Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)

Mesmer was a medical doctor in Austria around the time of the French Revolution. He advanced the idea that “everything in nature communicates by a universal, vital fluid ('fluidum'), that nerves are conductors for this fluid in the body (animal magnetism) and that some people with high amounts of animal magnetism can affect the nerves of other persons to bring about a radical cure and a positive state of mind. Today we call this practice 'Mesmerism'. Mesmerism is the forerunner of ‘energy healing’ in the modern era.

Mesmer became famous for his many cures, which attracted the attention of the authorities of his time. A Royal Commission set out to investigate him declared wrongly that Mesmer’s cures were due only to the power of suggestion. Their finding was incorrect, but this view has prevailed in the field of hypnotism. Notwithstanding, Mesmerism endures.