Archive Document

Suggestive Therapeutics is Investigated by Postal Authorities

Document Type: PDF
Historical Date: 1900
Related People: Herbert A. Parkyn , Sydney B. Flower (1860-1940) , Herbert A. Parkyn , Sydney B Flower
Related Research: The Continuing Collaboration of Herbert A. Parkyn, Sydney Flower, and William Walker Atkinson

Document Description

This PDF looks at the 1900 postal investigation that ended Suggestive Therapeutics magazine. Using editorials, ads, and other publications from the time, it shows how federal investigators decided the magazine mainly promoted Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn and the Chicago School of Psychology instead of acting as an independent publication. It traces the investigation back to complaints from the Chicago occult journal The Star of the Magi. Its editor publicly criticized Sydney B. Flower, J. V. Daniels, and the Psychic Research Company after running one of their ads. This dispute soon led to a libel lawsuit and a federal investigation, involving postal inspectors in both the magazine’s and the company’s activities.

The investigation focused on the connection between Suggestive Therapeutics and Dr. Parkyn’s educational businesses. Because of its close links to The Hypnotic Magazine and Suggestion, investigators ruled it did not qualify for discounted mailing rates. It ends by looking at what happened after the July 1900 decision. Suggestive Therapeutics could finish its current subscriptions, but losing its second-class postal rate made it too expensive to keep publishing. Its closure took away the main publishing outlet for the Psychic Research Company and marked a key change in Parkyn’s publishing network.

Suggestive Therapeutics is investigated

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