The term's most common usage today refers to a person's sexual attractiveness or raw charisma. The word charisma (origin from the Greek word χάρισμα (kharisma, "gift" or "divine favor" from kharizesthai, "to favor" But Animal magnetism (French: magnétisme animal) originally signified a magnetic fluid or ethereal medium residing in the bodies of animate beings, as postulated by Franz Mesmer. According to ancient and medieval science, aether (Greek grc αἰθήρ aithēr) also spelled æther or ether, is the material that fills Franz Anton Mesmer (born Friedrich Anton Mesmer; May 23, 1734 &ndash March 5, 1815) was a German physician and astrologist who The term translates Mesmer's magnétisme animal. Mesmer chose the word "animal" to distinguish his supposed vital magnetic force from those referred to at that time as mineral magnetism, cosmic magnetism and planetary magnetism. Vitalism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is a doctrine that the functions of a living organism are due to a vital principle distinct from physicochemical
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"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". Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State.
Noting that, by 1846, the term Galvanism had been replaced by electricity, and seemingly unaware that Mesmer himself never used the term mesmerism, Léger argued that:
MESMERISM, of all the names proposed [to replace the term animal magnetism], is decidedly the most improper; for, in the first place, no true science has ever been designated by the name of a man, whatever be the claims he could urge in his favor; and secondly, what are the claims of Mesmer for such an honor? He is not the inventor of the practical part of the science, since we can trace the practice of it through the most remote ages; and in that respect, the part which he introduced has been completely abandoned. Biology, galvanism is the contraction of a Muscle that is stimulated by an electric current. He proposed for it a theory which is now [viz. , 1846] exploded, and which, on account of his errors, has been fatal to our progress. He never spoke of the phenomena which have rehabilitated our cause among scientific men; and since nothing remains to be attributed to Mesmer, either in the practice and theory, or the discoveries that constitute our science, why should it be called MESMERISM?[1]
Royal Commission
The existence of Mesmer's magnetic fluid was scientifically examined by a French Royal Commission set up by Louis XVI in 1784. Louis XVI ( 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) Louis-Auguste de France, ruled as King of France and Navarre Year 1784 ( MDCCLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year The Commission included Majault, Benjamin Franklin, Jean Sylvain Bailly, J. Benjamin Franklin ( April 17 1790 was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. Jean-Sylvain Bailly ( September 15, 1736 &ndash November 12, 1793) was a French astronomer and Orator, one of B. Le Roy, Sallin, Jean Darcet, de Borey, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, Antoine Lavoisier, Poissonnier, Caille, Mauduyt de la Varenne, Andry, and de Jussieu. Jean d'Arcet or Jean Darcet (1724 – 1801 was a French Chemist, and director of the Porcelain works at Sèvres. Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (ɡijɔtɛ̃ May 28, 1738 &ndash March 26, 1814) was a French Physician who proposed on October Caille is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. De Jussieu, the name of a French family which came into prominence towards the close of the sixteenth century and was known for a century and a half for the Botanists
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. A charlatan (also called swindler) is a person practicing Quackery or some similar Confidence trick in order to obtain money or advantage via some form [2]
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. Abbé Faria ( Abade Faria in Portuguese or Abbé ( Abbot) José Custódio de Faria, ( May 30 1746 - September 20 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. The term autosuggestion is used for positive or negative physical Symptoms explained by the thoughts and beliefs of a person "
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. Hypnosis is often thought to be a wakeful state of focused attention and heightened suggestibility with diminished peripheral awareness
Mesmerism and Spiritual Healing Practices
Mesmerism shares with practices such as reiki and qi gong a concept of life force or energy. is a Spiritual practice developed in 1922 by Mikao Usui. After three weeks of Fasting and Meditating on Mount Kurama, in Japan Qigong (or ch'i kung) refers to a wide variety of traditional cultivation practices that involve methods of accumulating circulating and working with Qi or energy However, the practical and theoretical positions of such practices are on whole substantially different from those of mesmerism.
Notes
- ^ Léger, 1846, p. 14.
- ^ The term "animal magnetism" is also occasionally employed in the context of Christian Science to describe unheeded mental influences, malicious or ignorant, resting on its subjects' belief in them. Christian Science is believed by its supporters to be a system of spiritually scientific truths which are summed up in the two commandments having one God one Mind one Life Truth
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
- Mesmer's propositions (via Archive.org)
- Phineas Parkhurst Quimby on Mesmerism
- Easy guide to Mesmerism and Hypnotism - 1895 introductory book of J. Franz Anton Mesmer (born Friedrich Anton Mesmer; May 23, 1734 &ndash March 5, 1815) was a German physician and astrologist who Dr James Esdaile (1808-1859 the eldest son of the Rev James Esdaile and Margaret Blair was born on 6 February 1808 in Montrose, Angus, Scotland, is Coates, P. H. D
- Deleuze's account of Mesmer's experiments
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