The Law of Suggestion: A Compendium for the People. by Stanley Lefevre Krebs (1916).
• Thought-force in Business and Everyday Life. by William Walker Atkinson (1901) University of Psychic Science
• A Complete Course in the Art of Mind-Reading anonymous, Psychic Research Co. (1900)
• The Law of Psychic Phenomena by Thomson Jay Hudson, (1893)
• Hypnotism as it is: A Book for Everybody by Xenophon LaMotte Sage, aka E. Virgil Neal (1897)
• The Chicago School of Psychology and Hypnotic Magazine, by John M. Andrick

• Herbert A. Parkyn at Find a Grave