The Material Question

‘The following is approximately what was paid:

Half the cost of a large property plus a substantial sum towards the purchase of a small adjacent property.
The entire cost of the initial outfitting and installation of the Institute including:
Repairs, alterations, and putting of the property into shape.
Purchase of miscellaneous materials, tools and agricultural machinery; instruments and apparatus for the medical section, etc.
Purchase of live­stock—horses, cows, sheep, pigs, poultry, etc.
To all this was added the considerable cost of the construction, fitting out and decoration of a building intended among other things for the exercises of movements and for demonstrations—a building called by some the Study House and by others the Theatre.
Finally, I succeeded during this period, even while providing for the needs of guests and pupils of the Institute, in paying back part of the loan I had contracted.

‘One of the best sources of income during these months was the psychological treatment of certain difficult cases of alcoholism and drug addiction. I was widely considered one of the best specialists in this field, and the families of these unfortunates sometimes offered me very substantial sums for giving up my time to them.

‘I remember especially a rich American couple who entrusted me with their son, judged to be incurable, and who spontaneously doubled the agreed fee in their joy at his cure.

‘In addition, I went into partnership with some businessmen, and undertook with them a number of financial ventures. I made a considerable profit, for instance, from the resale, at an unexpectedly good price, of a whole block of oil shares.

‘I made two profitable business deals with a partner by opening, one after the other, two restaurants in Montmartre, which I organized in a few weeks and sold as soon as they were well launched.

‘It even seems strange to me how easily I can now enumerate the results of my efforts during that period, when I remember how they were always accompanied by inner experiences disturbing the whole of me and demanding an incredible tension of my forces.

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