Harraden's Herald of Hypnotism and Healing.
A Magazine for Practical Hypnotists and Healers.
Other titles: Harraden's Hypnotic Journal
1900? Bi-monthly
Jackson, MI. Publisher: L.A. Harraden Publishing Company.

2/3 is May 1900, and is almost certainly the only issue ever published (the publisher was incorporated in 1900 and first appears in the local business directories the same year). 32 pp., $1.00 a year. This was the accompaniment of Harraden's "Twenty Lessons in Hypnotism -- Richly Illustrated." The journal touted itself as "tied to no theory and bound to no cause save that of promoting the welfare of man," but its purpose was patently more mercenary. It was designed to teach students (and prospective students) the practical means of turning a knowledge of hypnosis into a profitable consulting/healing business or into a successful stage career. It featured practical articles on "How to Advertise Hypnotic Exhibitions," women as hypnotists, "Hints to Healers," and the like, and prominently displayed specimen handbills to be distributed in each town and sample news items to be planted in the local newspapers on the wonders of the budding hypnotist who (undoubtedly) had competed Harraden's courses. Practically, the journal served to extract a continuing stream of income from students of Harraden's lessons and to build a mail-order address list for the full range of Harraden's other products, like Vibro Discs, Vibro Tablets, Vibro Oil, etc.

As John Buescher and Marc Demarest have discovered, between the years 1899-1904, Harraden (real name Stewart Malcolm Watson, 1871-1954) was a prototypical mail-order hypnotist, hawking his lessons on hypnotism and how to become a stage hypnotist, although there is no indication he was ever a public performer (under that name, at least). If he appeared on the stage, it wasn't as Harraden or Watson. He was a cagey advertiser, often promoting his wares in different advertisements on the same page of a magazine under different names. He drops from public view about 1910 and by 1930 is reduced to working as a furniture salesman.

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