SHAFTESBURY, Edmund "Transference of Thought" [Martyn College Press, 1896]

SHAFTESBURY, Edmund. Transference of Thought A Scientific Demonstration of its Existence, and the Laws and Methods of its Operation. Including Also a Course of Lessons in the Study and Practice of Thought Transference in Individual Lives.

Washington, DC: Martyn College Press, 1896. Second Edition. 9.25" x 6.5", 272pp with a handful of in text illustrations. Peach cloth with black titling and silver decorations. Owner's name and class number written on page 5 (as instructed by the book). Cloth rubbed at extremities. Several page corners torn. Cloth somewhat soiled. Hinges secure. Good+.

A prominent figure in the late-19th-century self-improvement and occult movements, Edmund Shaftesbury blended pseudo-scientific psychology, elocution training, and “personal magnetism” into a vast mail-order system that later evolved into his Ralston Health Club. Transference of Thought reflects his belief that mental influence operated according to discoverable laws and could be cultivated through disciplined physical and behavioral routines. Issued during his Washington, D.C. period, when he was actively teaching at Martyn College, the work captures the formative phase of the doctrines that would underpin his later Ralston and Dawn communities.