New Man, The.
A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Free Healing and the Mastery of Sin, Disease and Poverty Through the Orderly Development of Faculties Active or Latent in All Men / A Magazine Devoted to a Better Understanding of the Law of Sex, the Cure of Diseases by Magnetic, Mental, Psychic and Spiritual Forces, and the Development of All Higher Occult Powers Latent in All Men / A Magazine Devoted to Mental and Magnetic Healing, Suggestive Therapeutics, Personal Magnetism, and the Orderly Development of the Higher Forces Acive or Latent in All Men.
1895--1902 Monthly
Beloit, KS, then St. Louis, MO (November 1898-May 1899), then Lawrence, KS, then Omaha, NE. Publisher: New Man Publishing Co.. Editor: P. Braun, Ph.D. Succeeded by: Self-Culture
1/1, October 1895-1902. Fifty cents -$1.00 a year, 16-36 pp. The journal was suspended between May 1901 and April 1902.

The advertisement for the journal in Harmony in 1896 said that the journal was "devoted to Mental Science" and promised "a series of articles intended for home studies in Mental Science" and "articles on the Science of Healing of Mind and Body." It promised notably to supply "methods for the development of all the grand mental and spiritual possibilities lying dormant in all men." In his Errinerungen (1920), Braun (1864-1943) described the purpose of the journal as follows: "Ihre Aufgabe sollte es sein, Aufklarung zu geben uber die Geisteswissenschaft, das geistige Heilung und eine hohere geistige Entwicklung des Menschen." Braun was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1883. He held a variety of jobs as choir master, music teacher (he claimed a Ph.D.), and organist, during all of which he investigated spiritualism, Theosophy (which he regularly criticizes in the journal), Christian Science, Helen Wilmans' "affirmation of the I," the Rosicrucians, and many other occult groups. All were found wanting, primarily because they failed to offer a practical method by which spiritual development could be achieved. In the late 1890s he fell into the clutches of John E. Richardson's "Great Work," which promised exactly that--but when Richardson decamped for California with the group's funds in 1916, taking with him the latest of the underaged girls he had seduced--he married the last to prevent her testifying against him--Braun lost all faith in earthly teachers and ended up in Florida, disillusioned. From 1895 on, coincidently with the start of this journal, Braun contributed to and then edited Christliche Theosophie-->Gott mit uns-->Zum Licht! in Leipzig, which he made the organ of his Grail Order, a primary source of the infusion of practical New Thought occultism, especially in its sexual form, into Germany. Braun offered correspondence courses (in English and German) on telepathy, metal healing, health and harmony, power through self-culture, wealth, and success, all with the object of unfolding man's latent powers and achieving physical immortality. Braun's masterpiece, was the two-volume book The Mastery of Fate, the first volume of which was published in A.J. Swarts' Mental Science, and the second published in volume 2 of this journal. The lessons demonstrate participation in the sexual side of New Thought: Sex Power, its Control and Use, A series of nine articles on "Sex Power, its Control and Use," Sex in Evolution, Sex the Life Principle, Thought the Controlling Power of Sexual Desire, The Sex act, its Use and Abuse, Nude Contact, The Control of the Sexual Passion necessary for the highest Spiritual Development, etc., but the published teachings were limited to absolute sexual continence plus a mild form of affectionate caressing to arouse the sexual energy. Beyond these teachings there were private teachings that Braun advertised for communication by letter to members of his "Inner Circle." His series of five series of lessons (Psychometry, Mental Healing, Hypnotism, Clairvoyance and Telepathy, all for $20) constituted "an education in Occult Sciences now possible for all" and showed the way to partake of the "holy Euchrist" [sic] and experience "Divine Union" by membership in the Inner Circles: Knights of the Outer Court (for healing and success), Knights of the Inner Court (psychic powers), and Knights of the Holy Grail (for those "striving for the highest, for Divine Union"). The journal was almost entirely written by Braun himself, though for a time he included contributions by W.J. Colville, H.H. Brown ("Minister of Soul Culture & Psychometrist"), and, notably Carl Michelsen of Denmark, whose "Occult Stories" were then published by Braun as a book. Michelsen was an alchemist, Martinist, active member of the Union Idealiste Universelle, and founder of "Ideal Homes," a communitarian land-development in Alabama. The journal included the earliest versions of Braun's "Master's Way," "Mastery of Fate," "Occult Traps and Trappers," and other works later sold as pamphlets or books, and of his serialized novel "Our Angel in Heaven, or Love the Greatest of All." There were occasional supplements, including, in December 1902, a four-page flyer put out by Alberto de Sarak's Oriental Esoteric Centre in Washington. Advertisements for Peter Davidson's Morning Star, W.J. Colville's Faith and Hope Messenger, H.E. Butler's Esoteric and Occult and Biological Journal, Charles W. Close's Free Man, News E. Wood's Star of the Magi, Anagaraka Caskadananda and Charles W. Smiley's Occult Truths (Divine Alchemy and Higher Wisdom), Harry Gaze's Physical Immortality, Sarah Thacker's Logos Magazine, K.S.L. Guthrie's Prophet, Eleanor Kirk's Idea, Ione's monthly Esoteric Studies, Adiramled's serial lessons "The Art of Alchemy," Evelyn Arthur See's Higher Thought--all journals and lessons of mages who shared Braun's vision of the role of sexuality in personal and spiritual development. The journal was noted in Metaphysische Rundschau, July 1896, and in "List of Advance Thought Publications," The New Cycle, March 1900, 159-60, and advertised in The Occult and Biological Journal, 1902. The companion journal to this, published in German only, was Der Meister. Both journals were advertised in Peter Davidson's The Morning Star, August 1897, which may indicate some connection between the sexual interests of Davidson and those of Braun. In October 1900 Braun announced a new publication, Magnetic Health Journal, which seems to have been an advertising brochure for his medical practice rather than a journal proper. Brigham Young University; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; LOC; NYPL.

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