Mesmerism Considered
by Randy Alley
Mesmerism was the enlightened fad of the late 18th century. It had a lot in common with
phrenology so much so that one group combined the two practices. Like phrenology,
mesmerism was a revolutionary "science" with thousands of converts; it promised
to take mankind to the next level of human development; its practitioners promised
adherents that each person would be able to achieve his or her desire. Mesmerism went even
further by promising to cure illness and hunger.
Belief in mesmerism required a lot of faith. Unlike phrenology, mesmerism provided no
physical evidence. When practicing phrenology the reader could look at the skull and see
the protuberances. Observers could see the measurements between the ridges that indicated
the alleged organs. People could see the differences among individuals. For mesmerism, or
animal magnetism as it was called, followers had to believe there was nothing to see. The
only support for animal magnetisms existence was the word of the mesmerist, or as he
was often called, somnambulist.More |