The modern era of hypnosis and hypnotherapy really began with Franz Anton Mesmer
who left the word “mesmerism” to posterity. Of course, as we now know, hypnosis and
trance states are fundamental human traits, which have been around for as long as
humanity itself. Ancient texts from Egypt, China, Greece and Rome all describe practices
that we might now regard as hypnotic. Mesmer was the first to lead hypnotism out of the
realms of the occult and into scientific study, although some might argue that he didn’t lead
it very far!
Franz Anton Mesmer (May 23, 1734 – March 5, 1815) was a German physician with an
interest in astronomy, who theorised that there was a natural energetic transference that
occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called animal magnetism,
sometimes later referred to as mesmerism. The theory attracted a wide following between
about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the century.
As a young man, Mesmer studied theology and law before moving on to medicine. The
theory which made his name and ensured his notoriety was that of “animal magnetism”,
something which had its origins in his doctoral thesis, completed at the University of
Vienna in 1766. Mesmer was highly influenced by the work of Isaac Newton and the theory
of gravity. He theorized that the “tidal” influences of the planets also operate on the human
body through a universal force, which he termed “animal magnetism”.
At the time that it was written, Mesmer’s thesis aroused no controversy, and at the age of
33, he went on to found a perfectly conventional practice in Vienna. As he approached his
forties, however, he found himself increasingly dissatisfied with the approach to medicine
that was current at the time – a combination of bleeding, purgatives and opiates that was
often more painful and terrifying than the conditions it sought to treat. Mesmer favoured
an altogether gentler approach, and his devotion to his patients was quite extraordinary.
His breakthrough case was that of Franzl Oesterline, a 27 year old woman suffering from
what Mesmer described as a convulsive malady.The symptoms were so severe that Franzl
Oesterline moved into Mesmer’s house to receive round-the-clock care. He successfully
induced in Fraulein Oesterline the sensation of a fluid draining rapidly from her body,
taking her illness with it. Her recovery after that was complete and virtually instantaneous.
From a modern perspective, we can see that the results were produced by the hypnotic
suggestion of a fluid draining from the body – a wonderful healing metaphor that wouldn’t
be out of place in a 21st century hypnotherapy practice. Even Mesmer realised that the
magnet had nothing to do with the cure. His system rested on the belief that illness was
caused by depleted levels of animal magnetism, and that these could be replenished by the
healer transmitting some of his own abundant magnetic force across the ether to the
patient. The magnet was simply a device that allowed this to happen, along with the
complex and lengthy sequence of hand gestures and touch known as the “mesmeric pass”.
Mesmer went on to achieve similarly impressive results with other patients, claiming cures
for blindness, paralysis, convulsions and other “hysterical” conditions, as well as effective
treatment of menstrual difficulties and haemorrhoids! He became a celebrity, going on tour
and giving dramatic demonstrations of his techniques and powers at the courts of the
European nobility
.
Mesmer’s taste for theatre and showmanship may well have contributed to the hostile
reception he received from the medical establishment of the day, although he personally
believed that it was because he dared to get results without using conventional medical
techniques. In any event, his life and career became dogged with controversy. Most
famously, he was denounced as a charlatan after curing the concert pianist Maria-Theresa
Paradis of psychosomatic blindness. This didn’t meet with the approval of her parents, who
stood to lose a royal pension if their daughter was cured. She was forcibly and rather
violently removed from Mesmer’s house, where she’d been staying to receive treatment,
whereupon her blindness returned. Although this says more about her parents than it does
about Mesmer, the episode was seized upon by his critics as proof that he was a fraud.
Mesmer was irrevocably brought into disrepute when a royal commission was appointed to
investigate his findings. The commission, which included such luminaries as Benjamin
Franklin and John Guillotine, could find no evidence to support his theories of animal
magnetism. They observed that Mesmer was able to cure patients by having them touch
“magnetized” trees, but that patients were cured even if they touched “non-magnetized”
trees. Therefore, they concluded, Mesmer must be a charlatan.
The psychological truth of Mesmer’s approach went unrecognized, just as the tranceinducing and suggestion techniques that were the real reason for his success lay
undiscovered beneath the layers of the magnetic, mesmeric pass. Nevertheless, Mesmer’s
legacy persisted, into the nineteenth century and beyond, as arguments over his techniques
shaped the development of hypnosis as we know it today..