Facts in Mesmerism, with Reasons for a Dispassionate Inquiry Into ItChauncy Hare Townshend (1798-1868), poet and collector, was a well-connected friend of Robert Southey and Charles Dickens. He became fascinated with Mesmerism while in Germany and went on to popularise it in England. This book, first published in 1840, was his passionate defence of Mesmerism. Developed in the late eighteenth century by Franz Mesmer, Mesmerism was a kind of hypnosis based on the theory of animal magnetism. With its spiritual associations and uncanny effects, it was an extremely controversial topic in the nineteenth century and its practitioners were widely considered fraudsters. Townshend describes in detail the mental states Mesmerism induces, which he identifies as similar to a state of sleepwalking. Perhaps most fascinating are the eye-witness accounts describing experiments carried out by Townshend on the continent, in which he hypnotised his subjects into feeling his own sensations and knowing things they could not know. |
Contents
BOOK | 47 |
SECT II | 88 |
BOOK III | 269 |
SECT II | 293 |
SECT III | 321 |
On the Medium of Mesmeric Sensation | 390 |
BOOK IV | 409 |
Testimony of A Vandevyver | 543 |
Professor Agassis | 567 |
Signor Ranieri | 573 |
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Common terms and phrases
action actually agency answer appears asked awake become believe body brain called cause certain circumstances closed common condition consciousness consider desire effects electric evident exhibited existence experiment external eyes fact feeling felt force give hand head hearing held hour human idea imagination impulses influence instance interesting kind knowledge known least less light look manifest manner matter means medium mesmeric sleepwaking mesmeriser mind motion move nature nerves nervous never objects observed occasion once organs particular passed patient perceive perception perfect persons phenomena physical position present principle produced proof proved question reason regard relation remained remarked remember replied respecting result seemed seen sensation senses sensibility sleep sound speak suppose thing thought tion told touch true truth turned usual vision waking whole