CURRENT PROJECT

"Health & Happiness for All:"
The Life & Times of
"Dr." W.R. Price,
Hypnotist & "Entrepreneur"

Synopsis

“Dr.” William R. Price was an American itinerant hypnotist active at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His travels took him all over the southern United States and as far west as San Francisco. I will focus on his time in Long Beach, California (between 1904 and 1919) the longest phase of his career. While in Long Beach, he founded “The Society of New and Practical Psychology” and built a “Psychological Temple” to house it. These activities brought him into conflict with local clergy. Questionable real estate deals and mining promotions brought him into the local courts.

Price’s career will be discussed in the context of the development of popular hypnotism in the United States, the “New Thought” Movement, and the fluid social, economic and cultural environment of California in the early twentieth century.  The impact of his Appalachian origins on his thought and activities will also be evaluated.

Long Beach , 1908