What is "mesmerism"? Principles of work and the reaction of society to the phenomenon

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Almost every one of us has heard something about hypnosis at least once. Yes, there’s almost… There are a lot of films about hypnotists in the cinema, a lot of shows have already appeared in which “hypnotists” tell the whole world about their superpowers on the air… Yes, and we ourselves often have a desire to take a magic stone, shake it in front of a person’s eyes, from whom we need something to make him act as we require, if only with the help of hypnosis. True, today you will not learn anything new about hypnosis. You will learn about a new phenomenon that is often compared to the previous one. In this article, we will tell you briefly about mesmerism, which people have heard much less often than about hypnosis.

What is "mesmerism"?

Mesmerism is the so-called theory of the German physician and healer Franz Anton Mesmer. Franz Mesmer - creator of the theory of animal magnetism. The roots of the psychoanalysis of mesmerism came precisely from him. Mesmer's theorywas that people practicing mesmerism (they were also called magnetizers) could transfer their magnetic energy to another person (sometimes more than one), thereby contributing to the improvement or, conversely, deterioration of his he alth. In the process of transferring magnetic energy between the magnetizer and the patient, a telepathic connection is established, and magnetic fluids are transmitted by touch directly or indirectly. Mesmerism is an influence on a person due to the transfer of animal magnetism (fluid). Mesmer believed that the flow of energy can be transmitted to both living and non-living objects and organisms. Such energy can act at any distance. You can increase the strength of the impact with the help of mirrors or sounds. Due to the uneven distribution of such a power fluid, it is possible to bring the patient to a deterioration in his condition. It is possible to cure a patient only if the fluid is evenly distributed.

First Practice of Mesmerism

Based on his theories, Mesmer developed a psychotherapeutic technique, the purpose of which was to treat patients through the transfer of that same animal magnetism, that is, fluid. This method of treatment was called "bake", which means "chan" in French. The name immediately revealed the secret of the main component of the reception. The patient (or even several patients) were located around a vat filled with water. Magnetized iron rods were inserted into special holes in the vat. During the admission process, patients were required to touch theserods and each other, creating a direction for the fluid. The healer-magnetizer himself concerned only the vat itself. In this way, he transmitted the fluid simultaneously to all patients. This was the first healing technique in mesmerism.

Negative comments about mesmerism

As is usually the case, the theory of mesmerism was not admired from the start. And after the failure of Mesmer's treatment of the court pianist Maria Teresa Paradise, everyone called him a charlatan and a deceiver. There were rumors about an intimate relationship between Mesmer and Paradise, all this was timed to coincide with the process of a special "treatment". Then for people, mesmerism was just tomfoolery and nothing more.

The pages of medical publications such as the Journal of Medicine and the He alth Paper were filled with satirical reviews of Mesmer's treatments. After such events, the medical faculty of the Sorbonne led the fight against all mesmerists. Under pressure from the same Sorbonne Faculty of Medicine, Louis XVI was forced to create two scientific commissions that discussed the possibility of the existence of animal fluids.

Positive feedback on mesmerism

After the failure of the treatment of the pianist Paradise, Mesmer was in therapy with the French banker Kornman. The Marquis de Lafayette spoke enthusiastically about Mesmer's gift in a letter he wrote to Washington. Thanks to the support that Mesmer managed to enlist from Marie Antoinette, he founded the Institute of Magnetism, where they treated patients. Positivereviews of mesmerism met more often than others when the era of Romanticism came, and the society was interested in everything that was unknown to it and could not be explained by scientific arguments. At the same time, Mesmer and his teachings had a fairly large number of followers. In Prussia, the king formed a commission that investigated the possibilities of magnetism.