Volume 8, Issue 5, page 5

HYPNOTISM

By ALBERTA M. O'CONNELL

Part 1 -- MAGNETIC HEALING, AND ITS DANGERS

RIEDRICH ANTON MESMER, an old student of occultism , reincarnated
in 1734. He attended a medical
college in Vienna and graduated in 1766. Soon after that, he
resumed his studies of occultism under the same
master who had taught him in a previous life. Shortly after he
began the practice of medicine, be became
dissatisfied with the system of therapeutics as it was then
understood , and in 1778 moved to Paris,
then the acknowledged center of the scientific world, and began
practicing a system of"magnetic"
treatments of the sick, which was to make him both famous and
infamous.

many of the cases Mesmer cured were cases that physicians had
pronounced incurable, and as all who could afford
it began to flock to Paris to be treated by this new system, his
practice brought down upon himself the
condemnation of many of the medical men of that time. They began
to wage war against him, just as the medical
profession has during the last century against Christian and
Mental Scientists and osteopaths, and an investigating
committee was appointed to check Mesmer's claims. Their report
was so adverse to Mesmer that his clientele began
falling away.

In 1783. Mesmer founded the Order of Universal Harmony, a secret
order built upon the lines of occultism, under
the direction of his teacher, Count Saint Germain, who also was
in Paris. Its popularity was short lived, and to the
few left, Mesmer taught the occult system of therapeutics,
occultism, and his system of '%agnetic healing" which
he called "Mesmerism" However, after most of his students
deserted him, he moved to England, where he met With
little success. He finally returned to Zhe fatherland, where he
died in 1815.

For many years, little was heard from Mesmer's students or about
his system, but in 1841, a Dr. James Braid, of
Manchester, England, inaugurated a system patterned after
Mesmerism, which he called "Braidism", but which
subsequently became known as hypnotism

The primary difference between the Braid and Mesmer systems is
that Mesmer taught that mesmerism is an
emanation of certain particle-, called animal magnetism, from one
person which affects the will and nerves of
another, while Braid taught that there is no such emanation_ that
thru the will of the operator, or thru mechanical
processes, an artificial mental condition is awakened in the
subject, and that during this condition, the volition of
the subject is under control of the operator. In other words, it
is the influence of one mind over another. How one
mind can affect another without an emanation is beyond this
writer's comprehension, but maybe hypnotists can
explain it.

SEPTEMBER, 1961 The IqBERREE

There are supposed lines of division between the two systems, but
Mesmer really taught two systems in one.
First, that there is a flow of magnetic force which he designated
as animal magnetism, and that this emanating force
is curative in its nature; second, that there can be coercion of
mind by mind. He practiced the first and warned his
students against practicing the other. The world, of course,
confused his teachings, as it usually confuses anything
of an occult nature, and remembered the second system without his
caution. Animal magnetism is now known as
mesmerism, and hypnotism is known as sleep, artificially produced.

Mesmer taught that mesmerism is a cosmic force which is apart of
the law of love or the law of attraction, and
that it flows thru man and may be directed by his will. For
example, he showed that the force flowing from his
hands was a force that he could draw into himself and then give
to another. He also showed that he could get
approximately the same effect by using large magnets, thus
proving that this is a general and not a personal force he
used.

The law of gravitation is a part of this magnetic force, and so
is love in all its gradations, whether it be human
love, animal love, or passion. The law of attraction manifesting
thru an animal body we now designate as animal
magnetism. This cosmic force, passing thru an animal, is nothing
more nor less than the Universal Life Principle.
Passing thru man as human-animal magnetism, it manifests itself
as that peculiar vibration of force which his
development permits.

There is, however, a physiological condition necessary to a body
in order to make it magnetic, just as there is a
physical condition necessary to make any mass magnetic. For
example, glass is not magnetic as compared -with
iron or steel. The rate of vibration of glass is so different
from that of magnetism that it does not make a good
conductor for that force as it flows over it. The condition
necessary to make a proper basis for
the animal or human magnetism to manifest is the excess, above
the normal, of the number of
red blood corDuscles which vibrate at a high rate. Wi th this
condition there is established
the physiological basis which enables the cosmic force to
manifest, and having the proper
physiological basis, a person, either consciously or
unconsciously, draws within himself this
cosmic force thru the left side of his body, and passes it out
thru his right side, the left
being the negative and the right the positive side of the body.

Animal magnetism can neutilized by man thru the blending of his
aura with that of another,
or thru transmission by physical contact, laying on of hands,
etc. Most faith, or magnetic,
healers, use this force without an understanding of the law which
underlies it. If an
occultist desires to transmit this force to another person by
physical means, he places his

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