This article is part of the ongoing research series:

About Abdullah: “The Wall Street Priest David B” – Neville Goddard Research

The previous article investigates parallels between Neville Goddard’s mysterious David B., the Catholic priest who reportedly lost two million dollars on Wall Street and introduced Neville to Abdullah and the figure behind the 1929 metaphysical text The Message of a Master. In John McDonald’s tale, the protagonist also encounters a transformative teacher after suffering financial ruin—mirroring the “Wall Street crash to spiritual awakening” narrative found in Neville’s origin story.

Also read for free:

The Message of a Master (1929) by John McDonald

Next in series: Coming Soon – Who is David B.?

In the metaphysical circles of California in the 1920s, where success and business ambitions brushed shoulders with mysticism, and the Great Depression had not yet fully pulled the rug out from beneath millions, a book quietly appeared: The Message of a Master.

Published in 1929, this slim volume promised not just enlightenment, but results. It came wrapped in narrative form: a disheartened seeker meets a Master. Slowly, he transforms. The book became a silent bestseller in esoteric circles.

It was credited to John McDonald. But the copyright? That belonged to Anna Deo McDonald. And that was only the beginning of the riddle.

To unravel this, we have to follow a trail of newspaper ads, lecture announcements, copyright filings, and enough metaphysical marketing to make even Napoleon Hill blush. We find a book credited to John McDonald but copyrighted by Anna Deo McDonald. We find whispers of David “B”, a Catholic priest with a fortune lost on Wall Street. Perhaps, the very same man who introduced Neville Goddard to the Ethiopian rabbi Abdullah. We find a story traveling from the San Francisco metaphysical scene to the hands of New Thought enthusiasts across America. And somewhere in all this, we find the strangest question of all: was The Message of a Master a biography, a parable, a sales pitch, or just an early version of fake it till you make it?

Themes of John McDonald’s lectures revolved around applying “Christ Principles” to business, achieving financial freedom, and overcoming adversity with mind power—very common themes in the New Thought movement. Especially in San Francisco, California in the late 19th century. Between 1928 and 1934, McDonald lectured at metaphysical libraries and unity centers in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles.

Spiritual entrepreneurs like Jay Williams Cook and Elizabeth Carrick, who ran the Absolute Science Center, or Frank Waller Allen delivered “practical lectures” on metaphysical success in those studios and centers. San Francisco’s Metaphysical Library, located at 177 Post Street, was on McDonald’s itinerary, as was Hackley Hall in Santa Cruz and Unity Centers across the state.

It’s interesting to note that the Metaphysical Library and Book Shop at 177 Post Street in San Francisco was as a nucleus for spiritual seekers, mystics, and metaphysical lecturers. Some of the names of influential New Thought and metaphysical teachers, around the time (1927-1930) of McDonald’s book included Christian D. Larson (Mental Science pioneer and New Thought author), Walter C. Lanyon (former foreign correspondent turned Christian mystic, known for revelation-based writings and connections to Father Divine), Marc Edmund Jones (esoteric philosopher, astrologer, and Kabbalist—often called the “Dean of American Astrology”), Garland Anderson (African American playwright and self-made New Thought lecturer), Anna P. Josselyn, Anita Carolyn Rouse, Frank Waller Allen, and James E. Dodds.

Their lecture titles reveal a cultural obsession with inner mastery and esoteric transformation: “The Strong Man’s Prayer,” “Prosperity Consciousness,” “Dynamic Idealism,” “The Outward and Visible Signs of a Master,” “What Is Forgiveness?” and “Reincarnation.” Walter C. Lanyon, notably, was author of Abd Allah, Teacher, Healer (1921), a metaphysical allegory that, like Message of a Master, centers on a most likely fictional spiritual teacher named Abd Allah. These lectures coincided with the rising popularity of Baird T. Spalding’s Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East—officially published in 1924 by California Press at 300 Broadway in San Francisco, the same press that would later print B.J. McDonald’s Message of a Master. While Neville Goddard would go on to call Spalding a fraud, the appetite for “Master” figures—Eastern or Western, real or mythologized—was central to the West Coast esoteric climate. That McDonald and his wife Anna Deo were living in California by 1916, and that McDonald later gave lectures in metaphysical libraries himself, suggests he was part of or adjacent to this esoteric publishing-and-speaking circuit at a time when the concept of a spiritual Master—whether Spalding’s, Lanyon’s, or Neville’s later in the 1930s—was reaching cultural saturation.

For some background about the San Francisco scene, among the early shapers of this West Coast spiritual culture was Annie Rix Militz (Prosperity Through the Knowledge of Power and Mind), one of the founders of the New Thought movement and a direct student of Emma Curtis Hopkins—the “teacher of teachers.” Militz and her sister Harriet Hale Rix established the San Francisco-based Home of Truth in the late 1880s, teaching a metaphysical Christianity focused on the healing message of Jesus Christ. While Annie traveled and taught widely, Harriet remained in San Francisco, where the center continued operating into the 1930s, publishing Master Mind magazine (1911–1933), offering women-led services, and hosting weekly Men’s Meetings—making it one of the few spiritual spaces where men and women both found a metaphysical home. The reason for mentioning Home of Truth is that one of McDonald’s ads at the Metaphysical Library mentions about the book lecture, “telling how the Message came to be written, giving a detailed account of his success with it and proving by evidence in his possession that the teachings of Jesus are practicable and can be made profitable in business and all human affairs.”

A Salesman Walks Into a Metaphysical Library

Benjamin John McDonald (b. 1888, though the census records, draft registration, death certificate and tombstone argue it is 1882*) was not always a man of spiritual pronouncements. From 1926 to 1927, he was advertising Burroughs and Dalton adding machines in Redwood City Tribune and The Peninsula Times Tribune in Palo Alto, California. He was a salesman. Census records confirm. But by 1928, he was standing behind a podium at the San Francisco Metaphysical Library, delivering lectures with titles like:

“Why Successful People Succeed”

“How It Worked With Me”

“The Secret of Doing Big Things”

“What I Did and How I Did It”

“Business and Financial Success”

“Non-Possession”

From Santa Cruz to Oakland, Los Angeles to Eugene, Oregon, the name “John McDonald” circulated. He gave talks in metaphysical libraries, Unity centers and studios of philosophical and absolute truth. These were spaces other speakers like Frank Waller Allen, Jay Williams Cook, and Elizabeth Carrick lectured.

Newspaper ads billed him as “John McDonald, former salesman and “not a professional speaker, but a man of commercial activities.” There is a gap of 2 years in 1931 and 1932. A few lectures in 1933 and in 1934, these lectures vanished. Did McDonald return to the world of business? All we know is that Census records in 1940 show him living in Los Angeles with his adult son (an airplane mechanic), and Benjamin John McDonald was again listed as a salesman.

He died in 1957 and was cremated at Forest Lawn, the Disneyland of California cemeteries.

The Copyright Puzzle: Anna Deo McDonald

One of the most glaring oddities surrounding The Message of a Master is its copyright. The book is credited on its title page to John McDonald, but copyright records from January 16, 1928 list Anna Deo McDonald as the official copyright holder. The registration lists her address as 202 Nagle Ave, San Jose, California, and the book was first published on the 9th of January in 1928.

Who was Anna Deo McDonald?

Born Anna Deo Shultz on July 3, 1897, in Springfield, Illinois, she married Benjamin John McDonald (1888–1957) in San Francisco on June 26, 1916. The couple had two children: Benjamin John McDonald Jr. (1918–1971) and Frances Virginia McDonald Hubbard (1919–1963). By 1938, their marriage ended in divorce, with Anna remarrying and working as a playground instructor in Los Angeles.

Yet her name remained on the copyright of the book that would become John’s calling card.

Why?

Was she the actual author?

Did she transcribe or co-write the material while he delivered the lectures?

Was the book a partnership that ended with the partnership?

The evidence suggests the latter.

Who Wrote The Message of a Master? Let’s Look at Gendered Voice

The Message of a Master (1928 not 1929 as recorded) was a deeply structured New Thought manual wrapped in a fictional (possibly) transformation story. Here’s a short breakdown to see if this book was written by a man, a woman, or both.

From the outset, The Message of a Master is structured in a masculine-coded “success parable” format:

“You are indeed a fortunate man. Just think of the millions of gifted, highly talented people… who go on striving and straining… only to find themselves dissatisfied, discouraged, disheartened…”

The rhetorical scaffolding throughout the text resembles the language of business sales letters, confidence-building seminars, and masculine self-help tracts of the 1920s.

There is a commanding tone: “You must”, “You are to”, “I will tell you”, “operating in the market”, “mastery,” all signaling a male entrepreneurial identity. Seems like a male author steeped in business and metaphysical self-help circles—especially someone like Benjamin John McDonald, who was, as newspaper clippings confirm, a salesman of Dalton Adding Machines in 1926–27.

The list of 36 “power words” for evening meditation—including PEACE, HARMONY, HEALTH, DOMINION—is reminiscent of Unity Church’s daily affirmations and Christian D. Larson’s The Pathway of Roses. And the cautious advice to avoid declaring “I am Power” unless in a positive frame of mind reflects a psychological nuance more common in early female New Thought writers like Myrtle Fillmore.

This rhythmic, devotional instruction contrasts sharply with the outer masculine narrative of business success and overcoming hardship. These tonal shifts point to two minds at work: a public speaker and a private metaphysician. A lecturer and a literary craftswoman.

But What About Anna Deo?

Certain sections show softer, interiorized, and relational phrasing. Those are found often in female-authored New Thought texts, especially those with roots in Unity and Absolute Science.

“You are to practice this system every evening as regularly and diligently as your affairs will permit and then forget them entirely until the next evening. They will be doing their work below the surface unknown to you, but their effects will show forth in you and your affairs.”

This phrasing is calm, reassuring, and suggests a Unity-style devotional cadence, not a business pitch. This specific metaphor, “words to sink in and penetrate your being and like drops of pure water” is nearly identical to Elizabeth Carrick Cook’s gentler metaphysical prose, and echoes Mary Baker Eddy’s and Myrtle Fillmore’s feminine approach to daily healing.

…all strongly suggest an editorial or authorial presence with deep exposure to Unity Church teachings—a group where women not only participated but led.

But a copyright being in Anna Deo’s name in 1928 is no small thing in a patriarchal publishing world. It hints that she may have been the editor or co-author of the material, even if her husband was the public face.

It is pretty reasonable to conclude that The Message of a Master was written by both Benjamin John and Anna Deo McDonald. A collaboration between husband and wife, reflective of the dynamics of the time. He was the speaker, the brand; she, perhaps, the pen and conscience.

John might have said, “What I Did and How I Did It.” and Anna might have whispered, Non-Possession.

Benjamin John McDonald & Anna Deo McDonald: Organized Research Summary

Recurring Lecture Titles

• “Why Successful People Succeed”
• “How It Worked With Me”
• “The Secret of Doing Big Things”
• “What I Did and How I Did It”
• “Business and Financial Success”
• “Non-Possession”

Themes of His Lectures

• Applying “Christ Principles“ to business and daily affairs
• Personal success and leadership
• Practical metaphysical teachings on wealth and prosperity
• The message behind his book, The Message of a Master
• Overcoming adversity and achieving financial freedom

Chronology of Public Mentions & Activities

1934

• Dec 01– The Oregonian (Portland, OR) – Spoke at Pythian Hall
• Nov 3 – The Oregonian (Portland, OR) – Spoke at Unity Church, identified as a former salesman
• Oct 13 – Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA) – Lecture at Metaphysical Studio, 17th & Harrison Street, “Absolute Truth”
• Sep 29 – Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA) – Lecture at Metaphysical Studio, 17th & Harrison Street, “Absolute Truth”

1932

• Dec 3 – Los Angeles Evening Post-Record (Los Angeles, CA) – Connected to Trinity Metaphysical Library
• Nov 26 – Los Angeles Evening Post-Record (Los Angeles, CA) – Lecture at Unity Center

1931

• No public records found.

1930

• No public records found.

1929

• Dec 6 – The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) – Lodge removal
• Jun 22 – The Oakland Post Enquirer (Oakland, CA) – Oakland Metaphysical Library (532 Sixteenth Street)
• Jun 22 – Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA) – Oakland Metaphysical Library (532 Sixteenth Street)
• Jun 8 – The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) – San Francisco Metaphysical Library & Book Shop (177 Post Street)
• Jun 1 – The Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, OR) – Church of Truth (405 Yamhill Street)
• Jun 1 – The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) – San Francisco Metaphysical Library & Book Shop (177 Post Street)
• May 3 – Santa Cruz Evening News (Santa Cruz, CA) – Benefit for Church Street Metaphysical Library
• Apr 27 – Los Angeles Evening Citizen News (Hollywood, CA) – Lecture at “Studio of Philosophy”
• Apr 20 – Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA) – Unity lecture
• Mar 30 – Pasadena Star-News (Pasadena, CA) – Church of Truth
• Feb 16 – Santa Cruz Sentinel (Santa Cruz, CA) – Hackley Hall lectures
• Feb 16 – Santa Cruz Evening News (Santa Cruz, CA) – Hackley Hall lectures
• Jan 12 – The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) – The Absolute Science Center
• Jan 12 – Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA) – Metaphysical Library

1928

• Dec 8 – The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) – Metaphysical Library

Copyright Information for The Message of a Master

Author: Anna Deo McDonald
Copyright Owner: Anna Deo McDonald
Address: 202 Nagle Ave, San Jose, CA
Stamped Date: Feb 8, 1928
Application Received: Jan 16, 1928
Affidavit Received: Jan 17, 1928
Executed Copyright No.: C1A1063541C
First Published: Jan 9, 1928
Fee Paid: $1.00
Stamp: “COPIES RETURNED”

Biographical Details Anna Deo McDonald (Born Shultz)

Born: July 3, 1897, Springfield, Sangamon, Illinois, USA

Marriage: June 26, 1916, San Francisco, CA (to Benjamin John McDonald)

Divorce: Granted 1938 (Los Angeles, CA)

Residence:

• 1900 – Capitol Township, Springfield, IL
• 1920 – San Francisco, CA
• 1930 – Los Angeles, CA
• 1940 – Los Angeles, CA (Remarried to Lepeteire, working as a playground instructor)

Death: Dec 11, 1983, Los Angeles, CA

Burial: 1983, Glendale, CA

Parents: Jesse Woodson Shultz & Lina May Billington

Children:

• Benjamin John McDonald (Jr.) Benjamin John McDonald Jr. January 11, 1918 Died: June 13, 1971 (aged 53)
• Frances Virginia Hubbard (née McDonald) – Frances V. McDonald, daughter of Anna Deo Shultz, died on August 14, 1963, in Los Angeles, California. Frances Virginia McDonald Hubbard was born in 1919 and married Willard Carman Hubbard on October 16, 1939 in Los Angeles.

Benjamin John “B.J.” McDonald

Born: Nov 18, 1888* (1882), Chicago, IL

Parents: Richard McDonald (Ireland) & Frances Martin (Ireland)

Marriage: June 26, 1916, San Francisco, CA (to Anna Deo Shultz)

Residence:

• 1920 – San Francisco, CA
• 1930 – Los Angeles, CA
• 1940 – Los Angeles, CA (Occupation: Machinery Salesman)

Occupation:

• 1927 – Salesman for Dalton Adding Machines (Palo Alto, CA)
• 1934 – Former Salesman, Metaphysical Speaker

Children:

• Benjamin John McDonald (Jr.)
• Frances Virginia Hubbard (née McDonald)

References

Newspapers

• Fresno Bee (Fresno, CA) – Aug 14, 1932, p.4
• Los Angeles Evening Citizen News (Hollywood, CA) – Apr 27, 1929, p.5
• Los Angeles Evening Post-Record (Los Angeles, CA) – Nov 26, 1932, p.5
• Los Angeles Evening Post-Record (Los Angeles, CA) – Dec 3, 1932, p.5
• Oakland Post Enquirer (Oakland, CA) – Jun 22, 1929, p.37
• Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA) – Jan 12, 1929, pp.6 & 8
• Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA) – Jun 22, 1929, p.6
• Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA) – Sep 29, 1934, p.7
• Oakland Tribune (Oakland, CA) – Oct 13, 1934, p.7
• Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, OR) – Jun 1, 1929, pp.5 & 14
• The Oregonian (Portland, OR) – Nov 3, 1934, p.11
• Pasadena Star-News (Pasadena, CA) – Mar 30, 1929, p.10
• Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA) – Apr 20, 1929, p.6
• San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) – Jan 12, 1929, p.8
• San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) – Jun 1, 1929, p.8
• San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) – Jun 8, 1929, p.12
• San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) – Dec 6, 1929, p.36
• San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) – Dec 8, 1928, p.6
• Santa Cruz Evening News (Santa Cruz, CA) – Feb 16, 1929, p.2
• Santa Cruz Evening News (Santa Cruz, CA) – May 3, 1929, p.7
• Santa Cruz Sentinel (Santa Cruz, CA) – Feb 16, 1929, pp.4 & 5

Book Editions & Publishers

• The Message of a Master was first published in 1928 by California Press, with copyright registered to Anna Deo McDonald.
• Later republished by Devorss & Co., a major metaphysical publisher known for printing works by Neville Goddard and Baird T. Spalding.
• Note, Neville himself criticized Spalding as a fraud, adding irony to their shared publisher lineage.

Archives & Genealogical Records

• U.S. Census Records (1920–1940), California Vital Records
• Copyright Registration: The Message of a Master (1928), U.S. Copyright Office
• Burial Records: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, CA

*Benjamin John McDonald’s reported birth year fluctuates across historical documents. In the 1900 U.S. Census (enumerated June 2), he is listed as 16 years old, born November 1883. His World War I draft registration (June 5, 1917) states his birthdate as November 18, 1886, and his age as 30. His 1916 San Francisco marriage certificate lists him as 28, suggesting a birth year of 1887 or 1888. In the 1920 Census (January 2), he is recorded as 31 (implying a birth year of 1888); in the 1930 Census (April 12), he is listed as 37 (implying 1892 or 1893), employed at a music house; and in the 1940 Census (April 1), he is listed as 51 (implying 1888 or 1889), working as a salesman. His death certificate, dated December 27, 1957, records his birth as November 18, 1882, and age as 75, with his daughter Francis named as the informant. His gravestone confirms the 1882–1957 range. These variations—spanning 1882 to 1893—suggest a pattern of shifting self-reported ages, clerical inconsistencies, or both, complicating efforts to definitively fix his birth year.

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