Evelyn Arthur See

Evelyn Arthur See (April 15, 1863 - July 27, 1942) was an American New Thought teacher and founder of Absolute Life, which was described as being a "Junior Commonwealth," consisting mainly of young female disciples, who studied See's brand of Christian mysticism at 2541 Racine Ave. in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1911, See was arrested and tried for "contributing to delinquency" of two disciples &mdash; Mona Rees, a twenty-four-year-old high priestess, and Mildred Bridges, a seventeen-year-old &mdash; being ultimately convicted of "enticing an unmarried female (Bridges) from her parents' home for the purpose of prostitution" and sentenced to an "indeterminant sentence of from one to ten years," which he began to serve in February 1913. Rees and the Bridges' petitioned the Illinois courts through 1913, seeking a re-hearing to overturn the conviction and later a pardon, but both these were rejected; after serving forty-four months at the Joliet Prison (as Convict No. 2928), See was eventually paroled in October 1916 and relocated to Michigan (where he eventually retired to a poultry farm in Oshtemo).

See's Book of Truth

 * The prosecution at his 1911 trial stated that their experts found a "large portion's of See's book were taken verbatim or almost so, from the Mormon book." https://kansasstatehistoricalsociety.newspapers.com/clip/75484745/east-oregonian/

1911-'12








Legal Documentation

 * People v. See, Supreme Court of Illinois, 20 Feb. 1913 (Rehearing Denied): https://books.google.com/books?id=JvwKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA260
 * &mdash; the trial from the point of view of Rees and the members of Absolute Life