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The Weltmer Institute was an American organization that practiced weltmerism, a kind of "magnetic healing" involving telepathy and hypnosis. It was founded by Prof. Sidney Abram Weltmer on February 19, 1897 and was dissolved in 1933, shortly after his death in 1930.
Contents
The institute was significant in generating business that helped boost the growth of the town in which it was located: Nevada, Missouri. However, the hypnotic and telepathic healing that it sold was criticized as ineffective voodoo and charlatanry.
History
Sidney Weltmer was an enthusiastic supporter of the idea that healing could be the basis of a successful business and, in his book How to make magnetic healing pay, had written "a thorough knowledge of Magnetic Healing alone will not bring success, financially—a knowledge of the business side of the science is necessary as well". Weltmer's interests in business culminated in his opening of the Weltmer Institute in Nevada, Missouri in 1897.
At its height, the institute treated 400 people a day for a daily income of $3,600. It employed 17 healers and over 100 stenographers and typists to process mail.
After the closure of the Institute in 1933, The first building was sold to Milster Funeral Home. In 2005, the historical buildings were razed down to build new buildings.
Activities
At the institute, practitioners performed mental healing through telepathy and mental suggestion.
One practitioner – J.O. Crone – wrote an account of his time at the institute and claimed that he began work with scant instruction from Weltmer himself, who had been preoccupied. Crone wrote of his first hypnosis, of a woman patient, thus:
Reception and influence
F. H. Behncke wrote in his 1920 book, Pioneer Teachers, that the Weltmer Institute "may be called the foremost school for mental healing in America".
The institute had a significant impact on the town of Nevada, Missouri. It was responsible for such an increase in volume of mail handled by the local post office, that it was upgraded to first class and housed in a new building; the town's facilities grew in response to the business generated by the institute's activities – the railroad company had to schedule extra trains to handle the passenger numbers generated by the institute's fame.
Weltmer, and his institute, were attacked by critics. In his booklet of 1900, The Exposé of Weltmerism: Magnetic Healing De-magnetized, Preston W. Pope described what he saw as errors in Welmer's practice; a local pastor referred to Weltmer's practices as "an ignorant mixture of voodoo and Christian Science"; and in a 1910 issue of the British Medical Journal Weltmerism was described as "one of the innumerable freaks of the charlatan fancy which flourished only on American soil."