The YPS History Project records the history and ideas behind the Society's books and authors. It also looks into some of the biggest questions about the
Yogi Publication Society and its publishing network.
Since the first
Yogi Ramacharaka books were published, readers have wondered who actually wrote them. The mystery grew as more books appeared under different names, especially
The Kybalion by the
Three Initiates, arguably the most debated question of authorship in twentieth-century occult literature.
Today, almost all official sources say that
William Walker Atkinson wrote the pseudonymous works published by the YPS. While Atkinson was clearly a key figure in the Society, this explanation requires believing he wrote 46 books in 6 years, sometimes as many as 15 in a single year, while also editing and writing for several magazines and serving as a top representative of the
New Thought movement.
Historical records also raise doubts about this idea. Testimony in court records from a 1919 postal authority investigation into the identities behind Yogi Ramacharaka and other YPS pen names stated that the books were the work of several people.
Authorship is only part of the mystery. The early history and ownership of the Yogi Publication Society are also unclear. Research by the YPS History Project shows the Society began at 4000 Cottage Grove Avenue in Chicago, in the offices of Dr.
Herbert A. Parkyn, who ran several publishing, educational, and correspondence-course businesses there.
Dr. Parkyn was one of America's most respected advocates of
Suggestive Therapeutics. He founded the
Chicago School of Psychology,
Suggestion magazine, and the University of Psychic Science. Atkinson was one of Parkyn's main protégés. He graduated from Parkyn's school, worked as his associate editor for Suggestion magazine, and represented the University of Psychic Science to the public. Parkyn helped start Atkinson's writing career by publishing his first book,
Thought=Force in Business and Everyday Life, and cultivated a well-crafted public persona around him that Parkyn promoted as "Atkinsonia."
Tracing their relationship, along with those of their associates, reveals a network of collaborators that appears across multiple affiliated publishing houses, magazines, schools,
Rosicrucian orders, and international corporations, all coordinating in a common mission centered on the Law of Suggestion and its potential to transform society.
