Everything about Animal Magnetism totally explained
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 (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Galvanism had been replaced by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:
MESMERISM, of all the names proposed [toreplace 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 isn't 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. 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? |
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 Commission 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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Animal Magnetism'.
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