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Animal magnetism

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Animal magnetism (French: magnétisme animal) is also known eponymously as mesmerism after Franz Mesmer who postulated the existence of a magnetic fluid or ethereal medium as a therapeutic agent.

"Animal magnetism"

The (conventional) English term animal magnetism translates Mesmer's magnétisme animal. Mesmer chose the word "animal" for its root meaning (from Latin animus = "soul"), specifically to identify his force/power as a quality residing in the bodies of the animate beings (humans and animals). Mesmer chose his term to clearly distinguish his variant of magnetic force from those which were referred to, at that time, as mineral magnetism, cosmic magnetism and planetary magnetisms.

The term's most common usage today is to refer to a person's sexual attractiveness or raw charisma.

"Mesmerism"

A tendency emerged amongst British magnetizers to call their clinical techniques mesmerism in order to distance themselves from the magnetic-fluid-centered theoretical orientation of animal magnetism.

However, many scientific practioners - such as French physician, anatomist, gynecologist, and pupil of Joseph Philippe François Deleuze (1753-1835), Théodore Léger (1799-1853), who had moved to Texas around 1836 -- found the label "mesmerism" to be "most improper".

Noting that, by 1846, the term Galvanism had been replaced by electricity, and seemingly unaware that Mesmer himself never used the term mesmerism, Léger argued that:

Royal Commission

The existence of Mesmer's magnetic fluid was scientifically examined by a French Royal Commission set up by Louis XVI in 1784. The Commmission included Majault, Benjamin Franklin, Jean Sylvain Bailly, J. B. Le Roy, Sallin, Jean Darcet, de Borey, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, Antoine Lavoisier, Poissonnier, Caille, Mauduyt de la Varenne, Andry, and de Jussieu.

Whilst the Commission agreed that the cures claimed by Mesmer were indeed cures, the commission also concluded there was no evidence of the existence of his magnetic fluid, and that its effects derived from either the imaginations of its subjects or through charlatanry.

Mesmerism and hypnosis

Abbé Faria, or Abbé (Abbot) José Custódio de Faria, (May 30, 1746 - September 20, 1819), was a colourful Indo-Portuguese monk who was one of the pioneers of the scientific study of hypnotism, following on from the work of Franz Anton Mesmer. Unlike Mesmer, who claimed that hypnosis was mediated by "animal magnetism", Faria understood that it worked purely by the power of suggestion. In the early 19th century, Abbé Faria introduced oriental hypnosis to Paris.

He was the first to affect a breach in the theory of the "magnetic fluid," to place in relief the importance of suggestion, and to demonstrate the existence of "autosuggestion."

Mesmerism and hypnosis (as the term is now understood) have nothing in common except their shared historical roots, and the experience of the mesmerized subject is significantly different from that of the hypnotized subject.

Mesmerism and Spiritual Healing Practices

Mesmerism shares with practices such as reiki and qi gong a concept of life force or energy. However, the practical and theoretical positions of such practices are on whole substantially different from those of mesmerism.

Notes

References

  • Lèger, T. [sic], Animal Magnetism; or, Psycodunamy, D. Appleton, (New York), 1846 [N.B. author is Théodore Léger (1799—1853)].

See also

External links



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