Sidney Abram Weltmer

Sidney Abram Weltmer
"Prof. S. A. Weltmer" taken from the online book "Seven Steps in the Life of Prof. S. A. Weltmer" (1906) from Grace Mann Brown (1859-1925)"
Born	Sidney Abram Weltmer Jul. 7, 1858 Wooster, Ohio
Died	Dec. 6, 1930 Nevada, Missouri
Resting place	Newton Burial Park, Nevada, Vernon County, Missouri, United States
Residence	Nevada, Missouri
Known for	Weltmerism, Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics
Home town	Nevada, Vernon County, Missouri, United States
Spouse(s)	Mary Genoa (Adair) Stone, m. October 8, 1879
Children	5 : Cyrus Ernest (1880-1963), Silas Woodson (1882-1956), Stella Truman, Tracy Carleton and Beulah Ethel
Parent(s)	Abram Weltmer and Mrs. Catherine (Hull) Weltmer,
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Sidney Abram Weltmer (July 7, 1858 – December 6, 1930) was an author best known for the "Weltmer Method" (also known as "Weltmerism") and as founder of the Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics. Weltmer claimed his method could cure disease through suggestions and hypnosis, a practice he referred to as "magnetic healing".

Weltmer was a native of Wooster, Ohio. At the age of seven, his parents moved to Morgan County, Missouri, where he attended the public schools. He studied borrowed medical books in hopes of becoming a physician, and later devoted himself to the study of the Bible.

Weltmer was ordained and licensed to preach as a Baptist minister at 19 years old. He founded in 1885 a private educational institution at Akinsville, in Morgan County, Akiusville Normal School which he presided and conducted from 1885 to 1889. The school disbanded in 1889. In Sedalia, Missouri, he established and organized a public library and was librarian from 1893 until 1895, and also for two years was a professor in Robbins Business College in that city.

On October 8, 1879, Weltmer married Mary Genoa (Adair) Stone. They had five children. Weltmer was a Knights Templar (Freemasonry) and Thirty-second Degree Mason, an Elk, an Odd Fellow, a Knight of Pythias and an unoath-bound initiate in the fourth degree of Atlantian Mystics. Weltmer died in Nevada, Vernon County, Missouri on December 6, 1930 and was buried there.

Weltmer founded the Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics on February 19, 1897. The institute provided rooms for patients and offered instructional classes in thought transference and "magnetic healing" that Weltmer promoted as a combination of clairvoyance and hypnotic suggestion that could allegedly cure diseases such as asthma and tobacco addiction. A ten-day course cost $100.

The institute was dissolved in 1933 shortly after his death and the building was sold to a funeral institute. In 2005, the building was demolished to make place for new buildings. His son, Ernest continued the Weltmer Magazine up till his own death.