On a most improper mesmerizing technique
The Moon Landing. Queen at Live Aid. A baby’s first steps. A crush reciprocating feelings. These are seemingly unrelated events and experiences, but they do have a common denominator. Not in what they factually are, but in the way our inner self experiences them. These events grip us, our attention is focused only on them and the world around dissolves for a little while. We’re captivated, entranced, hypnotized, mesmerized.
We use the term ‘mesmerized’ quite freely, for us now this feeling arises automatically and it’s so common that everyone and anyone can describe it. But it wasn’t always this way, there was a time when ‘being mesmerized’ was a very exclusive experience.
ANIMAL MAGNETISM
Finding the source of illness in the human body has been the driving force behind medicine since its humble beginnings and physicians of the past have tried to come up with various explanations on why our bodies fail us. As such, Franz Mesmer(1734–1815) started his doctoral journey aiming for the stars. Well, maybe he didn’t go as far as the stars, but he settled on the idea that closer celestial bodies, planets, can directly influence our own human bodies. In his doctoral dissertation he suggested that the movements of the sun and moon could be used to explain ‘tides’ in the human body and thus be at fault for our ailments.
Francisca Österlin, a 28-year old woman who reportedly suffered from hysteria, earaches and melancholy, had been Franz Mesmer’s patient for two years and had been subjected to a lot of the classical treatments of the time like blistering and bleeding with no result. In 1774 Mesmer decided to try a new treatment that was emerging: he gave Francisca an iron preparation to drink and following some suggestions from Hell (Maximilian Hell that is) he attached magnets on her body. After the treatment, Francisca said she felt streams of mysterious fluid running through her and that her symptoms were relieved… for a while. Mesmer declared her cured and went on to develop his own theory.
He thought that it was not the magnets that helped his patient, but rather his own magnetic influence. Mesmer explained that a universal fluid flows through our bodies and our health depends on its continuous circulation, knots and blockages in its path being the source of illness. He coined the term ‘animal magnetism’, explained that all living things possess it, but only those whose fluid runs smoothly can share their force with others and bring them in balance again. His idea caught on in Europe and soon Mesmer started developing his mesmeric practice.
THE MESMERISING CRAZE
Due to his social standing and good relations with prominent artists such as Haydn and Mozart, word got out of this new treatment method and Mesmer set up a medical practice. Business was good for a while, however he failed at curing Austrian musician Maria Theresia von Paradis of blindness and his credibility started to wane. Allegedly, Maria was able to see when Mesmer was in the room with her, but would go blind as soon as he left her presence. This suspicious result coupled with reports of inappropriate touching erupted in a big scandal that forced Mesmer to leave Vienna for Paris.
Paris didn’t seem too troubled by the Vienna debacle so mesmeric treatments took Parisian high society by storm. Plenty of rich and bored aristocrats wanted to be mesmerized and the magnetic doctor was soon overwhelmed by requests for his services. As many as 20 clients per day were knocking at his door and he realised he couldn’t treat them all in one-on-one sessions. So Mesmer developed the baquet¸a device meant to treat several patients at once.
INSIDE THE SCENES
A baquet was a large wooden tub filled with water magnetized by Mesmer, it had iron rods inserted in it and a rope meant to connect the patient to the tub. The baquet room was full of sensory stimuli: the light was dim, incense filled the air, a glass harmonica produced ethereal sounds and Mesmer itself was a sight to behold. Dressed in a lavender robe and wielding a metal wand he would move around the room in flowy motions, talk and gesture around his patients to induce in them a trance-like state.
Accounts of patients and witnesses describe mesmerized people falling into fits of laughter or crying, having violent convulsions or even episodes of vomiting. The ones who experienced the strongest reactions (mostly women) had to be taken to a back room, called the ‘crisis room’, and would benefit from Mesmer’s personal attention. After the crisis would pass the patients would feel their symptoms alleviated.
“All submit to the magnetizer . . . even though they appear to be asleep, his voice, a look, a signal pulls them out of it . . . one cannot help but acknowledge the presence of a great power which moves and controls patients, and which resides in the magnetizer.”
THE ILLUSION SHATTERS
Mesmer’s popularity drew a lot of attention on him and his treatments, so in 1784 King Louis XVI ordered an investigation on the validity of his practice. The commission tasked to evaluate him consisted of members of the Faculty of Medicine and other renown figures that focused on proving or disproving the existence of the universal fluid that Mesmer had described. They could not find the fluid, but their investigation acknowledged that there was therapeutic value in the power of suggestion and imagination.
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The investigation’s verdict was disastrous for Mesmer. On top of this, his time spent with women in the ‘crisis room’ raised eyebrows, failed healings hurt his credibility, the rise in Societies of Harmony (societies touting that mesmerism can be learned by anyone… as long as they agree to get behind their paywall) brought more skepticism to the practice and then there was the political edge. Ideas of government using animal magnetism to control the population started to circulate in England. Suddenly animal magnetism was a tool that could be used to heal one’s earache, infiltrate French spies inside English borders and sexually assault one’s sister. All the controversies led to mesmerism falling from grace with the public and being rejected by the medical community.
Franz Mesmer left Paris and continued his practice in Switzerland, but his influence was never the same.
An interesting figure in Mesmer’s journey was Benjamin Franklin. Ben created his own version of a glass harmonica that found its way into Mesmer’s house and his therapy sessions. The instrument helped grow the popularity of Mesmer’s technique, but later on Ben would briefly be a part of Louis XVI’s court and be assigned to the Royal commission that disproved the magnetic doctor’s theory. One hand giveth the other taketh away.
HOAX OR TREASURE?
Although Mesmer’s universal fluid was never proven to exist, his mesmeric techniques did uncover a golden vein for the future of psychology. In a time when treatments were often brutal and perhaps as damaging as the illnesses themselves, Mesmer devised a treatment that truly did no harm. He made his patients feel calm through gentle music and movements, allowed them to relax and guided them, in a way, to focus on their issues. Maybe some of his patients lied about being cured, but the future success of autosuggestion, hypnosis or placebo suggest the opposite.
Perhaps unknowingly, Mesmer stumbled upon the brain’s role in regulating physical health. Allowing the patient to enter a relaxed state of mind can have positive effects on their mental and physical wellness. Franz Mesmer tried really hard to convince the world of his theory and eventually failed at that, but his work constitutes a stepping stone towards other, less controversial, medical treatments.
Sources and further reading:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2019/03-04/franz-mesmer-hypnotism-mesmerized/
https://www.britannica.com/science/hypnosis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_magnetism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Mesmer
https://hypnosis.edu/history/the-birth-of-mesmerism
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/500464/franz-anton-mesmer-man-who-invented-hypnotism
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11855437/
https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/benjamin-franklin-and-the-glass-armonica/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnosis
The psychology book — DK
