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A MESMERIZING MYSTERY

Steven L. Neff, PhD.

The practice of hypnosis and its accompanying phenomena have long been shrouded in a veil of mystery. Mysterious as it is, most of us believe that we know generally what it is and that the words hypnosis and mesmerism are synonymous. Upon taking a closer look at the history and development of this practice, things become curiously perplexing. Both the views and methods to induce a hypnotic state have been widely varied and what most consider to be mesmerism is not practiced at all by today's practitioners. How could the word that has come to be one and the same as hypnosis be any different? The answer lies within a careful historical review.

In recent times science has come to accept hypnosis as a “suggestive therapy”. Autosuggestion is also a very old notion and its practice and has now taken root as the major working function of hypnotic therapy. Whether it is in a medical office or a Las Vegas nightclub, today’s subjects are given rather rapid inductions, which lead to trance and then the acceptance of suggestions made by an expert practitioner.  There is little attention given to the trance state itself, as producing benefits or having connections to any additional form of hypnotic influence. It is all essentially suggestive.

Historical records document the use of hypnosis by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. They used hypnosis for the purposes of healing and divination. There are references to “temple sleep” used to induce prolonged periods of healing respite that were administered by priests of the temples of antiquity. What is not known are the specific induction methods that were used, although some historical texts contain prayers or repetitive litanies that seem to use both repetition and suggestion to produce trance.

Following ancient references to hypnosis, there are some old but more recent accounts that introduce us to the mystery at hand. Starting in the sixteenth century there were medical practitioners who were using what is now interpreted as hypnosis but some used methods that were not suggestive ones. During this time there was a belief based upon the observation of some, that the human body was surrounded by an etheric fluid or force field that could be influenced in a variety of ways to produce a therapeutic effect.

European physicians, Robert Fludd (1574-1637) and Johann Baptiste Van Helmut (1577-1644) practiced a form of hypnosis using magnets to influence the body’s magnetic field. The observation of an energy field surrounding the body is also an ancient eastern view that continues today in modern eastern medicine and particularly noticeable in acupuncture. Today many of us commonly speak of “chi energy” or “prana” which are subtle energies accepted by modern eastern medicine. In Ireland, Valentine Graetrakes (1629-1683) became famous for performing cures via the use of gentle hand strokes over the bodies of afflicted individuals.

Another European who used magnetic methods was Father Maximillian Hehl (1720-1792). He became renowned for administering cures by applying magnetized plates to the bodies of his patients to influence the surrounding magnetic field.

In the eighteenth century, Austrian physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1735-1815) became the most well known of all the hypnotic practitioners of his time. Mesmer was a physician who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the subject of the stars’ influence of the human body. He theorized that the human body was susceptible to subtle energy influences.  He observed that the human body was surrounded and permeated by a magnetic field that could be influenced in ways that would result in therapeutic effects. Mesmer was known to have put a great deal of work and study into his practice and became so successful that he established a clinic to administer hypnotic cures. Literally thousands of patients flocked to Mesmer’s clinic. An overwhelming number of treatments and cures were reported and Mesmer had created a sensation surrounding his prowess as a medical healer.

Mesmer’s methods were not secret and many physicians and medical observers of the day visited the clinic to observe treatments and cures. Among his methods, Mesmer used hand movements and passes in close proximity of the patient. He used a specially magnetized rod, with which he made passes around the patient. At times he used the laying of hands as well as group laying of hands on his patients. He also invented what was described as a magnet bath called a “baquet” where patents bathed in magnetized waters.

Mesmer was described as a man with a splendid appearance who dressed elegantly. His presence and disposition generated great admiration and respect. He taught that an empathic and kind attitude toward his patients helped to promote effective treatment. His term “doctor and patient rapport” remains with us today as his original concept. Mesmer was possibly influenced to apply a little known science, learned through a secret society of which he was a known member, namely the Rosicrucians. 

During this same time period the “Enlightenment” took hold and promoted the rational and empirical method as supreme. Mesmer’s magnetic energy theory came under intense scrutiny. His great success also generated envy and animosity within the European medical community. Due to these factors King Louis XVI was pressured to investigate Mesmer and two commissions were established. One of these commissions was headed by Benjamin Franklin, appointed due to his expertise in the observation and application of electricity. Neither commission found Mesmer to be scientifically credible and soon he became the object of ridicule and disdain. He left Paris in 1789 in disgrace labeled as a charlatan and never resumed his hypnotic practice.

In conclusion what is noteworthy and pivotal is that Mesmer never appears to have practiced what is today termed Mesmerism or suggestive therapy. The prodigious success of his clinic and his methods were visible to all but not at all understood. The Franklin Commission’s debunking of Mesmer’s theory of human or animal magnetism left significant therapeutic practices both unchallenged and unexplained to this day. One other note of interest is one that I admit is speculative on my part. Benjamin Franklin was a high-ranking member of the Masonic Order when his commission investigated and negated Mesmer’s practice. This writer has both been told by Masonic members and also read that the very practices that Mesmer used are acknowledged to be prized secrets of the Masonic order. Mesmer was a member of an opposing or competing secret society, the Rosicrucians. Hypnosis is also a special part of their teachings. The question is raised. Was there a clash of opposing views among the true elite of the time? Was human magnetism considered not to be revealed to the general population and to be withheld exclusively for a Secret Society Hierarchy? These mysteries have yet to be explored adequately. Immensely successful as they were, the practices of Anton Mesmer remain dormant and ignored.  Mesmerism remains suppressed today as foolish superstition and the object of ridicule. Could it be that the benefits of Mesmerism will yet be rediscovered and made available to those in the field of the healing sciences?