Sidney Abram Weltmer

Sidney Abram Weltmer
"Prof. S. A. Weltmer" taken from the online book "Seven Steps in the Life of Prof. S. A. Weltmer" (1906) from Grace Mann Brown (1859-1925)"
Born Sidney Abram Weltmer
Jul.y7, 1858
Wooster, Ohio
Died Dec. 6, 1930
Nevada, Missouri
Resting place Newton Burial Park, Nevada, Vernon County, Missouri, United States
Residence Nevada, Missouri
Known for Weltmerism, Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics
Home town Nevada, Vernon County, Missouri, United States
Spouse(s) Mary Genoa (Adair) Stone, m. October 8, 1879
Children five: Cyrus Ernest (1880-1963), Silas Woodson (1882-1956), Stella Truman, Tracy Carleton and Beulah Ethel Weltmer
Parent(s) Abram Weltmer and Catherine (Hull) Weltmer
Signature

Sidney Abram Weltmer (July 7, 1858 – December 6, 1930) was an author best known for the Weltmer Method (also known as "Weltmerism") and as founder of the Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics. Weltmer claimed his method could cure disease through suggestions and hypnosis, a practice he referred to as "magnetic healing".

Early life

Weltmer was a native of Wooster, Ohio. At the age of seven, his parents moved to Morgan County, Missouri, where he attended the public schools. He studied borrowed medical books in hopes of becoming a physician, and later devoted himself to the study of the Bible.[1]

Career

Weltmer was ordained and licensed to preach as a Baptist minister at 19 years old. He served as a preacher in several places.

In 1885 he founded a private educational institution at Akinsville, Missouri in Morgan County. He presided over and directed the Akiusville Normal School from 1885 to 1889. The school disbanded in 1889. In Sedalia, Missouri, he established and organized a public library and was librarian from 1893 until 1895. For two years he also served as a professor in Robbins Business College in that city.[2]

Personal life

S. A. Weltmer Home

On October 8, 1879, Weltmer married Mary Genoa (Adair) Stone. They had five children together.

Weltmer was involved in several fraternal and civil associations: he was a Knights Templar (Freemasonry) and Thirty-second Degree Mason, an Elk, an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Pythias and an unoath-bound initiate in the fourth degree of Atlantian Mystics.[2]

Weltmer died in Nevada, Vernon County, Missouri on December 6, 1930 and was buried there.

Weltmer Institute

Weltmer 1920s

Weltmer founded the Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics on February 19, 1897. The institute provided rooms for patients and offered instructional classes in thought transference and "magnetic healing" that Weltmer promoted. He asserted that a combination of clairvoyance and hypnotic suggestion could cure diseases such as asthma and tobacco addiction. A ten-day course cost $100.[3]

The institute was dissolved in 1933 shortly after his death. The main building was sold to a funeral institute.[4] In 2005, the building was demolished to make place for new buildings. His son, Ernest, continued to publish the Weltmer Magazine up until his own death.

Controversy

Some preachers and doctors were not convinced of the validity of Weltmer's methods, and they condemned and denounced the institute for fraud. Dr. Preston W. Pope wrote in "The Expose of Weltmerism: Magnetic Healing De-magnetized" how he viewed the whole idea. Dr. E. L. Priest from the Missouri Medical Association denounced the Weltmer Institute. Pastor Dr. Charles M. Bishop from the Centenary Methodist Church, published his negative reviews in magazines on the charlatanism of Weltmer.[4]

In 1900, the US Postmaster General declared Weltmer's "healing by mail" scheme a fraud and stopped mail delivery to the institute. Mail was restored after the U.S. Supreme Court decided that Weltmer had the right to receive mail delivery.[4]

A libel case against the Rev. M. Bishop for calling Weltmer and his assistants "miserable charlatans" was brought before the Supreme Court of Missouri; it ruled in favor of Bishop, and refused a motion for rehearing the case.[5]

Writings

Books

  • Self-Reliance, or the Key to Business Success, Kansas City, Hudson-Kimberly Pub. Co., 1900
  • The Healing Hand, Weltmer institute of suggestive therapeutics Company, 1922 - 225 pages
  • The Mystery Revealed, or, The Hand-book of Weltermerism, Kansas City, Hudson-Kimberley
  • The New Voice of Christianity, Hudson-Kimberly Publishing Company, 1903 - 192 pages

Articles, pamphlets

From 1901 to 1909 Weltmer published a magazine, Weltmer's Magazine of Suggestive Therapeutics

  • Complete Clinical Texts on Suggestive Therapeutics and Applied Psychology
  • How to Make Magnetic Healing Pay, Nevada, Mo., 1901 - 216 pages
  • Hypnotism: In Its Psychological Relation to Everyday Life Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics - 90 pages
  • Is prayer ever Answered?, American School of Magnetic Healing, 1899 - 35 pages
  • Real Man, Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics, 1908 - 63 pages
  • Real Man, Or Slave Man, Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics, 1914 - 40 pages
  • Regeneration, Nevada, Mo. : The Weltmer Foundation, 1925
  • Regeneration; a Discussion of the Sex Question from a New and Scientific Standpoint, Foley Railway, 1899 - 130 pages
  • Regeneration: a Scientific Discussion of the Sex Principle, 1898-1908, Weltmer Inst. of Suggestive Therapeutics Company, 1908 - 185 pages
  • Self Protection, 1898
  • Some Points on Personal Magnetism
  • Suggestion Simplified, American School of Magnetic Health, 1900 - 117 pages
  • Telepathy, Pomeroy, WA : Health Research
  • Telepathy and Thought Transference, Nevada, Mo., 1902
  • The Eternal Now, American School of Magnetic Healing, 1899 - 58 pages
  • The Undying Character of Thought
  • Therapeutic Suggestion
  • Weltmerisms; or Pointed Paragraphs Relating to Magnetic Healing, Foley Ptg. Company, 1899 - 68 pages
  • Who is a Christian?
  • Seventy Bible References Relating to the Subject of Healing'

See also

References

  1. ↑ Conard, Howard Louis. "Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri : a compendium of history and biography for ready reference". original from Indiana University. New York ; The Southern History Company, 1901. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  2. 1 2
  3. ↑ Gregg Andrews (1999). Insane Sisters: Or, the Price Paid for Challenging a Company Town. University of Missouri Press. pp. 42–. ISBN 978-0-8262-1240-5. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 Moyer, Steve (August 19, 2004). "Aging building rich in local history". Nevada Daily Mail. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  5. ↑ Kansas City Medical Herald. Kansas City medical index. 1904- official organ of the Medical Society of the Missouri Valley, Buchanan County Medical Society and Sioux Valley Medical Society. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015070230530;view=plaintext;seq=41;q1=weltmer;start=1;size=100;page=root;num=227;orient=0. Retrieved 4 February 2013. Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.