Stanley LeFevre Krebs

Stanley LeFevre Krebs (January 14, 1864 – September 26, 1935) was an American lecturer, author, and psychologist who, after post-graduate work in psychology at The Chicago School of Psychology and research at the University of Pennsylvania and the Gates Laboratory, built a national career speaking on management, salesmanship, and the psychology of suggestion. Contemporary reports described him as "the greatest lecturer in the country on management and salesmanship," and he was regularly engaged by business groups, universities, and professional organizations across the United States.

Stanley L. Krebs was born in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Rev. Dr. Walter Edmund Krebs, a minister in the Reformed Church, and Isabella Shriver LeFevre Krebs. He was raised in a household shaped by his father's clerical vocation and by the religious environment of the family's Protestant community.

In 1883, Krebs attended the Boston Conservatory of Music, where he studied music and composition. His training at the conservatory included work on violin performance, and he later appeared publicly as a violinist.

His father, Rev. Walter E. Krebs, D. D., was both a pastor and a professor at Franklin and Marshall College and after completing his own studies at Franklin and Marshall and then completed theological studies at the Eastern Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church, Krebs initially followed a ministerial path similar to his father's. In 1890, he completed a Bachelor of Divinity at Lancaster Seminary and became pastor of the newly organized St. Andrew's Reformed Church in Reading, Pennsylvania. During this period he delivered regular sermons on religious subjects, which provided him with early experience in public speaking.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Stanley L. Krebs entered the study of psychology by completing a postgraduate course in psychology and received a Doctor of Psychology degree at The Chicago School of Psychology in 1899. The school was involved in early work on mental suggestion and related therapeutic practices, and his studies there formed an important part of his academic preparation at a time when psychology was emerging as an independent field in the United States. He would stay active with the Chicago School for many years, working with its founder, Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn and contributing to its magazine, Suggestion. ^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Krebs taught history, microscopy, and languages at St. Luke's School in Philadelphia and Greek at the Blackstone School. He conducted psychological investigations associated with Dr. James H. Hyslop of Cornell University and Dr. Parkyn of the Chicago School, as well as conducting research at the Laboratory of Psychology in Washington, D. C. He was a member of the Society of Arts of London, the Medico Legal Society of New York, the Society for Psychical Research of London and its New York branch, and the Ethical Research Society of London. He was also a member of the Advertising Clubs of the World and the Lotus Club. He lectured for the American University of Trade, founded by John Wanamaker, and prepared curriculum and textbooks for that institution.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Krebs lectured widely on psychology, suggestion, hypnotism, and related subjects. He delivered a series of lectures at Chautauqua assemblies, where he addressed the distinctions between mind and soul, mental suggestion, intuition, memory, and related psychological topics. He conducted hypnotism demonstrations and taught that hypnotism was a scientific method capable of assisting in cases such as nervous disorders, headaches, at New York University and before the New York Health Science League.^[4][2]

Dr. Krebs participated in the 1899–1900 investigation of Elizabeth and May Bangs, known as the Bangs Sisters. They were famous Chicago spiritualist mediums known for slate-writing séances. Working with Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn, he helped demonstrate that the "spirit messages" were produced by manipulation of the slates and an accomplice writing the letters. Parkyn advised Krebs to attend a sitting equipped with a concealed mirror, which allowed him to observe the removal of the sitter's sealed letter, its transfer to the adjoining room for opening and copying, and its return without detection. Krebs confirmed the entire procedure for the International Society for Psychical Research, documenting the method as coordinated deception.^[6][7][8]

Krebs lectured extensively on mind reading and occult practices and publicly exposed methods used in fraudulent mentalists. He also testified as an expert psychologist in court cases involving claims of clairvoyance and occult powers, explaining the psychological mechanisms behind such performances including suggestion, subconscious cues, muscle reading, expectation, and coincidence. In 1901, Krebs authored The Frauds of Spiritualism which was published by Dr. Parkyn's Suggestion Publishing Company.^[4][2]

In 1906 he published The Law of Suggestion A Compendium for the People which was put out as a companion book to Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn's Auto-Suggestion: What It Is and How to Use It for Health, Happiness and Success . The two volumes were advertised together and both were published by the Science Press of Chicago, which was the publishing arm of the Sheldon School of Scientific Salesmanship and that Krebs worked at as associate editor.^[9][10]

Stanley LeFevre Krebs presented the Law of Suggestion as a central psychological principle based on repetition, which he described as creating a habitual path in consciousness that influences thought, emotion, and behavior. He interpreted repetition as establishing a line of least resistance in the mind, allowing persistent ideas to take hold in the subconscious. He treated the law as operating through natural processes and as shaping both mental habits and bodily responses.

Krebs divided suggestion into auto-suggestion and hetero-suggestion. Auto-suggestion referred to repeated statements directed toward oneself in order to alter mental or physical conditions, such as affirmations intended to improve digestion or support personal discipline. Hetero-suggestion referred to influences imposed from external sources, including individuals in positions of authority and cultural or commercial messaging, which could guide attitudes and actions through expectant attention. He applied these concepts to therapeutic settings and claimed that repeated suggestion could assist in addressing functional disorders. He cited applications such as relieving constipation through directed commands and reported a high rate of success in treating dipsomania through reinforcement of moral resolve.

Krebs illustrated the operation of suggestion in ordinary circumstances through examples such as parental expectations shaping vocational aspirations and social customs reinforcing beliefs. In educational contexts he described how indirect praise or encouragement could motivate students by appealing to the receptive subconscious. His interpretation drew upon earlier work on suggestion associated with the Nancy School, including Ambroise Auguste Liébault and Hippolyte Bernheim, who emphasized non mystical psychological processes over mesmerist explanations. Krebs adapted these ideas for practical use and presented the Law of Suggestion as applicable in everyday settings as well as in hypnotic states.^[10]

Stanley LeFevre Krebs defined hypnosis as a state of heightened suggestibility in which a person remains awake but more receptive to ideas. He linked hypnosis to repeated affirmation and viewed it as an intensified form of ordinary suggestibility, in line with Hippolyte Bernheim's interpretation. He described induction techniques such as James Braid's eye fixation, Sydney Flower's counting method, and Herbert A. Parkyn's stroking procedure, all intended to focus attention and increase responsiveness.^[11]

Krebs identified common hypnotic effects including catalepsy, post hypnotic suggestion, increased sensory acuity, and amnesia, attributing apparent telepathic reactions to subliminal suggestion. He advocated the use of hypnosis for functional disorders and reported cases involving phobia reduction, habit modification, pain relief, and efforts to restore mobility. He consistently distinguished hypnosis from spiritualism, presenting it as a natural psychological process rather than a supernatural one.^[11]

Krebs became active on the lecture circuit after leaving full time parish work. Within two years he appeared on nearly one hundred platforms in six states and received recalls in almost half of them. He lectured before lyceum audiences, chautauqua assemblies, teachers institutes, trade conventions, retailers associations, and civic organizations. His subjects included mind reading, the occult sciences, psychology of suggestion, management, and salesmanship. He also lectured for the University of Minnesota’s merchants course and appeared before various scientific and professional societies. Krebs traveled extensively in Europe giving lectures and doing research. He also made a special academic trip to North Africa for psychological studies.^[4][2][12]

During the 1920s, Krebs applied his psychological work on suggestion to salesmanship and business instruction. His lectures presented selling as an extension of mental discipline and framed commercial success as an application of psychological principles. He promoted what he called the religion of business, which combined enthusiasm, ethical influence, and subconscious persuasion to support long term customer relationships.^[13]

Krebs advised salesmen to use auto-suggestion to build traits such as confidence and loyalty and compared subconscious influence in selling to repeated advertising campaigns that shaped public preference through iteration. His books connected psychology with business practice, including Twin Demons on fear and worry in professional settings, Salesmanship, and Retail Salesmanship he wrote for the Institute of Mercantile Art. In 1929 he entered the Episcopal priesthood, combining his psychological background with religious work.^[14]

Stanley L. Krebs married actress Mary Tomlinson, known professionally as Marjorie Main, on November 2, 1921.^[15] The two met while working on the Chautauqua circuit, where he lectured on psychology and she appeared in theatrical programs. At the time of the marriage Krebs was fifty seven and divorced, and Main was thirty one. Both had careers involving public performance, with Krebs established as a lecturer and Main beginning to develop her stage work.^[16]

During his later years Krebs lived in New York City, where died on September 27,1935 at St. Luke's Hospital in New York City after several weeks of a lung infection that was caused by cancer.^[4]

Krebs authored more than sixty books and manuals. Krebs' works included Poverty’s Factory, Twin Demons, The Cries from the Cross, The Buyer’s Art, Salesmanship, Attention and Concentration, Memory, Imagination, Reasoning, and Lill.^[17]

• The Law of Suggestion (Chicago: Science Press, 1906) reprinted as The Fundamental Principles of Hypnosis (1957)
• A Description of Some Trick Methods Used By Miss Bangs of Chicago (Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 1901)
• The Frauds of Spiritualism (Suggestion Publishing Company, 1901)
• Trick-Methods of Eusapia Palladino: Major and Minor (Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 1910)
• Trick Methods of Eusapia Paladino (Philadelphia, 1910)