Introducing Mesmer: Therapeutic Pioneer

By Mark Dalton, 2021

Experimental Science
The Eighteenth Century was a wild time in human history. Revolutionary ideas
abounded in Western Civilization. Rational thinking and the scientific method
were starting to wrestle superstition and religious beliefs to the ground in some
ways, but in other ways, old wine appeared in new bottles – with new labels.
Mixed metaphors, old and new, were common.

In the fresh new field of experimental science, invisible phenomena held a lot of
fascination. Electricity and magnetism, for example, were invisible forces, but
they were capable of powerful, visible influence. How could this be? And what
uses could be made of these forces? Great minds of the eighteenth century
examined these phenomena, and pondered these questions, not infrequently
jumping ahead with answers based upon speculation and incomplete information.
But then, isn’t part of the scientific method the development and testing of
hypotheses? The movement of science toward answers is rarely the work of a
single individual. Proposed solutions must be reviewed by peers, and results
replicated to become part of the body of scientific knowledge. The generation
and documentation of phenomena is an important step, even if the explanation
for their existence is wrong.

Magnetism captured the attention of various Jesuit scholars in the late sixteenth
and early seventeenth centuries and continued well into the next. Their work had
its basis in that of Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt, a thirteenth century French
scholar who studied magnetism deeply, and wrote the first treatise on magnetism
which remained the standard work on the subject for several centuries.

This fascination with magnetism within the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) stretches
back to Leonardo Garzoni of Venice, who left a work on “Magnetic Nature”
unfinished at his death in 1562. This work was in turn picked up by Niccolo
Cabeo’s work on “Magnetic Philosophy,” published in 1629, which also
referenced Petrus Peregrini’s ground breaking work from the thirteenth century.
Cabeo was skeptical of “many marvelous properties attributed to the magnet,”

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but he acknowledged the possible influence of heavenly bodies on humans, a
belief which persisted well into the eighteenth century, as we will see. Athanasius
Kirchner was yet another important seventeenth century Jesuit proto-scientist
who dealt extensively with the presumed influences of magnetism, including
those ideas drifting over the border into “natural magic.” Nicolo Zucchi of Parma
and Vincent Leotaud are cited by Lynn Thorndike in his massive A History of Magic
and Experimental Science (1923) as two more influential Jesuits who considered
and wrote about “magnetic philosophy” leading into the eighteenth century. In
addition, while not a Jesuit, Georg Franck von Franckenau, Dean of Medicine at
the University of Heidelberg, published a work on “Magnetic Medicine” in 1679,
introducing a new, and important concept for our consideration. A concept that
was controversial from the very beginning, as, for example, Bartholomäus Anhorn
von Hartwiss, in his massive cautionary work Magiologia, A Christian Warning,
published in Basel in 1674, warned that “Magnetic Cures,” among other “shocking
sins,” are of the Devil and to be avoided!

In considering the intellectual ferment surrounding the young Doctor Mesmer

when he began his practice in Vienna, another related concept, applied to both
magnetism and electricity, was the idea of Fluids.

The idea of vital life forces flowing through the body is ancient, and yet remains
with us today. For example, with its roots in traditional Chinese culture, Chi (also
spelled qi) refers to a vital life force or energy that flows through all living beings.
It is the essence of existence in each of us, uniting the body, mind and spirit. It is
what makes us alive. Chinese traditional medicine is firmly rooted in bringing the
balance and flow of this energy into alignment. The Sanskrit word prana refers to
a similar belief in Hindu culture – a life force or vital principle that permeates
reality.

Thomas Willis, a seventeenth century English doctor and early neurologist,

identified “animal spirits” which he thought were a subtle and ethereal substance
which “constitutes the being of the corporeal soul.” Lynn Thorndike felt that the
hypothesis of such spirits in the human body was “deeply implanted and taken for
granted in Western Medicine by the seventeenth century,” along with the belief
that “mental delusion… is caused by tumultuous motion of the animal spirits.”

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Even Benjamin Franklin, known for his early work with electricity, considered
electrical currents as resulting from the existence of an “imponderable fluid”
pervading everything, which was evenly distributed in all substances under
normal conditions. The origins of this common hypothesis are clouded in time,
but both Galileo and Thomas Hobbes also spoke of an all-pervading “subtle
ether.” The concept of an imponderable fluid of this kind, both outside of and
within the human body has formed part of many theories of the nature of
physical existence over the years, perhaps most recently by Wilhelm Reich with
his (much debated) discovery of “Orgone.”

Into this arena stepped young Doctor Mesmer.

Franz Anton Mesmer was born in in Southern Germany in 1734. His father was a
master forester and gamekeeper on the lands of the local bishop, a wealthy
aristocrat, and Mesmer spent an idyllic boyhood on the shores of Lake Constance.
These roots developed an abiding love of nature in Mesmer, which stayed with
him through his life. The bishop took an interest in the bright young boy, and
sponsored his education. Mesmer did very well in school; his primary education,
beginning at age nine, gave him a firm grounding in languages, classical literature,
Roman Catholic theology, and music. Music became a particular passion for
Mesmer, and he became an accomplished musician on several instruments. The
intent of this education was to prepare him for the priesthood, but Mesmer was
to take a different direction later on.

From his monastic primary school, Mesmer went to the University of Dillingen in
Bavaria for four years, beginning in 1750, studying philosophy, before moving on
to what today would be a graduate program in theology and philosophy at the
University of Ingolstadt (also in Bavaria). Both these schools were run by the
Jesuits, and it was at these schools that Mesmer received his first exposure to
then-contemporary scientific thought, as well as traditional Catholic theology.

The Jesuits at Ingolstadt particularly emphasized the philosophy of the school’s

illustrious pupil, Descartes, and the school was very much alive with modern ideas
– which appealed to the lively mind of young Mesmer. The most important idea
forming in him at this point was a conviction that medicine could be developed
into an exact science by applying the newly developing laws of physical science to
the human body.

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Coming to the end of his PhD program at Ingolstadt, Mesmer’s interest in the
priesthood had faded to the point that he declined holy orders, but he continued
his education elsewhere, heading for the University of Vienna. He first took a
year of law there, but then followed his primary interest by enrolling in medical
school, where he remained an avid student for a full six years of study. Due to the
sponsorship of Empress Maria Theresa, the medical school had undergone radical
changes, attracting some of the best minds in Europe, and it was an exciting time
to be there. Mesmer’s medical education was first class and cutting edge (for its
time).

Mesmer’s dissertation was written in Latin (still standard at the time) and its topic
was “the influence of the planets on the human body” – a topic which sounds
mystical, if not absurd today, but at the time his ideas were accepted by the
faculty with compliments, and he was awarded the Doctor of Medicine degree.
His dissertation was well in line with Mesmer’s ideas about applying the laws of
physical science to medicine – the intent was to explain in a strictly scientific
manner the effect of gravitation on human physiology. Many of the thoughts in
his paper were not even original, but were based on a theory already developed
by an English physician, as well as drawing on Newton’s theories of gravity. Here
also is the notable appearance of Mesmer’s phrase “universal fluid,” which he
believed might explain not only the force of gravity, but other invisible, tangible
forces including magnetism, electricity, light and heat – all things are immersed in
this fluid like some sort of cosmic sea. How this concept could be applied to
medicine might have been a thought in the back of his mind, but Mesmer began
his practice as a completely conventional physician.

So, here was Mesmer at the end of a long and successful program of education, in
his early thirties by now, holder of a doctorate in the philosophy of religion, and a
doctorate in medicine, an accomplished musician, and ready to participate fully in
Viennese society.

The first five years of Mesmer’s medical practice were not controversial – he
easily passed his internship, became a skilled diagnostician, and treated his
patients well, using all the techniques available to physicians of his times.
Establishing a practice that he maintained throughout his professional life, he
treated many poor folks at no charge, while applying the going rates to his many
wealthier patrons. His financial status improved again, dramatically in 1768,

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when he married a wealthy woman, ten years older, the “very well born” Marie
Anna von Posch, widow of a high government official to whom she’d been
married for 20 years. Mesmer’s financial worries, if he’d had any, were now over.

Along with wealth, Anna and her family had influential connections throughout
Vienna. Her father gave Anna and Mesmer a spacious house with large gardens
and a natural outdoor theater. The house had room for a large laboratory for
Mesmer’s experiments in physics and chemistry, and the home became a venue
for a variety of musical and theatrical events attended by the cream of Viennese
society. Mesmer often performed himself, fluently on keyboard instruments and
cello, and increasingly on the glass harmonica, a relatively new instrument
invented by the American genius, Benjamin Franklin.

Because of his love of music, Mesmer actively supported and promoted new
artists, most notably the Mozart family – father Leopold and his children,
Wolfgang Amadeus and sister Maria Anna, all three polished performers, and
Wolfgang, already a budding composer. The Mozarts spent many evenings at the
Mesmers and the first of young Wolfgang’s operas was debuted at Mesmer’s
home. Life was rich and peaceful In Vienna in those early years.

Mesmer continued to think about the causes of illness and possible new
treatments based upon what he considered a wider view of physical reality. His
curiosity led him to examine the ideas of yet another pair of Jesuits; the exorcist,
Johann Joseph Gassner, and the Astronomer and director of the Vienna
Observatory, Maximillian Hell.

Enter Animal Magnetism

1774 was the year when things began to change. Mesmer began experimenting
with magnets, and identified “streams of a mysterious fluid” in a patient as a
result. He struck up an acquaintance with Hell that same year, finding Hell had
similar interests in magnetic treatment. We must remember that the commercial
manufacture of magnets was itself in its infancy at the time (beginning in 1750),
and their availability caused excitement across Europe in many ways. Mesmer,
with the encouragement of Hell, began experimenting more extensively with
magnets in his practice, although he quickly concluded that magnets were not
really needed, as he possessed the power of what Mesmer came to call “animal

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magnetism” in his own body. Riveting his intention upon his patients and
experimenting with hand passes over the patient’s affected areas and other ways
to transmit this “magnetic” energy became Mesmer’s primary focus.

The following year, 1775, Mesmer was invited by the Elector of Bavaria to
investigate the work of Father Gassner, who was holding dramatic public
exorcisms that seemed to be curing people of long-standing psychosomatic
illnesses in Munich. Mesmer, being a scientific man, immediately rejected
Gassner’s explanation that he was drawing out the demons that were causing
distress, but yet… There was something going on here. For whatever reason,
Gassner was having successes. His repeated physical stroking of his “patients”
and his remarkable ability to assume control of their autonomic systems (the
speed of heartbeats, for example) fascinated Mesmer. His explanation: Gassner
was using “animal magnetism,” although he neither recognized or understood it.
The Elector gratefully accepted this “scientific” explanation, and Mesmer used the
opportunity to springboard on Gassner’s public spectacles to publicize his own
theory of why they sometimes succeeded.

From this point on, Mesmer devoted himself to promulgating what he believed
(wholeheartedly) was a world-shaking, major advance in medical treatment –
Animal Magnetism. The fact that he had some major successes in his treatments
using these techniques drove him on, and he never once doubted or backed away
from the basic elements of his theory about why they worked.

He approached the medical establishment in Vienna with his ideas about animal
magnetism, hoping to achieve formal recognition and support. What he received
in return was suspicion that gradually hardened to outright hostility as Mesmer
continued to press his case. It’s important to recognize that, for all the rapid
advances in scientific knowledge in Vienna and the rest of Europe during the “Age
of Reason,” much of medical practice was still based on medieval principles. The
old guard was still in control, and their ideas of medical treatment still centered
around bleeding and purging, extended dark bed rest, and “medications” that
were often akin to poisons and made patients sicker in hopes of curing them.
Mesmer’s treatments, while often pushing patients to a vigorous, sometimes
violent catharsis, were frequently, perhaps typically, less unpleasant, and often
less damaging than the traditional medicine offered by the establishment. They
felt threatened by Mesmer. They did not accept his theories. They resented his

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popularity and his propensity to treat the poor as well as the well-to-do Viennese.
Overall, they resisted his overtures, and some actively sought to sabotage his
practice.

Mesmer’s practice in Vienna was, in fact effectively sabotaged in a complicated

affair involving a young blind pianist named Maria Theresa von Paradis. Her
parents brought Maria to Mesmer after many other doctors and treatments had
utterly failed to restore her sight, and in fact had caused her physical health to
markedly deteriorate. There was no obvious physical reason for her blindness,
which had begun abruptly in childhood. Mesmer agreed to take her on as a
patient, provided she move into his home where he could work with her daily.
She was, after all, an accomplished pianist, already touring around Europe as a
performer, and had been granted a pension by the Empress herself to pursue her
studies, which supported both Maria and her parents.

It soon became apparent that this family was beset with serious personal
problems. Maria and her demanding, sometimes violent mother had a difficult
relationship. Maria herself could become uncontrollable at times. The father
seemed to be caught between the two, and was not very effective as a head of
household. Mesmer intervened as a kindly but firm parental figure in this
situation, strove to limit the girl’s parents’ hovering involvement somewhat, and
worked patiently with Maria over some months – and her sight gradually began to
return. Some of the establishment nay-sayers came to observe, and had to admit
that the Doctor’s treatments were having an effect. First just distinguishing
between light and dark, Maria began to make out shapes and colors, and was
continuing to make progress when everything fell apart. A major battle between
the girl and her parents erupted, she relapsed into blindness, returned home and
to the concert stage as the blind pianist she had originally been.

Possible explanation for her parents’ resistance seems obvious when looking at
the history. Maria’s returning sight caused confusion when playing the piano –
seeing the keys, after mastering them when blind, was confusing and caused her
to make mistakes. The parents became concerned about losing the family’s meal
ticket (the concert pianist), as well as possibly losing the Empress’ pension if the
daughter lost her disability. The Viennese medical establishment was quick to
jump to the family’s defense, to accuse Mesmer of quackery and deception
(despite the need for some to retract their previous public support of her

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progress) and the resulting scandal in press and rumor so offended and depressed
Mesmer that he decided to leave Vienna behind and head for Paris, the seat of
The Enlightenment and Europe’s virtual capitol of free thinking and scientific
inquiry.

On to Paris!
The people of Paris welcomed Mesmer with open arms. His reputation as an
adventurous healer preceded him, and he had enough remaining friends in the
upper class of Vienna to secure favorable introductions into Parisian society as
well. He almost immediately sought to secure official sanction and support for
animal magnetism from the French Academy of Sciences, and to them he
presented his famous “Twenty-Seven Propositions,” which summed up his overall
theory of how things work in the physical world, with specific reference to animal
magnetism. The response was not unlike his initial experience in Vienna.
Mesmer could offer much experimental evidence of success, but his explanation
for why his treatments worked was declared by the Academy to be “extremely
vague and obscure.” Individual opinions ranged from rejecting his treatment
outright as quackery, to others who thought Mesmer knew exactly how animal
magnetism worked and was hiding the secret from them to avoid competition!

Mesmer, of course, smarted from this rejection, and decided to take his
treatments to the people. His clinics became larger, more glamorous in their
appointments, and caught on like wildfire among the Parisian upper classes.
Once again, he treated the poor of Paris as well as the rich, but the rich in that city
paid enormous fees for his attentions, and Mesmer was on his way to becoming a
very wealthy man once again. In addition to prompting a faddish devotion to his
treatments among his followers, he started developing a staff of young physicians
who were attracted to his ideas, and he trained them as his assistants to deal with
his burgeoning caseload. Animal magnetism treatments were often no longer
restricted to one-on-one alone, but Mesmer developed what he called a “Baquet”
– a large tub, filled with bottles of “magnetized” water with a dozen or so iron
rods sticking up around the edge, which patients would hold or touch to affected
parts of the body under supervision. Mesmer walked among the crowd in silken
robes (there being several Baquets in the large treatment room, which was dimly
lit, carpeted and expensively appointed) and encouraged his patients toward the
necessary “magnetic crisis “(when not playing his glass harmonica for

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atmosphere). After a while the room filled with crying, hysterical laughter, and
convulsive movements as one patient after another reached their crisis. Those
collapsing would be picked up by assistants and taken to lie down in recovery
rooms. Now, after the crisis, true healing could begin.

It is important to note as we move forward here, that Mesmer was usually

selective in the patients he accepted for magnetic treatment. According to one
biographer (Franz Anton Mesmer, The History of an Idea by Margaret Goldsmith),
“One reason for the large proportion of recoveries in his clinic was his refusal
treat anyone whose ailments were organic rather than functional. His consistent
honesty annoyed his confreres in Vienna quite as much as his success… he
publicly declared that ‘he could help only those people suffering from nervous
diseases and no others to recover’… Often too, he prescribed ordinary drugs
when he was convinced that magnetism could not help a patient.” Unlike some
practitioners of “alternative” medicine, Mesmer was a highly educated,
conventionally capable medical doctor. He knew and observed the limits of his
magnetic treatments (as he understood them by experiment) while he obsessively
continued to press for their acceptance as his major contribution to Western
medicine.

Be that as it may, Mesmer’s astounding success in treating both the rich and poor
of Paris annoyed the medical establishment there, just as it had in Vienna. Finally,
they had had enough, and the Academy of Sciences, with the support of Louis the
XVI, convened a commission to study animal magnetism. The commission
included Benjamin Franklin, then living in France as the American Ambassador,
but his active involvement (due to his advanced age and demanding schedule)
was debatable. Other members of the commission included scientists from a
variety of disciplines, and they approached their task as a strictly up or down
proposal – animal magnetism either existed as a verifiable fact, or NOT. If it could
not be verified, then any treatments based upon animal magnetism were, quite
naturally, invalid – however successful they might initially appear to be.

After a perfunctory period of study, the commission issued its findings – There
was no evidence found for the existence of animal magnetism, therefore
Mesmer’s theories and the treatments based upon them amounted to pseudo-
science and quackery. Mesmer loudly protested these findings, but to no avail. At
the same time, the faddish acceptance of Mesmer as “the latest thing” in Parisian

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society was beginning to fade, and enthusiasm among the rich and decadent
Parisians began to turn to ridicule.

Mesmer’s practice, his support from his staff, and the interest in his methods
outside the medical and scientific establishment continued, however, if
somewhat diminished.

He continued to train practitioners in animal magnetism, but he demanded that

they stick closely to his concepts and methods. The increasing disorder caused by
the impending French Revolution caused Mesmer to leave Paris abruptly, leaving
his library and fortune behind, in 1785. He spent time in Germany, then made an
abortive return to Vienna in 1793 (which landed him in jail for a while) and finally
returned to the shore of Lake Constance, where his life began, there to remain in
semi-retirement for much of the rest of his days.

Mesmer was not quite done, however. He continued to practice as a family

physician for his friends and neighbors along the shore, and he returned to Paris
in 1798 to attempt to reclaim his fortune and property through the courts. He
lived in Paris and Versailles from 1798 to 1802, pursuing his claims, staying out of
politics, and largely ignoring the work of his remaining followers, who, as we will
see, had strayed somewhat from the orthodox animal magnetism that Mesmer
continued to demand. He also issued the first volume of his memoirs which,
somewhat surprisingly, pushed some of his ideas into the realm of what we know
today as parapsychology.

Mesmer’s suit for losses during the Revolution was eventually successful in 1802.
He was awarded one-third of the value of his property, and a lifetime annuity or
pension from the French Government. Mesmer was once again financially secure.
With his victory in hand, he returned to Lake Constance, spending the last
thirteen years of his life in remote areas of Germany and Switzerland along her
shores.

Mesmer’s last hurrah came as a result of the Berlin Academy of Science, which
apparently had no problem with Mesmer’s theories or methods. They invited
Mesmer to come and address the group, but he declined due to age, so they sent
a representative, a professor named Carl Wolfart in 1812. Wolfart spent a
considerable amount of time with the old man, wrote some excellent personal

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observations of him, and helped Mesmer to organize his final opus, a 350-page
summary of his life’s work which was published in 1814 titled Mesmerismus.

Mesmer continued to play music for and with his friends, wrote a will leaving his
remaining fortune to his sister’s children, and died quietly on March 5th, 1815 at
the age of eighty-one. He was accompanied only by his beloved canary, who
reportedly never ate or sang again, following her friend into death soon after.

The Berlin Academy placed a rather remarkable monument over his grave, where
it remains today and may been seen online. Quite somber and beautiful, as befits
its subject. I suggest looking it up.

Mesmerism
The major irony of Mesmer’s life was that the practice which made his name a
household word, still today in the twenty-first century, was developed by his
followers, not himself. Mesmer took note that a few of his patients occasionally
fell into a trancelike sleep, but as this had no therapeutic value in his practice, he
ignored the phenomenon. It was one of Mesmer’s star pupils, the Marquis of
Puysegur, who first developed the therapeutic use of what he called “artificial
somnambulism” and what was later renamed hypnotism. Because Puysegur
always portrayed himself as a dedicated follower of Mesmer, and never took
credit for his advances, it was not until things began to be sorted out more than a
century later that recognition for his pioneering work with the unconscious mind
was recognized.

Puysegur was a true French aristocrat and an amateur scientist, but not a medical
man. With the rejection of Mesmer’s theory of animal magnetism by the French
Academy, Mesmer increasingly found his disciples outside the traditional medical
community. The French hero of the American Revolution, Lafayette, was another
noble who embraced Mesmer’s ideas, and tried to convince his friend George
Washington of their value!

Puysegur expressed reservations about the necessity of inducing violent crisis in

vulnerable patients right from the beginning of his involvement. After completing
his studies with Mesmer, he began offering magnetic treatment to the peasants
who worked on his estates, and he observed the phenomenon of “magnetic

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sleep” right away. He pursued this aspect of his effect on patients, refining his
ability to bring it about, and experimented with offering suggestions during the
process. He found that patients often had no recollection of what went on during
treatment, which Puysegur thought was akin to sleep walking, leading to his label
of “artificial somnambulism.” From here he developed a psychological
explanation for artificial somnambulism, deciding it was not due to animal
magnetism as a physical process, but rather to the imposition of the magnetiser’s
will upon the subject. A very bright man, our Marquis.

Even though Puysegur did not admit it, he was instrumental in beginning the first
rift in Mesmeric circles. On the one hand were traditionalists, who continued to
follow Mesmer’s teachings to the letter, as he preferred. On the other hand,
there developed a revisionist school around the Marquis which rejected the
magnetic crisis as the necessary beginning of healing and continued the
exploration of artificial somnambulism as the primary vehicle for treatment. A
dialog could be established during the sleep or trance, allowing access to parts of
the mind that seemed inaccessible during normal waking hours. Suggestions
could be made that the patient had no recollection of when returned to normal
consciousness, but which would be acted upon all the same. The door was being
opened to the mysteries of the unconscious mind, exploration that continues to
this day.

Puysegur visited his mentor twice, excited about the discoveries he and his
colleagues were making, but Mesmer received his information with disinterest. It
didn’t fit his model for treatment. By the time of the Marquis’ death in 1835,
however, all most all “mesmerists” were using Puysegur’s techniques – Mesmer’s
name endured, but not his theories or his techniques. “Memerism” was
developing into something very different from animal magnetism.

It didn’t take long for another branch of Dr. Mesmer’s creation to develop:
Occult Mesmerism. The world of occultism; of magic, of the imagination and of
supposed supernatural powers of the mind has arguably a firm seat in the
unconscious mind. Demons and ghosts have boiled up from the unconscious
throughout history, and when mesmerists started probing into their patients’
minds, interesting things started to come out, some which seemed hard to
explain in the light of rational day. Some somnambulists seemed to see the
future, or to astral travel to commune with friends or loved ones miles away… and

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some seemed to speak in the voices of the dead. Traveling mesmerists,
particularly in the United States, put on theatrical displays of the mysteries and
powers of artificial somnambulism that became quite the rage in the 19th century,
and which helped to spark and quickly expand the growth of spiritualism.
Mesmerically entranced spirit mediums made contacting loved ones beyond the
grave a seeming possibility across the country, and millions responded. This
association of mesmerism with the occult caused complications, however, not
only for those directly interested in its use as a healing modality, but for the
acceptance and progress of the budding practice of mental healing we know
today as psychology.

Hypnotism

Puysegur’s version of Mesmer’s ideas jumped the channel to the British Isles in
the 1840s. While still generally regarded with suspicion in the scientific and
medical establishments, a few well-known and respected British physicians began
experimenting with mesmerism, finding it useful in their work in several ways.
John Elliotson, a professor of medicine at the University of London, and the
founder of University College Hospital, was initially interested in the procedure
for anesthesia. The use of ether and nitrous oxide was in the very early
development stages at this time, and Elliotson published a pamphlet in 1843
outlining numerous cases of successful, painless surgery “in the mesmeric state.”
Elliotson was also a good friend of the famous writer Charles Dickens, who
learned to do mesmerism and practiced it on his own family and associates, and
as had happened in Vienna and Paris, mesmerism became an accepted topic of
interest in London society.

Other surgeons and physicians began exploring mesmerism in various ways, and it
was a Scottish surgeon, one James Braid, who developed a deep fascination for
mesmerism, spent many years further investigating, using, and refining its
techniques, and who developed a new name for the process – hypnotism – that
finally set it apart from the controversy that had dogged Dr. Mesmer and his
troubled offspring for the very beginning. Braid’s findings became much more
acceptable to the medical establishment, he was able to publish in mainstream
journals, and hypnotism gradually became accepted as another of the physician’s
tools to investigate and perhaps help heal human misery.

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Meanwhile, psychologists began to hone their trade, and to develop their
profession. William James, the most famous American psychologist of the
Nineteenth Century, notably said “the first lecture on psychology I ever heard was
the first I ever gave.” The door to the unconscious mind initially opened by
Puysegur played an important part in the early development of psychology.
James, for example, did not shy away from investigating spiritualism and other
psychic phenomena. When the Society for Psychic Research (SPR) began in
England, James took an active part, and was president of the organization in 1884
and ‘85. Mesmerism was one of the six initial areas of study set up by the SPR
upon its founding. James himself was fascinated by hypnotism, wrote about it
and used it to explore different aspects of consciousness.

Sigmund Freud is rightly known as one of the parents of modern psychotherapy,

and he initially used hypnosis extensively as a research and therapeutic tool while
developing his theories of the unconscious mind. His initial enthusiasm for the
power of hypnotism is illuminated by Dr. Bernie Zilbergeld in his book “The
Shrinking of America – Myths of Psychological Change.”

Dr. Zilbergeld: “Before he developed psychoanalysis, Freud believed in hypnosis

and suggestion. In “Studies on Hysteria,” he and his colleague Breuer claimed 100
percent success in treating hysteria with hypnosis. Each hysterical symptom
‘immediately and permanently disappeared” after the hypnotized patient brought
forth the memory of the event which had caused it and expressed the
accompanying emotion.’”

100 percent success! Perhaps a bit reminiscent of D.D. Palmer’s initial claim that
his newly discovered Chiropractic treatment could cure 100 percent of physical
illnesses – a claim which he spent the rest of his career rationalizing and backing
slowly away from.

Indeed, Dr. Zilbergeld goes on, “But the new cure turned out to be not so
wonderful after all. Only a few years later Freud was saying most patients
couldn’t be hypnotized and that hypnosis rarely resulted in long-term cure. So
much for the permanently disappearing symptoms.”

While he abandoned hypnosis in favor of free association as a long-term tool to

explore the unconscious, we can see the development of psychotherapy going

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from Freud all the way back to Puysegur and his mentor in a relatively straight
line. Even though his basic theory was incorrect, Mesmer was a pioneer in the
experimental idea that the mind can be enlisted to help restore overall health,
particularly in his use of animal magnetism to deal successfully with what we
today see more clearly as psychosomatic illness.

Conclusion
In the book From Mesmer to Freud; Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological
Healing (1993),” the author and psychologist Adam Crabtree says “The
importance of animal magnetism in the development of modern dynamic
psychiatry was first compellingly pointed out by Henri Ellenberger, whose
Discovery of the Unconscious (1970) is a classic in the history of psychology.
Ellenberger’s pioneering work made it clear that all modern psychological systems
that accept the notion of dynamic unconscious mental activity must trace their
roots, not to Freud, but to those animal-magnetic practitioners who preceded him
by a century.”

Even though his theories of “universal fluid” and “animal magnetism” were
incorrect, Mesmer was on to something. He had experimental results – lots of
them. His techniques often worked, although not for the reasons he speculated.
Like the findings of his own investigation of the Jesuit exorcist Gassner, Mesmer
was often practicing a form of hypnotism, “although he neither recognized or
understood it.” Mesmer’s powerful personality, the “set and setting” he created
(to use Timothy Leary’s term), and his unshakeable confidence that he had
discovered a valid and powerful new mode of healing exerted a strong
psychological influence over his patients. He listened to his patients. He heard
their problems and their misery and responded with sympathy and
understanding. He assured them he could help. He treated their maladies in a
structured way.

Mesmer got the ball rolling, Puysegur more closely observed and defined the
psychological process of healing that was occurring, and future generations of
physicians, psychologists, physiologists, neurologists have continued to refine and
advance the science of healing the mind. That is the importance of Franz Anton
Mesmer in the continuing flow of History.

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Bibliography:

Franz Anton Mesmer, Discoverer of Animal Magnetism by Justinus Kerner (First

published in 1856, and partially based upon interviews with Mesmer’s friends,
relatives, neighbors and contemporaries); Hidden Tarn Editions, 2020

The Wizard From Vienna by Vincent Buranelli; Coward, McCann & Geoghegan,
New York (1975)

Franz Anton Mesmer - The History of an Idea by Margaret Goldsmith; Arthur

Barker LTD, London (1934)

Mesmerism, A Translation of the Original Medical and Scientific Writings of F. A.

Mesmer, M.D., George J. Bloch, translator; William Kaufmann Inc, Palo Alto (1980)

Mesmerism and Christian Science, A Short History of Mental Healing, by Frank

Podmore; George W. Jacobs and Company, Philadelphia (1909)

Doctor Mesmer, An Historical Study, by Nora Wydenbruck; John Westhouse,

London (1947)

Anton Mesmer, by D. M. Walmsley; Robert Hale Ltd, London (1967)

Franz Anton Mesmer, Between God and the Devil, by James Wyckoff; Prentice-Hall
Inc., New Jersey (1975)

A History of Magic and Experimental Science, Vols. VII and VIII, Seventeenth
Century by Lynn Thorndike; Columbia University Press (1923)

From Mesmer to Freud, Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing by
Adam Crabtree PhD; Yale University Press (1993)

Hidden Minds, A History of the Unconscious by Frank Tallis PhD; Arcade

Publishing, New York (2002)

The Quest for Wilhelm Reich by Colin Wilson; Doubleday, New York (1981)

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The Shrinking of America – Myths of Psychological Change by Bernie Zilbergeld,
PhD; Little, Brown and Company, Boston (1983)

Appendix One: Mesmer’s 27 Propositions (1779)

1. A responsive influence exists between the heavenly bodies, the earth, and animated
bodies.
2. A fluid universally diffused, so continuous as not to admit of a vacuum, incomparably
subtle, and naturally susceptible of receiving, propagating, and communicating all
motor disturbances, is the means of this influence.
3. This reciprocal action is subject to mechanical laws, with which we are not as yet
acquainted.
4. Alternative effects result from this action, which may be considered to be a flux and
reflux.
5. This reflux is more or less general, more or less special, more or less compound,
according to the nature of the causes which determine it.
6. It is by this action, the most universal which occurs in nature, that the exercise of
active relations takes place between the heavenly bodies, the earth, and its
constituent parts.
7. The properties of matter and of organic substance depend on this action.
8. The animal body experiences the alternative effects of this agent and is directly
affected by its insinuation into the substance of the nerves.
9. Properties are displayed, analogous to those of the magnet, particularly in the
human body, in which diverse and opposite poles are likewise to be distinguished,
and these may be communicated, changed, destroyed, and reinforced.
10. Even the phenomenon of declination may be observed.
11. This property of the human body which renders it susceptible of the influence of
heavenly bodies, and of the reciprocal action of those which environ it, manifests its
analogy with the magnet, and this has decided me to adopt the term of animal
magnetism
12. The action and virtue of animal magnetism, thus characterized, may be
communicated to other animate or inanimate bodies. Both of these classes of bodies,
however, vary in their susceptibility.
13. Experiments show that there is a diffusion of matter, subtle enough to penetrate all
bodies without any considerable loss of energy.
14. This action and virtue may be strengthened and diffused by such bodies.
15. Its action takes place at a remote distance, without the aid of any intermediary
substance.
16. It is, like light, increased and reflected by mirrors.
17. It is communicated, propagated, and increased by sound.
18. This magnetic virtue may be accumulated, concentrated, and transported.
19. I have said that animated bodies are not all equally susceptible; in a few instances
they have such an opposite property that their presence is enough to destroy all the
effects of magnetism upon other bodies.

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 20. This opposite virtue likewise penetrates all bodies: it also may be communicated,
propagated, accumulated, concentrated, and transported, reflected by mirrors, and
propagated by sound. This does not merely constitute a negative, but a positive
opposite virtue.
21. The magnet, whether natural or artificial, is like other bodies susceptible of animal
magnetism, and even of the opposite virtue: in neither case does its action on fire
and the needle [of a compass] suffer any change, and this shows that the principle
of animal magnetism essentially differs from that of mineral magnetism.
22. This system sheds new light upon the nature of fire and of light, as well as on the
theory of attraction, of flux and reflux, of the magnet and of electricity.
23. It teaches us that the magnet and artificial electricity have, with respect to diseases,
properties common to a host of other agents presented to us by nature, and that if
the use of these has been attended by some useful results, they are due to animal
magnetism.
24. These facts show, in accordance with the practical rules I am about to establish, that
this principle will cure nervous diseases directly, and other diseases indirectly. By its
aid the physician is enlightened as to the use of medicine, and may render its action
more perfect, and can provoke and direct salutary crises, so as to completely control
them.
25. In communicating my method, I shall, by a new theory of matter, demonstrate the
universal utility of the principle I seek to establish.
26. Possessed of this knowledge, the physician may judge with certainty of the origin,
nature, and progress of diseases, however complicated they may be; he may hinder
their development and accomplish their cure without exposing the patient to
dangerous and troublesome consequences, irrespective of age, temperament, and
sex. Even women in a state of pregnancy, and during parturition, may reap the same
advantage.
27. This doctrine will finally enable the physician to decide upon the health of every
individual, and of the presence of the diseases to which he may be exposed. In this
way the art of healing may be brought to absolute perfection.

Appendix 2. “Magnetic Healing” Today…

(Wikipedia) “The worldwide magnet therapy industry totals sales of over a billion
dollars per year, including $300 million per year in the United States alone.
A 2002 U.S. National Science Foundation report on public attitudes and
understanding of science noted that magnet therapy is "not at all scientific.”

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 A number of vendors make unsupported claims about magnet therapy by using
pseudoscientific and new-age language. Such claims are unsupported by the
results of scientific and clinical studies.” (Father Max Hell Lives!)

However: “Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive form of brain

stimulation in which a changing magnetic field is used to cause electric current at
a specific area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. An electric pulse
generator, or stimulator, is connected to a magnetic coil, which in turn is
connected to the scalp. The stimulator generates a changing electric current
within the coil which induces a magnetic field; this field then causes a second
inductance of inverted electric charge within the brain itself. TMS has shown
diagnostic and therapeutic potential in the central nervous system with a wide
variety of disease states in neurology and mental health, with research still
evolving." (Real Science)

Mesmer

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