Mesmerism §288-§290 Organon §288

Positive mesmerism

I find it necessary to make mention here of so-called animal magnetism or mesmerism (so named in gratitude to Mesmer, its first founder) which differs in nature from all other medicines. This curative power (often foolishly denied or reviled for an entire century) is a wonderful, priceless gift of God, granted to humanity. The life force of a healthy mesmerist, gifted with this power, dynamically streams into another human being by means of touch or even without it-indeed even at some distance. It does so through the powerful will of a well-intentioned individual. The mesmerist's life force dynamically streams into another human being just as one of the poles of a powerful magnet dynamically streams into a rod of raw steel. This curative power works in a different way in that in part, it replaces the life force lacking here and there in the patient's organism and in part, it drains off, decreases and more equally distributes the life force that has accumulated all-too-much in other places, thereby arousing and maintaining unnamable nervous sufferings. In general, it extinguishes the morbid mistunement of the patient's life principle, replacing it with the mesmerist's normal tunement which is powerfully impinging upon the patient. It does so, for example, in cases of old ulcers, amaurosis, paralysis of individual limbs, etc.

Many a rapid apparent cure in all ages can be attributed to the animal magnetizers gifted with great nature-power. The action of communicated human power upon the whole organism by means of the most powerful, good-natured will of a man whose life force is in full bloom 235 has been most brilliantly shown in the revival of some persons who remained in apparent death for a long time-a kind of wakening from death of which history gives us several undeniable examples. If the mesmerizing person of either sex is capable at the same time of good-natured enthusiasm (or perhaps even a degenerated form of it, such as bigotry, fanaticism, mysticism or obsessive philanthropy) then he is all the more in a position, with this philanthropic, self-sacrificing action, not only to direct the power of his prevailing good nature exclusively upon the object requiring his help but also, as it were, to concentrate it there, thus occasionally working wonders.

Comment

235 Especially one of those men (of whom there are few in humanity) who, along with great good nature and full-blown bodily powers, possesses very little or even no sexual drive. Consequently, all the subtle life spirits that would otherwise be employed in the preparation of semen are available in quantity, ready to be communicated to others through touch and a powerful exertion of will. Some mesmerists with such curative power, whom I got to know, possessed all of these particular attributes.