Mesmerism Explained

The human mind is a fantastic thing – it both impressionable as well as powerful. Mystics and psychics have known this fact for centuries and in modern times this has been reaffirmed by doctors and researchers, again and again. One of the ways of exploring various layers of the mind during the nineteenth century came to be known as Mesmerism.

Origin of the term

In the eighteenth century, a German physician Franz Mesmer theorized there was a natural energetic transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects which he called animal magnetism. This flow of energy as well as other allied spiritual phenomena based on the movement of life "energy" through distinct channels in the body eventually came to be grouped under the term mesmerism, derived from the name of Mesmer and these theories. The name Mesmérisme for indicating the techniques of Animal Magnetism was first used in France.  Soon this term spread in every country where the technique was practiced as a synonym of animal magnetism. Later a tendency emerged amongst British magnetizers to call their clinical techniques mesmerism even though Mesmer himself had made a clear distinction between animal magnetism based upon the ‘vital’ force in living things and mineral or planetary magnetism ;. The term mesmerism later came to be used even by some of them who distanced themselves from the theoretical orientation of animal magnetism that was based on the concept of "magnetic fluid". Eventually Mesmer's name also became the root of the English verb "mesmerize.

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How is it practiced?

The theory of mesmerism and specifically animal magnetism became the basis of a particular kind of treatment in Europe and the United States that was based on non verbal elements such as gaze, passes and mental elements as will and intention, and that sometimes depended also on "laying on of hands." Passes referred to movements of the hands of the practitioner near the body of the subject accompanied by intention of the former. At the time, some magnetizers attempted to channel what they thought was a magnetic "fluid"; and, sometimes, they attempted this with the "laying on of hands in which the practitioner touched the subject in specific ways as an attempt to heal. Subjects reported feeling various kinds sensations ranging from intense heat and trembling to going into trances, and even seizures.

Mesmer treated patients both individually and in groups. With individuals he would sit in front of his patient with his knees touching the patient's knees, pressing the patient's thumbs in his hands, looking fixedly into the patient's eyes. Mesmer made "passes", moving his hands from patients' shoulders down along their arms. He then pressed his fingers on the patient's hypochondrium region or on the area below the diaphragm, sometimes holding his hands there for hours. Many patients felt peculiar sensations or had convulsions that were regarded as crises and supposed to bring about the cure. Mesmer would often conclude his treatments by playing some music on a glass armonica.

Variations and Hypnosis

During the nineteenth century, the theory of Mesmerism and different practices grouped under the term spread rapidly through Europe.  In France alone three different schools of thought emerged. They received different names: the fluidic one, the spiritualistic one (Chevalier de Barberin), and the experimentalist one (De Puysegur). Beside them, one of the branches of Animal Magnetism that rose after Mesmer was called the branch of the "Imaginationists" that put importance on the power of the "imagination". However in the context of lasting influences, the most important variation was proposed in 1843 by James Braid, a Scottish physician who introduced the term hypnosis for a technique derived from mesmerism but more limited in its claimed effects, and also somewhat different in its conception. Braid based his methods of hypnotism directly on the practice of Mesmerism, but applied a more rational explanation for how the process worked. Braid clearly differentiated his concept of hypnosis from mesmerism by stressing that the former was not induced through the transmission of a magnetic or occult influence from the body of the practitioner to those of the subject, nor intended to produce the higher or supernatural phenomena of the Mesmerists of the time. Braid’s focus was on physiological and psychological aspects of hypnosis. The studied the influence of the mind upon the body, particularly "ideo-motor" response in which expectation and imagination apparently influence involuntarily muscle movement. Braid coined the term "psycho-physiology" to refer to the study of general mind-body interaction which was his basis for hypnosis.

Another proponent of hypnosis in the early 19th century was an Indo-Portuguese Catholic monk Abbé Faria who introduced oriental hypnosis to Paris. Even though his theories took their origin from the works of Franz Mesmer, Faria concluded that no special force was necessary for the production of the mesmeric phenomena such as the trance, but that the determining cause lay within the subject himself; in other words, that it worked purely by the power of suggestion, which is the main principle of hypnotism as understood in contemporary usage. Today use the use of hypnotism for therapeutic purposes is referred to as "hypnotherapy", while its use as a form of entertainment for an audience is known as "stage hypnosis".

Even though hypnosis has been appropriated to some extent by mainstream treatment, mesmerism is very much considered as an alternative therapy. During mesmerism for therapeutic purposes, passes are made over the affected part, the same soothing effect is produced, and pain is relieved. Sometimes though mesmerism is used for development of the higher or psychic phenomena, such as clairvoyance and telepathy when the operator is believed to connect to the subject through the flow of the ‘vital force’ or make a psychic connection instead of communicating through verbal or visual channels. Under this state of mesmerism, the subject may be able to divine something special about his/her past or even future.