The Chicago School of Psychology was founded by Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn in June 1896, and was the first institution in the United States to teach the scientific and clinical application of Suggestive Therapeutics and Hypnotism. Emerging at a time when hypnosis was still regarded by many as a curiosity or stage performance, the school established a disciplined, medical approach to the subject and became the principal American center for experimentation in hypnotic suggestion. Its methods were rooted in the system of the Nancy School in France but expanded far beyond it through extensive clinical testing and practical application. A central feature of the Chicago School was the free public clinic where students and physicians treated patients solely through verbal suggestion, without the use of drugs. These sessions demonstrated the practical results of suggestive therapeutics and provided the experimental basis for the school's teaching. The school was recognized as the parent institution of suggestive therapeutics in America and oversaw dozens of affiliated schools across the United States and Canada. More than a thousand students were trained and conferred the degree of Doctor of Psychology by the school, about one-third of them women, as well as several African American graduates. Many of its graduates went on to found their own affiliated schools or became influential teachers, writers, and practitioners in the emerging New Thought and New Psychology movements. Among some of the most notable were, William Walker Atkinson, Sydney Blanshard Flower, Stanley Lefevre Krebs, and E. Virgil Neal. Through their writings, lectures, and founding of new learning and clinical centers, the many graduates of the Chicago School of Psychology carried its methods and philosophy across the United States, making it a central source from which modern suggestive therapeutics and early applied psychology in America developed.
Founding and organization The Chicago School of Psychology was established by Dr. Herbert Arthur Parkyn, a highly trained Canadian physician who united his formal medical study with a deep interest in the power of the mind. After earning his medical degree from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1892, he completed postgraduate studies at McGill University and the University of Toronto, where he began exploring hypnotism and the developing science of suggestion. A distinguished college athlete in both football and hockey, Parkyn carried the same focus and discipline into his medical and psychological work. In 1894, he moved to Minneapolis to collaborate with Dr. W. Xavier Sudduth, the Dean of the Dental School at the University of Minnesota, on pioneering experiments in hypnosis and suggestive therapeutics. Together they secured permission from the university's president to begin conducting hypnosis experiments within the medical department's daily clinics. This would be the first public clinic in the country to use hypnosis in its treatments. This partnership and research led directly to the founding of the Chicago School of Psychology.
The school was financed by his 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. The school was later incorporated in March, 1897.
Sydney Blanshard Flower, a close associate of Parkyn and his co-author on Hypnotism Up to Date in 1895, served as secretary, publicist, and business manager of the Chicago School while also editing its affiliated journal, The Hypnotic Magazine. Flower would later become one of the leading publishers in the New Thought movement. The magazine functioned as the unofficial organ of the school and was the earliest American periodical devoted to scientific hypnotism and suggestive therapeutics. Each issue included detailed reports from 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.The Chicago School of Psychology quickly earned recognition for its professionalism and scientific integrity, setting itself apart from the more sensational portrayals of hypnotism common at the time. Instruction emphasized the practical application of suggestive therapeutics as a legitimate branch of medical science. The school taught that the mind could influence every bodily function and that health depended on maintaining harmony between mental focus and physical processes. Through careful use of suggestion, recovery could be achieved by directing thought to restore the body's natural equilibrium.
Core Principles The core principles of the Chicago School of Psychology, as outlined by Parkyn in 1896, 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 identified as an inherent human faculty, "a part of the divine nature which is every man’s birthright," and notes that it operates independently of religious belief, being "as perfect in the atheist as in the religious fanatic." The Chicago School taught that suggestion was effective only when the patient's mind was in harmony with the treatment, explaining that failures occur when mental receptivity or confidence is lacking or when a disorder is genuinely physical and requires direct medical or material intervention. This point was emphasized to make clear that the Chicago School was not opposed to pharmaceuticals or conventional medical treatment when such measures were genuinely needed.
"Aaron’s rod" of medical science
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." The purpose of the Chicago School of Psychology is outlined as teaching patients the practical use of their own mental forces, stating that the school instructs individuals on "how to heal themselves" by placing the body in the right mental condition for nature to complete recovery. 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."
Curriculum and certification
The school offered structured courses in suggestion-based therapeutic methods, attracting students from across the country. Each month's course consisted of twelve lectures and six clinic sessions, with additional clinical instruction provided during patient treatment. Students at the school consisted mostly of practicing physicians, dentists, and educators, who wished to study psychological treatment methods that did not rely on pharmaceuticals.
The "free" public clinic 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.
Instruction
Instruction at the clinic was hands-on, with students observing live treatments and participating in discussions of diagnoses and suggested interventions. The operating room was designed to create a quiet, chapel-like atmosphere with dim lighting that was most conducive in achieving a highly suggestible state. The treatments were typically delivered in a tone described as steady and prayer-like, aiming to evoke physical and mental relaxation. The methodology differed markedly from the more dramatic techniques of stage hypnotists or earlier schools of mesmerism. Instead of focusing on trance like somnambulistic displays, the Chicago School emphasized a clinical, rational process to induce a suggestible state.
Unlike older methods of hypnosis involving eye-fixation or physical manipulations, the school's approach was subtle and respectful, inducing immediate suggestibility with minimal overt effort. The Chicago School was one of the first to promote auto-suggestion as a scientific method for influencing health and behavior through repeated, self-directed affirmations. Parkyn taught that focused mental repetition could shape physical and emotional conditions by acting directly on the subconscious. Parkyn distinguished auto-suggestion from hypnotism by emphasizing voluntary, internal influence rather than external control. The method required concentration, emotional conviction, and consistency.
Diploma and degree of Doctor of Psychology The Chicago School of Psychology conferred the degree of Doctor of Psychology to students who completed the full course of instruction in Suggestive Therapeutics and passed an examination prepared and approved by the school's management before receiving their credential. In an era when the organized medical profession, often referred to as the "medical monopoly," was actively lobbying to limit or eliminate drugless healing practices, the Chicago School's credential became especially significant. Conventional physicians viewed practitioners of suggestive therapeutics as a direct threat, since it was producing notable results in functional and nervous disorders that traditional medicine struggled to treat and that made up a substantial part of their clinical work. As a result, graduates required a credential able to withstand scrutiny from medical boards and licensing examiners. To meet this regulatory pressure, the school issued a diploma designed to project both authority and academic legitimacy. Each graduate was awarded an engraved diploma printed on sheepskin, measuring 14 by 18 in (360 by 460 mm). It bore an elaborate steel-engraved heading, formal language certifying the successful completion of examination, the signature of Parkyn as the medical superintendent, and sealed with a prominent embossed rosette ribbon. It served as the official credential used by graduates when applying for state licenses or legal recognition of their practice. Its reputation grew quickly, and across the country it became known as one of the strongest documents available to legitimize practitioners of Suggestive Therapeutics and hypnotism during a period of intense regulatory pressure.
Reputation in the press
From its earliest years, the Chicago School of Psychology drew widespread attention in both the medical and popular press, with major feature articles appearing in newspapers throughout the United States. Contemporary journals noted its contribution to establishing a scientific basis for hypnotic and suggestive treatment, distinguishing it from both stage exhibitions and religious healing systems. In an August 1896 feature article in the Chicago Chronicle, Parkyn laid out his theory of hypnotism, emphasizing its practical, non-mystical foundation. "The first thing we explain to patients is that there is nothing strange or mysterious about hypnotism or the cures it can support," he said. "We tell them the healing comes from within, they must do the work, and we simply assist. Most people can be hypnotized, regardless of mental strength. In fact, susceptibility is not a sign of weakness, as once believed. Sometimes it can take a few sessions to fully hypnotize someone, especially if their objective mind is highly active." Parkyn described the central goal of treatment as quieting the objective or voluntary mind, the part that processes sensory input, so the subjective or involuntary mind becomes more impressionable. "When properly guided, the mind can influence the body in powerful ways. For example, with insomnia, patients often associate their bed with sleeplessness. We work to break that association and replace it with one of rest." He noted that most of the conditions treated at his institution were nervous disorders, but that functional and other diseases had also been addressed with success. "Some respond after just a few sessions, while others require more time."
Principle of Auto-Suggestion
At the Chicago School of Psychology, Parkyn taught that auto-suggestion was the key principle underlying both mental and physical transformation. He defined it as the process by which an individual consciously or unconsciously directs influence upon the involuntary mind. Students learned that every change in thought, emotion, or bodily function begins with suggestion, and that auto-suggestion is the means by which this universal law operates within oneself. Students were taught the dual-mind theory of the objective and subjective minds first outlined by Thomson Jay Hudson, though Parkyn described the two aspects as the voluntary and involuntary parts of a single mind. The involuntary mind, he explained, governs every function of the body, serves as the seat of the emotions, and holds the complete record of experience. It operates automatically and cannot reason independently, yet remains open to the influence of the voluntary mind, which is the conscious and reasoning faculty. Through repetition and focused attention, the voluntary mind can stimulate, restrain, or completely alter the operations of the involuntary mind. In this way, the thoughts held most persistently become the dominant forces shaping both mental and physical states.
Voluntary, involuntary, and "involuntary-voluntary" According to Parkyn, auto-suggestion operated through three distinct forms: voluntary, involuntary, and involuntary-voluntary. Voluntary auto-suggestion referred to the conscious and deliberate repetition of constructive thoughts or affirmations intended to reshape habits, behavior, or bodily function. Involuntary auto-suggestion occurred automatically, through impressions absorbed from one's surroundings, experiences, and emotions, without any deliberate effort. The third form, which Parkyn called "involuntary-voluntary auto-suggestion," combined both processes. It arose when a person consciously performed an action or followed instructions that unconsciously reinforced a mental impression. Parkyn illustrated this with the example of a patient who takes medicine prescribed for sleeplessness. Each time the dose is taken, the thought arises, "This medicine will quiet my nerves and help me sleep," regardless of whether the patient is aware of using suggestion. Similarly, individuals receiving "absent treatment" or "magnetic healing" engage in the same process by expecting beneficial results, thereby producing the therapeutic effect through their own suggestive belief.
Parkyn explained that this hybrid form of suggestion could be deliberately employed to achieve results even with skeptical patients. By assigning simple daily tasks, such as sipping water slowly or performing physical exercises, while emphasizing that these actions would bring improvement, the practitioner caused the patient to generate involuntary-voluntary auto-suggestions each time the task was performed. In this way, Parkyn showed that suggestion could operate at multiple levels of awareness and that much of what appeared to be external healing was, in fact, the individual's own mind responding to inner conviction.Parkyn’s teaching marked one of the earliest systematic methods for consciously using auto-suggestion as a scientific tool. He taught that "anything that suggests is a suggestion," meaning that every sensory perception, spoken word, or environmental influence affects the subconscious mind. Because of this, he cautioned against the use of negative suggestions, explaining that repeating what one wishes to avoid, such as "I will not fail" or "I cannot be nervous," tends to reinforce the very condition one intends to overcome. Instead, he urged his students to affirm what they desired directly, using positive, rhythmic statements such as "I can and I will." The methods taught at the Chicago School emphasized the disciplined use of repetition, emotional conviction, and concentrated attention to implant affirmative thoughts in the involuntary mind. Once impressed upon it, these ideas manifested naturally in behavior and bodily function. This systematic approach to auto-suggestion, developed more than two decades before Émile Coué popularized the term, became one of the most influential elements of Parkyn's teaching and laid the conceptual foundation for much of the later New Thought and self-mastery literature produced by his students and affiliated schools.
Experiments and research
In addition to its clinical instruction, the Chicago School of Psychology conducted a variety of controlled experiments exploring the boundaries of mental influence, hypnosis, and suggestion. These trials reflected the school's effort to apply empirical methods to phenomena often treated as speculative or unscientific.
Campaign to investigate telepathy One of the best-documented sessions was a privately arranged telepathy experiment conducted at the school by Parkyn and Flower. The event was attended by students, several visiting physicians, and invited guests, including psychologist Henry H. Goddard of Clark University. The tests involved both hypnotized and conscious participants attempting to guess numbers and letters, locate hidden objects, and reproduce drawings transmitted mentally from one room to another. In several cases, participants appeared to respond correctly, such as one hypnotized woman who identified a number after a period of silent concentration, and another subject who correctly named the letter "S" that was being visualized by a second participant. Parkyn also experimented by touching the heads of hypnotized subjects while mentally transmitting numbers, correctly matching three out of six figures. Later trials attempted to transmit actions and simple images, with two of four producing recognizable similarities. While the results were mixed, Parkyn concluded that some outcomes pointed to genuine thought transference beyond chance, suggesting a need for continued, systematic investigation of telepathic phenomena within a scientific setting.
Hypnotism and Hashish
In 1897, Parkyn conducted an experimental demonstration to test the effects of hashish on hypnotized subjects. Assisted by Dr. L. Hamilton McCormick, he placed five men into deep hypnosis and administered measured doses of hasheesh to each. The goal was to determine whether the drug could compel confessions or reveal hidden thoughts when combined with hypnotic suggestion. The responses varied. One subject experienced terror and believed he was falling. Another reported seeing devils. A third appeared to confess to theft. One shifted between laughter and weeping without coherence, while another remained largely unaffected. Parkyn reported that hasheesh intensified emotional and hallucinatory reactions, destabilizing the hypnotic state. He concluded that while the drug could heighten suggestibility, it rendered subjects unreliable and unpredictable. As he summarized, "the experiment proves not that truth may be extorted under such influence, but that the mind becomes more unstable, more fantastic, and far less reliable." Parkyn ultimately affirmed that pure suggestion, without narcotics, was the safer and more effective approach for both therapeutic and investigative purposes.
Psychological analysis of religious and occult practices
Parkyn's experiments at his school also focused on the scientific investigation of ideas associated with occult and esoteric teachings, based on his 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 the occult sciences. 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." His research included observations on the parallels between religious and ceremonial practices and therapeutic suggestion. He studied elements of Catholic, Evangelist, and ceremonial rituals, such as repetition, 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.
Experimental study of negative newspaper suggestions
After observing and documenting how readers reacted to sensational news reports, 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.
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. 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.
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.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.
Innovations Beyond its clinical instruction, the Chicago School developed numerous practical innovations and methods that contributed to the growing scientific understanding of mental influence. Parkyn experimented with new instruments, tested emerging technologies, and refined therapeutic procedures in ways that broadened the applications of suggestion in medicine and psychology.
Recorded Suggestions for patients
Parkyn was the first physician to use the phonograph as a tool for delivering therapeutic suggestions. He would record repeated affirmations and curative phrases onto wax cylinders, allowing patients to listen to them regularly and even use them at home as part of their treatment. This method was designed to reinforce mental conditioning through consistent exposure to spoken suggestions. Parkyn also found that the vibrations of the recorded voice attuned directly to the vibrational frequency of the patient carried strong psychological influences that acted directly on the involuntary mind. With the constant exposure to the recording and repetition of suggestions at the school, the students themselves would be influenced by them, many of whom reported unintended physical and sensory effects, that reinforced the institution's teaching of the mind's direct impact on bodily processes.
First X-ray of a living person's ribs
In March 1896, Parkyn took part in an experiment that produced the first X-ray image of ribs in a living person. While earlier X-ray work had captured hands, feet, and joints, chest imaging had failed due to breathing and tissue depth. Working with an electrical specialists from the Ozone Company and photographer Fred D. Foss, Parkyn used hypnosis to slow the breathing and maintain stillness of the patient during the long exposure. They later refined the process to capture an image of the entire living skeleton.
Harmony, vibration, sound, color, and light
Parkyn conducted extensive experiments on the relationship between sound, vibration, light, and mental states at the school. Building on ancient Greek ideas that harmony was the fundamental principle of nature, he sought to demonstrate that both mind and matter operated according to universal vibratory laws. Using a phonautograph to record musical tones onto prepared plates, he observed that each note produced a distinct geometric pattern, often resembling flowers or shells. These forms appeared to grow more complex with each rise in pitch, which demonstrated visual evidence of nature's underlying harmony and order. This led to the development of a therapeutic system based on the theory that every individual possesses a unique vibrational frequency, or "keynote," to which the mind and body naturally respond. Through controlled breathing, rhythmic movement, and vocal exercises, patients were guided to restore balance by harmonizing their personal vibration. Parkyn would then use the phonautograph to measure the frequency of the human voice and adjust it toward equilibrium, asserting in 1898 that he had conclusively demonstrated that each person was attuned to a specific note.
Color and light were also incorporated into treatment. Parkyn used McIntosh electro-thermal cabinets equipped with colored incandescent bulbs, applying different hues according to their psychological effects. Red was used to stimulate, blue to calm, and green to reduce activity. The McIntosh Battery and Optical Company, located in Chicago, made the latest equipment for Electro-Therapeutics, X-Rays, and other experimental work. Parkyn used these devices in his research and they were heavily advertised in his magazines.
Parkyn Table
Parkyn's clinical work at the Chicago School of Psychology was closely associated with the use of the Allison physician's table and chair, manufactured by the W. D. Allison Company of Indianapolis. Parkyn used the adjustable Allison table in his daily practice, reclining patients during suggestive treatment sessions to improve circulation and induce relaxation. His methods combined gentle physical positioning with verbal suggestion, emphasizing increased blood flow to affected areas. Parkyn praised the Allison, describing it as the best available and "an absolute necessity" for undertaking suggestive therapeutics. Recognizing its value in the emerging fields of psychological medicine, the W. D. Allison Company collaborated with Parkyn to design a new model specifically suited to his methods. The company introduced this specialized version as "The Parkyn Table", intended for use in suggestive therapeutics and osteopathic treatment. The first table produced was placed in the Chicago School of Psychology as a demonstration model for students and visiting physicians. The table soon became recommended equipment for practitioners of suggestive therapeutics and osteopathy throughout the United States.
Correspondence course in suggestive therapeutics
In 1898, Parkyn released a mail course in Suggestive Therapeutics and Hypnotism, a comprehensive correspondence program designed for students who could not attend the Chicago School of Psychology in person. Presented as the first complete system of instruction in suggestive therapeutics, the course represented more than a year of preparation and was based on Parkyn's treatment of over 5,000 clinical cases. It provided a means for physicians, teachers, and lay students across the United States and abroad to study the school's teachings through mail-order lessons. The course consisted of forty-one detailed lessons totaling nearly four hundred pages and was described at the time as unlike anything previously published on suggestive therapeutics. Parkyn's instruction emphasized precision and practicality. Students were trained not only in what to say during treatment but in how and when to say it. He stressed the importance of simplicity, directness, and confidence in delivering suggestions, warning against exaggerated or mystical phrasing. Tone, rhythm, repetition, and the mental attitude of the operator were presented as key elements in producing successful results. Throughout the lessons, Parkyn insisted that suggestion was a scientific process, not a mystical art, and that it could be practiced without trance states or altered consciousness.
The Mail Course quickly gained recognition among medical and psychological circles for its clarity and thoroughness. Doctors and students praised its practical approach, many claiming it surpassed the earlier works of Hippolyte Bernheim and Charles Lloyd Tuckey in explaining the theory and method of suggestion in plain, systematic language. In the course, Parkyn taught that all physical conditions originate in mental states and that thought itself is vibratory in nature. Suggestions, tones, and even colors could be used to restore the body's vital harmony, which he summed up in his central maxim, "Thought takes form in action." He explained that the mind operates through two corresponding faculties, the active, voluntary mind and the passive, involuntary mind, and that true healing occurs when these two are brought into proper polarity. He further taught that mental change requires repetition and rhythm, mirroring nature's own cyclical order. Habit, illness, and recovery all followed rhythmic patterns, and suggestion worked by reestablishing those rhythms in a healthy direction. Parkyn rejected fatalism and hereditary determinism, teaching instead that disease and failure arise from mental causes that can be identified and reversed through right thought and directed suggestion. The Mail Course extended the reach of the Chicago School of Psychology far beyond its physical classrooms, allowing thousands of students to study Parkyn's system from home. It became one of the most influential correspondence courses of its kind and helped establish suggestive therapeutics as both a legitimate science and a practical method for mental and physical healing.
"Thought takes form in action" One of Parkyn's most widely repeated maxims was the phrase "Thought takes form in action." It became a defining statement of his system of Suggestive Therapeutics and appeared throughout his teachings, including extensive use in his A Mail Course in Suggestive Therapeutics and Hypnotism. Parkyn employed the phrase to express the principle that mental states, once impressed upon the involuntary mind, inevitably manifest outwardly in behavior, bodily function, and everyday life. Through its repeated use across a wide network of New Thought authors, suggestion-based journals, and affiliated schools, the phrase became one of the most widely recognized statements in early American mental science. As advertising schools, business colleges, and salesmanship institutes began to formalize psychological training in the early twentieth century, many drew directly from 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. Building on this momentum, Parkyn's phrase was adapted 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 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."
Chicago School on personal magnetism, magnetic healing, and distant treatment
Parkyn acknowledged that among all related fields, none had drawn more interest than Magnetism and Telepathic distant healing. He chose to address both by devoting a chapter to each in his course. While noting that these fields were still in their infancy, he allowed that future technological developments might one day detect how magnetic energy could influence the mind and aid healing. However, he emphasized that, at present, the observable results attributed to these practices were entirely due to suggestion. On Personal Magnetism, Parkyn said it was a matter of pleasing the five senses and satisfying the caprices of those with whom one comes in contact. That "personal magnetism is a delicate consideration for others, a kind of cultivated sympathy to the feelings, likes and dislikes of those with which we come in contact, a subjugating of the self in every direction that would be distasteful to the feelings of another." But ultimately it is created by suggestion, stating "Thoughts take form in action. The converse of this is true also, for our actions take form in the thoughts of others...Think the right thoughts and desirable actions will follow."
Regarding Magnetic Healing and distant treatments, Parkyn demonstrated that these methods were essentially forms of Suggestive Therapeutics. He cited the common practice among such healers of instructing patients to "lie down several times a day, relax all over, and rivet their attention upon any part of the body which is in trouble, claiming that by so doing the circulation flows freely to that part and heals it." To this, Parkyn responded, "What is this but a very sensible and potent suggestion?" He also included a letter from a former student who had become a Magnetic Healer. In it, the student acknowledged that his healing technique was fundamentally Suggestive Therapeutics, but noted that framing it as magnetic force made the curative idea more persuasive to patients, thereby enhancing the suggestion's effect on the involuntary mind. Parkyn endorsed this dynamic and explored it more directly in 1899 with his patented invention of "The Magnetic Healing Cup," a device which he promoted as both a scientific instrument and a controlled experiment in applied psychic research. The cup was developed as a tool to test whether a physical object could enhance the therapeutic effects of suggestion by providing patients with a tangible medium through which belief and expectation could be concentrated. Parkyn distributed the cups free of charge from offices at 4000 Cottage Grove Avenue, as part of a structured effort to collect feedback on their use. The Magnetic Healing Cup, marketed as "The last and greatest discovery of the nineteenth century."
Parkyn originated several methods for inducing the suggestive state that were taught at the school. Parkyn developed several original and effective methods for inducing the suggestive state that were taught at the Chicago School of Psychology and in his mail course book. One involved striking a match and having the subject stare at the flame until it nearly burned out, repeating this three times. On the third match, the subject was told their eyes would become stuck shut after closing them and in most cases they could not reopen them, soon entering a deep suggestive state. Another method required the subject to hold both hands in front of their face and slowly count each fingernail from one little finger to the other, inducing drowsiness or sleep by the tenth finger. A third technique had the subject hold a pencil in their teeth and run their gaze slowly up and down its polished surface. Combining these techniques with simple verbal suggestions such as "your eyelids are very heavy, you are very drowsy, you are going to sleep. Sleep-sleep-sleep," it would swiftly complete the induction.
The many methods for inducing hypnotism taught at the Chicago School of Psychology.
Parkyn's "life essentials"
Central to Parkyn's system of suggestive therapeutics, as taught at the Chicago School of Psychology, was his principle of the "life essentials." He defined these as five natural requirements necessary for health, namely fresh air, sunshine, water, food, and exercise. He taught that while thought could influence bodily functions, this power depended on the proper supply of these essentials, stating that "thought tends to take form in action, and, with the life essentials properly supplied, thought action becomes a power."
"Two quart a day habit" At the time, this framing of "life essentials" was novel and Parkyn was the first in the West to promote the drinking of water as a fundamental necessity for health. He emphasized it as one of the most vital of the "life essentials" and asserted that well-being depended largely on its proper use. Parkyn specified that the proper amount of water to drink daily was two quarts. To reinforce this practice, he developed a series of auto-suggestions designed to instill what he called the "Two Quart a Day Habit.".
Hermetic doctrine of the