Mesmerism :: Research Papers Franz Mesmer

Mesmerism "Mesmerism" is a term coined after a man named Franz Anton Mesmer ("writers also refer to him as Franciscus Antonius Mesmer, Franz Antoine Mesmer and Friedrich Anton Mesmer" [http://www.hcrc.org/diction/m.html] ). "Mesmer was born in Iznag, Swabia (Germany} on May 23, 1734" (http://www.eb.com/cgi-bin/g?keywords=mesmerism). He went on in life to complete medical training at the University of Vienna, by this time he was thirty-two years of age (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exhibitions/Mind/Trance.html). According to one source, his first claim to fame revolved around an incident where it is said that he cured a blind girl. However, this turned out only to be a reversal of her hysteria that he actually performed (http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/8536/). According to another source, Mesmer's real first case was in 1773 when he met a young woman who was "suffering from a variety of recurring physical ailments". He then tried to relate the fluctuation of her symptoms with the tides and deci ded to try to induce a tide in his patient. He asked her to "swallow a solution containing iron and affixed magnets to her stomach and legs". The girl said she felt a "mysterious fluid coursing throughout her body". Miraculously her symptoms started to disappear and with several treatments they vanished. From this, Mesmer gained fame. A few years later, under some sort of pressure, perhaps political, he left Vienna for Paris. Here Mesmer's therapy and healing practices became quite popular (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exhibitions/Mind/Trance.html). It is in Paris where Mesmer wrote his book called, Reflections on the Discourse of Animal Magnetism . This book contained 27 basic principles that Mesmer held to be true (Fuller 4). Basically, it said that there was a "physical magnetic fluid interconnecting every element of the universe, including human bodies" (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exhibitions/Mind/Trance.html).This was essentially "Animal Magnetism" (http://www.hcrc.org/diction/m.html). "Mesmer argued that disease resulted from a disequilibrium of this fluid with in the body". To cure this, physicians manipulated these fluids using magnets or their hands in order to channel this energy from the universe at large into the patients body (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exhibitions/Mind/Trance.html). This was the agent with which he induced hypnosis in patients (http://www.hcrc.org/diction/m.html). Mesmer went so far as to suggest that "animal magnetism constituted the etheric medium through which sensations of every kind-light, heat, magnetism, electricity- were able to pass from one physical object to another believed that his discovery had removed the basic impediment to scientific progress and that every area of human knowledge would soon undergo rapid transformation and advancement".