Mesmer, meanwhile, prowled the room outfitted in an aristocratic wizard getup, complete with a lavender robe and a magnetized metal wand. The afflicted sat in a circle around the baquet, hands linked, receiving a healing dose of Mesmer vibes. The room was richly appointed and dimly lit, the air filled with incense and weird melodies from an instrument called a glass harmonica. Iron rods protruded from the top, which patients would press to the ailing parts of their bodies.ĭescriptions of the scene in the baquet salon are pretty strange. The apparatus consisted of a large wooden tub filled with iron filings, glass bottles, and water, magnetized by Mesmer himself. Fortunately, the resourceful doctor harnessed his supposed ability to transfer animal magnetism to inanimate objects and built a helpful contraption, which he called the baquet. Before long, Mesmer was inundated with as many as 200 clients a day, making it difficult to treat them individually. The Vienna scandal didn’t seem to damage his credibility much, and there were plenty of rich, ailing, bored aristocrats in need of his services. Paris initially proved fertile ground for him. When word got out that Mesmer had not cured her as he had claimed (there were also some reports of inappropriate touching), a scandal erupted, and Mesmer fled to Paris in 1778. According to some accounts, Paradis was able to see when Mesmer was in the room, but went blind again when he left. His treatment of patients using mesmeric techniques brought great success for a time, but his failed attempt to cure famous blind piano prodigy Maria Theresia von Paradis around 1777 eventually brought trouble. He entertained socialites-Mozart and Joseph Haydn among them-at his manse, where he also set up a medical practice. Mesmer married wealthy widow Maria Anna von Posch in 1768, cementing his place in elite society and entering a period of high times in Vienna. But he eventually abandoned the magnets after deciding that an individual with particularly strong magnetism (such as himself, of course) could achieve the same effect by laying hands on or passing his hands over a patient’s body. Taking a page from Hell, Mesmer began working with patients by using magnets to move their fluid around and restore their health. Health was a result of the magnetic fluid being in balance, while illness was the result of blockages. His theory held that all living beings have a magnetic fluid (akin to electricity-it was not unusual to speak of energy as “fluid” in Mesmer’s time) running through their bodies, and that this fluid could be transferred between bodies and even to inanimate objects. While that may sound like some sort of sexy super power, Mesmer’s meaning was a bit more literal. But it was not until several years later, when he encountered Jesuit astronomer Maximilian Hell (yes, his real name) and his treatment of patients using magnets to produce artificial “tides” in the body that Mesmer began referring to animal magnetism. Influenced by Isaac Newton’s ideas about the role of heavenly bodies on ocean tides, in 1766 he published a doctoral thesis titled De planetarum influxu in corpus humanum ( On the Influence of the Planets on the Human Body). After a childhood studying in a monastery and Jesuit schools, he enrolled at the University of Vienna, where he studied law and then medicine, graduating with honors. Mesmer was born in 1734 in Iznang, Germany to a forest warden and a locksmith’s daughter. He is also part of the select group of people in history to have an entire verb- mesmerize-named for him. His theories were debunked in his time and sound bizarre today, but some credit him with laying the foundation for the practice of modern hypnotism. Mesmer was an 18th century doctor who developed the theory of animal magnetism (more about that later), as well as a related style of treatment that came to be known as mesmerism. Is this man a hypnotist or a movie villain? A healer or a charlatan? In the case of Franz Anton Mesmer, the answer to all of the above could be yes. He stares fixedly into the patient’s eyes, stroking her limbs, and then passing his hands in front of her body in a series of cryptic motions. A tall, striking doctor with an unusually piercing gaze sits opposite his patient, firmly pressing her knees between his own.
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