Vital fluid and practice
A 1791 London publication explains the Mesmer’s theory of the vital fluid :
“Modern philosophy has admitted a plenum or universal principle of fluid matter, which occupies all space; and that as all bodies moving in the world, abound with pores, this fluid matter introduces itself through the interstices and returns backwards and forwards, flowing through one body by the currents which issue therefrom to another, as in a magnet, which produces that phenomenon which we call Animal Magnetism. This fluid consists of fire, air and spirit, and like all other fluids tends to an equilibrium, therefore it is easy to conceive how the efforts which the bodies make towards each other produce animal electricity, which in fact is no more than the effect produced between two bodies, one of which has more motion than the other; a phenomenon serving to prove that the body which has most motion communicates it to the other, until the medium of motion becomes an equilibrium between the two bodies, and then this equality of motion produces animal electricity.”
In Mesmer’s view, illness has to do with blockages in the natural flow of this universal vital energy throughout the human body. Harmony could be restored by various techniques and some of them are employed even today by practitioners of energetic techniques. One was the laying on of hands on specific points called "poles", another was making passes over the patient’s body. In Mesmer's original approach, patients typically went through the "crisis" as part of the healing process. According to an anonymous writer of a series of letters published by the editor John Pearson in 1790, animal magnetism can cause a wide range of effects ranging from vomiting to what is what is classically termed the “crisis.” According to Deleuze: "“Magnetizers have given the name of crises to the remarkable changes which the action of magnetism produces upon those who are subjected to it, or to that state which is different from the natural one, into which they are thrown by its influence”
Mesmer's original approach and the modified magnetic method of Puysegur
In Mesmer’s view, the purpose of the treatment (the crisis) was to create a convulsion that he called "crisis" in order to remove obstructions in the circulatory system that were causing sicknesses. Mesmer derived the concept of crises derived from Gassner's practice. Gassner believed the crisis to be the evidence of possession as well as the first step in the procedure of exorcism. For Mesmer, the crisis was the artificially procured evidence of the disease and the means to its cure. Crises, he said, were specific: in an asthmatic it would be an attack of asthma and in an epileptic it would be an epileptic fit. When the patient was repeatedly provoked, these crises became less and less severe. Eventually they disappeared, and this meant recovery. This process was deemed to be completely natural, with regards to this Mesmer said:
"If Art forsakes us, we still have Nature." Mesmer also said: "Mesmer said: "An illness cannot be cured without a crisis; a crisis is an effort of nature against an illness, consisting in an increase of motion of the force, attention, and action of the magnetic fluid, to disperse the obstacles which oppose the circulation, ... and to reestablish the harmony and equilibrium of all the parts of the body.”
One of Mesmer's first followers, the marquis de Puysegur, developed a new technique through which the patient fell into a particular trance without convulsions. This trance, even if defined equally "crisis" by Mesmer himself become known as artificial somnambulism. Furthermore, the anonymous supporter of animal magnetism purported that the crisis created two effects: a particular state in which the patient could be “possessed of his senses, yet cease to be an accountable creature,” and an “unobstructed vision” to see through objects. A patient under crisis was believed to be able to see through the body and find the cause of illness in themselves or in other patients.
Puysegur's discovery of "artificial somnambulism"
In the very same year in which the first Royal Commission of 1784 gave its discussed verdict, one of Mesmer's most faithful disciples discovered new phenomena which was even more mysterious and brought new increased attention on animal magnetism. In April 1784, Armand Marie Jacques Chastenet, Marquis of Puysegur, a nobleman of one of the most important noble families of France discovered what was until then an unknown state of consciousness. This discovery was able to give a new course to the evolution of magnetism. In the opinion of certain historians, this discovery equals or even exceeds the importance of Mesmer's own work. The Nobel prize Charles Richet has said "the name of Puysegur must be put on the same rank as that of Mesmer.... Mesmer is no doubt the initiator of magnetism, but not its true founder." In fact, it is probable that the discovery of Puysegur was what was most helpful in popularizing the knowledge of magnetism and to transform it into a diffused cultural phenomenon that touched in the following years all classes of society The Marques of Puységur’s miraculous healing of a young man named Victor in 1784 was the first case of this new revolutionary type of "crisis". The Marques was able to magnetize Victor and was waiting for a classical crisis, but, to the astonishment of Puysegur, Victor was said to have been able to speak articulately and to diagnose his own sickness. Puysegur was able to reproduce this state with regularity even with other patients and he observed that in this state they were equally capable of predicting the development of their illness, to apparently understand what the magnetizer wanted to say before even he had said it, and other even stranger feats. This phenomenon was called both "artificial somnambulism", after the natural state of somnambulism known from antiquity, and "magnetic sleep". One of the characteristics of this state was the so-called "magnetic lucidity". This name indicated a state of enhanced awareness. The following year, the Marques publicized his observations, both in Paris and in London, and these memoirs gave rise to an explosion. Everywhere people replicated his results. Some claimed several new and more incredible results (for example, Dr. Petetin asserted the possibility of perceiving things which were not perceivable through the eyes). A vast discussion arose that would continue throughout the whole century. It touched the most acculturated people as animal magnetism showed two different new elements.
- 1) The emergence of a self in the person which seemed more enlarged and important than the normal self of the person
- 2) Very strange phenomena happening in this state.
Origin of "magnetic lucidity" Researchers have observed a difference between what would be later called "a spiritualistic medium" and the phenomena of "magnetic lucidity" as developed by Puysegur and early French magnetists. Spiritualistic mediums are normally deemed to lose consciousness. Lucid somnambulists instead were deemed by early magnetists to be even more awake and present to themselves during the trance, and to perform their lucidity with enhanced awareness. From here came the name "lucidity" which expressed ideas of light and presence. Higher phenomena After 1784 and Puysegur’s experiences on somnambulism, Magnetism was intended in all countries where it was practiced not only as a method for cure, but was also considered a method for developing inner sensitivities in the subject for access to what was called "a higher level of man". According to the descriptions of these ancient magnetists, at the highest level of this state the subject is completely autonomous, more free from the constrictions and habits of thought than in his normal state, in touch with a wider self and with higher faculties of "magnetic lucidity". Physicians and researchers of fame also followed this stream. Thus Dr. James Esdaile, even in practising healing magnetism wrote the book "Natural and Mesmeric Clairvoyance with the Practical Application of Mesmerism in Surgery and Medicine". This explains why later some branches of Animal Magnetism in England, United States and other countries merged with Spiritualism and parapsychological research. Puysegur's original method was neither spiritualistic nor mechanicistic, and the magnetic first states of automatic reactions were intended as a gateway to achieve these higher dimensions and higher sensitivities, and to access the true inner self of the subject. It is to note that verbal suggestions were always avoided by earlier operators, in order to allow the inner self of the subject to act more freely.
Later developments in France
In 1800, in France, animal magnetism was split into three separate schools of magnetism: 1st: the original school of Mesmer. This prevailed principally in Paris. Its disciples believed in the existence of the universal fluid, and conducted the operation physically,—that is, by passing the hands immediately over, or at a short distance from, the body of the patient. 2nd: the school of the Chevalier de Barbarin. This was founded at Lyons, and, although it had many partisans in France, prevailed principally in Sweden and Germany. Its principles remind us of the Platonic philosophy; its disciples maintained that the magnetic operation depended entirely upon a pure "effort of the soul," and was to be conducted only upon psychical principles. They were therefore termed spiritualists. 3rd: Third and lastly, the school of the Marquis de Puysegur, founded at Strasburg, the disciples of which, professing to be guided only by observation, called themselves experimentalists. The characteristic feature of this school is that it combines the physical treatment of the school of Mesmer with the psychical treatment of that of Barbarin. Notwithstanding the magnetisers divided themselves into these different groups, they all maintained the same fundamental principles: they differed in theory, but each school agreed in producing the same practical results.
Mesmerism and sensitivity
For Mesmer Animal Magnetism is first and foremost a theory of sensoriality. A very important aspect of magnetism is therefore its reliance on developing a specific "sensitivity" in the operator. This sensitivity is natural, and animals normally are said to have it. As this sensitivity is only subjective we cite verbatim the words of the different authors. Mesmer speaks of Magnetism as a "sixth sense" intending with this word the concept of "intuition". Sixth sense was for him also synonymous of magnetism. Deleuze says: "the change which occurs inside us when we act magnetically and the feeling which persuades us we are in communication...are things impossible to describe". The chevalier de Lausanne, an early writer, is more precise on some aspects and says: " While drawing your hands slowly before your patient at the distance of three or four inches, and holding your fingers slightly bent, you will feel, either at the ends of the fingers, or at the palm of the hand, different sensations as they pass" and "You may experience a feeling ...in the internal organs of your body". Many other authors use similar expressions. The fact that Magnetism posed such an importance on inner aspects of the experience explains its later impact on art and philosophy. As opposed to relying on external signs, it stands out as a method where inner sensations and inner intuition are seen as guides.
