W. P. (William Pike) Phelon (1834-1904) was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, and died in San Francisco, California. He was the son of Benjamin Phelon, a Free Will Baptist minister, who moved with his family to the United States in 1835. In 1865, W. P. Phelon graduated with a medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Keokuk, Iowa (today known as the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa). He went on to practice medicine in Chicago and San Francisco, becoming interested in Christian Science while living in Chicago. In 1884, Phelon and his wife, M. M. (Mira M.) Phelon, studied Christian Science with Roger Sherman, a student of Mary Baker Eddy's. Shortly after studying with Sherman, the Phelons set up a metaphysical healing practice. In 1887, they founded an occult fraternity called The Hermetic Brotherhood of Atlantis, Luxor and Elephante, along with The Hermetic Publishing Company which published a monthly periodical called The Hermetist (1887-1899). W. P. Phelon remained as the head of the fraternity until his passing. There is no record of him studying with Mary Baker Eddy, joining the Christian Scientist Association, or uniting with the Church of Christ (Scientist).

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