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,

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 T H E R AT I O N A L E OF
MES MER I S M

A . P . SI N N ETT
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”
T H E OCC U L T WORL D ,
“
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 CONTEN TS

TH EO R IE S
E E C O CE
M SM RI F R

TH EE E E ME SM SM
R AL LIT R ATU R OF ER I

E
SI D S O N ME S E C
—
LI GH T N OM N M RI PHE E A

E MES SM
CU R ATIV ME R I
‘

EC S
AN zEST H E T I C EF F T AN D R I GID ITY
TH E E NATUR W s OF SE N SI T EN E s

ME SME C C CE
RI PRA TI

I NE
D !
 R ATI ONAL E OF MESMERI SM .

C HAPTER I .

OL D AN D W
NE TH E O RI ES .

IT is necessary at the outset that I should

explain why I am writing abou t mes merism
and not about hypnotism Names are after .
,

all but tickets put by conventional agree

,

ment upon things or branche s of kn owledge ,

and if in the first instance a hundred years

, ,

ago when the matter began to attract notice

,
‘

“
in E urope the word hypnotism had been
,

adopted to describe certain abnormal condi

tions of t he human body an d t he
faculties we need n ot at this stage of the
, ,

proceedings have quarreled with the ex

,

pression . But though it has become so

,

strangely p opular quite recently the term ,

“
hypnotism merely represents as regards ,

i t s actual o rigin a misconception of the facts

,
2 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

relati ng to the abnormal conditions just

mentioned coupled with ;a very unworthy
,

disposition t o slander the first important ex

ponen t of all this kn owledge in modern
times and to cover a cowardly re treat from
denials which had become no longer tenable .

“
In so far as the term hypnotism is con
sci ou sl preferred by some modern investi
y
gators that preference rests on the idea that
,

the earlier belief in the days when nothi ng

“
of the kind was spoken of except mesmer
‘

”
ism has been shown b y later exper ience to
,

be scientifically erroneous The early belief

.

was that something in the nature of a subtle

fluid passed from the mesmeric operator to
the subj ect ; whereas some experimentalists
“

of the modern school have ascertained that

results alleged to have been obtained by
mesmerism can be brought about where no
operator takes part in the undertakin g .

S ome people by si mply working for them

selves apparatus of a suitable sort by gaz
,

ing for example at the rapid flashes of a

, ,

revolving mirror or by merely concentrating

,

their attention on a spot of bright light will

,

be enabled to brin g on a cer t ain abnormal ,

or shall we say cataleptic condition of their

,

nerves which will in it s turn superinduce

,
 OL D A N D N E W TH EORI ES . 3

anaesthesia perhaps o r even some imperfect

, ,

psychic phenomena But the discovery of

.

these people does not in the smallest degree

disprove the other discovery of the earlier
mesmerists that a subtle fluid really does
pass when an operator properly qualified ,

himself is at work an d the fact that this is

, ,

so is proved by many more experimentali sts

than have endeavored to maintain the bare

hypnotic hypothesis Further than this.
,

many mesmerists of the higher order enter

tain no doubt concerning the existence of
this fluid for the simple reason that they
,

can see it .

S ight is a faculty which varies in its pen

e t r at i v e po w er in a greater degree even than

telescopes vary A tolerably simple e x pe r i

.

ment to test thi s may be devised on the fol

lowing plan : I f a spectrum from a ray of
sun l ight be thrown upon a screen every one ,

who is acquainted with the most elementary

facts of optics will be aware t hat b e ydn d t he ’
’ ’

colored band of light which is visible there ,

are invisible rays the presence of which can

,

be proved by means of photographic paper ,

and the chem ical power of which indeed is , ,

considerably greater than that of t he bright

r ays actually s e en .It is perhaps not so
4 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

generally known however that the power

, ,

o f direct vision extends with some people

much further in the directi on of those so
called ul tra vi olet rays than is the case with
-

o thers . The maj ority of p e ople it is true , ,

will come t o a tolerably close a gr eement as

to the distance along the colored band of

light on the screen which they can see and ,

if asked to mark the place at which the vio

'

let tinge absolutely ceases will mark places

that are not very widely apart but here and ,

there a small percentage of more peculiarly

endowed observers will be found to se e
greatly beyond the usual stopping place - .

Just in the same way other visible pheno

men a of nat ure besides rays of violet light
melt so to speak in others which are not
, ,

o rdinarily visible and the subtle fl uid which

,

emanates from a mesmeric operator is very

close to the border land of the phenomena
-

which every one can se e and therefore can

,

be discerned by I should think many more

, ,

people than wi ll be able to se e to any con

s i de r ab le distance into the ul tra violet spec -

tru m A well known writer Baron v on

.
-
,

R eichenbach devoted himself especially t o

,

this branch of mesmeric inquiry He has .

r ec o rded with patient care for which a pig

,
 OL D AN D N E W TH EOR I ES . 5

headed generation inhabiting the earth

about the middle o f this century gave him
no gratitude a long series of results obtained
,
“
with a great many sensitives whom he
employed all having to do with their power
,

of seeing visible emanations from human

fin gers as also fro m physical magnetic ap
,

paratus .

’
Baron von R eichenbach s experiments ,

properly foll o wed up wo uld ha v e been found

,

to constitute a complete demonstration of

the theory of mesmerism advanced by M es ,

mer him self in the first instance and uure ,

se r v e dly adopted as entirely in harm ony

with their own extensive observation and
practice by his immediate followers de Puy ,
’
s egur and Deleuze But before the Baron s
.

time the whole subject had been discredited

by reason of the fierce i n ci e duli t y it e n cou n
‘ ’

t e r e d at the hands of the orthodox scientific

world at the beginning of the century In .

the long history of human blunderin g t here

can hardly be any example more r e m ar ka
ble than that afforded by the rej ection of
mesmerism at thi s perio d The facts ill us .

t r at i n g the reality of mesmer i sm issued in

torrents from every centre of mesmeric ac
t iv i t y but the passive opp o sitio n o f bigotry
,
6 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

was not to be o vercome Hundreds o f

.

people practiced mesmerism employing it,

solely as a curative agent ; its highest p sy

chic aspects being at that time little under
stood even by its war m e st p ar t i san s and ,

thousands of people benefited b y its applica

tion But all the recognized societies and
.

corporations of science were arrayed in arms

against it and professional persecution was
,

the lot of any medical man who identified

hi mself with the n e w discovery This per
.

sc ontion in the end stamped it out almost

entirely S ome further details on this point
.

will fall most naturally into their place when

I come to speak of the early literature of
mesmerism but for the moment I pass on to
,

trace the genesis of the modern view of the

subj ect in connection with which we have to
congratulate ourselves on the broad fact ,

that one of the most important avenues of

knowledge open to students of the natural
history of humanity is n ow again available
for general use but in connection with
,

which except for that broad fact we have

, , ,

as a generation little to be proud of

,
.

M odern writers on hypnotism are almost

all building their conclusions on a negation

of truth concerning the fo rces really at work

 OL D AN D NE W TH EOR I E S . 7

in the pro duction of mesmeric phenomena ,

and are committed for the most part to a

theory which concentrates their attention al
most entirely ou what is rather a dis e ase of
the science they deal with than the scien ce ,

itself Nor do I think i t a satisfactory plan

.

fo r people who know something more of the

,
“
science in it s loftier aspect to divide the ,

” “
records of the mind and say hypnotism
,
”
is on e thing and mesmerism is another .

Of course the experiments practiced at the

Salp et r i e r e are one thing and the healthy
‘

applications of animal magnetism are an

other ; hypnotic suggestion i s one thing and ,

the culture of the higher faculties under true

m esmerism is an other B ut people who
.

“
adopt the expres sion hypnotism mean
thereby or think they mean t o include in
, ,

i t s range all that is r e aI an d genuine in the

“

discoveries of M esmer all that was not i m

,

posture and charlatanry in the practice of

his imm ediate success ors P sychic s t udents
.
,

therefore who really understan d somethin g

,

o f the forces se t in action whether i n t e lli

,

gen tly by the mesmerist or un in telligently

by the hypnotist can n ot handle the term as
,

having a departmental sign ificance It is .

,

as a term employed in connection with this

8
'
TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

subj ect the flag o f error so to speak We

, ,
.

o ught not to make peace with it at all :

.

The general use of the term dates back to

M r Braid of M anchester a surgeon who is
.
,

called by MM Binet and Fé r é f t he initiator

.
‘

of the scientific study of animal magnetism ”

.

He was really a person who invented a

method of thinking whi ch enabled people ,

thus inclined t o handle and talk about some

,

of the phenomena of mesmerism without ,

setting themselves in opposition to medical

orthodoxy and without giving up the u n
,

grateful cry that M esmer was an impostor .

For half a century the medical profession

had committed itself to the denial of patent
facts and the v ilificat i on of all who observed
and reported them Mr Braid by a bold .
,

man oeuvre possessed himself of some at any

, ,

rate among the facts and by puttin g a

, , ,

forged ticket upon them justified himself ,

b efore the world for continuing to vilify

their real discoverers for con t m m n g to
swim at ease with the stream of bigotry
an d s o afl or de d his confreres an opportunity

of escapi ng from the inconvenience of being

at war with notorious experience without i n
curring the hum i liation of confessing that
they had previously been in the wrong .
 OL D A N D NE W TH EORI ES . 9
’
Braid s theory of hypnotism was set forth
in the first instance in a little volume from
hi s pen , published in 1 84 3 under the title ,

Ne ur ypn ology ; or the R ationale of Ner

vous S leep considered in relation t o Animal
,

M agnetism ”
This was an expansion of an
.

address M r Braid delivered at a meeting of

.

the British Association held in Manche ster

in 1 84 2 The author avows that he was led
.

t o hi s conclusions by certain phenomena he

witnessed at a séance conducted by M L a .

fontaine a mesmerist but he writes rather

, ,

irritably t o maintain the originality of his

views that seem at once to have been referred ,

on their first enunciation by his critics to ,

previous experimentalists especially M , .

Bertrand and t he Ab b e Far i a He is sp e .

ci ally eager to make out that his processes are

quite difie r e n t from anyt hing previously

“
known He says I have now entirely se p
.
,

ar at e d hypnotism from animal magnetism .

I conside r it to be merely asi rn p le fi spe e dy ,

an d certain mode o f throwin g the nervous

system into a new condition which may be

rendered eminently available in the cure of

certain disorders He attended M L afon
. .

’
taine s séance because he considered mes
meric phenomena a system of c ollusion
“
10 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

or delusion or of excited imagination sym

, ,

pathy or imitation . That night I saw

nothin g to di min ish but rather to confirm
” “
my previous prejudices . However at the ,

next con v ersazione six night s afterwards

, ,

o n e fact the inability o f a patie nt to open

,

his eyelids arrested my attention I con

, .

s i de r e d that to be a real phenome n on .

He watched this case especially and felt

assured he had discovered a cause He at .

once se t to work with experiments of his

“
own to prove that the inability of the
patient to open his eyes was caused by para
lyz i n g the levator muscles of the eyelids ,

thr ough their con tinued action during the

protracted fixed stare ”
Operating with
.

s ubj ects of h i s own and constrai n ing them

to fatigue the muscles in question by a pro
longed upward gaze he soon obtained the
,

complete hyp notic trance together wi th all

,

the n ow familiar symptoms rigidity of the —

limbs at the command of the operator great ,

exaltation of the senses liabili ty to b all u ci

,

nation imposed by the operator and cura

, ,

tive effects in cases of ill ness where the hyp

n ot i c trance was i n duced with the curative

intention There is something fairly ludi

.

cr ou s and not a little contemptible in the

 OL D AN D N E W TH EOR I ES . 11

way Mr Braid calmly passes on t o deal

.

with these phenomena as the results of hi s

method and hi s discovery when he sets out ,

with the assum ption that everything of the

sam e kind accomplished by his predecessors
was imposture and that he picked out from
,

mesmerism the one fact that was true that ,

people could not open their eyes if the leva

tor muscles were paralyzed by previous star
ing On e can hardl y understand how vanity
.

could blind him to the glaring absur dity of

his own position If fatigue of the levator
.

muscles had anything to do with the matter ,

that cause would not extend to effects rang

ing beyond the eyelids Mr Braid dropped . .

upon the curious facts of phr e n o mesmerism -

,

which show different propensities in a mes

m e r i z e d subj ect stimul ate d to unwonted ao
t i v i t y by t ouching the correspondin g organs
o f the brain Piety benevolen ce cupidity
.
, , ,

can by his own showing be played upon in

, ,

“
this way with a subject who i s no ‘
‘
’
r
s f

”
t i z e d and yet he still keeps in the forefront
,

of his treatise on all experiments of this na

t ure his original silly guess that the state in
,

which they become possible is due to the

fatigue of certain muscles in the eyelids .

M r Braid in reality must have been a

.
1 2 TH E R A TI ON AL E OF MESMER I SM .

mesmerist of considerable force without ,

knowi ng enough of the subj ect he arrogantly

despised to understand the methods by
which his results were accomplished for he
ev i dently obtained an extraordinarily large
“
percentage of successes with the people he
experimented on But he has received so
.

much undue credit of late from modern

writers on the subject especially in this
,

country that it is worth whil e to show in

, ,

oppositio n t o the i ndignant claim for origi

nality he puts forward that there was no
,

thi ng o riginal even i n his misapprehensions .

On e of the best or least obj ectionable

’
modern books on the subj ect Dr M oll s , .

“
Hypnotism ! translated from the Ger
man! skims the history of mesmerism at
,

the outset and says : The whole doctrine

,

received a great impetus thr ough the Abbé

Faria . In 1 81 4 1 5 he showed by ex
—

e r i m e n t s whose resul ts he published that

p , ,

no unkn own force was necessary for the pro

duction of the phenomena ; the cause of the
sleep he said was in the person who was t o
, ,
”
be sent to sleep ; all was subj ective This .

is the main principle of hypnotism and of

suggestion of which Faria even then made, ,

use in inducing sleep Two other investiga

.
 OL D AN D NE W TH EOR I ES . 13

tors in France must be mentioned Bertrand ,

and N oi z e t who paved the way for the doc

,

trine of suggestion in spite of much inclina

tion to animal magnetism .

Thus Mr Braid is glorified in modern ar

.

t i cle s and books on hypnotism as the man ,

who extracted the real truth of the subject

from the con fu s1 on left by foolish e n t hu si
asts or impostors l n the beginning and put ,

us all on a scientific fo undation in spite of ,

the fact that his vie w is not only a gigantic

blunder absurdly at variance w ith the facts
, ,

even as reported by himself but even as a

bl under no better than a plagiary
, .

’
The M anchester surgeon s reasoning would
have been blown to atoms by contemporary
critics if it had been oppose d to in stead of
chiming i n with conve n tional prejudice .

But fashion soon becomes an ample cloak

for bad logic and on e after another,mod
, ,

ern writers if drawn to the subj ect of

,

meri cphenomena at all date t hei r chr o ,

n olo
gy from the year 1 of the B r aidi an era .

E ven the treatise on Hypnotism by A l ,

bert Moll of Berlin though in some r e

, ,

s e ct s the best of the recent volum es of the

p
B r ai di an school i s infected with its funda
,

mental principle I hope to show shortly

.
14 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMERI SM .

that the real literature of mesmerism lies in

the background behind the shower of occa
,

si on al essays bro u ght forth by the vogue of

’
Dr Charcot s experiments but it may be as
.
,

well in the fir st instance to complete the

, ,
’ ’

account I have just given of Br aid s own

work ;by noticing some of those whi ch follow
in his footsteps .

’
Dr M oll s book is not without merit as an
.

epitome of the subj ect from the limited mod

ern standpoint It contains a fairly reason
.

able an d impartial though hasty survey of

the rise and progress of mesmerismfrom the
time of M esmer onward to the present day ,

also an account of the di fie r e n t methods em

ployed by di fie r e n t schools of mesmerists in
inducing the various mesmeric phenomena .

The wr iter chi efly errs in concen trating his

attention too much on recent results and in ,

deali ng with the phenomena of hypnotic sug

gestion as though they con stituted an e n
t i r e ly new depart ure in hum an knowledge .

He justly rebukes some modern scientists

who treat hypnotic experiments with con
“
tempt but says so long as science does not
,

examin e everything practically and without

prejudice the great delusions of which ani
,

mal magnetism etc make use will continue

, .
,
 OL D AN D NE W TH E ORI E S . 15

to exist, thus himself treating with con

tem pt the bran ches of his own subj ect with
which he happens to be unacquainted In .

conclusion he says : In spite of the progress

,

which the exact sciences have made we must ,

not for a moment forget that the inner con

n e ct i on between the body and the mental
processes is utterly unknown to us U nder .

these circumstances we should n ot refuse to

”
examine the apparent ly inexplicable Cer .

t ai n ly the representatives of modern physical

science are utterly without knowledge con
cern ing the relations of mind and body but ,

that is not true of all man kind as occult ,

students are aware and the annals of t he

,

higher mesmerism go far to point ou t hope

ful paths of investigation in th at direction .

But the value even of mesmerism as an aid

to such researches may be reduced to zero
f ,

if we calmly ignore all that the greatest i n

v e st i gat or s of the past have accomplished

and devote o urselves exclusively to the super

fici al phenomena rediscovered l n the la st I e w
years by the hypnotists whose chosen de sig
nation marks them ou t as people who have
deliberately elected t o ignore the greatest
work don e by their predecessors .

Two French writers MM Alfred Binet

,
.
16 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

and Charles Fere the latter assistant phy

,

s i ci an at the Salp et r i er e in Paris have pub ,

li she d in L ondon a book in E nglish which is

calle d
“
Animal M agnetism perhaps si m
”
,
”
ply to avoid repeating the title Hypnotism ,

already so frequently used ; b u t it might just

as well have been called by the expression
so popul ar for the moment It is introduced
.

to the reader as written in the environment

of the Salp ét r i e r e ; it is based on the notion
‘

that there is but on e hypnotism and that ,

Charcot i s its prophet .

The keynote of the volume as an inter ,

p r e t at i on of the phenomena it deals with ,

may be found in the following sentence s

from the beginning of an early chapter
“
As far as its mode of production is con
cerned hypnotic sleep does not essenti all y
,

differ from nat ural sleep of which it is in

,

fact only a modification and all the causes

,

which produce fatig ue are capable of p r odu

cing hypnosis in those who are subj ect to it .

S ensorial excitements produce hyp

nosis in two ways , when they are strong
and abrupt o r when they are faint and con
,
”
t i n u e d for a prolonged period .

It is difi cult to criticise such a theory as

this in m o derate terms It is difficul t t o get
.
 OL D A N D NE W TH EORI ES . 17

behind the mind of a man who can think

that a condition in which people can suffer
a leg to be cut off without knowing it i s
something akin to natural sle ep an d to be
properly described as only a modification of
“
it Certainly in on e sense death and his
.

brother sleep are akin but rather in poetic

,

fancy than in the pages of sober science If .

on e thing is said to be a modification of an

other the meaning surely is that i t does not

,

differ greatly from it in essential character .

In the mesmeric trance not only do we meet

with astoundin g effects of anaesthesia ,

when a pinch of the arm would be e n ou gh t o

“ ”
wake an ybody from natural sleep but ,
-

also an en tirely new condition of the intel

lectual faculties utterly cu t off by oblivion
“

before the su b ject comes out of the trance

.
,

from the waking con scl ou sn e ss Who has

’
.

known the natural sleep in which the sleeper

is able to converse freely on recon dite sub
j ects quite unfamiliar to him i n his wa ki n g -
,

state ? and ye t it is a common experience of

mesmerism that this is possible in the mag

netic trance If MM Bin et and Fe r é had
. .
’

“
said In the narrow an d limited phase of
,

mesmeric conditions with which we are

,

alo ne c oncerned there i s some analogy b e

,
18 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

tween what we call hypnosis an d ordinary

”
sleep the statement would hardl y be accu
,

rate ; but when put forward on the basis of a

general assumption that the so call ed hyp -

nosis embraces all that is true and real in

mesmerism it is nothing less than absurd
, .

In fact the whole theory of the Charcot

,

school depends upon a studious disregard of

all the facts of experience that do not square
with it For instance i n the book before us
.
,
“
we read of manoeuvres which formerly led
to t he belief that it is possible to magnetize
from a distance and then this belief is dis
,

posed of by the suppositio n that in such cases

the subj ect had been told to expect the cfl e ct
fr om a distance at a certain time and there ,
“
fore the results have on ly been due to su g
”
gestion in the wakin g state In reality all
.

the records of mesmerism both early and,

recent teem with illustrations of the way in

,

whi ch magnetic influence from a distan ce

has been successfully exerted upon persons
quite un prepared to expect it From de .

’
P u ységur s time down to some of the recent
experiments of the S ociety for Psychical R e
search the fact has been substantiated over
,

and over again but it does not fit in with the

,

favorite Braid Charcot hypothesis so t an t

-
,

i s our le s f a i t s as usual
p p .
 OL D AN D NE W TH E OR I E S . 19

The more attention we pay to modern

writers on hypn otism t he more those of us
,

who are al so famil iar with the earlier writers

w ill be struck by the fact that above all the ir
other characteristics the modern hyp n otists
from Braid downwards are n ot those who
have put the 1 n v e st i gat i on of mesmeric phe
nomen a on a scien tific basis They have .

done just the reverse ; they have degraded

an in quiry which was open ed just a hun dred
years ago in a truly s cien tific Spirit in to an ,

attempt to bolster up an un i n tell igent p r e ju

dice For the truly scientific spirit leads
.

people to study all the facts of experience i n

the particular departmen t of n ature con
cerned and to refrain from premature the
,

or i z i n
g in directio n s from which some of these
facts warn them off The re was no prema
.

ture theorizing in the case Of M esmer and his

!

followers when they adopted the hypothesis

of a mes m eric or magn etic fluid A ll the
.

facts known to them up to that time squared ’

with that hypothesis and if their st ééz st or s

,

ha d been loyal to truth an d had gone on test

ing the early hypothesis by later experience
they woul d have fOun d it supported by every
thin g that has been discovered since and in ,

no way refuted by the discovery that som e of

2
0 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

the phenomena produced by the agency of

the magnetic fluid were also susceptible of
bein g induced more or less imperfectly
in other ways as well But latter day i n v e s -

"
.

t i gat or s have not been loyal t a truth They .

have chosen for consideration only those

facts and experiences which suited them and
have calmly ign ored the rest Incidentally.
,

it is true they have done a public service ;

,

they have se t afloat a general belief that

mesmerism after all is a reality and but for ,

them perhaps it would only at thi s day have

been a reality for isolated students of occult
science But the limitations to which their
.

ow n theories and methods condemn their

thinking are deplorable and stand at this
,

moment t e r r l b ly in the way of any real p r o

gress in the cul tivation of the public mind
along the channels of research which m e s
merism correctly appreciated opens ou t
, , .

The principle of study which it is my

,
'

foremost desire to i m p r e ss on those who will

listen to me is this : L et all who wish to
,

read about mesmerism go back to the foun

tain head of the subject and explore the v ol
-

um i n ou s writings of the early French school ,

of which I propose to speak more fully in

the next few pages In that lite r ature the

.
 OL D AN D NE W TH E OR I E S . 2
1

real foundations of ou r knowledge of mes

meri sm were laid There we shall find it is
.
,

true some traces of a most pardonable if

, ,

n ot praiseworthy excitement and enthusiasm

,

in reference to the wonderful b e n e fice n ce of

the new revelation which mesmeric discover
ies seemed to embody There we shall read
.

of some procedure i n which we shall fail to

’
discern the true working of M esmer s own
ideas ; but at the time a p r odigious excite
ment was operative with large num b ers of
people deeply stirred by wonder and admi
ration and many cures were worked through
,

the influence of an overwhelming faith in

association with an external ceremon ial that
probably had little if any objective effect
, , .

S imilar results have been Observed within

r ecent years at L ourdes a n d o n ly the other
,

day at Treves in conn ect ion with the e x hi

,
“ ”
b i t i on of the Holy Coat But persons .

who justly conceive that touching a Holy

Coat of which even the holiness 1s apqcr y
phal woul d not do t he m any good ,make a
,

, !

mistake unworthy of the superior sense they

take credit for if they fail to realize thatfu ll
b e li ef in a Holy Coat or a holy anything is a
real force within the organisms of the per
’
sons inspired by i t M esmer s b agu e t s and
.
2
2 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESME R I SM .

’
de P uységur s magnetized trees may not have
“ ”
worked in the same way as the passes
and magnetic currents with whi ch those
early experimentalists sought to coOr di n at e
'

them But t he y w or ke d an d therefore the

.
,

writers in question honestly r ecorded the

‘

facts con cerning them not yet hav i n g

,

learned from M r Braid and the hypnotizers

.

that the way to put their inquiry on a sci e n

t ific b asis was to pick and choose among
the experiences they acqui red so as o n l y
,

to father those which were calcul ated to

please a self suffici e n t public opinion around
-

them .

To put aside the writings and experiments

that relate to the present di storted revival of
mesmerism un der a misleading pseudonym
, ,

and to turn back to the pages of de P uysé

ur and Deleuze R icard Gauthier Teste
g , , , ,

and du Potet is like passing from an evil

,

and stifling t o a p ure m o ral atmosphere .

 C HAPTER II .

TH E MESMER I C F OR C E .

B EF OR E tracing ou r way back to the b e

ginnings of modern mesmerism in the very
earliest years of the century it may be well ,

to pause for a while about half w ay back at -

the stage attained by Baron von Reichen

bach His researches may fairly be taken
.

as the groundwork of a correct theory of

‘

mesmerism The book in which they are all

.

brought out gen erally known t o students of

,

’
this sort of literature as Re i chenbach s R e
“

”
searches bears in reality a somewhat p on
,

derons title It is called on t he title page

.

of the E nglish translation by Dr A shb u r n e r .

“
Physico Physiological R esearches on the
-

Dynamic s of M agnetism Ele ct r i ci t y H e at

, , , ,

L ight Crystallization and Chemism in

, ,

their relations to Vital Force by Baron ,

Charles von R eichenbach The author had

.

lighted on the discovery that sensitives in ill

ness could see lu m m ou s emanations or flames
issuing from the poles o f magnets At that .
2
4 TH E R A TI ONA LE OF ME SMER I SM .

time as we shall see later on the faculties

, ,

which constitute a person what we now call

a sensitive were supposed t o manifest them
,

selves during illness only and they were ,

ought for by inquirers among persons suf

fe r i n g from some form of sick ness With .

!
the painstaking care of a true man of sci
ence Baron von R eichenbach repeated his
,

experim ents with magnets with a great num

ber of subj ects taking care of course to test
,

the reality of their power to see what they

said they saw by making them fin d ou t his
,

magnets in dark rooms without havi ng been

,

told where they had been placed and in ,

other ways Then he found that the lumi

.

nous brushes or flames were to be seen

emanating from crystals as well as from mag
nets The experiments which brought ou t
.

these facts were elaborate and protracted ,

but soon acquired a new development al

most by accident .

Baron von R eichenbach discovered that

luminous appearances similar to those
,

emanating from magnets and crystals pro ,

ce e de d from the human hand in a great

many cases and he dropped u pon this fact

,

quite by chance in the first instance without ,

having set out on this inquiry with any pre

 TH E MESM ER I C’ FOR C E . 2
5

conceived theory He was experimenting

.

with on e of his sensitives with a magnet in

the dark and she was playing with the lu
,

minousflame which she could perceive com

ing out of the ends when he in the darkness
,

put his hand between her and the magnet .

S he immediately began to play in the same

way with emanations from the hand and ,

spoke to the bystanders of five little flames

which leaped up and down in the air S he .

did not see the hand itself and at first sup

,

posed the five little flames to be some in de

pendent phenomen on O ther persons pres
.

ent then raised their hands before her and ,

from vari ous fingers she saw a similar light

emitted more or less energetically This .

sensitive M iss R eichel app ears to have

, ,

been the first in con nection with whom Baron

von R eichenbach broke down an erroneous
belief which had hitherto prevailed with all
the earlier mesmerists As we shall se e
.

when coming to review the early literature ,

almost all the e x pe r i m e n t a

li St s clOsOIy fol
,

lowing on M esmer became possessed of the

,

idea that t he clairvoyance they discovered in

their patients and which almost always had
,
’
reference to the patients illnesses was n e ,

ce ssar i ly extinguished on the recovery of

2
6 TH E R A TI ON A LE OF ME SMER I SM .

health ; and they thus drifted into a way of

supposing that the power was in some way
morbid in its character that it related ,

exclusively to pathological conditions and ,

ceased to be effective when these were

no longer present In referen ce to M iss
.

Reichel Baron von R eichenbach announces

,
”

as a wonderful fact that even after she got

well she continued to see the magnetic flames ,

the crystal light and the flames on the hand

when ever it was dark en ough O n inquiry
,

it appeared that she had possessed this fac “

u lt y even from chil dhood and had two si s

,

ters who like herself saw these luminous

, ,

appearances when other persons could see

nothing.

Further experiments with other sensitives

soon enabled the Baron to generalize as a
prin ciple and to declare that fiery brushes
, ,

of light issue from the points of the fin gers

of healthy men in the same manner as from

the poles o f crystals R eaders who may

.

’
take up the Baron s book now especially ,

with the object of gettin g information about

the vital mesmeric fluid will be tantalized to
,

fin d how much more of his attention he de

voted to mechanical sources of the luminous
e fie ct than to those having direct reference
 TH E MESMER I C FOR C E . 2
7

to mesmeric energy But the truth 1 s that

.

this characteristic of his research gives it

pecul iar importance at the present day to
students of mesmerism as a science because ,

it links the vital energy of the human frame

with other great forces in nature an d brings
,

ou r thi n king into line with those great phi

losophi cal specul ation s which always seek for

unity in nature A very disjointed and i l
.

logical conception of t he cosmos is that

which regards anything in man as altogether
peculiar to himself as a man ifestation of na
ture Just as his physique is related in v a
.

rio n s ways to the matter around us out of

which it is built up by the subtle chemistry
of living organ isms and just as philosophical
,

convictions must force us to the conclusion

that the highest spiritual element in the hu
'

man soul has in some way a common origin

with the Universal S pirit from whose energy
the whole o f what is called creation must
have proceeded , so also it is only reasonable
t o suppose that these 1 n t e r m e diat e forces with
Which We are n ow dealing the vital forces
,

which are something intermediate in their

character between matter an d spirit must ,

themselves be relate d to s ome c o rresponding

agen t o f wide diffusion through the universe .
2
8 TH E R A TI ONA LE OF MESME RI SM .

M esmer guessed at this with the inspiration

of genius and ridiculed as he was by the
,

learned foll y of his time the latest coOr di

,

nation of all our knowledge havin g reference

to occul t forces is steadily brin gin g u s back
to the position he took up J L et us profit.
,
’
therefore by v on R eichen bach s researches
,

even where they do not directly refer t o man

i fe st at i on s of vital e n ergy proceeding from
living organisms E specially let us profit
.

by some very interestin g an d suggestive ex

r i m e n t s he tried with sunlight as a source
p e

of energy discernible in the case of magnets .

He wished to ascertain whether sunlight fall

ing on one end of a copper wire would su
e r i n du ce any conditions in the other end
p
when this shoul d be examined in a dark room
by one of his sensitives The copper wire
.

by itself presented no appearance that coul d

be remarked but when the other end was
,

put ou t into the sunshine a crystall ic lum i

n o si t
y became perceptible in a weak degree
as emanating from the other e n d in the dark

room The next experiment had to do wi th

.

a superior arrangemen t of thi s apparatus .

The wire was attached at one end to a plate

of copper and this plate of copper was ex
,

p osed to the sunlight . U nder these condi

 TH E MESMER I C FOR C E . 2
9

tions a powerful manifestation of the ln

minous energy which Baron von R eichen
,

“ ”
bach eventually call s the odic force was ,

manife sted The importance of this di scov

.

ery which von R eichenbach checks in a

great many ways and elaborates with a great
,

variety of substances besides copper r e —

’
sides in the obvious reflection that the sun s
light i s the great source of vital energy
which evokes organic c o nditions of matter
from the I norganic world The whole veg .

etable creation is the first storehouse of vital

energy whatever it may be and this it
, ,
’
clearly derives directly from the sun s rays .

That the animal kingdom derives its vital

forces from the translation of vegetable or
an i sm s into those adapted to its own re
g
’
u i r e m e n t s is equally obvious and the sun s
q ,

light must thus be regarded as i n directly the

source of animal life H ow far it might
.

influence refresh or stimulate that life by

, ,

direct application is unknown to u s only ,

because modern science has been se d e nsely

incapable of pursuing lines of thought which
do not hinge directly on to any o f its own
material achievement s .

’
Among Baron von R eichenbach s e xpe r i
ments one long series which I must not st op
,
30 TH E R A TI ONA L E OF MESMERI SM .

to recapitulate in detail has reference t o the

,

polar character of the odic force ; distinct

analogies between the polar character of
ordinary magnetism and that of the vital
energy being elaborately traced .

’
V on R eichen bach s first v olume though ,

p ublished in the E n glish translation i n 1 85 0 ,

relates to a series of experiments which were

apparently con cluded about the year 1 84 8 .

Attacks of all kinds were of course leveled

again st him and hi s results treated as i n con
,

clu si v e. R ecogn izing himself that they

rested on a foundation which was narrow ,

considerin g the importance of t he principles

to be established being the result of e x p e r i
,

men ts with five different sensitives he se t ,

to work i n the two followin g years to expand

them enormously When his second volum e
.

was brought out he was enabled to supply a

list of sixty sensitive persons m e n an d wo,

men mothers and maidens childr en and

, ,

aged persons high low rich and poor

, , , , ,

with whom he had repeated the experiences

of his first investigation ; and n ow he had
come satisfactorily to the principle that ill
ness had nothing to do with the matter as
regards the power of perceiving the o di c
fluid Perfectly healthy and stro ng persons
.
 TH E ME SMER I C FO R C E . 31

are included in considerable numbers in his

new list It is little less than amazin g that
.

such an enormous body of results as in these

t wo volumes v on R eichenbach brought to
get her should have remained for half a cen
tury almost unnoticed by those who arrogate
to t hemselves the title of natural philoso
p h e,
rs and that it sh ould still be merely a
record of interest for an isolated few w hose
in tuitions and foresight enable them to dis
cern in the forces app e rtaining to other th an
the physical pl anes of nature the possibili ,

ties of an advancement for human know

ledge that will far eclipse some time in the ,

future the achievements of which the nine

,

t e e n t h century has been so proud .

’
E ven before Reichenbach s t ime s ome of
’
the early experimentalists of M esmer s own
-

epoch had come in to con tact with the fact

that luminous em an ations coul d be seen in
connection with hands employed to project
the mesmeric fluid and even Bertr and of
, ,

whom amongst others I shall hav e t t r s peak

, ,
s

shortly ackn owledges that his sensitives as

,

sure him that they see a fluid emanatin g

from hi s own fingers although he himself is
,

not di sposed t o believe them and constructs ,

an elab o rate the o ry of hi s own almost as

3 2 TH E RA TI ON AL E OF MESMER I SM
.

i llogical as some of those presented to u s by

the most modern writers to account for the ,

already enormous accum ul ation of mesmeric

experience .

F or the moment of course the mesmeric

, ,

fluid theory is altogether out of fashi on and ,

the most recent inquirers who have se t to

work within the last few years to rediscover
the facts already included in books written
from fifty to eighty years ago have been con ,

sp i cu ou s illust ration s of on e very common

human frailt y in reference t o all advances
of kn owledge When for the fir st time
.
, ,

their attention has been turned to a subject

n eglected up till then they have acted as
,

though their own conversion to an appr e ci a

tion of the facts constit uted a sort of new
depart ure for those facts There i s some .

thing positively ludicrous to readers familiar

with the earlier books in the great library of
mesmeric literature in the way the least i n
,

t e lli ge n t of modern stu dents invariably treat

the whole subject if they handl e it at all as
, ,

something which they for the first time at

, ,

last have ascertained to be really worth ih

quiry and in reference to which it is now
,

important that mankind should begin in ,

co mpany with them to observe facts and lay

,
 TH E E MER I C
M S ’ FOR C E . 33

a foundation for reasoning We have been .

confronted in the last fe w years with a del

uge of hypnotic literature but most of the ,
.

books written to ampli fy the hypnotic hypo

thesis coul d hardly on e would think have
, ,

been written if the authors had had the good

sense to acquaint themselves with all that
had been previously done in the line of their
o wn investigations It seems as I have
.
,

said already rat her as though the obj ect of

,

the manoe uvre was to escape from an unten

able position than to exhibit any new truth
, ,

when the first exponents of the hyp notic

theory adopted the principle they represent .

To identify those who were really the first

expon ents of this principle might be difficult
n ow . Bertrand at all events anticipated
Braid by half a lifetime though Braid was so ,

satisfied of hi s own originality that he ridi

cul es as we have seen with the utmost pos
, ,

sible indignation some contemporary critics

,

who endeavored to introduce him to his

predeces sors in error P e r e an t qui a me n os
.
-
zt

n os t r a dime r i n t
Before leaving this branch of the subject
’
let me add that R eichenbach s experiments ,

as will have been seen lent a better ju st ifi

,

cation than is generally supposed t o exist

34 TH E RA TI ONA LE OF MESMERI SM .

for the habit into which early mesmeric

w riters fell of cal ling the mesmeric fluid
“ ”
magnetism .This term has rather e x as
p e r at e d modern scientific th i nkers who com
,

plain not without apparent reason that no

, ,

thing i n the behavior or phenomena of what

is call ed animal magnetism be a r s any more
relation to the force known as magnetism in
the laboratories than to gravitation or chem
,

ical affinity or any other force of nature we

like to name But first of all the whole lit
.

e r at ur e of thi s subj e ct is so saturated with

“
the expression magnetism as applied to all
the phenomena with which mesmeris t s deal ,

that it woul d be hardl y possible at the pres

ent day to comb it free of that expressio n ;
and secondl y we have at all events no
, , , ,

better term that can b e employed t o take its

place Fur ther than t his so very close a
.
/ ,

correspondence is observed by people who

can s e e beyond the o rdinary boun dary of
visual perception between the emanations
,

of physical magnets both of t he permanent

and electrically excited orders and o n the , ,

other hand the emanations proceeding from

,

the fingers and head of a mesmerist an d ,

obviously c oncerned in some way with the

so call ed magnetic trance of hi s subj ect
-
,
 TH E ME SMER IC
’
FOR C E
. 35

that in the present state of ou r knowledge I

think it woul d be a great mistake to quarrel
“
too hastily with the term animal magnet
ism. Personally I believe that to be a
,

designation which much more accurately

defines the great majority of mesmeric phe
n om e n a than any other we could employ .

It certainly covers a hundred such pheno

mena for every on e whi ch fits in with the
hypnotic hypothesis and is therefore the
,

b est abstract term to employ next after the

still more convenient because non connota
,
-

tive expression derived from the name o f

,

the unfortunate and much abused M esmer .

 C HAPTER III .

T H E R EAL L I T ER A T U R E OF ,
MESMER I SM .

MESMER himself Frederick Anthony

M esmer —
accor dm gto Picard was born at ,

Weiler on the Rhin e in the year 1 7 34 He

, .

studied medicine in his youth and settled as

a doctor in Vienna where he ultimately mar
,

ried advantageously In 1 7 66 he wrote a

.

“
dissertation on The Influences of the Plan
”
ets on the Human Body which drew upon
,

him much ridicule and professional opposi

tion The attempt t o account for this i n
.

fl u e n ce led him to make the experiments

whi ch introduced hi m to the facts with which
his name has been since indi ssolubly associ
ated At first he worked entirely with mag
.

nets obtained som e cures by this means and

, ,

w rote
“
A L etter to a F oreign Physician on
the M agnetic R emedy But he w as much
persecuted for his audacity For the fur
ther development of his inquiries he estab
li she d a pri v ate hospital in his own house for
the relief of destitute invalids He soon ;
 REA L LI TER A T URE OF MESMER I SM . 37

came t o the conclusion that the magnetic

rods with which his first experiments were
made only served as conductors for a fluid
,

emanati ng from his own person To this he.

at once gave the name Animal M agnetism ,

and theorized boldl y concerning its diffusion

through nature But he was accused of de
.

ce i v i n g his public and of having magnetic

,

rods concealed about hi s person an accu

sation which i s very amusing in view of the
,

fact that when he really used magnetic

,

rods he was ridicul ed for expecting to oh

,

tain curative results by such means His .

reputation was assailed and his fortune i m

paired He sought some more favora b le
.

theatre for the development of his e xp e r i

men ts and moved from Vienna t o Paris in
,

1777 . Two years later he pdb li she d a short

treatise enti tled M émoi re su r la decou
,
“

verte da M agn étisme Anima . The the

’
ory put forward rested on M esmer s convi o
“
tion that there exists a reciprocal influence
between t he he av e n ly b odi e s the e ar t hf an d
‘

”
animated beings The medium of this i n
.

“
fl u e n ce he conceived to be a very subtle
fluid pervading the whole universe which ,

from its nature is capable of receiving prop ,

agat i n g and communicating every imp ul s e

,
38 TH E R A TI ONA LE OF MESMERI SM .

of motion The recipr o cal action is subject

.

to certain mechanic al laws which have not

yet been di scovered The animal b ody
.

experiences the alternative e ffects of this

agent which by insin uating itself into the
, ,

substance of the nerves afie ct s them imme ,

’
di at e ly
”
M esmer s suggestions to this e f
.

fe ct were treated by the men of science in

Paris at the time with contempt On e i n .
,

deed of the members of the medical facult y

,
’
of Paris Dr D Eslon became a warm par
, .
,
’
tisan of M esmer s views But instead of .
,

i nqui ring into them the F acul t y suspended

,
’
Dr D Eslon for a year and ordered that
.
, ,

at the expiration of this time his name ,

shoul d be erased from the list of the society ,

unless he recanted his declaration of belief .

The public meanwhile became interested to

s ome extent in the n e w ideas as the fame ,

of various magnetic cures had be en spread

about Various persons testified to the fact
.

that M esmer had cured them but the pub ,

lic journal s ridiculed him and the medical ,

profession reviled him In 1 7 81 he pub .

“
li she d a work entitled Précis Historique
de s F aits relatif au M agnétisme Animal
”
.

The opposi t ion he encountered only st i m u

lated hi s own enthusiasm and led him t o ,
 R EAL LI TER A T UR E OF MESMER I S M . 39

proclaim magnetism as a panacea He de .

“
clar e d there is but one health one disease , ,
”
one remedy An unfortunate private mis
.

underst anding between himself and Dr .

’
B Eslon led him to move from Paris to S pa .

U ltimately he returned to Paris and then ,

took a step whi ch has led to much animad

version on his character He established a .

“
secret society un der the name of The Har
,
”
mony where he initiated pupils into t he
,

myste ry of his process taking from them ,

’
fees of a hundred loui s d or each By this .

means he is said according to M r J C

“ ”
,
. . .

Colquhoun a relatively recent wr iter on

,

m esmerism to have realized a considerable

,

fortune M Deleuze a leading writer on

. .
,

the subj ect justifies his acti on in t his matter

,

by pointing out that his whOle pr e fe ssi on al

prospects were merged i n his magnetic dis
cov e r i e s which had r u m e d him as an ordi
,

nary doctor He took the fees from wealthy

.

people and is said to have remitted them

,

whe n would b e pupils were les s pr ospe r ous

- .

Morever admits Mr Colquhoun it is very

, .
,

doubtful whether he really acquired the large

sums he is all eged to have received .

In 1 7 84 a R oyal Commission of o rthodox

sav an t s was appointed t o inquire in t o t he
40 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

claims advanced o n behalf of the the ory of

animal magnetism The report was un fa
.

v or ab le ,after an inquiry which the r e p r e se n

t at i v e s of the n e w science d eclared to have
been improperly conducted ; though on e em
i n e n t physician ! de Ja ssieu! ref used to sub
scribe to the report of his coll eagues and , ,

after a great deal of attention paid to t he

subject published an independent rep o rt
,

of his own entirely favorable to M esmer

, .

E ven the general body of the Commissioners

admitted the e ffects produced by the mag
’
netic treatment but repudiated M esmer s
,

theory of a fluid and preferred hyp otheses

,

concernin g sensitive excitement imagina ,

”
tion and imitation
,
.

M esmer eventually retired in disgust to

Swi tzerland an d died at an advanced age in
,

1 81 5 closin g his career as he had begun it

, , ,

by practicin g magnetic cures gratuitously

for the ben efit of the poor Beyond a cer .

tain fancy for surroun ding hi s mode of life

in Paris with a flavor of mystery and theat
r i cal e ffect it is di fficult to fi
, n d any c i rcum
’
stances i n M esmer s lif e that afford the slight
est color for the offensive terms in whi ch he
has constantly been spoken of even by some ,

students and adherents of hi s great subject .

 REA L LI TE RA T URE OF MESMER I S M . 41
’
During M esmer s life the phenomena of
animal magnetism to which attention was
,

chiefly called were those connected with the

,

cure of disease M any societies were formed

.

as branches of that first se t on foot and ,

while on the one hand the orthodox medical

scientists of the day continued to treat with
contempt the belief of those who declared
that such and such results were aecom
li she d the volume of experience roll ed on
p ,

for all who paid attention to the work in

progress A very ludicrous aspect is thus
.

put for students of mesmeric literature o n

, ,

the ignorant conceit of the dominant maj or

ity who were all the while denying the pos
,

si b i li t of that which was actually occurring

y .

After the foolish bigotry of the doctors at

large had thus been at war With the plain
facts of the case for more t han forty years ,

medical mesmerism at last r eceived a gr u dg

ing recognition from orthodox science in
1 831 . At this date a committee of the med
ical section of the French R oyal A cade my of
S ciences was appointed to e x am m e into the
alleged phenomena of animal magnetism .

The report made by this committee after ,

long and careful investigations constitutes ,

a remarkable r e cor d of experiments on the

'
4 2 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM '
.

physic al phenomena of the mesmeric state ;

it also goes at length into cases in whi ch p a
t i e n t s under medical mesmeric treat ment
were clairvoyant in their t rances and accu ,

r at e l
y prophetic concerning the subsequent
course of their m al adie s The report
.
,

signed by nine members of the Academy is ,

apologetic in regard to its assurance that the

alleged phenomena were true ; but the mem
bers say in e fl e ct How can we help our
,

selves ? We have taken every possible pre

caution to guard ourselves from mistakes ,

and we can not resist complete conviction .

An E nglish translation of this report by ,

M r J C Colquhoun was published in

. . .
,

1 833 .

From this date the reality the phenom

of

ena of mesmerism as far as those are associ

,

ated with its aspects as a cur ative agent as ,

a method of producing an ae sthesia and as a ,

means of producing abnormal men tal states

in which a mesmerized subj ect may foresee
the future progress of his own disorder ,

must be regarded as finally established al ,

though scientific and educated men up to ou r

o w n day maintain an attitude of i n credul ity

on the subject which puts them for better

, ,

instructed persons on the intellectual level

,
 REA L LI TERA T URE OF MESMER I SM . 43

of the African savage who does not believe

,

in ice S ince 1 831 moreover the e xp e r i

.
, ,

ence which has accumulated on ou r hands

concerning the higher and more purely p sy
chic phenomena of the mesmeric state is
such that the same remark really applies
to every one ho wever cultivated alon g some
,

lines of mental activity , who remains in an

attitude of incredulity concerning the t yp i

cal phenomena of clairvoyance and mesmeric

thought transfer .

As far back as 1 808 Dr P etetin published

,
.

in Paris a book call ed Ele ct r i ci t é Ani

“

”
male of which the well known later writer
,
-

on the same subject Dr E sdaile says

, .
,
“ ’
Dr P ét é t i n s cases alone are su fficient to
.

establish the reality of natural clairvoyance .

Plentiful testimony will be foim d in this book

concerning the powers of m e sm e r i c subj ects
A

of a certain kind to r e a d the contents of

closed letters and books and to exercise
,

many other faculties of perception quite i n

dependently of the ordinary sense .

’
Amon g the earlie st of M esmer s disciples ,

the Mar qu l s C hast e n e t de Puysegur has left

voluminous writings on the subject of his
own prolonged and varied practice as a cur

ative me smerist The edition of his works

.
44 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

before me is in four volumes the last dated,

1 809 but this is a second edition and I

, ,

gather that the first must have appeared in

This is entitled Mémoires pour
‘
“
1 8 07.

’ ’
servir a l hi st oi r e e t a l é t ab li sse m e n t du
M agnétisme Animal .The second volume
is a general continuation of t he first and the ,

“
third is more especiall y devoted to R e
cherches e xp er i e n ce s e t ob servations physi
, ,
’ ’
olo i q u e s su r l homme dans l etat de som
g
n am b u li sm e naturel e t dans le som n am b u
’ ”
li sm e provoqué par l acte m agnétique The
fourth volume published in 1 81 2is entitled
.

, ,

“
L es Fous les I nsensés les M aniaques e t les
, ,

Frénétiques n e seraient ils que des Som n am

,
-

”
bules désordonnés . The whole coll ection
of writi n gs embodies an immense accu m u

lation of experiences with persons clai r v oy

ant during ill ness in respect to their own
maladies NO recent writings on mesmerism
.

in its medical aspect have an equal value

with these for de Puys egur workin g with
, ,

straightforward and earnest faith in his own

power of all ev i ating suffering with the help
’
of M esmer s glorious discovery attained ,

brill iant successes and above all for later

,

students of the subj ect has done un rivaled

service in investigating the prophetic and
 REA L LI T ERA T UR E OF MESMERI SM . 45

clair voyant facul ties of mesmeric patients ,

not only in reference to their own but in re

’
Spect also of other persons ailments On .

this development of their powers he says :

“
Of all the facts of magnetism the most i n
explicable and above all the least con ce 1 v
,

able is without doubt that of the vision

, , ,

possessed by patients in a perfect state of

somnambulism in reference to the sufie r i n gs
Of others and the knowledge which they
show of the remedies and measures n e ce s
sary for their cure Anyho w although
.
,

there is n o known phenomena ! in other

branches of science! to which on e can com
pare the faculty the fact is nevertheless
—

real as certain as the other manifestations

,
”
of somnambulism already recognized .

De P uys egur gives full detai ls of the cases

both of this and of t he s i m ple r kinds of/

’
clairvoyance i n reference to the patients
—

own illnesses that he had the opportun i ty

—

of dealing with and they are both num erous

,

and remarkable It seems strange t hat ; he

. r
.

ne ver apparently in vestigated the extent to

which the clairvoyant perceptions he evoked
could be directed to other subj ects besides
those having t o do with physical ill ness but ,

in the beginning mesmerism was introduced

46 TH E R A TI ONA LE OF MESMERI SM .

to the world in reference alm o st exclusively

to its medical aspects and it was reserved ,

fo r later inquirers to bring its psychological

importance into v iew De P uys egur never .

seems to have expected the clairvoyance of

his patients to be prolo nged beyond the
period of their recovery .

J P F Deleuze was a volumino us and

. . .
,

one of the earliest writers on mesmerism , .

He published several books on the subject ,

amongst others a critical history of animal

magnetism He himself was a Frenchman
.
,

born in 1 7 5 3 He was attracted to the su b

.

j e ct of mesmerism by reading accounts of

magnetic cures in 1 7 85 and subsequently ,

accomplished many Such cu res himself He .

was a naturalist attached to the Jardin des

“
Plantes In his . Histoire Critiq ue du
M agnétisme Animal ! Paris
”
he very ,

effectually rebuts t he accusations of i m p os

ture brought against M esmer This ex .

t r aor di n ar y man he says gift e d with an

, ,

energetic character was carried away by t he

,

wonderful successes he obtained into an ex

agge r at e d belief in the range of his di scov

ery but the attitude of incredulity on the

, ,

other hand in regard to his achievements

,

M Deleuze shows to be altogether unten

.
 REAL LI TER A T URE OF MESMERI SM . 47

able Not only were his numerous pupils

.

c o nvinced of the reality of his treatment but ,

the assurances and proofs furnished by per

sons who had been cured themselves and ,

who had taken part in establishin g societies

for the cure of others were such that no op
,

position or ridicule c ould arrest the progres s

of so useful and well established a discovery
-
.

M Deleuze himself since he had occupied

.
,

himself with magnetism c ould attest that he

,

had known more than three hundred person s

who were occupied with it like himself and ,

who had produced or experienced its vivid

effects M Deleuze deplores that M esmer
. .

had n ot the magnanimity to make public

his discoveries for the good of m ankind with
out deriving pecuniar y benefit from them ,

but p om t s out that after all he had spent

money to acquire the right of p r acticing as
,

doctor and by all ordinary c onsiderations

,

was entitled to take m oney for teaching pu

pils M Deleuze devotes himself chiefly to
. .

e st ab li shin t h reality of the magnetic in flu

g e

ence as a curative agent by records of cases

and protracted arguments and in his se c
,

ond volume gives an interesting summary of

the books on t he su b ject that had appeared
up to the date at which he wrote His .
48 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

Practical Instructions on Animal M agnet

ism were published in 1 82 5 and have been ,

translated into E n glish The book is de

.

scribed by the translator as the result of a

consummate experience In 1 836 an earlier
.

’ “
adm irer of D e le uz e s work had wr itten : A
n ew era has c o mmenced for magnetism .

Authentic ally recognized by the R oyal Acad

emy of M edicine in 1 831 and regarded by
,

the commission as a very curious branch of

psychology and natural history it has taken ,

rank among positive truths The rising .

generation will be prompt to cul tivate the

new field laid open to them What surer .

guide can they take than the man who by ,

the superiority of his intelli gence the saga ,

city o f his co nclusions and the example of

,

hi s o wn li fe has so powerful ly contributed

,

to the triumph of thi s noble di scovery .

Deleu e says that his object is to give

z

plain and simple instructions for people who

“
wish to pract ice magnetism It i s not the
.

” “
obj ect of this work he writes
, to con ,

vince men who otherwi se well informed

,
-
,
”
still doubt the realit y of magnetism He .

employs the expression the magnetic fluid

, ,

he says because he believes in the existence

,

of such a fluid though its nature is un

,
 R EA L LI TE R A T UR E OF ME SMER I SM . 49

known The direction s which he gives go

.

into great detail in regard to man ipulation

and passes and most later han dbooks of mes
,

merism seem to have derived their I n sp I r a

tion very largely from this code of rules :
The author also discusses the accessory
means by which magnetic action may be i n
creased namely mesmerized water woolen
, , ,

and cotton cloths plates of glass etc The

, , .

purpose in view i s almost exclusively to i n

struct the reader in methods of mesmerism
to be employed for the cure of disease and ,

the book is entirely concerned with such di

rections or with criticisms on various mode s
,

of mesmerizing the risks to be avoided and

, ,

the methods that may be employed fo r de “

’
v e lo i n
p g and fortifying one s self in mag
netic power A volum inous appendix
.
,

added to an A merican edi tion of the work

by the translator M r Har tsh orn g1 v e s an
, .
,

immense quantity of testimony collected

by him concerning curious and remarkable
cases of mesmerism .

J J A R icard a Far m professor,is a

. . .
,

thoroughl y satisfactory exponent of mes

m eric experience who published in 1 84 1 a
,
“
volume entitled Traité théorique e t pra
tique du Magnétisme Anima He must
50 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

ave b e en hi mself a mesmerist of most n u

force and eviden tly combined with
,

characteristics which properly

,

would have made hi m hi mself a

of great value for he appears
,

been a spontaneou s somnambulist ,

on some occasion s of writing long

“
.

of verses in hi s sleep in referen ce

,

of which he retain ed no
recollection whatever I n his wakin g state .

Ho we ver this fact crops up merely in ci

,

dentally his book is devoted entirely t o the

record of his work which chiefly has t o do
,

with cur ative mesmerism directed by the

pathological clairvoyance of his patients for,

with hi m it seemed as if almost every on e

who approached could be thr own into a mag
netic trance There is somethin g very puz
.

z li n t o modern practical students in the i m

g
mense a dvan tage apparently enjoyed by the
early mesmerists as compared with our
,

selves i n reference to the prevalen t condi

,

tion of people around them In the present

.

day we may be able to get resul ts whi ch

when obtained are full y as good in all r e
sp e ct s as those described by the early French

writers ; but the persons with whom such r e

su lt s are procurable s e em t o be dotted here
 REA L LI TER A T URE OF MESMER I SM . 51

and there about the world by ones and t wos

, ,

whereas such mesmerists as M R icard seem .

always to have been puzzled if they did not

succeed with the p r e m i e r D e n a Their rec .

ords of distinct successes r un into percentages

like seventy fiv e or eighty of t he total num
-

ber of persons with whom they made e xpe r i

ments Ricard treats with sc orn the pre
.

tenses of some disputants to account for

mesmeric phenomena by imagin ation fas ,

ci n at i on and other vague hypotheses in con

,

fl i ct wi th the simple and to him undeniably

, ,

tru e theory of mesmeric fluid The falsity .

of their judgment he thinks may easily be

demonstrated and he records a case in which
,

in order to prove the reality of his own p o

sitiou he magnetizes on e of his patients at a
:

distance and puts him to sleep without any

,

expectation on his part that the experiment ‘

was going to be tried FOr psychological

.

’
students however R icard s book has claims
, ,

on their interest which far transcend its i m

portance as ,what it certainly is
advanced and intell igent t reatise on curative
mesmerism R icard appears to me t o have
.

been the first experimentalist or at all ,

events the first writer who gets entirely free

,

of the belief that clairvoyance is a merely

5 2 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

pathological condition and t o whom the daz

,

z li n gly interesting phenomenon of clai r v o

y
ance having to do with other states of na
,

ture presents itself in the l ight of its real

,

importance He gives a very full account

.

o f his first experience in thi s region of i n

qu iry with a girl named Adele L e fr e y who . ,

exhibited a new kind of lucidity at the con

e lusion of some curative treatment received
’
at her mesmerist s hands It may be worth
.

while here to translate a short passage ill us

t r at i v e for all who have themselves been
privileged to work with sensitives qualified
to discern higher states of natur e of what ,

may be called the inevitable routine of im

pressions such people go thr ough in the first
’
instance M R icard s Adele said to him
. .

words conveying exactly the same ideas

whi ch I have heard uttered by sensitives
under my own influence young gi rls to ,

whom the A B C of mesmerism as a branch

of knowledge was wholly unknown M . .

Ricard writes : S he was near the comple

“

tion of her cure when in the midst of some

, ,

n e w medical instructions which she was giv

ing she said to me in a singular tone Y ou

, ,
‘

hear what he orders me ? Who I asked ‘

, ,
‘
is ordering you anything ? Why mon ‘
,
 REA L LI TER A T URE OF MESMER I SM . 53

sieur do you n ot hear him ?

, N o I neither ‘
,
’ ’
hear nor se e any on e Ah that is true .
‘
, ,

she replied you sleep while I am awake

,
‘
.

‘
What do you mean ? Y ou dream my de ar ,

child ; you pretend that I sleep when I have ,

my eyes open an d I can appreciate all that

passes before me while I know that I actu ,

ally hold you i n command by my magnetic

influence and that it only depends upon my
,

will to bring you back to the state you were

in recently Y ou believe yourself awake b e
.

cause you speak t o me and you have t o a ,

certain exten t y our free will although you ,

coul d not open your eyelids and might be ,

plunged in an instant in to the most profound

slumber Y ou do not reflect upon what you
.

’
are saying Y ou do not understand me
.
‘
,
’
monsieur but that is nothin g surprising
, .

’
‘
Y ou are asleep I replied I am on the ‘
, ,

con trary as completely awake as we shall all

,

be some day in the f uture I will explain m y .

self more clearly all that you se e at present

is gross material ; you distinguish apparent
,
—

forms ; the real beauties escap e you? H Ow

I ”

could it be otherwise ? Your spirit is

cramped obscured by the exterior impres
, ,
’
sion s that your material senses give you .

It can only reach out feebly while my cor ,

54 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

p or e al sensations are actually annihilated ,

while my soul is almost disintegrated from

i t s ordinary fetters I see what is invisible
.

to your eyes I hear what your ears cannot

,

hear I understand what for you is i n com

,

prehen sible For example you do not see

.
,

what emanates from yourself an d comes to

me when you magnetize me ; I on the con ‘

t r ar y see it very clearly ; at each pass you

,

direct towards me I se e a little column of

fiery dust which comes from the end of your
fingers and seems to incorporate itself in me .

Then when you isolate me I seem surrounded

by an atmosphere of this fiery dust which ,

is often the reason why obj ects of which I

seek to distinguish the forms take a ru ddy
tinge for me I hear when I desire it a
.
, ,

soun d that is made at a distance sounds ,

which may arise a hundred leagues from

here In a word I am not obliged to wait
.
,

till things come to me I can go to them

,

wherever they are and appreciate them more

,

correctly than an y on e coul d who is not in a

’
similar state to that in which I find myself .

This is a perfectly sound and correct e x

position of the state in which the liberated
E go of the sensitive finds itself Phrases of .

precisely similar imp o rt have as I say been

, ,
 R EA L LI TE R A T U R E OF ME SMER I SM . 55

given to me more than once ; and I venture

to say that any on e in whom the facul ty of
clairvoyance in reference to other planes of
,

nature is possible will on first entering into

, ,

that state if q uestioned take the same view

, ,

of the position .

“
U nder the title Archiv fii r den Thi e r i s
chen M agnetismus an immense collection ,

of writings on mesmerism in all its branches ,

as then understood w as published in Ger ,

many i n 1 81 7 This work is in twelve vol

.

umes edited by Dr von Esche n m aye r Dr

, .
, .

! iefer and Dr N asse

, It consists of nar
. .

r at i v e s of experiments and magnetic cures ,

an d careful critical essays in cluding sp e cu ,

lat i on s on the meaning of clair v oyant previs

ion which sh ow a more intell igent attitude of
mind on the part of the German writers of
that date than was common in E ngland .

Baron du P ot e t someti mes called de S en

'

nevoy after an ancestral domain is to be

, ,

ranked among the early French writers on

mesmerism though he lived to within a fe w
,

years ago He was born at Se n n Ev oy in

z “

.
,

t he Department of the Yonne in 1 7 9 6 He ,

.

has given us a sketch of his own career at

the begi nni ng of one of his later books and ,

it appears that he was fir st attracted to the

56 TH E R A TI ON AL E OF ME SMER I SM .

study of human magnetism in 1 81 5 The .

whole subj ect burst upon him as a revela

”
tion .
“
E n sor t an t de ce p r e m i e r e n t r e t i e n ,
’’ “ ”
he says j e t ai s m agn et i se u r
, He at once
.

obtained the mesmeric trance with the two

persons on whom he fir st tried his hand He .

became acquainted with Deleuze and de Puy

s egur He un dertook t he cu r e of some p a
.
‘

t i e n t s dazzled with the results he entered

himself regularly for the study of medicine .

As a mesmerist he rapidl y distanced his

teachers He boldly confronted the ridicule
.

and opposition of conventional science He .

gave gratuitous courses of instruction in

mesmerism from the year 1 82 6 and at the
,

same period began to write on the subject .

“
He published a Journal c all ed the P r op a
gatear du M agnétisme ; also in 1 838 in ,
“
L ondon a volume entitled An I n t r odu c
,

tion to the S tudy of Animal M agnetism ”

.

This is an admirable book It shows us the.

author still una b le to believe that the tena

city of ignorant prejudice coul d hold ou t
against an overwhelming demonstration of
“ ” “
the truth Hitherto he says there has
.
, ,

been a disinclination t o entertain this i n v e s

t i gat i on but I trust t he evidence now ad
,

du ce d will tend t o di spel the prejudice that

 REAL LI TERA T UR F OF MESME R I SM . 57

can only have arisen from the science not

”
having been yet fairly represented The .

book opens with a good review of the history

of the subject Speaking of M esmer the
.
,

B ar on says :
'
“
S urrounded as he was by e n
e m I e s both public and private his unassum
, ,

ing man ners his manifest sincerity his ear

‘

, ,

nest yet silent enthusiasm and above all , , ,

his benevolent disposition conciliated for ,

him the esteem of perso n s of almost all ranks

and pretensions L ater on the Baron goes
.

into a full and det ailed description of the

physical and psychical phenomena of m e s
merism as illustrated by his own experience .

His records are of great instructive value

and would alone be sufficient to establish the
reality of clairvoyance as a fact in nature ,

even if they were not as they are merely , ,

on e set of such e x e r i e n ce s am on a great

p g
number .
s

The onlyfault that can b e found with du

’
P ot e t s books is that their style is a little
,

inflated or bombastic In this respect he is .

,

however t he product of French and not

,

E nglish literary traditions and throughout ,

he is immensely im pressed with the prodi

gions spiritual importance of the discoveries
with which he is dealing As he himself .
58 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MES ME RI SM .

says he felt a new philosophy formin g itself

,

in his mind around these germs ; it was neb

n l ou s and undefined but stupendous He
, .

was filled with ideas that he felt to be too

far advanced for his generation He only .

ventu red i n 1 84 5 to give them some expres

’
sion in a work entitled E ssai su r l e n se ign e
men t philosophique du M agn étisme ”
But .

though this volume is relatively timid and

reserved the author was qui ckly outgrowing
,

the limits of magnetic practice as familiar to

hi s predecessors He was becoming some
.

thing more than a mesmerist an occultist ,

and eventually under somewhat too theat

,

r i cal or sensational a title he prin t e d an

,

important quarto call ed L a Magie Dé

“

”
voilée which was never published in the
, ,

ordinary sense of the word but delivered ,

to a fe w persons un der definite pledges taken

from them in regard to the use they would
make of it The experiments described in
.

this book though startling and almost e u

,

t i r e ly of psychologic al interest do not really ,

outrun those related in the Animal M ag

“

n e t i sm in scientific value for the student

o f mesmerism The Baron seems to have
.

been himself almost alarme d by the power

he acqui red over all kin ds and conditions of
 REA L LI T ERA T UR F OF MESMER I SM . 59

people by causing them to look at signs and

figures he drew with charcoal upon the floor .

He got these signs from books on mediaeval

magic and was apparently inclin ed to at
,

tach too much objective importan ce to the

diagrams themselves thinking that other
,

people would be able to obtain hi s results by

following the same procedure and that pow ,

ers of a dangerous character might thus be

acquired through his teaching by persons
of evilly disposed nature if his instructions
were carelessly disseminated He did n ot .

realize how far the magic lay in his own

magnetic force how little of it had to do
—

with the sign s .

In 1 84 0 Baron du Potet published an

other volume call e d A Course of M agnet
“

ism i n S even L essons and in the course of

”
,

his addresses to hi s pupils in t hemselves a

,
’

numerous body to whom he de di cat e s this

,
"
volume he i n dulge s in s ome very scornful
,
”
language concern ing the obstinate i n cr e du
li t y exhi b ited by the scientific world at large
in regard to the accumulated facts of mes
meric experience .

M Alexandre Bertrand seems to have

.

b een the first writer who quarreled with

the straightforward theory of the magnetic
60 T H E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMERI SM .

fluid adopted by M esmer de Puys egur and

Deleuze In 1 82
,

. 6 he published a treatise
entitled “
Du M agnétisme Animal en
France in which he promulgated a theory
,

’
of his own on what he calls l E ze t asO the
condition of those whom the earlier writers
described as som n am b u le s This is n ot a .

work of any value in itself a n d is chiefly ,

remarkable as showing how very little orig

’
i n ali t y there was in M r Braid s later claim
.

to have put the whole subj ect on a new and

scientific footing M Bertran d in cidentally
. .

admit s that his o wn s om n am b u le s bear testi

mony to the reality of the fluid M any of .

“
these he says declare in fact that they see
, ,

the fluid by means of which I exert an effect

”
upon them coming ou t from my fingers .

The patients with whom he worked woul d

also declare that they discerned a peculiar
taste in water that he had magn etized and ,

experienced pronounced effects from objects

he had magnetized such as a handkerchief
, ,

a glove or a piece of money F or all this

, .
,

however he found a sufficient explanation

,

in the theory that they had been possessed

with such ideas before goin g to sleep ; and
“
for him magnetism is u r e clt i m e r e
‘

ar e
p .

That which he conceives to be a reality i s

 REA L LI TER A T UR F OF ME SME R I SM . 61
’
l e wt ase a condition into which human
creatures are capable of falling altogether ,

distinct from any states that had been pre

”
v i ou sly recognized The argument amounts
.

t o nothing in itself explains nothing and is

, ,

only carried on by disregarding the larger

part of the phenomena admitted as facts and
requiring to be brought w ithin the area of
any genuine mesmeric theory .

M Aubin Gautier is one of the early

.

writers who must by no means be overlooked .

He seems to have written to begin with in , ,

“
1 84 0 a volume entitled Introduction au
M agnétisme a volume written in a very
,
”

reverent spirit and on the basis of much

,

careful research in ancient history aimed at ,

showing the wide diffusion of magn etism in

one shape or another as a psychological
agent in E gypt Greece and R ome M
, ,
“

. .

Gautier seems to have been amongst those

from the first who took t he subject seriously
and in t he spirit of an occult student .

Whoever expects to find these pages amus

“
i n g he says in the b e gm n m g
, deceives ,

himself strangely The study an d p ractic e

w

of magnetism dem and an unheard of pa

”
t i e n ce silence and self control
, ,
- .

The book is more a review and a specul a

6 2 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

tion than a narrative It rests of course

.
, ,

in complete reliance on the mesmeric fluid

theory and only fails in bringing ou t reall y
,

scien tific conceptions because the writer was

not himself in possession of those side lights
on mesmerism which I propose to deal with

directly and without which the various phe

,

n om e n a themselves can never be e OO r di n at e d

In 1 84 2
.

M Gautier published his His

.
“

toire du S omnambul isme again sweeping

”
,

the wide areas of ancient history for illus

t r at i on s of his theme This volum e i n
.
,

cludin g many narratives of more modern

’
origi n gives a full account of M P ige ai r e s
, .

experience with the Academie de M édecine

of Paris . M P i ge ai r e was a country doctor
.

who discovered fine clairvoyant faculties in

the youngest of his daughters Leonide aged , ,

ten year s No experimentalists in those

.

days seemed to have realized the lengths a

clairvoyant faculty coul d reach to when prop
erly cul tivated so that the only experiments
,

tried wi th the girl had to do with r e cogn i z

i n g obj ects and reading from books when
blindfold Her powers in this direction
.

were brought to high perfection in a long

series of private and domestic séances .

When at last M P ige air e decided to claim

.
 REAL LI TERA T UR F OF MESMER I SM . 63
’
on his daughter s behalf a prize which had
been offered by a member of the Académie
de M édecin e the fam ily genius was brought
,

ou t of her retirement and introduc e d in

Paris to a great number of learned ob se r
vers The prize in question had been offere d
.

by Dr Burdin t o any on e who could read

.

without the use of the eyes of the sense of ,

touch or of light The A cadem i c de M ede

,
.

cine was to arbitrate on any claims that

might be made While t he P i ge ai r e family
.

were staying in Paris they seemed t o have

gi ven a series of private entertainments at
’
which L eonide s faculties were exhibited ,

and a large number of persons distinguished

in science literature and social rank signed
, ,

records of the successful experiments .

When the time came however for M Pi , , .

e ai r e to interview the committe e appoin ted

g
by the Académie de M édecine he found ,

them perfectly unprepared t di nvestigate and

adjudicate upon what actuallytook place and ,

only willin g to deal with Mll e Leonide if .

she would conform precisely to their own

arrangeme nts an d conditions amon g whiéh

g i

were that she should wear a peculiar kind of

helmet mask which they had constructed ,

and let one of t he i r number keep his hands

-
64 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

on her e v e li ds all the time In all its details

.

the story is instructive to any on e interested

in lookin g back on the thoroughly un scientific
attitude of min d taken up by the r e p r e se n
t at i v e s of physical scien c e in those days in
their dealings with mesmerism But I can .
‘

har dl y give space here to all the r am i fica

tions of the story M P ige ai r e tried to
. .

make his surl y inquisitors un derstan d that

the whole psychic condition of hi s daughter
requ ired delicate an d gentle treatment that ,

their ow n proposals were calcul ated to thr ow

her i nto con vulsions rather than into the
clairvoyant state that the bandages he em
,

ployed usin g masses of cotto n wool to cover

,

the eyes completely were of such a kind

,

that any pretense of distrusting their efficacy

was ridicul ous b ut all to n o pur pose The
,
.

committee refused even to look at his band

ages an d after he left them in disgust sent
,

in a report the gen eral dr ift of which was

,

that the proposed experiments had been de

cli n e d except under conditions which the

committee did not conceive bore evidence

of b on a d
fi es .

In their zeal t o discredit the subj ect the

committee even venture d upon some state
ments that were positively false wishing t o ,
 REA L L I TE R A T UR E OF MESMER I SM . 65

lead the reader into the belief that they had

in terviewed the proposed clairvoyante But .

nowhere in 1 83 8 was any scientific body pre

pared to observe the conditions of fair play
or common honesty in dealing with the rep

r e se n t a
t i v e s of m e smerism .

In tell in g the story however hastily on e

, ,

should not omit to mention on e concluding

in cident A group of those persons who had
.

witnessed the earlier s e ries of preliminary

’
séances with Leon ide took M P i ge ai r e s
, .

part very warmly They raised a consider

.

able guarantee fund and publicly ofie r e d a

prize ten or twelve times greater than that
origi n ally offered by the Academy to any ,

member of that body who should be able to

‘

read a single w ord of print when his eyes

had been b andaged on the plan adopted with
Mlle Leonide by her father; It is need
.

less to say nobody took up the challenge ,

and that t he whole incident thus constitutes

a very round and complete illustration of the
r oss dishonesty with which t he high author
g
ities in medicine in Paris conducted the
war against the new discovery .

A year or two later in 1 84 5 M Gautier

, ,
.

“
published a t hi r d book call ed a Traité pra
tique du M agnétisme e t du Somnambulisme ”
.
66 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMERI SM .

This is a well arranged and well indexed

- -

treatise on magnetism in all the branches

then studied and though very imperfectly
,

divining the real potentialities of psychic

mesmerism is even to this day a solid book
,

of careful record and earnest thinking i m ,

measur ably better worth attention than any

o f the recent volum es that play up to the

fashionable errors of the momen t .

M L A C ahagn e t seems to have been

. . .

one of the very few French writers of this

period thoroughly ali ve to the psychic p os
s i b ili t i e s of clairvoyance He undertook a
.

prolonged series of mesmeric séances with

clairvoyants whose attention he directed to

other planes of existence and these are r e

,

“
corded in a book en titled Arcanes de la
Vie Future Dévoilée ”
.The value of the
statements made by his clairvoyants i n ref
e rence to the future life will of course be v a

r i ou sly estimated by di fie r e n t readers , but

from the point of v i ew of mesmeric science ,

the facts concerning the mental phenomena

exhibited by the subjects under treatment
are of the highest interest An E nglish .

translation of this b o ok has b een published

in America .

’ “
Dr Esdaile s M esmerism in India i s a
.
 REAL LI TER A T UR F OF MESMERI SM . 67
’
record of the author s extraordinary success
in the application of mesmerism to his su r
i cal practice at the govern me n t hospit al in
g
Calcutta of which he was in charge The
book was published about 1 84 2 It includes
.
,

not only minute surgical reports of frightful

operations performed u pon the mesmerized
patients of the hospital without any suffer
ing or consciousness of what was taking
place on their part b u t also c o rroborative
,
!

testimony from a great many of the most

’

distinguished people resident at Calcutta at

the time who were called in by Dr E sdaile
,
.

to be present at these wonderful perform

auces .

A later work by the same author Nat “

,

ural and M esmeric Clairvoyance published

in 1 852includes besides a quantity of
,

, ,

fresh testimony connected with the medical

aspects of mesmerism an epitome of evi,

dence extracted from the ! oist and from

”
,

other sources on the subj ect of clairvoyance

,

exhibited during the mesmeric state In

this book Dr E s daile also recounts the
.

progress of his own struggle at C aIéut t a: in ‘

the effort to press the importance of mes

merism upon the attention of the other doc
tors of the place who woul d only plod along
,
68 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

the beaten path This narrative is in some

.
,
’
respects the history of M esmer s own career
,

over again Instead of bein g tre ated by his

.

professional brethren as a benefactor of hu

manit y E sdaile was Oppo sed and vilified by
,

all the de v I ce s that prej udi ce and professional

j ealousy could suggest and while it was no
,

t or i ou s that he was daily performing pain less

operations on patients under mesmerism the ,

other doctors continued to torture their own

un fortunate victims rather than co n f ess that

they had been in error in resisting the u se

of the new curative agent .

’
Dr Esdai le s remarkable works are not
.

the only records of capital operations per

formed without pain to the patient with the
help of mesmerism A paper read before
.

the R oyal M edical and Chirurgical S ociety

of L ondon in 1 84 2and published as an
, ,

independent pamphlet gives full details con

,

cerning a case in which Mr Ward a sur .

,
’
geon at t ached to S t Bartholomew s Hospi
.

’
tal had about that time amputated a man s
, , ,

leg above the knee while he the patient r e , ,

m ained completely un conscious of the opera

tion in a mesmeric sleep put upon hi m by ,

the in fluence of M r Topham a barrister

.
,

in terested in the practice of mesmerism .

 REA L LI TERA T URE OF MESMERI SM . 69
“
The pages of the ! oist to which I will ,

refer directly are laden with reports of

,

other similar cases .

Dr S coresby the Arctic voyager and

.
,

well known writer on various bran ches of

maritime science was a careful experimen ter
,

in mesmerism and a work of his called

,
“
! oistic M agnetism records a great deal of
his work He had only a limited e xp e r i
.

ence of the higher phenomena b u t a very ,

e x t e n s1 v e familiarity with the physical phe

n om e n a of the mesmeric state including ,

those on the border land between the lower -

and higher having to do with the transfer

,

of sensation from the mesmerizer to the sub

j cet His book was published in 1 84 9 and
‘

.
,

is interesting for students of the science for

its careful observation in regard t o the p o
lar i t y of di fferent parts of t he human body
in respect to the emanations o f its animal
magnetism .

An interesting Report upon the Phe

“

n om e n a of Clairvoyance or L ucid Som n am

b uli sm f rom Personal O bservation

3
was 7

published in 1 84 3 by E dwi n L eeTF e llow

of the R oyal Medico Chirurgical S ociety -
,

and of many other societies abroad of a sim

i lar character The cases here described
.
70 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MES MERI SM .

have reference altogether to clairvoyance on

the physical plane that is to say to the oh
, ,

servation by the clairvoyants concerned of ,

distant places and houses and also of oh ,

e ct s in their own immediate neighborhood

j ,

which they had no means of cognizing

through the usual senses M r L ee also . .

“
wrote about the same time a b ook on An i
mal M agnetism containing a com p r e he n
” ‘

sive review of similar experiments by other

observers .

Another work well worth notice is entitled

Facts in M esmerism w ith Reason s for a
,

Dispassionate Inquiry into it by the R ev , .

C haun cy Hare Townsend first published in

,

1 839 . This opens with a dedication to Dr .

Ell i ot son from whose experiments the au

, ,

thor says the greater part of the E nglish

,

world have derived their ideas of mesmer

ism He quotes Dr Wilson Of the M id
. .
,

dl e se x Hospital who having been present at

,

a lect ure at Dresden when several fish in a

,

large t ub of water were stunned by an elec

tric shock tried the e ffect of mesmerizing
,

the water The fish revived The incident

. .

suggested the proposal that great u se might

be made of mesmerized water in medicine .

In a preface t o hi s second edition Mr T o wn .

 R EA L LI TER A T URE OF MESMER I SM .

“
send says : I n ow cast my mite into the
treasury of evidence that is accumulating in
favor of mesmerism with a deep regret that
prejudice should yet stand in the way of so
much alleviation of human sufferin g as it is
calcul ated to afford . The book consists of
’
a patient record of the author s ow n e xp e r i '

men ts which were largely concerned with

,
“
interestin g phenomena of sleep wakin g ,

as Dr Elli ot son called it or m e sm e r I O clair

.
,

voyance of the simpler kind M r Town . .

sen d began with incredulity but was drawn

,

into serious inquiry in 1 836 He worked at

.

this for a l ong time and with a great num

ber of subjects His records include a
.

g reat variety of facts in thought and sensa o

tion tran sference an d in connection with the

,

de v elopment by a mesmerized person of

, ,

perceptive facul ties in n erve centres not -

usually betraying these H e also throws

. -

ou t a good deal of intelligent speculation

concerning the media through which mes
meric effects are wrought Though pridin g
.

himself on k eeping his experi ment s an d i n

v e st i at i on s on
g a relatively humble level ,

and testing the faculties of his subj ects by

applying them to the commonplace facts of
life Mr Townsend treats with contempt
, .
7 2 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

the imagination theory as really too ah

surd to merit a serious refutation A thou .

sand times I have seen mesmeric patients

placed un der circumstances where the action
”
of imagination was plainly impossible .

“
And later on he writes : An elastic ether
modified by the nerves and the conduction
,

of whi ch depends on their co n dition ; which

i

can be thr own into vibration mediately by

‘

the mind of man and immediately by the

nervous system which manifests itself when
,

thrown ou t of equilibrium and produces ,

mental e ffects through unusual sti mul ation

of the brain and nerves can not but be al
,

lowed to be a cause which answers to all the

conditions that we desire to unite and which ,

is sufficient to account for the phenomena

”
that we h ave been considering .

“
The ! oist was a magazine published ,

I believe un der the editorship of Dr E lliot

,
.

“
son , to coll ect and diffuse information con
n e ct e d with two scie n ces Cerebral Physi
ology and M esmerism ”
. The science of
mesmerism says the inaugural article in
,

the first number brought ou t in April

, ,
“
1 84 3 ,
i s a new physiological truth of incal
cul ab le value and importance ; and though

sneered at by the pseu do philosophers of the

-
 REA L LI TER A T UR F OF ME SMERI SM . 73

day there is not the less certainty that it

,

presents the only avenue through which is

discernible a ray of hope that the more i n t r i
cate phenomena of the nervous system of
life—
will ever be revealed to man A l .

ready i t has established its claim to be con

si de r e d a m ost potent remedy in the cure of

disease ; already enabled the knife of the

operator to traverse and divide the livin g
fibre unfelt by the patient If such are the
.

resul ts of its infancy what may not i t s ma

,

t u r i t y bri n g forth ? The thirteen volumes

of this magazin e for it was continued up to
,

1 85 6 constitute a splendid reservoir of i n for

,

mation on all branches of mesmeric science .

In the farewell address published with the

,

last issue of the R eview the con ductors say

,

their mission has been accomplished Their .

object was neither gain nor worldly reputa

tion but the establish m ent of truth For
m
.
,

thirteen years they have a assed fresh facts

in cerebral physiology and mesmerism and ,

presented t hem in such numbers and with ,

such proofs that to question them would be

,
” “
~=

absurd . They speak of the glori ous do

ings of Dr E sdaile in In dia which the
.
,

“
! oist has chronicled and though mai n ly
,

dwelling on the achievements of medical

74 TH E R A TI ON A L F OF ME SMER I SM .

mesmerism they point to the examples of

,

clairvoyance which abound in their volumes ,

and which render the phen omenon u n qu e s

t i on ab le though of course gross imposition
,

is practiced in regard to it by professional

“
clairvoyants and private persons influen ced
”
by vanity or wickedness
On ly less abundan t than t he proofs of the
.

reality of mesmeric phenomena with which

“
the pages of the ! oist teem are the illus ,

t r at i on s it gives of the senseless and bit

ter hostility which w as Opposed to it by the
maj ority of the medical men of its time and ,

of what Dr Elli ot son in on e letter to the

.
,

R eview early in the proceedin gs calls the ,

“
anti mesmeric falsehoods of medical men
-
”
.

The favorite theory of the an ti mesmeric doc

-

tors in regard to celebrated surgical Opera

tions conducted painlessly under mesmerism ,

“
used to be that the sufferers had feign ed
insensibility That any on e could soberly
pretend to believe that patients undergoing
the frightful torture of fir st class surgical
-

Operations could subdue all out ward sign s of

“
suffering i n the interests of the new im p os
”
ture shows us the depth of folly to which
,

prejudice and bigotry may si n k the under

standings Of people still capable of exhibit
 REA L LI TER A T UR F OF MESMER I SM . 75

ing a form of intelligence in connection with

their own commonplace pursuits .

Dr Ell i ot son says of his medical confreres

.

at large that they were as brainlessly i n di f

“
fe r e n t to mesmeric phenomena as the cattle
grazing in the meadows are to the wonders
of the steam carriages assing by them on
p
the railroads With sorrow we must recog
.

nize that this contemptuous lament is hardly

even as yet ou t of date
“
Isis R evelata an Inquiry into t he O ri
,

gin Progress and Present S tate Of Animal

, ,

M agnetism by J C Colquhoun 1 836 is

”
, . .
, ,

a very comprehensive review of the subject ,

up to the period at which the author wrote .

I t s publication is j ustified in the i n t r odu c ,

tion on the ground that the report Of the

,

French Academy of S ciences of 1 831 had , ,

completely superseded the earlier unfavor

able report of 1 7 84 It had been supposed
.
,

Mr C olquhOun points out that anim al mag

.
,

n e t i sm w as a system of quackery an d delu

sion .
“
This Obj ection which might perhaps
,

have had some plausibility during the i n

fancy of the discovery has n ow b e come ,

utterly ludicrous and betrays either con

,

summate ignorance of the subj ect or gross

dishonesty .
”
Mr Colquhoun takes a highly
.
76 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

’
favorable view of M esmer s life and charac
ter and quotes a dignified letter in which he
,

refuses an offer of a pension of

fran cs a year made to him by the ! ing of
,

France through the Minister M aurepas on ,

the groun d that the O ffer relates to his peen

n i ar
y i n terest alone and does not recognize
,

the importance of his di scovs r y as its princi

pal motive The question ought M esmer
.
,

thin ks to have been approached in a totally

,

Opposite way This Colquhoun remarks

.
, ,
“ ”
is not the language of avarice .

“
The M odern Bethesda or the Gi ft of ,

Healin g restored is a narrative or rather

, ,

a compilation from letters newspapers and , ,

testimonials Of all sorts relating to the al ,

most innumerable achievemen ts i n healin g

the sick performed both i n America and
,

E n gland by Dr J R N ewt on . . This won . .

de r ful mesmerist a worker of miracles by

wholesale was born in Rhode Island in
1 81 0 . The earlier part of his life w as spent
in a prosperous mercantile career and hi s ,

peculiar gifts were n ot developed till 1 85 8 .

Then he began to travel about in the U nited

S tates visiting thousands Of patients and
, ,
“
performin g those marvelous and i n e xpli ca
ble cures which astonish the world and
 REA L LI TERA T UR E OF MESMER I SM . 77

threaten to revolutionize all former laws and

”
experience of medical science He had dis .

covered his own powers during a voyage in a

crowded passenger steamer where the yell ow ,

fever broke out among thirteen hu hdr e d pas

se n ge r s
. In O hio where he began public
,

ministrations he treated about on e hundred

,

person s a day performing in the course Of

,

time man y thousands Of wonderful cures .

My purpose in reviewing the books men

t i on e d above has not been to compile any
thing resemblin g a complete bibliography of
the subject but simply to show my readers
,

what a wide field the early literature of m e s

merism o ffers for their exploration B u t .

even this rapid survey of its resources woul d

be incomplete without a reference to on e
which for many modern readers is the stand
’
ard work on the subj ect D r Gregory s
“

, .

“
Animal M agnetism first published I b e
”
, ,

lieve in 1 85 1 an d again i n other e ditions at

, ,

later dates It is a very fine review of the

.

whole subject in all its branches and is a ,

good firs t b ook for any new student of m e s

merism to take up .

The M esmerist
“
a weekly journal of,

Vital M agnetism was published in L ondon

,

i n 1 84 3 . It was begun in M ay of that

78 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM.

year and continued till S eptember when its

, ,

publication ceased It abounds in interest

.

ing records of mesmeric experience in all

branches and in good articles vain ly combat
ing the crass indifference an d incredulity of
the public .

In contrast to this mass of literat ure ,

which in reality re nders an y, dispute as to

the truth of mesmerism equivalent to a
dispute as to whether Columbus was right
in believing that a continent exists to the
west of the Atlantic O cean we may use ,

fully turn for a moment to the conventional ,

orthodox notices of the subj ect in those mir

r or s o f popular I gnorance c oncerning all
psychi c scien ce the encyclop aedias Of the
day .

The Oxford E ncyclop aedia published in

1 82
,

8 describes animal magnetism as an

,

appellation given to a pretended science ,

which during the last century excited con si d

e r ab le attention in several parts of E urope .

After giving a caricature account of Me s

’
mer s operations t he writer goes on to de
,

clare that in the end it became evident the

“
patien ts were impostors or in a most ,

wr etched state of debility both of mind and

b o dy ”
. The article concludes by remarking ,
 REA L LI TERA T UR E OF ME SMER I SM . 79

it i s needless to add that his doctrine is n ow

almost enti r ely expl oded .

’“
Dr R ees Cyclop ae dia of Arts S ciences
.
, ,
”
and Literature 1 81 9 disposes of the whole
, ,

subj ect in a very charming paragraph .

“
Animal M agnetism it says is an ap
”
, ,

pellation given by some designing or self

deceived operators upon the credulity and
purses of mankind to certain practices by
,

which under the pretens e of curing diseases

, ,

various effects were produced on the animal

economy such as faintings partial and even
, ,

general convul sions etc and referrin g to

, .

“
the able investigation of 1 7 84 which de ,
’
m oli she d M esmer s pretensions the writer ,

concludes by saying that an account of it

“
will be found under t he article Imagina
tion.

’
Cham bers E ncyclop aedia in the edition ,

of 1 884 afte r briefly glancing in a colorless

,

tone at the earlier history of mesmerism ,

takes refuge in the investigations of M r .

James Braid as settling the character of

“
mesmeric p henomena all round U n for t u .

” "
“
nately i t says the evil reputation which
, ,

the subject had so naturally obtained pre

’
vented the due appreciation of Braid s dis
coveries ”
the discove ry in questio n being
,
—
80 TH F R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

really little more than an incomplete and

misleading theory concerning a subdivision
Of mesmeric phenomena u n sci e n t i fically se p
,

ar at e d for the purposes of a preconceived

hypothesis fro m others incompatible with

,

that hypothesis The writer in the e n

.

’
cyclop aedia follows Braid s plan ho wever , ,

and confines his attention t o incidents of

mesmeric experience which seem to lend
color to the hypnotic theory lightly remark ,

“
ing of the rest no scient ific observer has
,

ever con fir med the statements Of mesmerists

as to clairvoyance readi n g of sealed letters
, ,

in fluence on unconscious persons at a di s

tance or the like ; a statement which might
,
“
be parall eled if we were to say no sci e n ,

t i fic observer has e v er confirmed the state

ments of travelers and sailors conc e rn ing
the existence of an American continent
with trees popul ation lakes rivers and the
, , , ,

like .

The eighth edition of the E ncyclop aedia

’
Britannica in a brief account of M esmer s
,

life represen ts hi m as a detected impostor

, ,

and without on e word to in dicate that there

is even any considerable body of op i nion op
posed to that v iew ignores the report of
,

1 83 1 and refers to the report of the com

,
 R EA L LI TER A T UR E OF ME SMER I SM 8 1 .

“
m it t e e in the following term s : The
of 1 7 84
proceedin gs of D e slon the pupil of M esmer
, ,

were scrutinized by a committee of inquiry ,

consisting of the physicians M aj aul t Salli n , ,

’
d A r ce t and Guillotin and the acade m i
, ,

ci an s Franklin L e R oy Baill y de Bory

, , , ,

and L avoisier The report drawn up by

.

Bailly thoroughly exposed the falsehood and

imposture of the mesmeric process
The disciples of animal m agn e t i sm at t e m pt e d
'

to check the advance of their enemies by

forming themselves i nto societies M esmer .
,

more politic escaped amid the general con

,

fusion carrying with him a subscription Of

,

francs and at the same time the

,

secret for which that sum had been given to

”
him .

A somewhat different t on e is taken up in

the recent ninth edition M esmer is n ow .

spoken of ca utiou sly as a man who made

’
many converts who was stigmatized as a
,

charlatan but who was undoubte dl y a mys

,

tic and who was honest in the belief that

,

the phenomena produced were r e al f A timid

’
reference to R eichenbach s in
odyllic force is then put forward The .

idea that some such force exists has been a

favorite speculation of scientific men having
8 2 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MES MER I SM .

a bias towards myst cism an d it m akes i t s

i
,

appearan ce not un frequently The next

.

g reat step in the investi gation o f these phe

” “
nomena the Britannica then pro ceeds
, ,
“
was made by James Braid a surge on in , ,

M anchester in 1 84 1
, ,an d it goes on

t o connect the whole remain der of a lon g

!

article with the weak an d in sufficient hy

t h si s of this very shall o w th i n ker
p o e .

To comm ent adequ ately on the attitude of

mi n d of writers who rem aining thus e n
,
'

t i r e ly outside the area of knowledge co n cern

ing psychi c science in any of its branches ,

have nevertheless the audacit y to flirt their

, ,

incredul ity i n the faces Of wiser and better

in formed men would claim the use of
,

stronger language than I care to employ .

N o on e it is true deserves blame for leaving

, ,

any subj ect that does not attract him alto

gether unstudied But in most cases people
.

who are con scious of limited in tellectual

resources en tertain a decent respect for
others bett er fu r n l she d A man may b e
.

nothing b u t a sportsman himself and yet

refrain from assertin g that chemi sts an d
electricians must be impostors And a .

chemist may know n othing of Italian art ,

and yet may refrain from declaring that ‘

 REAL LI TER A T UR F OF MESMER I SM . 83

Raphael never existed But all through the

.

commonplace world whether in its upper or

,

lower strata people who are ignorant of

,

psychic science encourage one another in the

brainless an d absurd denial of facts exhi b
i t e d in the en cyclop aedias and in an even ,

more grotesque and impudent fashion by

the newspapers of the day whenever any of ,

its phenomena come up for treatmen t The .

average country groc e r the average news

,

paper reporter the average student Of physi

,

cal science are all st eeped i n the same den se

,

incapacity to understand the propriety of

respecting the knowledge of others even if ,

they do not share it themselves whenever ,

they brush up against any statement relatin g

to the work of those who are engaged in any
bran ch of psychic inquiry From the occult .

point of view indeed on e can un derstand

, ,

why this should be so The incredulity of

.

’
unspiritual man kind 1 s Nature s own proteo
tion against those unfit as yet to use her
higher gifts That is all in the legitimate
.

order of things ; b u t the more sp iritualized

minority need not play up on t he i r p ar t to
'
I

, ,

that incredulity It is their duty to war

.

against it and in the course of that strife

, ,

by slow degrees the in telligence of the com

,
 R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM
.

m on place herd will be leavened and their

,

minds growing withi n them in spite of their

,

own complacent unconsciousness of the pro

cess be qualified gradually for a more pro
,

r e ssi v e evo lution

g .
 C HAPTER I V .

SI D E-L I GH T S ON MESMER I C P H EN OMEN A .

AN Y o ne who goes patiently through any

considerable body of early mesmeric litera
ture will be struck by the manner in which
each writer in t urn handles his subj ect as
something expected to rest upon the body of
observation whatever it may be that he has
, ,

been enabled to undertake and withou t

,

realizing the all important consideration

that when we come to deal wi th natural phe
n o m e n a having to do with the subtle forces

of vitality ,
and the even more s ubtle forces
which regul ate the phenomena Of conscious
ness in higher states of nature we can not ,

make sense Of an y observations without being

in a position to comprehend something of
the general natural design of which they
form a part T he stars were seen in the sky
.

long before astron omers were fortified with

the mathematical and other knowledge that
enabled them to de s1 gn a working hypothesis
of the universe sufficiently approximative to
86 TH E R A T I ON A L E OF ME SMERI SM .

the truth to render intelligent obser v ation

possible ; but until that time people who
m erely looked at the heavenly bodies moving
about in the sky an d theorized on the basis
,

of such observations alone m ade a terrible

hash of their conjectures as to what was go

i n g on . S imilar remarks may broadl y be
made about every science i n turn E arly . .

chemistry was a mere blind groping in the

dark amon gst phenomen a which could u n
de r go no co Or di n at i on until some considerable
'

advance had been made in comprehending

the elementary structure of all bodies and ,

the leading principles Of chemical combina

tion Not of course until the molecular con
.

st i t u t i on of matter was realized did chemistry

begin to assume anyt hing like the dignity Of

a full y matured science Now the Observa
.

tion of the facts of mesmerism is exactly an

alogou s to the O bservation of stars carried

o n from t he point of V iew O f an astronomer

knowing nothing of gravitation or of the

relations between the pl anets and the sun .

The mere facts are interesting as the ,

mere sight of the heavens must have been

impressive even to the most uninstructed star
gazer ; but the facts themselves however ,

carefully codified will never enable students

,
 MESMER I C P H EN OMEN A . 87

to assign them to their proper realms of na

ture or in deed to devel op anyt hing like a
,

ratio n al theory of their causation The only .

scientific method by which they can be ex

am i n e d must have to do with some p r e li mi

nary theory of psychic science corr e spond ,

i n g for example to the theory Of molecular

, ,

matter to which the influence of previously

observed facts in chemistry can be applied .

But truly to the World at large up till a

very recent date there has been no theory of
s piritual science available even as somethi n g
,

to be checked by the Observed facts of mes

meric experience ; and Of cou rse even n ow
the great bulk of the cul tured communi ty is
neglectful of the i m portant acquisitions in
this respect which have lately been made
and O ffered for the service of all who care t o
make use of them in some measure through
,

my own i n st r u m e n t alit yv With the full ex

position and v i n di cat i on of that teaching I
n

am not at present as far as this volume is

,

concerned desirous of occupying my read

,

ers ; b u t I am in this dilemma that while ,

believing I can brin g into an 0 533513 7 an d

“

coherent science the hitherto disorderly an d

apparently chaotic facts of mesmeric ob se r
vation I can only do this by constan t refer
,
88 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM
.

ence to the body of spiritual teaching se t

fort h I n modern theosophical literature .

M esmerism can be explained by what is

called the esoteric doctrine and certainly in
,

n Oother way but a belief in mesmerism or

,

at least in some few of the facts that mesmer

ism is concern ed wi th has been recently dif
fused to an enormous extent amongst m y
riads o f people who have never heard of the
esoteric doctrine These people cannot as
.

yet reali ze why it must remain impossible

for them to un derstand mesmerism without
‘

going behind it in search of mysteries about

which they are wholly uninformed ; and yet
it is absolutely impossible by any simple
straightforward attack upon t he problems
that mesmerism presents to us to bring them
into harmony with the workings of natural
law or in other words to make sense of
, , ,

them .

R eflection on the character of the prob

lems to be dealt wit h ought however to , ,

conv i nce even those who know nothin g of

occul tism as a scien ce that there must be
,

such a scien ce or the poten tialities of such a

,

science lurk ing somewhere in the back

,

ground S t rai ghtforward investigation of

.

mesmeric phenomena shows us at all events

 ME SMER I C P H EN OMEN A . 89

the magnetic fluid proceeding from the oper

ator and bringing about results how no
,
—
,

on e can guess But though susceptible Of

.

being seen by some people t he magnetic ,

fluid itself is imperceptible to most eyes

among those that m ay look for it and clearly ,

belongs to a different order of natural phe

n om e n a from those that are entirely subj ect

t o sense perception What ought to be the

.

effect of such an extremely impalpable agency

when it touches the organism against which
it is directed ? If i t i s capable of producin g
any cfie ct upon that organism at all it must
be through some attributes inherent therein
which are of its own nature The psychic .

force in poin t of fact thrown out b y the

, ,

will or thought of the operator has got to ,

in fluen ce the will or thought of the subject

first and then t o get at the b Ody if that is
, ,

the object in view through the corresponding

,
’
principles of the sensitive s organization .

E verything that has to do therefore with, ,

the non physical planes of Nature comes

-

within the purview of those who would arm

.

themselves for the purpose of cOm pr e he n di n g

m esmerism in a se l e n t i fic spirit .

This consideration is on e of the most i m

portant that can be presented to the general
90 TH E R A TI ON A LE OF MESMERI SM .

reader in connection with the current revival

o f mesmerism . The idea is simple ; I have
e xpressed it al ready M esmeric phenomena
.

are either wholly or partially psychic i n their

n ature . We cann ot un derstan d them un less
it is possible to investigate the real m of na
ture in which the laws governin g our psychic
consciousness are really ope rative An y .

theorizing concerning external facts in mes

m erism which aims at accounting for these
by the materialistic scien ce of old fashioned
-

medical practice must necessarily be doomed

,

to failure But I must be pardoned for

.

dwelling a little more on the idea because

,

un til people recognize and act upon it there ,

can not be any s uch gen eral progress in con

n e ct i on with spirit ual knowledge and

achievement as a truly intell igent appr e ci a

tion O f mesmerism might bring in I t s train .

L ook at the way in whi ch even the sciences

of the physical plane rest n ow upon on e an

other as their higher mysteries are explored .

Chemistry and electricit y at one time seemed

lin e s of inquiry stan di ng quite apart N ow
.
,

o f course ,they are so in tim ately blended ,

th at electricity is as much a reagen t of chem

i st r y in its relations with that science as
, ,

hydrochl oric acid This i s the case even al

.
 ME SMER I C P H E N OMEN A . 91

though the laws of matter to be investigated

are laws of matter alone But when we .

take a living human being and endeavor to

investigate hi m it is not enough to be ao
,

u a i n t e d with the organism that expresses

q
his consciousness Howev er deeply the ma
.

t e r i ali st i c physiologist may pen etrate the i n

t r i caci e s of this organism he will always be
,

brought up abruptly on the threshold of

consciousness and will frankly recogn ize that
,

farther than this it is impossible for him to

go T OO often indeed he is inclin ed to put
.

the idea in words that imply too much and ,

he may sav it is impossible for an y on e else

to go beyond the barrier he finds so i m p ass
able That i s just the mistake he makes
.
,

and there i s more pompous con ceit than real

modesty in the commonplace phra s es by
which people are in the habit o f proclaiming
the or t hodox b ou n dar i e s of their knowledge .

“
N0 one knows no on e can ever know an y
, ,

thing of the mysteries lyi ng on the other

side of death .
”
S o common place writers
will frequently affirm with absurd con fidence
i n the certainty of their ow n universal n e g
ative This attit ude of mind is what has to
.

be broken down on the part of modern E u

r o e an thinkers ge n erally before the li n es
p ,
9 2 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

of study can be taken up which will really

con duce to the comprehen sion even of so
midway a series of phenomena as those of
mesmerism When people say as above
.
,

“
N0 on e knows no on e ever can know
,
‘

”
,

etc they are simply m aking a false state

.
,

ment which vast bodies of experience con

t r adi ct every day .

In on e sense up till now most people

, ,

could afford to keep their eyes shut to the

superphysical realms of nature The work .

Of their progress was strictly associated with

the exploration of physical nature That .

has been the function of this expiring cen

tury in a pre eminent degree ; and the cen
tury could perform its work so to speak , ,

without knowing anything about the spirit

ual planes but that will n o lon ger be the
,

case wi th the next century Here we are .

already face to face with this complicated

question as to what mesmerism really is ; we
are confronted by a mass of i ll understood -

phenomena But ill understood though they

.
-

may be they are n ow at all events so com

,

p l et el
y recognized that future gener ations
will infallibly be concerned with them to
a con siderable degree ; investigating them
intelligently or clumsily pushing them to
,
 ME SMERI C P H EN OME N A . 93

beneficial or mischievous developments ; but

every one will be hopelessly entangled with
them unless dealing with them as partly b e
longing to the spiritual planes The living .

man wit h his interior consciousness of self

and individuality is on t w o planes of nature
at once as a ship is in t wo media at once
, ,

half in the water and half in the air To .

manage your ship successfully you must take

cognizance Of the law s govern ing each of
those media To deal s uccessfully with
.

your human being you must understand his

physiology n o doubt but you must equall y
,

understand his psychology and something ,

of the collateral phenomena of nature in

those regions or planes thereof t o which the

,

phenomena of the psychic man belong .

S o now though feelin g by reason of the

,

double ill umi nation which occult study has

provided for fairly qualified to explain
,

many of the phenomena of mesmeris m which

ha v e hitherto been left t he prey of mere n u
intelligent wonder I am at the same time
,

constrained to say that no on e can hope t o

make head or tail of any re ally t r u e a
l

fid sci
e n t i fic r at i on ale of mesmerism unless he

will first take the trouble to c o mprehend oc

cult teaching up at all events to a certain
, , ,
94 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

point We must realize something of what

.

occultists mean by the astral plane before

entering on the consideration of how the
consciousness of a mesmerized Obj ect behaves
when translated to that plane But on the .
,

other hand this book cannot be a treatise

,
”

on occult science at large That should be

.

dealt w ith and investigated as an i n de p e n

dent study by any on e who aims at a really
thorough grasp of its principles What I .

have to do therefore for the moment is to

m ake a statemen t concern in g the esoteric

teaching which gears in with the facts of

mesmeric science asking the reader to treat
,

this for the time being as simply a workin g

hypothesis If as a working hypothesis it
.

be found that all the facts of mesmerism are

thus provided with a rational setting that ,

perhaps may be regarded as a provisional

consideration in favor of the esoteric teach
ing and may perhaps impel students to I n
,

quire in to it a little f urther Bu t of course

.

I will not delay my readers on the threshold

Of the subject with which I am now specially
concerned in order to se t forth in the ex
, ,

planations it may here be necessary to give ,

anyt hi ng resembling a complete argument

on behalf of the occ ul t theories concerning

life and the higher aspects of nature .

 MESMER I C P H EN OMENA . 95

The esoteric or occult science view of

’
man s constitution is the important branch
of the subj ect to be put here in the fore

ground This is represented as consisting

.

of several principles and the classificat i on I s

,

at all events far more scienti fic in its char

acter than that which sums up the human
being as consi sti ng of a body and a soul “

We need n ot quarrel with the b ody and soul

divisi on as far as it goe s b u t i t does not go
,

far and above all sms against accuracy I n

, , ,

o verlooki n g the man n er i n which the lower

prin ciples of man merge gradually in to t he
higher through s o me of an intermediat e
character It i s with these intermediate
.

principles that mesmerism has espe cially t o

do an d it is with a view of getting t he
,

reader to understand the classificat ion at all

events even if he does not at the moment
,

accept it that I wish now to describe what

,

is called the Septenary division o f man

—

We have got clearly to deal first of all

with the matter constituting his body m at ,

ter which is analyzable into its organic ele

me nts its carbon phos phorus ; oxygen and
, , ,

other gases By chemical processes of n a

.

ture carried on first of all in the vegetable

,

world the inorganic matter of which the

,
96 TH E R A TI O NA L E OF MESMER I SM .

’
man s body is composed has somehow been
converted into organic matter before it ac
t u ally takes part in the complete structure of
hi s b ones an d flesh This life principle
.
,

which di fie r e n t i at e s organic from inorganic

matter is the second principle of man and
, ,

may for the moment be called vital force .

But thus far we are thinking merely of mate

rial atoms vitalized it is true but un der no
, , ,

direction which impels them to assume the

form of a human body People content .

with a merely conventional knowle dge of na

ture trouble themselves little as t o how or
why the atoms group themselves as they do
during the growth of a human being Oc .

cul t science more penetrating in i t s vision

, ,

discerns an underlying patte rn so to speak ,

consisting of materials wholly unlike those

of the physical plane and belonging indeed
,

to what by the conventionalities of occultism

is called the astral plane ; and thi s patt e rn ,

or gr ound plan of the human being i s recog

-
,

n i z e d as the third principle and may be

,

call ed the astral body It is quite vi sible

.

when detached from the physical body to

those who are gifted in any high degree with
clairvoyant vision .

The fourth an d fifth principles of man t o

 ME SMERI C P H EN OMEN A . 97

gether constitute what may be held to corre

sp on d with the ordinary idea Of the soul but ,

occul tism thinks of the soul as complex in i t s

”

constitution As every on e can se e it has

.
,

affinities for earthl y and material sensations ,

pleasures and pursuits while at the same

,

time it is also gifted with sympathies in a far

loftier direction That these very different
.

aspects o f the soul are seated during the life

of the complete individual in different vehi
cles to u se an oriental metaphor I s on e
Of the fundamental conceptions of the se
p
t e n ar y division and the lower of these t wo
,

vehicles the fourth principle of man is most

, ,
“
conveniently described by the term animal
” “
soul while the fifth is the truly human
,

soul itself more or less pervaded by the

,

“ ”
sixth or spiritual soul which though ex
, , ,

i st i n g undeniably in germ in every human

being is for a great m any of us un for t u
, ,

n at e l
y ,a potentiality rather than an acc om

p li sh e d fact The. seventh principle o n the

occult scale is that infinite sublime in , ,

comprehensible universal S pirit in which all

the phenomena of nature are in some wholly
unfathomable way involved ; out of whose
infinite potentiality all man ifestation arises ,

in which whatever they may be there r e

, ,
98 TH E R A TI ONA LE OF MESMERI SM .

side the attribut e s that h uman specul ation ,

vaguely groping after the unattainable as ,

signs t o divinity .

F ine and elaborate as this di vision will

appear as contrasted with the more element
ary conception of the soul and the body it ,

is not by any means complicated enough to

account for all the phenomena which have to
do with either Of these principles taken by
itself I do not conceive for example that
.
, ,

the matter would be correctly put if I simply

“
said that which we may call the mesmeric
”
flui d i s the vital energy or second principle
,

on the classification just described But .

certainly it has very close relations with that

force and on e of the correct interpretations
,

of mesmeric phenomena in the hum bler lev

e ls of these would recognize animal magnet

i sm as equal to the task of restoring lost vital

energy and thus accomplishi ng beneficial
,

effects on the human system where no sp e

cific illness has to be considered and where
,

nothing but a healthy stimul us is wanted to

re establish vigor .

The close relations between animal mag

n e t i sm and v i tal energy may be Observed in

very interesting experiments which have

sometimes been carried out though rarely
,
 MESMERI C P H EN OME N A . 99

by E uropean mesmerists in connection with ,

the vegetable kingdom It is possible to .

mesmerize a plant and procure specific and

,

distin ct results in connection with the direct

stimul ation Of its growth That these r e .

sult s have sometimes been pushed to what

seemed at a first glance quite miraculous

lengths by some oriental adepts in mesmeric
science is I believe a fact although un for
, , , ,

tunately the existence of such a possibility in

’
the background as it were of nature s r e
, ,

sources is but too Often made the excuse in

India for juggling of a most commonplace
type which pretends to reproduce the
,

vaguely talked of feats of the great o ccult

i st s just as amongst ourselves commonplace
,

conjurors derive from rumored wonders con

n e ct e d with spiritualism suggestions for
their own illusions .

The variou s principles Of m an that I have

been describin g m ake up the complete man in
the aggregate just as to use a rough ill us
, ,

t r at i on the s ails as well as the keel of a ship

,

contribute to make up the com ple t e v e sse l A j a

.

But the sails belong in their nature an d are

adapted to on e medium with which the vessel
is concerned the air ; the keel is adapted to
,

the other Any one observing the keel from

.
1 00 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

the point of view of the medium to which it

belongs if himself a fish and unqualified to
,

take note of natu ral phenomena above the

s urface of his own element would n ot be
,

able to account always for its behavior .

What for instance could explain to him the

, ,

reas o n why the keel might sometimes be

s le wed very much to one side a s the vessel lay

over to the wind ? The Observer of the kind

I have imagined woul d be related to such
a phenomenon just as the mere physical sci
e n t i st amongst ourselves is related to phe

nomena which have to do with the human

consciousness .

I rather cling to thi s ill ustration of the

vessel belongi ng to t wo media because it ,

w ill help to s how in referen ce to the prin ci

,

ples of man that although the higher and

,

the lower principles during life are closely

intermingled with each other the higher ,

nevertheless belong by their natu re to other

planes than that with which our eyes and
senses make us famil i ar Take for exam .
,
’
ple the astral prin ciples of a man s body
,

and lower soul All the time that the body

.

i s in the physical plane ! if on e may u se that .

expression! these astral principles are in the

astral plane of nature coextensive with the
,
 MESMERI C P H EN OMEN A . 1 01

physical permeating it everywhere consti

, ,

tuting its second aspect and above all , ,

things fill ed with the phenomena properly

,

appertaining to it just as the physical plane

,

is fill ed with the scenery and decorations of

nature with the animal and vegetable king
,

doms as well as with the humanity which

presides over all And thi s i s the second
.

great idea amongst those taught by occult

scienc e which I want my readers to keep
hold of at all events as a working hypot he
,

sis
,
—
namely that the planes of nature O f
,

which I speak as higher or superior t o those

which we se e around us are all abundantly ,

stocked with the beings things objects of , ,

creation whatever we may call them which

, ,

properly belong to their nature while to a ,

consciousness which becomes translated to

any one of these planes such scenery or i n ‘

habitants will be as fully perceptible as the

scenery an d inhabitants of the earth are per
ce p t i b le to waking vision These planes of .

nature do not divide themselves in precise

accordance with the septenary division of
human principles Of which I jus t SpOke but ,

for the purposes of what w e are now con si d

ering we must realize two great phases of
nature or planes ab ove that of the visible
, ,
10 2 TH E R A TI ONA LE OF MESMERI SM .

earth the nearest to us being the astral the

, ,

next what I will here call the spiritual plane .

It is towards this latter that the soul of a

human bein g shoul d ul timately aspire but ,

it is qui te certain that with every human

being who is first released from the imprison
men t Of the flesh whether by the solemn
,
‘

pro cess of nature at death or by the inter

,

v e n t i on of mesmeric influences durin g life ,

it is quite certain I say that t he astral

, ,

plan e will be the fir st on whi ch that con

s ci ou sn e s s reopens after quitting the physi

cal The further progress upwards indeed

.
, ,

i s one clai ming so much from the soul that

aims at it that a great number of very good
,

mesmeric sensitives may not be enabled to

accomplish it The astral plane thus b e
.

comes much the most important for the pur

poses of studying commonplace m esmeric
phenom e na .

When I come to deal with clairvoyance it

will be necessary to recur to this exposition
as bearing closely on the m agnetic t rance ;
but as regards the si m ple m qahe n om e n a Of
mesmerism in so far as it afie ct s the health
,

of the body generally it is only necessary to

,

realize the astral plane sufficiently to com

prehend that there we fin d the bridge of com
 MESME R I C P H EN OMENA . 1 03

m u n i cat i on between the senses of the oper

ator an d the subj ect an d that all the b e
,

wilderin g experience s connected with se n

s i t i v e s who taste what some o n e else taste s

under mesmerism and feel the pins which

,

’
prick other people s bodies cease to presen t
,

an incomprehensible or miracul ous aspect

when we realize the manner in which the as
tral plane afior ds direct communion between
the consciousness of the operator and the
subject when the t w o are brought into true
magnetic harmony .

In regard to the spiritual plane that has ,

t o do solely with the higher Spiritual phases

of consciousness which mesmerism can evoke
from a sensitive and need not be thought of
,

except in co nnection with the most exalted

s ort of clairvoyance ; so that practicall y for

a rough comp ehension of t he r at i on ale of

r
mesmerism all I am aslgi n g for the moment
/

i s that my readers sh ould recognize or at ,

all events assume for the purposes of this

argum ent the existence of what has here

,

been called the astral plane the me di um of,

nature in which the hum an will operates

y —

more directly on sensation than in the me

di u m of existence which i s constituted by
the physical earth .
 C H A P TER V .

C U R ATI VE MESMER I SM .

A tendency of t he hum an mind

C U R I OU S ‘

leads a great many people to s uppose that

any given branch of knowledge has assumed
importance for the first time when it happens
first to have arrested their own attention .

Few people wo ul d con fess this t o be the

truth as regards themselves in a naked way ,

but the whole body of modern literat ure put

forth under the hypnotic flag is a ludicrous
illustration that with society at large that
“
rul e operates The names with which sci
.

e n t ific hypnotism are most definitely associ

ated in modern years are those of Dr Char .

cot and Dr L i e b aul t But at the same time

. .

it is a simple histori cal fact that far more

was done to establish the scientific truth of
curative mesmerism by Dr E sdaile and Dr
. .

Elli ot son fifty years ago than either of the

,

modern physicians just named have had t im c

yet to accomplish .

For inquirers who at this stage of the pro

 C U R A TI VE M M
ES ER I S M . 1 05

ce e di n gswish to know what curative mes

’
merism really can accomplish Dr Esdaile s
, .

“
books and the ! oist remain i m m e asu
the most fruitful literature to take up The .

only aspect in which at the same time they

, ,

are at all defective is that which has t o do

with theory Falling int o a very natural
.

error most of the early experimentalists

,

who obtained striking and importan t results

came to the conclusion that these would be
capable of attainment by anybody else who
tried fo r them in t he same way and with any
,

subjects on whom they might operate They .

knew they had failures in some cases but ,

they probably did not know the extent to

which they were abnormally gifted with the
peculiar reserves of nervous energy required
to throw off animal magnetism and on e of ,

them as we have seen especi ally Baron du

, ,

Potet is almost ludicrously frightened lest

,

the world at large shoul d immediately ru sh

forward to repeat his own experiments the ,

bearings of which in some cases he saw not ,

unreasonably to be fraught with peril He

,
.

failed to at t ach sufficient 1 m por t an ce t o the ‘

Boeotian lethargy of his generation at large ;

and we have not yet by any means passed
b eyond that stage o f human enlightenment
1 06 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF M M ES ER I S M
.

in which we may still rely with a good deal

o f confidence on the stupidity of our con tem

or ar i e s as a safeguard against their prema

p
t ur e invasion of occul t mysteries .

But at all events to go b ack to E sdaile

,
r

an d Elli ot s on these t wo great experimental

,

i st s have left volumes of results which it i s

not my business here to reproduce but on ,

which I will v entur e to make s ome comments ,

in asmuch as they have made either little

e ffort o r obtained but little success in their
,

attempts to accoun t for their ow n achieve

,

ments It i s enough for the moment as r e

.

gards the facts to say that both E sdaile in

C al cutta and Ell i ot son in the North of L on
,

don cured serious diseases of almost every

,

s ort and kind by treatment which i nvol v ed

the use of animal magnetism and of no other ,

“

curative agent whatever A common an d

.

absurd all egation put forward by people who

preserve their opi nions concerning the cura
tive e fie ct s of magnetism by carefully pro
,

teeting their ignorance of all the facts from

the i nvasion of ext ernal kn owledge is to the ,

effect that m e sm e r l c influence is o n l y bene

fici al when beneficial at all in cases of ner
, ,

vous disorder They might as well say that

.

a locomotive engine c oul d o n ly pull a car

 '
C UR A TI VE
’
MESMER I SM . 1 07

r ia e
g made o f mahogany and not one con
,

structed of any other wood The statement .

is simply untrue and incompatible with all

,

experience o n the subject as also it is e n ,

t i r e ly ou t of touch with the theory as to the

~

causation at work which we are now in a

position to frame .

’ ’
The records of Esdaile s and Elli ot son s
work will also show numerous cases in which
operations of the most excruciating order and
on the largest scale operat ions like the
amputation of a leg or the removal of some
,

internal tumor have been performed o n

patients rendered entirely insensible to pain
by purely m agnetic treatment But we may .

make a clear distinction bet ween the an ae s

thetic effects of mesmerism and the curative
effects and in the first instance I propose to
,

deal with the latter .

The first remark on e has to make about

,

’
Esdaile s work to begin with is that the con
di t i on s which surrounded him were e xt r aor
di n ar ily favorable The hospital in which
he worked was at Calcutta and t he p at i e n t s , fi r z

alm ost entirely natives of India A s a race .

natives of India are very much more sensi

tive to magnetic influence than E uropeans .

This question of sensitiveness is one which

1 08 TH E R A TI ON A L E or MESMERI SM .

requires a great deal of explanation b ut ,

may be dealt with more conveniently when

we come to consider the psychic rather than
the medical department of the subject El .

li ot son it is true worked en tirely with E u

, ,

r o e an patients but n ever as far as records

p , ,

show obtained such startli ng results as

,

those of Calcutt a if measured b y the propor

tion of sensitiveness discovered S pecific .

resul ts in North L ondon were just as good

in s ome cases as specific results in India ;
but n o intelli gent mesmerist sett ing to work
in this country would expect for a moment
to be able to in fl uence as many per cent of .

the people he might deal with as if he were

working in the midst of an oriental com m u
n it N ow thi s difficulty ab o ut the non se n -
y.
,

si t i v e n e ss to mesmeric treatment of a very

great num ber of people all over the world ,

and of an especially great num ber in the

highly civilized communities of modern E u
rope i s one which no enthusiast for mesmeric
,

progress shoul d blink in any way or attempt ,

to un derestimate But on the other hand

.
, ,

we must remember that the highly i n se n si

tive condition of E uropeans which may i n ,

t e r fe r e for the moment wi th the practical

value of magnetic cures is itself a mental
,
 C U B A TI VE ME SMERI SM . 1 09

rather than a physical phenomenon It is .

due to the prevalent attitude of mind which

highl y educated and highly civilized E uro
peans generally fall into and it would u n
,

derge a very great change if the scientific

nature of mesmeric facts became generally
un derstood and relieved by the sanction of
,

high intellectual authority from the torrent

,

of ribaldry with which the whole subject has

been so long inundated by ephemeral writers

playing up as usual to t he greatest i gn o
, ,

rance of the greatest number All that we .

have really to keep in mind is that mesmeric

influence is not a curative agent which is
universally applicable ; it is a curative agent
which is probably more influential than any
other system medical science has discovered ,

and is certainly susceptible of enormous and

most advantageous extension :
But how does the system wo rk ? L et us
se e what have been t he concl u sions as r e

gards their own part in the cures they have

worked of the earliest exponents o f mesmer
,

ism who still remain the most remarkable of

its e x p e r l m e n t ali st s E sdaile seems never
.

t o have got much beyond the perception of

the fact that he coul d by making passes as ,

soci at e d with the exercise of his own will ,

110 TH E R A TI ON AL E or MESMER I SM .

produce magnetic trances out of which , ,

when it was his will that this result shoul d

ensue his patients woul d emerge either cured
,

or very greatly relieved I doubt if Dr El

. .

li ot son developed any theory going much

beyond this and indeed if any mesmeric
, ,

books old or new embody any theoretical

, ,

explanations of such phenomena that are

worth the serious attention of students I ,

kn ow of none such .

Perhaps thi s assertion shoul d be qualified

by some reference to what is called hypnotic
suggestion as a curative method for here we
,

are certainly in close touch with a theory or ,

if not exactly with a theory as to the inner

working of the remedy with a theory whi ch
,

advances us one step in that direction The .

exponents of hypnotic suggestion imagine

that they dispense i n the first instance alto
gether with any emanations ; that they bring
about a condition of partial or complete n u
consciousness by inducing their patients to
adopt some auto mesmeric process and that
-
,

while in this state they thr ow into their

min ds simply by spoken assur ance on the
,

subject the idea that when they recover

,

their normal state they will fin d themselves

bet ter I am very far from wishi ng to i m
.
 C UR A TI VE MESMERI SM . 111

ply that t his kind of suggestion is never

really effectual but I suspect that in most
,

cases where it works well the operator who

directs the whole undertaki ng has really been
very much more energe t ic in the matt er than
he has supposed After all magn etic passes
.
,

are merely some among the methods by

means of which animal magnetism can be
projected One of the most potent modern
.

mesmerizers whom I have encountered a ,

person in no way associated with any pub

li cly kn own undertakings of this kind has ,

never employed passe s but has obtained e n

,

tire control of his sensitives by looking at

them fix edly and exerting that mysteriou s
,

force which we call the will without an y ,

physical manipulation It would be difficult

.

for a doctor instructing a patient and still ,

more difficult if he superintends that patien t ,

in the methods required to s uperin duce the

hypnotic condition to avoid contributing
,

very largely to the resul t hi mself .

However this may be operators of the

,

devoting themselves to the method of hyp

n ot i c suggestion The leading fact of mes
.

meric science which justifies this last remark

is that to which I have already referred
11 2 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMERI SM .

the actual obj ective existence as a fact in na

ture as un e q u i v ocal as the steam in a boiler
,
'

of the mesmeric fluid U n til people who

.

are on the path of this inquiry convince

themselves of this they will be stumbling
,

about in the dark It is the first all impor

.
-

tant leadi ng elementary p r in ciple of the su b

j e c,t and any on e who attempts to dispute it

takes up a position which is first of all ab

surd to those who as I said before are in
, ,

a position to se e the fluid in question as —

certain l y though a much fin er phenomenon

,

is concern ed as an engineer can se e the

,

steam pouring ou t from his exhaust tubes - .

S econdl y the denial of the fluid theory is ir

,

’
rational i n face of R eichenbach s researches ,

an d can only be maintained by v irt ue of a

prelim inary declaration that these researches

are falsely re corded If it is argued that
.

R eichen bach is ye t almost alone as an ex

l or e r in that partic ul ar range of phen om
p
ena the answer is that a positive fact if a
, ,

fact is still a fact in nature though it stan d

, ,

alone ; and nobody after its establishment is

entitled to constr uct a theory of nature with
which it is in compatible .

Now this being assumed as the fu n dam e n

tal state of ou r kn owledge as to the way in
 C UB A TI VE MESMERI SM . 1 13

which magnetic cures work let us go a step ,

further in the direction of wha t I am quite

ready to treat for the present as a hyp ot he
sis I t is n ot unreasonable to assume that
.

the magn etic fluid which emanates from a

powerful mesmeric operator i s something
which in varying degrees is present in the
, ,

organism of all other human beings Nor is .

it unreasonable to suppose that a something

which is clearly all ied in a very important
manner with the innermost vital functions of
the organism may b e in some way or other
unhealthy when those vital functions are
manifestly out of order N ow if that be.
,

the case the object we have to acc omplish

,

in effecting a magnetic cure is to withdraw

the unhealthy fluid which has accumulated
in the organism of the sufferer in the first
instance an d replace it wit h tha
, t of a more
healthy order from a vigorous and wholesome
constitution A n d clearly when we want to
. .

replace on e thing by another it is possible to

do this in two ways ; one a rough way and ,

the other a neat and relatively scient ific

method We may simply force in t he new
.

influence trusting that it will by its own

,

abundance somehow expel and drive off that

of which we want t o get rid or we may by , ,
114 TH E R A TI ON A L E or ME SME R I SM .

an arrangement of ou r energies far more eco

n om i cal as regards the e xpenditure of force ,

get rid fir st of the evil entity whatever it ,

is flui d substance or magnetism and then

, ,

replace it by as much as may be required

to fill the void of a more wholesome order
, .

S o far it seems to me the most successful

, ,

among well known cur at l v e mesmerists have

-

blundered on the r o ugher of these two ex =

p e d i e nt s Without
. apparently stopping to
think the thing out and certainly without
,

co ming to the conclusion that the underlyin

g
cause o f illn ess must be an illn ess so to ,
’
speak in the sufl e r e r s own personal mag
,

n e t i sm they have simply drenched him with

,

the emanations of their own healthier organ

i sm and have obtained no doubt from this
, , ,

somewhat extravagant process resul ts which ,

were often highl y satisfactory An i m m e a

surably more scientific way of goin g to work ,

however i s to withdraw first of all the um

,

healthy or to u se a c onvenient expression

, ,

the bad magnetism and then replace it by

,

an entirely separate operation H ow is this .

to be done ? some one may ask; and the an

swer is b y a very much simpler method
,

than the apparent obscurity o f the subject

woul d seem t o fo reshado w .
 C UR A TI VE MESME R I SM
’
. 115

Whether people understand what they are

doin g or not if they try to mesmerize and
, ,

hold out their hands with that end in vie w ,

m aking passes or simply pointing the fingers ,

as they may choose what they are really

,

doing is this : they propel the magnetic fluid

accumul ated in their o wn system in the di
rection they choose that it shall go that —

choice being really little more than e m pha

sized i n their minds by the fact that they
are perhaps pointing l n the same dire ction
—
b y means of an exercise of will power -
,

which great o r little in its intensity is the

, ,

outcome of their wi sh t o obtai n success .

The magnetic fluid does n ot simply flow from

the fingers because they are extended in on e
direction or another N othing whatever
.

will pass without the hidden influence of the

will force in the backgroun d any more than
-
,

a bull et will pass o ut of a gun witho ut the

"
expansion of the gases i n t he rear
-
f
.

N ow that being so as r egards the emission

,

of mesmeric fluid how are you to reverse

,

the process and draw from a patient the bad

magneti sm of which you want to
By nothing more elab orate than the exercise
of the will to that end ass o ciated wi t h pre
,

ci se ly the same mechanical m etho d o f em

1 16 TH E R A TIONAL E OF ME SMER I SM .

ha i z in your own will that woul d be em

p s
g
ployed in the other case The fin gers of a
.

mesmerist pointed to the forehead of a p a

tient may be made to suck in or draw out
fr om the patient a current of magnetism just ,
'

as with t he ot he r intention the same condi

tion of things would be seen by a person
whose sight was properly developed to i n
v olve the emissi on o f a current F or all .

such pu rposes indeed as the withdrawal of

, ,

bad magnetism s omething more than the

,
’
mere contigui ty of the operator s fingers 1 s
desirable The complete touch of the whole
.

hand is a mechanical arrangement lending

far more assistance to the will power than -

any other arrangement ; and it will be seen

that in having arrived at this conclusion
along the path of purely scientific specul a
tion we have got back to the famous old b ib li
cal method ,the laying on of hands The
—
.

hands laid on may be thought of in t he op

’
orator s mind with a view of intensifying

their influence to the utmost as sponges ap ,

plied to a wet surface with a view of sopping

up the moisture ; that is to say he will think ,

of them with reference to the bad magnetism

he wi shes them to withdraw in a way which
,

is precisely analogous t o the illustration just

given .
 CU RA TI VE ME SMERI S M . 117

But what is he to do with the bad magnet

i sm when he has sopped it up in his han ds ?
A n d here at the very outset of the matter we
come to an extremely important consideration
which is constantly overlooked by the earlier
writers on mesmerism You must get rid
.

of the bad magneti sm l n some definitely fin al

and specific way if you want to accomplish
any permanent cure of the patient for one ,

very good reason ; because if you do n ot it

, ,

is more than likely that the evil of which you

hav e relieved him will lodge in your own
system and unless it happens that the store
,

of ma n etic energy in your ow n system is so

g
extraordinarily abundant that it drives out
the intruding evil you will set up in your
,

own physical conditions of health somethin

g
very like the disorder you have cured On .

a small scale it is worth while t o acquire for

'

’
one s self a mild disorder to bring this truth
home to the mind I have repeatedly given
.

myself headaches by taking them away from

others leaving out by deliberate intention
, ,

or perhap s in some cases by car e le ssn e ss t he =

precautions which I knew ought to b e taken

to guard against that result .

H ow then to get rid of bad magnetism

, ,

from hands which are laden with it ; that 1 s .

118 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

the problem with which we have n ow to deal .

Agai n for all practical purposes the result

,

is obtained by a simple e fior t of will in that

direction associated with gestures which
,

stimulate the intention I f the hands are

.

withdrawn from the patient and the gesture

,

is made in a free direction of throwing ofi

whatever they may contain exactly as if they
,

were we t and the operator were trying to dr y

them by flourishing them about in the air ,

the desired end is reached under most of the

simple conditions which ordinary mesmerism
would be concerned with To make the
“

matter theoretically clearer however we , ,

must dive a little m ore deeply into the mys

t e r i e s of the superphysical regions of nature
lying all around us O f these I shall have
.

to speak a good deal more when de aling with

the higher S piritual aspects of mesmerism ,

but up to the present time it has not been

necessary to touch that side of the subject .

The ordinary curative influences can be

worked without reference to the highe r
planes of nature just because they are con
,

cerned with the phenomena of the lower

plane with mere physical illness .But
now in some degree the refinement with
which we are dealing does impinge on the
higher branch o f the subject .
 C URA TI VE MESMER I SM . 119

A well known and even hackneyed expres

-

“
sion describes dirt as matter in the wrong
”
place and involves perhaps a deeper phil
, , ,

osophy than L ord Palmerston who was I , ,

believe its real author troubled his head

, ,

with at the time Hardly any matter is ab

solu t e l
y evil and
, in its right place may fall
into the general scheme of natural processes .

’
S o with what for convenience sake I have
, ,

called bad magnetism That may be very .

bad indeed when con centrated in a human

organism but may n ot necessar ily be wholly
,

without suitable affin i t l e s l n the vast field of

’
nature s operations There are according
.
,

to the teachings of occult science entities in ,

nature on the superphysical plane m which

such bad magnetism would find its own
sphere I will not say absolutely of utility
, ,

because that would be begging a very com

plicated question but at all events its ow n
,

appropriate sphere A ve ry prolonged dis

.

s e r t at i on on the subj ect would be required

to elucidate as far as that might be possible

,

for us the real nature of the elemental e n

,

tities to which I refer but at all e ven t s i t is ‘

f ' ’ é

to that destination the bad magnetism with

drawn from a subject in illn ess has t o be
-

sent if the operator wishes to get rid of it

 2
1 0 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I S M .

entirely as of c ourse he does The mere

,
.

gesture of throwing it off from himself with

the intention of getting rid of it will in all ,

p robability throw
,
it i n to what may be call ed

the sphere of attraction of those currents ,

forces or entities whatever w e like to call

,

them which will carry it away from all .

further relations with ourselv es But of .

,

course if the operator is gift ed with suffi

,

cient astral sight or clairvoyance hi mself as

to se e the process carried ou t he will be ,

very much more successful in get ting rid o f ’

the evil .

And for those who realize the proce ss I

have just described a new interest may at
,

tach to many biblical phrases in whi ch it is

distinctly referred to for those who compre
hend the symbology and shown t o be pres
,

ent to the knowledge of those earli er occul t

i st s who practiced mesmerism many thou
sand years before M esmer For example.
,

the very well known parable of the herd of

-

s w ine in regard to which so much egregi o us

,

nonsense has been written both by those who

endeavor to represent it as a literal hi st or
ic al transaction and by tho se who conceive
,

that the authenticity of the biblical narrative

is upset by dwell ing on the immoral absurd
 O UR A TI VE ME SMER I S M . 1 1 2
ity of the story taken literally is significant ,

for those who understand the affinities b e

t ween certain orders of elemental currents ,

and what we are here talking o f as bad mag

n e t i sm The herd of swin e simply stand as
.

a symbol for these elemental currents or e u

tities and the meaning 1 s that when the
,

devil cast ou t of the man who was afflicted

—
or in ou r more scientific phraseology
, ,

when the bad magnetism withdrawn from

him had to be disposed of by the supreme
—

operator concerned it was disposed of in the ,

proper way and not left to hang about the ,

1
aura of either himself or the bystanders .

1 I t i s i m p oss i bl
al t h y f m e s
e t o e xplai n t he re e or o

m e i m w it h u t u i g m w d v y f am i li a t tu
h b h h
r s o s n so e or s er r o s

de t f ccu l t i m i t a c b ut p aps q ui
b
n s o o s n o er r n es er re r

i g a
n i f x pla at i h
r e eTh a u a i s t he t m
”
n on e re . e r er

e m pl y d t d t t hat cl u d f ast al m at t t hat i s t o

b
o e o eno e o o r e r,

f m at t e el gi g t t he x t pla f at u
b h hh
s ay , o r on n o ne ne o n re

a ov t h p y i cal pla w ic u u ds v e y hum a

b b
e e s ne, s rro n e r n

i g a d b yala g e um f ad q u at ly gi f t d p
b h
e n ,
n r n er o e e e eo

p l ca b y a fi d v l pm t f t at f ac u l t y
b
e n e se e n n er e e o en o

al ady f d t as e a li g m p e pl t t he
b
re re e rre o n n so e o e o se e

m m e i c fl u id
es r a it w u l d m t im
, b
or ,call d y s o so e es e e

cc u lt is t t h m ag e t ic a u a Th c dit i o f t he
h
o s, e n r . e on n o

a u a ha al m t a u lim i t e d ig ificat i f r t ose w h

“

r s os n n s n on o o

p p ly i t u ct d i t h i t p t at i f i t s ig
h h h
are ro er ns r e n e n er re on o s n s,

b u t w it ut g i g i t t f i t a p c t w ich ha
b
o s o n n o o e o s s e s v e no

di ct c c w it h m y p t u j ct it is e u gh

h
re on e rn r e se n s e ,
no

t say t at t he a u a i n e v y case w u ld b i l t ly
b
o r er o e v o en

affe ct e d y c o dit i n f di a e a d whi l e t he

n o t a
s o se s ,
n r e s or
1 2
2 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

When such bad magnetism is left to hang

about t he aura of the operator it may as al ,

ready suggested develop i n himself the ,

very ailment from which he has cured his

‘

subject if his own physical constitution

,

present any weakness in that direction O r .

,

if this does not take place another very cu ,

r i ou s result may foll ow whi c

h is ill ustrated , ,

by an occurren ce within my own knowledge .

A lady troubled with very lon g seated and

,
-

severe rheumatism was cured by a mesmeric ,

operator i n Paris and went away well satis ,

fie d to another part of E urope Four years “

afterwards the old pain which had never ,

troubled her in the interval returned with ,

its old virulence and she hastily sent to i n ,

quire after the operator who had dealt with

her so successfully It turned ou t that he
had died at exactly the period when her com
plaint returned O ther similar cases are .

spoken of i n some of the mesmeric bo oks

'

and the explanation simply i s that in such

cases the operator has never got rid of t he
ap
t i on , i n w h had e e
e r son ill f h al t hy c dit i
o b n , o e on on s

w ul d m a i f t i t l f i t h p u ificat i f t h au a i t is
b h
o n es se n e r on o e r ,

e q u ally a c v p i ili t y t at i fl u c f a la
h
on e r se oss n en es o re

ti ly im m at i al c a ac t i t h fi t i t a c aff c t i g
h h
ve er r er n e rs ns n e e n

t h au a m i g t a ft e w a d e xp e ss t he m se lv s i
e r ,
r rp yi s r e n s

cal c o di t i on s
n .
 OU R A TI VE MESMERI SM . 2
1 3

bad m agnetism It has never found a lodg

.

ment in his own system because that has

,

been too healthy to allo w of its ingress but ,

when all the attractive forces of his o wn life

are broken up at its close the bad magnet,

i sm released from its temporary entangle

,

ment flies back to its own prev ious habitat

, ,

like any electric current followm g the chan

nel of least resi stance .

At the present mom ent the most ener

!

getic of modern physicians amongst ourselves

in England who are endeavoring to apply
some of the lessons of mesmerism to the cure
of disease have drifted into the practice of
,

“
what is very well known n ow as hypnotic
suggestion ; an d I am very far from wish
ing to imply that that system is inoperative
or delusive Within the system of every
.

human being there are s pri ngs of force

which can be called int o activity by hyp
u otie suggestion even t o the expulsion of
,

bad magnetism and the apparent production

,

of a cure I say apparent because under

.
,

this arrangement no very great likelihood ’

that the bad magnetism will be fifia lly e x

’
p e ll e d from the patient s aura is se t up .

M oreover this complicated reflection has to

,

be taken into account o ne which all modern

,
 2
1 4 TH E R A TIONA LE OF ME SMERI SM .

followers of the hypnotic school have entirely

overlooked in dwelling on the existence of
another danger to which they assign perhaps
exaggerated importan ce It is a common
.

place of modern writin g on the subject that

“

purely hypnotic treatment that is to say

, ,

the establishment of condit ions of what we

’
call the mesmeric order in a pat ient s system
by means of external mechanical applica
tions like revolvin g mirrors or what not is
, , ,

free from the peril attached to the influence

which a mesmerist obtains o ver his subject
if similar conditions are established by
means of passes in the old way Now of .
,

course it is perfectly true that to a certain

,

extent the mesmeric operator obtains i n fl u

ence over his subj ect and if the same oper
,

ator and the same sub j ect go on working to

gether for a long period of time an d trance
,

conditions are c o nstantly re established the ,

influence of the mesmerist b ecomes enor

mous That influence however does not
.
, ,

spring into sudden magnitude all at once on

a single occasion Here again qualifications
.

have to be introduced which I will discus s in

their proper place in regard to the sudden
results obtained with entire strangers by
professional mesmeric exhibitors ; but these
 OUR A TI VE MESMERI SM . 2
1 5

really fall into a different category from the

cases with which we are concerned for the
moment It is most emphatically true that
.

no m esmerist influencing a s ubj ect for a cura

tive purpose would suddenly acquire fatal
supremacy over the m or ale of that subj ect
but from the point of view which I fully rec
o n iz e
g that after a time when the i n flu

e n ce s had been frequently repeated such con

trol would be possible the reply is that

people who find the need of bein g mesmer
i z e d must be exceedingly careful int o whose
hands they trust themselves .

I think if the idea of medical science of

the ordinary type were presented to the
world n ow for the first time timid people ,

would be inclined t o say H ow frightful the

“
,

notion of following the prescriptions of a

doctor If he were malevolently inclined he
.

might give us poison or drugs which would

be ot he r w 1 se deleterious I ”
Of course he
x

might In this life we are continually rely

.

ing with more or less confidence on ou r

fell ow bein gs
- S ometimes that confidence
.

is misplaced and terrible examples of trust

,

betrayed in every walk of life encounter ou r

observation ; but as life is organized at pres
ent we can only meet that condition of thin gs
 2
1 6 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

by taking care as to whom we do trust ,

whether in afiai r s of every day life in busi -

,

ness in afie ct i on in medical practice or

, , , ,

finally in mesmerism A s for the notion

,
.

that when a mesmerized s ubj ect may pass

under the curious invisible influence of the
operator he or she on that account loses the
,

normal facul ty of will and i s weakened or ,

“

!
‘
degraded in character accordingly I venture ,

to declare that no shadow of justification for

that theory can be se t up by any legitimate
appeal to established facts in the psychic
constitution of man It is n ot even true .

that sensitiveness to mesmeric influence is

necessarily associated although that s ome ,

times may be the case with want of individ ,

ual energy of character To that branch of

the subject however I must recur later and
, , ,

therefore leave it alone for the present .

But coming back n ow to the real danger ,

such as it is of hypnotic suggestion as dis

, ,

t i n gui she d from the other danger such as it ,

is of mesmeric treatment we must remember

, ,

that the hypnotic state may very roughly be

described as an abnormal physical condition ,

and the mesmeric state as an abnormal as

tral condition I n some way the nerves are
1
.

1 Thi s t e rm is of un ive sal appli cat i i all ccul t

r on n o

i
wr t i n g t o t hat r e gi on of at ur e
n e lat e d t o s u ch p he om
r n
 OU RA TI VE ME SMER I SM . 1 7 2
jarred by the pecul iar stram 1 m par t e d to them
in the first instance through the optic nerve ,

and a mysterious dislocation of the interior

mechanism of the nerve system is sup e r i n
du ce d ; and this dislocation once su p e r i n
du ce d i s very liable to recur under the stim
ul us of some casual accident or thoughtless

act on the part of any person who has once

acquired the unfortunate art of throwing his
nervous system into disorder Like many .

other dangers that we have to recogn ize as

theoretically possible in all varieties of mes
meric treatment I am not arguing that this ,

one i s of very great magnitude but as far ,

as it goes it is a real risk and the tendency , ,

therefore of hypnotic treatment is distinctly

,

more injurious than the tendency of mesmeric

t reatment always assum ing that we do not
,

fall into the i mprobable disaster of putting

ourselves too trustfully into the hands of a
c o nsciously mal evolent p erson .

e n a as a u a I have al ady d sc i d I t i s a e al m
t he r re e r b e . r

i i t l f f vast c m pl xi t y c xt iv w it h a d q u it
h
n se ,
o o e o- e ens e ,
n e
,

as p p u l ou s a t h phy s ical pla a d fill d w it as g at

h b k
o s e ne, n e re

a va i t y f
r e at u al p
o n m a Vi d o s
r enooc l en . e o on on

t is m g e all y ; i f c t whi ch I ca t re f ai
H
f ‘ A n .
r

en r n re ere n e o nno r n

f m addi g t hat p pl e wh p ut t h m all aside a u

h k
ro n eo o e s n

w rt y f c id at i w il l e ve m a e a yt hi g b u t
h
o o on s er on n r n n

n on se n s
e f t h i t e o i e s c o c e n i g e i t he m e sm e ic
o e r r n r n r r or

hyp t i c t a act i on s
no r ns .
 C HAPTER VI .

A N E STH ET I C EFF EC T S AN D R I GI D ITY .

RICH as the old literature of mesmerism

“

i s in evidence concernin g t he an aestheti c

e fl e ct s of magnetism and though in the ex
,

e r im e n t s often pub li cly presented at the

p
present day nothing is more common than to
show how completely the mesmeric trance
may quench all sense of pain I do n ot think
,

that any treatise on the subject has hithert o

made an attempt t o account in anything ,

that can be called a scientific manner ,for

these remarkable phenomena L east of all
.

have the modern writers limiting them

selves willfully t o a contracted v 1 e w of the
whole subj ect been in a position t o in v e s
—

t i gat e the real causation of mesmeric an ses

t he si a
. It woul d indeed be impossible to do
this with any prospect of success without
taking into account the deeper occul t science
of the whole subject and no o rdinary know
,

ledge acquired by the simple examination of

the human physique c o uld enable any mere
 A M ES TH ETI C EF FE C TS . 2
1 9

physician to guess at the manner in which

magnetic force operates to suspend the normal
activity of the nervous system Any at .

tempt indeed to 1 n v e st i gat e the more subtle

, ,

characteristic of the human organism with ,

ou t taking into account some of those higher

principles which are not within the cogui

z an ce of the or d i nary senses and still less,

open to investigation by the instrumen ts of

the dissecting room must necessarily prove
,

abortive The seat of consciousness i s n ot

.

in the physical matter of the body and thus ,

all questions having to do with the man ner

in which consciousness of pain can be sus
pended must concern themselves even if
, ,

they do not have to go higher with the as ,

tral principles of the subject .

Now I have already pointed out that that

force itself which differentiates o rganic from
inorganic matter is already on e which app e r
tains to the a stral plane and I have also i n
,
v

di cat e d that the se pt e n ar y di v 1 s1 on of prin

ci p le s described in a preceding chapter must
, ,

be itself still further analyzed before we can

fully apprehend the workin g of con scfousn e s
i
—

even in its least elevated forms And thus .

the force of which I have n ow to speak al ,

though n ot belonging to any higher stratum

1 30 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

of the human constitution than the second

principle nevertheless is itself di stinct from
,

vital energy in its simplest aspect The .

truth is that when we talk of the nerves as

,

the channels for con v e yi n g se n sat i on in the

one direction to the true Ego or in the other
,

for conveying the will force of t he E go to

the bodily organism we are talking to use
, ,

a rough but not inaccur ate analogy of the ,

steam pipes connectin g the boiler with the e n

gine whil e omitting all notice of the steam
, .

That which really is the medium for t he con

v e yan ce of consciousness or w ill as the steam
,

i s the medium for the conveyance of force in

the case of the engi ne is what may be most
,

”
conveniently described as the nerve aura .

And at this point I know that many read

ers will make a pause and ask by what
,

process of experi mentation I have arri v ed at

the knowledge I possess with regard t o this
nerve aura My reply is by the o nly
.
,

method of investigation which can possibly

be appli ed to such a problem No physic al .

experiment can deal with the matter No .

knowledge to be disinterred from medical

speculations con cerning the nerves and the
brain will help us on e step on the road to
wards the conclusions we seek The only .
 A ME S TH ETI C EFFE C TS . 1 31

way of acquiring information concerning

the higher principles of the human b ody is ,

b y bringin g to bear on the problem some of

those higher principles themselves To i l .

lustrate what I mean let me remind readers

,

of any b ooks worth speaking of concerning

curative mesmerism that no observation is

,

more abundantly established whether by ,

the early inquirers or by those of a more r e

,

cent date who inquire with a higher purpose

,

than the mere establishment of a p r econ

ce i v e d hypothe sis than those which show
,

that mesmeric patients in trance are enabled

to prescribe for themselves to diagnose their
,

condition with a confidence completely sur

passing the skill of any physical practitioner
and above all are especially capable of de
scribing the way i n which magnetic i n fl u
e n ce s work upon them and t o i ndicate any
,

m odi fiCat i on that may be required i n their

magnetic tre atment In point of fact the
.

mesmeric sensitive b ecomes clair v oyant in

reference to such problems as those we have
under discussion and can discern the opera
,

tions of nature in connection With t he EEt r al

’

principles of man which necessarily defy any

scrutiny from the physical senses .

N ow the early mesmerists though con ,

13 2 TH E R A TIONA LE OF MESMERI SM .

st an t ly availing themsel v es of this fact t o

guide them in the treatment of their pa
'

t i e n t s did not for the most part possess the

,

advantage of any o ccul t knowledge to begin

with which could prompt them to direct

,

their inquiries along fruitful chann els such

as woul d lead them to gen eral izations con

cern ing the forces of the superior planes .

R ealizing myself enough of the esoteric laws

at work to give greater point and significance

to my inqui ries I have been enabled by

, ,

working wi th sensitive gifts of an unusually

high o rder in the case of some clairvoyants
,

with wh om I have had to deal to get these ,

mysteries concerning the nerve aur a i n t e lli

gently explained and to make out the man
,

ner in which the vital magnetism of a mes

meric operator may affect the action of thi s
nerve aura in the m esmeric state .

To realize what takes place let us in the

, ,

first instance imagine a condition of things

,

which is not exactly what takes place but ,

will pave the way for a c omprehension of

the actual course of events The nerve aura
.

belonging to any given subject is in a cer ,

tain sense a portion of his organism I t is

, .

in direct relation with the vehicles of the

higher consciousness and though undoubt
 S
A NAE TH E TI C
’
EFF ECTS . 1 33

e dly in the first instance leading alo ng the

nerves to the brain is merely at that point
,

articulated so t o speak with the vehicles of

, ,

higher consciousness with the soul let us

—
,

say for the convenience of the moment .

N ow it is a fundamental fact concerning the

,

complex organism of which we are speaking ,

that the higher vehi cles whi ch in the normal

,

condition of things are in close and in ti

,

mate union so to s peak in admixture ,

wi t h the matter of the physical bo dy are ,

nevertheless separable therefrom in a way

that does not involve the final and complete
separation which takes place at death A d .

v an ce d students of o ccultism do not require

any other argum ent to support the statement

I have just made beyond their own constant
experience of actually separating the con
sci ou sn e s s fr o m the body But without ap
.

pealing to quite such lofty t estimony the ,

records of clairvoyance are fertile m exam

ples of cases in which people describ e them
selves as looking at themselves contem ,

plating their own body as from an external

point of vi ew .

Wit hou t the help of occul t science to in

t e r p r e t what is really taking place in this
case some writers are inclined to invent
,
1 34 THE R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

elaborate theories of complicated subj ective

phenomena to account for such transactions .

In reality they are very simple and simply ,

what they seem Questioned on this sub

.

j ect any clairvoyant in a genuin e magnetic

,

trance woul d describe hi s consciousness as

seated in something at all events external
to his body N ot bein g on the lo okout for
.

such condi tions fe w of the e a

, rlier mesmer
i st s if any thought of asking questions
, ,

pointing to s uch a condition of thin gs and ,

clairvoyants are very rarely spontaneous in

pouring out information ; they require to
be cross examined before exhibiting their
-

knowledge i n full perfect ion or rather b e

,

fore bringing their emancipated perceptions

to bear on the problems they have t odeal
with s o as to develop thi s knowledge if
,

required .

However taking the fact to be as I say

, ,

and leaving persons inclined to dispute it to

search for the ev idence in its favor in books
dealing with occul t science generally let me ,

ask my readers n ow to consider what is the

situation of affairs as regards the conscious
ness that the sensitive ou t of the body r e
tains concern in g the body he has left behind .

How to begin with has it come to pass that

, ,
 A N/E S TH ETIC EFFE C TS . 1 35

he is out of the body under t he mesmeric i n

fl u e n ce ? And here I brin g in my strained
s ituation in order to make the position more

intelligible The magnetism of the mesmer

.

ist has drenched the nervous system of the

patient expelling and replacing the nerve
,

aura properly belonging to his organism .

That expell ed nerve aura still unites the

brain with the true consciousness but there ,

is n o longer any nerve aura uniting the body

with the brain N ow since it is wholl y
.
,

along the nerve aura that the message of

s ensation is conveyed the nerve itself play
,

i n g the part that the steam pipe plays t o t he

s team nothing which transpires in conne c
,
’
tion let us say with the patient s arm can
, ,

be in any way reported to the seat of con

s ci ou sn e ss The magnetis m of t he mesmer
.

ist though a fluid of the same kind in nature

,

as the nerve aura it has displaced is not ,

proper to the subj ect it does not constitut e

,

a channel of communication which can reach

from his arm to his true soul and all com ,

m u n i cat i on of that kin d is thus cut off .

It will be convenient here at once t o bring

in to the field of view another mesmeric phe
n om e n on besides anaesthesia poin ting ou t
,

that the explanation I am now givin g equally

1 36 THE R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMERI SM .

accoun ts for the well known i mmobility of a

-

mesmeric sensitive in a trance as regards any

spontaneous movement and also for the ri ,

gi di t y of the li mbs when they are se t in an y

particul ar direction by the mesmerist It is .

his intention working thro ugh his own aura

,

now in timately blended wi th the nervous

system of his subject whi ch determin es what
,

state of the muscles shall be s uperinduced by

the machi nery which the nerve aura controls .

’
He extends the sensitive s arm for example , ,

desiri ng that it shall remain i mm ovable in

the position in which he places it By the .

hypothesis no other desire can come into

play to interfere with that condition of
thi ngs and i mmovable therefore the arm
, , ,

remains .

N ow in order that what actually takes

,

place may be exactly appreciated I must ex ,

plain here that un der n o circumstances does

the magnetism of the mesmerist entir ely di s
place the nerve aura of the patient but it ,

penetrates and so to speak domin ates it

, , ,

subduin g all i t s vibrations for the time

being replacing it as regards all the activ i ty
,

of its fun ctions and accomplishing in regard

,

to the phenomena with which we have been

dealing precisely what woul d be accompli shed
 S
A NAE TH E TI C EF F ECTS . 1 37

supposing the o riginal aura were entirely ex

’
p e lled
. The o n l y portion of the sensitive s

aur a which is not thus dominated is that

which has t o d o with the mechanical and i n
voluntary movemen t of the body the action
,

of the lun gs and the heart and so on and

,

here in t he first instan ce the activi ty of such

nerves can hardly be thought of as directly
related to the con sciousness of the soul It .

is not necessary to go into a minute e x am i

nation of the way in which the involuntary
muscles are governed by nerves and a nerve
aura of an equally involuntary character but ,

it is obvious on the face of things that there

i s a difference between such nervous energy
and the nerve energy of the v oluntary mus
cles ; and this may sufficiently explain for our
present purpose the fact that whereas the
,

voluntary nervous system can be affected by

’
the mesmerist s aura in the way I have been
describing n ature happily guards the sensi
,

tive from the stoppage of the lower vital

machinery during such a c o ndition .

It will be seen that the principle of this

explanation equally covers such case s as I r -

have hitherto been thinkin g of in which the

,

whole physical organism is drenched with

’
the operator s magnetism and the conscious
,
1 38 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MES MER I S M .

ness of the subject expell ed from it for the

time bei ng and also those other cases in
,

whi ch local an ae sthesia can be produced by

mesmeric treatment so that an arm for ex
, ,

ample may be made insensible to pain while

,

the sensitive is ful ly awake and able him

,

self to experimen t on hi s condition by stick

ing pins into the in sen sitive flesh In the .

case where the O peration is car ried ou t in i t s

entirety the nerve aura of the brain itself is
,

dominated by that of the operator and none,

of t he senses are in an y degree of activity .

The true consciousness is the n out of the

body altogether sometimes to an extent
,

which makes it difficult for the subject to go

through the slight musc ul ar movement r e
quired for articul ate speech In such cases
.

it will be famili ar to every mesmerist who

has handl ed clairvoyant subj ects that the
thi ng to do is to demesmerize the lips that ,

is to s ay by a conscious e fior t of will asso

,

ci at e d with the att ractive force of the fin gers ,

to draw out the alien magnetism fr Om that

’
portion of the subj ect s organism ; then the
original nerve aura is restored to potential
activ ity and the subj ect i s enabled to speak
,

while still remaining in the trance condition .

In the cas e of the local effect the nerve aura

 A S THETIC E
N AE FF ECTS . 1 39

is simply dominated in the limb under treat

ment ; in the head and in the body generally
the normal condition of the nervous system
continues and the patient is to all intents
,

and purposes awake .

The familiar mesmeric phenomen on i n

volved in the transferen ce of sen se from the
mesmerist to the sensitive is precisely in ao
cor dan ce with this somewhat more elaborate

explanation of anae sthesia and artificial cata

lepsy.
 C HAPTER VI I .

VEN ESS
'

T H E N A TU R E O F SEN SI T I .

M A N Y of the most familiar experi ments in

that ki nd of mesmerism which has latterly
been played with rather as an amusement
than seriously investigated have to do wi th ,

the transfer of sensation s or states of con

s ci ou sn e s s from the operator to the subj ect

under conditio n s that have nothi ng to do

with the five senses I do not propose to
“

burden these pages with elaborate records of

such experiments w ith the names dates and
, ,

places concern ed Books devoted to such

.

records teem wi th elaborate examples of the

phenomenon before us An y sense may be .

the nucleus as it were around which these

, ,

transferred impressions can be gathered A .

dul y qualified mesmerized subject may be at

on e end of a room the operator may look at
,

the page of a book at the other end an d the ,

mesmerized subject will b e able to read the

’
words as they pass across the operator s v i s
ion I f he hears a faint s ound qui te incapa
.
,
 THE NA T UR E OF SEN SI TI VEN E SS . 1 41

ble of making itself audible in the natural

way to the sensitive the sensitive in turn
,

will hear that sound If he receives a phy

.

si cal sensation li ke the prick of a needle

, ,

the sensitive in relation with him will start

and show by some appropriate movement
that the sensation was transferred to the cor
responding part of his or her body and in ,

exactly the same way phenomena of taste and

smell can be and have been scores of times
, ,

transferred from operator to subject When .

we approach the consideration of these phe

n om e n a we fin d ourselves at o n ce in a regio n

of mesmeric practice altogether out of gear

with those sim ple transactions having to do
with curative processes with whi ch s ome ,

people erroneously imagine that mesmeric

science comes to an end .

"
Of course such phenomena as I am n ow
approaching are only possible in reference
to p e r son s whose suscept ibility to mesmeric
'

influence is very acute and this may be the

,

appropriate moment to enter m ore at length

on the consideration of what really consti
t ut e s m esmeric sensitiveness To an alyze
.

this with as much precision as that which

'

might be applied t o the treatment of a chem

ical comp ound wo uld not be p o ssible un less ,
14 2THE R A TI ON AL E OF MESMERISM .

we started with as full an appreciation of

all the elements which go to make up the
psychic nature of man as we possess in r e
gard to the physical attributes of the elemen
tary bodies Without claiming any greater
.

admission than is surely involved in the view

of humanity which most people e ntertain we ,

m ay recognize a hu man cr eature as at all .

e v ents a composite entity to this extent that ,

he has a spiritual or psychic nature of some

sort in union durin g life with his body .

Furthermore the fact that avenues of per

,

ce p t i on
, having to do with the psychic na
ture exist independently of the five senses
, ,

may almost be proved as a broad proposition

by the experience of dreams even before we
,

approach those far more scientific proofs i n

volved in m e sm e r l c experiment If any on e
.

at the present day e n deavors to cling to the

hypothesis t hat only through the channel of
the five senses can states of consciousness be
conveyed to the real ego of a human being ,

all we need say here is that so narrow and

ignorant a v i ew of the subj ect un fit s an l n
u i r e r for dealing with the R ationale of M es
q
merism He must first take the moderate
.

pains by which he will be able to acquaint

himself with notorious facts .
 THE NAT UR E OF SEN SI TI VEN ESS . 1 43

But starting from the general principle

that the psychic nature of man has its o wn
appropriate channels of approach other than ,

or over and above those that lead through

,

the physical senses we may recognize very

,

quickly that the complicated phenomena of

transferred sensations under mesmeric treat
ment fall into their places as varied expr
sions of on e simple truth The establish
.

ment of t he mesmeric conditi on has set up

magnetic relations between the auras of t he
t wo persons concerned and the conditions
,

of consciousness acquired by the operator

through his own senses and then by a nat
,

ural automatic process reflected in his own

aura are equally reflected in the aura of his
,

subject and thence directly transferre d to

,

those in nermost centres of consciousness

’
which the subject s senses are e qually able
to approach and which therefore when ex
, , ,

cited i n his own nature seemto him to have

,

been excited in the ordinary way .

Take for example the simple case to which

I referred j ust n ow of a mesmerist who so
,

arranges thi ngs that a friend shall pr i ék hfm ’ ‘

with a needle in the arm or hands held b e

hin d his b ack or in any way not seen by the
,

sensitive and in which the sensitive b etrays

,
144 TH E R A TI ONA LE OF MESMERI SM .

immediate consciousness of the sensation I .

have seen a sensitive under my own treat

ment move one hand hastily over the other
as though brushing off an annoyance when ,

the back of my o wn correspondin g hand b e

hind my back has been pricked by a third
person Here we may conjecture that no
.

thing really transpires i n that particul ar

’
pot of the sensitive s person which seems to
feel the sensation but whatever may be the
,

state of consciousness of the ego due to a

prick in the back of the hand that state of
,

consciousness is superinduced so to speak

, ,

by a short cut in the case of the transferred

mesmeric sensation L odged in the in ner
.

most consciousn ess i t suggests the idea of

having been occasioned in the usual way ,

and hence the impression that it is a prick

in the back of the hand Does the idea
.

seem fantastic or unsupported by adequate

,

experience ? The truth is that a precisely

similar phenomenon has bee n utterly famil
iar from time immem orial and every doctor
,

at all events knows that people who have

lost an arm or a leg will testify to the
strange fact that they constantly seem to
feel pain in the missing hands or feet .

They seem to feel that pain because in some

 THE N AT UR E OF SENSITI VENESS . 1 45

way the centre of consciousness has been

affected in the same way that it would have
been if the hands or feet had been present ,

and had suffered injury The subj ect as .

sign s the sensation to its normal cause .

Very well then we have in considering

, , ,

what it is that constitutes sensitiveness to

the order of phenomena n ow under con si d
cration to do with the psychic element in
,

the human constitution and the question ,

turns entirely upon the extent to which that

psychic constitution is predominant or al ,

together absorbed i n and overwhelmed by

, ,

the physical nature .

It will be understood that in the theory I

am going to define I am expressing conclu
sions derived from the study of many other
departments in human psychology besides
thos e directly concerned with the explan a
tions given To put forward these explana
.

tions on what would be r e cognized as a sci

e n t i fic method I ought t o start from the
,

basis of positively known facts and build ,

ing up with the help of definite e x p e r i

,

ments fresh knowledge bit by b i t r ar ri v e at

,
g

the results o ffered f or acceptance Nor is .

tha t scientific method to be found fault with

i n regard to the investigations of the deeper
1 46 THE RA TIONALE OF ME SMERI SM .

’
mysteries of man s cons t itution as a whole ;
but we can only derive a comprehension of
the tr ue theory of mesmeric resul ts by first
of all gettin g a conception of that con st i t u
tion as a whole an d then deriving from
,

such aggregate kn owledge whate ver specific

knowledge may be required to i ll uminate
the problem in hand And as this little .

volume does not profess t o be a complete

compendium of human psychology in all its
bearings it woul d be impossible to foll ow
,

step by step the whole investigation which

leads to that which I hold to be the correct
view of the subj ect the theosophical view
, ,

namely of the psychic and spiritual at t r i

,

butes of humanity That which I propose

.

to offer in reference to the branch of the

subj ect now coming forward for treatment
—
the theory of mesmeric sensitiveness is -

a clear statement of theor y deduced from

theosophic te aching at large and claiming ,

attention I thin k at this crisis by all st u

, ,

dents of mesmerism as at all events coherent

an d rational and subj ect in itself to e xp e r
,

i m e n t s directed to test its validity in refer

ence to its most important elements .

S ensitiveness to begin with mus t not be

, ,
’
regarded as an absolute fact in any o ne s na
 THE NA T UR E OF SENSITIVENESS . 147

ture like his height in inches or his weight

,

in pounds S ensitiveness and the comple

.

mentary characteristics which may be called

mesmeric force are subj ect to a practically
,

infinite degree of variation in different

persons and the maximum degree of sen
,

si t i v e n e ss will feel the impact of the mini

m um degree of mesmeric force .In the

same way the maximum degree of mesmeric
force will enable the minimum degree of
sensitiveness to cognize its in fluence and ,

between these two extreme s the whole body

of phenomena conn ected with mesmeric ex
e r i m e n t are always moving up and down
p
alon g a double sliding scale There are no
.

people living so densely involved i n matter ,

whose intell igence that is to say has come

, ,

to immerse itself so entirely in the physical

b rain as to be utterly beyond the reach of
,

mesmeric power i n e xce lsi s Here let me

.

point ou t that I am takin g as the example

of m in i m u m sensitiveness a human being

very far removed from the bottom of the

scale of human evolution The entangle
.

ment of thought here is only Superficial but ,

may easily mislead those who have no clue

/

t o the proper comprehension of the problem .

The bottom of the human scale for pur

1 48 THE R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER ISM .

poses o f mesmeric sensitiveness is n ot to be

found m the person of the dull witted clod -

hopper without a conscious thought directed

,

to any subj ect more elevated than bacon

and furrows It is quite possible that such
.

a clo dhopper however in capable of adding

,

two rows of figures together might be ,

highly sensitive to mesmeric influence and ,

it is equall y true that the person who woul d

represen t the very highest degree of mes
meric influence imaginable must almost n e
ce ss ar i ly be also highl y gifted in every i n tel

lectual aspect These statements fall into

.

a trul y scientific shape in the mind if we

think of the three typical human beings
thus imagined as ranged not al ong a straight
line but alon g a cyclic curve O ur clod
,

.
,

hOpp e r for the purposes of this broad illus

,

t r at i on will represent the divine essence

, ,

let u s say coming into human form As it

,
.

accomplishes the cyclic process thus entered

upon it first of all evolves to the highest
,

possible degree the physical aspect in which

it is struggling to express itself and at on e ,

point in the curve accomplishes the maxi

mum degree of development possible as r e
gards the physical instrument with which it
is working The race ! here of course we
.
, ,
 THE NAT UR E OF S EN S I TI VEN E S S . 1 49

are speaking of the race as the continuous

unity and the single individuals as points in
,

its progress! havin g accomplished its maxi

m um physical intellectual development con
t i n u e s along the returning curve of the
cycle and without losing an atom or an at
, ,

tribute so to speak of the advantage gained

, , ,

proceeds to r e ev olv e its so far hidden psychic

attributes which express themselves in phy
si cal intelligence at the nadir point of the

cycle and are af t er wards destined to respir

,

i t u ali z e themselves plus all the acq uisitions

,

due to the descent into matter The centre

.

of evolution which is being carried round

the cycle of course does not re turn to that
same point in the figure from which the cy
cle sprang but to the corresponding p oint
,

on a higher level The further examination

.

of that idea however would take us beyo n d

, ,

the subject n ow Specially before us I shall .

have t o return to the cyclic idea directly ,

but having for the moment broadly defined

the origin subsidence an d r e development
, ,
-

of sensitiveness as a human attribute let me ,

show what the same methods of thought

bring ou t in regard to the complementary
characteristics of mesmeric force .

I have called them complementary for con

1 50 TH E R A TIONALE OF MESMER I SM .

’
v e n i e n ce sakebut let us not for a moment
,

imagine that on e human being i s exclusively

a sensitive another human being exclusively
,

a mesmerist The very maximum degree

.

of mesmeric force is on the contrary n e

, ,

ce ssar i ly associated with the maximum de

gree of sensitiveness because the maxi m um

,

degree of either can on l y be due to the pos

session by the person in question of supreme
knowledge con cerning both aspects of his
nature R emember sensitiveness does not
.
,

necessarily mean liability to have the will

enslaved by another That is on l y on e of
.

the aspects of sensitiveness of on e kind .

We shall m ap all this ou t clearly in a little

while though at first the complications of
,

the problem cann ot but appear rather bewil

dering to those who are un familiar with this
system of thin kin g That which I mean in
.

speaking of sen sitiveness at this stage of the

explanation is the facul ty of cognizin g i m
pressions derived through the aura and the ,

corresponding senses belonging to that ele

ment of the hum an constitution which is
allied with its aura The cultivation of
.

these senses and faculties it will be seen on

,
’
a moment s reflection when all ied with a
,

clear comprehensio n of all they mean i s a ,

 THE NAT UR E OF SENSI TI VENESS . 1 51

power and not a weakn ess To be percep

.

tive of the feeblest effort of will or desire

thrown ou t by ano t her human being under
conditions involvin g the full comprehension

of how that sensitiveness is brought in to

play is equival e n t to possessing a facul ty

,

by m e ans of which the slightest impul se of

thought or de s1 r e l n any other person can be
cognized or tested .

It does not follow that the sensitive o f the

ki nd I am n ow describing must necessarily
give way or submit to that thought or i n fl u
ence or to any thought or influe nce even of
,

a very much more powerful kind If the .

sensitiveness is of the supreme sor t I speak

o f it is supremely u nder the control of the
,

being to whom it belongs constitutin g i n

,

deed a part and a very important part of

, ,

his ow n power as a mesmeris t ; for his sensi

t i v e n e ss wo ul d enable hi m to p erceive exactly
what he was doing to regul ate the impul ses
,

of his own magn etic emanations in such a

way that they wo ul d go precisely t o their
mark instead of being wasted like those of
the non sensitive mesmerist e v en granting
-
,
’

him a good deal of force I n fact ft he ii on

'
fi

S e nsitive mesmerist works so to speak in

, ,

the dark and wishing to hit a mark before

,
15 2 TH E R A TI ONA L E OF MESMER I SM .

him fl i n gs a great handful of missiles at it

,

in the hope that on e or other may hit The .

mesmerist who is supremely sensitive works ,

as one seein g his mark in the li ght and ,

proj ects wit h accurate aim and correspond ,

i n gly small expe n diture of energy the single

‘

missile required to touch it .

Thi s reflection once comprehended will

, ,

enable any on e to se e how e xasperating it ‘

is to those who comprehend mesmerism in its

Spiritual and psychic aspects to hear the sill y
babble of the world about the supposed
“

weak mindedness of all who come under

—

m e sm e r l c influence There is no more

. .

weak mindedn ess necessarily involved in b e

-

ing sensitive on the psychic plane than in

being sensitive to the delicacies of musical
expression S ome people who are otherwise
.

very brainl ess may be very highl y gi fted as

musicians but on that account we need not
,

assume brainlessness to be a necessary con

dition of a fine ear And this ill ustration
.

helps us to another which may be appropri

ately offered for the consideration of any
on e who boasts that his own strength of will

is such as to render him absolutely u n ap

p r oachab le by m esmeric influence This .

boast would be precisely an alogous t o on e

 THE NAT UR E OF SEN SITIVENESS . 1 53

a person quite unable to distinguish on e tune

from another might make if he thought fit ,

to plume himself proudly upon the fact that

no one not even Patti or Joachim could
, ,

produce sounds possessing the smallest as

e ct of beauty to his senses
p .

However it i s true that a considerable de

,

gree of mesmeric ene r gy may reside in many

human or gan l sms which have n ot yet
evolved the faculty the high exalted fac ,

u lt y of conscious sensitiveness L ike the .

other characteristic it must be imagined as

,

following the evolution of t he human race

round the inevitable cycle But there is an .

important difference to be borne in mind

when we are considering these two aspects
of psychic perfection the positive and the
,

negative or rather the active and the pas

,

sive S ensitiveness just because in the

.
,

first or lower limb of the cycle it is u n asso

ci at e d with intell ectual d evelopment is a ,

purely passive faculty T he whole body of

.

faculties to which it belongs has not been

evolved to that point in which self con scious -

ness becomes its leading attribute The -

.

distinction here of course is that conscious

, ,

ness alone an attribute shared by humanity

,

with the lower animals does n ot bring with ,

1 54 TH E R ATIONA LE OF ME SMER I SM .

it the tendency to reflect concerning its own

attributes It is only the intellectual man
.

who pondering on the problems of hi s own

,

being an d turning his observation in ward

, ,

renders hi mself the subject of hi s own r e

’
fl e ct i on s an d can b e called self conscious in
“

-
,

the significance with which I here employ

the phrase
"
.

Well then there cannot be mesmeric

, ,
a

force until the point of self consciousness is -

reached in humanity and that point reach

,

ing i t s culmination i n the hi ghest degree of

mere intell ectual development the point of ,

such highest development may be con v e n

i e n t ly regarded as the startin g point from
which m esmeric power begins t o show real
energy Here again let me qual ify this
.

broad statement of the case to guard against

what seem contradictions in experience .

M any of the most remarkable mesme rists

have not been men quite on the intellectual
level Of some amongst purely materialistic
giants in science or literature b ut that is ,

due to the fact that all growths in natu re

are gradual As the race approaches the
.

condition of its hig hest intell ectual m an ife s

t at i on the other fac ul ties belonging to that
condition rise into activi ty and in individual
,
 THE NAT UR E OF SEN SI TI VENESS . 1 55

cases some of these by special effort di

,

r e ct e d to that end may be brought to per

,

fe ct i on in advance of others with which they

are properly Speaking bracketed But I
, , .

do venture to assert with positive conviction

that the facts of nature must correspond to
the broad assertion that granting the same
, ,

conditions of full health vitality bodily , ,

vigor and habits of life conducive to the de

,

v e lop m e n t of magnetic energy the man who ,

besides these attributes possessed a highly

de v eloped intellect would be the more power
ful mesmerizer of the t wo .

And n ow let us take our already evolved

mesmerist who as yet is nothing else that ,

is to say who as yet has not climbed the u p

,

ward limb of the evolutionary cycle and ,

who has not ye t developed the receptive

psychic faculties of his own nature and let ,

us consider how his energy oper ates on the

various classes of sensitiven e s s with which he
may have to do L et us begin with the
.
“

sen sitives of the lower order ; those in which

the psychic attributes have n ot yet been e n
t i r e ly dissolved in matter or so to sp eak
, , -
, ,

translated into their highest material e q u l v

ale n t and who are represented in m ost com
,

p l e t e perfection by ou r typical clodhopper .

1 54 TH E R ATIONA LE OF ME SMER I SM .

it the tendency to reflect con cern ing i t s own

attributes It is only the intell ectual man
.

who pondering on the problems of his own

,

being and turning his observati on inward

, ,

renders hi mself the subject of his ow n r e

’
fl e ct i on s and can be call e d s e lf conscious in
,
-

the S ignificance with which I here employ

the phrase .

Well then there cannot be mesmeric

, ,

force until the point of self consciousness is -

reached in humanity and that point reach

,

ing i t s culmination i n the hi ghest degree of

mere intellectual deve lopment the point of ,

such highest development may be con v e n

i e n t ly regarded as the starti n g point from
which m esmeric power begins t o Show real
energy Here again let me qual ify this
.

broad s tatement of the case to guard against

what seem contradictions in experience .

M any of the most remarkable mesme rists

have not been men quite on the intellectual
level of some amongst purely materialistic
giants in science or literature b ut that is ,

due to the fact that all growths in nature

are gradual As the race approaches the
.

condition of its highest intellectual m an i fe s

t at i on the other fac ulties belonging to that
condition rise into activi ty and in in di vidual
,
 THE NAT UR E OF SENSI TI VENESS . 1 55

cases some of these by special effort di

,

r e ct e d to that end may be brought to per

,

fe ct i on in advance of others with which they

are properly speaking bracketed But I
, , .

do venture to assert with positive conviction

that the facts of nature must correspond to
the broad assertion that granting the same
, ,

conditions of full health vitality bodily , ,

vigor and habits of life conducive to the de

,

v e lo m e n t of magnetic energy the man who

p ,

b esides these attributes possessed a highly

de v eloped intellect would be the more power
ful mesmerizer of the t wo .

And now let us take ou r alr e adv evolved

mesmerist who as yet is nothing else that ,

is to say who as yet has not climbed the u p

,

ward limb of the evolutionary cycle and ,

who has n ot ye t developed the receptive

psychic faculties of his own nature and let ,

us consider how his energy operates on the

various classes of sensitiven e ss with which he
may have to do L et us b egin with the
.

sensitives of the lower order ; tho se in which

the psychic attributes have not yet been e u
t i r e ly dissolved in matter or so to sp eak
, , -
, ,

translated into their highest material e q u l v

ale n t and w ho are represented in m ost com
,

p l e t e perfection by our typical clodhopper .

1 56 THE R ATIONA LE OF MESME RI SM .

The free aura of the clo dhopper is the at t r i

’
bute on which I wish to focus the reader s
“
attention In using this phrase
. free ,
”
aura I venture to borrow an analogy from
,

“
chemistry where we might speak of free
,

acid left in a solution m excess of that r e

quired t o neutralize a basic salt The whole .

aura to put the matter that way of the u n

, ,

developed man has n ot yet b e e n employed in

neutralizing matter It is hangin g about
.
,

and may be spoken of as free in the sense

O n that free aura
,

of being un combined .

’
t he mesmerist s influence readily finds a
lodgment The idea conveyed from hi s own
.

mind t o that of the subj ect does not present

’
itself to the subj ect s mind as somethin g
coming from without He has not yet .

learned to analyze his consciousness to the

degree of being able to draw such di st i n c
tions He S imply finds an impulse of some
.

kind arising in his own mind ; he does not

reason about it or question it in any way
, ,

he simply acts upon it as he woul d act upon

an y other impulses spontaneously arising

in his own min d unless restrain ed by some

,

countervailing consideration having to do

with penalties of an easily comprehended na
t ure which would equally serve to restrain
 TH E N A T UR E OF SENSI TI VEN E SS . 1 57

the impul ses of a horse or a dog And even

.

these are in abeyance when the question is

’
of an impulse implanted by the mesmerist s

will because the very act of the mesmerist

,
’
in takin g charge of the subj ect s aura has ,

operated to suspend its normal activity as

an influence directing the brain and with ,
’
the entrancement of the subject s lower
nature an almost absolutely blank field of
operations is left to the mesmerist just ,

because so far there is no higher nature

consciously evolve d in the p e rson under
treatm e nt.

Here w e get the first broad idea interpret

ing the phenomena of mesmeric subjection
in reference to which the hypnotists of the
present day are so much interested and so ,

deeply anxious if we may accept their as

,

surances to that effect All t hese phenom

.
-

ena of hypn otic ob e di e n ce car r i e d to lengths

,

which startle the observer are phenomena

having to do with impressions left by the
’
mesmerists concerned on the subject s aura .

They may or may not spring immediately

int o activity If the impression on the aura
.

is that a certain delay shall be operative b e

fore the message so to speak is passed on
, , ,

that impression is obeyed like any other .

1 58 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

It i s the unintellectual psychic nature

which is obedient in such a case the psychic ,

nature which has n ot yet become self con -

scious ; which is so much abstract psychic or

spiritual en ergy in proc e ss of translation
into a self conscious being but for the time
-
,

being unqualified to reason about the right

or wrong of its impul ses Sl m l because it
p y ,

has not yet been converted into reasoning

And be it observed that in order to

, ,

maintain the set of con di t i on s we are n ow

contemplatin g it is n ot necessary that we
,

should keep ou r mind fixed upon the ex

treme example thereof the case in which
,

the hum an subject is as nearly unintell igent

as we can imagine a hum an being to be .

At a later stage of the process though at ,

one still on the earlier side of the meridian

of ou r cycle a great deal more of the
,

psychic nat ure may be translated into in tel

lectual capacity and the person concerned
,

may be very far from bein g a fool or an i g

n or am u s and yet that which is still psychic
,

i n the nature may have undergone but a

comparatively small amount of evolution .

L et us always bear in mind the character of

the cycle we are thinking of and the grad ,
 THE NAT UR E OF SENSI TI VEN ESS . 1 59

ual nature of all the processes with which

it is concerned E ducation of that superior
.

element in the total consciousness which , ,

for convenience of talkin g about it here let ,

us call the Higher S elf t he education of

—

the Higher S elf m ay begin it is true long , ,

before the nadir point of physical evolution

is reached but on the other hand it may
,

not, or its evolution may only have just

begun It is the later period of the cyclic

.

process t o which the evolution of that

Higher S elf proper ly belon gs ; and thus ,

when a person still on the eastern side of

’
life s meridian to u se a pretty figure em
,

ployed lately by Dr Huggi ns in application

to a cycle smaller than that wi t h which I am
.

now dealing but still analogous to it in

,

nature , a person I say still on the east

—
, ,
"
ern side of the meridian m ay have a very
great degree of intellectual development ,

and yet a H igher S elf barely capable of

reasoning about the impressions it may r e
ce i v e from external sources when deprived

of the support of that physical intellect on

which it has been leaning t o a very great
a
s ! f r r m s
a

extent .

If the b rain instrument becomes paralyzed

for the time being by an y o f the nervous i n fl u
1 60 THE R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

e n ce sthat may be exerted upon it by either

m e sm e r l c or hypnotic processes the psychic
,

nature may be almost as stupidl y obedient

’
to the mesmerist s impul se as if there had
been no intell ect in association with it at
all . S o then in the case of a hypnotic sug
gestion intended to operate at a period sub
sequent t o the establishmen t of the impres
sion such a person will fin d the impul se to
,

do whatever he may have been directed to

do rising up in his mind like a spontaneous
desire and certainly if there i s no glaring
,

reason why he shoul d n ot do the thing he ,

will do it S upposing that there is a glar

.

ing reason in morals or obvious duty why

he should not obey the impul se a conflict ,

may arise in his nature one issue of which

,

quite possibly is a reversion to t he paralyzed

condition of t he in tell ect which was opera
tive during the or l gl n al mesmeric pro cess ,

and then the immoral influence is worked

ou t without any i mpediment O r there may
.
,

be an interior conv ulsion in which t he intel

lect asserts itself as predominant over the
psychic impul se And again it may be
.
, ,

that the Higher S elf although very imper

,

fe ct ly developed has nevertheless reached a

,

certain stage of i t s growth in whi ch it is not

 THE NAT UR E OF SEN SI TI VEN ESS . 1 61

entirely without the power of con trollin g its

incarnate ten dencies .

But n ow let us suppose that the mesmerist

is operatin g on some sensitive who belongs
to the other half of the cycle of which we
are speaking L et us observe in passing
.

that he will not obtain an y effect whatever

on the person who represents the nadir point
of physical evolution The perfectly intel
.

"
lectual materialist will not be subj ect at all ,

events to any m e sm e r l c influenc e of the

,

kind of which we are n ow talking He .

,

too in spite of his lofty self Oon ce i t would

,
-
,

be as helpless as a stra w in the wind if sub

e ct to mesmeric influence belo n ing to the
j g
highest developments of human ity in the
upper half of the cycle ; but we are dealing
still with our mesmerist who is but begin
ning to be on e who belongs himself to the
,

nadir point that is to say who is an ordi

, ,
‘

nary person i n the wor ld like the rest of us

,
a

all around When he begins t o apply his

.

influence to some on e in whom sensitiveness

is beginning in any appreciable way t o de
v e lo
p itself in the shape of cem p le t e ly m on

s cious psychic exi stence independent of or

, ,

over and above that of the physical plan e

, ,

he may attain many results which are su

16 2THE RA T O ALE OF MESM
I N ER I S M .

p e r fici all
ylike those he has got at in the ear
lier undertakin g All transferred impres
.

s ions of taste sound or touch will of course

, ,

be as readily operative through the Higher

S elf of a human being in process of spiritual
exaltation as thr ough the Higher S elf how
, ,

ever little capable of self conscious thought

-
,

of the un developed human being And .

when the task to be undertaken in volves the

e mployment of anything rese m bli n g clair

voyance a branch of the subj ect which I

reserve for special treatment presently he
will find the superior sensitive far more
readil y available for that lofty employment
than the inferior though the inferior i s by
,

no means incapable of clairvoyance within

certain li mits .

At the outset there is an immense pr act i

cal di fie r e n ce between the sensitive who is
such by reason of belonging to the upper
limb of the cycle and the other First of all
.

it is very un li kely that the superior sensitive

could be mesmerized by any ordinary mes
merist un l ess surrenderin g to that influence
by a deliberate act of submission in the first
instance By the hypothesis the m e sm e r i z
able portion of the natur e if I may u se
.

that clum sy expressio n i s self c o nscious in

-
 THE NAT UR E OF SENSI TI VEN ESS . 1 63

the case of the superior sensitive ; therefore

it cannot be caught in a helpless state like
the other If the superior sensitive were to
.

put the matter in words he might say to

,
“
the mesmerist : You may be able to hurt
me through faculties that you can hit at ,

but you cannot control me I can defen d .

myself even though I may be bruised in the

”
e n counter . But supposin g the sensitive
has no motive for takin g up such an atti
tude but on the con trary is in sym pathy
,

with the mesmerist and quite willingly ao

,

ce p t s through his p sychi c natu re the g u id

ance of the mesmerist an external appear

,

ance of submissive obedience may arise just ,

as in the ordinary waking life one person

may do what he is told through love and ,

another through fear The nature of the

.

obedien ce is quite different though the ex ,

ternal aspect may be n e ar ly t he same z

And here we come to the satisfactory as

pe ot of that phenomenon which looks so
alarming to the merely empiric students of
hypnotic suggestion Where the Higher
.

S elf which receives the mesmeric impression

is a self conscious and developed ént it y it
l z

will only obey as lon g as the currents of

s ympathy between itself and the m e sm e r l st
1 64 THE R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

which o riginall y disposed it to submission

are main tain ed and those cu rrents will be
,

violently disturbed if not destroyed Shoul d

, ,

the mesmerist endeavor to impose an act on

the subj ect which is repugnant or revolting
to his own sense of right . I do not say
that even with a sensitive on the superior
,

limb of the cycle it would b e theoretically

,
.

in conceivable that a mesmerist might en force

obedience to an act to which the un fettered
instincts of the subj ect would be opposed
If a volun tary submission through currents
.

of sym pathy have been given 1 n the first i n

,

stance and if through a very long and pro

, ,

tracted mesmeric relationship the subject ,

has for years been in the habit of acqu i e s

cing in the i mpul ses of the mesmerist a ,

habit of that Sort might be very difficult to

break even if an extraordinary change took
,

place in the natur e and character of the mes

merist B u t this is on ly translating to the
.

higher plane ! which after all is a r e gl on m

, ,

which human relationships exist just as they

do on this plane of being! of embarrassments
which might equally ensue in the waking
stat e Take the case of a husband and
.

wife where the wife to make the ill ustra

, ,
’
tion parallel i s quite the husband s equal in
,
 TH E NAT UR E OF SEN SI TI VEN E SS . 1 65

intell igence but well di sposed to play the

,

feminin e part in their relationshi p If at a

.

very early period of this relationship the hus

band suddenly shows u nexpected impulses
towards evil and endeavors to conduct the
,

wife along those paths She wo ul d at once

,

revolt ; her own intelli ge nce and sense of

right would be in command of her actions .

But supp osm g that the husband through a

,

long course of years acquires by his mani ,

fe st at i on s of character and by all the acts of

his life her perfect trust and confiden ce so
,
“

that her habit of submission to an influence

that she always finds entitled to respect b e
comes very deeply seated ; i n such a case if ,

we choose to suppose the husband sudden l y

developing proclivities to evil it is not b e
,

yond the possibilities of the strained suppo

sitiou that the wife would surrender to his
example The whole se t of con ditions i s
.
‘

morally absurd ; they coul d not arise except

in something like an access of insanity ,

which would again bring its own safeguards

with it ; but just so do the obvious pr ob ab i l
ities of the case provide us with an an swer
to the pet theory of persons who ignorantly
“

object to the practice of mesmerism in r e

gard t o the p o ssibility that the mesmerist
1 66 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I S M .

might i mproperly control a sensitive of the

hi gher order In marriage as well as in
.

mesmerism there are many possibilities of

danger lurki n g and the destiny which b e
,

falls a woman who puts herself into the

hands of a thoroughly bad husband may be
deplorable to the last degre e ; but that is the
analogy which exactly meet s all talk about
mesmeric danger s Nothing coul d be more
.

idiotic than for a sensitive to subj ect hi mself

to the continued infl uence of a mesmerist in
whose character he had no adequate con fi
dence just as it woul d be equally idiotic for
,

a girl to rush in to matrimony with a man of

whom she knew nothi ng ; but the moral of
that reflection is that we shoul d be careful in
choosing our mesmeric and ou r matrimonial
partners and not that the institution in either
,

case is to be fin all y repudiated Indeed to

.
,

put a stop to marriage altogether because of

the examples which occasionall y exhibit its
dangers would be less in t e lle ct u ally ab sur d
,
‘

t han to adopt the same course in regard to

m esmerism ; for after all mesmerism is a
, ,

very much more gradual process than the

other and there 1 s n o moment at which the
,

fatal ring is Slipped on to the finger of the

Higher S elf E ven experim ents must be
.
‘
 THE NA TUR E OF SEN SI TI VEN E SS . 1 67

cautiously conducted but you can be mes

,

m e r i z e d a little and still draw back in time

to avo id disaster S ocial scien ce has not
.

yet evolved a corresponding safeguard for

the marriage state .
 C HAPTER V III .

C L AI R V OY AN C E .

WE now approach that department of our

sub j ect but for which it might almost be r e
garded as o ne belonging rather to medical
practice than to the psychological inquirer .

Perhaps this i s the place where I may

most appropriately deal with the attempt ,

already made by some medical practitioners

just beginning to dabble l n experiment
with mesmerism to warn off all intruders
,

on that domain and reserve it exclusively for

themselves That notion i s one of the S illi
.

e st amon g many which arise from ignorance

of what mesmerism really is and the claim

,

of the doctors to have mesmerism reserved

by law for their own exclusive service is
doubly ridiculous because medical men as
,

a body in this country especiall y exhibited

, ,

a bigoted intolerance of the whole subject

that was simply disgraceful until the growth
of independent kn owledge forced them to
recognize s ome parts of the discovery as a
 CLAIR V 0 Y A N C E . 1 69

natural truth and have sho wn themselves

,

by all they have done in the past as singu

lar ly unqualified to han dl e the more subtle
investigations which the future progress of
this great science will bring into play We .

may do all honor to the few doctors who in

the past and the greater number who in the
,

present are identified with the therapeutic

,
’
developments of M esmer s discovery ; but
at the same time we must remember that for
every S ingle Dr E sdaile or Dr Elli ot son
. .

there were scores of contemporary p r act i

-

t i on e r s who brutally refused t o allow their

patients to enjoy the privileges which mes
merism held out to them and when on e of ,
’
Dr Elli ot son s leading cases was brought
.

before the notice of the M edico chirurgical -

S ociety that body distinguished itself by

passing resolutions the shame of which it
will have s ome di fficulty in getting rid of
"

The case i n question has already been ”

slightly referred to in an earlier chapter .

’
A surgeon Mr Ward had cut off a man s
, .
,

le g at the hospital over which Dr Ell i ot son .

presided while the patient was under the

,

influence of a mesmeric trance brought o n

by the treatment of Mr Topham a barris .
,

ter who was studying mesmerism at the

,
17 0 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

time Frightfu l as the operation was the

.
,

patien t suffered it quite unconsciously and ,

was entirely spared the torture to which he

woul d otherwise have been subj ected The .

assembled body of physicians and surgeons

rose in revolt at thi s unhe ard of tran saction
when it was described in a paper brought
before them by M r Ward They passed
. .

resolutions denying the pap er any place on

the records of the S ociety as something that
,

was mani festly incredible and absurd and ,

linked themselves to the idiotic hyp othesis

’
that if any truth resided in Mr Ward s
, .

statement the patient had probably been

,

trained n ot to express outward sym ptoms of

pain They wound up by declaring that
.
,

even if such an absurdity could be realized ,

it woul d be flyi ng in the face of Nature ,

which had ordained pain as a necessary con
c omitant o f surgical operations !
Thi s is only a typi cal ill ustration o f the
spirit in which t he me di cal profession gen
erally welc omed the advent of the new di s
cov e r y and the claim of that profession
,

now that the reality of the disc o very has b e

come too glaring for denial to take it out
,

of the hands of all such inquirers as those

who have brought it to i t s present degree of
 CLAIR v oY AN CE . 17 1

perfection and reserve it for their own use

, ,

is t o begin with o ne of the m o st impudent

, ,

that coul d be advanced Doctor s might as

.

well have claimed at an earlier stage in the

advance of science that because electricity
was susceptible of some therapeutic applica
tions i t should be reserved by law for the
,

use of medical men no one being permitted

,

to carry on electrical experiments or to i n ,

v e st i gat e the nature of that force unless he

,

belonged to the faculty We may i magine

.

how far electrical science wo ul d have ad

v an ce d if that course had be en ad o pted and ,

i t s adoption now in reference to mesmerism

would interpose a barrier to the advancement
of hum an knowledge the monstrous charac
,

ter of which can only be appreciat ed by

t hose who know something of the higher p sy
chic or spiritual aspects of mesmerism to ,

which the attention of t he reader will n ow

b e directed
In the current manuals of the day which
deal with hypnotism very little is said about
i t s psychic aspects . The new departure
has be en taken as far as possible w i th the
v iew of keeping it in harmony with the lim

i t e d series of facts br o ught to light by recent

medical experiments that have captivated
17 2THE R A TI ONA LE OF MESMER I SM .

popul ar 1 n t e r e st But it m ust not be sup

.

posed that the real literature of mesmerism

which al together lies behind thi s modern se
ries of relatively narrow and departmental
treatises is deficient in the evidence r e qu l r e d
,

to establish the reality of clairvoyance both ,

as regards space and t i me as a fact in na ,

ture .

'

Deleuze has dealt with t hi s b r an ch of the

subj ect in a special memoir of very remark
able interest entitled M émoire sur la Fac
,
“

”
ul t e de Prévision published in 1 836 in
,

Paris Nothing in the more recent litera

.

t ure of the subject exhibits clearer common

sense as applied to the investigation of the
delicate phenomena with which he i s con
cerned He is not tainted with the foolish
.

ness which has so beset more recent writers ,

of disregarding all work in this departm ent

done in the past On the contrary he
.
,

points out n ow that sin ce the facul ties of

,

m an are the subj ect of the 1 n q u i r y befo re

him tho se facul ties whatever they are were
, , ,

the same t wo thousand years ago as at the

present day The progress of physical
.

science has given the modern world an i m

mense advantage l n dealing with inquiries
of a purely physical character and such in ,
 CLAIR V 0 Y AN CE . 17 3

q u i as carried on by ancient writers are

r ie s

now of little value But the very fact that

.

the attention of ancient philosophers was not

distracted by so man y departments of physi
cal inquiry ren dered them the better rather ,

than the less able to arrive at a just app r e

,

ci at i on of those human attributes on which

their attention was fixed and w ithin the ,

period which was recent when M Deleuz e .

Wrote the phenomena of magnetic som

,
“

n am b u li sm to use the expression adopted

by the earlier French writers to describe
what we now generally call clairvoyan ce
—
had been under observation for about fifty
years Cases of prevision were recorded in
the medical journals and he says : O pen
.

“
,
’
the Memoirs of the S ociety of S trasburg
‘
,
’
and the Bibliotheque du M agnétisme an d
‘
,

the accounts of medical experience connected

with somnambulism published in Germany
:

Russia and Holland and you will find the

, ,
!

same class of facts ; and t he concurrence in

this way of a crowd of people attesting facts
of the same order which each of them has
observed separately constitutes proof t o
,
a

which ther e is no reply I t is impossible

.

that men of all countries without relations ,

with one another who do not even adopt the

,
174 THE RA TION A LE OF MESMER I SM .

same the o ries and amongst whom we find

,

many physicians should be in a conspiracy

,
”
to attest falsehoods .

I select a fe w other passages from the

essay as it proceeds :
“
M ost metaphysicians reason as if there
existed nothing in the world but that of
which ou r five senses demo n strated the e x i s
t ence They admit o n ly t wo orders of
.

things sensible objects and the consciousness

,

which receives the sensations They forget .

that we perceive merely those obj ects which

afie ct ou r senses and that there may exist
,

an infinity of obj ects unknown to these an d ,

to which ou r organs are inaccessible The .

faculty of comprehending the form of an ob

e ct at a distance wo ul d be inconceivable to
j
one born blind but for the testimony of ot h
e rs . If we had on e sense the more ou r con ,

sci ou sn e ss would be modified accordingly ;

let us then imitate the blin d ; let us

assure ourselves of the reality of phenomena
by the results observin g the som n am bule as
,
”
the blind observe u s .

“
It is impossible sometim es pe ople say
, ,

to see the future for the future does not ex

,

i st
. The present only has real existence ;
but if the past has an existence relatively
,
 CLAIR V 0 Y A N C E . 175

to ourselves that is merely be cause I t has

,

left its traces It exists by its effects ; the

.

future exists by its germ The past has pr o

.

du ce d the present it w as its cause ; the fu

,

ture will be produced by the presen t it will ,

be its effect When we con sider the past

.

we beh old the cause in its effects ; when we

consider the future we see the effects in the
1

”
cause .

‘
When a brilliant light illuminates the
landscape we may admire its richness but ,

we do not se e the stars which decorate the

celestial vault The rays they send from
.

that incalculable distance reach ou r eyes in

the day as well as i n the night O ur inter.

nal faculty even exists the whole time but ,

it is only in the sile n ce of other sensations

”
t hat our souls discern the innumerable rays .

This essay was written with the intention

that it should form an intro duction to a
great coll ection of cases illustrative of clair
voyant prevision Deleuz e had been a pro
.

li fic writer before he penned the present

memoir on the general subj ect of mesmer
"
1 sm but he says that he S pecially reserved
,

this profoundly interesting department for

treatment by itself He was not left at his
.

work however long enough to complete this

, ,
176 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

undertaking The memoir itself was the

.

last of his writin gs and it w as published

,

after his death by a friend who had e n de av

ored as far as he was able to realize the
, ,

original idea of supplying the accumulation

of cases . S ome of these ar e interestin g and
worth att ention but to translate them here
,

at full length would involve an expansion of

this little vol ume beyond t he limits I con
template I will be content with briefly
.

epito m izing on e ill ustration which Deleuze

him self arranged to give and of which he ,

seems himself to have obtained various

attestations This is the famous ease of
.

’
C az ot t e s prophecy con cern in g the French
R evolution often vaguely referred t o but
, ,

perhaps unfamiliar in i t s detail s to many

of my readers .

The prediction is recorded by L a Harpe

in his collected works published in 1 806 ,
.

He de scribes himself as having been present ,

at the commencement of the year 1 7 88 at a ,

dinner part y given by on e of his Confreres

of the Academy to a distinguished com any
p ,

including people of the Court of legal an d ,

literary distinction and many Academicians

,
.

The conversation during the evening ran on

the lines of Voltairean infidelity and atheism ,
 CLAI R V 0 Y A N C E '
. 17 7

then coming so widely in to fashion The .

party was convul sed with delight at one an

e cdot e told by a guest whose hair dresse r
,
-

had said to him L ook you S ir tho ugh I

“
, , ,

am but a miserable car abi n I have no more ,

religion than anybody else

. The only .

person who had not taken part in all these

pleasantries was C az ot t e an amiable and ,

original man says L a Harpe but un for t u

, ,

n at e l
y infatuated W i th the reveries of the

mystic At last he spoke more seriously

.

than the others

“
Gentlemen said he be sat isfied ; y o u
,
“
,

will se e this grand and sublime revolution

”
which you desire so much .

“
N0 need to be a great sorcerer to forese e
tha replied some .

“
True but perhaps it is necessary t o b e
,

something of one t o see the rest I have to

tell you namely what will happen during
, ,

this revolution .

’
Count D Or say said with a sarcastic,

laugh that a philo sopher need not be an

,

noyed at encountering a prophe t .

“ ’ ”
You Count D Or say said C az ot t e
, , ,

will expire on the pavement of a du ngeon .

Y ouwill die of poison which you will have

taken to escape the executioner po is o n
178 THE RA TIONA LE OF MESMERI SM .

which the happiness of that epoch will

oblige you to carry al ways about you .

S ome sensation followed and C az ot t e was ,

rebuk ed for gi ving them a story less amus

“ ”
ing than his Diable Amoureux .

But what has all that in common with

philosophy and the R eign of R eason ?
It is precisely in the name of philosophy
and liberty and under the R eign of R eason
,

and its temples that these things will hap

,

”
pen .

“
M a foi ! said C ham for t ; you will not -

”
be one of the priests of those temples .

“
But you M de C ham for t will be on e
,
.
, ,

an d you will open your ve i ns with twenty

t w o cuts with a razor,and nevertheless you

will not die until some months aft erwards -
.

’
Y ou M Vicq d A z ir will not open your
,
.
,

veins ; you will have them opened si x times -

in on e day during an access of gout and

, ,

you will die in the night You M de N i

‘

. .
,
’

colai you will die upon the scafl old Y ou

,
.
,

M Baill y wi ll die on the scafl old; you

.
, ,

M de M alesherbes on the se afl old

.
, .

S o far the ladies had taken no part in this

prophecy and the Duchesse de Gramont
,
‘

was laughingly congratul ating herself that

evidently she woul d b e protected by her se x .
 C L AI R V 0 Y A N C E .

‘
Your se x ladies will not secure you this
, ,

time You will be treated like the men

.
,

without any difference You madame la .

,

duchesse you will be conducted to the scaf

,

fold you and many others with you in the

,

charr e t t e of the executioner the hands tied ,

”
behind the back .

The conversation still maintained an air

of ridicule and Madame de Gramont said
,

something ab o ut hoping she would at least

be allowed to se e a con fessor .

“
No madame said C az ot t e you will
,
”
, ,

not have one neither you nor any one The

, .

last victim who will have one through grace ,

will be He hesitated a little while .

Well who is the happy mortal wh o is

,

to receive this prerogative ?

“
It will be the ! ing of France .

At this appalling blasphemy the party

’
seems to have broken up thi nking C az ot t e s ,

extravagance had been carried to dangerous

lengths .

At first says D e leuze he regarded all this

, ,

as fiction by L a Harpe but he set himself ,

to work t o get information an d Chan ge d his

o pinion He obtained a letter from the
.

C omtesse de Genli s who writes “

I have
, ,

heard him ! de L a Harpe! state this story a

1 80 THE R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

hundred times before the R evolution and al ,

ways m exactly the same way that I have

every where seen it prin ted ”
M Deleuze
. .

then found out the son of M C az ot t e wh o .

,

declared that his father had al ways been

g i fted with the fac ul ty of p r e v 1 s1 on l n the

hi ghest degree and had given numerous

,

proofs of it Without being able to guar

.

antee the exact language used by L a Harpe

in hi s narrative the son had no doubt

,

whatever about its general tr uthfulness .

’
A friend of M Vicq d A z ir in habiting
.
,

Rennes b ore te stimony that this celebrated

,
’
doctor had told the story of C az ot t e s pro
p h e c
,y in hi s presence several , times before
the R evolution took pla ce F inally M .
, .

Deleuze appends a letter by the Baron de

“
L angon in which he says
,
I can assure
,

you on my honor that I have heard M adame

la Comtesse de Beauharnai s repeat that she
had been present on this historic occasion .

S he always told her stor y in the same way ,

and her testi mony corrob o rat es that of L a

”
Harp e .

A French writer whose testimony on all

,

subj ects connected with clairvoyance is ex

t r e m e ly impo rtant M A Teste a doctor
, . .
,

of Paris , wrote in 1 84 3 an interesting vol

ume call ed M anuel pratique de Magne
“

tisme Animal in which he rec o rds a multi

,
”

tude of experiences coming under his own

observation The sensitives with whom he
.

worked , chi efly those who were at the

s a m e time sensitives an d pat ients foretold
,

with exactitude the course and con clu S1 on of

their various maladies O ne of the most i n
.

t e r e st i n g records has to do with t he cas e of

a lady referred to as M adame Hortense t he ,

s ubject of a long illness for which M Teste .

treated her and during which he constantly

,

m esmerize d her in the presence of her hus

band who was himself deeply interested in
,

the whole s tudy M any days before the

.
.

special event referred to she told them that

,

at half past three on a certain day S he would

have a fright that would caus e her to fall
and sustain some serious inte rnal complica
tions They were aghast at thi s i n t e ll i
.

gence and conceived that their care coul d

,

n ot but ward off a danger so definitely pre

dicted O f c ourse the sensitive herself

.
,

never retained the smallest recollection in

her waking state of her own propheci es an d ,

they told her nothing of thi s threatened

disaster Qu e st i on l n g her about it in he r
.

clairvoyant state she maintained always that

,
182THE R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

they woul d not be able to ward it off but ,

that they need n ot be greatly concerned ; she

woul d certainly undergo a great deal of suf
fe r i n g and protracted il lness but would not,

die and woul d ul timately completely r e

,

cover S till they resolved to do their very

.
,

ut most to resist the threatened danger ; and

both docto r and husband hovered roun d the
patient not ill enough to be in bed the
—

whole of that aftern o on .

Well I find it embarrassing to tell the

,

story with the simple straightforwar d candor

,

of the French writer because E nglish ears

,

are so singul arly sensitive to details that

seem to infringe decorum ; but at the ap
pointed time the lady insisted ou a little
privacy during which a rat suddenly ran
,

across her frighten ing her in so unexpected

,

a way that She fell down and suffered exactly

the consequences which she had foretold ,

happily with the ulterior recovery This is .

on l y on e of a cloud of cases with which M .

Teste deals and I must leave those readers

,

who wish to get personal touch wi th the

“

mul tipli ed proofs he has accum ul ate d t o

search his writings for themselves .

A little thought will Show that one essen

tial difie r e n ce between the phenomena of
 CLAIR v o Y AN CE . 1 83

clairvoyance and tho se coming into n otice

under other departments of mesmerism has
to do with the essentially psychic character
of the clairvoyant achievement E verything .

belon ging to the region of so called hypnotic -

suggestion however mysterious may theo

, ,

r e t i call be accounted for by hypotheses

y
whi ch leave the sensitive a highly organized
being no doubt but n ot necessarily one in
, ,

which the psychic attributes must be con si d

ered as something independent of the bo di ly
organism And this r e fl e ct i on gives its real
.
‘

importance to the inquiry in to the p ossi b i l

ities of clairvoyance It is easy t o miss the
.

real significance of a new discovery and to ,

attach importance to t he immediate p r act i

cal outcome thereof instead of to the light
,

thrown by the practical results on hidden

and previously obscure laws of nature It .

’
is pre eminen tly easy to make this mistake,

in dealing with the psychic characteristics

of those mesmeric sensitives in whom clair
voyance is exhibited We may take the
.

thing in itself a marvelous and enchanting

,

gift and say that for its own Sake it is worth

,

while to se e if we cannot cultivate to a

higher degree of perfection a p ower so filled
wi th attractive interest Any one who by
.
,
1 84 THE R A TI ON AL E OF MESMERI SM .

passing into a magnetic t rance is thereby ,

e nabled to cognize events that are going on

at a distance is cle ar lv in possession of a

,

gift which cannot but be recognized as pre

ci ou s in itself But when we begin to collate
.

the vari o us manifestations of t his power and ,

to reali ze that no theory of latent senses at

taining an unusual degree of delicacy and
perfection in the sensitive will account for
what takes place we begin t o perceive that
,

the study of this power in the rare cases

,

where it is exhibited may be a pathway

,

opening up before us possibilities of acqui r

ing real scientific kn owledge concerning
those spiritual or at all events su p e r physi
,

cal elements i n a hum an bein g which hi t h

, ,

erto left as the subject of vague religious

faith have never yet been regarded by the
,

world at large as liable to come within the

domain of exact knowledge .

Before gow g further let me endeavor to

,

group the various kinds of power or facul t y

exhibited by those whom I comprehensively
describe as clairvoyants First we have to
.
,

deal with that kin d of clairvo yance which

simply enables the sensitive to discern what
i s going on at some other place in the world .

S ometimes the discernment extends for a

 CLAI R V0 Y A NC
’
E . 1 85

li ttle distance o nly sometimes it ranges half

,

across the globe ; but mere distance d o es not

affect t he nature of the faculty brought into
activit y This kind of clairvoyance let me
.

“ ”
call clal r v oyan ce in space Then we .

have to do with an extraordinary capacity ,

which has been shown as Deleuze points out,

so often as to make denial o f the facts alto

gether silly but in regard to which the dif

,

ficul t i e s as to g1 v 1 n g explanation are very

o verwhelmin g I refer to what Deleuze
.

“
call s prevision that which in the popul ar
,

“
idi oms of our own country is known as se c
ond sigh and that which for the purpose
“
of this classification we may call clai r v oy
”
ance in time . There is a third depart
ment of the faculty with which we are deal
ing in which the sensitive is enabled to take
,

note of phenomena in nat ure whether near ,

him or far off which do not belong to the

,

order of t hose phenomen a perceptible to the

senses ; that is to say the clairvoyan; t may
,

se e and converse with entities of som

!

e kind
which the ordinary waking person does n ot
,

se e at all and cannot put himself into rela

,

tions with by any means in his power .

Following the example of earlier writers

who certainly knew a good deal about the
1 86 THE R A TI ON A L E OF ME SMER I SM .

realms of nature thus brought within ou r

purview let us call this sort o f sight astral
,
“

clairvoyance .

There is yet a fourth sort of clairvoyance ,

which from the point of view of people un

,

familiar w ith such phenomena as we are

dealing with could hardly be di stinguished
, ,

perhaps from the last but whi ch I feel m y

, ,

self bound to treat separately here becaus e ,

those who are students of anyt hi ng really de

serving to be called psychological science
will c o nceive astral clairvoyance as hav
“

ing a limited and specific m eaning As .

s omething no less distinct really from astral

clairvoyance in the ascending scale of na
,
’
ture s refinements than that itself i s difl e r e n t
,

from the phenomena of the physical senses ,

we must recognize what I will vent ure to call

spiritual clairvoyance as a possibilit y of
this wonderful attribute but it will be more
,

convenient to put off further explanations on

this head till I reach the four th order in due
progress of time .

Again I say I am not engaged in this vol

um e in recapitulating the enormously volu

minous evidence on whi ch our present know

ledge concerning all these subjects i n a great
,

measure rests ; but I wi ll venture a passing

,
 1 87

wo rd of warning to any one who may think

,

I am classifying fictions instead of facts .

To stop here and challenge the fundamental

bases On which my present interpretations
rest will merely serve to rank incredulous
,

persons who do this with the bigoted doctors

who in the beginning scofl e d angrily at rec
ords having to do with the simpler aspects
of curative mesmerism of which n o person
,

acquainted with the experiences o f the pres

ent day woul d be inclined to dispute the
authenticity .

In regard to all three varieties of clai r v oy

ance we shall arrive soonest at s omething r e
sem b ling an intelligent appreciation of their
r at i on ale by assuming at all events as a trial
,

hyp othesis that they all have t o do with that

,

psychic Side of the nature which in an alyz

”
,

ing the peculiarities of sensitiveness I have ,

already discu ssed pretty full y What are

.

we t o infer as probably taking place when

a sensitive sitting entranced in L ondon b e
comes cognizant of some t r an sact i tifi ga in g
fi
‘

on in Paris ? It must be on e of t wo things .

E ither the transaction throws off emana

tions or vibrations of some kind or another
into some medium pervading all space just ,

as the lum inous bo dies throw off vibrations

1 88 THE RA TIONALE OF ME SMER I SM .

into the ether and Where these strike the

,

perceptions or finer senses of persons no

m atter at what distance t hey give rise to
,

correspon di ng impressions just as the rays

,

emanating from a star affect the vision of

those endowed with V I SI OI I no matter at
,‘ ,

what st upendous distances An d there is no

.

e ssenti al and inherent absurdity in such a

hypothesis any more than in the actual facts

,

having to do with the transmission of light .

It might be alleged that transactions going

on in the world are too numerous for each
o n e to convey its ow n di stinct impression ,

j ostled as it must be b y contact with incal

cul ab le millions of other such impressions

hastening in all directions across its path .

Impossible as it may be for us to compre

hend the resources of nature by which such
entanglements are averted the vibrations of
,

the luminiferous ether Show without going ,

further that nature is not embarrassed in

,

dealing with such a problem Take the act

.

ual facts of the S implest ill ustration that can

be adopted ; a group of people in a room .

From every point in the walls and ceiling of

the room as from every point on the sur
,

face of every particle of furniture it may

contain complete spheres of radiation are
,
 1 89

flowing in all directions as is necessarily

,

proved by the fact that anybody can se e

each object from whatever point of view he
stands ,and yet every one of those absolutely
innumerable spheres of luminous vibration
’
sends its waves across another s path with
out interfering with the accuracy of each
series It would not be an intell ectually
.

extravagant hypothesis to assume that there

are conditions in nature under the Operation
of which everything on earth and every
,

pr o cess and action going on is percepti b le t o

appropriate senses from every o ther position
on earth that can be imagined I do not .

say that this is the ca se ; but merely to pave

the way for subtle hypotheses whi ch must be

applied to any attempts to invest igate such
a profound mystery as clairvoyance it is ,

well to train the mind to a

—

ppreciat e the way

in which no hypothesis must be rejected
merely because of i t s complexity if it har
,

monizes with the facts .

The other alternative hypothesis 1 11 ré gard

“

t o our simple case of clairvoyance as between

-

L on don and Paris woul d be that s omething

material in the highest sense of the w o rd ,

not physical as belonging to the orders of

matter perceptible t othe fiv e senses b ut
,
—
1 90 THE RA TIONALE OF ME SMER I SM .

something material appertaining probably

,

to the psychic nature of the sensitive is pro ,

j e ct e d under the operation of a current of

thought or influence from the mesmerist or
from the sensitive assuming that to be
,

awakened in some way by suggesti on to him ,

from the place in which he i s seated to the ‘

di stant scene he is required to observe .

N ow that something which is projected may

be either some portion of the psychic aura
in whi ch for the time being the real ego or
spirit ual consciousness of the pe rson con
cerned may be seated just as it is seated in
,

the body during the activity of the body ; or

it is theoretically conceivable that the true
ego without quitting the physical organism
,

altoge ther may project in the direction to

,

be observed som e current of magnetic i n fl u

ence setting up a channel if that expres
sion will help to pass the idea from my mind
t o my reader through the all pervading -

medium whatever i t is the lum iniferous

, ,

ether o r something finer still which is the

, ,

suitable medium in nature for the vibrations

which convey impressions to the psychic
organism .

Th us we have thr ee hyp otheses either of ,

whi ch woul d fit in with the facts as far as it

 1 91

goes and I may say at once that I regard

,

all three hypotheses as dimly shadowing

forth before ou r minds real actualities in
nature although when the inquiries on
,

which it seems reason able to hope this gen

cration is n ow entering are pushed a good

deal further than they have generally gone

as yet we Shall be able to understand these
,

with very much greater precision than at

present But how does it come to pass that
.

some persons subj ect to mesmeric influence

are found to be clairvoyant and some inca
p a b le o f exhibiting this quality, even in the
least degree ? We need go n o further in
search o f an explanation than t o the theory
of sensitiveness I have already endeavored
to lay down The least dev eloped psychic
.

nature may be susceptible t o impressions

directly translated t o it self from the aura of
the me smerist with which it has become
blended but if it is not developed on its own
,

accoun t into anything resembling a psychic

consciousness it will not be able t ot i sm i t
,
“

self with an intelligent end in view at the

b idding of the mesmerist .In other wo rds,

we shall never find our fine clairvoyants

among pe ople who are on what I have pre
v i ou sly described a s the lower limb or east
,
19 2THE R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

e rn half of the evolutionary cycle It i s

, .

only when a human b ein g is sufficiently ad

v an ce d in the scale of n at u r e xt o have passed

the point of full immersion in matter at

which hi s psychi c nat ure may have expressed
itself to the utmost of it s Capacity in the
fo rm of physical intellect that the second
pro cess begins ul timately evolving him as
, ,

he passes through the ordeal of material i n

carnation into that relatively superior con
,

di tion in which the psychi c nature may trul y

b e Spoken of as the higher self
I am slightly embarrassed at this stage of
.

my exposition by the i mpossibility of setting

fo rth any really scientific theory of mesmer
i sm i n its hi gher branches without drawi ng
largely at every tur n on the resources of oc
cult science i n its relation with the finer con
st i t u t i on o f man To go fully here into all
.

the considerations which fortify the t he Or i e s

of occul t science in their t urn would be t o ,

convert this volume into a repetition of ot h

ers which have go ne before but just as I ,

leave the reader to fill up his mind if he ,

wi shes to do so with details of mesme ric ex

,

r i m e n t s from other books merely working

p e ,

here with their significance and the oretical

val ue so I must refrain from any attempt
,
 C L AI R V O Y AN C’
E . 1 93

to v mdi cat e on their own account t he under

lyi ng principles of occul t science concerning
the constitution of man to which I may be
bound occasionally to refer Hitherto no .

writers on mesme rism have attempted any

connected theory at all in regard to its
higher manifestations for want of the clue
,

with which occult sci en ce n ow furnishes us ;

‘

and at least I may appeal to readers who may

be handling this volume without any special
preparation to the coherence of the whole
,

body of theory I am now putting forward as ,

involving a p r im a f aci e reason for looking

favorably on the teaching from which these
theories are derived .

Clairvoyance then i n an y of i t s hi ghe r

, ,

asp e ct s Should be regard ed as a faculty of

the higher self The qualification I put in

.

here i s required to gu ar d m e from being su p

/

posed to mean that such clairvoyance as is

involved in reading the time on a watch that
has not been opened or the words l n a closed
, !

book is a faculty of the higher sel f T hat

,

does not deserve to be called clairvoyance at

all It is an exercise of certain generally
.

undeveloped senses stimulated t o an abuor

mal degree o f energy under the mes m eric
pro cess but where distances have t o be dealt
,
1 94 THE R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM
.

with which extend beyond the aura of t he

sensitive some degree of i ntelli gence in his
if I may u se that
,

own psychic envelope

expression must be assumed By this

phrase I mean to suggest Jt he idea that
.

whereas in the undeveloped m an the psychic

nature is so to speak chaotic and unforme d
, ,

unorganized i n the most complete sense of

the term in the other case the man who
has passed the nadir point of material devel
Opm e n t begins then t o row a psychic organ
g
i sm whi ch may b e thought of for the p ur
poses of our present explanation as a finer
kind of body to which his consciousness may
be transferred under suitable conditions ,

and in which his mind can function as truly

as in the waking state it f unc tions in his
physical body The theory will not be com
.

p le t e ly intelli gible without keeping hold of

the fundamental occult principle of r e i n car

nation because without un derstanding that
, ,

all this talk on whi ch I have ventured about

people being before or behi nd the nadir point
of material development woul d have v ery
li ttle meanin g But without at t empting a
.

co mplete exposit ion of the occult theory of

reincarnation with all the collateral con si d
e r at i on s which render i t one of the m ost
 CLAI R V 0 Y A N C E
. 1 95

vital truths of nature for every one con

cerned with the study of esoteric teaching ,

it will be enough to make my present theo

“

ries intelligible if I say that accordi ng t o

the esoteric view every human being passes
through a protracted series of physical lives
with long intervening periods of Spiritual
experience and that these successively rep
,

resent the stages of growth in nature to

which each individual has attained and i n ,

volve a regular cosmic progress which may

be greatly hastened by abnormal efforts and ,

may be seriously impeded by m i sappli ca

tions of energy .

H ow is the activity of the higher self of ,

which the clairvoyant sensitive under ordi

“

nary conditions of life may be perhaps , ,

hardly conscious to be set up? To answer

,

this question I must at t ém pt a little more

fully to explain what students of occultism
mean by the higher self I have referred
.

already to reincarnation as the met hod by

m eans of which nature acc o mplishes the evo
lu t i on of each individual monad Between
.

each of the physical births the true being or

ego in question remai ns 1 n the enjoyment of
that degree of spiritual evolution represented
by the sum total of all the effo rts made up ,
1 96 THE R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

to that time in the successive lives through

,

which he has pas sed Cru" de and popular

.

conceptions on the subj ect of Spiritual life

entertain the idea that directly death occurs ,

t he soul or spirit is s e t free Su ddenly Spring

,

ing into a condition of angelic exaltation m

which hi gher percept ions and higher know
ledge come into play O ccult science does
.

not recognize any proceeding so causeless in

its character That which is se t free at death
.

i s the real ego at i t s then stage of evolution ,

an d as I have already indicated with human ,

beings very little advanced along the cycle

of ev o lution the nature of the spiritual con

s ci ou sn e ss is extremely torpid and unde

fined That i s merely another way of say
.

ing that even in the realms of its higher

,

activi ty nature produces her achievements

,

gradually The gradual growth of the real

.

spiritual e go o r higher self is the great pu r

, ,

pose i n vie w throughout the whole un der

taking of the successi v e lives As already
.

explained after the neutral point of e v olu

,

tion the perfect infusion of spirit in mat

ter is passed the spiritual life begins to
,

assert itself with renewed energy The .

consciousness of the ego on spiritual planes

then becomes a self consciousness and i s ,
 CLAIR V O Y A N CE . 1 97

associated with the power o f independent

act l on .

Now the ordinary waking state the

, ln

Higher E go is to a great extent engaged

with and entangled with the physical plane
, .

It largely 1 n sp1 r e s the me n tal and moral ao

t i v i t y of the incarnate being an d although
,

even dur ing the waking state it may have

some subtle r elations with the spiritual
plane t o which we need not at this moment
,

pay atten tion it is to all intents and pur

, ,

poses function ing ou the plane of m atter

, .

But whenever the activity of the bodily or

g a n i sm is suspended the e o is s e t
g , free t o
function on the other planes where it has al
ready established a right of e n t r ee E ven .

during ordinary Sleep that p assage from one

plane to another takes place at all events ,

whenever the Sleep is he althy and profound .

The experiences which the Higher Ego goes

through on the spiritual plane in such cases
are by no means always t r an sfe r re d t o the r

p hysical memory on waking ; on the con

t r ar y such transfer is the exception and not

,

the rul e A great bran ch of metaphysical

.

study has been directed to the correct ap

prehension of this dual consciousness of ,

which every highly developed being is an ex

1 98 TH E R A TIONA LE OF MESMERI SM .

a mple an d the most important work on the

,

s ubj ect to which the reader can be referred

’
is da P r e l s P hi losop hi e der M ystik g ,

adm irably translated into E nglish by M r .

C C M assey and called by him The

.
,
.
,

Philos ophy of Mysticism ”

Du P r e l Shows
.

that by a careful analysis of the experiences

“

and facts withi n ou r reach it is demon strable

“ ”
that the waking brain does n ot contain ,

in the metaphysical sense the whole of the ,

conscio usness of the human being function

ing through that brain M ore than this .
,

t he threshold of psychic consciousness to —

’
u se du P r e l s expression is constantly
—

s ubject to advance or recession and the ,

process of pushin g back that threshold so

that as much as possible of the higher con
s ci ou sn e ss may be embraced wi thin the area

of physical brain recollection constit utes ,

the process which might i n some of i t s bear

ings be described as the evolutio n of psychic
faculties .

Now this explanation full y apprehended

,

will afford almost without further words a

, ,

clue to the comprehension of what reall y

takes place un der mesmeric influence in con

n e ct i on with the higher clairvoyance The .

p hysic al body i s entranced by the magnetic

 CLAIR V 0 Y A N CE . 1 99

influence and the Higher E go is set free

, .

It follows the natural bent of its own affin

ities and in so being se t free passes at on ce
,

into t he spirit ual a spect of its consciousness

! occultists wil l understand that I am here
“ ”
using the term spiritual as embracing the
astral plane! but in so far as this partial
,

freedom does not involve the complete sever

ance between the physical brai n and the finer

astral organism the latt er continues in di

,

rect relation with the physical body by mag

netic threads or ligatures on e is obliged to
u se materialistic phrases in endeavoring to

put such thoughts into words and thus is

accessible to st imuli which act in the first

instance only on the physical organism or ,

let us rather say on the astral aura of the

physical organism Free as it is t he higher
.
,

self is thus in con t in u éjd intellectual rela

tions with the mes m eris t whose magnetic i n
fl u e n ce has sufficed to entrance the body ,

and to set its ow n activities at large And .

the plane of such activities which now

reached i s entirely exempt from the r e
strictions that embarrass activity on the phy
s i cal plane
. Thought will or desire b e
, ,

come the agents of something which we may

think of as movement about the world and ,
2
00 THE R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

the Higher E go can be translated to any

distant place or almost to any distant point
,

in space with as much facility as a thought

,

may be turned towards some di stant region

with which the thinker is familiar .

J u st however as it is only to a place

, ,

with which he is familiar that any on e can

turn his thoughts with precision so as to r e ,

call images of what he has seen so it is only ,

to some place with which the Higher E go is

in some kind of magnetic relation that its
attention and perceptive powers can be
t urned. Thus w e find that while a clai r v oy
ant however gifted woul d be al most hope
, ,

lessly embarrassed if asked to di scover l n

some di stant part of the world a person
unknown to his waking self , and equally
unkn own to the mesmerist it would be ,

perfectly easy for such a higher self to dis

cover the person t o whom some specific
article handed to his body and thus brought
,

into magnetic relations with his own aura

o rigi nally belonged The clue to the accu
.

rate scienti fic comprehension of all the phe

n om e n a of mesmeric clairvoyance hav ing to ,

do with what is called r ap p or t is thus read

,

ily afl or de d If you have a lock of hair cut

.

’
from some person s head and put it in to
,
 2
01

the hands of t he sleeping clairvoyant the ,

magnetic vibrations connecting that with its

original owner serve as a thread to guide
the emancipated ego t o the goal And the .

truth is that what has now been said simple ,

as it is constitutes the whole explanation of

,

those phenomena b elonging to the order of

“ ”
clairvoyance in space . Y ou will never
get such clairvoyance out of a person whose
spiritual evolution is inferior to the neutral
point and whose higher self has not been
,

evolved to any degree of self consciousness

-
.

S uch a person may as already explained be

, ,

highly susceptible of mesmeric influence ,

may respond with the most completely auto

matic docility to all the so called su gge s
-

tions of hypnotism may b e obedient to

,

quite a terri b le extent to the commands i m

posed upon him by a me smer ist but will
-

never be able to accomplish achievements

beyond the ran ge of his own nature .

I am not go i ng to attempt an explanation

which shall as completely cover the phenom
enon of clairvoyance l n time
‘‘
. The m ys
t e r i e s of prevision are extremely bewildering ,

and on them we can only throw such spe cu

lative light as may be afforded for example
, ,

by theories of metaphysics like those su g

2
00 THE RA TIONALE OF MESMERI SM .

the Higher E go can be translated to any

distant place or almost to any distant point
,

in space with as much facility as a thought

,

may be turned towards some distant regi on

with which the thinker i s familiar .

Just however as it i s only to a place

, ,

with which he is familiar that an y one can

turn his thoughts with precision so as to r e,

call w age s of what he has seen so it is only

,

to some place with which the Higher E go is

in some kind of magnetic relation that its
attention and perceptive powers can be
turned Thus we find that while a clai r v oy
.

ant however gifted would be almo st hope

, ,

lessly embarrassed if asked to discover l n

some distant part of the world a person
unknown to his waking self , and equally
unknown to the mesmerist it would be ,

perfectly easy for such a higher self to dis

cover the person to whom some specific
article handed to his body and thus brought
,

into magnetic relations with his own aura

o riginally belonged The clue to the accu
.

rate scientific comprehension of all the phe

n om e n a of mesmeric clairvoyance hav ing to ,

do with what is called r ap p or t is thus read

,

ily afl or de d If you have a look of hair cut

.

’
from some person s head and put it into
,
 2
01

the hands of t he sleeping clairvoyant the ,

magnetic vibrations connecting that with its

original owner serve as a thread to guide
the emancipated ego to the goal And the .

truth is that what has now been said simple ,

as it is constitutes the whole explanation of

,

those phenomena b elonging to the order of

“ ”
clairvoyance in space . Y ou will never
get such clairvoyance out of a person whose
spiri tual evolution i s inferior to the neutral
point and whose higher self has not been
,

evolved to any degree of self consciousness

-
.

S uch a person may as already explained be

, ,

highly susceptible of mesmeric influence ,

may respond with the most completely auto

matic docility to all the so call ed su gge s
-

tions of hypnotism may b e obedient to

,

quite a terri b le extent to the commands i m

posed upon him by a mesmerist but will ,

never be able to accomplish achievements

beyond the range of his own nature .

I am not going to attempt an explanation

which shall as completely cover the pha nom
“
enon of clairvoyan ce I n time . The mys
t e r i e s of prevision are extremely bewildering ,

and on them we can only throw such speen

lative light as may be afforded for example
, ,

by theories of metaphysics like those su g

2
02THE R A TIONA LE OF MESMER SM I .

gested by Dr O liver L odge in his remark

.

a b le address at the C ar difl M eeting of the

British Association He says . .

“
A luminous and helpful idea 1 s that t i m e
is but a relative mode of regarding things
we progress through phenom ena at a certain
definite pace and this subj ective advance
,

we interpret in an objective manner as if ,

events necessarily happened in this order

and at this precise rate But that may be .

on l y one mode of regarding them The .

events may be in some sense in existence al

ways both past and future and it may be
, ,

we who are arriving at them not they which ,

ar e happening The an alogy of a traveler

.

in a railway train is useful ; if he coul d

never leave the train nor alter its pace he
woul d probably consider the landscapes as
necessarily successive and be un able to con
ce i v e their co existence
- We perceive
.
,

therefore a possible fourth dimensional as

,

p e c t about time the inexorableness

,
of whose

flow may be a natural part of our present

limitations And if we o nce grasp the idea
.

that past and future may be actually exist

ing we can recognize that they may have a
,

controll ing influence on all present action ,

and the two together may constitute the

 CLAIR V 0 Y A NC E '
. 2
03

‘
higher plane or totality of things after ,

which as it seems to me we are impelled to

, ,

seek in connection with the directing of

,
‘

form or determinism and the action of liv ,

ing b e l n gs consciously directed to a definite

”
and preconceived e n d .

It is true that a good deal of clairvoyance

—

in time relating to events in the immediate

future and having to do with the course for ,

example of an illn ess are explicable with

, ,

out divi ng int o any very great profundities

of metaphysical thought A much clearer .

perception of causes in operation in any

such transaction than is accessible to the i n
carnate consciousness may enable the higher
self to discern inevitable consequences and ,

thus to predict them But such foresight as.

that concerned wit h the progress of a n ill

ness hardly deserves to rank with the C a
“
“

zotte prophecy for example In connect ion

, ,

with the French R evolution where the pre ,

c 1 se de st m 1 e s of five or six people who years ,

afterwards came to a violent end i n t he con a e

a si on s of that period were foretold with ,

exactitude I do not wish to leave the

.

reader under the impression that o ccult sci

ence even as expounded by its modern lit
,

e r at u r e,is without hypotheses which go far

“
2
04 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMERI SM .

to suggest explanations even of the most ex

alted examples of clairvoyance in time ; but
'

t o make these theories intelligible would i n

volve a complete examination of the higher
mysteries associated with ! arma and the
agencies which control it an dwould lie b e
,

yond the province of the present treatise .

L et us tur n n ow to that variety of clair

voyance which has to do with the observa
tion of natural phenomena lying wholly ou t
side the physical plane O n this branch of
ou r subject the older literature of mesmer

i sm is by no means so rich as in reference to

the inferior departments But the very i n
.

t e r e st in g autobiography of Andrew Jackson

Dav i s sometimes known as the P ou ghke e p
,

si e S eer
, includes the narrative of hi s own
mesmeric treatment directed entirely to the
end that his higher self Should be liberated
for the observation of nature on the Spirit
ual planes and carried on I have little
, ,

doubt under the direction of agencies belon g

,

ing already to more highly evolved example s

of the hum an race than those around us in

ordin ary life Davis was a born psychic to

.
,

whom vi sions and astral experiences of all

sorts were continually occurring although ,

the external circumstances of his life would '

 CLAIR v oY A N C E . 2
05

seem at the first glance to have been terribly

unfavorable to the development of any higher
facul ties He was born that is to say of
.
, ,

parents in the very humblest rank of life ;

the father seems to have been a cobbler in
too small a way of busin ess to be even called
a shoemaker who worked hard for a miser
,

able living i n an Outlying vill age of the

S tate of N e w York Davis himself grew up
.

almost entirely without education scarcely ,

able to read and write and even when grown

,

up some of his Spiritual teachings or those

, ,

which came through his lips and which fil l ,

many volumes were written down for him

,

by frie nds At about the age of seventeen

.

Davis was first mesmerized by a man named

L ivingstone and at once began to manifest
,

all the usual symptoms ofplai r v oyan ce which ,

rapidly culminated IlI S piritual flights

r
/
”

through higher realms of nature in c o nnec ,

tion with which by degrees were developed

close relationship between the seer and b e
ings of some exalted order whom he e ncou n
t e r e d in the s pirit and from whom he r e
,

ce i v e d teaching on spiritual subj ects the ,

accumulation and record of which became

the whole occupation of his life It is not .

my business here to criticise these although ,

2
06 THE R A TI ON A LE OF ME SMER I SM .

gladly bearing testimony in passing to the

fact that their tone and character is exalted
and enn obling although the y are less asso
,

ci at e d with precise interpretations of hidden

mysteries in n ature than some of those

which durin g the progress of recent theo
,

sophical developments have e nriched the

,

later literature of occ ul t research How .

ever i n regard to the particul ar matter in

,
’
han d Davis s incidental explanation which
, ,

he for t i fie s with diagrams of the process

,

through which the spiritual clairvoyant

passes during hi s magnetic treatment under
the han ds of a qualified mesmerizer seems to ,

me the best exposition of that particular sub

e ct I have ever seen in p r m t When first
j .

S itting down he represents the mesmerist and

sensitive as separately encircled by auras
whi ch do not blend with one another By .

degrees these mutuall y expand and their ,

limits intersect A S the magnetic process

.

goes on and as the body of the sensitive b e

,

comes ent ranced under the influence of m e s

’
meric eman ations from the operator s hands ,

the two auras b ecome entirely blended a ,

’
con di tion of things ill ustrated in Davi s s
diagrams by a representation of the two per
sons seated opposite one another surrounded
 2
07

by one oval representing their c ombined

,

auras Then as the m agnetizer ceases to

.

throw out any influence the auras slightly

di fferentiate again without coming apart a ,

magnetic emanation is thrown upward from

’
the sen sitive s head visible of course to
, , ,

those who have faculties for seein g such

things and thus the sensitive keeps in rela
,

tion with his own higher self which by that

,

time has taken flight while the blending of

,

the t w o auras enables the mesmerist also to

remain in intelligible communication with
the absent consciousness .

To analyze all the possibilities which may

be associated with such a spiritual flight
on the part of the true ego of a human being
already sufficiently spiritualized in nature to
‘

be capable of deriving definite exact impres

,

sions from sp l r i t ual plang

as
, woul d b e to
wr ite a treatise on spiritua l scien ce and the
higher evolution of man rather than on the
mesmeric methods by means of which touch
may be obt ained with these great féal it
B ut from the point I have now reached I am
enabled to handl e the argument which to my
mind renders it so important at the present
age of the world that the loftier possibilities
of mesmerism Should be properly under
2
08 TH E R A TIONA LE OF MESMERI SM .

stood and the sub j ect guarded from the i n

,

discriminating disapproval of those who are

animated in speaking of it by exclusive ref
erence to its more ignoble and degrading
manifestations O f course let me acknow
.
,

ledge at the outset that anything like play

,

ing with forces of nature so far reachin g so -

,

magnificent in some of their potentialities ,

and at the same time fraught wi th so much

danger in association wi th some of their
worst is to be condemned in the most u n
,

equivocal term s I do n ot necessarily mean

.

that trifling experiments even when they,

are associated with some at mosphere of

amusement may not be harml ess enough
,

when colored with an intell igent cur l osi t y

concerning an un known subject but at ,

tempts at the practice of mesmerism may

very soon outrun the character of these ele
mentary di v e r s1 0 n s and then if people go on
,

with the matter at all they ought to go on

,

with it in at least as serious a frame of mind

as they woul d han dl e any other branch o f
natur al study Its continued u se for petty
.

and degrading purposes in which grotesque

,

e fl e ct s are sought for even in preference to

tho se which woul d ill uminate the inquiry ,

i s of c o urse to be condemned without r e

 CLAIR V 0 Y AN CE . 2
09

serve Indeed if people only knew the real

.
,

S ignificance of some lofty Spiritual phrases

they are in the habit of employing in con
n e ct i on with conventional religion they ,

would feel that very formidable terms of

censure are due to any act involving the de
gr adation of natural forces having to do with
the sp1 r 1 t u al life In their way and to the
.
,

limited extent that the thing is possible for

the modern ignoramus such acts constitute
,
“
what early theologians meant by the sin
”
against the Holy Ghost But while at the
.

bottom of the scale it may be little less than

a deadly sm to employ mesmeric power with
evil en ds in view and while it is v e r y wr on g
,
'

t o employ it with ignoble and sordid ends in

v i ew it becomes something more than per
,

missible to employ 1 t in t he cur e of diseases

'

merely physical though such objects may be ,

and ultimately the pract ice of mesmerism

‘

rises into the region of the loftiest and most

ennobling pursuit when the great force is
employed to se t free and st i m ulat e t o the g

utmost the highest evolution of the highe st

consciousness i n man .

First of all we have to study the pro cess ,

and that can only be done in association with

its pr actice 1 n order that the scl e n t ific think
,
2
10 TH E R A TIONA LE OF MESMER I SM .

in g of the present day may be rescued from

the slough of incredulity as regards all
psychic phenomen a in whi ch it is at pres
ent I will not say hopelesslyentangled but
, ,

at all events in which i t s further progress

meets with very great impe diment Then .

as regards the further advance of practical

occult study in this generation mesmerism , ,

as conducted by people who comprehend the

organization of that higher realm of exist
ence into which they woul d in t roduce the
S piritual c onsciousness of their sensitives is ,

certainly the most accessible avenue of

higher knowledge concerning the possibili
ties of a spiritual evolution and the ulterior
destinies of man which the opport unities of
ordinary life leave at ou r disposal An d no .

thing i s more entirely free than the higher

m esmerism however frequently repeated
wi th any given sensitive from the mis
chi e v ou s conseq u ences having to do with

the enslavement of the wi ll and the de t e r i

,

oration of in dividual growth which results

,

are un doubte dl y associated with the ignoble

kind of mesmerism commonly known as hyp
n ot i sm in the present day O f course to
.

fulfill the condi t ions that I am talking about ,

it i s necessary that a mesmerist should to ,

 CLAIR V 0 Y A N C E . 2
11

begin with be governed first and foremost

,

by a desire for the spiritual welfare of the

sensitive with whom he is dealing How .

ever fascinating he may find or rather I ,

s houl d sa he might find the attributes f

y , o

that sensitive under mesmerism he must ,

forbear from experiments which interfere

with the loftier spiritual growth of the
higher self and refrain for example fro m
, , ,

sending it about to differen t places on the

physical earth in pursuit o f knowledge or
information however innocent in its nature
, .

The higher self trained under mesmerism

to explore the physical plane will have
great difficulty in getting clear of it if that ,

should be desired at a lat er stage Further .

than this the higher self which could be

,

trained under mesmerism t o explore t he “

'

mysterious c omplication s of the astral plane

will be equally i m p e de d pe r haps even more
,
/
'

impeded in that way as regards the finer

,

spiritual culture on which it might be capa

ble of entering if properly directed The .

higher mesmerism i n fact to be alt og

,
ether
,

admirable and meritorious must se t out ,

from the beginning with being absolutely the

highest There is no way of getting the
.

higher self of a sensitive under mesmerism

2
12 TH E R A TIONA LE OF ME SMER I SM .

into true relation s supposing these to be

,

possible in view of the whole karmic situa

tion with the loftiest spiritual teachers ao
,

ces sible to such a higher Self un less it is

,

from the beginning kept clear of all the e n

tangling de fil e m e n t s of lower experience in
that state of consciousness ext ernal to the
bo dy ; but I say with a fix ed conviction that
in this matter I am speakin g nothing but the
exact scientific truth that there are great
,

num bers of people about the world born with

psychic facul ties indicatin g by the very fact
,

that they exist considerable development in

,

other lives along the li nes of spiritual e v olu

tion who may be put in relations with oc
,

cul t in itiation of the loftiest sort under the

influence of mesmerism conducted wi th that
end in view by an operator who knows what
he is ab out ; and in such cases the glorious
resul t co ntemplated may be hastened to an
extent which by c o mparison with slower pro
cesses of treatment is quite overwhelm i ng t o
the imagination .

O f course whereas these greatest results

,

can on l y be secured where both sensitive and

mesmerizer are so circum stanc e d as to have
potentialities of relationship with the world
of occult initiation there are good possibili
,
 CLAIR V 0 Y AN CE . 2
13

ties o n a lower level within the range of

people wh o cannot be called o ccultists and ,

even if these are associated with some theo

r e t i cal perils i t would be hardly more rea
,

sonable on that account to forbid their pur

suit altogether than to shut up S witzerland
,

because in their practical adoration of its

beauties s ome tourists will from time to
time in the future as in the past be lo st
, ,

down crevasses There is an extreme of

.

g oo dy g o odyism in c o nnection with the

’
study of nature s o cc ul t mysteries which op
crates t o retard progress in that department

of human energy as effectually as extreme

timidity would check it on the physical
plane A reasonable comprehensi o n of the
.

whole theory of mesmerism in its lower and

higher aspects such as to make it n o more
complete 21 is se t forth in this volume ought
—
,

to enable an y well disp o sed pers o n to explore

-

the delightf ul wonders of this great science

wi t hout fear either of incurring unknown
pains and penalties or of landi ng l n still
,
‘

less comprehensible disasters the soul or

a n i sm s of those with who m he may e x e r i
g p
ment .
 C HAPTER I ! .

MESMER I C P R A C TI C E

TH Epurp o se I had in view in writing this

treatise has been much more that of opening
out an interpretation of mesmeric phenom
e n a than of guiding any new investigators

in the practice of the art whether with the

,

v iew of accomplishing mesmeric cures or

with that of exploring the higher mysteries
of human n ature However just because
.
,

there has never hi therto been any clearly de

fined r at i on ale of mesmerism to guide the
practice of operators we fin d the practical
,

manuals for the most part discordant in

their directions and very often embodyin g
,

conceptions as to what ought to be done or

left un done that would be completely r e
,

versed by a correct appreciation of mes

meric theory It may be as well therefore
.
, ,

before bringing these remarks to a close ,

that I Should indicate with some precision

the methods by which mesmeric energy
ought to b e di rected and the leading errors
,
 MESMER I C P RA C TI C E . 2
15

which have vitiated so many o f the p opul ar

manuals on this subj ect .

In the very beginning M esmer himself

"
seems to have adopted a great variety of
methods some of them almost extravagantly
,

energetic and some which were not in any

,

true sense of the term mesmeric at all His .

much talked of b agu e t s belong to the latter

order of processes and were adopted when
,

his patients became so importunate and nu

m e r ou s that it was quite impossible for him
to work with each individually in the man
n e r he seems to have impressed upon his dis

ci ple s as the most e fficacious The b agu e t

.

merely consisted o f a trough or box with

magnetized water with rods or wires leading
from it which the patients held Those who .

were influenced by such an apparatus must

certainly have been in a highly susceptible
state and in many cases may have been
,

hardly magnetized at all If they came .

u nder any influence it would rather be that

,

of a nervous paralysis such as t he hypn o

,
f

t i z e r s induce although when the b aqn e t was

,

employed with M asme r himself walking

about the whole time amongst his patients ,

it is likely enough that a good deal of his

own superabundant energy became infused
'
2
16 TH E R A TI ON A LE OF MESMER I SM .

into them Then again he started a system

.

of mesmerizing trees around which cords

,

were tied which persons desi rous of e x p e r i

,

e n ci n
g the influence were taught to hold .

Here again we can hardly call such a pro

, ,

cess mesmerism in any true Sense although ,

just as at L ourdes and Treves resul ts of an

astonishing character connected with patho
logical con di tions will constantly be devel
oped amongst people associated with a widely
prevalent excitement .

The direct personal metho d of mesmerism

’
employed at all events by M esmer s imme
, ,

diate successors was on the other hand un

, ,

necess arily and i n con v e m e n t ly energetic .

It has been c opied ever S ince by a great n um

ber of o perators and their example has not
, ,

unnaturally been made use of by people

,

inclined to discredit mesmerism all round

by showi ng how obj ectionable and in some ,

cases almost in decorous its processes are , .

The plan used to be for the operat o r to sit ex

act ly in front of the subj ect each on sepa ,

rate chairs holding the knees of the subj ect

,

between his own arranging that the feet also

,

should be in contact and in thi s position

,

making downward passes after in the first ,

instance holdin g his hands on the shoulders

 MESMERI C P R A C TI C E . 2
17

of the sensitive and leaning forward so that

,

the magnetic influence of his breath might

be felt S uch an arran gement as this is
.

emin ently unsuited at all events to cases

, ,

in which t he operator is a man and the sub

e ct a woman an d large u se has been made
j ,

of its obvious inconvenience in such cases

, ,

by writers opposed to the whole u n de r t ak

ing Where the patient and the O perator
.

are both of the same se x the objection per ,

haps cannot apply in the same way and I

, ,

do not deny that the attitude and manipula

tion in question would be of powerful e ffi
cacy ; but nothing could be worse for an
operator than to use on e method which he
considered the best and then in all cases
, ,

where his patients might be women to u se “

another which he in his own secret con

s ci ou sn e s s believed less Effective It i s far .

better to adopt on e system and stick to it

in all cases taking care to design its details
,

s o that it may never be unsuita b le .

And a s for the precise m e t ho d whi ch this

'

should b e I would not like to prescribe any

,

one as inevitably the right on e because ,

different mesmerists have w ith equal success

adopted very different systems and each ,

person in turn must adapt hi s own customs

2
18 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

t o his own inclinations and inner feeling as

to what is the best course to take so that no ,

one coul d dogmatically prescribe any co urse

as the only right on e But a very convenient
.

arrangement when the obj ect in view is to

,

induce a mesmeric trance is t o put the se n ,

si t i v e into a large and comfortab le arm chair -

with good solid flat arms like those familiar ,

to all clubs and places where people study

comfort and then for the O perator to si t
,

sideways on the arm of the chair In thi s .

way he practically fronts his patient wi thout

any embarrassing entanglement in regard to
the knees and the passes can be made with
,

perfect facility He is also a little above

.

the patient which is an advantage and

, ,

nearer to him without any leanin g forward

than woul d be the c a se if he sat on an oppo
site chair Having taken up this position
.

he Shoul d first endeavor to bring his own

magn etic syste m into some r ap p or t with
that of his patient by holding the hands f or
a time or if he likes whi ch is perhaps the
, ,

best way holding the thum bs only so that

, ,

his own thumbs press against those of the

patient ball to ball The thum b seems t o
,
.

be a centre of nervous action in the hand ,

which renders this arrangement efficaci o us .

 MESMER I C P R A C TI C E
.

Then after holding the hands or thumbs in

,

this way for a fe w minutes during which ,

there is no necessity to be in any strained

condition of mind but during which it may
,

be rather better than n ot that the ope rator

and patient Shoul d be quietly conversing in
reference t o the business they have in hand ,

the operator should transfer on e hand

presum ably the left if he is S itting as I im ,

agine him to be doing on the right hand,

-

’
arm of the chair t o the patient s forehead
—
,
’
continuing to hold both the patient s hands
in his own right From this time it i s de
.

sirable that the conversation should cease ,

and that the thought of the mesmerist Shoul d

be concentrated on the task he has in hand .

Remember it is this t hought which is

,

the all important matter ; little or no effect

-

would be p roduced by manipulations how

“

ever exactly and faithfullycarried ou t if the ,

thought should in the mean time be wander

ing off to other matters or entangling itself
,

in the Conversation of bystande rs And -

t
?
‘

from the first the thought m ust be directed

with a steady an d continuous purpose to
some definite idea immediately within the
’
compass of t he situation s possibility If .

he i s e n de av or i n g t o m du ce a trance the
‘

,
2
20 TH E RA T ONALE I OF ME SMERI SM .

mesmerist must keep that idea in view not ,

bothering himself for the moment as to

what may foll ow after but simply imagin
,

i n g in his own mind that from his hand a

rain of subtle sop or ific influence is descend
ing and drenching t he nervous organism of
the sensitive Perhaps it m a
.
y enable any
one who tries to realize this idea in his i m
,

agin at i on all the better if the study of these

,

pages may have induced him to comprehend

and believe what is the actual fact that
, ,

such an influence does descend under the

c onditions supposed Then after a minute
.
,

or two of such concentration the other hand,

should be raised and the left moved slightly

to one side t o give it room ; both hands
should then be held on the forehead the ,

fingers resting on the top of the head and ,

the same thought be continued Af ter an .

other minute or two the hands shoul d be

slowly parted downwards stroking the side
,

of the head until at the shoul ders they leav e

contact with the sensitive and are then car
,

ried down about as far as the waist or as ,

far as the position of the operator enables

him t o carry them without inco n venience .

Then such passes are renewed not again ,

with any contact as regards the head but ,

 MES M ER I C P RA C TI C E . 2
21

from a p o sition in which the fingers point

downwards above the top of the head and ,

then are drawn within an inch or t wo of the

"
face and so do wn the body
,
Sometimes .

p eople prefer to sweep them round the arms

’
! bringing them together at the sensitive s
lap where the t wo hands may rest folded ;
,

but this appears to me a matter of taste .

On e thing which is not a matter of taste but ,

a matter of great importance often over

looked is that the mesmerist should not in
, ,

lifting his hands upwards to renew the next

pass after the last has been concluded undo ,

its effect involuntarily He would undo its

.

effect i n a great measure if he simply sweep

his hand back along the path it has traced .

In coming do wn what shoul d be d one is t o

,

close the hands completely at the conclusion

of each p ass Bring them back by an u p
.

ward circular outside course and on ly

, , ,

Open them again when they are in a position

to begin the next pass If the mesmerist is
.

at all sensitive and if he darken s t he room

-
“ ”

in which he is carrying on his work to a

degree which just enables him to se e the
features of his subject but would n ot enable
,

him to read print he will very likely se e

,

the mesmeric fluid passing or if he does not ,

2
22 TH E R A TI ON A L E OF MESMER I SM .

actually se e it passing he will see it steam

’
ing up all round the subject s head ; and
this by the by he will see all the more if
, ,

the pers o n I have called the subject happens

not to be a sensitive but simply a no n recep -

tive subject The true sensitive so readily

.

absorbs t he magnetic fluid that but little of

it will be seen steaming up during the mag
n e t iz in
g process A quite
. non receptive
person o n the other hand will take in
, ,

n othin g , and from the first t he cloud of

wasted influence will be perceptible .

There is only on e more point in connectio n

with this general prescription on which I
care t o lay any emphasis It is quite true
.
,

as M esmer c o nceived in the beginning that ,

the breath is a powerful vehicle of magnetic

influence but in order to bring this fact
,

into play it is wholly unnecessary to lean

’
down and pu ff in your sensitive s face .

E veryt hing really turns upon the regul ation

of your breath during the magnetizing pro
cess ; it is not necessary to puff at all in
any audible or obtrusive manner but the ,
’
operator s breathing should be synchronized
with the passes ; he should inhale his breath
during the upward movements of his hands ,

and during the down ward movement should

 MESMER I C P R A C TI C E .

exhale This rule gives the true clue to the

.

time which should be occupied with the

passes M any of the mesmeric manuals are
.

q uite at sea on this point some appearin g to

,

think that the greatest effi cacy is secured if

the pass is made to last as long as possible ,

so that they wo ul d have it extend to a minute

or more . It should occu py just as much

time as the operator r e qu l r e s for slowly ex
haling one lu n gsful of breath without so un
,

duly retarding that process as to induce any

strained feeling l n the lungs o r oblige him
to take rapid breaths to repair lost time .

The time which will be taken in putting

a subject off to sleep varies of course from a
'

fe w minutes to infinity . With some people

no ordinary mesmerist will ever succeed ;
with those who are highly s e nsitive and with
whom he has already operated successful ly
o n former occasions a very fe w minutes will
be enough and the earlier processes I have
,

described could be proportionately hastened .

But with any on e who is being tri e d for the ,

first time it can hardly ever be worth while

to continue the process for more than half
an hour because it is scarcely possible for
,

an operator to protract anything like vigor

and concentration for a greater length of
2
24 TH E R ATIONA LE OF MESMER I SM .

time ; but this of cou rse must depend upon

, ,

the energy of the operator and the ardor of

his desire to succeed in an y particular case .

S ome people would be hopelessly exhausted

before the half hour was over and others
,

would be able to c ontinue for much longer .

The method I have describe d seems to me

’
the best and most convenient with the view
of inducing a psychic trance with what may
be called spiritual objects in view ; but I
have kn own mesmerists who resort entirely
to the magnetic emanations of the eye and ,

take no trouble to make passes at all simply

,

staring at their sensitive with in tense fix e d

ness of gaze This process to my mind
.
, ,

bears too close resemblance to the hypnotic

method to be altogether wholesome and ,

moreover requires that the sensitive should

keep his eyes open u ntil paralyzed or fasci
n at e d ; and this is a less easy and natural

method for him than the one that I have de

scribed i n which it is left to his own option
,

when he shall close his eyes and in which

,

he passes off to sleep without any j arring of

the nervous system I shall leave my read
.

e r s to seek for themselves in books devoted

,

to the modern c orruptions of this subject ,

for an account of the methods employed t o

 MESMER I C P R A C TI C E . 2
25

pro duce the so called hypnotic sleep These

- .

invol v e no conscious gift of magnetism by

any operator and simply provoke a diseased
,

condition of the nervous system which ren ,

ders the patient subject it 1 s true to sug

, ,

gestions that may afterwards be made by

the operator who is directing the u n de r t ak
ing but which also r enders that patient
,

equally liable to come un der the suggestive

influence of other persons good bad or i n
, , ,

different and especially under suggestive i n

,

fl u e n ce s with which the mere physicist has no

familiarity but which nevertheless are facts
,

in nature and as grave in their importance

,

as himself But putting out of sight all the

.

mischievous devices of hypnotism the mes ,

meric method which I have been describing

does not by any means cover all the groun d ,

for if curative results ar e l n view it may be

that a very different manipul ation is required ,

and a very different direction may have to

be given to his thought by the operator .

"
To pro duce a magnetic cure i ii a tho r
—

oughly healthy and natural manner the first ,

thing to be done ! as I have already said in

speaking of the theory of curative mesmer
ism! is to draw ou t the ev il nerve aura o r ,

m agn e t i sm o f the sufferer

, This has by
.
,
A
2
26 TH E R A TI ON AL E OF MESMERI SM .

the hypothesis been concentrated in some

,

portion of his organism and it is to that

,

por tion whatever it may b e that the m e s

, ,
’
m e r i st s attention must be directed No .

passes are called for here not in the b e

"
ginning at all events and mesmerism r e
,
“ ”
solves itself into a laying on of hands to
-
,

adopt a biblical expression but receives its

,

scientific character when the mesmerist is

alive to the fact that in laying on hi s hands
he is using them as a sponge t o sop up or
attract and n ot as a j et of force through
,

which to exhale anything H i s proceedings

.

must now be much more deliberate than b e

fore The hands shoul d be kept on the seat
.

o f the ailment whatever it is for a minute

, ,

o r two then drawn off with a downward

,

movement and vigorously shaken as with the

idea that the bad magnetism is being thr own
off with the utmost possible energy and as , ,

I have before described impell ed into those

,

elemental agencies in nature with whi ch i t

may be in affinity and whose duty it may
,

be as the matter presents itself t o the op

,
’
e r at or s mind ,to carry it ofi Then the .

laying ou is renewed and the whole busin ess

-
,

must go on for as long a time within limits

’
as the operat o r s s trength will enable him to
 MESMERI C P R A C TI C E .

protract it a time which I am not suppos

ing to exceed m ore than half an hour Then .

something else has to b e d one If we have .

been succes sful i n withdrawing bad magnet

’
ism from the patient s system that has got ,

to be replaced with other magnetism of a

healthier character To get rid of the last
.

traces of that with which he m ay have been

contaminating his hands the mesmerist ,

should wash them and then begin again

, ,

“
either with a layin g on associated with
-

the idea of pouring in influence into the sys

tem instead of withdrawing it or by means ,

of downward passes of much the same kind

as those which he woul d employ with a view

of inducing a trance but n ot with the same

,

thought ; for remember it is the thought in ,

’
all cases in the mesmerist s mind whi ch col
,

ors the aura which he throws ofi so to speak ,

which gives its specificcharacte r to the i n

fl u e n ce he is bringing to bear on his subj ect .

Just as in the case of trance mesmerism he

"
should be thinking all the time of t he force -

b e i s throwing off as one of a somnolent

’
character which will deaden his patient s
,

nerves and obliterate his active conscious

ness so in the case of the curative influe nce
,

he must think of it as a stimulating e x hi l

“

,
2
28 TH E RA TI ONA LE OF MESMERI SM .

ar at i n g influence which will course along

,
’
the pati ent s nerves and refresh hi m as ,

champagne might refresh hi m in another

way though m uch less b e n e fiCi ally .

O ne more consideration in reference to

,

this curat ive manipulation The effect of .

“

hands laid on in the manner I hav e described

on the bare fl esh if that can be got at is
, ,

s imply tenfold more powerful than that

which woul d be conveyed through clothing
O f course this hint must be made use of or
.

neglected according to circumstances If .

clothing must be retained all one can say is ,

that in regard to intercepting m e sm e r l c l n

fl u e n ce the worst imaginable sort of cloth
,

ing is that made of silk .

’
Certainly as Esdaile s experience has so
,

largely shown u s immense curative e fie ct s

,

are wrought by nature during the magnetic

sleep if that can be superinduced But it
,
.

cannot always be superinduced even in cases ,

where people might be highly subject to the ‘

good influence of magnetic treat ment with

out losing consciousness ; and secondly even , ,

if it can be induced its e fie ct will be enor

,

m ou sly stimulated if besides putting the

,

p atient to sleep the

,
m am p ul at i on here r e

commended be adopted .
 INDE! .

AN IMAL m gn e t a
i m acc a C g M L A 66’ t oo te aha n e t
a m h a ’ily di ca d d C alc a D E d i w k i
s , ur , . . .
, .

t t be st ut s a le s
di c v y
er o s r e t r. or n,

p ph cy c c i g
35 M m
, ,
34 , 7 of, 10 1 08
fav abl p
; es er s s o er , .

3 7 ; i C ort az ot t e , of,
by ch R yal C m m i ch R v l i 7
un or e re on n ro e on e rn n
1 7 84 Fr e n t he F r e n o ut 1 6
i cc f l 2
o o s e on ,
s on , 40 ; su e xp e r i 1 80, 03
by ch
e ss u
M
.

m e n t s i n 1 831 , Fr e n C m
R oy 78 ha for t , de , 1
A cad m y Sci c 2 C ha c
vi al gy 8 d C lai ya c f m ly pp d
. .

al e of e n e s, 4 1 , 4 r ot , D r .
, 1 04 .

an d t , 9
in
a i g i di a ; u se
d p d m bid phy ical
ener r vo n e, or er su ose
t re t n se se s , 1 06 t
m h d p jci g c di i 2 5 2 al im p
se r ou s o e en on or s
1 08 et o s of r o e t n , 1 1 1 t 6;
al pla ac 52 pa a
. on on s , , re or
A st r 9
n e , t he , 4 , 96 , 1 00- 1 03 ; t of, t es t he
a d di c c m m i c ci b dy
n e ; se r
ffor s re t un on b e f m t he
w c ci ali y w’ ll ab
o on s ou sn e s s ro o
t e e n t he f 1 33 , t he r e t of, e st
a bj c 2 wii g
on s ou sn e ss o op e

2 p ibili i
cr t or an d e t , 1 03 l i she d, 1 7 D e le uz e s r t n s
A a d ii 2
su .

u r , t he , e fin t on of, 11 on , 1 7 1 80 ; t e s of,
2 2 f ki d
! n . oss
1 1 83 , 18 4 ; ou r n s of, 1 84

A a v 1 30 w 1 86 w h y m a if d all
vi al m a i m p
.

u r , t he n e r e , ; ho af n ot e st e
d by a fac l y ; n In

fe ct e t he t gn e t s 9 e r son s, 1 1 u t of t he
of a m m ic p a 2 h igh l f 93 lim i a i
o e r t or , 1 3 ; 1 t t on s of,
i b ai wi h 22
es er e r se , ;
m ya un t e t he t t he f
00, 01
c ci wi h C l h JC
r n .

t r ue t out T he H ar
i i g b dy d b ai 35 y 3 i v la
on s ou sn e ss o q u oun , on .

”
un t n o an r n, 1 m . on , 9 ; h1s “ I s s R e e
”
5 t a, 7
B ailly M 7 8 ci a
.

1 C f i on s ou sn e ss , t he se t o , n ot n
M m ’ 25 phy ical m a
. .
, ,

B ague t , 1 t he t t e r of t he
B a h a ai C m b dy 2 w ki g 2
es e r s, s

pa a d f m
.

d 1 80 t 9 1 t he of, 1 9
a d Al a d 3 3
e u rn s, o e s se e , . o ,
or n
B e rt r m 1 1 ay b e r t e t he
a i by a im al m ag b dy 33
n , ex n re , , se ro
t r e t se net 1 1 38
ac , on n o , , .

is m i n Fr 60
B iblical ph a m m i m Davi A d w J ack
n e ,
.

bi son , aut o
i w i ma y 22
r se s, es er s s, n re
n t e r e st t ogr ap hy of, 04- 07
Dl J
a ne
g2
1 es o n
M m ’
, .

6 P F , on
Bi Al f d d C ha l c ci ih
e e uz e , . es er s . .

n et , F E w t The
A i m al M ag
éré , on n e t on
y wii g
re an r es ar
im
,
”
16 18 m 39 , 4 7 ; r t n s of, on
B aid M Ma c h
n et s
m m i m 2
on n , . on ,
of e st e r , 8 ; 4 6 4 9 1 7 - 1 80

h y h yp i m wa m pa i a
r , r . n es er s —
,
.
,
’
,

hi s t e or of n ot s 9 ; hi s
B E f s lon , D r , a rt s n o
p im hi g M m ’ vi w 3 p iva
, r .

e n t s , 1 0 , n ot or i 8
v i m
te
mi d a di gb w
e x er
°
n es er s e s, r

gi n al e e n n hi s i sap p r e he n hi m
i 2 vi w a giga ic ’ d M m
s un e r st n et e en
n

d a plagia y 1 3
s on s , 1 ; hi s nt e r , 39
bl d I D o ay C
e an es .

un e r an 1 7 7 17 8
r , . rs , oun t , , .
2
30 I ND E! .

Ego, t he
2 5
lib a
54
d al m ly wi h a di a f
er
ci c
t e d
di i c i , of t he se n s i e
t he s e n
ost
e , 6, 7 ;
t
st n
se se
t
o

b w m m im
t
2 5 04
1v e ,
—
. on
E ll i ot Dr 7 7 7 4, 7 1 d,
a im al m ag i m d by la day i v iga
son ,
.
, , , ; et een es er s ; an
in t t e r- e st t or s of, n ot
d a ci i c l yal
n net s u se n
h
,
m
t r e at i se 1 06 ent fi t o t r ut , 1 9 ,
2 a di d vival m
g se r l ou s se s , s or o
1 08 0 s t or t e of
E cycl p dia m i m i m 2 2
. re es
rr or s of
ig a c p ych c
n o a
e s, p op u er s , .

lar of i s ci
c d c ip i dia a iv f m i iv
n or n e s
7 8 , 83 ; t on s of In t t
m m i m 2 m ag ic i fl c h a E
en e , es r , n es o , or e se n s e
es er s i n , 8— 8
7 . t o n et n ue n e t n u
E sche n m aye r , D r v on , 55 1 07
a kabl I ay pf li gh 3
. . r op e an s , i

E sdal l e , D r , t he r e m r n v 15 1 b le r t
w k
e . s ,
.

or s of, 66 68 , 1 04 — 1 07 an i
d by M d fav abl M
—

m m al m J
, i n hos u ssi e u , t
pi a p a ic
agn e t 1 s u se . e, or e o es
t l r ct e , 1 06- 1 1 0 m 0 4
ic d c i
. er, .

E sot e r 93 9
o t r n e , t he , 88, 4
a a2
.
,
04 ! rm

F a ia A p im 2 if
.
,
b b e, 55 t s of, 1 ! D
C ha l l d i
r , ex er en . e er, r. , .

F ér é , d A fr e B n et
a im al m af ai M a ’c by 9
r e s , an

Ga i
on

A bi
ut e r ,
n

wii g
m 6
H
c c ig
ap
agn e t 1 s

t n
p ph cy
ch R v
, 1 — 18

of, on
. L
La
on t
r
ne
e ,
, .
,
C az ot t e s
t he F r e n
se n es
ro
, ,
10
e
.

m ag im am b i m l c d d by 7
u n , r s on e rn n e o
n et an d s om n ul s ut 1 on 1 6- 1 80

ag a , as r e
s , or e , .

6 1 66 L n on , B de , 1 80
G li C m A d el M R ica d ’
—
. r on .

t de , 1 7 9 L e fr e y , e , on e of
D ch i iv 2 a m
en s, o e sse . . r s
G ra m t 7 17 9 e sse de , 1 8, se n s t e s , 5 ; he r st t t
G g y a m al m ag p i c 25
on , u . e en
Dr ni n et of e x e r e n e , 5 — 4
Edwi a im al m a
re or , .
, on .

i sm , 77 Le e , gn e t
cla v ya c 6
. n , on n

m is an d i r o n e , 9, 7 0
Ha d layi g
.

t he 1 on of, 1 6 L i e b ault , D r , 1 04
am y Ol v add by
n s, n
M m
. . .

“ ’ D ”

qd
H The , i er,
c ci y a
r on e r s se e, r r e ss
f
es , .
,
at P n s , 39 z
app a a c m
r e t so et
Ha h M m’ ica a
.

r t s orn , r ,A L m
n t r ns u i n ou s an at -P
P ac ical f m m ag cy a d
er . e r n e s, e
“
lat 0 1 of D e le u z e s t in g r o n e t s , r st l s , an
ci A im al M ag h m a ha d 2
°
r
I n st r u t on s on n t he u n n , 4

c f m di
.

”
n e t ism 49
H igh S f Mag ic i
.
,

59 66 1 97
e l , t he , 1 1 n et fl ue n
clai v ya c a f c l y ac 5 a
er -
,
n e ro s
a u t of, 1 93 ; t 1 8, 1
ac ivi y Mag i m bad
r o n e n e , .

of, how se t u p , 1 95 ; d net how t ge t ri

a
t
la d
t s , , o
can b e t r an s t e t o an y di s m of, 1 1 3- 1 1 8 ; t
2 ai d p vi h abi a 2
ay r e t ur n
a plac 22
o
e , 1 99 , 00 ; t r n e t ,1 , 1 3
d m m i m 2 22 Mal h b M
t nt re ou s t .

11 , 1 de , 1 7 8
H ly a ev 2 M al g h p c lia
un e r es er s ,
. es er e s, . .

C o t ,” t he , at T r e s , 1 n ot
a m a if a i a 2
to et
H l agai
o an er e u r as
h
.
,
G ost , t he si n n s t t he , 7 e st t on of n
ic vi w
t ur e ,
2
o n
y
Madam a c d
!
0 e sot e r t he of con st i t u
i p a y ivi
e

H ot e of, t of, 9 5- 9 7 ; se t e n d
ort e n se ,
2 i
e, ne on r
1 81 , 1 8 of, 95— 9 8
H yp i gg i ac M di c ch i gical S ci y f
. s on .

et
m h d d
n ot e st
222
c su on as ur a e o - r ur o o
,
1 1 0 , 1 3 , 1 6, 1 7 0 L on t he , 1 69 , 1 7
p ai af lap M m F d ic k A h y 5
t 1ve et o , on ,
.

of, of nt
o e r t on
im da g g d wi h i pi a
t er se es e r, re er on , ,
e , 1 60 ;m or al n e r s of, 7 8; t t he
t
i g i 2 bi h d , u e sse n s r
1 63— 1 67 t of 8; rt

H yp ic a c l p 10 ly lif wiig
. on e n u s, an

, 1 6, of, 36 ; t s of,
n ot t r n e , or s e e ,
w k d i ly
e ar e r n
17 38 3 6— ; at fir st e n t re

H yp im p wi h m ag abli h d
. or e
m n e t s , 36 ; e st
n ot s , t he t er
a p iva h pi al i a
r e r e se n t s t
am c cpi wh y
s e

i s on e t on , 1 t in V en n ,
i c v a im al m ag
te
f d by m m d
pr e r os

ai l d p a i
6
o e rn i n v e s 3 ; d s o e re d n n et
2m d w it
e rre so e
t i ga or s ,
t o e rn m 37
r e r s on , is , ass e in r e u t t on
 I ND E! . 2
31
an d f ort un e , vd y a b f M m 12
37 ; m o 0 to dan ~
ai abli h d T g c a iv 2
e e rs e or e es er,
in e u se of, 1 6 ,
7 a h ic f c
P 3 7 ; e st he t
Ha m y a c ci y 2 2
r s, s e e rs ur
” 1 e f e t s of, 1 8
c la igidi y i d c d e st
re t et et
av abl p
r on ,
se so , n a
1 39 ; m u s u r r
39 ; u n f or
by m al da g of
r e or t t
ch yal mm i i
e n u e
Ro Co , 1 36 ; n e r s of, 1 63
F re n
h y i
ss on o n
d m ai d c
or
of, 4 0 ; r e t r e m e n t 1 67 n ot t he o n of o t or s
Swi
t he t e or
la d d d a h al , 40 i p ac on e , 1 68 ; m ort n e of u n
l
to t z e r n , an
ki g
e t t e r of, t o t he ac
e t
of F r n e , lfi p i de r st an di n g t he o t e r
25 27 playi g wi h
n os s
m
6 hi s b aq ue t s, 1 ; t r e e s e s b ili t i e s of, 0 ;
7
c d d 22
t ,
by 2
n

m e r iz e d 16 t o b e on e m n e , 08 , 09 ; our
M m ic gy m h d by m cc ibl av h igh
.
,
et e n u e of
k wl dg pi i al
ost a
gh
es er en er , o s e ss e
W t h i t ou t t o b e d1 r e ct e d, e of s r t u
222 2 2
er no e evo
1 4 , 1 8- 8 l 1 ut i on , 0
M ic id 2vi ibl m a y M m i
. .

”
flu , e t o 7 78 e r st , t he , 7 ,
m m i Mi d b dy p ibl val f
e sm e r
22
s n es .

e r st s , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 60 , 89 , an d o
1 22 22 22 vi al m m i m d m i i g
es n , oss e ue o
1, ; an d t he in t he
1 ,
la i
t et er
gy ac al bj c iv
es er s n n

, 98 ; tu e t t on s of, 1 5
i c fi l m M ll Al
en er o e re .

e x st e n e of, t he r st e e en t o , D r b e r t , hi s H yp n o
p i cipl m m ic la j
.

e of m s ci t is on e of t he e s t ob e C
c
ar y r n
2p all d b k
es er o

e n e, 1 11, 1 1 ; r e se n t i n t i on ab le m o e r n oo s on t he
h um na big p pl d
e n s, 1 1 3 ; b c 25
ro e le su j e t , 1 — 1
by ci will p w 5
.

se of o er, 11
h a d di c i g Na
-
e xe r ;
u se of t he in re t n , 5 Dr 5
N w J R m m ic
n sse , .
, .

1 1 6- 1 1 8 t Dr
M m ic f c 2 h ali g by Am ica
. e on , . . .
, es er
3 35 1 7 1 4 , 49, d in
E gla d 7
-
es er or e , e n er an

M m ic p a i
, ,

1 50 , 1 54 6, 7 7
abl d Nic lai M
. n n , .

t e n t s, e n to 78 de , 1
h m lv
es er e o , . .

r s cr i e for t
b N i M
e s, 1 3 1 , o z et 13
pg
e se , .
, .

8
M e sm e r ic i iv se n s t 1 41 2 Occ l i m a i c 88 w
, 14 , t ; ho
ga d
e n e ss , u s , as sc e n e,
1 4 , 1 4 6 - 1 49 , 1 5 1 , 1 53
5 m 97 it t he s oul of
M m im ab m ha Odic f c 2
. re r s an , .

”
et t er t er t t he , 9 , 30
hyp i m 2 j c i
es er s ,
n or e, .

, 1 , ; r e e t on of
ci c a g a bl d
n ot s
re t alm
un e r , 5 ; d19 P e r st on , L or , 1
t he s e n e
a ly p ac ic i
.

e x t e n t of i t s e r P t e, 6 ; E i é et e t n , D r . , hi s le ct r ci t
p f i al p c i A i m al
r
”
e r s e u t on of i t s 4 3
adh di i c i b P da gh
r o e ss on n e ,

M
.

e r e n t s, 6 ; st n t on d ige ai r e , hi s t er
hyp i m va d 25
e an u
’
.
,
an d, 7 l ue L e on i e , 6 6
’

w n ot s
t een
la P a a cc f l
—
.

m
of, i n s e ar ch g out t he re ot e t , B r on du ,
i
t on s of mi d b dy 5
an d o m m i
,1 ; ih 55 5 5 wi , 56 ,
su e ss u
8, 9 ; r t
giv
e r st ,
i g
n es
cide n t al al d m
e n it by od 5 s of, 5 6— 5 9 , 1 0
hyp i 2 w hil phy M
n .

n ot st s , 0 ; ho
P to r e l , du , hi s P of
e rn
dy 2 hyp i m a
0 ; n ot s ici di s sm ,
”
1 98
os o ys

vival 2 al P vi i b wild i g m y i
st u t
,
2
.

t or t e d r e of, ; t he r e st e r e s
li a
t e r t ur e of, 36— 84 ; r eali y 2
t of
re
of, 01
s on , e er n

f ly ab P ychic f ifl c
ych c ga i m a ki d b dy
.

t he p he n dm e n a of, ul e st or ce , n u e n e of, 89
2 ficacy
s .

l i she d, 4 , 4 3 ; e f of, i n Ps i or n s , of
gical p a i
n o ,
o e r t on s , 6 7 , 68, 7 4 ; 1 94
pl i d ly by P y g Ma q i C
sur .

can b e e x t he d u s e ur , hast e n e t
ic d c i wii g a im al m ag
an e on r u s e,
e sot e r o t r n e , 88 , 93 ; p he r t n s of, on net
p ych c h i
n
m e n a of, s i m
i in t e r n a 3 46 4
app i d a pla
no —
s , .

9
t ur e , 0 ; l e nt ,
c a iv R ic h l Mi Ba
to
2
99 ; ur t e , 1 04 1 7 n ot un i of
applicabl a c a ich bac h i iv 2
—
e e , ss , on e r on v on
v e r sall y
’ 5 Re t
iv ag w k 2
e as ur en s se n s e s, ,
t 1 09 ; how i t 6
R ic h bach a C ha l
en t
giv a w i
e , or s, .

1 09- 1 1 8 ; t B
m a y biblical p h a
e r e st
2 ch 2
es ne n e en , r on r e s v on ,
”
to 5 hi R 1 0 3 31 4,
ally p ac ic d h a d
-
e se ar
2
n r se s , ; s e s, ,
re r t e t ous n s of 11 .
32
2 IN D E! .

Re i ca a i c lt h y
t on , t he o cu A i m al m ag t i m t Te st e , , on an

82
n rn e or ne s ,

im a a iv m d
.

of, 1 94— 1 9 6 1 80- 1

R ica d J J A c d f ga d
. .

hi s T rel t o e of r e
w k i c a iv m m i m h g 2 02
r ,
. . .
, re or o e, e r
t i n g t i n s,
ph am M d M Wa d
or n ur e es er s , .

4 9 54 To
m m i m d by
—
.
, r , an r r , . .

m er s , in
S c by D h ! i ic Mag
es u se a pu ‘

7 o st t at i on , 1 69 , 1 0
im T w d R C Ha
or e s r 1s

f
.
,
”
n et 69 haun cy
S ai a f c d m m ic i v iga
s , . o n se n , ev re , .

t m t he t r of, r e or s of
p a bj c 1 0 1 i by 7 0 2
en s on ,
n s er ro es er n e st
t or t o su t 4 41 , t on s 7
ly C a
-
o er e , , , .

ly é
14 3 , 1 44 T r a v e s , t he Ho o t at ,
S
.

e n se s , t hefi n ot t he l
av p cpi 2
ve , on
e n u e s of t on , 1 4
S i iv ic
gh f V A M 8
er e

al p w f dif
’
.

t d
at fir st t z ir , 17
ly am g ick p 2 ii
en s e s, sou or q .
, .

3, V in
2 im wi h 2 2 p
on on s e r s on s, s on , un e q u o er o ,
4 t t 5, 8, fe r e n t e r son s, 4
c a i y w ak V i alm gy d a m al m ag
; e xp e r en s , .

n ot l t ni net
m d d 2
ne e ss r e ener , an
in i 15 9 8
S l cc l id a f
e s

21 03 Wa d M
. .
, ,
97 t t he ,
S pi i al pla ph m
ou o u e o
d M
,
tu 93 t he , 10 To
S p i al ci c m m i m d by i m
r ne , , , . r , r. , an r . a ,
ir 87
ligh c
tu
gy 2
s en e es er s u se n a pu

pa abl f h d f
, .
,
S t 8 9 170
as s our e of e n e r t at i on , 1 6
S wi
un , , .
, .

t he
22 27 4
ne, r e o er o ,
”
1 0, 1 1 . ! oist , t he , 67 , 69 , 7 - .
 T w o St an dar d Bo o ks

The osop hy
AN D

East e r n Occult Scie n ce

T he P r e si de n t o f t he Si m la
Ecle ct i c T he o sophi cal
f

So ci e ty, Si m la,
‘

In di a

H O U G HT O N , MI F F L I N C OMPA N Y
BOST ON AN D N EW Y OR !
S ci e n c e ye t g iv en t o t he p u lic b .

T he y w ill app e al m ost s t r o gly t o all l v e s of t he m arv e ll ou s t o

gh
n o r ,

all who a e st u d e t s of East e n t hou t t o all w ho are i t e r e st e d i n

h k
r n r , n

t he va i e d p e n om e n a of s pi r i t u ali sm an d it s i d e d t opic s , an d e s
h b hh h
r n r

p e ci ally t o t a t p or t i o of t he p u lic w ic i s a t t r ac t e d b y T e os op hy
b k h b k
n .

A o o m ore or l e s s s ay s Mr S i n n e t t i n t i s o c e a of o o s
” “

h ,
.
, n

whic h i s c o s t a t ly w e lli g f or t fr om act iv e W e st e r civili at i on

n n n n z ,

m ay s e e m a v e r y s m all m at t e r ; b u t t o t he highly c o se r va t iv e d v o
b k hh h , n e

t e e s Of o cc u l t s ci e c e i n t he Ea s t a oo w ic se t s f i plain
g h hh
n t , or n

lan u age w ich all who r un m ay r e ad t he i t e t o s e c r e t i t e rp e t a

g h b
, ,
r n r

t i on s of N a t u e s s p i r i t u al d e s i i t he t o e e c om m un i
’
t ha t ha e
g b
r n v r n

cat e d o ly i n t he d e adli e s t s e c e cy t o s t u d e t s of l on a s orp t i on in

h
n r n

t he p u r s u i t of s u c h t e ac i g c o st i t u t e s a vi olat i on of o ld o cc u l t
g h b g
n , n

u s a e w ich is q u it e e w ilde i an d appallin g T o all i t e n t s

h g k g h
r n . n

an d p u r p ose s t ou h t he ow l e d e e e s e t f or t h i s o n e w di s

h b h ,
n r n

cov e ry for t os e y w om i t is ow e v e al e d i t i s a e w r e v e lat i on

k
n r , n

for t he whole w o ld Ea st e r an d W e s t e r n ali e r i i t s p r e se n t

— n ,
—
n

e x plici t di s t i c t n e s s n .

Mr Si n n e t t has wr i t t e n sp e cial i t rod u ct i on s for t he Am e r ican

k g
. n

e di t i on of t he se w or s whic h hav e al r e ady r un t hr ou h s e v e r al e di

t i on s in En lan d g .
,

T he O ccu lt W or ld .

BY A . P . S I NN E TT .

’
Thi r d Am e r i can fr om t he F ou r t h E n glish E di t i on , w i t h t he A ut hor s
C or r e ct i on s an d a n e w P r eface 1 677 2
0 .
,

C Nh EN pS hical facci
T O
T : P re e ; I n t ro t on ; O
y i
du c i
cc ul
cc ul t i s m an d it s A de p t s
xp e ri e c e s T e achin s of g
O cc u l h il p hy a h
The T e os o So e t F rs t O t E n

t P oso ; L t er t P e n om e n O cc u l a ; A pp e n di x .

T he p b ably h m c m p h iv d gg iv f a y hi g h
b kioo s ro t e ost o re en s e an su e st e o n t n in t e

way f h hi pla a i h b li l d b ha
o

a g a pi i al awa i g i
re t
t
s fe OSOp

m a h T h ig f h im all
r tu
h

p i ha way T h T h phical S ci y c ll c i g d ab la i g m ch m’
o nt t t
f
c ex

e
ke n
n

n
t on

e os o
,
.

n
T
on e
e r e can

or

o et
or

ar e
e

n ot
tt e

o
er

e
ou

t n
t t
e

an
s
t w e ar e on t

t
ns o

u t n
t e t
e ev e o

u
es

p a da a d c ib i i f g a i d val ha M Sm
.

Occ l W ld
or t n t t , an n o on tr ut o n s o re ter n t e re st an ue t n r. n et t s
”
u t or B ost on T r a v e lle r

i c i y i ppa hi d v d a
. .

H i w s o n s n d i g i
er ag m t s a re n t ; s e ot e e rn e s t n e ss an n e n ous r u ent s

li d i ad R li i P hil ph l y l ! C hicag !
ci d h h w m pha
en st an h n t e re st t e re er e g o- oso i ca on r n a o

f ma y a hi k
. .

f h m d
I h t as e x te I t e 1 n t e r e st o n e r n e st t n e rs t s o s on e ore se

a h f pi i al h W
.

o t e o e rn se St y rc or s r tu t rut .
—
or ce st e r .
 Eso t e ri c Bu ddhi sm .

BY A . P . S I NN ETT .

S i x t h A m e r i can f r om t he F ift h E n g li sh E di t i on . Wi t h an I n t r oduc

t i on w r i t t e n es p e ci ally f or t he A m e r i can E di t i on . 1 677 2
0,

C O N T EN T S
E E C HE S
.

ESO T C au xp it i
h E
h i bu
I . RI T A R . N t r e of t he P r e se n t os on . Se
a l dg a i
Ma h a a
clus i on o f E s t e rn ! n ow e e —
T he A r t s an d t e r At t r t es
cc u l i g
.

la d My ic
.

T he tm s O t st s ener ally I so te st s
f i cc u l up
. .
.

In e r or g Y o ai i g
is O t Tr n n T he G re t a P r os e It s
al C s q u e c e s
. .
.

In cid ent c i n P r e se n t C on e s s on s
N N g
on e . .

T H E C O ST IT UT I O O F MA N Es o t e ic C os m o on y W he r e
II
g k b k
—
r

t o Be i W o i g ac f om Man t o U iv e rs e A alys s of
. .
.

n . r n r n . n 1

Man T he Se v e n P i cipl e s r n

NE H N
. .

Es ot e r ic Vi e w s of Ev ol u t i o
III T H E P LA
h C AI
b g h
TA RY n

ou d t e m
.

P o e ss of Ma
. .

T he C ai of G l o e s T he
b n —
n —
r r n r

O igin al Ev ol u t i on of t he G l o e s T he L owe r
. .

S pi al A dva c e r n . r .
—

! i gd om s n

E
.

T H E W O RL D P R I ODS U i fo m i t y of N a t u e R o u n d s an d
IV
b
n r r -

O b j e c t iv e a d S u j e c t iv e L iv e s
. . .

R ac e s T he Se p t e a y L aw
T ot al I ca a t i o s
aclys m s A t la t i s
.

F or m e r R ac e
L e m u r ia
n rn Ea t
T he C yclic L aw
P e r i odi c C at
n
n
n

.
r .

s on
n

r h .
.

E HN
. . . .

V D VA C A Spi i t u al D e st i i e s of t he Ego ! a ma Di
hb gh
—
r n r

D u ad
. . . .

vi s i o f t he P i mp l s at D e a t P o g e s f t he H i e
hh g
—
n o r n e r r s o r

Ex i s t e c e i n D e vac a S u j e c t iv e P
. .
.

h n e s A it chi n ro r s v
—
. .

Ear t ly C o e c t i on w i t D e vac ha nn D e v acha i c P e i od s n n r

b
. .

! A MA L O C A T he A s t al She ll I t H a i t at I t s N at u r e
VI
h
—
r s

S u vivi g I m p u l se s Me di u m s an d S e ll s
. . . . .

r El m e t al s n e n

A ccid e t s a d S u icid e s
. . .

L os t P e rs on ali t i e s
n n -

N Eh E g
. .

T H E H U MA T ID WAV P r o r e s s of t he Mai n W av e
V II
b
-

O s c u at i o s T w ilig t a d D aw of Ev ol u t i
. . .

b n O ur N e igh n
—
r . n on .
— v

o i g P la n e t s
r n G ada t i s of Sp i r i t uali t y P e m at u e ly D e
.
—
r on r— f r r

v e lop e d Eg os I t e r val s of R e I ca a t i o n - n rn n

E N h
. .

V I II T H E P R O G R SS OF H U MA I TY T he C oic e of G oo d o r

T he S c o d H al f f Ev ol u t i o T he D e ci s iv T u i g
.

E l v1 —
e n o n -
e rn n

Sp i i t u ali t y an d I t e ll e c t T he S u viva l f t he F i t t s t
. .

P oi t n

h b
—
r n r o e

T he Si x t
. . .

Se n s e D e v e l p m e t of t he P i cipl e s i t he i r O o n r n n r

T he Su id e c e of t he U fit
.

P ovi s i
de fo A ll T he
h
r s n n —
r —
r on
Ex c e p t i al C a e S i Scie t fic Expla at i o u
.

T on S
j t ic S a t i s - e r n l n n —
s e

T he D s t i y f F ail u e s H u m a Ev l u t i on R vi e w e d
. .

fle d —
e n o r o e

Hh
. n .

B U D D A’ T he Esot e ic Bu ddha R e I ca at i o s of A de pt s
I!
h
r — - n rn n

Bu dd a s I ca at i o Bu dd as of t he G e at
. . . 1
.

T he S v e
R ac e s
’
d a s T ime hA aloki t e hw a a .

Sa ka acha ya
A ddi Bu dd a v
n

V e dan t in D oc t r i n e s
.
rn

A d e p t s hip i n Bu d
T s onn
s

r
n

r
.

r .
e n

h .

.
-
r

g
! .

i va
I t s R e m ot e n e s s
N I RVA
ld
N
c di
P re e n G r
i va a
A ada i
t on s
.

i va a h h P a r t ial
ar a N i r
. g .

N r n a — T he T r e s o
va a Bu dd a
n

al g
an d N r
. i va a
n
Of N r

a d i va a
N r n
n N r n
tt ne

di i
P
Ah
i va a a ai d y d e p t s
ai m e n t
.
.

b
.

Gen e r
S r t
P r o r e s s t ow r s N r n
p i i u ali
t y an d R e ligi
on
C on t on s of i t s A t t
u ui
T he P r s t of T r t u
.

h n .

N E E
. .

! I T H E U IV R S T he D ays a d N ig ht s of B ahm a T he n r —

Var i o u s Ma va t ar as a d P alayas T he Sola Syst e m

. .

n n T he n r —
r —

R e c om m e c e m e t of Ev ol u t i on
. .

U n iv e s al P alaya r r C re a —
n n

T he G e at F i st C a u se
. .

t i on al C yclic P r oc e ss
”
T he Et e r r - rn

NE E E E
. . .

T H E D O CT R I R VI W D sp o d e n c e of t he Es ot e r ic
! II .

D o ct r i e w i t
T he O igi n of Evil
Vi si l e N at ure
n
Co
h b
F e e W ill a d P e d e s t i a t i o
g
G e ol y B i ol ogy a d t he Es ot e ic T e ac
.
.

r
rr e n

n r n n .

h
i g n .

T he D o c t i e as D i st o t e d
r

Bu dd i sm a d Sc ola s ip T he O igin of all T i g h h h

T he U l t i m a t e D i ssol u t i n of C o
r n
n
.

r
o

r
—
,

.
—
,

‘
n

o
r

h n s .

s ci o u T an sm ig r a t i o T he So u l a d t he Spi r i t Per
‘

e s sn s r n n

s o ali t y a d I divid u ali t y

. . .

n ! a rm a n n .
- .

We p i p a i f w ll k w B ddhi m N i va a ! a m a
c
a abl ha hav b gi v b f
om e u on nt er re t t on s o e - no n u st t er s as r n r

d B ddha m ch plai
, ,

i cli d b li v hav b f
an u d m so u n er an or e re son e t n e een en e or e

ha h g i i dc i f
,

ac f m h m aj y f hi g a iv l f
t t we ar e n ne t o e e e we e e or e us t e enu n e nn er o tr n e o

B ddhi mu N hi g i h b k d
s ot n n t e oo e tr ts ro t e e st o t s re t r a o
C h i ia i y p c f h i ll c al p w f i ag Ev
.

a ha y adi g v al h g d f B ddhi ic h gh d h c p h iv
r st di m m i n t , n or she s our r e s e t or t e n te e tu o er o ts s es . en

st re n re e s t e r an n e ss o u st t ou t an t e om re en s e

pla f v l i Ma y d c i la g d p which ly
hi d i achi g d d c i f h d p i
f i
n e ss o ts n o e o ut on n o tr n es ar e e n r e u on ar e on

C h i ia v y
.
,

h m a b i g A f adi g E ic B ddhi m w m ha v c vi c d
n te at n our r st n te n , an o tr nes o t e ee e st n t e r e st to e er

u n e n t e r re n sot e r u s e ar e or e t n e er on n e

ha i h O i i a f wi d m which wh p d h Occid will

.
,

Wh v pa i ly d h h f lly ad h wh l
t t n t e r ent s s t or e o s o en o en e to t e en t
f h g a val
, , ,

b e o t e re t e st ue oe er t ent an t o ug t u re s t e o e,

will w hi k b am ply wa d d Om h R p h
.

I p p la i y h ca i d h b k h d i d c d
, e, t n e re r e . a a e n t i can
gh h E gli h di i
.
,

ica di i i which h
ts o u r t as rr e t e oo t r ou t re e n s e t on s , an n u e

h a h p pa a p cial i d c i
giv m ch a ddi i al i f m a i b a i g m a y f h p bl m d al wi h H i
t e ut or to h A re re s e n t ro u t on to t e mer n e t on , n e

es u t on n or t on e r n on n o t e ro e s e t t s

igi al a m h w v w m ad wi h ca hav b p v d by
.

or n st te en t s, o e e r, e re e t re , an d e n ot een ro e

livi g I dia phil ph b i c c T h y hav giv him h a a c ha

a d i a d d w hy a m f h ch m f
n n n oso e rs t o e n or r e t . e e en t e ssur n e t t
h b k

i
a
t
n
e

di
d oo

l m a i g f B d dhi m h
t u r e as u n
as

by h i i ia f cc l ci c I h Ea h i
v b
t
e rs t oo
n ow st

i b k b i c fi d h
pi
n

t
s

e
s

n
sou n

t tes o
an

o
t r ust
u t s
ort

en e .
st te
n t
en

ut
e
t o

st
t
t
e

e
s

nner s

to t
e e o

t ua e n n o u s as n e er een p ut nt o oo s, s on ne ose

h hav h
w o ligi al a i ha abl h m
e t e re c iv i I i hi m a
ous e x t t on t t en es t e t o re e e t t s t s e n

which M Si gi v h W w ld
.

i ng h b h fi r. nn et M t as een t e r st t o e to t e e st e r n or r

Si d d im p a ic p c la i w ll ligi
. .

h
nnet t as r e n e re an ort nt se r v e to s e u t on as e as t o r e ous

h gh
xp i i i plai aigh f wa d
t ou Ad i t . B ost on oe r t se r

Th b k p i i ic i
.

dia phil phy h f v il d by all g y d

e oo o sse ss e s an ntr ns n t e r e st as an e os t on n n st r t or r

E gli h f h h g v l m
, ,

n s f o t e u e o u e o In n oso e r e t o ore e e e or an
ym b li m S
, ,

s o sll . an F r a n ci sco B u et in .

MI FFL I N
’
H O U G H TON , 8: C O .
, P n hhshe r s ,
4 P AR ! ST .
,
B ST O ON ; 1 1 EA S T I 7 T H ST .
, N EW Y O R! .