Animal magnetism

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For the album, see Animal Magnetism (album)

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.

1 "Animal magnetism"
2 "Mesmerism"
3 Royal Commission
4 Notes
5 References
6 See also
7 External links
8 Trivia

[edit] "Animal magnetism"

The use of the (conventional) English term animal magnetism to translate Mesmer's magnétism animal is extremely misleading for three reasons:

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 magnetism.
Mesmer felt that this particular force/power only resided in the bodies of humans and animals.
Mesmer chose the word "animal", for its root meaning (from latin animus = "breath") specifically to identify his force/power as a quality that belonged to all creatures with breath; viz., the animate beings: humans and animals.

[edit] "Mesmerism"

Many scientific practioners, such as Theodore Lèger (1799-1853), the French phsysician, anatomist, and gynaecologist (who moved to Texas around 1836) found the label "mesmerism" to be "most improper".

Noting that the term Galvanism had, by 1846, been replaced by electricity, and seemingly unaware that Mesmer himself never used the term mesmerism, Lèger (1846) argued that: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. 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?<ref>Lèger (1846), p.14.</ref>

[edit] Royal Commission

The existance of Mesmer's magnetic fluid was scientificaslly examined by a French Royal Commission set up by Louis XVI in 1784. The Commmission included Majault, Franklin, Bailly, Le Roy, Sallin, d'Arcet, de Bory, Guillotin, 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.<ref>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.</ref>

The term's most common usage today is to refer (sometimes facetiously) to a person's sexual attractiveness or raw charisma.

"Healing" techniques such as Reiki and Qi Gong have certain similarities to mesmerism. However their practical and theoretical positions are substantially different.

Mesmerism and hypnosis (as we now understand hypnosis) 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.