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 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 i6mo, $1.25. 
 
 ESOTERIC BUDDHISM. 
 
 New American Edition. With Introduction pre- 
 pared expressly for it by the Author. i6mo, 
 
 $1.25. 
 
 THE OCCULT WORLD. 
 
 New American from the Fourth English Edi- 
 tion. With an Introduction written for the 
 American Edition by the Author, and Appen- 
 dix. i6mo, $1.25. 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., 
 
 Boston and New York. 
 
 
THE RATIONALE OF 
 MESMERISM 
 
 A. P.'SINNETT 
 
 AUTHOR OF ESOTERIC BUDDHISM," THE OCCULT WORLD, 
 "KARMA," ETC., ETC. m 
 
 
 FEB 29 1892. 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 (C6e Ifttoembe Pre??, tfamfcribor 
 
 rA 
 
* N 
 
 
 Copyright, 1892, 
 By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., IT. S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 t?t 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Old and New Theories ... 1 
 
 II. The Mesmeric Force 23 
 
 III. The Real Literature of Mesmerism . 36 
 
 IV. Side-Lights on Mesmeric Phenomena . 85 
 V. Curative Mesmerism .... 104 
 
 VI. Anesthetic Effects and Rigidity . . 128 
 VII. The Nature of Sensitiveness . . 140 
 
 VIII. Clairvoyance 168 
 
 IX. Mesmeric Practice 214 
 
 Index 229 
 

THE 
 
 RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OLD AND NEW THEORIES. 
 
 It is necessary at the outset that I should 
 explain why I am writing about mesmerism 
 and not about hypnotism. Names are, after 
 all, but tickets put by conventional agree- 
 ment upon things or branches of knowledge, 
 and if, in the first instance, a hundred years 
 ago, when the matter began to attract notice 
 in Europe, the word "hypnotism" had been 
 adopted to describe certain abnormal condi- 
 tions of the human body and the human 
 faculties, we need not, at this stage of the 
 proceedings, have quarreled with the ex- 
 pression. But, though it has become so 
 strangely popular quite recently, the term 
 "hypnotism" merely represents, as regards 
 its actual origin, a misconception of the facts 
 
2 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 relating to the abnormal conditions just 
 mentioned, coupled with a very unworthy 
 disposition to slander the first important ex- 
 ponent of all this knowledge in modern 
 times and to cover a cowardly retreat from 
 denials which had become no longer tenable. 
 In so far as the term "hypnotism " is con- 
 sciously preferred by some modern investi- 
 gators, that preference rests on the idea that 
 the earlier belief in the days when nothing 
 of the kind was spoken of except "mesmer- 
 ism," has been shown by later experience to 
 be scientifically erroneous. The early belief 
 was that something in the nature of a subtle 
 fluid passed from the mesmeric operator to 
 the subject; whereas some experimentalists 
 of the modern school have ascertained that 
 results alleged to have been obtained by 
 mesmerism can be brought about where no 
 operator takes part in the undertaking. 
 Some people by simply working for them- 
 selves apparatus of a suitable sort, by gaz- 
 ing, for example, at the rapid flashes of a 
 revolving mirror, or by merely concentrating 
 their attention on a spot of bright light, will 
 be enabled to bring on a certain abnormal, 
 or shall we say cataleptic, condition of their 
 nerves, which will in its turn superinduce 
 
OLD AND NEW THEORIES. 3 
 
 anaesthesia, perhaps, or even some imperfect 
 psychic phenomena. But the discovery of 
 these people does not in the smallest degree 
 disprove the other discovery of the earlier 
 mesmerists that a subtle fluid really does 
 pass when an operator, properly qualified 
 himself, is at work, and the fact that this is 
 so is proved by many more experimentalists 
 than have endeavored to maintain the bare 
 hypnotic hypothesis. Further than this, 
 many mesmerists of the higher order enter- 
 tain no doubt concerning the existence of 
 this fluid, for the simple reason that they 
 can see it. 
 
 Sight is a faculty which varies in its pen- 
 etrative power in a greater degree even than 
 telescopes vary. A tolerably simple experi- 
 ment to test this may be devised on the fol- 
 lowing plan : If a spectrum from a ray of 
 sunlight be thrown upon a screen, every one 
 who is acquainted with the most elementary 
 facts of optics will be aware that beyond the 
 colored band of light which is visible, there 
 are invisible rays, the presence of which can 
 be proved by means of photographic paper, 
 and the chemical power of which, indeed, is 
 considerably greater than that of the bright 
 rays actually seen. It is perhaps not so 
 
4 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 generally known, however, that the power 
 of direct vision extends with some people 
 much further in the direction of those so- 
 called ultra-violet rays than is the case with 
 others. The majority of people, it is true, 
 will come to a tolerably close agreement as 
 to the distance along the colored band of 
 light on the screen which they can see, and 
 if asked to mark the place at which the vio- 
 let tinge absolutely ceases will mark places 
 that are not very widely apart, but here and 
 there a small percentage of more peculiarly 
 endowed observers will be found to see 
 greatly beyond the usual stopping-place. 
 
 Just in the same way other visible pheno- 
 mena of nature besides rays of violet light 
 melt, so to speak, in others which are not 
 ordinarily visible, and the subtle fluid which 
 emanates from a mesmeric operator is very 
 close to the border-land of the phenomena 
 which every one can see, and therefore can 
 be discerned by, I should think, many more 
 people than will be able to see to any con- 
 siderable distance into the ultra-violet spec- 
 trum. A well-known writer, Baron von 
 Reichenbach, devoted himself especially to 
 this branch of mesmeric inquiry. He has 
 recorded with patient care, for which a pig- 
 
OLD AND NEW THEORIES. 5 
 
 headed generation inhabiting the earth 
 about the middle of this century gave him 
 no gratitude, a long series of results obtained 
 with a great many "sensitives" whom he 
 employed, all having to do with their power 
 of seeing visible emanations from human 
 fingers, as also from physical magnetic ap- ' 
 paratus. 
 
 Baron von Reichenbach's experiments, 
 properly followed up, would have been found 
 to constitute a complete demonstration of 
 the theory of mesmerism, advanced by Mes- 
 mer himself in the first instance, and unre- 
 servedly adopted as entirely in harmony 
 with their own extensive observation and 
 practice by his immediate followers, de Puy- 
 segur and Deleuze. But before the Baron's 
 time the whole subject had been discredited 
 by reason of the fierce incredulity it encoun- 
 tered at the hands of the orthodox scientific 
 world at the beginning of the century. In 
 the long history of human blundering there 
 can hardly be any example more remarka- 
 ble than that afforded by the rejection of 
 mesmerism at this period. The facts illus- 
 trating the reality of mesmerism issued in 
 torrents from every centre of mesmeric ac- 
 tivity, but the passive opposition of bigotry 
 
6 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 was not to be overcome. Hundreds of 
 people practiced mesmerism, employing it 
 solely as a curative agent; its highest psy- 
 chic aspects being at that time little under- 
 stood even by its warmest partisans, and 
 thousands of people benefited by its applica- 
 tion. But all the recognized societies and 
 corporations of science were arrayed in arms 
 against it, and professional persecution was 
 the lot of any medical man who identified 
 himself with the new discovery. This per- 
 secution in the end stamped it out almost 
 entirely. Some further details on this point 
 will fall most naturally into their place when 
 I come to speak of the early literature of 
 mesmerism, but for the moment I pass on to 
 trace the genesis of the modern view of the 
 subject in connection with which we have to 
 congratulate ourselves on the broad fact, 
 that one of the most important avenues of 
 knowledge open to students of the natural 
 history of humanity is now again available 
 for general use, but in connection with 
 which, except for that broad fact, we have, 
 as a generation, little to be proud of. 
 
 Modern writers on hypnotism are almost 
 all building their conclusions on a negation 
 of truth concerning the forces really at work 
 
OLD AND NEW THEORIES. 7 
 
 in the production of mesmeric phenomena, 
 and are committed for the most part to a 
 theory which concentrates their attention al- 
 most entirely on what is rather a disease of 
 the science they deal with, than the science 
 itself. Nor do I think it a satisfactory plan 
 for people, who know something more of the 
 science in its loftier aspect, to "divide the 
 records of the mind," and say "hypnotism 
 is one thing and mesmerism is another." 
 Of course the experiments practiced at the 
 Salpetriere are one thing and the healthy 
 applications of animal magnetism are an- 
 other ; hypnotic suggestion is one thing, and 
 the culture of the higher faculties under true 
 mesmerism is another. But people who 
 adopt the expression "hypnotism" mean 
 thereby, or think they mean, to include in 
 its range all that is real and genuine in the 
 discoveries of Mesmer, all that was not im- 
 posture and charlatanry in the practice of 
 his immediate successors. Psychic students, 
 therefore, who really understand something 
 of the forces set in action, whether intelli- 
 gently by the mesmerist or unintelligently 
 by the hypnotist, cannot handle the term as 
 having a departmental significance. It is, 
 as a term employed in connection with this 
 
8 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 subject, the flag of error, so to speak. We 
 ought not to make peace with it at all. 
 
 The general use of the term dates back to 
 Mr. Braid of Manchester, a surgeon who is 
 called by MM. Binet and Fere "the initiator 
 of the scientific study of animal magnetism." 
 
 He was really a person who invented a 
 method of thinking which enabled people, 
 thus inclined, to handle and talk about some 
 of the phenomena of mesmerism, without 
 setting themselves in opposition to medical 
 orthodoxy, and without giving up the un- 
 grateful cry that Mesmer was an impostor. 
 For half a century the medical profession 
 had committed itself to the denial of patent 
 facts and the vilification of all who observed 
 and reported them. Mr. Braid, by a bold 
 manoeuvre, possessed himself of some, at any 
 rate, among the facts, and, by putting a 
 forged ticket upon them, justified himself 
 before the world for continuing to vilify 
 their real discoverers — for continuing to 
 swim at ease with the stream of bigotry — 
 and so afforded his confreres an opportunity 
 of escaping from the inconvenience of being 
 at war with notorious experience without in- 
 curring the humiliation of confessing that 
 they had previously been in the wrong. 
 
OLD AND NEW THEORIES. 9 
 
 Braid's theory of hypnotism was set forth 
 in the first instance in a little volume from 
 his pen, published in 1843, under the title 
 "Neurypnology; or the Eationale of Ner- 
 vous Sleep, considered in relation to Animal 
 Magnetism." This was an expansion of an 
 address Mr. Braid delivered at a meeting of 
 the British Association held in Manchester 
 in 1842. The author avows that he was led 
 to his conclusions by certain phenomena he 
 witnessed at a seance conducted by M. La- 
 fontaine, a mesmerist, but he writes rather 
 irritably to maintain the originality of his 
 views that seem at once to have been referred, 
 on their first enunciation, by his critics to 
 previous experimentalists, especially M. 
 Bertrand and the Abbe Faria. He is spe- 
 cially eager to make out that his processes are 
 quite different from anything previously 
 known. He says, "I have now entirely sep- 
 arated hypnotism from animal magnetism. 
 I consider it to be merely a simple, speedy, 
 and certain mode of throwing the nervous 
 system into a new condition which may be 
 rendered eminently available in the cure of 
 certain disorders." He attended M. Lafon- 
 taine's seance because he considered mes- 
 meric phenomena "a system of collusion 
 
10 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 or delusion, or of excited imagination, sym- 
 pathy or imitation. . . . That night I saw 
 nothing to diminish but rather to confirm 
 my previous prejudices." However, "at the 
 next conversazione, six nights afterwards, 
 one fact, the inability of a patient to open 
 his eyelids, arrested my attention. I con- 
 sidered that to be a real phenomenon." 
 
 He watched this case especially and felt 
 assured he had discovered a cause. He at 
 once set to work with experiments of his 
 own to prove "that the inability of the 
 patient to open his eyes was caused by para- 
 lyzing the levator muscles of the eyelids, 
 through their continued action during the 
 protracted fixed stare." Operating with 
 subjects of his own and constraining them 
 to fatigue the muscles in question by a pro- 
 longed upward gaze, he soon obtained the 
 complete hypnotic trance, together with all 
 the now familiar symptoms — rigidity of the 
 limbs at the command of the operator, great 
 exaltation of the senses, liability to halluci- 
 nation, imposed by the operator, and cura- 
 tive effects in cases of illness where the hyp- 
 notic trance was induced with the curative 
 intention. There is something fairly ludi- 
 crous and not a little contemptible in the 
 
OLD AND NEW THEORIES. 11 
 
 way Mr. Braid calmly passes on to deal 
 with these phenomena as the results of his 
 method and his discovery, when he sets out 
 with the assumption that everything of the 
 same kind accomplished by his predecessors 
 was imposture, and that he picked out from 
 mesmerism the one fact that was true, — that 
 people could not open their eyes if the leva- 
 tor muscles were paralyzed by previous star- 
 ing. One can hardly understand how vanity 
 could blind him to the glaring absurdity of 
 his own position. If fatigue of the levator 
 muscles had anything to do with the matter, 
 that cause would not extend to effects rang- 
 ing beyond the eyelids. Mr. Braid dropped 
 upon the curious facts of phreno-mesmerism, 
 which show different propensities in a mes- 
 merized subject stimulated to unwonted ac- 
 tivity by touching the corresponding organs 
 of the brain. Piety, benevolence, cupidity, 
 can, by his own showing, be played upon in 
 this way with a subject who is "hypno- 
 tized," and yet he still keeps in the forefront 
 of his treatise on all experiments of this na- 
 ture, his original silly guess that the state in 
 which they become possible is due to the 
 fatigue of certain muscles in the eyelids. 
 Mr. Braid in reality must have been a 
 
12 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 mesmerist of considerable force, without 
 knowing enough of the subject he arrogantly 
 despised to understand the methods by 
 which his results were accomplished ; for he 
 evidently obtained an extraordinarily large 
 percentage of successes with the people he 
 experimented on. But he has received so 
 much undue credit of late from modern 
 writers on the subject, especially in this 
 country, that it is worth while to show, in 
 opposition to the indignant claim for origi- 
 nality he puts forward, that there was no- 
 thing original even in his misapprehensions. 
 One of the best — or least objectionable — 
 modern books on the subject, Dr. Moll's 
 "Hypnotism" (translated from the Ger- 
 man), skims the history of mesmerism at 
 the outset, and says: "The whole doctrine 
 received a great impetus through the Abbe 
 Faria. ... In 1814-15 he showed by ex- 
 periments, whose results he published, that 
 no unknown force was necessary for the pro- 
 duction of the phenomena; the cause of the 
 sleep, he said, was in the person who was to 
 be sent to sleep; all was subjective." This 
 is the main principle of hypnotism and of 
 suggestion of which Faria, even then, made 
 use in inducing sleep. Two other investiga- 
 
OLD AND NEW THEORIES. 13 
 
 tors in France must be mentioned, Bertrand 
 and Noizet, who paved the way for the doc- 
 trine of suggestion in spite of much inclina- 
 tion to animal magnetism. 
 
 Thus Mr. Braid is glorified in modern ar- 
 ticles and books on hypnotism, as the man 
 who extracted the real truth of the subject 
 from the confusion left by foolish enthusi- 
 asts or impostors in the beginning, and put 
 us all on a scientific foundation, in spite of 
 the fact that his view is not only a gigantic 
 blunder, absurdly at variance with the facts, 
 even as reported by himself — but even as a 
 blunder, no better than a plagiary. 
 
 The Manchester surgeon's reasoning would 
 have been blown to atoms by contemporary 
 critics if it had been opposed to instead of 
 chiming in with conventional prejudice. 
 But fashion soon becomes an ample cloak 
 for bad logic, and, one after another, mod- 
 ern writers, if drawn to the subject of 
 mesmeric phenomena at all, date their chro- 
 nology from the year 1 of the Braidian era. 
 Even the treatise on "Hypnotism," by Al- 
 bert Moll, of Berlin, though in some re- 
 spects *the best of the recent volumes of the 
 Braidian school, is infected with its funda- 
 mental principle. I hope to show shortly 
 
14 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 that the real literature of mesmerism lies in 
 the background, behind the shower of occa- 
 sional essays brought forth by the vogue of 
 Dr. Charcot's experiments, but it maybe as 
 well, in the first instance, to complete the 
 account I have just given of Braid's own 
 work, by noticing some of those which follow 
 in his footsteps. 
 
 Dr. Moll's book is not without merit as an 
 epitome of the subject from the limited mod- 
 ern standpoint. It contains a fairly reason- 
 able and impartial though hasty survey of 
 the rise and progress of mesmerism from the 
 time of Mesmer onward to the present day, 
 also an account of the different methods em- 
 ployed by different schools of mesmerists in 
 inducing the various mesmeric phenomena. 
 The writer chiefly errs in concentrating his 
 attention too much on recent results, and in 
 dealing with the phenomena of hypnotic sug- 
 gestion as though they constituted an en- 
 tirely new departure in human knowledge. 
 He justly rebukes some modern scientists 
 who treat hypnotic experiments with con- 
 tempt, but says "so long as science does not 
 examine everything practically and without 
 prejudice, the great delusions of which ani- 
 mal magnetism, etc. , make use will continue 
 
OLD AND NEW THEORIES. 15 
 
 to exist," — thus himself treating with con- 
 tempt the branches of his own subject with 
 which he happens to be unacquainted. In 
 conclusion, he says : "In spite of the progress 
 which the exact sciences have made, we must 
 not for a moment forget that the inner con- 
 nection between the body and the mental 
 processes is utterly unknown to us. Under 
 these circumstances we should not refuse to 
 examine the apparently inexplicable . ' ' Cer- 
 tainly the representatives of modern physical 
 science are utterly without knowledge con- 
 cerning the relations of mind and body, but 
 that is not true of all mankind, as occult 
 students are aware, and the annals of the 
 higher mesmerism go far to point out hope- 
 ful paths of investigation in that direction. 
 But the value even of mesmerism as an aid 
 to such researches may be reduced to zero, 
 if we calmly ignore all that the greatest in- 
 vestigators of the past have accomplished, 
 and devote ourselves exclusively to the super- 
 ficial phenomena rediscovered in the last few 
 years by the hypnotists whose chosen desig- 
 nation marks them out as people who have 
 deliberately elected to ignore the greatest 
 work done by their predecessors. 
 
 Two French writers, MM. Alfred Binet 
 
16 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 and Charles Fere, the latter assistant phy- 
 sician at the Salpetriere in Paris, have pub- 
 lished in London a book in English which is 
 called ''Animal Magnetism," perhaps sim- 
 ply to avoid repeating the title " Hypnotism, " 
 already so frequently used ; but it might just 
 as well have been called by the expression 
 so popular for the moment. It is introduced 
 to the reader as written in the environment 
 of the Salpetriere ; it is based^ on the notion 
 that there is but one hypnotism, and that 
 Charcot is its prophet. 
 
 The keynote of the volume, as an inter- 
 pretation of the phenomena it deals with, 
 may be found in the following sentences 
 from the beginning of an early chapter: 
 "As far as its mode of production is con- 
 cerned, hypnotic sleep does not essentially 
 differ from natural sleep, of which it is in 
 fact only a modification, and all the causes 
 which produce fatigue are capable of produ- 
 cing hypnosis in those who are subject to it. 
 . . . Sensorial excitements produce hyp- 
 nosis in two ways, — when they are strong 
 and abrupt, or when they are faint and con- 
 tinued for a prolonged period." 
 
 It is difficult to criticise such a theory as 
 this in moderate terms. It is difficult to get 
 
OLD ASD NEW THEORIES. 17 
 
 behind the mind of a man who can think 
 that a condition in which people can suffer 
 a leg to be cut off without knowing it is 
 something akin to natural sleep and to be 
 properly described as only a modification of 
 it. Certainly in one sense "death and his 
 brother sleep " are akin, but rather in poetic 
 fancy than in the pages of sober science. If 
 one thing is said to be a modification of an- 
 other, the meaning surely is that it does not 
 differ oreatlv from it in essential character. 
 In the mesmeric trance not only do we meet 
 with astounding effects of anaesthesia. — 
 when a pinch of the arm would be enough to 
 wake anybody from "natural sleep."' — but 
 also an entirely new condition of the intel- 
 lectual faculties utterly cut off by oblivion 
 before the subject comes out of the trance, 
 from the waking consciousness. "Who has 
 known the natural sleep in which the sleeper 
 is able to converse freely on recondite sub- 
 jects quite unfamiliar to him in his waking 
 state? and yet it is a common experience of 
 mesmerism that this is possible in the mag- 
 netic trance. If MM. Binet and Fere had 
 said, "In the narrow and limited phase of 
 mesmeric conditions, with which we are 
 alone concerned, there is some analogy be- 
 
18 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 tween what we call hypnosis and ordinary 
 sleep," the statement would hardly be accu- 
 rate ; but when put forward on the basis of a 
 general assumption that the so-called hyp- 
 nosis embraces all that is true and real in 
 mesmerism, it is nothing less than absurd. 
 
 In fact, the whole theory of the Charcot 
 school depends upon a studious disregard of 
 all the facts of experience that do not square 
 with it. For instance, in the book before us 
 we read of "manoeuvres which formerly led 
 to the belief that it is possible to magnetize 
 from a distance," and then this belief is dis- 
 posed of by the supposition that in such cases 
 the subject had been told to expect the effect 
 from a distance at a certain time, and there- 
 fore the results have only been due to "sug- 
 gestion in the waking state." In reality all 
 the records of mesmerism, both early and 
 recent, teem with illustrations of the way in 
 which magnetic influence from a distance 
 has been successfully exerted upon persons 
 quite unprepared to expect it. From de 
 Puysegur's time down to some of the recent 
 experiments of the Society for Psychical Re- 
 search, the fact has been substantiated over 
 and over again, but it does not fit in with the 
 favorite Braid-Charcot hypothesis, so tant 
 pis pour lesfaits as usual. 
 
OLD AND NEW THEORIES. 19 
 
 The more attention we pay to modern 
 writers on hypnotism, the more those of us 
 who are also familiar with the earlier writers 
 will be struck by the fact that above all their 
 other characteristics the modern hypnotists 
 from Braid downwards are not those who 
 have put the investigation of mesmeric phe- 
 nomena on a scientific basis. They have 
 done just the reverse; they have degraded 
 an inquiry which was opened just a hundred 
 years ago in a truly scientific spirit, into an 
 attempt to bolster up an unintelligent preju- 
 dice. For the truly scientific spirit leads 
 people to study all the facts of experience in 
 the particular department of nature con- 
 cerned, and to refrain from premature the- 
 orizing in directions from which some of these 
 facts warn them off. There was no prema- 
 ture theorizing in the case of Mesmer and his 
 followers when they adopted the hypothesis 
 of a mesmeric or magnetic fluid. All the 
 facts known to them up to that time squared 
 with that hypothesis, and if their successors 
 had been loyal to truth and had gone on test- 
 ing the early hypothesis by later experience 
 they would have found it supported by every- 
 thing that has been discovered since, and in 
 no way refuted by the discovery that some of 
 
20 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 the phenomena produced by the agency of 
 the magnetic fluid were also susceptible of 
 being induced — more or less imperfectly — 
 in other ways as well. But latter-day inves- 
 tigators have not been loyal to truth. They 
 have chosen for consideration only those 
 facts and experiences which suited them and 
 have calmly ignored the rest. Incidentally, 
 it is true, they have done a public service ; 
 they have set afloat a general belief that 
 mesmerism after all is a reality, and but for 
 them perhaps it would only at this day have 
 been a reality for isolated students of occult 
 science. But the limitations to which their 
 own theories and methods condemn their 
 thinking are deplorable, and stand at this 
 moment terribly in the way of any real pro- 
 gress in the cultivation of the public mind 
 along the channels of research which mes- 
 merism, correctly appreciated, opens out. 
 
 The principle of study, which it is my 
 foremost desire to impress on those who will 
 listen to me, is this: Let all who wish to 
 read about mesmerism go back to the foun- 
 tain-head of the subject and explore the vol- 
 uminous writings of the early French school, 
 of which I propose to speak more fully in 
 the next few pages. In that literature the 
 
OLD AND NEW THEORIES. 21 
 
 real foundations of our knowledge of mes- 
 merism were laid. There we shall find, it is 
 true, some traces of a most pardonable, if 
 not praiseworthy, excitement and enthusiasm 
 in reference to the wonderful beneficence of 
 the new revelation which mesmeric discover- 
 ies seemed to embody. There we shall read 
 of some procedure in which we shall fail to 
 discern the true working of Mesmer's own 
 ideas ; but at the time a prodigious excite- 
 ment was operative with large numbers of 
 people deeply stirred by wonder and admi- 
 ration, and many cures were worked through 
 the influence of an overwhelming faith in 
 association with an external ceremonial that 
 probably had little, if any, objective effect. 
 Similar results have been observed within 
 recent years at Lourdes, and only the other 
 day at Treves, in connection with the exhi- 
 bition of the "Holy Coat." But persons 
 who justly conceive that touching a Holy 
 Coat, of which even the holiness is apocry- 
 phal, would not do them any good, make a 
 mistake unworthy of the superior sense they 
 take credit for if they fail to realize th^t full 
 belief in a Holy Coat or a holy anything is a 
 real force within the organisms of the per- 
 sons inspired by it. Mesmer's baquets and 
 
22 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 de Puysegur's magnetized trees may not have 
 worked in the same way as the "passes" 
 and magnetic currents with which those 
 early experimentalists sought to coordinate 
 them. But they worked, and therefore the 
 writers in question honestly recorded the 
 facts concerning them, not yet having 
 learned from Mr. Braid and the hypnotizers 
 that the way to put their inquiry on a scien- 
 tific basis was to pick and choose among 
 the experiences they acquired, so as only 
 to father those which were calculated to 
 please a self-sufficient public opinion around 
 them. 
 
 To put aside the writings and experiments 
 that relate to the present distorted revival of 
 mesmerism, under a misleading pseudonym, 
 and to turn back to the pages of de Puyse- 
 gur and Deleuze, Bicard, Gauthier, Teste, 
 and du Potet, is like passing from an evil 
 and stifling to a pure moral atmosphere. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MESMERIC FORCE. 
 
 Before tracing our way back to the be- 
 ginnings of modern mesmerism in the very- 
 earliest years of the century, it may be well 
 to pause for a while about half-way back at 
 the stage attained by Baron von Reichen- 
 bach. His researches may fairly be taken 
 as the groundwork of a correct theory of 
 mesmerism. The book in which they are all 
 brought out, generally known to students of 
 this sort of literature as "Reichenbach's Re- 
 searches," bears in reality a somewhat pon- 
 derous title. It is called on the title page 
 of the English translation by Dr. Ashburner 
 " Physico-Physiological Researches on the 
 Dynamics of Magnetism, Electricity, Heat, 
 Light, Crystallization, and Chemism in 
 their relations to Vital Force, by Baron 
 Charles von Reichenbach. " The author had 
 lighted on the discovery that sensitives in ill- 
 ness could see luminous emanations or flames 
 issuing from the poles of magnets. At that 
 
24 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 time, as we shall see later on, the faculties 
 which constitute a person what we now call 
 a sensitive, were supposed to manifest them- 
 selves during illness only, and they were 
 sought for by inquirers among persons suf- 
 fering from some form of sickness. With 
 the painstaking care of a true man of sci- 
 ence, Baron von Reichenbach repeated his 
 experiments with magnets with a great num- 
 ber of subjects, taking care of course to test 
 the reality of their power to see what they 
 said they saw, by making them find out his 
 magnets in dark rooms, without having been 
 told where they had been placed, and in 
 other ways. Then he found that the lumi- 
 nous brushes or flames were to be seen 
 emanating from crystals as well as from mag- 
 nets. The experiments which brought out 
 these facts were elaborate and protracted, 
 but soon acquired a new development al- 
 most by accident. 
 
 Baron von Reiehenbach discovered that 
 luminous appearances, similar to those 
 emanating from magnets and crystals, pro- 
 ceeded from the human hand in a great 
 many cases, and he dropped upon this fact 
 quite by chance in the first instance, without 
 having set out on this inquiry with any pre- 
 
THE MESMERIC FORCE. 25 
 
 conceived theory. He was experimenting 
 with one of his sensitives with a magnet in 
 the dark, and she was playing with the lu- 
 minous flame which she could perceive com- 
 ing out of the ends, when he in the darkness 
 put his hand between her and the magnet. 
 She immediately began to play in the same 
 way with emanations from the hand, and 
 spoke to the bystanders of five little flames 
 which leaped up and down in the air. She 
 did not see the hand itself, and at first sup- 
 posed the five little flames to be some inde- 
 pendent phenomenon. Other persons pres- 
 ent then raised their hands before her, and 
 from various fingers she saw a similar light 
 emitted more or less energetically. This 
 sensitive, Miss Keichel, appears to have 
 been the first in connection with whom Baron 
 von Reichenbach broke down an erroneous 
 belief which had hitherto prevailed with all 
 the earlier mesmerists. As we shall see 
 when coming to review the early literature, 
 almost all the experimentalists, closely fol- 
 lowing on Mesmer, became possessed of the 
 idea that the clairvoyance they discovered in 
 their patients, and which almost always had 
 reference to the patients' illnesses, was ne- 
 cessarily extinguished on the recovery of 
 
26 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 health ; and they thus drifted into a way of 
 supposing that the power was in some way 
 morbid in its character, that it related 
 exclusively to pathological conditions, and 
 ceased to be effective when these were 
 no longer present. In reference to Miss 
 Reichel, Baron von Reichenbach announces 
 as a wonderful fact that even after she got 
 well she continued to see the magnetic flames, 
 the crystal light, and the flames on the hand 
 whenever it was dark enough. On inquiry 
 it appeared that she had possessed this fac- 
 ulty even from childhood, and had two sis- 
 ters" who, like herself, saw these luminous 
 appearances when other persons could see 
 nothing. 
 
 Further experiments with other sensitives 
 soon enabled the Baron to generalize as a 
 principle, and to declare, that fiery brushes 
 of light issue from the points of the fingers 
 of healthy men in the same manner as from 
 the poles of crystals. Readers who may 
 take up the Baron's book now, especially 
 with the object of getting information about 
 the vital mesmeric fluid, will be tantalized to 
 find how much more of his attention he de- 
 voted to mechanical sources of the luminous 
 effect than to those having direct reference 
 
THE MESMERIC FORCE. 27 
 
 to mesmeric energy. But the truth, is that 
 this characteristic of his research gives it 
 peculiar importance at the present day to 
 students of mesmerism as a science, because 
 it links the vital energy of the human frame 
 with other great forces in nature, and brings 
 our thinking into line with those great phi- 
 losophical speculations which always seek for 
 unity in nature. A very disjointed and il- 
 logical conception of the cosmos is that 
 which regards anything in man as altogether 
 peculiar to himself as a manifestation of na- 
 ture. Just as his physique is related in va- 
 rious ways to the matter around us out of 
 which it is built up by the subtle chemistry 
 of living organisms, and just as philosophical 
 convictions must force us to the conclusion 
 that the highest spiritual element in the hu- 
 man soul has in some way a common origin 
 with the Universal Spirit from whose energy 
 the whole of what is called creation must 
 have proceeded, so also it is only reasonable 
 to suppose that these intermediate forces with 
 which we are now dealing, the vital forces 
 which are something intermediate in their 
 character between matter and spirit, must 
 themselves be related to some corresponding 
 agent of wide diffusion through the universe. 
 
28 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 Mesmer guessed at this with the inspiration 
 of genius, and ridiculed as he was by the 
 learned folly of his time, the latest coordi- 
 nation of all our knowledge having reference 
 to occult forces is steadily bringing us back 
 to the position he took up. Let us profit, 
 therefore, by von Reichenbaeh's researches 
 even where they do not directly refer to man- 
 ifestations of vital energy proceeding from 
 living organisms. Especially let us profit 
 by some very interesting and suggestive ex- 
 periments he tried with sunlight as a source 
 of energy discernible in the case of magnets. 
 He wished to ascertain whether sunlight fall- 
 ing on one end of a copper wire would su- 
 perinduce any conditions in the other end 
 when this should be examined in a dark room 
 by one of his sensitives. The copper wire 
 by itself presented no appearance that could 
 be remarked, but when the other end was 
 put out into the sunshine a crystallic lumi- 
 nosity became perceptible in a weak degree 
 as emanating from the other end in the dark 
 room. The next experiment had to do with 
 a superior arrangement of this apparatus. 
 The wire was attached at one end to a plate 
 of copper, and this plate of copper was ex- 
 posed to the sunlight. Under these condi- 
 
THE MESMERIC FORCE. 29 
 
 tions a powerful manifestation of the lu- 
 minous energy, which Baron von Reichen- 
 bach eventually calls the "odic force," was 
 manifested. The importance of this discov- 
 ery — which von Reichenbach checks in a 
 great many ways, and elaborates with a great 
 variety of substances besides copper — re- 
 sides in the obvious reflection that the sun's 
 light is the great source of vital energy 
 which evokes organic conditions of matter 
 from the inorganic world. The whole veg- 
 etable creation is the first storehouse of vital 
 energy, whatever it may be, and this it 
 clearly derives directly from the sun's rays. 
 That the animal kingdom derives its vital 
 forces from the translation of vegetable or- 
 ganisms into those adapted to its own re- 
 quirements is equally obvious, and the sun's 
 light must thus be regarded as indirectly the 
 source of animal life. How far it might 
 influence, refresh, or stimulate that life by 
 direct application is unknown to us, only 
 because modern science has been so densely 
 incapable of pursuing lines of thought which 
 do not hinge directly on to any of its own 
 material achievements. 
 
 Among Baron von Reichenbach' s experi- 
 ments, one long series which I must not stop 
 
30 THE MATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 to recapitulate in detail, has reference to the 
 polar character of the odic force; distinct 
 analogies between the polar character of 
 ordinary magnetism and that of the vital 
 energy being elaborately traced. 
 
 Von Reichenbach's first volume, though 
 published in the English translation in 1850, 
 relates to a series of experiments which were 
 apparently concluded about the year 1848. 
 Attacks of all kinds were of course leveled 
 against him, and his results treated as incon- 
 clusive. Recognizing himself that they 
 rested on a foundation which was narrow, 
 considering the importance of the principles 
 to be established, being the result of experi- 
 ments with five different sensitives, he set 
 to work in the two following years to expand 
 them enormously. When his second volume 
 was brought out he was enabled to supply a 
 list of sixty sensitive persons, men and w t o- 
 men, mothers and maidens, children and 
 aged persons, high, low, rich, and poor, 
 with whom he had repeated the experiences 
 of his first investigation; and now he had 
 come satisfactorily to the principle that ill- 
 ness had nothing to do with the matter as 
 regards the power of perceiving the odic 
 fluid. Perfectly healthy and strong persons 
 
THE MESMERIC FORCE. 31 
 
 are included in considerable numbers in his 
 new list. It is little less than amazing that 
 such an enormous body of results as in these 
 two volumes von Reichenbach brought to- 
 gether should have remained for half a cen- 
 tury almost unnoticed by those who arrogate 
 to themselves the title of natural philoso- 
 phers, and that it should still be merely a 
 record of interest for an isolated few whose 
 intuitions and foresight enable them to dis- 
 cern in the forces appertaining to other than 
 the physical planes of nature, the possibili- 
 ties of an advancement for human know- 
 ledge that will far eclipse, some time in the 
 future, the achievements of which the nine- 
 teenth century has been so proud. 
 
 Even before Eeichenbach's time some of 
 the early experimentalists of Mesmer's own 
 epoch had come into contact with the fact 
 that luminous emanations could be seen in 
 connection with hands employed to project 
 the mesmeric fluid, and even Bertrand, of 
 whom, amongst others, I shall have to speak 
 shortly, acknowledges that his sensitives as- 
 sure him that they see a fluid emanating 
 from his own fingers, although he himself is 
 not disposed to believe them, and constructs 
 an elaborate theory of his own almost as 
 
32 THE BATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 illogical as some of those presented to us by 
 the most modern writers, to account for the 
 already enormous accumulation of mesmeric 
 experience. 
 
 For the moment, of course, the mesmeric 
 fluid theory is altogether out of fashion, and 
 the most recent inquirers who have set to 
 work within the last few years to rediscover 
 the facts already included in books written 
 from fifty to eighty years ago, have been con- 
 spicuous illustrations of one very common 
 human frailty in reference to all advances 
 of knowledge. When, for the first time, 
 their attention has been turned to a subject 
 neglected up till then, they have acted as 
 though their own conversion to an apprecia- 
 tion of the facts constituted a sort of new 
 departure for those facts. There is some- 
 thing positively ludicrous to readers familiar 
 with the earlier books in the great library of 
 mesmeric literature, in the way the least in- 
 telligent of modern students invariably treat 
 the whole subject, if they handle it at all, as 
 something which they, for the first time, at 
 last have ascertained to be really worth in- 
 quiry, and in reference to which it is now 
 important that mankind should begin, in 
 company with them, to observe facts and lay 
 
THE MESMERIC FORCE. 33 
 
 a foundation for reasoning. We have been 
 confronted in the last few years with a del- 
 uge of hypnotic literature, but most of the 
 books written to amplify the hypnotic hypo- 
 thesis could hardly, one would think, have 
 been written if the authors had had the good 
 sense to acquaint themselves with all that 
 had been previously done in the line of their 
 own investigations. It seems, as I have 
 said already, rather as though the object of 
 the manoeuvre was to escape from an unten- 
 able position, than to exhibit any new truth, 
 when the first exponents of the hypnotic 
 theory adopted the principle they represent. 
 
 To identify those who were really the first 
 exponents of this principle might be difficult 
 now. Bertrand at all events anticipated 
 Braid by half a lifetime, though Braid was so 
 satisfied of his own originality that he ridi- 
 cules, as we have seen, with the utmost pos- 
 sible indignation, some contemporary critics 
 who endeavored to introduce him to his 
 predecessors in error. JPereant qui ante nos 
 nostra dixerint. 
 
 Before leaving this branch of the subject 
 let me add that Reichenbach's experiments, 
 as will have been seen, lent a better justifi- 
 cation than is generally supposed to exist 
 
34 THE BATIONALE OF MESMEBISM. 
 
 for the habit into which early mesmeric 
 writers fell of calling the mesmeric fluid 
 "magnetism." This term has rather exas- 
 perated modern scientific thinkers, who com- 
 plain, not without apparent reason, that no- 
 thing in the behavior or phenomena of what 
 is called animal magnetism bears any more 
 relation to the force known as magnetism in 
 the laboratories, than to gravitation or chem- 
 ical affinity or any other force of nature we 
 like to name. But first of all the whole lit- 
 erature of this subject is so saturated with 
 the expression "magnetism " as applied to all 
 the phenomena with which mesmerists deal, 
 that it would be hardly possible at the pres- 
 ent day to comb it free of that expression; 
 and, secondly, we have, at all events, no 
 better term that can be employed to take its 
 place. Further than this, so very close a 
 correspondence is observed by people who 
 can see beyond the ordinary boundary of 
 visual perception, between the emanations 
 of physical magnets both of the permanent 
 and electrically excited orders, and, on the 
 other hand, the emanations proceeding from 
 the fingers and head of a mesmerist, — and 
 obviously concerned in some way with the 
 so-called magnetic trance of his subject, — 
 
THE MESMERIC FORCE. 35 
 
 that in the present state of our knowledge I 
 think it would be a great mistake to quarrel 
 too hastily with the term "animal magnet- 
 ism." Personally, I believe that to be a 
 designation which much more accurately 
 defines the great majority of mesmeric phe- 
 nomena than any other we could employ. 
 It certainly covers a hundred such pheno- 
 mena for every one which fits in with the 
 hypnotic hypothesis, and is therefore the 
 best abstract term to employ next after the 
 still more convenient, because non-connota- 
 tive, expression derived from the name of 
 the unfortunate and much abused Mesmer. 
 
CHAPTER HI. 
 
 THE REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 Mesmer himself — Frederick Anthony 
 Mesmer — according to Picard, was born at 
 Weiler on the Rhine, in the year 1734. He 
 studied medicine in his youth and settled as 
 a doctor in Vienna, where he ultimately mar- 
 ried advantageously. In 1766 he wrote a 
 dissertation on "The Influences of the Plan- 
 ets on the Human Body," which drew upon 
 him much ridicule and professional opposi- 
 tion. The attempt to account for this in- 
 fluence led him to make the experiments 
 which introduced him to the facts with which 
 his name has been since indissolubly associ- 
 ated. At first he worked entirely with mag- 
 nets, obtained some cures by this means, and 
 wrote "A Letter to a Foreign Physician on 
 the Magnetic Remedy." But he was much 
 persecuted for his audacity. For the fur- 
 ther development of his inquiries he estab- 
 lished a private hospital in his own house for 
 the relief of destitute invalids. He soon 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 37 
 
 came to the conclusion that the magnetic 
 rods with which his first experiments were 
 made, only served as conductors for a fluid 
 emanating from his own person. To this he 
 at once gave the name Animal Magnetism, 
 and theorized boldly concerning its diffusion 
 through nature. But he was accused of de- 
 ceiving his public, and of having magnetic 
 rods concealed about his person — an accu- 
 sation which is very amusing, in view of the 
 fact that, when he really used magnetic 
 rods, he was ridiculed for expecting to ob- 
 tain curative results by such means. His 
 reputation was assailed and his fortune im- 
 paired. He sought some more favorable 
 theatre for the development of his experi- 
 ments, and moved from Vienna to Paris in 
 1777. Two years later he published a short 
 treatise, entitled "Memoire sur la decou- 
 verte du Magnetisme Animal." The the- 
 ory put forward rested on Mesmer's convic- 
 tion that "there exists a reciprocal influence 
 between the heavenly bodies, the earth, and 
 animated beings." The medium of this in- 
 fluence he conceived to be "a very subtle 
 fluid pervading the whole universe, which 
 from its nature is capable of receiving, prop- 
 agating, and communicating every impulse 
 
38 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 of motion. The reciprocal action is subject 
 to certain mechanical laws which have not 
 yet been discovered. . . . The animal body 
 experiences the alternative effects of this 
 agent, which, by insinuating itself into the 
 substance of the nerves, affects them imme- 
 diately." Mesmer's suggestions to this ef- 
 fect were treated by the men of science in 
 Paris at the time with contempt. One, in- 
 deed, of the members of the medical faculty 
 of Paris, Dr. D'Eslon, became a warm par- 
 tisan of Mesmer's views. But, instead of 
 inquiring into them, the Faculty suspended 
 Dr. D'Eslon for a year, and ordered that, 
 at the expiration of this time, his name 
 should be erased from the list of the society, 
 unless he recanted his declaration of belief. 
 The public meanwhile became interested to 
 some extent in the new ideas, as the fame 
 of various magnetic cures had been spread 
 about. Various persons testified to the fact 
 that Mesmer had cured them, but the pub- 
 lic journals ridiculed him, and the medical 
 profession reviled him. In 1781 he pub- 
 lished a work entitled "Precis Historique 
 des Faits relatif au Magnetisme Animal." 
 The opposition he encountered only stimu- 
 lated his own enthusiasm, and led him to 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 39 
 
 proclaim magnetism as a panacea. He de- 
 clared "there is but one health, one disease, 
 one remedy." An unfortunate private mis- 
 understanding between himself and Dr. 
 D'Eslon led him to move from Paris to Spa. 
 Ultimately he returned to Paris, and then 
 took a step which has led to much animad- 
 version on his character. He established a 
 secret society, under the name of " The Har- 
 mony," where he initiated pupils into the 
 mystery of his process, taking from them 
 fees of a hundred louis d'or each. By this 
 means "he is said," according to Mr. J. C. 
 Colquhoun, a relatively recent writer on 
 mesmerism, to have realized a considerable 
 fortune. M. Deleuze, a leading writer on 
 the subject, justifies his action in this matter 
 by pointing out that his whole professional 
 prospects were merged in his magnetic dis- 
 coveries, which had ruined him as an ordi- 
 nary doctor. He took the fees from wealthy 
 people, and is said to have remitted them 
 when would-be pupils were less prosperous. 
 Morever, admits Mr. Colquhoun, it is very 
 doubtful whether he really acquired the large 
 sums he is alleged to have received. . 
 
 In 1784 a Koyal Commission of orthodox 
 savants was appointed to inquire into the 
 
40 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 claims advanced on behalf of the theory of 
 animal magnetism. The report was unfa- 
 vorable, after an inquiry which the represen- 
 tatives of the new science declared to have 
 been improperly conducted ; though one em- 
 inent physician (de Jussieu) refused to sub- 
 scribe to the report of his colleagues, and, 
 after a great deal of attention paid to the 
 subject, published an independent report 
 of his own, entirely favorable to Mesmer. 
 Even the general body of the Commissioners 
 admitted the effects produced by the mag- 
 netic treatment, but repudiated Mesmer's 
 theory of a fluid, and preferred hypotheses 
 concerning "sensitive excitement, imagina- 
 tion, and imitation." 
 
 Mesmer eventually retired in disgust to 
 Switzerland, and died at an advanced age in 
 1815, closing his career, as he had begun it, 
 by practicing magnetic cures gratuitously 
 for the benefit of the poor. Beyond a cer- 
 tain fancy for surrounding his mode of life 
 in Paris with a flavor of mystery and theat- 
 rical effect, it is difficult to find any circum- 
 stances in Mesmer's life that afford the slight- 
 est color for the offensive terms in which he 
 has constantly been spoken of, even by some 
 students and adherents of his great subject. 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 41 
 
 During Mesmer's life the phenomena of 
 animal magnetism, to which attention was 
 chiefly called, were those connected with the 
 cure of disease. Many societies were formed 
 as branches of that first set on foot, and 
 while on the one hand the orthodox medical 
 scientists of the day continued to treat with 
 contempt the belief of those who declared 
 that such and such results were accom- 
 plished, the volume of experience rolled on 
 for all who paid attention to the work in 
 progress. A very ludicrous aspect is thus 
 put, for students of mesmeric literature, on 
 the ignorant conceit of the dominant major- 
 ity, who were all the while denying the pos- 
 sibility of that which was actually occurring. 
 After the foolish bigotry of the doctors at 
 large had thus been at war with the plain 
 facts of the case for more than forty years, 
 medical mesmerism at last received a grudg- 
 ing recognition from orthodox science in 
 1831. At this date a committee of the med- 
 ical section of the French Koyal Academy of 
 Sciences was appointed to examine into the 
 alleged phenomena of animal magnetism. 
 The report made by this committee, after 
 long and careful investigations, constitutes 
 a remarkable record of experiments on the 
 
42 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 physical phenomena of the mesmeric state; 
 it also goes at length into cases in which pa- 
 tients under medical mesmeric treatment 
 were clairvoyant in their trances, and accu- 
 rately prophetic concerning the subsequent 
 course of their maladies. The report, 
 signed by nine members of the Academy, is 
 apologetic in regard to its assurance that the 
 alleged phenomena were true ; but the mem- 
 bers say in effect, How can we help our- 
 selves? We have taken every possible pre- 
 caution to guard ourselves from mistakes, 
 and we cannot resist complete conviction. 
 An English translation of this report, by 
 Mr. J. C. Colquhoun, was published in 
 1833. 
 
 From this date the reality of the phenom- 
 ena of mesmerism, as far as those are associ- 
 ated with its aspects as a curative agent, as 
 a method of producing anaesthesia, and as a 
 means of producing abnormal mental states 
 in which a mesmerized subject may foresee 
 the future progress of his own disorder, 
 must be regarded as finally established, al- 
 though scientific and educated men up to our 
 own day maintain an attitude of incredulity 
 on the subject, which puts them, for better 
 instructed persons, on the intellectual level 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 43 
 
 of the African savage, who does not believe 
 in ice. Since 1831, moreover, the experi- 
 ence which has accumulated on our hands 
 concerning the higher and more purely psy- 
 chic phenomena of the mesmeric state is 
 such that the same remark really applies 
 to every one, however cultivated along some 
 lines of mental activity, who remains in an 
 attitude of incredulity concerning the typi- 
 cal phenomena of clairvoyance and mesmeric 
 thought transfer. 
 
 As far back as 1808, Dr. Petetin published 
 in Paris a book called "Electricite Ani- 
 male," of which the well-known later writer 
 on the same subject, Dr. Esdaile, says: 
 "Dr. Petetin 's cases alone are sufficient to 
 establish the reality of natural clairvoyance." 
 Plentiful testimony will be found in this book 
 concerning the powers of mesmeric subjects 
 of a certain kind to read the contents of 
 closed letters and books, and to exercise 
 many other faculties of perception quite in- 
 dependently of the ordinary sense. 
 
 Among the earliest of Mesmer's disciples, 
 the Marquis Chastenet de Puysegur has left 
 voluminous writings on the subject of his 
 own prolonged and varied practice as a cur- 
 ative mesmerist. The edition of his works 
 
44 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 before me is in four volumes, the last dated 
 1809, but this is a second edition, and I 
 gather that the first must have appeared in 
 1807. This is entitled "Memoires pour 
 servir a l'histoire et a l'etablissement du 
 Magnetisme Animal." The second volume 
 is a general continuation of the first, and the 
 third is more especially devoted to "Ee- 
 cherches, experiences, et observations physi- 
 ologiques sur l'homme dans l'etat de som- 
 nambulisme naturel et dans le somnambu- 
 lisme provoque par l'acte magnetique." The 
 fourth volume, published in 1812, is entitled 
 "Les Fous, les Insenses, les Maniaques et les 
 Frenetiques, ne seraient-ils que des Somnam- 
 bules desordonnes." The whole collection 
 of writings embodies an immense accumu- 
 lation of experiences with persons clairvoy- 
 ant during illness in respect to their own 
 maladies. No recent writings on mesmerism 
 in its medical aspect have an equal value 
 with these, for de Puysegur, working with 
 straightforward and earnest faith in his own 
 power of alleviating suffering with the help 
 of Mesmer's glorious discovery, attained 
 brilliant successes, and above all — for later 
 students of the subject — has done unrivaled 
 service in investigating the prophetic and 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 45 
 
 clairvoyant faculties of mesmeric patients, 
 not only in reference to their own but in re- 
 spect also of other persons' ailments. On 
 this development of their powers he says: 
 " Of all the facts of magnetism the most in- 
 explicable, and above all the least conceiv- 
 able, is, without doubt, that of the vision 
 possessed by patients in a perfect state of 
 somnambulism in reference to the sufferings 
 of others and the knowledge which they 
 show of the remedies and measures neces- 
 sary for their cure. . . . Anyhow, although 
 there is no known phenomena (in other 
 branches of science) to which one can com- 
 pare the faculty — the fact is nevertheless 
 real, as certain as the other manifestations 
 of somnambulism already recognized." 
 
 De Puysegur gives full details of the cases 
 both of this and of the simpler kinds of 
 clairvoyance — in reference to the patients' 
 own illnesses — that he had the opportunity 
 of dealing with, and they are both numerous 
 and remarkable. It seems strange that he 
 never apparently investigated the extent to 
 which the clairvoyant perceptions he evoked 
 could be directed to other subjects besides 
 those having to do with physical illness, but 
 in the beginning mesmerism was introduced 
 
46 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 to the world in reference almost exclusively 
 to its medical aspects, and it was reserved 
 for later inquirers to bring its psychological 
 importance into view. De Puysegur never 
 seems to have expected the clairvoyance of 
 his patients to be prolonged beyond the 
 period of their recovery. 
 
 J. P. F. Deleuze was a voluminous, and 
 one of the earliest, writers on mesmerism. 
 He published several books on the subject, 
 amongst others a critical history of animal 
 magnetism. He himself was a Frenchman, 
 born in 1753. He was attracted to the sub- 
 ject of mesmerism by reading accounts of 
 magnetic cures in 1785, and subsequently 
 accomplished many such cures himself. He 
 was a naturalist attached to the Jardin des 
 Plantes. In his "Histoire Critique du 
 Magnetisme Animal" (Paris, 1813), he very 
 effectually rebuts the accusations of impose 
 ture brought against Mesmer. This ex- 
 traordinary man, he says, gifted with an 
 energetic character, was carried away by the 
 wonderful successes he obtained into an ex- 
 aggerated belief in the range of his discov- 
 ery, but the attitude of incredulity, on the 
 other hand, in regard to his achievements 
 M. Deleuze shows to be altogether unten- 
 
REAL LITER ATUBE OF MESMERISM. 47 
 
 able. Not only were his numerous pupils 
 convinced of the reality of his treatment, but 
 the assurances and proofs furnished by per- 
 sons who had been cured themselves, and 
 who had taken part in establishing societies 
 for the cure of others, were such that no op- 
 position or ridicule could arrest the progress 
 of so useful and well-established a discovery. 
 M. Deleuze himself, since he had occupied 
 himself with magnetism, could attest that he 
 had known more than three hundred persons 
 who were occupied with it like himself, and 
 who had produced or experienced its vivid 
 effects. M. Deleuze deplores that Mesmer 
 had not the magnanimity to make public 
 his discoveries for the good of mankind with- 
 out deriving pecuniary benefit from them, 
 but points out that after all he had spent 
 money to acquire the right of practicing as 
 doctor, and by all ordinary considerations 
 was entitled to take money for teaching pu- 
 pils. M. Deleuze devotes himself chiefly to 
 establishing the reality of the magnetic influ- 
 ence as a curative agent by records of cases 
 and protracted arguments, and in his sec- 
 ond volume gives an interesting summary of 
 the books on the subject that had appeared 
 up to the date at which he wrote. His 
 
48 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 "Practical Instructions on Animal Magnet- 
 ism " were published in 1825, and have been 
 translated into English. The book is de- 
 scribed by the translator as the result of a 
 consummate experience. In 1836 an earlier 
 admirer of Deleuze's work had written: "A 
 new era has commenced for magnetism. 
 Authentically recognized by the Royal Acad- 
 emy of Medicine in 1831, and regarded by 
 the commission as a very curious branch of 
 psychology and natural history, it has taken 
 rank among positive truths. The rising 
 generation will be prompt to cultivate the 
 new field laid open to them. What surer 
 guide can they take than the man who, by 
 the superiority of his intelligence, the saga- 
 city of his conclusions, and the example of 
 his own life, has so powerfully contributed 
 to the triumph of this noble discovery. " 
 
 Deleuze says that his object is to give 
 plain and simple instructions for people who 
 wish to practice magnetism. " It is not the 
 object of this work," he writes, "to con- 
 vince men who, otherwise well-informed, 
 still doubt the reality of magnetism." He 
 employs the expression, "the magnetic fluid," 
 he says, because he believes in the existence 
 of such a fluid, though its nature is un- 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 49 
 
 known. The directions which he gives go 
 into great detail in regard to manipulation 
 and passes, and most later handbooks of mes- 
 merism seem to have derived their inspira- 
 tion very largely from this code of rules. 
 The author also discusses the accessory 
 means by which magnetic action may be in- 
 creased, namely, mesmerized water, woolen 
 and cotton cloths, plates of glass, etc. The 
 purpose in view is almost exclusively to in- 
 struct the reader in methods of mesmerism 
 to be employed for the cure of disease, and 
 the book is entirely concerned with such di- 
 rections, or with criticisms on various modes 
 of mesmerizing, the risks to be avoided, and 
 the methods that may be employed for "de- 
 veloping and fortifying one's self in mag- 
 netic power." A voluminous appendix, 
 added to an American edition of the work 
 by the translator, Mr. Hartshorn, gives an 
 immense quantity of testimony collected 
 by him concerning curious and remarkable 
 cases of mesmerism. 
 
 J. J. A. Ricard, a Paris professor, is a 
 thoroughly satisfactory exponent of mes- 
 meric experience, who published in 1841 a 
 volume entitled "Traite theorique et pra- 
 tique du Magnetisme Animal." He must 
 
50 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 have been himself a mesmerist of most un- 
 usual force, and evidently combined with 
 this attribute characteristics which, properly 
 handled, would have made him himself a 
 sensitive of great value, for he appears 
 to have been a spontaneous somnambulist, 
 capable on some occasions of writing long 
 strings of verses in his sleep, in reference 
 to the production of which he retained no 
 recollection whatever in his waking state. 
 However, this fact crops up merely inci- 
 dentally ; his book is devoted entirely to the 
 record of his work, which chiefly has to do 
 with curative mesmerism directed by the 
 pathological clairvoyance of his patients, for 
 with him it seemed as if almost every one 
 who approached could be thrown into a mag- 
 netic trance. There is something very puz- 
 zling to modern practical students in the im- 
 mense advantage apparently enjoyed by the 
 early mesmerists, as compared with our- 
 selves, in reference to the prevalent condi- 
 tion of people around them. In the present 
 day we may be able to get results which 
 when obtained are fully as good in all re- 
 spects as those described by the early French 
 writers ; but the persons with whom such re- 
 sults are procurable seem to be dotted here 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 51 
 
 and there about the world, by ones and twos, 
 whereas such mesmerists as M. Ricard seem 
 always to have been puzzled if they did not 
 succeed with the premier vejiu. Their rec- 
 ords of distinct successes run into percentages 
 like seventy -five or eighty of the total num- 
 ber of persons with whom they made experi- 
 ments. Ricard treats with scorn the pre- 
 tenses of some disputants to account for 
 mesmeric phenomena by imagination, fas- 
 cination, and other vague hypotheses in con- 
 flict with the simple and, to him, undeniably 
 true theory of mesmeric fluid. The falsity 
 of their judgment he thinks may easily be 
 demonstrated, and he records a case in which 
 in order to prove the reality of his own po- 
 sition he magnetizes one of his patients at a 
 distance, and puts him to sleep without any 
 expectation on his part that the experiment 
 was going to be tried. For psychological 
 students, however, Ricard' s book has claims 
 jon their interest which far transcend its im- 
 portance as, what it certainly is also, a very 
 advanced and intelligent treatise on curative 
 mesmerism. Ricard appears to me to have 
 been the first experimentalist, or at all 
 events the first writer, who gets entirely free 
 of the belief that clairvoyance is a merely 
 
52 THE BATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 pathological condition, and to whom the daz- 
 zlingly interesting phenomenon of clairvoy- 
 ance, having to do with other states of na- 
 ture, presents itself in the light of its real 
 importance. He gives a very full account 
 of his first experience in this region of in- 
 quiry with a girl named Adele Lefrey, who 
 exhibited a new kind of lucidity at the con- 
 clusion of some curative treatment received 
 at her mesmerist's hands. It may be worth 
 while here to translate a short passage illus- 
 trative for all who have themselves been 
 privileged to work with sensitives qualified 
 to discern higher states of nature, of what 
 may be called the inevitable routine of im- 
 pressions such people go through in the first 
 instance. M. Ricard's Adele said to him 
 words conveying exactly the same ideas 
 which I have heard uttered by sensitives 
 under my own influence, young girls to 
 whom the A B C of mesmerism as a branch 
 of knowledge was wholly unknown. M. 
 Eicard writes : " She was near the comple- 
 tion of her cure, when, in the midst of some 
 new medical instructions which she was giv- 
 ing, she said to me in a singular tone, 'You 
 hear what he orders me? ' 'Who,' I asked, 
 'is ordering you anything?' 'Why, mon- 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 53 
 
 sieur, do you not hear him? ' 'No, I neither 
 hear nor see any one/ 'Ah, that is true,' 
 she replied, 'you sleep while I am awake.' 
 'What do you mean? You dream, my dear 
 child ; you pretend that I sleep, when I have 
 my eyes open and I can appreciate all that 
 passes before me, while I know that I actu- 
 ally hold you in command by my magnetic 
 influence, and that it only depends upon my 
 will to bring you back to the state you were 
 in recently. You believe yourself awake be- 
 cause you speak to me, and you have to a 
 certain extent your free will, although you 
 could not open your eyelids, and might be 
 plunged in an instant into the most prof ound 
 slumber. You do not reflect upon what you 
 are saying.' 'You do not understand me, 
 monsieur, but that is nothing surprising.' 
 'You are asleep,' I replied. x 'I am, on the v/^ ^5/ 
 contrary, as completely awake as we shall all 
 be some day in the future. I will explain my- 
 self more clearly ; all that you see at present 
 is gross, material; you distinguish apparent 
 forms; the real beauties escape you. How 
 could it be otherwise? Your spirit is 
 cramped, obscured, by the exterior impres- 
 sions that your material senses give you. 
 It can only reach out feebly, while my cor- 
 
54 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 poreal sensations are actually annihilated, 
 while my soul is almost disintegrated from 
 its ordinary fetters. I see what is invisible 
 to your eyes, I hear what your ears cannot 
 hear, I understand what for you is incom- 
 prehensible. For example, you do not see 
 what emanates from yourself and comes to 
 me when you magnetize me; I, on the con- 
 trary, see it very clearly; at each pass you 
 direct towards me I see a little column of 
 fiery dust which comes from the end of your 
 fingers and seems to incorporate itself in me. 
 Then when you isolate me I seem surrounded 
 by an atmosphere of this fiery dust, which 
 is often the reason why objects of which I 
 seek to distinguish the forms take a ruddy 
 tinge for me. I hear, when I desire it, a 
 sound that is made at a distance, sounds 
 which may arise a hundred leagues from 
 here. In a word, I am not obliged to wait 
 till things come to me, I can go to them 
 wherever they are, and appreciate them more 
 correctly than any one could who is not in a 
 similar state to that in which I find myself. ' " 
 This is a perfectly sound and correct ex- 
 position of the state in which the liberated 
 Ego of the sensitive finds itself. Phrases of 
 precisely similar import have, as I say, been 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 55 
 
 given to me more than once ; and I venture 
 to say that any one in whom the faculty of 
 clairvoyance, in reference to other planes of 
 nature, is possible will, on first entering into 
 that state, if questioned, take the same view 
 of the position. 
 
 Under the title "Archiv fur den Thieris- 
 chen Magnetismus," an immense collection 
 of writings on mesmerism in all its branches, 
 as then understood, was published in Ger- 
 many in 1817. This work is in twelve vol- 
 umes, edited by Dr. von Eschenmayer, Dr. 
 Kiefer, and Dr. Nasse. It consists of nar- 
 ratives of experiments and magnetic cures, 
 and careful critical essays, including specu- 
 lations on the meaning of clairvoyant previs- 
 ion which show a more intelligent attitude of 
 mind on the part of the German writers of 
 that date than was common in England. 
 
 Baron du Potet, sometimes called de Sen- 
 nevoy, after an ancestral domain, is to be 
 ranked among the early French writers on 
 mesmerism, though he lived to within a few 
 years ago. He was born at Sennevoy, in 
 the Department of the Yonne, in 1796. He 
 has given us a sketch of his own career at 
 the beginning of one of his later books, and 
 it appears that he was first attracted to the 
 
56 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 study of human magnetism in 1815. The 
 whole subject burst upon him as a revela- 
 tion. " En sortant de ce premier entretien" 
 he says, "fetais magnetiseur." He at once 
 obtained the mesmeric trance with the two 
 persons on whom he first tried his hand. He 
 became acquainted with Deleuze and de Puy- 
 segur. He undertook the cure of some pa- 
 tients; dazzled with the results he entered 
 himself regularly for the study of medicine. 
 As a mesmerist he rapidly distanced his 
 teachers. He boldly confronted the ridicule 
 and opposition of conventional science. He 
 gave gratuitous courses of instruction in 
 mesmerism from the year 1826, and at the 
 same period began to write on the subject. 
 He published a Journal called the "Propa- 
 gateur du Magnetisme;" also in 1838, in 
 London, a volume entitled "An Introduc- 
 tion to the Study of Animal Magnetism." 
 This is an admirable book. It shows us the 
 author still unable to believe that the tena- 
 city of ignorant prejudice could hold out 
 against an overwhelming demonstration of 
 the truth. "Hitherto," he says, "there has 
 been a disinclination to entertain this inves- 
 tigation, but 1 trust the evidence now ad- 
 duced will tend to dispel the prejudice that 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 57 
 
 can only have arisen from the science not 
 having been yet fairly represented." The 
 book opens with a good review of the history 
 of the subject. Speaking of Mesmer, the 
 Baron says : " Surrounded as he was by en- 
 emies, both public and private, his unassum- 
 ing manners, his manifest sincerity, his ear- 
 nest yet silent enthusiasm, and, above all, 
 his benevolent disposition, conciliated for 
 him the esteem of persons of almost all ranks 
 and pretensions." Later on the Baron goes 
 into a full and detailed description of the 
 physical and psychical phenomena of mes- 
 merism as illustrated by his own experience. 
 His records are of great instructive value 
 and would alone be sufficient to establish the 
 reality of clairvoyance as a fact in nature, 
 even if they were not, as they are, merely 
 one set of such experiences among a great 
 number. 
 
 The only fault that can be found with du 
 Potet's books is, that their style is a little 
 inflated or bombastic. In this respect he is, 
 however, the product of French and not 
 English literary traditions, and throughout 
 he is immensely impressed with the prodi- 
 gious spiritual importance of the discoveries 
 with which he is dealing. As he himself 
 
58 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 says, lie felt a new philosophy forming itself 
 in his mind around these germs 5 it was neb- 
 ulous and undefined, but stupendous. He 
 was filled with ideas that he felt to be too 
 far advanced for his generation. He only 
 ventured in 1845 to give them some expres- 
 sion in a work entitled "Essai sur l'enseigne- 
 ment philosophique du Magnetisme." But 
 though this volume is relatively timid and 
 reserved, the author was quickly outgrowing 
 the limits of magnetic practice as familiar to 
 his predecessors. He was becoming some- 
 thing more than a mesmerist — an occultist, 
 and eventually, under somewhat too theat- 
 rical or sensational a title, he printed an 
 important quarto called "La Magie De- 
 voilee," which was never published, in the 
 ordinary sense of the word, but delivered 
 to a few persons under definite pledges taken 
 from them in regard to the use they would 
 make of it. The experiments described in 
 this book, though startling and almost en- 
 tirely of psychological interest, do not really 
 outrun those related in the "Animal Mag- 
 netism " in scientific value for the student 
 of mesmerism. The Baron seems to have 
 been himself almost alarmed by the power 
 he acquired over all kinds and conditions of 
 
REAL LITEBATUBE OF MESMEBISM. 59 
 
 people by causing them to look at signs and 
 figures lie drew with charcoal upon the floor. 
 He got these signs from books on mediaeval 
 magic, and was apparently inclined to at- 
 tach too much objective importance to the 
 diagrams themselves, thinking that other 
 people would be able to obtain his results by 
 following the same procedure, and that pow- 
 ers of a dangerous character might thus be 
 acquired through his teaching by persons 
 of evilly disposed nature if his instructions 
 were carelessly disseminated. He did not 
 realize how far the magic lay in his own 
 magnetic force — how little of it had to do 
 with the signs. 
 
 In 1840 Baron du Potet published an- 
 other volume called "A Course of Magnet- 
 ism in Seven Lessons," and in the course of 
 his addresses to his pupils, in themselves a 
 numerous body, to whom he dedicates this 
 volume, he indulges in some very scornful 
 language concerning the obstinate incredu- 
 lity exhibited by the scientific world at large 
 in regard to the accumulated facts of mes- 
 meric experience. 
 
 M. Alexandre Bertrand seems to have 
 been the first writer who quarreled with 
 the straightforward theory of the magnetic 
 
60 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 fluid adopted by Mesmer, de Puysegur and 
 Deleuze. In 1826 he published a treatise 
 entitled "Du Magnetisme Animal en 
 France," in which he promulgated a theory 
 of his own on what he calls V Extase — the 
 condition of those whom the earlier writers 
 described as somnamhules. This is not a 
 work of any value in itself, and is chiefly 
 remarkable as showing how very little orig- 
 inality there was in Mr. Braid's later claim 
 to have put the whole subject on a new and 
 scientific footing. M. Bertrand incidentally 
 admits that his own somnamhules bear testi- 
 mony to the reality of the fluid. Many of 
 these, he says, "declare in fact that they see 
 the fluid by means of which I exert an effect 
 upon them coming out from my fingers." 
 The patients with whom he worked would 
 also declare that they discerned a peculiar 
 taste in water that he had magnetized, and 
 experienced pronounced effects from objects 
 he had magnetized, such as a handkerchief, 
 a glove, or a piece of money. For all this, 
 however, he found a sufficient explanation 
 in the theory that they had been possessed 
 with such ideas before going to sleep ; and 
 for him magnetism is "une pure cliimere." 
 That which he conceives to be a reality is 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 61 
 
 Vextase — "a condition into which human 
 creatures are capable of falling, altogether 
 distinct from any states that had been pre- 
 viously recognized." The argument amounts 
 to nothing in itself, explains nothing, and is 
 only carried on by disregarding the larger 
 part of the phenomena admitted as facts and 
 requiring to be brought within the area of 
 any genuine mesmeric theory. 
 
 M. Aubin Gautier is one of the early 
 writers who must by no means be overlooked. 
 He seems to have written, to begin with, in 
 1840 a volume entitled "Introduction au 
 Magnetisme," a volume written in a very 
 reverent spirit, and on the basis of much 
 careful research in ancient history, aimed at 
 showing the wide diffusion of magnetism in 
 one shape or another as a psychological 
 agent in Egypt, Greece, and Rome. M. 
 Gautier seems to have been amongst those 
 from the first who took the subject seriously 
 and in the spirit of an occult student. 
 Whoever expects to find these pages amus- 
 ing, he says in the beginning, "deceives 
 himself strangely. The study and practice 
 of magnetism demand an unheard of pa- 
 tience, silence, and self-control." 
 
 The book is more a review and a specula- 
 
62 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 tion than a narrative. It rests, of course, 
 in complete reliance on the mesmeric fluid 
 theory, and only fails in bringing out really 
 scientific conceptions because the writer was 
 not himself in possession of those side lights 
 on mesmerism which I propose to deal with 
 directly, and without which the various phe- 
 nomena themselves can never be coordinated. 
 In 1842 M. Gautier published his "His- 
 toire du Somnambulisme," again sweeping 
 the wide areas of ancient history for illus- 
 trations of his theme. This volume, in- 
 cluding many narratives of more modern 
 origin, gives a full account of M. Pigeaire 's 
 experience with the Academie de Medecine 
 of Paris. M. Pigeaire was a country doctor 
 who discovered fine clairvoyant faculties in 
 the youngest of his daughters, Leonide, aged 
 ten years. No experimentalists in those 
 days seemed to have realized the lengths a 
 clairvoyant faculty could reach to when prop- 
 erly cultivated, so that the only experiments 
 tried with the girl had to do with recogniz- 
 ing objects and reading from books when 
 blindfold. Her powers in this direction 
 were brought to high perfection in a long 
 series of private and domestic seances. 
 When at last M. Pigeaire decided to claim 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 63 
 
 on his daughter's behalf a prize which had 
 been offered by a member of the Academie 
 de Medecine, the family genius was brought 
 out of her retirement and introduced in 
 Paris to a great number of learned obser- 
 vers. The prize in question had been offered 
 by Dr. Burdin to any one who could read 
 without the use of the eyes, of the sense of 
 touch, or of light. The Academie de Mede- 
 cine was to arbitrate on any claims that 
 might be made. While the Pigeaire family 
 were staying in Paris they seemed to have 
 given a series of private entertainments at 
 which Leonide's faculties were exhibited, 
 and a large number of persons distinguished 
 in science, literature, and social rank signed 
 records of the successful experiments. 
 When the time came, however, for M. Pi- 
 geaire to interview the committee appointed 
 by the Academie de Medecine, he found 
 them perfectly unprepared to investigate and 
 adjudicate upon what actually took place, and 
 only willing to deal with Mile. Leonide if 
 she would conform precisely to their own 
 arrangements and conditions, among which 
 were that she should wear a peculiar kind of 
 helmet mask which they had constructed, 
 and let one of their number keep his hands 
 
64 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 on her eyelids all the time. In all its details 
 the story is instructive to any one interested 
 in looking back on the thoroughly unscientific 
 attitude of mind taken up by the represen- 
 tatives of physical science in those days in 
 their dealings with mesmerism. But I can 
 hardly give space here to all the ramifica- 
 tions of the story. M. Pigeaire tried to 
 make his surly inquisitors understand that 
 the whole psychic condition of his daughter 
 required delicate and gentle treatment, that 
 their own proposals were calculated to throw 
 her into convulsions rather than into the 
 clairvoyant state, that the bandages he em- 
 ployed, using masses of cotton wool to cover 
 the eyes completely, were of such a kind 
 that any pretense of distrusting their efficacy 
 was ridiculous, but all to no purpose. The 
 committee refused even to look at his band- 
 ages, and after he left them in disgust sent 
 in a report, the general drift of which was 
 that the proposed experiments had been de- 
 clined except under conditions which the 
 committee did not conceive bore evidence 
 of bona fides. 
 
 In their zeal to discredit the subject the 
 committee even ventured upon some state- 
 ments that were positively false, wishing to 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 65 
 
 lead the reader into the belief that they had 
 interviewed the proposed clairvoyante. But 
 nowhere in 1838 was any scientific body pre- 
 pared to observe the conditions of fair play 
 or common honesty in dealing with the rep- 
 resentatives of mesmerism. 
 
 In telling the story, however hastily, one 
 should not omit to mention one concluding 
 incident. A group of those persons who had 
 witnessed the earlier series of preliminary 
 seances with Leonide, took M. Pigeaire's 
 part very warmly. They raised a consider- 
 able guarantee fund and publicly offered a 
 prize ten or twelve times greater than that 
 originally offered by the Academy, to any 
 member of that body who should be able to 
 read a single word of print when his eyes 
 had been bandaged on the plan adopted with 
 Mile. Leonide by her father. It is need- 
 less to say nobody took up the challenge, 
 and that the whole incident thus constitutes 
 a very round and complete illustration of the 
 gross dishonesty with which the high author- 
 ities in medicine in Paris conducted the 
 war against the new discovery. 
 
 A year or two later, in 1845, M. Gautier 
 published a third book called a " Traite pra- 
 tique du Magnetisme et du Somnambulisme." 
 
66 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 This is a well-arranged and well-indexed 
 treatise on magnetism in all the branches 
 then studied, and though very imperfectly 
 divining the real potentialities of psychic 
 mesmerism, is even to this day a solid book 
 of careful record and earnest thinking, im- 
 measurably better worth attention than any 
 of the recent volumes that play up to the 
 fashionable errors of the moment. 
 
 M. L. A. Cahagnet seems to have been 
 one of the very few French writers of this 
 period thoroughly alive to the psychic pos- 
 sibilities of clairvoyance. He undertook a 
 prolonged series of mesmeric seances with 
 clairvoyants whose attention he directed to 
 other planes of existence, and these are re- 
 corded in a book entitled "Arcanes de la 
 Vie Future Devoilee." The value of the 
 statements made by his clairvoyants in ref- 
 erence to the future life will of course be va- 
 riously estimated by different readers, but 
 from the point of view of mesmeric science, 
 the facts concerning the mental phenomena 
 exhibited by the subjects under treatment 
 are of the highest interest. An English 
 translation of this book has been published 
 in America. 
 
 Dr. Esdaile's "Mesmerism in India" is a 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 67 
 
 record of the author's extraordinary success 
 in the application of mesmerism to his sur- 
 gical practice at the government hospital in 
 Calcutta, of which he was in charge- The 
 book was published about 1842. It includes 
 not only minute surgical reports of frightful 
 operations performed upon the mesmerized 
 patients of the hospital without any suffer- 
 ing or consciousness of what was taking 
 place on their part, but also corroborative 
 testimony from a great many of the most 
 distinguished people resident at Calcutta at 
 the time, who were called in by Dr. Esdaile 
 to be present at these wonderful perform- 
 ances. 
 
 A later work by the same author, "Nat- 
 ural and Mesmeric Clairvoyance," published 
 in 1852, includes, besides a quantity of 
 fresh testimony connected with the medical 
 aspects of mesmerism, an epitome of evi- 
 dence extracted from the " Zoist," and from 
 other sources, on the subject of clairvoyance 
 exhibited during the mesmeric state. In 
 this book Dr. Esdaile also recounts the 
 progress of his own struggle at Calcutta in 
 the effort to press the importance of mes- 
 merism upon the attention of the other doc- 
 tors of the place, who would only plod along 
 
68 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 the beaten path. This narrative is, in some 
 respects, the history of Mesmer's own career 
 over again. Instead of being treated by his 
 professional brethren as a benefactor of hu- 
 manity, Esdaile was opposed and vilified by 
 all the devices that prejudice and professional 
 jealousy could suggest, and while it was no- 
 torious that he was daily performing painless 
 operations on patients under mesmerism, the 
 other doctors continued to torture their own 
 unfortunate victims rather than confess that 
 they had been in error in resisting the use 
 of the new curative agent. 
 
 Dr. Esdaile 's remarkable works are not 
 the only records of capital operations per- 
 formed without pain to the patient with the 
 help of mesmerism. A paper read before 
 the Eoyal Medical and Chirurgical Society 
 of London, in 1842, and published as an 
 independent pamphlet, gives full details con- 
 cerning a case in which Mr. Ward, a sur- 
 geon attached to St. Bartholomew's Hospi- 
 tal, had, about that time, amputated a man's 
 leg above the knee while he, the patient, re- 
 mained completely unconscious of the opera- 
 tion in a mesmeric sleep, put upon him by 
 the influence of Mr. Topham, a barrister 
 interested in the practice of mesmerism. 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 69 
 
 The pages of the "Zoist," to which I will 
 refer directly, are laden with reports of 
 other similar cases. 
 
 Dr. Scoresby, the Arctic voyager and 
 well-known writer on various branches of 
 maritime science, was a careful experimenter 
 in mesmerism, and a work of his called 
 "Zoistic Magnetism " records a great deal of 
 his work. He had only a limited experi- 
 ence of the higher phenomena, but a very 
 extensive familiarity with the physical phe- 
 nomena of the mesmeric state, including 
 those on the border-land between the lower 
 and higher, having to do with the transfer 
 of sensation from the mesmerizer to the sub- 
 ject. His book was published in 1849, and 
 is interesting for students of the science for 
 its careful observation in regard to the po- 
 larity of different parts of the human body 
 in respect to the emanations of its animal 
 magnetism. 
 
 An interesting "Report upon the Phe- 
 nomena of Clairvoyance or Lucid Somnam- 
 bulism, from Personal Observation," was 
 published in 1843 by Edwin Lee, Fellow 
 of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society, 
 and of many other societies abroad of a sim- 
 ilar character. The cases here described 
 
TO THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 have reference altogether to clairvoyance on 
 the physical plane, that is to say, to the ob- 
 servation by the clairvoyants concerned, of 
 distant places and houses, and also of ob- 
 jects in their own immediate neighborhood, 
 which they had no means of cognizing 
 through the usual senses. Mr. Lee also 
 wrote about the same time a book on "Ani- 
 mal Magnetism," containing a comprehen- 
 sive review of similar experiments by other 
 observers. 
 
 Another work well worth notice is entitled 
 "Facts in Mesmerism, with Reasons for a 
 Dispassionate Inquiry into it," by the Rev. 
 Chauncy Hare Townsend, first published in 
 1839. This opens with a dedication to Dr. 
 Elliotson, from whose experiments, the au- 
 thor says, the greater part of the English 
 world have derived their ideas of mesmer- 
 ism. He quotes Dr. Wilson, of the Mid- 
 dlesex Hospital, who having been present at 
 a lecture at Dresden, when several fish in a 
 large tub of water were stunned by an elec- 
 tric shock, tried the effect of mesmerizing 
 the water. The fish revived. The incident 
 suggested the proposal that great use might 
 be made of mesmerized water in medicine. 
 In a preface to his second edition Mr. Town- 
 
HEAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 71 
 
 send says: "I now cast my mite into the 
 treasury of evidence that is accumulating in 
 favor of mesmerism with a deep regret that 
 prejudice should yet stand in the way of so 
 much alleviation of human suffering as it is 
 calculated to afford." The book consists of 
 a patient record of the author's own experi- 
 ments, which were largely concerned with 
 interesting phenomena of "sleep waking," 
 as Dr. Elliotson called it, or mesmeric clair- 
 voyance of the simpler kind. Mr. Town- 
 send began with incredulity, but was drawn 
 into serious inquiry in 1836. He worked at 
 this for a long time and with a great num- 
 ber of subjects. His records include a 
 great variety of facts in thought and sensa- 
 tion transference, and in connection with the 
 development, by a mesmerized person, of 
 perceptive faculties in nerve-centres not 
 usually betraying these. He also throws 
 out a good deal of intelligent speculation 
 concerning the media through which mes- 
 meric effects are wrought. Though priding 
 himself on keeping his experiments and in- 
 vestigations on a relatively humble level, 
 and testing the faculties of his subjects by 
 applying them to the commonplace facts of 
 life, Mr. Townsend treats with contempt 
 
72 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 "the imagination theory" as "really too ab- 
 surd to merit a serious refutation. A thou- 
 sand times I have seen mesmeric patients 
 placed under circumstances where the action 
 of imagination was plainly impossible." 
 And later on he writes : " An elastic ether 
 modified by the nerves, and the conduction 
 of which depends on their condition ; which 
 can be thrown into vibration mediately by 
 the mind of man and immediately by the 
 nervous system, which manifests itself when 
 thrown out of equilibrium, and produces 
 mental eifects through unusual stimulation 
 of the brain and nerves, cannot but be al- 
 lowed to be a cause which answers to all the 
 conditions that we desire to unite, and which 
 is sufficient to account for the phenomena 
 that we have been considering." 
 
 The "Zoist" was a magazine, published, 
 I believe, under the editorship of Dr. Elliot- 
 son, "to collect and diffuse information con- 
 nected with two sciences — Cerebral Physi- 
 ology and Mesmerism." "The science of 
 mesmerism," says the inaugural article in 
 the first number, brought out in April, 
 1843, "is a new physiological truth of incal- 
 culable value and importance; and though 
 sneered at by the pseudo-philosophers of the 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 73 
 
 day, there is not the less certainty that it 
 presents the only avenue through which is 
 discernible a ray of hope that the more intri- 
 cate phenomena of the nervous system — of 
 life — will ever be revealed to man. Al- 
 ready it has established its claim to be con- 
 sidered a most potent remedy in the cure of 
 disease; already enabled the knife of the 
 operator to traverse and divide the living 
 fibre unfelt by the patient. If such are the 
 results of its infancy, what may not its ma- 
 turity bring forth?" The thirteen volumes 
 of this magazine, for it was continued up to 
 1856, constitute a splendid reservoir of infor- 
 mation on all branches of mesmeric science. 
 In the farewell address, published with the 
 last issue of the Review, the conductors say 
 their mission has been accomplished. Their 
 object was neither gain nor worldly reputa- 
 tion, but the establishment of truth. For 
 thirteen years they have amassed fresh facts 
 in cerebral physiology and mesmerism, "and 
 presented them in such numbers, and with 
 such proofs, that to question them would be 
 absurd." They speak of the "glorious do- 
 ings of Dr. Esdaile in India," which the 
 "Zoist" has chronicled, and though mainly 
 dwelling on the achievements of medical 
 
74 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 mesmerism, they point to the examples of 
 clairvoyance which abound in their volumes, 
 and which render the phenomenon unques- 
 tionable, though of course gross imposition 
 is practiced in regard to it by professional 
 clairvoyants and private persons "influenced 
 by vanity or wickedness." 
 
 Only less abundant than the proofs of the 
 reality of mesmeric phenomena with which 
 the pages of the "Zoist" teem, are the illus- 
 trations it gives of the senseless and bit- 
 ter hostility which was opposed to it by the 
 majority of the medical men of its time, and 
 of what Dr. Elliotson, in one letter to the 
 Review early in the proceedings, calls the 
 "anti -mesmeric falsehoods of medical men." 
 The favorite theory of the anti-mesmeric doc- 
 tors in regard to celebrated surgical opera- 
 tions conducted painlessly under mesmerism, 
 used to be that the sufferers had "feigned" 
 insensibility. That any one could soberly 
 pretend to believe that patients undergoing 
 the frightful torture of first-class surgical 
 operations could subdue all outward signs of 
 suffering in the interests of the new "impos- 
 ture," shows us the depth of folly to which 
 prejudice and bigotry may sink the under- 
 standings of people still capable of exhibit- 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 15 
 
 ing a form of intelligence in connection with 
 their own commonplace pursuits. 
 
 Dr. Elliotson says of his medical confreres 
 at large that they were as brainlessly indif- 
 ferent to mesmeric phenomena "as the cattle 
 grazing in the meadows are to the wonders 
 of the steam carriages passing by them on 
 the railroads. " With sorrow we must recog- 
 nize that this contemptuous lament is hardly 
 even as yet out of date. 
 
 "Isis Revelata, an Inquiry into the Ori- 
 gin, Progress, and Present State of Animal 
 Magnetism," by J. C. Colquhoun, 1836, is 
 a very comprehensive review of the subject, 
 up to the period at which the author wrote. 
 Its publication is justified, in the introduc- 
 tion, on the ground that the report of the 
 French Academy of Sciences, of 1831, had 
 completely superseded the earlier unfavor- 
 able report of 1784. It had been supposed, 
 Mr. Colquhoun points out, that animal mag- 
 netism was a system of quackery and delu- 
 sion. " This objection, which might perhaps 
 have had some plausibility during the in- 
 fancy of the discovery, has now become 
 utterly ludicrous, and betrays either con- 
 summate ignorance of the subject or gross 
 dishonesty." Mr. Colquhoun takes a highly 
 
76 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 favorable view of Mesmer's life and charac- 
 ter, and quotes a dignified letter in which he 
 refuses an offer of a pension of 30,000 
 francs a year, made to him by the King of 
 France through the Minister Maurepas, on 
 the ground that the offer relates to his pecu- 
 niary interest alone, and does not recognize 
 the importance of his discovery as its princi- 
 pal motive. The question ought, Mesmer 
 thinks, to have been approached in a totally 
 opposite way. This, Colquhoun remarks, 
 "is not the language of avarice." 
 
 "The Modern Bethesda, or the Gift of 
 Healing restored," is a narrative, or rather 
 a compilation from letters, newspapers, and 
 testimonials of all sorts, relating to the al- 
 most innumerable achievements in healing 
 the sick, performed both in America and 
 England by Dr. J. R. Newton. This won- 
 derful mesmerist — a worker of miracles by 
 wholesale — was born in Rhode Island in 
 1810. The earlier part of his life was spent 
 in a prosperous mercantile career, and his 
 peculiar gifts were not developed till 1858. 
 Then he began to travel about in the United 
 States, visiting thousands of patients, and 
 performing "those marvelous and inexplica- 
 ble cures which astonish the world and 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 77 
 
 threaten to revolutionize all former laws and 
 experience of medical science." He had dis- 
 covered his own powers during a voyage in a 
 crowded passenger steamer, where the yellow 
 fever broke out among thirteen hundred pas- 
 sengers. In Ohio, where he began public 
 ministrations, he treated about one hundred 
 persons a day, performing in the course of 
 time many thousands of wonderful cures. 
 
 My purpose in reviewing the books men- 
 tioned above has not been to compile any- 
 thing resembling a complete bibliography of 
 the subject, but simply to show my readers 
 what a wide field the early literature of mes- 
 merism offers for their exploration. But 
 even this rapid survey of its resources would 
 be incomplete without a reference to one 
 which for many modern readers is the stand- 
 ard work on the subject, Dr. Gregory's 
 "Animal Magnetism," first published, I be- 
 lieve, in 1851, and again in other editions at 
 later dates. It is a very fine review of the 
 whole subject in all its branches, and is a 
 good first book for any new student of mes- 
 merism to take up. 
 
 The "Mesmerist," a weekly journal of 
 Vital Magnetism, was published in London 
 in 1843. It was begun in May of that 
 
78 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 year, and continued till September, when its 
 publication ceased. It abounds in interest- 
 ing records of mesmeric experience in all 
 branches and in good articles vainly combat- 
 ing the crass indifference and incredulity of 
 the public. 
 
 In contrast to this mass of literature, 
 which in reality renders any dispute as to 
 the truth of mesmerism equivalent to a 
 dispute as to whether Columbus was right 
 in believing that a continent exists to the 
 west of the Atlantic Ocean, we may use- 
 fully turn for a moment to the conventional, 
 orthodox notices of the subject in those mir- 
 rors of popular ignorance concerning all 
 psychic science — the encyclopaedias of the 
 day. 
 
 The Oxford Encyclopaedia, published in 
 1828, describes animal magnetism as "an 
 appellation given to a pretended science, 
 which during the last century excited consid- 
 erable attention in several parts of Europe." 
 After giving a caricature account of Mes- 
 mer's operations, the writer goes on to de- 
 clare that in the end it became evident the 
 patients "were impostors, or in a most 
 wretched state of debility both of mind and 
 body." The article concludes by remarking, 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 79 
 
 " it is needless to add that his doctrine is now 
 almost entirely exploded." 
 
 Dr. Rees' "Cyclopaedia of Arts, Sciences, 
 and Literature," 1819, disposes of the whole 
 subject in a very charming paragraph. 
 "Animal Magnetism," it says, "is an ap- 
 pellation given by some designing or self- 
 deceived operators upon the credulity and 
 purses of mankind, to certain practices by 
 which, under the pretense of curing diseases, 
 various effects were produced on the animal 
 economy, such as faintings, partial and even 
 general convulsions, etc. ; " and referring to 
 the "able investigation" of 1784, which de- 
 molished Mesmer's pretensions, the writer 
 concludes by saying that an account of it 
 will be found "under the article Imagina- 
 tion." 
 
 Chambers' Encyclopaedia, in the edition 
 of 1884, after briefly glancing in a colorless 
 tone at the earlier history of mesmerism, 
 takes refuge in the investigations of Mr. 
 James Braid as settling the character of 
 mesmeric phenomena all round. "Unfortu- 
 nately," it says, "the evil reputation which 
 the subject had so naturally obtained pre- 
 vented the due appreciation of Braid's dis- 
 coveries," — the discovery in question being 
 
80 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 really little more than an incomplete and 
 misleading theory concerning a subdivision 
 of mesmeric phenomena, unscientifically sep- 
 arated for the purposes of a preconceived 
 hypothesis, from others incompatible with 
 that hypothesis. The writer in the en- 
 cyclopaedia follows Braid's plan, however, 
 and confines his attention to incidents of 
 mesmeric experience which seem to lend 
 color to the hypnotic theory, lightly remark- 
 ing of the rest, "no scientific observer has 
 ever confirmed the statements of mesmerists 
 as to clairvoyance, reading of sealed letters, 
 influence on unconscious persons at a dis- 
 tance, or the like; " a statement which might 
 be paralleled if we were to say, "no scien- 
 tific observer has ever confirmed the state- 
 ments of travelers and sailors concerning 
 the existence of an American continent 
 with trees, population, lakes, rivers, and the 
 like." 
 
 The eighth edition of the Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica, in a brief account of Mesmer's 
 life, represents him as a detected impostor, 
 and without one word to indicate that there 
 is even any considerable body of opinion op- 
 posed to that view, ignores the report of 
 1831, and refers to the report of the com- 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 81 
 
 mittee of 1784 in the following terms : "The 
 proceedings of Deslon, the pupil of Mesmer, 
 were scrutinized by a committee of inquiry, 
 consisting of the physicians Majault, Sallin, 
 d'Arcet, and Guillotin, and the academi- 
 cians Franklin, Le Roy, Bailly, de Bory, 
 and Lavoisier. The report drawn up by 
 Bailly thoroughly exposed the falsehood and 
 imposture of the mesmeric process. . . . 
 The disciples of animal magnetism attempted 
 to check the advance of their enemies by 
 forming themselves into societies. Mesmer, 
 more politic, escaped amid the general con- 
 fusion, carrying with him a subscription of 
 340,000 francs, and at the same time the 
 secret for which that sum had been given to 
 him." 
 
 A somewhat different tone is taken up in 
 the recent ninth edition. Mesmer is now 
 spoken of cautiously as a man who made 
 many converts, who was stigmatized as a 
 charlatan, but who was undoubtedly a mys- 
 tic, and who was honest in the belief that 
 the phenomena produced were real. A timid 
 reference to Reichenbach's discoveries in 
 odyllic force is then put forward. " The 
 idea that some such force exists has been a 
 favorite speculation of scientific men having 
 
82 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 a bias towards mysticism, and it makes its 
 appearance not unfrequently." "The next 
 great step in the investigation of these phe- 
 nomena," the "Britannica" then proceeds, 
 "was made by James Braid, a surgeon, in 
 Manchester, in 1841," — and it goes on 
 to connect the whole remainder of a long 
 article with the weak and insufficient hy- 
 pothesis of this very shallow thinker. 
 
 To comment adequately on the attitude of 
 mind of writers who, remaining thus en- 
 tirely outside the area of knowledge concern- 
 ing psychic science in any of its branches, 
 have, nevertheless, the audacity to flirt their 
 incredulity in the faces of wiser and better 
 informed men, would claim the use of 
 stronger language than I care to employ. 
 No one, it is true, deserves blame for leaving 
 any subject that does not attract him alto- 
 gether unstudied. But in most cases people 
 who are conscious of limited intellectual 
 resources entertain a decent respect for 
 others better furnished. A man may be 
 nothing but a sportsman himself and yet 
 refrain from asserting that chemists and 
 electricians must be impostors. And a 
 chemist may know nothing of Italian art, 
 and yet may refrain from declaring that 
 
REAL LITERATURE OF MESMERISM. 83 
 
 Kaphael never existed. But all through the 
 commonplace world, whether in its upper or 
 lower strata, people who are ignorant of 
 psychic science encourage one another in the 
 brainless and absurd denial of facts exhib- 
 ited in the encyclopaedias, and in an even 
 more grotesque and impudent fashion by 
 the newspapers of the day, whenever any of 
 its phenomena come up for treatment. The 
 average country grocer, the average news- 
 paper reporter, the average student of physi- 
 cal science, are all steeped in the same dense 
 incapacity to understand the propriety of 
 respecting the knowledge of others, even if 
 they do not share it themselves, whenever 
 they brush up against any statement relating 
 to the work of those who are engaged in any 
 branch of psychic inquiry. From the occult 
 point of view, indeed, one can understand 
 why this should be so. The incredulity of 
 unspiritual mankind is Nature's own protec- 
 tion against those unfit as yet to use her 
 higher gifts. That is all in the legitimate 
 order of things ; but the more spiritualized 
 minority need not play up, on their part, to 
 that incredulity. It is their duty to war 
 against it, and in the course of that strife, 
 by slow degrees, the intelligence of the com- 
 
84 THE BATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 monplace herd will be leavened, and their 
 minds, growing within them in spite of their 
 own complacent unconsciousness of the pro- 
 cess, be qualified gradually for a more pro- 
 gressive evolution. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SIDE-LIGHTS ON MESMERIC PHENOMENA. 
 
 Any one who goes patiently through any- 
 considerable body of early mesmeric litera- 
 ture will be struck by the manner in which 
 each writer in turn handles his subject as 
 something expected to rest upon the body of 
 observation, whatever it may be, that he has 
 been enabled to undertake, and without 
 realizing the all - important consideration 
 that when we come to deal with natural phe- 
 nomena having to do with the subtle forces 
 of vitality, and the even more subtle forces 
 which regulate the phenomena of conscious- 
 ness in higher states of nature, we cannot 
 make sense of any observations without being 
 in a position to comprehend something of 
 the general natural design of which they 
 form a part. The stars were seen in the sky 
 long before astronomers were fortified with 
 the mathematical and other knowledge that 
 enabled them to design a working hypothesis 
 of the universe sufficiently approximative to 
 
86 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 the truth to render intelligent observation 
 possible; but until that time people who 
 merely looked at the heavenly bodies moving 
 about in the sky, and theorized on the basis 
 of such observations alone made a terrible 
 hash of their conjectures as to what was go- 
 ing on. Similar remarks may broadly be 
 made about every science in turn. Early 
 chemistry was a mere blind groping in the 
 dark amongst phenomena which could un- 
 dergo no coordination until some considerable 
 advance had been made in comprehending 
 the elementary structure of all bodies, and 
 the leading principles of chemical combina- 
 tion. Not of course until the molecular con- 
 stitution of matter was realized did chemistry 
 begin to assume anything like the dignity of 
 a fully matured science. Now the observa- 
 tion of the facts of mesmerism is exactly an- 
 alogous to the observation of stars carried 
 on from the point of view of an astronomer 
 knowing nothing of gravitation or of the 
 relations between the planets and the sun. 
 
 The mere facts are interesting, as the 
 mere sight of the heavens must have been 
 impressive even to the most uninstructed star- 
 gazer; but the facts themselves, however 
 carefully codified, will never enable students 
 
MESMERIC PHENOMENA. 87 
 
 to assign them to their proper realms of na- 
 ture, or indeed to develop anything like a 
 rational theory of their causation. The only 
 scientific method by which they can be ex- 
 amined must have to do with some prelimi- 
 nary theory of psychic science, correspond- 
 ing, for example, to the theory of molecular 
 matter to which the influence of previously 
 observed facts in chemistry can be applied. 
 
 But truly to the world at large up till a 
 very recent date there has been no theory of 
 spiritual science available, even as something 
 to be checked by the observed facts of mes- 
 meric experience; and of course even now 
 the great bulk of the cultured community is 
 neglectful of the important acquisitions in 
 this respect which have lately been made 
 and offered for the service of all who care to 
 make use of them, in some measure through 
 my own instrumentality. With the full ex- 
 position and vindication of that teaching I 
 am not at present, as far as this volume is 
 concerned, desirous of occupying my read- 
 ers; but I am in this dilemma, that while 
 believing I can bring into an orderly and 
 coherent science the hitherto disorderly and 
 apparently chaotic facts of mesmeric obser- 
 vation, I can only do this by constant refer- 
 
88 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 ence to the body of spiritual teaching set 
 forth in modern theosophical literature. 
 Mesmerism can be explained by what is 
 called the esoteric doctrine, and certainly in 
 no other way, but a belief in mesmerism or 
 at least in some few of the facts that mesmer- 
 ism is concerned with has been recently dif- 
 fused to an enormous extent amongst my- 
 riads of people who have never heard of the 
 esoteric doctrine. These people cannot as 
 yet realize why it must remain impossible 
 for them to understand mesmerism without 
 going behind it in search of mysteries about 
 which they are wholly uninformed; and yet 
 it is absolutely impossible by any simple 
 straightforward attack upon the problems 
 that mesmerism presents to us to bring them 
 into harmony with the workings »of natural 
 law, or, in other words, to make sense of 
 them. 
 
 Reflection on the character of the prob- 
 lems to be dealt with ought, however, to 
 convince even those who know nothing of 
 occultism as a science, that there must be 
 such a science, or the potentialities of such a 
 science, lurking somewhere in the back- 
 ground. Straightforward investigation of 
 mesmeric phenomena shows us at all events 
 
MESMERIC PHENOMENA. 89 
 
 the magnetic fluid proceeding from the oper- 
 ator, and bringing about results — how, no 
 one can guess. But though susceptible of 
 being seen by some people, the magnetic 
 fluid itself is imperceptible to most eyes 
 among those that may look for it, and clearly 
 belongs to a different order of natural phe- 
 nomena from those that are entirely subject 
 to sense perception. What ought to be the 
 effect of such an extremely impalpable agency 
 when it touches the organism against which 
 it is directed? If it is capable of producing 
 any effect upon that organism at all it must 
 be through some attributes inherent therein 
 which are of its own nature. The psychic 
 force, in point of fact, thrown out by the 
 will or thought of the operator, has got to 
 influence the will or thought, of the subject 
 first, and then to get at the body, if that is 
 the object in view, through the corresponding 
 principles of the sensitive's organization. 
 Everything that has to do, therefore, with 
 the non-physical planes of Nature comes 
 within the purview of those who would arm 
 themselves for the purpose of comprehending 
 mesmerism in a scientific spirit. 
 
 This consideration is one of the most im- 
 portant that can be presented to the general 
 
90 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 reader in connection with the current revival 
 of mesmerism. The idea is simple ; I have 
 expressed it already. Mesmeric phenomena 
 are either wholly or partially psychic in their 
 nature. We cannot understand them unless 
 it is possible to investigate the realm of na- 
 ture in which the laws governing our psychic 
 consciousness are really operative. Any 
 theorizing concerning external facts in mes- 
 merism which aims at accounting for these 
 by the materialistic science of old-fashioned 
 medical practice, must necessarily be doomed 
 to failure. But I must be pardoned for 
 dwelling a little more on the idea, because 
 until people recognize and act upon it, there 
 cannot be any such general progress in con- 
 nection with spiritual knowledge and 
 achievement as a truly intelligent apprecia- 
 tion of mesmerism might bring in its train. 
 Look at the way in which even the sciences 
 of the physical plane rest now upon one an- 
 other as their higher mysteries are explored. 
 Chemistry and electricity at one time seemed 
 lines of inquiry standing quite apart. Now, 
 of course, they are so intimately blended, 
 that electricity is as much a reagent of chem- 
 istry, in its relations with that science, as 
 hydrochloric acid. This is the case even al- 
 
MESMERIC PHENOMENA. 91 
 
 though the laws of matter to be investigated 
 are laws of matter alone. But when we 
 take a living human being and endeavor to 
 investigate him, it is not enough to be ac- 
 quainted with the organism that expresses 
 his consciousness. However deeply the ma- 
 terialistic physiologist may penetrate the in- 
 tricacies of this organism, he will always be 
 brought up abruptly on the threshold of 
 consciousness, and will frankly recognize that 
 farther than this it is impossible for him to 
 go. Too often indeed he is inclined to put 
 the idea in words that imply too much, and 
 he may say it is impossible for any one else 
 to go beyond the barrier he finds so impass- 
 able. That is just the mistake he makes, 
 and there is more pompous conceit than real 
 modesty in the commonplace phrases by 
 which people are in the habit of proclaiming 
 the orthodox boundaries of their knowledge. 
 "No one knows, no one can ever know, any- 
 thing of the mysteries lying on the other 
 side of death." So commonplace writers 
 will frequently affirm with absurd confidence 
 in the certainty of their own universal neg- 
 ative, This attitude of mind is what has to 
 be broken down on the part of modern Eu- 
 ropean thinkers generally, before the lines 
 
92 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 of study can be taken up which will really 
 conduce to the comprehension even of so 
 midway a series of phenomena as those of 
 mesmerism. When people say as above, 
 "No one knows, no one ever can know," 
 etc., they are simply making a false state- 
 ment which vast bodies of experience con- 
 tradict every day. 
 
 In one sense, up till now, most people 
 eould afford to keep their eyes shut to the 
 superphysical realms of nature. The work 
 of their progress was strictly associated with 
 the exploration of physical nature. That 
 has been the function of this expiring cen- 
 tury in a preeminent degree; and the cen- 
 tury could perform its work, so to speak, 
 without knowing anything about the spirit- 
 ual planes, but that will no longer be the 
 case with the next century. Here we are 
 already face to face with this complicated 
 question as to what mesmerism really is ; we 
 are confronted by a mass of ill-understood 
 phenomena. But ill-understood though they 
 may be, they are now at all events so com- 
 pletely recognized that future generations 
 will infallibly be concerned with them to 
 a considerable degree; investigating them 
 intelligently or clumsily, pushing them to 
 
MESMERIC PHENOMENA. 93 
 
 beneficial or mischievous developments ; but 
 every one will be hopelessly entangled with 
 them unless dealing with them as partly be- 
 longing to the spiritual planes. The living 
 man with his interior consciousness of self 
 and individuality is on two planes of nature 
 at once, as a ship is in two media at once, 
 half in the water and half in the air. To 
 manage your ship successfully you must take 
 cognizance of the laws governing each of 
 those media. To deal successfully with 
 your human being you must understand his 
 physiology no doubt, but you must equally 
 understand his psychology, and something 
 of the collateral phenomena of nature in 
 those regions or planes thereof, to which the 
 phenomena of the psychic man belong. 
 
 So now, though feeling by reason of the 
 double illumination which occult study has 
 provided for, fairly qualified to explain 
 many of the phenomena of mesmerism which 
 have hitherto been left the prey of mere un- 
 intelligent wonder, I am at the same time 
 constrained to say that no one can hope to 
 make head or tail of any really true and sci- 
 entific rationale of mesmerism unless he 
 will first take the trouble to comprehend oc- 
 cult teaching, up, at all events, to a certain 
 
94 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 point. We must realize something of what 
 occultists mean by the astral plane before 
 entering on the consideration of how the 
 consciousness of a mesmerized object behaves 
 when translated to that plane. But, on the 
 other hand, this book cannot be a treatise 
 on occult science at large. That should be 
 dealt with and investigated as an indepen- 
 dent study by any one who aims at a really 
 thorough grasp of its principles. What I 
 have to do therefore for the moment is to 
 make a statement concerning the esoteric 
 teaching which gears in with the facts of 
 mesmeric science, asking the reader to treat 
 this for the time being as simply a working 
 hypothesis. If as a working hypothesis it 
 be found that all the facts of mesmerism are 
 thus provided with a rational setting, that 
 perhaps may be regarded as a provisional 
 consideration in favor of the esoteric teach- 
 ing, and may perhaps impel students to in- 
 quire into it a little further. But of course 
 I will not delay my readers on the threshold 
 of the subject with which I am now specially 
 concerned, in order to set forth, in the ex- 
 planations it may here be necessary to give, 
 anything resembling a complete argument 
 on behalf of the occult theories concerning 
 life and the higher aspects of nature. 
 
MESMERIC PHENOMENA. 95 
 
 The esoteric or occult science view of 
 man's constitution is the important branch 
 of the subject to be put here in the fore- 
 ground. This is represented as consisting 
 of several principles, and the classification is 
 at all events far more scientific in its char- 
 acter than that which sums up the human 
 being as consisting of a body and a soul. 
 We need not quarrel with the body and soul 
 division as far as it goes, but it does not go 
 far, and, above all, sins against accuracy in 
 overlooking the manner in which the lower 
 principles of man merge gradually into the 
 higher through some of an intermediate 
 character. It is with these intermediate 
 principles that mesmerism has especially to 
 do, and it is with a view of getting the 
 reader to understand the classification at all 
 events, even if he does not at the moment 
 accept it, that I wish now to describe what 
 is called the septenary division of man. 
 
 We have got clearly to deal first of all 
 with the matter constituting his body, mat- 
 ter which is analyzable into its organic ele- 
 ments, its carbon, phosphorus, oxygen, and 
 other gases. By chemical processes of na- 
 ture, carried on first of all in the vegetable 
 world, the inorganic matter of which the 
 
96 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 man's body is composed has somehow been 
 converted into organic matter before it ac- 
 tually takes part in the complete structure of 
 his bones and flesh. This life principle, 
 which differentiates organic from inorganic 
 matter, is the second principle of man, and 
 may for the moment be called vital force. 
 But thus far we are thinking merely of mate- 
 rial atoms, vitalized, it is true, but under no 
 direction which impels them to assume the 
 form of a human body. People content 
 with a merely conventional knowledge of na- 
 ture trouble themselves little as to how or 
 why the atoms group themselves as they do 
 during the growth of a human being. Oc- 
 cult science, more penetrating in its vision, 
 discerns an underlying pattern, so to speak, 
 consisting of materials wholly unlike those 
 of the physical plane, and belonging indeed 
 to what by the conventionalities of occultism 
 is called the astral plane ; and this pattern, 
 or ground-plan, of the human being is recog- 
 nized as the third principle, and may be 
 called the astral body. It is quite visible 
 when detached from the physical body to 
 those who are gifted in any high degree with 
 clairvoyant vision. 
 
 The fourth and fifth principles of man to- 
 
MESMERIC PHENOMENA. 97 
 
 gether constitute what may be held to corre- 
 spond with the ordinary idea of the soul, but 
 occultism thinks of the soul as complex in its 
 constitution. As every one can see, it has 
 affinities for earthly and material sensations, 
 pleasures and pursuits, while at the same 
 time it is also gifted with sympathies in a far 
 loftier direction. That these very different 
 aspects of the soul are seated during the life 
 of the complete individual in different vehi- 
 cles — to use an oriental metaphor — is one 
 of the fundamental conceptions of the sep- 
 tenary division, and the lower of these two 
 vehicles, the fourth principle of man, is most 
 conveniently described by the term "animal 
 soul," while the fifth is the truly "human 
 soul," itself more or less pervaded by the 
 sixth, or "spiritual soul," which, though ex- 
 isting undeniably in germ in every human 
 being, is, for a great many of us unfortu- 
 nately, a potentiality rather than an accom- 
 plished fact. The seventh principle on the 
 occult scale is that infinite, sublime, in- 
 comprehensible universal Spirit in which all 
 the phenomena of nature are in some wholly 
 unfathomable way involved; out of whose 
 infinite potentiality all manifestation arises, 
 in which, whatever they may be, there re- 
 
98 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 side the attributes that human speculation, 
 vaguely groping after the unattainable, as- 
 signs to divinity. 
 
 Fine and elaborate as this division will 
 appear as contrasted with the more element- 
 ary conception of the soul and the body, it 
 is not by any means complicated enough to 
 account for all the phenomena which have to 
 do with either of these principles taken by 
 itself. I do not conceive, for example, that 
 the matter would be correctly put if I simply 
 said "that which we may call the mesmeric 
 fluid is the vital energy," or second principle 
 on the classification just described. But 
 certainly it has very close relations with that 
 force, and one of- the correct interpretations 
 of mesmeric phenomena in the humbler lev- 
 els of these would recognize animal magnet- 
 ism as equal to the task of restoring lost vital 
 energy, and thus accomplishing beneficial 
 effects on the human system where no spe- 
 cific illness has to be considered, and where 
 nothing but a healthy stimulus is wanted to 
 reestablish vigor. 
 
 The close relations between animal mag- 
 netism and vital energy may be observed in 
 very interesting experiments which have 
 sometimes been carried out, though rarely 
 
MESMERIC PHENOMENA. 99 
 
 by European mesmerists, in connection with 
 the vegetable kingdom. It is possible to 
 mesmerize a plant, and procure specific and 
 distinct results in connection with the direct 
 stimulation of its growth. That these re- 
 sults have sometimes been pushed to what 
 seemed at a first glance quite miraculous 
 lengths by some oriental adepts in mesmeric 
 science, is, I believe, a fact, although unfor- 
 tunately the existence of such a possibility in 
 the background, as it were, of nature's re- 
 sources is but too often made the excuse in 
 India for juggling of a most commonplace 
 type, which pretends to reproduce the 
 vaguely talked of feats of the great occult- 
 ists, just as amongst ourselves commonplace 
 conjurors derive from rumored wonders con- 
 nected with spiritualism suggestions for 
 their own illusions. 
 
 The various principles of man that I have 
 been describing make up the complete man in 
 the aggregate, just as, to use a rough illus- 
 tration, the sails as well as the keel of a ship 
 contribute to make up the complete vessel. 
 But the sails belong in their nature and are 
 adapted to one medium with which the vessel 
 is concerned, the air ; the keel is adapted to 
 the other. Any one observing the keel from 
 
 LOFC. 
 
100 THE BATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 the point of view of the medium to which it 
 belongs, if himself a fish and unqualified to 
 take note of natural phenomena above the 
 surface of his own element, would not be 
 able to account always for its behavior. 
 What, for instance, could explain to him the 
 reason why the keel might sometimes be 
 slewed very much to one side as the vessel lay 
 over to the wind? The observer of the kind 
 I have imagined would be related to such 
 a phenomenon just as the mere physical sci- 
 entist amongst ourselves is related to phe- 
 nomena which have to do with the human 
 consciousness. 
 
 I rather cling to this illustration of the 
 vessel belonging to two media, because it 
 will help to show, in reference to the princi- 
 ples of man, that although the higher and 
 the lower principles during life are closely 
 intermingled with each other, the higher 
 nevertheless belong by their nature to other 
 planes than that with which our eyes and 
 senses make us familiar. Take, for exam- 
 ple, the astral principles of a man's body 
 and lower soul. All the time that the body 
 is in the physical plane (if one may use that 
 expression) these astral principles are in the 
 astral plane of nature, coextensive with the 
 
MESMEBIC PHENOMENA. 101 
 
 physical, permeating it everywhere, consti- 
 tuting its second aspect, and, above all 
 things, filled with the phenomena properly 
 appertaining to it, just as the physical plane 
 is filled with the scenery and decorations of 
 nature, with the animal and vegetable king- 
 doms as well as with the humanity which 
 presides over all. And this is the second 
 great idea amongst those taught by occult 
 science which I want my readers to keep 
 hold of, at all events as a working hypothe- 
 sis, — namely, that the planes of nature of 
 which I speak as higher or superior to those 
 which we see around us, are all abundantly 
 stocked with the beings, things, objects of 
 creation, whatever we may call them, which 
 properly belong to their nature, while to a 
 consciousness which becomes translated to 
 any one of these planes such scenery or in- 
 habitants will be as fully perceptible as the 
 scenery and inhabitants of the earth are per- 
 ceptible to waking vision. These planes of 
 nature do not divide themselves in precise 
 accordance with the septenary division of 
 human principles of which I just spoke, but 
 for the purposes of what we are now consid- 
 ering we must realize two great phases of 
 nature, or planes, above that of the visible 
 
102 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 earth, the nearest to us being the astral, the 
 next what I will here call the spiritual plane. 
 It is towards this latter that the soul of a 
 human being should ultimately aspire, but 
 it is quite certain that with every human 
 being who is first released from the imprison- 
 ment of the flesh, whether by the solemn 
 process of nature at death, or by the inter- 
 vention of mesmeric influences during life, 
 it is quite certain, I say, that the astral 
 plane will be the first on which that con- 
 sciousness reopens after quitting the physi- 
 cal. The further progress upwards, indeed, 
 is one claiming so much from the soul that 
 aims at it, that a great number of very good 
 mesmeric sensitives may not be enabled to 
 accomplish it. The astral plane thus be- 
 comes much the most important for the pur- 
 poses of studying commonplace mesmeric 
 phenomena. 
 
 When I come to deal with clairvoyance it 
 will be necessary to recur to this exposition 
 as bearing closely on the magnetic trance; 
 but as regards the simpler phenomena of 
 mesmerism, in so far as it affects the health 
 of the body generally, it is only necessary to 
 realize the astral plane sufficiently to com- 
 prehend that there we find the bridge of com- 
 
MESMERIC PHENOMENA. 103 
 
 munication between the senses of the oper- 
 ator and the subject, and that all the be- 
 wildering experiences connected with sen- 
 sitives who taste what some one else tastes 
 under mesmerism, and feel the pins which 
 prick other people's bodies, cease to present 
 an incomprehensible or miraculous aspect 
 w r hen we realize the manner in which the as- 
 tral plane affords direct communion between 
 the consciousness of the operator and the 
 subject when the two are brought into true 
 magnetic harmony. 
 
 In regard to the spiritual plane, that has 
 to do solely with the higher spiritual phases 
 of consciousness which mesmerism can evoke 
 from a sensitive, and need not be thought of 
 except in connection with the most exalted 
 sort of clairvoyance ; so that practically for 
 a rough comprehension of the rationale of 
 mesmerism all I am asking for the moment 
 is that my readers should recognize, or at 
 all events assume for the purposes of this 
 argument, the existence of what has here 
 been called the astral plane, the medium of 
 nature in which the human will operates 
 more directly on sensation than in the me- 
 dium of existence which is constituted by 
 the physical earth. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CUKATIVE MESMERISM. 
 
 A curious tendency of the human mind 
 leads a great many people to suppose that 
 any given branch of knowledge has assumed 
 importance for the first time when it happens 
 first to have arrested their own attention. 
 Few people would confess this to be the 
 truth as regards themselves in a naked way, 
 but the whole body of modern literature put 
 forth under the hypnotic flag is a ludicrous 
 illustration that with society at large that 
 rule operates. The names with which "sci- 
 entific " hypnotism are most definitely associ- 
 ated in modern years are those of Dr. Char- 
 cot and Dr. Liebault. But at the same time 
 it is a simple historical fact that far more 
 was done to establish the scientific truth of 
 curative mesmerism by Dr. Esdaile and Dr. 
 Elliotson fifty years ago, than either of the 
 modern physicians just named have had time 
 yet to accomplish. 
 
 For inquirers who at this stage of the pro- 
 
CUBATIVE MESMERISM. 105 
 
 ceedings wish to know what curative mes- 
 merism really can accomplish, Dr. Esdaile's 
 books and the "Zoist " remain immeasurably 
 the most fruitful literature to take up. The 
 only aspect in which, at the same time, they 
 are at all defective is that which has to do 
 with theory. Falling into a very natural 
 error, most of the early experimentalists 
 who obtained striking and important results 
 came to the conclusion that these would be 
 capable of attainment by anybody else who 
 tried for them in the same way, and with any 
 subjects en whom they might operate. They 
 knew they had failures in some cases, but 
 they probably did not know the extent to 
 which they were abnormally gifted with the 
 peculiar reserves of nervous energy required 
 to throw off animal magnetism, and one of 
 them, as we have seen especially, Baron du 
 Potet, is almost ludicrously frightened lest 
 the world at large should immediately rush 
 forward to repeat his own experiments, the 
 bearings of which in some cases he saw, not 
 unreasonably, to be fraught with peril. He 
 failed to attach sufficient importance to the 
 Boeotian lethargy of his generation at large ; 
 and we have not yet by any means passed 
 beyond that stage of human enlightenment 
 
106 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 in which we may still rely with a good deal 
 of confidence on the stupidity of our contem- 
 poraries as a safeguard against their prema- 
 ture invasion of occult mysteries. 
 
 But at all events, to go back to Esdaile 
 and Elliotson, these two great experimental- 
 ists have left volumes of results which it is 
 not my business here to reproduce, but on 
 which I will venture to make some comments, 
 inasmuch as they have made either little 
 effort, or obtained but little success in their 
 attempts, to account for their own achieve- 
 ments. It is enough for the moment as re- 
 gards the facts to say that both Esdaile in 
 Calcutta, and Elliotson in the North of Lon- 
 don, cured serious diseases of almost every 
 sort and kind by treatment which involved 
 the use of animal magnetism, and of no other 
 curative agent whatever. A common and 
 absurd allegation put forward by people who 
 preserve their opinions concerning the cura- 
 tive effects of magnetism, by carefully pro- 
 tecting their ignorance of all the facts from 
 the invasion of external knowledge, is to the 
 effect that mesmeric influence is only bene- 
 ficial, when beneficial at all, in cases of ner- 
 vous disorder. They might as well say that 
 a locomotive engine could only pull a car- 
 
CURATIVE MESMERISM. 107 
 
 riage made of mahogany, and not one con- 
 structed of any other wood. The statement 
 is simply untrue, and incompatible with all 
 experience on the subject, as also it is en- 
 tirely out of touch with the theory as to the 
 causation at work which we are now in a 
 position to frame. 
 
 The records of Esdaile's and Elliotson's 
 work will also show numerous cases in which 
 operations of the most excruciating order and 
 on the largest scale — operations like the 
 amputation of a leg, or the removal of some 
 internal tumor — have been performed on 
 patients rendered entirely insensible to pain 
 by purely magnetic treatment. But we may 
 make a clear distinction between the anaes- 
 thetic effects of mesmerism and the curative 
 effects, and in the first instance I propose to 
 deal with the latter. 
 
 The first remark one has to make about 
 Esdaile's work to begin with is that the con- 
 ditions which surrounded him were extraor- 
 dinarily favorable. The hospital in which 
 he worked was at Calcutta, and the patients 
 almost entirely natives of India. As a race 
 natives of India are very much more sensi- 
 tive to magnetic influence than Europeans. 
 This question of sensitiveness is one which 
 
108 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 requires a great deal of explanation, but 
 may be dealt with more conveniently when 
 we come to consider the psychic rather than 
 the medical department of the subject. El- 
 liotson, it is true, worked entirely with Eu- 
 ropean patients, but never, as far as records 
 show, obtained such startling results as 
 those of Calcutta if measured by the propor- 
 tion of sensitiveness discovered. Specific 
 results in North London were just as good 
 in some cases as specific results in India; 
 but no intelligent mesmerist setting to work 
 in this country would expect for a moment 
 to be able to influence as many per cent, of 
 the people he might deal with as if he were 
 working in the midst of an oriental commu- 
 nity. Now, this difficulty about the non-sen- 
 sitiveness to mesmeric treatment of a very 
 great number of people all over the world, 
 and of an especially great number in the 
 highly civilized communities of modern Eu- 
 rope, is one which no enthusiast for mesmeric 
 progress should blink in any way, or attempt 
 to underestimate. But, on the other hand, 
 we must remember that the highly insensi- 
 tive condition of Europeans, which may in- 
 terfere for the moment with the practical 
 value of magnetic cures, is itself a mental 
 
CURATIVE MESMERISM. 109 
 
 rather than a physical phenomenon. It is 
 due to the prevalent attitude of mind which 
 highly educated and highly civilized Euro- 
 peans generally fall into, and it would un- 
 dergo a very great change if the scientific 
 nature of mesmeric facts became generally 
 understood and relieved, by the sanction of 
 high intellectual authority, from the torrent 
 of ribaldry with which the whole subject has 
 been so long inundated by ephemeral writers 
 playing up, as usual, to the greatest igno- 
 rance of the greatest number. All that we 
 have really to keep in mind is that mesmeric 
 influence is not a curative agent which is 
 universally applicable ; it is a curative agent 
 which is probably more influential than any 
 other system medical science has discovered, 
 and is certainly susceptible of enormous and 
 most advantageous extension. 
 
 But how does the system work? Let us 
 see what have been the conclusions as re- 
 gards their own part in the cures they have 
 worked, of the earliest exponents of mesmer- 
 ism who still remain the most remarkable of 
 its experimentalists. Esdaile seems never 
 to have got much beyond the perception of 
 the fact that he could by making passes, as- 
 sociated with the exercise of his own will, 
 
110 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 produce magnetic trances, out of which, 
 when it was his will that this result should 
 ensue, his patients would emerge either cured 
 or very greatly relieved. I doubt if Dr. El- 
 liotson developed any theory going much 
 beyond this, and indeed, if any mesmeric 
 books, old or new, embody any theoretical 
 explanations of such phenomena that are 
 worth the serious attention of students, I 
 know of none such. 
 
 Perhaps this assertion should be qualified 
 by some reference to what is called hypnotic 
 suggestion as a curative method, for here we 
 are certainly in close touch with a theory, or 
 if not exactly with a theory as to the inner 
 working of the remedy, with a theory which 
 advances us one step in that direction. The 
 exponents of hypnotic suggestion imagine 
 that they dispense in the first instance alto- 
 gether with any emanations ; that they bring 
 about a condition of partial or complete un- 
 consciousness by inducing their patients to 
 adopt some auto-mesmeric process, and that 
 while in this state they throw into their 
 minds, simply by spoken assurance on the 
 subject, the idea that when they recover 
 their normal state they will find themselves 
 better. I am very far from wishing to im- 
 
CURATIVE MESMERISM. Ill 
 
 ply that this kind of suggestion is never 
 really effectual, but I suspect that in most 
 cases where it works well the operator who 
 directs the whole undertaking has really been 
 very much more energetic in the matter than 
 he has supposed. After all, magnetic passes 
 are merely some among the methods by 
 means of which animal magnetism can be 
 projected. One of the most potent modern 
 mesmerizers whom I have encountered, a 
 person in no way associated with any pub- 
 licly known undertakings of this kind, has 
 never employed passes, but has obtained en- 
 tire control of his sensitives by looking at 
 them fixedly, and exerting that mysterious 
 force which we call the will, without any 
 physical manipulation. It would be difficult 
 for a doctor instructing a patient, and still 
 more difficult if he superintends that patient, 
 in the methods required to superinduce the 
 hypnotic condition, to avoid contributing 
 very largely to the result himself. 
 
 However this may be, operators of the 
 latest school are quite on the wrong track in 
 devoting themselves to the method of hyp- 
 notic suggestion. The leading fact of mes- 
 meric science which justifies this last remark 
 is that to which I have already referred — 
 
112 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 the actual objective existence as a fact in na- 
 ture, as unequivocal as the steam in a boiler, 
 of the mesmeric fluid. Until people who 
 are on the path of this inquiry convince 
 themselves of this, they will be stumbling 
 about in the dark. It is the first all-impor- 
 tant leading elementary principle of the sub- 
 ject, and any one who attempts to dispute it 
 takes up a position which is first of all ab- 
 surd to those who, as I said before, are in 
 a position to see the fluid in question — as 
 certainly, though a much finer phenomenon 
 is concerned, as an engineer can see the 
 steam pouring out from his exhaust-tubes. 
 Secondly, the denial of the fluid theory is ir- 
 rational in face of Keichenbach's researches, 
 and can only be maintained by virtue of a 
 preliminary declaration that these researches 
 are falsely recorded. If it is argued that 
 Reichenbach is yet almost alone as an ex- 
 plorer in that particular range of phenom- 
 ena, the answer is that a positive fact, if a 
 fact, is still a fact in nature, though it stand 
 alone ; and nobody after its establishment is 
 entitled to construct a theory of nature with 
 which it is incompatible. 
 
 Now this being assumed as the fundamen- 
 tal state of our knowledge as to the way in 
 
CURATIVE MESMERISM. 113 
 
 which magnetic cures work, let us go a step 
 further in the direction of what I am quite 
 ready to treat for the present as a hypothe- 
 sis. It is not unreasonable to assume that 
 the magnetic fluid which emanates from a 
 powerful mesmeric operator is something 
 which, in varying degrees, is present in the 
 organism of all other human beings. Nor is 
 it unreasonable to suppose that a something 
 which is clearly allied in a very important 
 manner with the innermost vital functions of 
 the organism may be in some way or other 
 unhealthy when those vital functions are 
 manifestly out of order. Now, if that be 
 the case, the object we have to accomplish 
 in effecting a magnetic cure is to withdraw 
 the unhealthy fluid which has accumulated 
 in the organism of the sufferer in the first 
 instance, and replace it with that of a more 
 healthy order from a vigorous and wholesome 
 constitution. And clearly when we want to 
 replace one thing by another it is possible to 
 do this in two ways ; one a rough way, and 
 the other a neat and relatively scientific 
 method. We may simply force in the new 
 influence, trusting that it will by its own 
 abundance somehow expel and drive off that 
 of which we want to get rid, or we may, by 
 
114 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 an arrangement of our energies far more eco- 
 nomical as regards the expenditure of force, 
 get rid first of the evil entity, whatever it 
 is, fluid substance or magnetism, and then 
 replace it by as much as may be required 
 to fill the void, of a more wholesome order. 
 So far, it seems to me, the most successful 
 among well-known curative mesmerists have 
 blundered on the rougher of these two ex- 
 pedients. Without apparently stopping to 
 think the thing out, and certainly without 
 coming to the conclusion that the underlying 
 cause of illness must be an illness, so to 
 speak, in the sufferer's own personal mag- 
 netism, they have simply drenched him with 
 the emanations of their own healthier organ- 
 ism, and have obtained, no doubt, from this 
 somewhat extravagant process, results which 
 were often highly satisfactory. An immea- 
 surably more scientific way of going to work, 
 however, is to withdraw first of all the un- 
 healthy, or to use a convenient expression, 
 the bad magnetism, and then replace it by 
 an entirely separate operation. How is this 
 to be done? some one may ask; and the an- 
 swer is, by a very much simpler method 
 than the apparent obscurity of the subject 
 would seem to foreshadow. 
 
CURATIVE MESMERISM. 115 
 
 Whether people understand what they are 
 doing or not, if they try to mesmerize, and 
 hold out their hands with that end in view, 
 making passes or simply pointing the fingers, 
 as they may choose, what they are really 
 doing is this : they propel the magnetic fluid 
 accumulated in their own system in the di- 
 rection they choose that it shall go — that 
 choice being really little more than empha- 
 sized in their minds by the fact that they 
 are perhaps pointing in the same direction 
 — by means of an exercise of will-power, 
 which, great or little in its intensity, is the 
 outcome of their wish to obtain success. 
 The magnetic fluid does not simply flow from 
 the fingers because they are extended in one 
 direction or another. Nothing whatever 
 will pass without the hidden influence of the 
 will-force in the background, any more than 
 a bullet will pass out of a gun without the 
 expansion of the gases in the rear. 
 
 Now, that being so as regards the emission 
 of mesmeric fluid, how are you to reverse 
 the process and draw from a patient the bad 
 magnetism of which you want to free him? 
 By nothing more elaborate than the exercise 
 of the will to that end, associated with pre- 
 cisely the same mechanical method of em- 
 
116 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 phasizing your own will that would be em- 
 ployed in the other case. The fingers of a 
 mesmerist pointed to the forehead of a pa- 
 tient may be made to suck in or draw out 
 from the patient a current of magnetism, just 
 as with the other intention the same condi- 
 tion of things would be seen by a person 
 whose sight was properly developed to in- 
 volve the emission of a current. For all 
 such purposes, indeed, as the withdrawal of 
 bad magnetism, something more than the 
 mere contiguity of the operator's fingers is 
 desirable. The complete touch of the whole 
 hand is a mechanical arrangement lending 
 far more assistance to the will-power than 
 any other arrangement ; and it will be seen 
 that in having arrived at this conclusion 
 along the path of purely scientific specula- 
 tion we have got back to the famous old bibli- 
 cal method, — the laying on of hands. The 
 hands laid on may be thought of in the op- 
 erator's mind with a view of intensifying 
 their influence to the utmost, as sponges ap- 
 plied to a wet surface with a view of sopping 
 up the moisture ; that is to say, he will think 
 of them with reference to the bad magnetism 
 he wishes them to withdraw, in a way which 
 is precisely analogous to the illustration just 
 given. 
 
CUBATIVE MESMEBISM. 117 
 
 But what is he to do with the bad magnet- 
 ism when he has sopped it up in his hands? 
 And here at the very outset of the matter we 
 come to an extremely important consideration 
 which is constantly overlooked by the earlier 
 writers on mesmerism. You must get rid 
 of the bad magnetism in some definitely final 
 and specific way if you want to accomplish 
 any permanent cure of the patient, for one 
 very good reason ; because, if you do not, it 
 is more than likely that the evil of which you 
 have relieved him will lodge in your own 
 system, and unless it happens that the store 
 of magnetic energy in your own system is so 
 extraordinarily abundant that it drives out 
 the intruding evil, you will set up in your 
 own physical conditions of health something 
 very like the disorder you have cured. On 
 a small scale it is worth while to acquire for 
 one's self a mild disorder to bring this truth 
 home to the mind. I have repeatedly given 
 myself headaches by taking them away from 
 others, leaving out by deliberate intention, 
 or perhaps in some cases by carelessness, the 
 precautions which I knew ought to be taken 
 to guard against that result. 
 
 How, then, to get rid of bad magnetism 
 from hands which are laden with it ; that is 
 
118 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 the problem with which we have now to deal. 
 Again, for all practical purposes the result 
 is obtained by a simple effort of will in that 
 direction, associated with gestures which 
 stimulate the intention. If the hands are 
 withdrawn from the patient, and the gesture 
 is made in a free direction of throwing off 
 whatever they may contain, exactly as if they 
 were wet and the operator were trying to dry 
 them by flourishing them about in the air, 
 the desired end is reached under most of the 
 simple conditions which ordinary mesmerism 
 would be concerned with. To make the 
 matter theoretically clearer, however, we 
 must dive a little more deeply into the mys- 
 teries of the superphysical regions of nature 
 lying all around us. Of these I shall have 
 to speak a good deal more when dealing with 
 the higher spiritual aspects of mesmerism, 
 but up to the present time it has not been 
 necessary to touch that side of the subject. 
 The ordinary curative influences can be 
 worked without reference to the higher 
 planes of nature, just because they are con- 
 cerned with the phenomena of the lower 
 plane — with mere physical illness. But 
 now in some degree the refinement with 
 which we are dealing does impinge on the 
 higher branch of the subject. 
 
CURATIVE MESMERISM. 119 
 
 A well-known and even hackneyed expres- 
 sion describes dirt as "matter in the wrong 
 place," and involves, perhaps, a deeper phil- 
 osophy than Lord Palmerston, who was, I 
 believe, its real author, troubled his head 
 with at the time. Hardly any matter is ab- 
 solutely evil, and in its right place may fall 
 into the general scheme of natural processes. 
 So with what, for convenience' sake, I have 
 called bad magnetism. That may be very 
 bad indeed when concentrated in a human 
 organism, but may not necessarily be wholly 
 without suitable affinities in the vast field of 
 nature's operations. There are, according 
 to the teachings of occult science, entities in 
 nature on the superphysical plane in which 
 such bad magnetism would find its own 
 sphere, I will not say absolutely of utility, 
 because that would be begging a very com- 
 plicated question, but at all events its own 
 appropriate sphere. A very prolonged dis- 
 sertation on the subject would be required 
 to elucidate, as far as that might be possible 
 for us, the real nature of the elemental en- 
 tities to which I refer, but at all events it is 
 to that destination the bad magnetism with- 
 drawn from a subject in illness has to be 
 sent if the operator wishes to get rid of it 
 
120 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 entirely, as of course lie does. The mere 
 gesture of throwing it off from himself with 
 the intention of getting rid of it will, in all 
 probability, throw it into what may be called 
 the sphere of attraction of those currents, 
 forces, or entities — whatever we like to call 
 them — which will carry it away from all 
 further relations with ourselves. But, of 
 course, if the operator is gifted with suffi- 
 cient astral sight or clairvoyance himself as 
 to see the process carried out, he will be 
 very much more successful in getting rid of 
 the evil. 
 
 And for those who realize the process I 
 have just described, a new interest may at- 
 tach to many biblical phrases in which it is 
 distinctly referred to for those who compre- 
 hend the symbology, and shown to be pres- 
 ent to the knowledge of those earlier occult- 
 ists who practiced mesmerism many thou- 
 sand years before Mesmer. For example, 
 the very well-known parable of the herd of 
 swine, in regard to which so much egregious 
 nonsense has been written both by those who 
 endeavor to represent it as a literal histor- 
 ical transaction, and by those who conceive 
 that the authenticity of the biblical narrative 
 is upset by dwelling on the immoral absurd- 
 
CURATIVE MESMERISM. 121 
 
 ity of the story taken literally, is significant 
 for those who understand the affinities be- 
 tween certain orders of elemental currents, 
 and what we are here talking of as bad mag- 
 netism. The herd of swine simply stand as 
 a symbol for these elemental currents or en- 
 tities, and the meaning is that when the 
 devil cast out of the man who was afflicted 
 — or, in our more scientific phraseology, 
 when the bad magnetism withdrawn from 
 him — had to be disposed of by the supreme 
 operator concerned, it was disposed of in the 
 proper way, and not left to hang about the 
 aura : of either himself or the bystanders. 
 
 1 It is impossible to explain the real theory of mes- 
 merism without using 1 some words very familiar to stu- 
 dents of occultism in other branches, but perhaps requir- 
 ing 1 a brief explanation here. The "aura" is the term 
 employed to denote that cloud of astral matter, that is to 
 say, of matter belonging to the next plane of nature 
 above the physical plane, which surrounds every human 
 being, and by a large number of adequately gifted peo- 
 ple can be seen by a finer development of that faculty 
 already referred to as enabling some people to see the 
 mesmeric fluid, or, as it would sometimes be called by 
 occultists, the magnetic aura. The condition of the 
 aura has almost an unlimited signification for those who 
 are properly instructed in the interpretation of its signs, 
 but without going into those of its aspects which have no 
 direct concern with my present subject, it is enough 
 to say that the aura in every case would be violently 
 affected by conditions of disease, and while the restora- 
 
122 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 When such bad magnetism is left to hang 
 about the aura of the operator it may, as al- 
 ready suggested, develop in himself the 
 very ailment from which he has cured his 
 subject, if his own physical constitution 
 present any weakness in that direction. Or, 
 if this does not take place, another very cu- 
 rious result may follow, which is illustrated 
 by an occurrence within my own knowledge. 
 A lady, troubled with very long-seated and 
 severe rheumatism, was cured by a mesmeric 
 operator in Paris, and went away well satis- 
 fied to another part of Europe. Four years 
 afterwards the old pain, which had never 
 troubled her in the interval, returned with 
 its old virulence, and she hastily sent to in- 
 quire after the operator who had dealt with 
 her so successfully. It turned out that he 
 had died at exactly the period when her com- 
 plaint returned. Other similar cases are 
 spoken of in some of the mesmeric books, 
 and the explanation simply is that in such 
 cases the operator has never got rid of the 
 
 tion, in a person who had heen ill, of healthy conditions 
 would manifest itself in the purification of the aura, it is 
 equally a converse possibility that influences of a rela- 
 tively immaterial character in the first instance affecting 
 the aura, might afterwards express themselves in physi- 
 cal conditions. 
 
CURATIVE MESMERISM. 123 
 
 bad magnetism. It has never found a lodg- 
 ment in his own system, because that has 
 been too healthy to allow of its ingress, but 
 when all the attractive forces of his own life 
 are broken up at its close, the bad magnet- 
 ism, released from its temporary entangle- 
 ment, flies back to its own previous habitat, 
 like any electric current following the chan- 
 nel of least resistance. 
 
 At the present moment the most ener- 
 getic of modern physicians amongst ourselves 
 in England who are endeavoring to apply 
 some of the lessons of mesmerism to the cure 
 of disease, have drifted into the practice of 
 what is very well known now as "hypnotic 
 suggestion; " and I am very far from wish- 
 ing to imply that that system is inoperative 
 or delusive. Within the system of every 
 human being there are springs of force 
 which can be called into activity by hyp- 
 notic suggestion, even to the expulsion of 
 bad magnetism, and the apparent production 
 of a cure. I say apparent, because under 
 this arrangement no very great likelihood 
 that the bad magnetism will be finally ex- 
 pelled from the patient's aura is set up. 
 Moreover, this complicated reflection has to 
 be taken into account, one which all modern 
 
124 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 followers of the hypnotic school have entirely 
 overlooked in dwelling on the existence of 
 another danger to which they assign perhaps 
 exaggerated importance. It is a common- 
 place of modern writing on the subject that 
 purely hypnotic treatment, that is to say, 
 the establishment of conditions of what we 
 call the mesmeric order in a patient's system 
 by means of external mechanical applica- 
 tions, like revolving mirrors, or what not, is 
 free from the peril attached to the influence 
 which a mesmerist obtains over his subject 
 if similar conditions are established by 
 means of passes in the old way. Now, of 
 course, it is perfectly true that to a certain 
 extent the mesmeric operator obtains influ- 
 ence over his subject, and if the same oper- 
 ator and the same subject go on working to- 
 gether for a long period of time, and trance 
 conditions are constantly reestablished, the 
 influence of the mesmerist becomes enor- 
 mous. That influence, however, does not 
 spring into sudden magnitude all at once on 
 a single occasion. Here again qualifications 
 have to be introduced which I will discuss in 
 their proper place in regard to the sudden 
 results obtained with entire strangers by 
 professional mesmeric exhibitors ; but these 
 
CURATIVE MESMERISM. 125 
 
 really fall into a different category from the 
 cases with which we are concerned for the 
 moment. It is most emphatically true that 
 no mesmerist influencing a subject for a cura- 
 tive purpose would suddenly acquire fatal 
 supremacy over the morale of that subject: 
 but from the point of view which I fully rec- 
 ognize — that after a time when the influ- 
 ences had been frequently repeated such con- 
 trol would be possible — the reply is that 
 people who find the need of being mesmer- 
 ized must be exceedingly careful into whose 
 hands they trust themselves. 
 
 I think if the idea of medical science of 
 the ordinary type were presented to the. 
 world now for the first time, timid people 
 would be inclined to say, " How frightful the 
 notion of following the prescriptions of a 
 doctor. If he were malevolently inclined he 
 might give us poison or drugs which would 
 be otherwise deleterious!" Of course he 
 might. In this life we are continually rely- 
 ing with more or less confidence on our 
 fellow-beings. Sometimes that confidence 
 is misplaced, and terrible examples of trust 
 betrayed in every walk of life encounter our 
 observation ; but as life is organized at pres- 
 ent we can only meet that condition of things 
 
126 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 by taking care as to whom we do trust, 
 whether in affairs of every-day life, in busi- 
 ness, in affection, in medical practice, or, 
 finally, in mesmerism. As for the notion 
 that when a mesmerized subject may pass 
 under the curious invisible influence of the 
 operator, he or she on that account loses the 
 normal faculty of will, and is weakened or 
 degraded in character accordingly, I venture 
 to declare that no shadow of justification for 
 that theory can be set up by any legitimate 
 appeal to established facts in the psychic 
 constitution of man. It is not even true 
 that sensitiveness to mesmeric influence is 
 necessarily associated, although that some- 
 times may be the case, with want of individ- 
 ual energy of character. To that branch of 
 the subject, however, I must recur later, and 
 therefore leave it alone for the present. 
 But coming back now to the real danger, 
 such as it is, of hypnotic suggestion, as dis- 
 tinguished from the other danger, such as it 
 is, of mesmeric treatment, we must remember 
 that the hypnotic state may very roughly be 
 described as an abnormal physical condition, 
 and the mesmeric state as an abnormal as- 
 tral 1 condition. In some way the nerves are 
 
 1 This term is of universal application in all occult 
 writing to that region of nature related to such phenom- 
 
CURATIVE MESMERISM. 127 
 
 jarred by the peculiar strain imparted to them 
 in the first instance through the optic nerve, 
 and a mysterious dislocation of the interior 
 mechanism of the nerve system is superin- 
 duced; and this dislocation once superin- 
 duced is very liable to recur under the stim- 
 ulus of some casual accident or thoughtless 
 act on the part of any person who has once 
 acquired the unfortunate art of throwing his 
 nervous system into disorder. Like many 
 other dangers that we have to recognize as 
 theoretically possible in all varieties of mes- 
 meric treatment, I am not arguing that this 
 one is of very great magnitude, but as far 
 as it goes it is a real risk, and the tendency, 
 therefore, of hypnotic treatment is distinctly 
 more injurious than the tendency of mesmeric 
 treatment, always assuming that we do not 
 fall into the improbable disaster of putting 
 ourselves too trustfully into the hands of a 
 consciously malevolent person. 
 
 ena as the aura I have already described. It is a realm 
 in itself, of vast complexity, co-extensive with, and quite 
 as populous as the physical plane, and filled with as great 
 a variety of natural phenomena. Vide books on occul- 
 tism generally ; in reference to which I cannot refrain 
 from adding that people who put them all aside as un- 
 worthy of consideration will never make anything but 
 nonsense of their theories concerning either mesmeric or 
 hypnotic transactions. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ANESTHETIC EFFECTS AND RIGIDITY. 
 
 Rich as the old literature of mesmerism 
 is in evidence concerning the anaesthetic 
 effects of magnetism, and though in the ex- 
 periments often publicly presented at the 
 present day nothing is more common than to 
 show how completely the mesmeric trance 
 may quench all sense of pain, I do not think 
 that any treatise on the subject has hitherto 
 made an attempt to account, in anything 
 that can be called a scientific manner, for 
 these remarkable phenomena. Least of all 
 have the modern writers — limiting them- 
 selves willfully to a contracted view of the 
 whole subject — been in a position to inves- 
 tigate the real causation of mesmeric anaes- 
 thesia. It would indeed be impossible to do 
 this with any prospect of success without 
 taking into account the deeper occult science 
 of the whole subject, and no ordinary know- 
 ledge acquired by the simple examination of 
 the human physique could enable any mere 
 
ANAESTHETIC EFFECTS. 129 
 
 physician to guess at the manner in which 
 magnetic force operates to suspend the normal 
 activity of the nervous system. Any at- 
 tempt, indeed, to investigate the more subtle 
 characteristic of the human organism, with- 
 out taking into account some of those higher 
 principles which are not within the cogni- 
 zance of the ordinary senses, and still less 
 open to investigation by the instrmnents of 
 the dissecting room, must necessarily prove 
 abortive. The seat of consciousness is not 
 in the physical matter of the body, and thus 
 all questions having to do with the manner 
 in which consciousness of pain can be sus- 
 pended, must concern themselves, even if 
 they do not have to go higher, with the as- 
 tral principles of the subject. 
 
 Now I have already pointed out that that 
 force itself which differentiates organic from 
 inorganic matter is already one which apper- 
 tains to the astral plane, and I have also in- 
 dicated that the septenary division of prin- 
 ciples, described in a preceding chapter, must 
 be itself still further analyzed before we can 
 fully apprehend the working of consciousness 
 even in its least elevated forms. And thus 
 the force of which I have now to speak, al- 
 though not belonging to any higher stratum 
 
130 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 of the human constitution than the second 
 principle, nevertheless is itself distinct from 
 vital energy in its simplest aspect. The 
 truth is, that when we talk of the nerves as 
 the channels for conveying sensation in the 
 one direction to the true Ego, or in the other 
 for conveying the will force of the Ego to 
 the bodily organism, we are talking, to use 
 a rough but not inaccurate analogy, of the 
 steam pipes connecting the boiler with the en- 
 gine, while omitting all notice of the steam. 
 That wliich really is the medium for the con- 
 veyance of consciousness or will, as the steam 
 is the medium for the conveyance of force in 
 the case of the engine, is what may be most 
 conveniently described as the "nerve aura." 
 And at this point I know that many read- 
 ers will make a pause, and ask by what 
 process of experimentation I have arrived at 
 the knowledge I possess with regard to this 
 nerve aura. My reply is, by the only 
 method of investigation which can possibly 
 be applied to such a problem. No physical 
 experiment can deal with the matter. No 
 knowledge to be disinterred from medical 
 speculations concerning the nerves and the 
 brain will help us one step on the road to- 
 wards the conclusions we seek. The only 
 
ANAESTHETIC EFFECTS. 131 
 
 way of acquiring information concerning 
 the higher principles of the human body, is 
 by bringing to bear on the problem some of 
 those higher principles themselves. To il- 
 lustrate what I mean, let me remind readers 
 of any books worth speaking of concerning 
 curative mesmerism, that no observation is 
 more abundantly established, whether by 
 the early inquirers, or by those of a more re- 
 cent date, who inquire with a higher purpose 
 than the mere establishment of a precon- 
 ceived hypothesis, than those which show 
 that mesmeric patients in trance are enabled 
 to prescribe for themselves, to diagnose their 
 condition with a confidence completely sur- 
 passing the skill of any physical practitioner, 
 and above all are especially capable of de- 
 scribing the way in which magnetic influ- 
 ences work upon them, and to indicate any 
 modification that may be required in their 
 magnetic treatment. In point of fact the 
 mesmeric sensitive becomes clairvoyant in 
 reference to such problems as those we have 
 under discussion, and can discern the opera- 
 tions of nature in connection with the astral 
 principles of man which necessarily defy any 
 scrutiny from the physical senses. 
 Now the early mesmerists, though con- 
 
132 THE BATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 stantly availing themselves of this fact to 
 guide them in the treatment of their pa- 
 tients, did not for the most part possess the 
 advantage of any occult knowledge to begin 
 with, which could prompt them to direct 
 their inquiries along fruitful channels such 
 as would lead them to generalizations con- 
 cerning the forces of the superior planes. 
 Realizing myself enough of the esoteric laws 
 at work to give greater point and significance 
 to my inquiries, I have been enabled, by 
 working with sensitive gifts of an unusually 
 high order, in the case of some clairvoyants 
 with whom I have had to deal, to get these 
 mysteries concerning the nerve aura intelli- 
 gently explained, and to make out the man- 
 ner in which the vital magnetism of a mes- 
 meric operator may affect the action of this 
 nerve aura in the mesmeric state. 
 
 To realize what takes place, let us, in the 
 first instance, imagine a condition of things 
 which is not exactly what takes place, but 
 will pave the way for a comprehension of 
 the actual course of events. The nerve aura 
 belonging to any given subject is, in a cer- 
 tain sense, a portion of his organism. It is 
 in direct relation with the vehicles of the 
 higher consciousness — and though undoubt- 
 
ANAESTHETIC EFFECTS. 133 
 
 edly in the first instance leading along the 
 nerves to the brain, is merely at that point 
 articulated, so to speak, with the vehicles of 
 higher consciousness — with the soul, let us 
 say for the convenience of the moment. 
 Now, it is a fundamental fact concerning the 
 complex organism of which we are speaking, 
 that the higher vehicles which, in the normal 
 condition of things, are in close and inti- 
 mate union — so to speak, in admixture 
 with — the matter of the physical body, are 
 nevertheless separable therefrom in a way 
 that does not involve the final and complete 
 separation which takes place at death. Ad- 
 vanced students of occultism do not require 
 any other argument to support the statement 
 I have just made beyond their own constant 
 experience of actually separating the con- 
 sciousness from the body. But without ap- 
 pealing to quite such lofty testimony, the 
 records of clairvoyance are fertile in exam- 
 ples of cases in which people describe them- 
 selves as looking at themselves, — contem- 
 plating their own body as from an external 
 point of view. 
 
 Without the help of occult science to in- 
 terpret what is really taking place in this 
 case, some writers are inclined to invent 
 
134 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 elaborate theories of complicated subjective 
 phenomena to account for such transactions. 
 In reality they are very simple, and simply 
 what they seem. Questioned on this sub- 
 ject, any clairvoyant in a genuine magnetic 
 trance would describe his consciousness as 
 seated in something at all events external 
 to his body. Not being on the lookout for 
 such conditions, few of the earlier mesmer- 
 ists, if any, thought of asking questions 
 pointing to such a condition of things, and 
 clairvoyants are very rarely spontaneous in 
 pouring out information; they require to 
 be cross-examined before exhibiting their 
 knowledge in full perfection, or rather be- 
 fore bringing their emancipated perceptions 
 to bear on the problems they have to deal 
 with, so as to develop this knowledge if 
 required. 
 
 However, taking the fact to be as I say, 
 and leaving persons inclined to dispute it to 
 search for the evidence in its favor in books 
 dealing with occult science generally, let me 
 ask my readers now to consider what is the 
 situation of affairs as regards the conscious- 
 ness that the sensitive out of the body re- 
 tains concerning the body he has left behind. 
 How, to begin with, has it come to pass that 
 
ANAESTHETIC EFFECTS. 135 
 
 he is out of the body under the mesmeric in- 
 fluence? And here I bring in my strained 
 situation in order to make the position more 
 intelligible. The magnetism of the mesmer- 
 ist has drenched the nervous system of the 
 patient, expelling and replacing the nerve 
 aura properly belonging to his organism. 
 That expelled nerve aura still unites the 
 brain with the true consciousness, but there 
 is no longer any nerve aura uniting the body 
 with the brain. Now, since it is wholly 
 along the nerve aura that the message of 
 sensation is conveyed, the nerve itself play- 
 ing the part that the steam pipe plays to the 
 steam, nothing which transpires in connec- 
 tion, let us say, with the patient's arm can 
 be in any way reported to the seat of con- 
 sciousness. The magnetism of the mesmer- 
 ist, though a fluid of the same kind in nature 
 as the nerve aura it has displaced, is not 
 proper to the subject, it does not constitute 
 a channel of communication which can reach 
 from his arm to his true soul, and all com- 
 munication of that kind is thus cut off. 
 
 It will be convenient here at once to bring 
 into the field of view another mesmeric phe- 
 nomenon besides anaesthesia, pointing out 
 that the explanation I am now giving equally 
 
136 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 accounts for the well-known immobility of a 
 mesmeric sensitive in a trance as regards any 
 spontaneous movement, and also for the ri- 
 gidity of the limbs when they are set in any 
 particular direction by the mesmerist. It is 
 his intention, working through his own aura 
 now intimately blended with the nervous 
 system of his subject, which determines what 
 state of the muscles shall be superinduced by 
 the machinery which the nerve aura controls. 
 He extends the sensitive's arm, for example, 
 desiring that it shall remain immovable in 
 the position in which he places it. By the 
 hypothesis no other desire can come into 
 play to interfere with that condition of 
 things, and immovable, therefore, the arm 
 remains. 
 
 Now, in order that what actually takes 
 place may be exactly appreciated, I must ex- 
 plain here that under no circumstances does 
 the magnetism of the mesmerist entirely dis- 
 place the nerve aura of the patient, but it 
 penetrates and, so to speak, dominates it, 
 subduing all its vibrations for the time 
 being, replacing it as regards all the activity 
 of its functions, and accomplishing in regard 
 to the phenomena with which we have been 
 dealing precisely what would be accomplished 
 
ANAESTHETIC EFFECTS. 137 
 
 supposing the original aura were entirely ex- 
 pelled. The only portion of the sensitive's 
 aura which is not thus dominated is that 
 which has to do with the mechanical and in- 
 voluntary movement of the body, the action 
 of the lungs and the heart, and so on; and 
 here in the first instance the activity of such 
 nerves can hardly be thought of as directly 
 related to the consciousness of the soul. It 
 is not necessary to go into a minute exami- 
 nation of the way in which the involuntary 
 muscles are governed by nerves and a nerve 
 aura of an equally involuntary character, but 
 it is obvious on the face of things that there 
 is a difference between such nervous energy 
 and the nerve energy of the voluntary mus- 
 cles ; and this may sufficiently explain for our 
 present purpose the fact, that whereas the 
 voluntary nervous system can be affected by 
 the mesmerist's aura in the way I have been 
 describing, nature happily guards the sensi- 
 tive from the stoppage of the lower vital 
 machinery during such a condition. 
 
 It will be seen that the principle of this 
 explanation equally covers such cases as I 
 have hitherto been thinking of, in which the 
 whole physical organism is drenched with 
 the operator's magnetism, and the conscious- 
 
138 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 ness of the subject expelled from it for the 
 time being, and also those other cases in 
 which local anaesthesia can be produced by 
 mesmeric treatment, so that an arm, for ex- 
 ample, may be made insensible to pain while 
 the sensitive is fully awake, and able him- 
 self to experiment on his condition by stick- 
 ing pins into the insensitive flesh. In the 
 case where the operation is carried out in its 
 entirety, the nerve aura of the brain itself is 
 dominated by that of the operator, and none 
 of the senses are in any degree of activity. 
 The true consciousness is then out of the 
 body altogether, sometimes to an extent 
 which makes it difficult for the subject to go 
 through the slight muscular movement re- 
 quired for articulate speech. In such cases 
 it will be familiar to every mesmerist who 
 has handled clairvoyant subjects that the 
 thing to do is to demesmerize the lips, — that 
 is to say, by a conscious effort of will asso- 
 ciated with the attractive force of the fingers, 
 to draw out the alien magnetism from that 
 portion of the subject's organism; then the 
 original nerve aura is restored to potential 
 activity, and the subject is enabled to speak 
 while still remaining in the trance condition. 
 In the case of the local effect the nerve aura 
 
ANESTHETIC EFFECTS. 139 
 
 is simply dominated in the limb under treat- 
 ment; in the head and in the body generally 
 the normal condition of the nervous system 
 continues, and the patient is to all intents 
 and purposes awake. 
 
 The familiar mesmeric phenomenon in- 
 volved in the transference of sense from the 
 mesmerist to the sensitive is precisely in ac- 
 cordance with this somewhat more elaborate 
 explanation of anaesthesia and artificial cata- 
 lepsy. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 
 
 Many of the most familiar experiments in 
 that kind of mesmerism which has latterly 
 been played with rather as an amusement 
 than seriously investigated, have to do with 
 the transfer of sensations or states of con- 
 sciousness from the operator to the subject 
 under conditions that have nothing to do 
 with the five senses. I do not propose to 
 burden these pages with elaborate records of 
 such experiments, with the names, dates and 
 places concerned. Books devoted to such 
 records teem with elaborate examples of the 
 phenomenon before us. Any sense may be 
 the nucleus, as it were, around which these 
 transferred impressions can be gathered. A 
 duly qualified mesmerized subject may be at 
 one end of a room, the operator may look at 
 the page of a book at the other end, and the 
 mesmerized subject will be able to read the 
 words as they pass across the operator's vis- 
 ion. If he hears a faint sound, quite incapa- 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 141 
 
 ble of making itself audible in the natural 
 way to the sensitive, the sensitive in turn 
 will hear that sound. If he receives a phy- 
 sical sensation, like the prick of a needle, 
 the sensitive in relation with him will start 
 and show by some appropriate movement 
 that the sensation was transferred to the cor- 
 responding part of his or her body, and in 
 exactly the same way phenomena of taste and 
 smell can be, and have been scores of times, 
 transferred from operator to subject. When 
 we approach the consideration of these phe- 
 nomena we find ourselves at once in a region 
 of mesmeric practice altogether out of gear 
 with those simple transactions having to do 
 with curative processes, with which some 
 people erroneously imagine that mesmeric 
 science comes to an end. 
 
 Of course such phenomena as I am now 
 approaching are only possible in reference 
 to persons whose susceptibility to mesmeric 
 influence is very acute, and this may be the 
 appropriate moment to enter more at length 
 on the consideration of what really consti- 
 tutes mesmeric sensitiveness. To analyze 
 this with as much precision as that which 
 might be applied to the treatment of a chem- 
 ical compound would not be possible, unless 
 
142 THE BATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 we started with as full an appreciation of 
 all the elements which go to make up the 
 psychic nature of man as we possess in re- 
 gard to the physical attributes of the elemen- 
 tary bodies. Without claiming any greater 
 admission than is surely involved in the view 
 of humanity which most people entertain, we 
 may recognize a human creature as at all 
 events a composite entity to this extent, that 
 he has a spiritual or psychic nature of some 
 sort in union during life with his body. 
 Furthermore, the fact that avenues of per- 
 ception, having to do with the psychic na- 
 ture, exist independently of the five senses, 
 may almost be proved as a broad proposition 
 by the experience of dreams, even before we 
 approach those far more scientific proofs in- 
 volved in mesmeric experiment. If any one 
 at the present day endeavors to cling to the 
 hypothesis that only through the channel of 
 the five senses can states of consciousness be 
 conveyed to the real ego of a human being, 
 all we need say here is that so narrow and 
 ignorant a view of the subject unfits an in- 
 quirer for dealing with the Rationale of Mes- 
 merism. He must first take the moderate 
 pains by which he will be able to acquaint 
 himself with notorious facts. 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 143 
 
 But starting from the general principle 
 that the psychic nature of man has its own 
 appropriate channels of approach other than, 
 or over and above, those that lead through 
 the physical senses, we may recognize very 
 quickly that the complicated phenomena of 
 transferred sensations under mesmeric treat- 
 ment fall into their places as varied expres- 
 sions of one simple truth. The establish- 
 ment of the mesmeric condition has set up 
 magnetic relations between the auras of the 
 two persons concerned, and the conditions 
 of consciousness acquired by the operator 
 through his own senses, and then by a nat- 
 ural automatic process reflected in his own 
 aura, are equally reflected in the aura of his 
 subject, and thence directly transferred to 
 those innermost centres of consciousness 
 which the subject's senses are equally able 
 to approach, and which, therefore, when ex- 
 cited in his own nature, seem to him to have 
 been excited in the ordinary way. 
 
 Take for example the simple case to which 
 I referred just now, of a mesmerist who so 
 arranges things that a friend shall prick him 
 with a needle in the arm or hands held be- 
 hind his back, or in any way not seen by the 
 sensitive, and in which the sensitive betrays 
 
144 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 immediate consciousness of the sensation. I 
 have seen a sensitive under my own treat- 
 ment move one hand hastily over the other 
 as though brushing off an annoyance, when 
 the back of my own corresponding hand be- 
 hind my back has been pricked by a third 
 person. Here we may conjecture that no- 
 thing really transpires in that particular 
 spot of the sensitive's person which seems to 
 feel the sensation, but whatever may be the 
 state of consciousness of the ego due to a 
 prick in the back of the hand, that state of 
 consciousness is superinduced, so to speak, 
 by a short cut in the case of the transferred 
 mesmeric sensation. Lodged in the inner- 
 most consciousness it suggests the idea of 
 having been occasioned in the usual way, 
 and hence the impression that it is a prick 
 in the back of the hand. Does the idea 
 seem fantastic, or unsupported by adequate 
 experience? The truth is that a precisely 
 similar phenomenon has been utterly famil- 
 iar from time immemorial, and every doctor 
 at all events knows that people who have 
 lost an arm or a leg will testify to the 
 strange fact that they constantly seem to 
 feel pain in the missing hands or feet. 
 They seem to feel that pain because in some 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 145 
 
 way the centre of consciousness has been 
 affected in the same way that it would have 
 been if the hands or feet had been present, 
 and had suffered injury. The subject as- 
 signs the sensation to its normal cause. 
 
 Very well, then, we have, in considering 
 what it is that constitutes sensitiveness to 
 the order of phenomena now under consid- 
 eration, to do with the psychic element in 
 the human constitution, and the question 
 turns entirely upon the extent to which that 
 psychic constitution is predominant, or al- 
 together absorbed in, and overwhelmed by, 
 the physical nature. 
 
 It will be understood that in the theory I 
 am going to define I am expressing conclu- 
 sions derived from the study of many other 
 departments in human psychology besides 
 those directly concerned with the explana- 
 tions given. To put forward these explana- 
 tions on what would be recognized as a sci- 
 entific method, I ought to start from the 
 basis of positively known facts, and build- 
 ing up, with the help of definite experi- 
 ments, fresh knowledge bit by bit, arrive at 
 the results offered for acceptance. Nor is 
 that scientific method to be found fault with 
 in regard to the investigations of the deeper 
 
146 THE RATIONALE OF MESMEBISM. 
 
 mysteries of man's constitution as a whole; 
 but we can only derive a comprehension of 
 the true theory of mesmeric results by first 
 of all getting a conception of that constitu- 
 tion as a whole, and then deriving from 
 such aggregate knowledge whatever specific 
 knowledge may be required to illuminate 
 the problem in hand. And as this little 
 volume does not profess to be a complete 
 compendium of human psychology in all its 
 bearings, it would be impossible to follow 
 step by step the whole investigation which 
 leads to that which I hold to be the correct 
 view of the subject, the theosophical view, 
 namely, of the psychic and spiritual attri- 
 butes of humanity. That which I propose 
 to offer in reference to the branch of the 
 subject now coming forward for treatment 
 — the theory of mesmeric sensitiveness — is 
 a clear statement of theory deduced from 
 theosophic teaching at large, and claiming 
 attention, I think, at this crisis by all stu- 
 dents of mesmerism as at all events coherent 
 and rational, and subject in itself to exper- 
 iments directed to test its validity in refer- 
 ence to its most important elements. 
 
 Sensitiveness, to begin with, must not be 
 regarded as an absolute fact in any one's na- 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 147 
 
 ture, like his height in inches or his weight 
 in pounds. Sensitiveness and the comple- 
 mentary characteristics which may be called 
 mesmeric force, are subject to a practically 
 infinite degree of variation in different 
 persons, and the maximum degree of sen- 
 sitiveness will feel the impact of the mini- 
 mum degree of mesmeric force. In the 
 same way the maximum degree of mesmeric 
 force will enable the minimum degree of 
 sensitiveness to cognize its influence, and 
 between these two extremes the whole body 
 of phenomena connected with mesmeric ex- 
 periment are always moving up and down 
 along a double sliding scale. There are no 
 people living so densely involved in matter, 
 whose intelligence, that is to say, has come 
 to immerse itself so entirely in the physical 
 brain, as to be utterly beyond the reach of 
 mesmeric power in excel sis. Here let me 
 point out that I am taking as the example 
 of minimum sensitiveness a human being 
 very far removed from the bottom of the 
 scale of human evolution. The entangle- 
 ment of thought here is only superficial, but 
 may easily mislead those who have no clue 
 to the proper comprehension of the problem. 
 The bottom of the human scale for pur- 
 
148 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 poses of mesmeric sensitiveness is not to be 
 found in the person of the dull-witted clod- 
 hopper, without a conscious thought directed 
 to any subject more elevated than bacon 
 and furrows. It is quite possible that such 
 a clodhopper, however incapable of adding 
 two rows of figures together, might be 
 highly sensitive to mesmeric influence, and 
 it is equally true that the person who would 
 represent the very highest degree of mes- 
 meric influence imaginable must almost ne- 
 cessarily be also highly gifted in every intel- 
 lectual aspect. These statements fall into 
 a truly scientific shape in the mind if we 
 think of the three typical human beings 
 thus imagined as ranged, not along a straight 
 line, but along a cyclic curve. Our clod- 
 hopper, for the purposes of this broad illus- 
 tration, will represent the divine essence, 
 let us say, coming into human form. As it 
 accomplishes the cyclic process thus entered 
 upon, it first of all evolves to the highest 
 possible degree the physical aspect in which 
 it is struggling to express itself, and at one 
 point in the curve accomplishes the maxi- 
 mum degree of development possible as re- 
 gards the physical instrument with which it 
 is working. The race (here, of course, we 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 149 
 
 are speaking of the race as the continuous 
 unity, and the single individuals as points in 
 its progress) having accomplished its maxi- 
 mum physical intellectual development con- 
 tinues along the returning curve of the 
 cycle, and without losing an atom, or an at- 
 tribute, so to speak, of the advantage gained, 
 proceeds to reevolve its so far hidden psychic 
 attributes which express themselves in phy- 
 sical intelligence at the nadir point of the 
 cycle, and are afterwards destined to respir- 
 itualize themselves, plus all the acquisitions 
 due to the descent into matter. The centre 
 of evolution which is being carried round 
 the cycle of course does not return to that 
 same point in the figure from which the cy- 
 cle sprang, but to the corresponding point 
 on a higher level. The further examination 
 of that idea, however, would take us beyond 
 the subject now specially before us. I shall 
 have to return to the cyclic idea directly, 
 but having for the moment broadly denned 
 the origin, subsidence, and re-development 
 of sensitiveness as a human attribute, let me 
 show what the same methods of thought 
 bring out in regard to the complementary 
 characteristics of mesmeric force. 
 
 I have called them complementary for con- 
 
150 THE RATIONALE OF MESMEEISM. 
 
 venience' sake, but let us not for a moment 
 imagine that one human being is exclusively 
 a sensitive, another human being exclusively 
 a mesmerist. The very maximum degree 
 of mesmeric force is, on the contrary, ne- 
 cessarily associated with the maximum de- 
 gree of sensitiveness, because the maximum 
 degree of either can only be due to the pos- 
 session by the person in question of supreme 
 knowledge concerning both aspects of his 
 nature. Remember, sensitiveness does not 
 necessarily mean liability to have the will 
 enslaved by another. That is only one of 
 the aspects of sensitiveness of one kind. 
 We shall map all this out clearly in a little 
 while, though at first the complications of 
 the problem cannot but appear rather bewil- 
 dering to those who are unfamiliar with this 
 system of thinking. That which I mean in 
 speaking of sensitiveness at this stage of the 
 explanation is the faculty of cognizing im- 
 pressions derived through the aura, and the 
 corresponding senses belonging to that ele- 
 ment of the human constitution which is 
 allied with its aura. The cultivation of 
 these senses and faculties, it will be seen on 
 a moment's reflection, when allied with a 
 clear comprehension of all they mean, is a 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 151 
 
 power and not a weakness. To be percep- 
 tive of the feeblest effort of will or desire 
 thrown out by another human being under 
 conditions involving the full comprehension 
 of how that sensitiveness is brought into 
 play, is equivalent to possessing a faculty 
 by means of which the slightest impulse of 
 thought or desire in any other person can be 
 cognized or tested. 
 
 It does not follow that the sensitive of the 
 kind I am now describing must necessarily 
 give way or submit to that thought or influ- 
 ence, or to any thought or influence even of 
 a very much more powerful kind. If the 
 sensitiveness is of the supreme sort I speak 
 of, it is supremely under the control of the 
 being to whom it belongs, constituting in- 
 deed a part, and a very important part, of 
 his own power as a mesmerist ; for his sensi- 
 tiveness would enable him to perceive exactly 
 what he was doing, to regulate the impulses 
 of his own magnetic emanations in such a 
 way that they would go precisely to their 
 mark instead of being wasted like those of 
 the non-sensitive mesmerist, even granting 
 him a good deal of force. In fact, the non- 
 sensitive mesmerist works, so to speak, in 
 the dark, and wishing to hit a mark before 
 
152 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 him, flings a great handful of missiles at it 
 in the hope that one or other may hit. The 
 mesmerist who is supremely sensitive, works 
 as one seeing his mark in the light, and 
 projects with accurate aim, and correspond- 
 ingly small expenditure of energy, the single 
 missile required to touch it. 
 
 This reflection, once comprehended, will 
 enable any one to see how exasperating it 
 is to those who comprehend mesmerism in its 
 spiritual and psychic aspects to hear the silly 
 babble of the world about the supposed 
 weak-mindedness of all who come under 
 mesmeric influence. There is no more 
 weak-mindedness necessarily involved in be- 
 ing sensitive on the psychic plane than in 
 being sensitive to the delicacies of musical 
 expression. Some people who are otherwise 
 very brainless may be very highly gifted as 
 musicians, but on that account we need not 
 assume brainlessness to be a necessary con- 
 dition of a fine ear. And this illustration 
 helps us to another which may be appropri- 
 ately offered for the consideration of any 
 one who boasts that his own strength of will 
 is such as to render him absolutely unap- 
 proachable by mesmeric influence. This 
 boast would be precisely analogous to one 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 153 
 
 a person quite unable to distinguish one tune 
 from another might make, if he thought fit 
 to plume himself proudly upon the fact that 
 no one, not even Patti or Joachim, could 
 produce sounds possessing the smallest as- 
 pect of beauty to his senses. 
 
 However, it is true that a considerable de- 
 gree of mesmeric energy may reside in many 
 human organisms which have not yet 
 evolved the faculty — the high, exalted fac- 
 ulty — of conscious sensitiveness. Like the 
 other characteristic, it must be imagined as 
 following the evolution of the human race 
 round the inevitable cycle. But there is an 
 important difference to be borne in mind 
 when we are considering these two aspects 
 of psychic perfection, the positive and the 
 negative, or rather the active and the pas- 
 sive. Sensitiveness, just because in the 
 first or lower limb of the cycle it is unasso- 
 ciated with intellectual development, is a 
 purely passive faculty. The whole body of 
 faculties to which it belongs has not been 
 evolved to that point in which self-conscious - 
 ness becomes its leading attribute. The 
 distinction here, of course, is that conscious- 
 ness alone, an attribute shared by humanity 
 with the lower animals, does not bring with 
 
154 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 it the tendency to reflect concerning its own 
 attributes. It is only the intellectual man 
 who, pondering on the problems of his own 
 being, and turning his observation inward, 
 renders himself the subject of his own re- 
 flections, and can be called self-conscious in 
 the significance with which I here employ 
 the phrase. 
 
 Well, then, there cannot be mesmeric 
 force until the point of self -consciousness is 
 reached in humanity, and that point reach- 
 ing its culmination in the highest degree of 
 mere intellectual development, the point of 
 such highest development may be conven- 
 iently regarded as the starting point from 
 which mesmeric power begins to show real 
 energy. Here again let me qualify this 
 broad statement of the case to guard against 
 what seem contradictions in experience. 
 Many of the most remarkable mesmerists 
 have not been men quite on the intellectual 
 level of some amongst purely materialistic 
 giants in science or literature, but that is 
 due to the fact that all growths in nature 
 are gradual. As the race approaches the 
 condition of its highest intellectual manifes- 
 tation the other faculties belonging to that 
 condition rise into activity, and in individual 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 155 
 
 cases some of these, by special effort di- 
 rected to that end, may be brought to per- 
 fection in advance of others with which they 
 are, properly speaking, bracketed. But I 
 do venture to assert with positive conviction 
 that the facts of nature must correspond to 
 the broad assertion, that, granting the same 
 conditions of full health, vitality, bodily 
 vigor, and habits of life conducive to the de- 
 velopment of magnetic energy, the man who 
 besides these attributes possessed a highly 
 developed intellect would be the more power- 
 ful mesmerizer of the two. 
 
 And now let us take our already evolved 
 mesmerist who as yet is nothing else, that 
 is to say, who as yet has not climbed the up- 
 ward limb of the evolutionary cycle, and 
 who has not yet developed the receptive 
 psychic faculties of his own nature, and let 
 us consider how his energy operates on the 
 various classes of sensitiveness with which he 
 may have to do. Let us begin with the 
 sensitives of the lower order ; those in which 
 the psychic attributes have not yet been en- 
 tirely dissolved in matter, or, so to speak, 
 translated into their highest material equiv- 
 alent, and who are represented in most com- 
 plete perfection by our typical clodhopper. 
 
156 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 The free aura of the clodhopper is the attri- 
 bute on which I wish to focus the reader's 
 attention. In using this phrase, "free 
 aura r " I venture to borrow an analogy from 
 chemistry, where we might speak of "free" 
 acid left in a solution in excess of that re- 
 quired to neutralize a basic salt. The whole 
 aura, to put the matter that way, of the un- 
 developed man has not yet been employed in 
 neutralizing matter. It is hanging about, 
 and may be spoken of as free, in the sense 
 of being uncombined. On that free aura 
 the mesmerist's influence readily finds a 
 lodgment. The idea conveyed from his own 
 mind to that of the subject does not present 
 itself to the subject's mind as something 
 coming from without. He has not yet 
 learned to analyze his consciousness to the 
 degree of being able to draw such distinc- 
 tions. He simply finds an impulse of some 
 kind arising in his own mind; he does not 
 reason about it, or question it in any way, 
 he simply acts upon it as he would act upon 
 any other impulses spontaneously arising 
 in his own mind, unless restrained by some 
 countervailing consideration having to do 
 with penalties of an easily comprehended na- 
 ture which would equally serve to restrain 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 157 
 
 the impulses of a horse or a dog. And even 
 these are in abeyance when the question is 
 of an impulse implanted by the mesmerist's 
 will, because the very act of the mesmerist 
 in taking charge of the subject's aura, has 
 operated to suspend its normal activity as 
 an influence directing the brain, and with 
 the entrancement of the subject's lower 
 nature an almost absolutely blank field of 
 operations is left to the mesmerist, just 
 because so far there is no higher nature 
 consciously evolved in the person under 
 treatment. 
 
 Here we get the first broad idea interpret- 
 ing the phenomena of mesmeric subjection 
 in reference to which the hypnotists of the 
 present day are so much interested, and so 
 deeply anxious, if we may accept their as- 
 surances to that effect. All these phenom- 
 ena of hypnotic obedience carried to lengths 
 which startle the observer are phenomena 
 having to do with impressions left by the 
 mesmerists concerned on the subject's aura. 
 They may or may not spring immediately 
 into activity. If the impression on the aura 
 is that a certain delay shall be operative be- 
 fore the message, so to speak, is passed on, 
 that impression is obeyed like any other. 
 
I 1 
 
 158 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 It is the unintellectual psychic nature 
 which is obedient in such a case, the psychic 
 nature which has not yet become self-con- 
 scious ; which is so much abstract psychic or 
 spiritual energy in process of translation 
 into a self-conscious being, but for the time 
 being unqualified to reason about the right 
 or wrong of its impulses, simply because it 
 has not yet been converted into reasoning 
 faculty. 
 
 And, be it observed, that in order to 
 maintain the set of conditions we are now 
 contemplating, it is not necessary that we 
 should keep our mind fixed upon the ex- 
 treme example thereof, — the case in which 
 the human subject is as nearly unintelligent 
 as we can imagine a human being to be. 
 At a later stage of the process, though at 
 one still on the earlier side of the meridian 
 of our cycle, a great deal more of the 
 psychic nature may be translated into intel- 
 lectual capacity, and the person concerned 
 may be very far from being a fool or an ig- 
 noramus, and yet that which is still psychic 
 in the nature may have undergone but a 
 comparatively small amount of evolution. 
 Let us always bear in mind the character of 
 the cycle we are thinking of, and the grad- 
 
THE NATUBE OF SENSITIVENESS. 159 
 
 ual nature of all the processes with which 
 it is concerned. Education of that superior 
 element in the total consciousness, which, 
 for convenience of talking about it here, let 
 us call the Higher Self — the education of 
 the Higher Self may begin, it is true, long 
 before the nadir point of physical evolution 
 is reached, but on the other hand it may 
 not, — or its evolution may only have just 
 begun. It is the later period of the cyclic 
 process to which the evolution of that 
 Higher Self properly belongs; and thus, 
 when a person still on the eastern side of 
 life's meridian, — to use a pretty figure em- 
 ployed lately by Dr. Huggins in application 
 to a cycle smaller than that with which I am 
 now dealing, but still analogous to it in 
 nature, — a person, I say, still on the east- 
 ern side of the meridian may have a very 
 great degree of intellectual development, 
 and yet a Higher Self barely capable of 
 reasoning about the impressions it may re- 
 ceive from external sources when deprived 
 of the support of that physical intellect on 
 which it has been leaning to a very great 
 extent. 
 
 If the brain instrument becomes paralyzed 
 for the time being by any of the nervous influ- 
 
160 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 ences that may be exerted upon it by either 
 mesmeric or hypnotic processes, the psychic 
 nature may be almost as stupidly obedient 
 to the mesmerist's impulse as if there had 
 been no intellect in association with it at 
 all. So then in the case of a hypnotic sug- 
 gestion intended to operate at a period sub- 
 sequent to the establishment of the impres- 
 sion, such a person will find the impulse to 
 do whatever he may have been directed to 
 do rising up in his mind like a spontaneous 
 desire, and certainly if there is no glaring 
 reason why he should not do the thing, he 
 will do it. Supposing that there is a glar- 
 ing reason in morals or obvious duty why 
 he should not obey the impulse, a conflict 
 may arise in his nature, one issue of which 
 quite possibly is a reversion to the paralyzed 
 condition of the intellect which was opera- 
 tive during the original mesmeric process, 
 and then the immoral influence is worked 
 out without any impediment. Or, there may 
 be an interior convulsion in which the intel- 
 lect asserts itself as predominant over the 
 psychic impulse. And, again, it may be 
 that the Higher Self, although very imper- 
 fectly developed, has nevertheless reached a 
 certain stage of its growth in which it is not 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 161 
 
 entirely without the power of controlling its 
 incarnate tendencies. 
 
 But now let us suppose that the mesmerist 
 is operating on some sensitive who belongs 
 to the other half of the cycle of which we 
 are speaking. Let us observe in passing 
 that he will not obtain any effect whatever 
 on the person who represents the nadir point 
 of physical evolution. The perfectly intel- 
 lectual materialist will not be subject, at all 
 events, to any mesmeric influence of the 
 kind of which we are now talking. He, 
 too, in spite of his lofty self-conceit, would 
 be as helpless as a straw in the wind if sub- 
 ject to mesmeric influence belonging to the 
 highest developments of humanity in the 
 upper half of the cycle ; but we are dealing 
 still with our mesmerist who is but begin- 
 ning to be one, who belongs himself to the 
 nadir point, that is to say, who is an ordi- 
 nary person in the world, like the rest of us 
 all around. When he begins to apply his 
 influence to some one in whom sensitiveness 
 is beginning in any appreciable way to de- 
 velop itself in the shape of completely con- 
 scious psychic existence, independent of, or 
 over and above, that of the physical plane, 
 he may attain many results which are su- 
 
162 THE BATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 perficially like those he has got at in the ear- 
 lier undertaking. All transferred impres- 
 sions of taste, sound, or touch will of course 
 be as readily operative through the Higher 
 Self of a human being in process of spiritual 
 exaltation, as through the Higher Self, how- 
 ever little capable of self-conscious thought, 
 of the undeveloped human being. And 
 when the task to be undertaken involves the 
 employment of anything resembling clair- 
 voyance — a branch of the subject which I 
 reserve for special treatment presently — he 
 will find the superior sensitive far more 
 readily available for that lofty employment 
 than the inferior, though the inferior is by 
 no means incapable of clairvoyance within 
 certain limits. 
 
 At the outset there is an immense practi- 
 cal difference between the sensitive who is 
 such by reason of belonging to the upper 
 limb of the cycle and the other. First of all 
 it is very unlikely that the superior sensitive 
 could be mesmerized by any ordinary mes- 
 merist unless surrendering to that influence 
 by a deliberate act of submission in the first 
 instance. By the hypothesis the mesmeriz- 
 able portion of the nature — if I may use 
 that clumsy expression — is self-conscious in 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 163 
 
 the case of the superior sensitive; therefore 
 it cannot be caught in a helpless state like 
 the other. If the superior sensitive were to 
 put the matter in words, he might say to 
 the mesmerist: "You may be able to hurt 
 me through faculties that you can hit at, 
 but you cannot control me. I can defend 
 myself even though I may be bruised in the 
 encounter." But supposing the sensitive 
 has no motive for taking up such an atti- 
 tude, but on the contrary is in sympathy 
 with the mesmerist, and quite willingly ac- 
 cepts through his psychic nature the guid- 
 ance of the mesmerist, an external appear- 
 ance of submissive obedience may arise, just 
 as in the ordinary waking life one person 
 may do what he is told through love, and 
 another through fear. The nature of the 
 obedience is quite different, though the ex- 
 ternal aspect may be nearly the same. 
 
 And here we come to the satisfactory as- 
 pect of that phenomenon which looks so 
 alarming to the merely empiric students of 
 hypnotic suggestion. Where the Higher 
 Self which receives the mesmeric impression 
 is a self-conscious and developed entity, it 
 will only obey as long as the currents of 
 sympathy between itself and the mesmerist 
 
164 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 which originally disposed it to submission 
 are maintained, and those currents will be 
 violently disturbed, if not destroyed, should 
 the mesmerist endeavor to impose an act on 
 the subject which is repugnant or revolting 
 to his own sense of right. I do not say 
 that, even with a sensitive on the superior 
 limb of the cycle, it would be theoretically 
 inconceivable that a mesmerist might enforce 
 obedience to an act to which the unfettered 
 instincts of the subject would be opposed. 
 If a voluntary submission, through currents 
 of sympathy, have been given in the first in- 
 stance, and if, through a very long and pro- 
 tracted mesmeric relationship, the subject 
 has for years been in the habit of acquies- 
 cing in the impulses of the mesmerist, a 
 habit of that sort might be very difficult to 
 break, even if an extraordinary change took 
 place in the nature and character of the mes- 
 merist. But this is only translating to the 
 higher plane (which, after all, is a region in 
 which human relationships exist just as they 
 do on this plane of being) of embarrassments 
 which might equally ensue in the waking 
 state. Take the case of a husband and 
 wife, where the wife, to make the illustra- 
 tion parallel, is quite the husband's equal in 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 165 
 
 intelligence, but well disposed to play the 
 feminine part in their relationship. If at a 
 very early period of this relationship the hus- 
 band suddenly shows unexpected impulses 
 towards evil, and endeavors to conduct the 
 wife along those paths, she would at once 
 revolt; her own intelligence and sense of 
 right would be in command of her actions. 
 But, supposing that the husband through a 
 long course of years acquires, by his mani- 
 festations of character and by all the acts of 
 his life, her perfect trust and confidence, so 
 that her habit of submission to an influence 
 that she always finds entitled to respect be- 
 comes very deeply seated; in such a case, if 
 we choose to suppose the husband suddenly 
 developing proclivities to evil, it is not be- 
 yond the possibilities of the strained suppo- 
 sition that the wife would surrender to his 
 example. The whole set of conditions is 
 morally absurd ; they could not arise except 
 in something like an access of insanity, 
 which would again bring its own safeguards 
 with it ; but just so do the obvious probabil- 
 ities of the case provide us with an answer 
 to the pet theory of persons who ignorantly 
 object to the practice of mesmerism in re- 
 gard to the possibility that the mesmerist 
 
166 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 might improperly control a sensitive of the 
 higher order. In marriage as well as in 
 mesmerism there are many possibilities of 
 danger lurking, and the destiny which be- 
 falls a woman who puts herself into the 
 hands of a thoroughly bad husband may be 
 deplorable to the last degree ; but that is the 
 analogy which exactly meets all talk about 
 mesmeric dangers. Nothing could be more 
 idiotic than for a sensitive to subject himself 
 to the continued influence of a mesmerist in 
 whose character he had no adequate confi- 
 dence, just as it would be equally idiotic for 
 a girl to rush into matrimony with a man of 
 whom she knew nothing; but the moral of 
 that reflection is that we should be careful in 
 choosing our mesmeric and our matrimonial 
 partners, and not that the institution in either 
 case is to be finally repudiated. Indeed, to 
 put a stop to marriage altogether because of 
 the examples which occasionally exhibit its 
 dangers, would be less intellectually absurd 
 than to adopt the same course in regard to 
 mesmerism; for, after all, mesmerism is a 
 very much more gradual process than the 
 other, and there is no moment at which the 
 fatal ring is slipped on to the finger of the 
 Higher Self. Even experiments must be 
 
THE NATURE OF SENSITIVENESS. 167 
 
 cautiously conducted, but you can be mes- 
 merized a little and still draw back in time 
 to avoid disaster. Social science has not 
 yet evolved a corresponding safeguard for 
 the marriage state. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CLAIRVOYANCE. 
 
 We now approach that department of our 
 subject but for which it might almost be re- 
 garded as one belonging rather to medical 
 practice than to the psychological inquirer. 
 
 Perhaps this is the place where I may- 
 most appropriately deal with the attempt, 
 already made by some medical practitioners 
 just beginning to dabble in experiments 
 with mesmerism, to warn off all intruders 
 on that domain and reserve it exclusively for 
 themselves. That notion is one of the silli- 
 est among many which arise from ignorance 
 of what mesmerism really is, and the claim 
 of the doctors to have mesmerism reserved 
 by law for their own exclusive service is 
 doubly ridiculous, because medical men as 
 a body, in this country especially, exhibited 
 a bigoted intolerance of the whole subject 
 that was simply disgraceful until the growth 
 of independent knowledge forced them to 
 recognize some parts of the discovery as a 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 169 
 
 natural truth, and have shown themselves 
 by all they have done in the past as singu- 
 larly unqualified to handle the more subtle 
 investigations which the future progress of 
 this great science will bring into play. We 
 may do all honor to the few doctors who in 
 the past, and the greater number who in the 
 present, are identified with the therapeutic 
 developments of Mesmer's discovery; but 
 at the same time we must remember that for 
 every single Dr. Esdaile or Dr. Elliotson 
 there were scores of contemporary practi- 
 tioners who brutally refused to allow their 
 patients to enjoy the privileges which mes- 
 merism held out to them, and when one of 
 Dr. Elliotson 's leading cases was brought 
 before the notice of the Medico-chirurgical 
 Society that body distinguished itself by 
 passing resolutions the shame of which it 
 will have some difficulty in getting rid of. 
 The case in question has already been 
 slightly referred to in an earlier chapter. 
 A surgeon, Mr. Ward, had cut off a man's 
 leg at the hospital over which Dr. Elliotson 
 presided, while the patient was under the 
 influence of a mesmeric trance brought on 
 by the treatment of Mr. Topham, a barris- 
 ter, who was studying mesmerism at the 
 
170 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 time. Frightful as the operation was, the 
 patient suffered it quite unconsciously, and 
 was entirely spared the torture to which he 
 would otherwise have been subjected. The 
 assembled body of physicians and surgeons 
 rose in revolt at this unheard of transaction 
 when it was described in a paper brought 
 before them by Mr. Ward. They passed 
 resolutions denying the paper any place on 
 the records of the Society, as something that 
 was manifestly incredible and absurd, and 
 linked themselves to the idiotic hypothesis 
 that, if any truth resided in Mr. Ward's 
 statement, the patient had probably been 
 trained not to express outward symptoms of 
 pain. They wound up by declaring that, 
 even if such an absurdity could be realized, 
 it would be flying in the face of Nature, 
 which had ordained pain as a necessary con- 
 comitant of surgical operations ! 
 
 This is only a typical illustration of the 
 spirit in which the medical profession gen- 
 erally welcomed the advent of the new dis- 
 covery, and the claim of that profession, 
 now that the reality of the discovery has be- 
 come too glaring for denial, to take it out 
 of the hands of all such inquirers as those 
 who have brought it to its present degree of 
 
CLAIBVOYANCE. 171 
 
 perfection, and reserve it for their own use, 
 is, to begin with, one of the most impudent 
 that could be advanced. Doctors might as 
 well have claimed at an earlier stage in the 
 advance of science that because electricity- 
 was susceptible of some therapeutic applica- 
 tion*, it should be reserved by law for the 
 use of medical men, no one being permitted 
 to carry on electrical experiments, or to in- 
 vestigate the nature of that force, unless he 
 belonged to the faculty. We may imagine 
 how far electrical science would have ad- 
 vanced if that course had been adopted, and 
 its adoption now in reference to mesmerism 
 would interpose a barrier to the advancement 
 of human knowledge, the monstrous charac- 
 ter of which can only be appreciated by 
 those who know something of the higher psy- 
 chic or spiritual aspects of mesmerism, to 
 which the attention of the reader will now 
 be directed. 
 
 In the current manuals of the day which 
 deal with hypnotism very little is said about 
 its psychic aspects. The new departure 
 has been taken as far as possible with the 
 view of keeping it in harmony with the lim- 
 ited series of facts brought to light by recent 
 medical experiments that have captivated 
 
172 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 popular interest. But it must not be sup- 
 posed that the real literature of mesmerism, 
 which altogether lies behind this modern se- 
 ries of relatively narrow and departmental 
 treatises, is deficient in the evidence required 
 to establish the reality of clairvoyance, both 
 as regards space and time, as a fact in na- 
 ture. 
 
 Deleuze has dealt with this branch of the 
 subject in a special memoir of very remark- 
 able interest, entitled "Memoire sur la Fac- 
 ulte de Prevision," published in 1836 in 
 Paris. Nothing in the more recent litera- 
 ture of the subject exhibits clearer common- 
 sense as applied to the investigation of the 
 delicate phenomena with which he is con- 
 cerned. He is not tainted with the foolish- 
 ness which has so beset more recent writers, 
 of disregarding all work in this department 
 done in the past. On the contrary, he 
 points out now that, since the faculties of 
 man are the subject of the inquiry before 
 him, those faculties, whatever they are, were 
 the same two thousand years ago as at the 
 present day. The progress of physical 
 science has given the modern world an im- 
 mense advantage in dealing with inquiries 
 of a purely physical character, and such in- 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 173 
 
 quiries as carried on by ancient writers are 
 now of little value. But the very fact that 
 the attention of ancient philosophers was not 
 distracted by so many departments of physi- 
 cal inquiry rendered them the better, rather 
 than the less, able to arrive at a just appre- 
 ciation of those human attributes on which 
 their attention was fixed, and within the 
 period which was recent when M. Deleuze 
 wrote, the phenomena of magnetic "som- 
 nambulism " — to use the expression adopted 
 by the earlier French writers to describe 
 what we now generally call "clairvoyance" 
 — had been under observation for about fifty 
 years. Cases of prevision were recorded in 
 the medical journals, and he says: "Open 
 the 'Memoirs of the Society of Strasburg,' 
 and the 'Bibliotheque du Magnetisme,' and 
 the accounts of medical experience connected 
 with somnambulism published in Germany, 
 Russia, and Holland, and you will find the 
 same class of facts ; and the concurrence in 
 this way of a crowd of people attesting facts 
 of the same order which each of them has 
 observed separately, constitutes proof to 
 which there is no reply. It is impossible 
 that men of all countries, without relations 
 with one another, who do not even adopt the 
 
174 THE BATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 same theories, and amongst whom we find 
 many physicians, should be in a conspiracy 
 to attest falsehoods." 
 
 I select a few other passages from the 
 essay as it proceeds : — 
 
 "Most metaphysicians reason as if there 
 existed nothing in the world but that of 
 which our five senses demonstrated the exis- 
 tence. They admit only two orders of 
 things, sensible objects and the consciousness 
 which receives the sensations. They forget 
 that we perceive merely those objects which 
 affect our senses, and that there may exist 
 an infinity of objects unknown to these, and 
 to which our organs are inaccessible. The 
 faculty of comprehending the form of an ob- 
 ject at a distance would be inconceivable to 
 one born blind but for the testimony of oth- 
 ers. If we had one sense the more, our con- 
 sciousness would be modified accordingly; 
 ... let us then imitate the blind; let us 
 assure ourselves of the reality of phenomena 
 by the results, observing the somnambule as 
 the blind observe us." 
 
 "It is impossible, sometimes people say, 
 to see the future, for the future does not ex- 
 ist. The present only has real existence; 
 but, if the past has an existence relatively 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 175 
 
 to ourselves, that is merely because it has 
 left its traces. It exists by its effects; the 
 future exists by its germ. The past has pro- 
 duced the present, it was its cause ; the fu- 
 ture will be produced by the present, it will 
 be its effect. When we consider the past 
 we behold the cause in its effects; when we 
 consider the future we see the effects in the 
 cause." 
 
 "When a brilliant light illuminates the 
 landscape we may admire its richness, but 
 we do not see the stars which decorate the 
 celestial vault. The rays they send from 
 that incalculable distance reach our eyes in 
 the day as well as in the night. Our inter- 
 nal faculty even exists the whole time, but 
 it is only in the silence of other sensations 
 that our souls discern the innumerable rays." 
 
 This essay was written with the intention 
 that it should form an introduction to a 
 great collection of cases illustrative of clair- 
 voyant prevision. Deleuze had been a pro- 
 lific writer before he penned the present 
 memoir on the general subject of mesmer- 
 ism, but he says that he specially reserved 
 this profoundly interesting department for 
 treatment by itself. He was not left at his 
 work, however, long enough to complete this 
 
176 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 undertaking. The memoir itself was the 
 last of his writings, and it was published 
 after his death by a friend who had endeav- 
 ored, as far as he was able, to realize the 
 original idea of supplying the accumulation 
 of cases. Some of these are interesting and 
 worth attention, but to translate them here 
 at full length would involve an expansion of 
 this little volume beyond the limits I con- 
 template. I will be content with briefly 
 epitomizing one illustration which Deleuze 
 himself arranged to give, and of which he 
 seems himself to have obtained various 
 attestations. This is the famous case of 
 Cazotte's prophecy concerning the French 
 Revolution, often vaguely referred to, but 
 perhaps unfamiliar in its details to many 
 of my readers. 
 
 The prediction is recorded by La Harpe 
 in his collected works, published in 1806. 
 He describes himself as having been present, 
 at the commencement of the year 1788, at a 
 dinner party given by one of his confreres 
 of the Academy to a distinguished company, 
 including people of the Court, of legal and 
 literary distinction, and many Academicians. 
 The conversation during the evening ran on 
 the lines of Voltairean infidelity and atheism, 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. Ill 
 
 then coming so widely into fashion. The 
 party was convulsed with delight at one an- 
 ecdote told by a guest, whose hair-dresser 
 had said to him, "Look you, sir, though I 
 am but a miserable carabin, I have no more 
 religion than anybody else." The only 
 person who had not taken part in all these 
 pleasantries was Cazotte, an amiable and 
 original man, says La Harpe, but unfortu- 
 nately infatuated with the reveries of the 
 mystic. At last he spoke more seriously 
 than the others. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said he, "be satisfied; you 
 will see this grand and sublime revolution 
 which you desire so much." 
 
 "No need to be a great sorcerer to foresee 
 that," replied some. 
 
 " True, but perhaps it is necessary to be 
 something of one to see the rest I have to 
 tell you, namely, what will happen during 
 this revolution." 
 
 Count D'Orsay said, with a sarcastic 
 laugh, that a philosopher need not be an- 
 noyed at encountering a prophet. 
 
 "You, Count D'Orsay," said Cazotte, 
 "will expire on the pavement of a dungeon. 
 You will die of poison which you will have 
 taken to escape the executioner — poison 
 
178 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 which the happiness of that epoch will 
 oblige you to carry always about you." 
 
 Some sensation followed, and Cazotte was 
 rebuked for giving them a story less amus- 
 ing than his "Diable Amoureux." 
 
 "But what has all that in common with 
 philosophy and the Reign of Reason? " 
 
 "It is precisely in the name of philosophy 
 and liberty, and under the Reign of Reason 
 and its temples, that these things will hap- 
 pen." 
 
 "Ma foil " said Chamfort; "you will not 
 be one of the priests of those temples." 
 
 "But you, M. de Chamfort, will be one, 
 and you will open your veins with twenty- 
 two cuts with a razor, and nevertheless you 
 will not die until some months afterwards. 
 You, M. Vicq d'Azir, will not open your 
 veins ; you will have them opened six times 
 in one day, during an access of gout, and 
 you will die in the night. You, M. de Ni- 
 colai, you will die upon the scaffold. You, 
 M. Bailly, will die on the scaffold; you, 
 M. de Malesherbes, on the scaffold*" 
 
 So far the ladies had taken no part in this 
 prophecy, and the Duchesse de Gramont 
 was laughingly congratulating herself that 
 evidently she would be protected by her sex. 
 
CLAIR VO YANCE. 179 
 
 " Your sex, ladies, will not secure you this 
 time. You will be treated like the men, 
 without any difference. You, madame la 
 duchesse, you will be conducted to the scaf- 
 fold, you and many others with you in the 
 charrette of the executioner, the hands tied 
 behind the back." 
 
 The conversation still maintained an air 
 of ridicule, and Madame de Gramont said 
 something about hoping she would at least 
 be allowed to see a confessor. 
 
 "No, madame," said Cazotte, "you will 
 not have one, neither you nor any one. The 
 last victim who will have one through grace, 
 will be " — He hesitated a little while. 
 
 "Well, who is the happy mortal who is 
 to receive this prerogative? " 
 
 "It will be the King of France." 
 
 At this appalling blasphemy the party 
 seems to have broken up, thinking Cazotte 's 
 extravagance had been carried to dangerous 
 lengths. 
 
 At first, says Deleuze, he regarded all this 
 as fiction by La Harpe, but he set himself 
 to work to get information and changed his 
 opinion. He obtained a letter from the 
 Comtesse de Genlis, who writes, "I have 
 heard him (de La Harpe) state this story a 
 
180 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 hundred times before the Revolution, and al- 
 ways in exactly the same way that I have 
 everywhere seen it printed." M. Deleuze 
 then found out the son of M. Cazotte, who 
 declared that his father had always been 
 gifted with the faculty of prevision in the 
 highest degree, and had given numerous 
 proofs of it. Without being able to guar- 
 antee the exact language used by La Harpe 
 in his narrative, the son had no doubt 
 whatever about its general truthfulness. 
 A friend of M. Vicq d'Azir, inhabiting 
 Rennes, bore testimony that this celebrated 
 doctor had told the story of Cazotte 's pro- 
 phecy, in his presence, several times before 
 the Revolution took place. Finally, M. 
 Deleuze appends a letter by the Baron de 
 Langon, in which he says, "I can assure 
 you on my honor that I have heard Madame 
 la Comtesse de Beauharnais repeat that she 
 had been present on this historic occasion. 
 She always told her story in the same way, 
 and her testimony corroborates that of La 
 Harpe." 
 
 A French writer, whose testimony on all 
 subjects connected with clairvoyance is ex- 
 tremely important, — M, A. Teste, a doctor 
 of Paris, — wrote in 1843 an interesting vol- 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 181 
 
 ume called "Manuel pratique de Magne- 
 tisme Animal," in which he records a multi- 
 tude of experiences coming under his own 
 observation. The sensitives with whom he 
 worked, — chiefly those who were at the 
 same time sensitives and patients, — foretold 
 with exactitude the course and conclusion of 
 their various maladies. One of the most in- 
 teresting records has to do with the case of 
 a lady referred to as Madame Hortense, the 
 subject of a long illness for which M. Teste 
 treated her, and during which he constantly 
 mesmerized her in the presence of her hus- 
 band, who was himself deeply interested in 
 the whole study. Many days before the 
 special event referred to, she told them that 
 at half past three on a certain day she would 
 have a fright that would cause her to fall 
 and sustain some serious internal complica- 
 tions. They were aghast at this intelli- 
 gence, and conceived that their care could 
 not but ward off a danger so definitely pre- 
 dicted. Of course, the sensitive herself 
 never retained the smallest recollection in 
 her waking state of her own prophecies, and 
 they told her nothing of this threatened 
 disaster. Questioning her about it in her 
 clairvoyant state, she maintained always that 
 
182 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 they would not be able to ward it off, but 
 that they need not be greatly concerned ; she 
 would certainly undergo a great deal of suf- 
 fering and protracted illness, but would not 
 die, and would ultimately completely re- 
 cover. Still, they resolved to do their very 
 utmost to resist the threatened danger; and 
 both doctor and husband hovered round the 
 patient — not ill enough to be in bed — the 
 whole of that afternoon. 
 
 Well, I find it embarrassing to tell the 
 story with the simple, straightforward candor 
 of the French writer, because English ears 
 are so singularly sensitive to details that 
 seem to infringe decorum; but at the ap- 
 pointed time the lady insisted on a little 
 privacy, during which a rat suddenly ran 
 across her, frightening her in so unexpected 
 a way that she fell down and suffered exactly 
 the consequences which she had foretold, 
 happily with the ulterior recovery. This is 
 only one of a cloud of cases with which M. 
 Teste deals, and I must leave those readers 
 who wish to get personal touch with the 
 multiplied proofs he has accumulated to 
 search his writings for themselves. 
 
 A little thought will show that one essen- 
 tial difference between the phenomena of 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 183 
 
 clairvoyance and those coming into notice 
 under other departments of mesmerism has 
 to do with the essentially psychic character 
 of the clairvoyant achievement. Everything 
 belonging to the region of so-called hypnotic 
 suggestion, however mysterious, may theo- 
 retically be accounted for by hypotheses 
 which leave the sensitive a highly organized 
 being, no doubt, but not necessarily one in 
 which the psychic attributes must be consid- 
 ered as something independent of the bodily 
 organism. And this reflection gives its real 
 importance to the inquiry into the possibil- 
 ities of clairvoyance. It is easy to miss the 
 real significance of a new discovery, and to 
 attach importance to the immediate practi- 
 cal outcome thereof, instead of to the light 
 thrown by the practical results on hidden 
 and previously obscure laws of nature. It 
 is preeminently easy to make this mistake 
 in dealing with the psychic characteristics 
 of those mesmeric sensitives in whom clair- 
 voyance is exhibited. We may take the 
 thing in itself, a marvelous and enchanting 
 gift, and say that for its own sake it is worth 
 while to see if we cannot cultivate to a 
 higher degree of perfection a power so filled 
 with attractive interest. Any one who, by 
 
184 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 passing into a magnetic trance, is thereby- 
 enabled to cognize events that are going on 
 at a distance, is clearly in possession of a 
 gift which cannot but be recognized as pre- 
 cious in itself. But when we begin to collate 
 the various manifestations of this power, and 
 to realize that no theory of latent senses at- 
 taining an unusual degree of delicacy and 
 perfection in the sensitive will account for 
 what takes place, we begin to perceive that 
 the study of this power, in the rare cases 
 where it is exhibited, may be a pathway 
 opening up before us possibilities of acquir- 
 ing real scientific knowledge concerning 
 those spiritual, or at all events superphysi- 
 cal, elements in a human being which, hith- 
 erto left as the subject of vague religious 
 faith, have never yet been regarded by the 
 world at large as liable to come within the 
 domain of exact knowledge. 
 
 Before going further, let me endeavor to 
 group the various kinds of power or faculty 
 exhibited by those whom I comprehensively 
 describe as clairvoyants. First, we have to 
 deal with that kind of clairvoyance which 
 simply enables the sensitive to discern what 
 is going on at some other place in the world. 
 Sometimes the discernment extends for a 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 185 
 
 little distance only, sometimes it ranges half 
 across the globe ; but mere distance does not 
 affect the nature of the faculty brought into 
 activity. This kind of clairvoyance let me 
 call "clairvoyance in space." Then we 
 have to do with an extraordinary capacity, 
 which has been shown, as Deleuze points out, 
 so often as to make denial of the facts alto- 
 gether silly, but in regard to which the dif- 
 ficulties as to giving explanation are very 
 overwhelming. I refer to what Deleuze 
 calls "prevision," that which in the popular 
 idioms of our own country is known as " sec- 
 ond sight," and that which for the purpose 
 of this classification we may call "clairvoy- 
 ance in time." There is a third depart- 
 ment of the faculty with which we are deal- 
 ing, in which the sensitive is enabled to take 
 note of phenomena in nature, whether near 
 him or far off, which do not belong to the 
 order of those phenomena perceptible to the 
 senses; that is to say, the clairvoyant may 
 see and converse with entities of some kind 
 which the ordinary, waking person does not 
 see at all, and cannot put himself into rela- 
 tions with by any means in his power. 
 Following the example of earlier writers, 
 who certainly knew a good deal about the 
 
186 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 realms of nature thus brought within our 
 purview, let us call this sort of sight " astral 
 clairvoyance." 
 
 There is yet a fourth sort of clairvoyance, 
 which, from the point of view of people un- 
 familiar with such phenomena as we are 
 dealing with, could hardly be distinguished, 
 perhaps, from the last, but which I feel my- 
 self bound to treat separately here, because 
 those who are students of anything really de- 
 serving to be called psychological science 
 will conceive "astral clairvoyance" as hav- 
 ing a limited and specific meaning. As 
 something no less distinct really from astral 
 clairvoyance, in the ascending scale of na- 
 ture's refinements, than that itself is different 
 from the phenomena of the physical senses, 
 we must recognize what I will venture to call 
 "spiritual clairvoyance " as a possibility of 
 this wonderful attribute, but it will be more 
 convenient to put off further explanations on 
 this head till I reach the fourth order in due 
 progress of time. 
 
 Again I say I am not engaged in this vol- 
 ume in recapitulating the enormously volu- 
 minous evidence on which our present know- 
 ledge concerning all these subjects, in a great 
 measure, rests ; but I will venture a passing 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 187 
 
 word of warning to any one who may think 
 I am classifying fictions instead of facts. 
 To stop here and challenge the fundamental 
 bases on which my present interpretations 
 rest, will merely serve to rank incredulous 
 persons who do this with the bigoted doctors 
 who in the beginning scoffed angrily at rec- 
 ords having to do with the simpler aspects 
 of curative mesmerism, of which no person 
 acquainted with the experiences of the pres- 
 ent day would be inclined to dispute the 
 authenticity. 
 
 In regard to all three varieties of clairvoy- 
 ance we shall arrive soonest at something re- 
 sembling an intelligent appreciation of their 
 rationale by assuming, at all events as a trial 
 hypothesis, that they all have to do with that 
 psychic side of the nature which, in analyz- 
 ing the peculiarities of sensitiveness, I have 
 already discussed pretty fully. What are 
 we to infer as probably taking place when 
 a sensitive sitting entranced in London be- 
 comes cognizant of some transaction going 
 on in Paris? It must be one of two things. 
 Either the transaction throws off emana- 
 tions or vibrations of some kind or another 
 into some medium pervading all space, just 
 as the luminous bodies throw off vibrations 
 
188 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 into the ether, and where these strike the 
 perceptions or finer senses of persons no 
 matter at what distance, they give rise to 
 corresponding impressions, just as the rays 
 emanating from a star affect the vision of 
 those endowed with vision, no matter at 
 what stupendous distances. And there is no 
 essential and inherent absurdity in such a 
 hypothesis, any more than in the actual facts 
 having to do with the transmission of light. 
 It might be alleged that transactions going 
 on in the world are too numerous for each 
 one to convey its own distinct impression, 
 jostled as it must be by contact with incal- 
 culable millions of other such impressions 
 hastening in all directions across its path. 
 Impossible as it may be for us to compre- 
 hend the resources of nature by which such 
 entanglements are averted, the vibrations of 
 the luminiferous ether show, without going 
 further, that nature is not embarrassed in 
 dealing with such a problem. Take the act- 
 ual facts of the simplest illustration that can 
 be adopted; a group of people in a room. 
 From every point in the walls and ceiling of 
 the room, as from every point on the sur- 
 face of every particle of furniture it may 
 contain, complete spheres of radiation are 
 
CLAIR VO YANCE. 189 
 
 flowing in all directions, as is necessarily 
 proved by the fact that anybody can see 
 each object from whatever point of view he 
 stands, and yet every one of those absolutely 
 innumerable spheres of luminous vibration 
 sends its waves across another's path with- 
 out interfering with the accuracy of each 
 series. It would not be an intellectually 
 extravagant hypothesis to assume that there 
 are conditions in nature under the operation 
 of which everything on earth, and every 
 process and action going on is perceptible to 
 appropriate senses from every other position 
 on earth that can be imagined. I do not 
 say that this is the case ; but merely to pave 
 the way for subtle hypotheses which must be 
 applied to any attempts to investigate such 
 a profound mystery as clairvoyance, it is 
 well to train the mind to appreciate the way 
 in which no hypothesis must be rejected 
 merely because of its complexity, if it har- 
 monizes with the facts. 
 
 The other alternative hypothesis in regard 
 to our simple case of clairvoyance as between 
 London and Paris would be that something 
 material in the highest sense of the word, — 
 not physical as belonging to the orders of 
 matter perceptible to the five senses, ■ — but 
 
190 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 something material, appertaining probably 
 to the psychic nature of the sensitive, is pro- 
 jected under the operation of a current of 
 thought or influence from the mesmerist or 
 from the sensitive, assuming that to be 
 awakened in some way by suggestion to him, 
 from the place in which he is seated to the 
 distant scene he is required to observe. 
 Now that something which is projected may 
 be either some portion of the psychic aura 
 in which for the time being the real ego or 
 spiritual consciousness of the person con- 
 cerned may be seated, just as it is seated in 
 the body during the activity of the body ; or 
 it is theoretically conceivable that the true 
 ego, without quitting the physical organism 
 altogether, may project in the direction to 
 be observed some current of magnetic influ- 
 ence setting up a channel — if that expres- 
 sion will help to pass the idea from my mind 
 to my reader — through the all-pervading 
 medium, whatever it is, the luminiferous 
 ether, or something finer still, which is the 
 suitable medium in nature for the vibrations 
 which convey impressions to the psychic 
 organism. 
 
 Thus we have three hypotheses, either of 
 which would fit in with the facts as far as it 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 191 
 
 goes, and I may say at once that I regard 
 all three hypotheses as dimly shadowing 
 forth before our minds real actualities in 
 nature, although when the inquiries on 
 which it seems reasonable to hope this gen- 
 eration is now entering are pushed a good 
 deal further than they have generally gone 
 as yet, we shall be able to understand these 
 with very much greater precision than at 
 present. But how does it come to pass that 
 some persons subject to mesmeric influence 
 are found to be clairvoyant and some inca- 
 pable of exhibiting this quality, even in the 
 least degree? We need go no further in 
 search of an explanation than to the theory 
 of sensitiveness I have already endeavored 
 to lay down. The least developed psychic 
 nature may be susceptible to impressions 
 directly translated to itself from the aura of 
 the mesmerist with which it has become 
 blended, but if it is not developed on its own 
 account into anything resembling a psychic 
 consciousness, it will not be able to exert it- 
 self with an intelligent end in view at the 
 bidding of the mesmerist. In other words, 
 we shall never find our fine clairvoyants 
 among people who are on what I have pre- 
 viously described as the lower limb, or east- 
 
192 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 era half, of the evolutionary cycle. It is 
 only when a human being is sufficiently ad- 
 vanced in the scale of nature to have passed 
 the point of full immersion in matter — at 
 which his psychic nature may have expressed 
 itself to the utmost of its capacity in the 
 form of physical intellect — that the second 
 process begins, ultimately evolving him, as 
 he passes through the ordeal of material in- 
 carnation, into that relatively superior con- 
 dition in which the psychic nature may truly 
 be spoken of as the higher self. 
 
 I am slightly embarrassed at this stage of 
 my exposition by the impossibility of setting 
 forth any really scientific theory of mesmer- 
 ism in its higher branches without drawing 
 largely at every turn on the resources of oc- 
 cult science in its relation with the finer con- 
 stitution of man. To go fully here into all 
 the considerations which fortify the theories 
 of occult science in their turn, would be to 
 convert this volume into a repetition of oth- 
 ers which have gone before, but just as I 
 leave the reader to fill up his mind, if he 
 wishes to do so, with details of mesmeric ex- 
 periments from other books, merely working 
 here with their significance and theoretical 
 value, so I must refrain from any attempt 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 193 
 
 to vindicate on their own account the under- 
 lying principles of occult science concerning 
 the constitution of man to which I may be 
 bound occasionally to refer. Hitherto no 
 writers on mesmerism have attempted any 
 connected theory at all in regard to its 
 higher manifestations, for want of the clue 
 with which occult science now furnishes us ; 
 and at least I may appeal to readers who may 
 be handling this volume without any special 
 preparation, to the coherence of the whole 
 body of theory I am now putting forward, as 
 involving a prima facie reason for looking 
 favorably on the teaching from which these 
 theories are derived. 
 
 Clairvoyance, then, in any of its higher 
 aspects should be regarded as a faculty of 
 the higher self. The qualification I put in 
 here is required to guard me from being sup- 
 posed to mean that such clairvoyance as is 
 involved in reading the time on a watch that 
 has not been opened, or the words in a closed 
 book, is a faculty of the higher self. That 
 does not deserve to be called clairvoyance at 
 all. It is an exercise of certain generally 
 undeveloped senses stimulated to an abnor- 
 mal degree of energy under the mesmeric 
 process, but where distances have to be dealt 
 
194 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 with which extend beyond the aura of the 
 sensitive, some degree of intelligence in his 
 own psychic envelope — if I may use that 
 expression — must be assumed. By this 
 phrase I mean to suggest the idea that, 
 whereas in the undeveloped man the psychic 
 nature is, so to speak, chaotic and unformed 
 — unorganized in the most complete sense of 
 the term — in the other case the man who 
 has passed the nadir point of material devel- 
 opment begins then to grow a psychic organ- 
 ism which may be thought of for the pur- 
 poses of our present explanation as a finer 
 kind of body to which his consciousness may 
 be transferred under suitable conditions, 
 and in which his mind can function as truly 
 as in the waking state it functions in his 
 physical body. The theory will not be com- 
 pletely intelligible without keeping hold of 
 the fundamental occult principle of reincar- 
 nation, because without understanding that, 
 all this talk on which I have ventured about 
 people being before or behind the nadir point 
 of material development would have very 
 little meaning. But without attempting a 
 complete exposition of the occult theory of 
 reincarnation with all the collateral consid- 
 erations which render it one of the most 
 
CLAIB VO YANCE. 195 
 
 vital truths of nature for every one con- 
 cerned with the study of esoteric teaching, 
 it will be enough to make my present theo- 
 ries intelligible if I say that according to 
 the esoteric view every human being passes 
 through a protracted series of physical lives 
 with long intervening periods of spiritual 
 experience, and that these successively rep- 
 resent the stages of growth in nature to 
 which each individual has attained, and in- 
 volve a regular cosmic progress which may 
 be greatly hastened by abnormal efforts, and 
 may be seriously impeded by misapplica- 
 tions of energy. 
 
 How is the activity of the higher self, of 
 which the clairvoyant sensitive under ordi- 
 nary conditions of life may be, perhaps, 
 hardly conscious, to be set up? To answer 
 this question I must attempt a little more 
 fully to explain what students of occultism 
 mean by the higher self. I have referred 
 already to reincarnation as the method by 
 means of which nature accomplishes the evo- 
 lution of each individual monad. Between 
 each of the physical births the true being or 
 ego in question remains in the enjoyment of 
 that degree of spiritual evolution represented 
 by the sum total of all the efforts made, up 
 
196 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 to that time, in the successive lives through 
 which he has passed. Crude and popular 
 conceptions on the subject of spiritual life 
 entertain the idea that directly death occurs, 
 the soul or spirit is set free, suddenly spring- 
 ing into a condition of angelic exaltation in 
 which higher perceptions and higher know- 
 ledge come into play. Occult science does 
 not recognize any proceeding so causeless in 
 its character. That which is set free at death 
 is the real ego at its then stage of evolution, 
 and as I have already indicated, with human 
 beings very little advanced along the cycle 
 of evolution the nature of the spiritual con- 
 sciousness is extremely torpid and unde- 
 fined. That is merely another way of say- 
 ing that, even in the realms of its higher 
 activity, nature produces her achievements 
 gradually. The gradual growth of the real 
 spiritual ego, or higher self, is the great pur- 
 pose in view throughout the whole under- 
 taking of the successive lives. As already 
 explained, after the neutral point of evolu- 
 tion — the perfect infusion of spirit in mat- 
 ter — is passed, the spiritual life begins to 
 assert itself with renewed energy. The 
 consciousness of the ego on spiritual planes 
 then becomes a self - consciousness, and is 
 
CLAIM VO YANCE. 197 
 
 associated with the power of independent 
 action. 
 
 Now, in the ordinary waking state the 
 Higher Ego is to a great extent engaged 
 with, and entangled with the physical plane. 
 It largely inspires the mental and moral ac- 
 tivity of the incarnate being, and although 
 even during the waking state it may have 
 some subtle relations with the spiritual 
 plane, to which we need not at this moment 
 pay attention, it is, to all intents and pur- 
 poses, functioning on the plane of matter. 
 But whenever the activity of the bodily or- 
 ganism is suspended, the ego is set free to 
 function on the other planes where it has al- 
 ready established a right of entree. Even 
 during ordinary sleep that passage from one 
 plane to another takes place, at all events 
 whenever the sleep is healthy and profound. 
 The experiences which the Higher Ego goes 
 through on the spiritual plane in such cases 
 are by no means always transferred to the 
 physical memory on waking; on the con- 
 trary, such transfer is the exception and not 
 the rule. A great branch of metaphysical 
 study has been directed to the correct ap- 
 prehension of this dual consciousness, of 
 which every highly developed being is an ex- 
 
198 THE RATIONALE OF MESMEBISM. 
 
 ample, and the most important work on the 
 subject to which the reader can be referred 
 is du Prel's " Philosophic der Mystik," 
 admirably translated into English by Mr. 
 C. C. Massey, and called by him "The 
 Philosophy of Mysticism." Du Prel shows 
 that by a careful analysis of the experiences 
 and facts within our reach it is demonstrable 
 that the waking brain does not "contain," 
 in the metaphysical sense, the whole of the 
 consciousness of the human being function- 
 ing through that brain. More than this, 
 the threshold of psychic consciousness — to 
 use du Prel's expression — is constantly 
 subject to advance or recession, and the 
 process of pushing back that threshold so 
 that as much as possible of the higher con- 
 sciousness may be embraced within the area 
 of physical brain recollection, constitutes 
 the process which might in some of its bear- 
 ings be described as the evolution of psychic 
 faculties. 
 
 Now, this explanation fully apprehended 
 will afford, almost without further words, a 
 clue to the comprehension of what really 
 takes place under mesmeric influence in con- 
 nection with the higher clairvoyance. The 
 physical body is entranced by the magnetic 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 199 
 
 influence, and the Higher Ego is set free. 
 It follows the natural bent of its own affin- 
 ities, and in so being set free passes at once 
 into the spiritual aspect of its consciousness 
 (occultists will understand that I am here 
 using the term "spiritual" as embracing the 
 astral plane), but in so far as this partial 
 freedom does not involve the complete sever- 
 ance between the physical brain and the finer 
 astral organism, the latter continues in di- 
 rect relation with the physical body by mag- 
 netic threads or ligatures — one is obliged to 
 use materialistic phrases in endeavoring to 
 put such thoughts into words — and thus is 
 accessible to stimuli which act in the first 
 instance only on the physical organism, or 
 let us rather say on the astral aura of the 
 physical organism. Free as it is, the higher 
 self is thus in continued intellectual rela- 
 tions with the mesmerist whose magnetic in- 
 fluence has sufficed to entrance the body, 
 and to set its own activities at large. And 
 the plane of such activities which it has now 
 reached is entirely exempt from the re- 
 strictions that embarrass activity on the phy- 
 sical plane. Thought, will, or desire be- 
 come the agents of something which we may 
 think of as movement about the world, and 
 
200 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 the Higher Ego can be translated to any- 
 distant place, or almost to any distant point 
 in space, with as much facility as a thought 
 may be turned towards some distant region 
 with which the thinker is familiar. 
 
 Just, however, as it is only to a place 
 with which he is familiar that any one can 
 turn his thoughts with precision, so as to re- 
 call images of what he has seen, so it is only 
 to some place with which the Higher Ego is 
 in some kind of magnetic relation that its 
 attention and perceptive powers can be 
 turned. Thus we find that while a clairvoy- 
 ant, however gifted, would be almost hope- 
 lessly embarrassed if asked to discover in 
 some distant part of the world a person 
 unknown to his waking self, and equally 
 unknown to the mesmerist, it would be 
 perfectly easy for such a higher self to dis- 
 cover the person to whom some specific 
 article, handed to his body and thus brought 
 into magnetic relations with his own aura, 
 originally belonged. The clue to the accu- 
 rate scientific comprehension of all the phe- 
 nomena of mesmeric clairvoyance, having to 
 do with what is called rapport, is thus read- 
 ily afforded. If you have a lock of hair cut 
 from some person's head, and put it into 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 201 
 
 the hands of the sleeping clairvoyant, the 
 magnetic vibrations connecting that with its 
 original owner serve as a thread to guide 
 the emancipated ego to the goal. And the 
 truth is that what has now been said, simple 
 as it is, constitutes the whole explanation of 
 those phenomena belonging to the order of 
 "clairvoyance in space." You will never 
 get such clairvoyance out of a person whose 
 spiritual evolution is inferior to the neutral 
 point, and whose higher self has not been 
 evolved to any degree of self -consciousness. 
 Such a person may, as already explained, be 
 highly susceptible of mesmeric influence, 
 may respond with the most completely auto- 
 matic docility to all the so-called sugges- 
 tions of hypnotism, may be obedient to 
 quite a terrible extent to the commands im- 
 posed upon him by a mesmerist, but will 
 never be able to accomplish achievements 
 beyond the range of his own nature. 
 
 I am not going to attempt an explanation 
 which shall as completely cover the phenom- 
 enon of "clairvoyance in time." The mys- 
 teries of prevision are extremely bewildering, 
 and on them we can only throw such specu- 
 lative light as may be afforded, for example, 
 by theories of metaphysics like those sug- 
 
202 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 gested by Dr. Oliver Lodge in his remark- 
 able address at the Cardiff Meeting of the 
 British Association. He says : — 
 
 " A luminous and helpful idea is that time 
 is but a relative mode of regarding things ; 
 we progress through phenomena at a certain 
 definite pace, and this subjective advance 
 we interpret in an objective manner, as if 
 events necessarily happened in this order 
 and at this precise rate. But that may be 
 only one mode of regarding them. The 
 events may be in some sense in existence al- 
 ways, both past and future, and it may be 
 we who are arriving at them, not they which 
 are happening. The analogy of a traveler 
 in a railway train is useful; if he could 
 never leave the train nor alter its pace he 
 would probably consider the landscapes as 
 necessarily successive and be unable to con- 
 ceive their co-existence. . . . We perceive, 
 therefore, a possible fourth dimensional as- 
 pect about time, the inexorableness of whose 
 flow may be a natural part of our present 
 limitations. And if we once grasp the idea 
 that past and future may be actually exist- 
 ing, we can recognize that they may have a 
 controlling influence on all present action, 
 and the two together may constitute the 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 203 
 
 'higher plane ' or totality of things, after 
 which, as it seems to me, we are impelled to 
 seek, in connection with the directing of 
 form or determinism, and the action of liv- 
 ing beings consciously directed to a definite 
 and preconceived end." 
 
 It is true that a good deal of clairvoyance / . 
 
 in time relating to events in the immediate \ 
 
 future and having to do with the course, for 
 example, of an illness, are explicable with- 
 out diving into any very great profundities 
 of metaphysical thought. A much clearer 
 perception of causes in operation in any 
 such transaction than is accessible to the in- 
 carnate consciousness may enable the higher 
 self to discern inevitable consequences, and 
 thus to predict them. But such foresight as 
 that concerned with the progress of an ill- 
 ness hardly deserves to rank with the Ca- 
 zotte prophecy, for example, in connection 
 with the French Revolution, where the pre- 
 cise destinies of five or six people, who years 
 afterwards came to a violent end in the con- 
 vulsions of that period, were foretold with 
 exactitude. I do not wish to leave the 
 reader under the impression that occult sci- 
 ence, even as expounded by its modern lit- 
 erature, is without hypotheses which go far 
 
204 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 to suggest explanations even of the most ex- 
 alted examples of clairvoyance in time; but 
 to make these theories intelligible would in- 
 volve a complete examination of the higher 
 mysteries associated with Karma and the 
 agencies which control it, and would lie be- 
 yond the province of the present treatise. 
 
 Let us turn now to that variety of clair- 
 voyance which has to do with the observa- 
 tion of natural phenomena lying wholly out- 
 side the physical plane. On this branch of 
 our subject the older literature of mesmer- 
 ism is by no means so rich as in reference to 
 the inferior departments. But the very in- 
 teresting autobiography of Andrew Jackson 
 Davis, sometimes known as the Poughkeep- 
 sie Seer, includes the narrative of his own 
 mesmeric treatment directed entirely to the 
 end that his higher self should be liberated 
 for the observation of nature on the spirit- 
 ual planes, and carried on, I have little 
 doubt, under the direction of agencies belong- 
 ing already to more highly evolved examples 
 of the human race than those around us in 
 ordinary life. Davis was a born psychic, to 
 whom visions and astral experiences of all 
 sorts were continually occurring, although 
 the external circumstances of his life would 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 205 
 
 seem at the first glance to have been terribly 
 unfavorable to the development of any higher 
 faculties. He was born, that is to say, of 
 parents in the very humblest rank of life; 
 the father seems to have been a cobbler in 
 too small a way of business to be even called 
 a shoemaker, who worked hard for a miser- 
 able living in an outlying village of the 
 State of New York. Davis himself grew up 
 almost entirely without education, scarcely 
 able to read and write, and even when grown 
 up, some of his spiritual teachings, or those 
 which came through his lips, and which fill 
 many volumes, were written down for him 
 by friends. At about the age of seventeen 
 Davis was first mesmerized by a man named 
 Livingstone, and at once began to manifest 
 all the usual symptoms of clairvoyance, which 
 rapidly culminated in spiritual flights 
 through higher realms of nature, in connec- 
 tion with which by degrees were developed 
 close relationship between the seer and be- 
 ings of some exalted order whom he encoun- 
 tered in the spirit, and from whom he re- 
 ceived teaching on spiritual subjects, the 
 accumulation and record of which became 
 the whole occupation of his life. It is not 
 my business here to criticise these, although 
 
206* TEE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 gladly bearing testimony in passing to the 
 fact that their tone and character is exalted 
 and ennobling, although they are less asso- 
 ciated with precise interpretations of hidden 
 mysteries in nature than some of those 
 which, during the progress of recent theo- 
 sophical developments, have enriched the 
 later literature of occult research. How- 
 ever, in regard to the particular matter in 
 hand, Davis's incidental explanation, which 
 he fortifies with diagrams, of the process 
 through which the spiritual clairvoyant 
 passes during his magnetic treatment under 
 the hands of a qualified mesmerizer, seems to 
 me the best exposition of that particular sub- 
 ject I have ever seen in print. When first 
 sitting down he represents the mesmerist and 
 sensitive as separately encircled by auras 
 which do not blend with one another. By 
 degrees these mutually expand, and their 
 limits intersect. As the magnetic process 
 goes on, and as the body of the sensitive be- 
 comes entranced under the influence of mes- 
 meric emanations from' the operator's hands, 
 the two auras become entirely blended, a 
 condition of things illustrated in Davis's 
 diagrams by a representation of the two per- . 
 sons seated opposite one another surrounded 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 207 
 
 by one oval, representing their combined 
 auras. Then as the magnetizer ceases to 
 throw out any influence the auras slightly 
 differentiate again without coming apart, a 
 magnetic emanation is thrown upward from 
 the sensitive's head, visible, of course, to 
 those who have faculties for seeing such 
 things, and thus the sensitive keeps in rela- 
 tion with his own higher self, which by that 
 time has taken flight, while the blending of 
 the two auras enables the mesmerist also to 
 remain in intelligible communication with 
 the absent consciousness. 
 
 To analyze all the possibilities which may 
 be associated with such a spiritual flight 
 on the part of the true ego of a human being 
 already sufficiently spiritualized in nature to 
 be capable of deriving definite, exact impres- 
 sions from spiritual planes, would be to 
 write a treatise on spiritual science and the 
 higher evolution of man rather than on the 
 mesmeric methods by means of which touch 
 may be obtained with these great realities. 
 But from the point I have now reached I am 
 enabled to handle the argument which to my 
 mind renders it so important at the present 
 age of the world that the loftier possibilities 
 of mesmerism should be properly under- 
 
208 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 stood, and the subject guarded from the in- 
 discriminating disapproval of those who are 
 animated in speaking of it by exclusive ref- 
 erence to its more ignoble and degrading 
 manifestations. Of course, let me acknow- 
 ledge at the outset, that anything like play- 
 ing with forces of nature so far-reaching, so 
 magnificent in some of their potentialities, 
 and at the same time fraught with so much 
 danger in association with some of their 
 worst, is to be condemned in the most un- 
 equivocal terms. I do not necessarily mean 
 that trifling experiments, even when they 
 are associated with some atmosphere of 
 amusement, may not be harmless enough 
 when colored with an intelligent curiosity 
 concerning an unknown subject, but at- 
 tempts at the practice of mesmerism may 
 very soon outrun the character of these ele- 
 mentary diversions, and then if people go on 
 with the matter at all, they ought to go on 
 with it in at least as serious a frame of mind 
 as they would handle any other branch of 
 natural study. Its continued use for petty 
 and degrading purposes, in which grotesque 
 effects are sought for even in preference to 
 those which would illuminate the inquiry, 
 is of course to be condemned without re- 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 209 
 
 serve. Indeed, if people only knew the real 
 significance of some lofty spiritual phrases 
 they are in the habit of employing in con- 
 nection with conventional religion, they 
 would feel that very formidable terms of 
 censure are due to any act involving the de- 
 gradation of natural forces having to do with 
 the spiritual life. In their way, and to the 
 limited extent that the thing is possible for 
 the modern ignoramus, such acts constitute 
 what early theologians meant by the "sin 
 against the Holy Ghost." But while at the 
 bottom of the scale it may be little less than 
 a deadly sin to employ mesmeric power with 
 evil ends in view, and while it is very wrong 
 to employ it with ignoble and sordid ends in 
 view, it becomes something more than per- 
 missible to employ it in the cure of diseases, 
 merely physical though such objects may be, 
 and ultimately the practice of mesmerism 
 rises into the region of the loftiest and most 
 ennobling pursuit when the great force is 
 employed to set free and stimulate to the 
 utmost the highest evolution of the highest 
 consciousness in man. 
 
 First of all we have to study the process, 
 and that can only be done in association with 
 its practice, in order that the scientific think- 
 
210 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 ing of the present day may be rescued from 
 the slough of incredulity as regards all 
 psychic phenomena in which it is at pres- 
 ent, I will not say hopelessly entangled, but 
 at all events in which its further progress 
 meets with very great impediment. Then 
 as regards the further advance of practical 
 occult study in this generation, mesmerism, 
 as conducted by people who comprehend the 
 organization of that higher realm of exist- 
 ence into which they would introduce the 
 spiritual consciousness of their sensitives, is 
 certainly the most accessible avenue of 
 higher knowledge concerning the possibili- 
 ties of a spiritual evolution and the ulterior 
 destinies of man which the opportunities of 
 ordinary life leave at our disposal. And no- 
 thing is more entirely free than the higher 
 mesmerism — however frequently repeated 
 with any given sensitive — from the mis- 
 chievous consequences having to do with 
 the enslavement of the will, and the deteri- 
 oration of individual growth, which results 
 are undoubtedly associated with the ignoble 
 kind of mesmerism commonly known as hyp- 
 notism in the present day. Of course to 
 fulfill the conditions that I am talking about, 
 it is necessary that a mesmerist should, to 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 211 
 
 begin with, be governed first and foremost 
 by a desire for the spiritual welfare of the 
 sensitive with whom he is dealing. How- 
 ever fascinating he may find, or rather I 
 should say he might find, the attributes of 
 that sensitive under mesmerism, he must 
 forbear from experiments which interfere 
 with the loftier spiritual growth of the 
 higher self, and refrain, for example, from 
 sending it about to different places on the 
 physical earth in pursuit of knowledge or 
 information, however innocent in its nature. 
 The higher self trained under mesmerism 
 to explore the physical plane will have 
 great difficulty in getting clear of it, if that 
 should be desired at a later stage. Further 
 than this, the higher self which could be 
 trained under mesmerism to explore the 
 mysterious complications of the astral plane 
 will be equally impeded, perhaps even more 
 impeded, in that way as regards the finer 
 spiritual culture on which it might be capa- 
 ble of entering if properly directed. The 
 higher mesmerism, in fact, to be altogether 
 admirable and meritorious, must set out 
 from the beginning with being absolutely the 
 highest. There is no way of getting the 
 higher self of a sensitive under mesmerism 
 
212 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 into true relations, supposing these to be 
 possible in view of the whole karmic situa- 
 tion, with the loftiest spiritual teachers ac- 
 cessible to such a higher self, unless it is 
 from the beginning kept clear of all the en- 
 tangling defilements of lower experience in 
 that state of consciousness external to the 
 body ; but I say with a fixed conviction that 
 in this matter I am speaking nothing but the 
 exact scientific truth, that there are great 
 numbers of people about the world born with 
 psychic faculties indicating, by the very fact 
 that they exist, considerable development in 
 other lives along the lines of spiritual evolu- 
 tion, who may be put in relations with oc- 
 cult initiation of the loftiest sort under the 
 influence of mesmerism conducted with that 
 end in view by an operator who knows what 
 he is about; and in such cases the glorious 
 result contemplated may be hastened to an 
 extent which by comparison with slower pro- 
 cesses of treatment is quite overwhelming to 
 the imagination. 
 
 Of course, whereas these greatest results 
 can only be secured where both sensitive and 
 mesmerizer are so circumstanced as to have 
 potentialities of relationship with the world 
 of occult initiation, there are good possibili- 
 
CLAIRVOYANCE. 213 
 
 ties on a lower level within the range of 
 people who cannot be called occultists, and 
 even if these are associated with some theo- 
 retical perils, it would be hardly more rea- 
 sonable on that account to forbid their pur- 
 suit altogether, than to shut up Switzerland 
 because in their practical adoration of its 
 beauties some tourists will from time to 
 time, in the future as in the past, be lost 
 down crevasses. There is an extreme of 
 goody - goodyism in connection with the 
 study of nature's occult mysteries which op- 
 erates to retard progress in that department 
 of human energy as effectually as extreme 
 timidity would check it on the physical 
 plane. A reasonable comprehension of the 
 whole theory of mesmerism in its lower and 
 higher aspects such as — to make it no more 
 complete — is set forth in this volume, ought 
 to enable any well-disposed person to explore 
 the delightful wonders of this great science 
 without fear either of incurring unknown 
 pains and penalties, or of landing in still 
 less comprehensible disasters the soul or- 
 ganisms of those with whom he may experi- 
 ment. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MESMERIC PEACTICE. 
 
 The purpose I had in view in writing this 
 treatise has been much more that of opening 
 out an interpretation of mesmeric phenom- 
 ena than of guiding any new investigators 
 in the practice of the art, whether with the 
 view of accomplishing mesmeric cures or 
 with that of exploring the higher mysteries 
 of human nature. However, just because 
 there has never hitherto been any clearly de- 
 fined rationale of mesmerism to guide the 
 practice of operators, we find the practical 
 manuals for the most part discordant in 
 their directions, and very often embodying 
 conceptions as to what ought to be done or 
 left undone, that would be completely re- 
 versed by a correct appreciation of mes- 
 meric theory. It may be as well, therefore, 
 before bringing these remarks to a close, 
 that I should indicate with some precision 
 the methods by which mesmeric energy 
 ought to be directed, and the leading errors 
 
MESMERIC PRACTICE. 215 
 
 which have vitiated so many of the popular 
 manuals on this subject. 
 
 In the very beginning Mesmer himself 
 seems to have adopted a great variety of 
 methods, some of them almost extravagantly 
 energetic, and some which were not in any 
 true sense of the term mesmeric at all. His 
 much talked of baquets belong to the latter 
 order of processes, and were adopted when 
 his patients became so importunate and nu- 
 merous that it was quite impossible for him 
 to work with each individually in the man- 
 ner he seems to have impressed upon his dis- 
 ciples as the most efficacious. The baquet 
 merely consisted of a trough or box with 
 magnetized water with rods or wires leading 
 from it which the patients held. Those who 
 were influenced by such an apparatus must 
 certainly have been in a highly susceptible 
 state, and in many cases may have been 
 hardly magnetized at all. If they came 
 under any influence, it would rather be that 
 of a nervous paralysis, such as the hypno- 
 tizers induce, although when the baquet was 
 employed with Mesmer himself walking 
 about the whole time amongst his patients, 
 it is likely enough that a good deal of his 
 own superabundant energy became infused 
 
216 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 into them. Then again he started a system 
 of mesmerizing trees, around which cords 
 were tied, which persons desirous of experi- 
 encing the influence were taught to hold. 
 Here, again, we can hardly call such a pro- 
 cess mesmerism in any true sense, although 
 just as at Lourdes and Treves results of an 
 astonishing character connected with patho- 
 logical conditions will constantly be devel- 
 oped amongst people associated with a widely 
 prevalent excitement. 
 
 The direct personal method of mesmerism 
 employed, at all events, by Mesmer's imme- 
 diate successors was, on the other hand, un- 
 necessarily and inconveniently energetic. 
 It has been copied ever since by a great num- 
 ber of operators, and their example has, not 
 unnaturally, been made use of by people 
 inclined to discredit mesmerism all round 
 by showing how objectionable, and in some 
 cases almost indecorous, its processes are. 
 The plan used to be for the operator to sit ex- 
 actly in front of the subject, each on sepa- 
 rate chairs, holding the knees of the subject 
 between his own, arranging that the feet also 
 should be in contact, and in this position 
 making downward passes, after in the first 
 instance holding his hands on the shoulders 
 
MESMERIC PRACTICE. 217 
 
 of the sensitive, and leaning forward so that 
 the magnetic influence of his breath might 
 be felt. Such an arrangement as this is 
 eminently unsuited, at all events, to cases 
 in which the operator is a man and the sub- 
 ject a woman, and large use has been made 
 of its obvious inconvenience, in such cases, 
 by writers opposed to the whole undertak- 
 ing. Where the patient and the operator 
 are both of the same sex the objection, per- 
 haps, cannot apply in the same way, and I 
 do not deny that the attitude and manipula- 
 tion in question would be of powerful effi- 
 cacy; but nothing could be worse for an 
 operator than to use one method which he 
 considered the best, and then, in all cases 
 where his patients might be women, to use 
 another which he in his own secret con- 
 sciousness believed less effective. It is far 
 better to adopt one system and stick to it 
 in all cases, taking care to design its details 
 so that it may never be unsuitable. 
 
 And as for the precise method which this 
 should be, I would not like to prescribe any 
 one as inevitably the right one, because 
 different mesmerists have with equal success 
 adopted very different systems, and each 
 person in turn must adapt his own customs 
 
218 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 to his own inclinations and inner feeling as 
 to what is the best course to take, so that no 
 one' could dogmatically prescribe any course 
 as the only right one. But a very convenient 
 arrangement, when the object in view is to 
 induce a mesmeric trance, is to put the sen- 
 sitive into a large and comfortable arm-chair 
 with good solid flat arms, like those familiar 
 to all clubs and places where people study 
 comfort, and then for the operator to sit 
 sideways on the arm of the chair. In this 
 way he practically fronts his patient without 
 any embarrassing entanglement in regard to 
 the knees, and the passes can be made with 
 perfect facility. He is also a little above 
 the patient, which is an advantage, and 
 nearer to him without any leaning forward 
 than would be the case if he sat on an oppo- 
 site chair. Having taken up this position 
 he should first endeavor to bring his own 
 magnetic system into some rapport with 
 that of his patient by holding the hands for 
 a time, or if he likes, which is perhaps the 
 best way, holding the thumbs only, so that 
 his own thumbs press against those of the 
 patient, ball to ball. The thumb seems to 
 be a centre of nervous action in the hand, 
 which renders this arrangement efficacious. 
 
MESMERIC PRACTICE. 219 
 
 Then, after holding the hands or thumbs in 
 this way for a few minutes, during which 
 there is no necessity to be in any strained 
 condition of mind, but during which it may 
 be rather better than not that the operator 
 and patient should be quietly conversing in 
 reference to the business they have in hand, 
 the operator should transfer one hand — 
 presumably the left if he is sitting, as I im- 
 agine him to be doing, on the right-hand 
 arm of the chair — to the patient's forehead, 
 continuing to hold both the patient's hands 
 in his own right. From this time it is de- 
 sirable that the conversation should cease, 
 and that the thought of the mesmerist should 
 be concentrated on the task he has in hand. 
 Remember, it is this thought which is 
 the all-important matter; little or no effect 
 would be produced by manipulations, how- 
 ever exactly and faithfully carried out, if the 
 thought should in the mean time be wander- 
 ing off to other matters, or entangling itself 
 in the conversation of bystanders. And 
 from the first the thought must be directed 
 with a steady and continuous purpose to 
 some definite idea immediately within the 
 compass of the situation's possibility. If 
 he is endeavoring to induce a trance, the 
 
220 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 mesmerist must keep that idea in view, not 
 bothering himself for the moment as to 
 what may follow after, but simply imagin- 
 ing in his own mind that from his hand a 
 rain of subtle soporific influence is descend- 
 ing and drenching the nervous organism of 
 the sensitive. Perhaps it may enable any 
 one who tries, to realize this idea in his im- 
 agination all the better, if the study of these 
 pages may have induced him to comprehend 
 and believe, what is the actual fact, that 
 such an influence does descend under the 
 conditions supposed. Then, after a minute 
 or two of such concentration, the other hand 
 should be raised and the left moved slightly 
 to one side to give it room; both hands 
 should then be held on the forehead, the 
 fingers resting on the top of the head, and 
 the same thought be continued. After an- 
 other minute or two the hands should be 
 slowly parted downwards, stroking the side 
 of the head until at the shoulders they leave 
 contact with the sensitive, and are then car- 
 ried down about as far as the waist, or as 
 far as the position of the operator enables 
 him to carry them without inconvenience. 
 Then such passes are renewed, not again 
 with any contact as regards the head, but 
 
MESMERIC PRACTICE. 221 
 
 from a position in which the fingers point 
 downwards above the top of the head, and 
 then are drawn within an inch or two of the 
 face, and so down the body. Sometimes 
 people prefer to sweep them round the arms, 
 bringing them together at the sensitive's 
 lap, where the two hands may rest folded; 
 but this appears to me a matter of taste. 
 One thing which is not a matter of taste, but 
 a matter of great importance often over- 
 looked, is that the mesmerist should not, in 
 lifting his hands upwards to renew the next 
 pass after the last has been concluded, undo 
 its effect involuntarily. He would undo its 
 effect in a great measure if he simply sweep 
 his hand back along the path it has traced. 
 In coming down, what should be done is to 
 close the hands completely at the conclusion 
 of each pass. Bring them back by an up- 
 ward, circular, outside course, and only 
 open them again when they are in a position 
 to begin the next pass. If the mesmerist is 
 at all sensitive, and if he darkens the room 
 in which he is carrying on his work to a 
 degree which just enables him to see the 
 features of his subject, but would not enable 
 him to read print, he will very likely see 
 the mesmeric fluid passing, or if he does not 
 
222 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 actually see it passing lie will see it steam- 
 ing up all round the subject's head; and 
 this, by the by, he will see all the more if 
 the person I have called the subject happens 
 not to be a sensitive but simply a non-recep- 
 tive subject. The true sensitive so readily 
 absorbs the magnetic fluid that but little of 
 it will be seen steaming up during the mag- 
 netizing process. A quite non - receptive 
 person, on the other hand, will take in 
 nothing, and from the first the cloud of 
 wasted influence will be perceptible. 
 
 There is only one more point in connection 
 with this general prescription on which I 
 care to lay any emphasis. It is quite true, 
 as Mesmer conceived in the beginning, that 
 the breath is a powerful vehicle of magnetic 
 influence, but in order to bring this fact 
 into play it is wholly unnecessary to lean 
 down and puff in your sensitive's face. 
 Everything really turns upon the regulation 
 of your breath during the magnetizing pro- 
 cess ; it is not necessary to puff at all in 
 any audible or obtrusive manner, but the 
 operator's breathing should be synchronized 
 with the passes; he should inhale his breath 
 during the upward movements of his hands, 
 and during the downward movement should 
 
MESMERIC PRACTICE. 223 
 
 exhale. This rule gives the true clue to the 
 time which should be occupied with the 
 passes. Many of the mesmeric manuals are 
 quite at sea on this point, some appearing to 
 think that the greatest efficacy is secured if 
 the pass is made to last as long as possible, 
 so that they would have it extend to a minute 
 or more. It should occupy just as much 
 time as the operator requires for slowly ex- 
 haling one lungsful of breath, without so un- 
 duly retarding that process as to induce any 
 strained feeling in the lungs or oblige him 
 to take rapid breaths to repair lost time. 
 
 The time which will be taken in putting 
 a subject off to sleep varies of course from a 
 few minutes to infinity. With some people 
 no ordinary mesmerist will ever succeed; 
 with those who are highly sensitive and with 
 whom he has already operated successfully 
 on former occasions a very few minutes will 
 be enough, and the earlier processes I have 
 described could be proportionately hastened. 
 But with any one who is being tried for the 
 first time it can hardly ever be worth while 
 to continue the process for more than half 
 an hour, because it is scarcely possible for 
 an operator to protract anything like vigor 
 and concentration for a greater length of 
 
224 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 time ; but this, of course, must depend upon 
 the energy of the operator and the ardor of 
 his desire to succeed in any particular case. 
 Some people would be hopelessly exhausted 
 before the half hour was over, and others 
 would be able to continue for much longer. 
 
 The method I have described seems to me 
 the best and most convenient with the view 
 of inducing a psychic trance with what may 
 be called spiritual objects in view; but I 
 have known mesmerists who resort entirely 
 to the magnetic emanations of the eye, and 
 take no trouble to make passes at all, simply 
 staring at their sensitive with intense fixed- 
 ness of gaze. This process, to my mind, 
 bears too close resemblance to the hypnotic 
 method to be altogether wholesome, and 
 moreover requires that the sensitive should 
 keep his eyes open until paralyzed or fasci- 
 nated; and this is a less easy and natural 
 method for him than the one that I have de- 
 scribed, in which it is left to his own option 
 when he shall close his eyes, and in which 
 he passes off to sleep without any jarring of 
 the nervous system. I shall leave my read- 
 ers to seek for themselves, in books devoted 
 to the modern corruptions of this subject, 
 for an account of the methods employed to 
 
MESMERIC PRACTICE. 225 
 
 produce the so-called hypnotic sleep. These 
 involve no conscious gift of magnetism by 
 any operator, and simply provoke a diseased 
 condition of the nervous system, which ren- 
 ders the patient subject, it is true, to sug- 
 gestions that may afterwards be made by 
 the operator who is directing the undertak- 
 ing, but which also renders that patient 
 equally liable to come under the suggestive 
 influence of other persons, good, bad, or in- 
 different, and especially under suggestive in- 
 fluences with which the mere physicist has no 
 familiarity, but which nevertheless are facts 
 in nature, and as grave in their importance 
 as himself. But putting out of sight all the 
 mischievous devices of hypnotism, the mes- 
 meric method which I have been describing 
 does not by any means cover all the ground, 
 for if curative results are in view it may be 
 that a very different manipulation is required, 
 and a very different direction may have to 
 be given to his thought by the operator. 
 
 To produce a magnetic cure in a thor- 
 oughly healthy and natural manner, the first 
 thing to be done (as I have already said in 
 speaking of the theory of curative mesmer- 
 ism) is to draw out the evil nerve aura, or 
 magnetism, of the sufferer. This has, by 
 
226 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 the hypothesis, been concentrated in some 
 portion of his organism, and it is to that 
 portion, whatever it may be, that the mes- 
 merist's attention must be directed. No 
 passes are called for here — not in the be- 
 ginning, at all events — and mesmerism re- 
 solves itself into a "laying-on of hands," to 
 adopt a biblical expression, but receives its 
 scientific character when the mesmerist is 
 alive to the fact that in laying on his hands 
 he is using them as a sponge to sop up or 
 attract, and not as a jet of force through 
 which to exhale anything. His proceedings 
 must now be much more deliberate than be- 
 fore. The hands should be kept on the seat 
 of the ailment, whatever it is, for a minute 
 or two, then drawn off with a downward 
 movement and vigorously shaken as with the 
 idea that the bad magnetism is being thrown 
 off with the utmost possible energy, and, as 
 I have before described, impelled into those 
 elemental agencies in nature with which it 
 may be in affinity, and whose duty it may 
 be, as the matter presents itself to the op- 
 erator's mind, to carry it off. Then the 
 laying-on is renewed, and the whole business 
 must go on for as long a time within limits 
 as the operator's strength will enable him to 
 
MESMERIC PRACTICE. 227 
 
 protract it — a time which I am not suppos- 
 ing to exceed more than half an hour. Then 
 something else has to be done. If we have 
 been successful in withdrawing bad magnet- 
 ism from the patient's system, that has got 
 to be replaced with other magnetism of a 
 healthier character. To get rid of the last 
 traces of that with which he may have been 
 contaminating his hands, the mesmerist 
 should wash them, and then begin again, 
 either with a "laying-on" associated with 
 the idea of pouring in influence into the sys- 
 tem instead of withdrawing it, or by means 
 of downward passes of much the same kind 
 as those which he would employ with a view 
 of inducing a trance, but not with the same 
 thought; for remember it is the thought, in 
 all cases, in the mesmerist's mind which col- 
 ors the aura which he throws off, so to speak 
 — which gives its specific character to the in- 
 fluence he is bringing to bear on his subject. 
 Just as in the case of trance mesmerism he 
 should be thinking all the time of the force 
 he is throwing off as one of a somnolent 
 character, which will deaden his patient's 
 nerves and obliterate his active conscious- 
 ness, so in the case of the curative influence 
 he must think of it as a stimulating, exhil- 
 
228 THE RATIONALE OF MESMERISM. 
 
 arating influence, which will course along 
 the patient's nerves and refresh him, as 
 champagne might refresh him in another 
 way, though much less beneficially. 
 
 One more consideration in reference to 
 this curative manipulation. The effect of 
 hands laid on in the manner I have described 
 on the bare flesh, if that can be got at, is 
 simply tenfold more powerful than that 
 which would be conveyed through clothing. 
 Of course this hint must be made use of or 
 neglected according to circumstances. If 
 clothing must be retained, all one can say is 
 that in regard to intercepting mesmeric in- 
 fluence, the worst imaginable sort of cloth- 
 ing is that made of silk. 
 
 Certainly, as Esdaile's experience has so 
 largely shown us, immense curative effects 
 are wrought by nature during the magnetic 
 sleep, if that can be superinduced. But it 
 cannot always be superinduced, even in cases 
 where people might be highly subject to the 
 good influence of magnetic treatment with- 
 out losing consciousness ; and, secondly, even 
 if it can be induced, its effect will be enor- 
 mously stimulated if, besides putting the 
 patient to sleep, the manipulation here re- 
 commended be adopted. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Antmal magnetism, too accurate 
 a term to be hastily discarded, 
 34, 35 ; Mesmer's discovery of, 
 37 ; unfavorable report on in 
 1784 by French Royal Commis- 
 sion, 40; successful experi- 
 ments in 1831, by French Roy- 
 al Academy of Sciences, 41, 42 ; 
 and vital energy, 98; used in 
 treating serious diseases, 106- 
 108 ; methods of projecting, 111. 
 
 Astral plane, the, 94, 96, 100-103 ; 
 affords direct communion be- 
 tween the consciousness of op- 
 erator and subject, 103. 
 
 Aura, the, definition of, 121 n. 
 122. 
 
 Aura, the nerve, 130; how af- 
 fected by the vital magnetism 
 of a mesmeric operator, 132 ; 
 may unite the brain with the 
 true consciousness without 
 uniting body and brain, 135. 
 
 Bailly, M., 178. 
 
 Baquet, Mesmer's, 215. 
 
 Beauharnais, Comtesse de, 180. 
 
 Bertrand, Alexandre, 13, 31 ; 
 treatise by, on animal magnet- 
 ism in France, 60. 
 
 Biblical phrases, mesmerism 
 gives a new interest to many, 
 120. 
 
 Binet, Alfred, and Charles Fe"re", 
 on Animal Magnetism, 16-18. 
 
 Braid, Mr., of Manchester, 8; 
 his theory of hypnotism, 9 ; his 
 experiments, 10 ; nothing ori- 
 ginal even in his misapprehen- 
 sions, 12 ; his view a gigantic 
 blunder and a plagiary, 13. 
 
 Cahagnet, M. L. A., 66. 
 
 Calcutta, Dr. Esdaile's work in, 
 107, 108. 
 
 Cazotte, prophecy of, concerning 
 the French Revolution, 176- 
 180, 203. 
 
 Chamfort, M. de, 178. 
 
 Charcot, Dr., 104. 
 
 Clairvoyance, formerly supposed 
 to depend on morbid physical 
 conditions, 25, 26 ; real impor- 
 tance of, 52 ; separates the 
 consciousness from the body, 
 133 ; the reality of, well estab- 
 lished, 172 ; Deleuze's writings 
 on, 172 180; possibilities of, 
 183, 184; four kinds of, 184- 
 186 ; why not manifested in all 
 persons, 191 ; a faculty of the 
 higher self, 193 ; limitations of, 
 200, 201. 
 
 Colquhoun, J. C, on " The Har- 
 mony," 39 ; his " Isis Revela- 
 ta," 75. 
 
 Consciousness, the seat of, not in 
 the physical matter of the 
 body, 129 ; the working of, 129 ; 
 may be separated from the 
 body, 133, 138. 
 
 Davis, Andrew Jackson, autobi- 
 ography of, 204-207. 
 
 Deleuze, J. P. F., on Mesmer's 
 connection with " The Har- 
 mony," 39, 47 ; writings of, on 
 mesmerism, 46-49, 172-180. 
 
 D'Eslon, Dr., a warm partisan of 
 Mesmer's views, 38 ; private 
 misunderstanding between him 
 and Mesmer, 39. 
 
 D'Orsay, Count, 177, 178. 
 
230 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ego, the liberated, of the sensi- 
 tive, 52-54. 
 
 Elliotson, Dr., 72, 74, 75, 104; 
 animal magnetism used by, in 
 treating serious diseases, 106- 
 108. 
 
 Encyclopaedias, mirrors of popu- 
 lar ignorance of psychic sci- 
 ence, 78, 83 ; descriptions of 
 mesmerism in, 78-82. 
 
 Eschenmayer, Dr. von, 55. 
 
 Esdaile, Dr., the remarkable 
 works of, 66-68, 104-107 ; ani- 
 mal magnetism used by, in hos- 
 pital practice, 106-110. 
 
 Esoteric doctrine, the, 88, 93, 94. 
 
 Faria, Abb£, experiments of, 12. 
 
 Fe>e, Charles, and Alfred Binet, 
 
 on animal magnetism, 16-18. 
 
 Gautier, Aubin, writings of, on 
 magnetism and somnambulism, 
 61-66. 
 
 Genlis, Comtesse de, 179. 
 
 Gramont, Duchesse de, 178, 179. 
 
 Gregory, Dr. , on animal magnet- 
 ism, 77. 
 
 Hands, the laying on of, 116. 
 
 "Harmony, The," Mesmer's se- 
 cret society at Paris, 39. 
 
 Hartshorn, Mr., American trans- 
 lator of Deleuze's " Practical 
 Instructions on Animal Mag- 
 Higher Self, the, 159-166, 197 ; 
 clairvoyance a faculty of, 193 ; 
 activity of, how set up, 195 ; 
 can be translated to any dis- 
 tant place, 199, 200 ; trained 
 under mesmerism, 211, 212. 
 
 " Holy Coat," the, at Treves, 21. 
 
 Holy Ghost, the sin against the, 
 209. 
 
 Hortense, Madame, anecdote of, 
 181, 182. 
 
 Hypnotic suggestion, as a cura- 
 tive method, 110, 123, 126, 127 ; 
 operation of, after lapse of 
 time, 160 ; moral dangers of, 
 163-167. 
 
 Hypnotic trance, or sleep, 10, 16, 
 17. 
 
 Hypnotism, the term represents 
 a misconception, 1 ; why pre- 
 ferred by some modern inves- 
 tigators, 2 ; modern writers on, 
 
 deal mostly with a disease of 
 the science, 6, 7 ; distinction 
 between mesmerism and, 7 ; 
 latter-day investigators of, not 
 scientific or loyal to truth, 19, 
 20 ; a distorted revival of mes- 
 merism, 22. 
 
 India, natives of, more sensitive 
 to magnetic influence than Eu- 
 ropeans, 107. 
 
 Invisible rays of light, 3. 
 
 Jussieu, M. de, favorable to Mes- 
 mer, 40. 
 
 Karma, 204. 
 Kiefer, Dr., 55. 
 
 Lafontaine, M., seances by, 9, 10, 
 
 La Harpe, Cazotte's prophecy 
 concerning the French Revo- 
 lution, as recorded by, 176-180. 
 
 Langon, Baron de, 180. 
 
 Lefrey, Adele, one of M. Ricard's 
 sensitives, 52 ; her statement 
 of experience, 52-54. 
 
 Lee, Edwin, on animal magnet- 
 ism and clairvoyance, 69, 70. 
 
 Liebault, Dr., 104. 
 
 Lodge, Dr. Oliver, address by, 
 202. 
 
 Luminous appearances, emanat- 
 ing from magnets, crystals, and 
 the human hand, 24. 
 
 Magnetic influence from a dis- 
 tance, 18, 51. 
 
 Magnetism, bad, how to get rid 
 of, 113-118 ; may return to a 
 previous habitat,' 122, 123. 
 
 Malesherbes, M. de, 178. 
 
 Man, not altogether peculiar as 
 a manifestation of nature, 27 ; 
 esoteric view of the constitu- 
 tion of, 95-97 ; septenary divi- 
 sion of, 95-98. 
 
 Medico - chirurgical Society of 
 London, the, 169, 170. 
 
 Mesmer, Frederick Anthony, 5, 
 7,8; guessed with the inspira- 
 tion of genius, 28 ; birth and 
 early life of, 36; writings of, 
 36-38 ; at first worked entirely 
 with magnets, 36 ; established 
 a private hospital in Vienna, 
 36 ; discovered animal magnet- 
 ism, 37 ; assailed in reputation 
 
INDEX. 
 
 231 
 
 and fortune, 37; moved to 
 Paris, 37 ; established " The 
 Harmony," a secret society, 
 39 ; . unfavorable report of 
 French Royal Commission on 
 the theory of, 40 ; retirement 
 to Switzerland, and death, 40 ; 
 letter of, to the king of France, 
 76 ; his baquets, 215 ; trees mes- 
 merized by, 216. 
 
 Mesmeric energy, methods by 
 which it ought to be directed, 
 214, 218-228. 
 
 Mesmeric fluid, 2 ; visible to many 
 mesmerists, 3, 4, 25, 26, 60, 89, 
 112, 221, 222; and the vital 
 energy, 98; actual objective 
 existence of, the first element- 
 ary principle of mesmeric sci- 
 ence, 111, 112; present in all 
 human beings, 113; propelled 
 by exercise of will-power, 115 ; 
 use of the hand in directing, 
 116-118. 
 
 Mesmeric force, 23-35, 147, 149, 
 150, 154. 
 
 Mesmeric patients, enabled to 
 prescribe for themselves, 131, 
 181. 
 
 Mesmeric sensitiveness, 141, 142, 
 145, 146-149, 151, 153. 
 
 Mesmei-ism, a better term than 
 hypnotism, 1, 2; rejection of 
 the science a great blunder, 5 ; 
 extent of its early practice, 6 ; 
 professional persecution of its 
 adherents, 6; distinction be- 
 tween hypnotism and, 7 ; value 
 of, in searching out the rela- 
 tions of mind and body, 15 ; in- 
 cidental aid given it by mod- 
 ern hypnotists, 20 ; how to 
 study, 20 ; hypnotism a dis- 
 torted revival of, 22 ; the real 
 literature of, 36-84 ; reality of 
 the phenomena of, fully estab- 
 lished, 42, 43; efficacy of, in 
 surgical operations, 67, 68, 74 ; 
 can be explained only by the 
 esoteric doctrine, 88, 93 ; phe- 
 nomena of, psychic in their na- 
 ture, 90; applied to a plant, 
 99 ; curative, 104-127 ; not uni- 
 versally applicable as a cura- 
 tive agent, 109 ; how it works, 
 109-118; gives a new interest 
 to many biblical phrases, 120 ; 
 really practiced thousands of 
 
 years before Mesmer, 120 ; dan- 
 gers in curative use of, 126, 
 127 ; anaesthetic effects of, 128- 
 139 ; muscular rigidity induced 
 by, 136 ; moral dangers of, 163- 
 167 ; not the domain of doctors 
 alone, 168 ; importance of un- 
 derstanding the loftier possi- 
 bilities of, 207 ; playing with, 
 to be condemned, 208, 209 ; our 
 most accessible avenue of high- 
 er knowledge of spiritual evo- 
 lution, 210. 
 
 " Mesmerist," the, 77, 78. 
 
 Mind and body, possible value of 
 mesmerism in determining the 
 relations of, 15. 
 
 Moll, Dr. Albert, his " Hypno- 
 tism " one of the least objec- 
 tionable modern books on the 
 subject, 12-15. 
 
 Nasse, Dr., 55. 
 
 Newton, Dr. J. R., mesmeric 
 
 healing by, in America and 
 
 England, 76, 77. 
 Nicolai, M. de, 178. 
 Noizet, M., 13. 
 
 Occultism, as a science, 88 ; how 
 it regards the soul of man, 97. 
 " Odic force," the, 29, 30. 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, 119. 
 
 Pectin, Dr., his "Electricity 
 Animale," 43. 
 
 Pigeaire, M., and his daughter 
 Leonide, 62-65. 
 
 Potet, Baron du, a successful 
 mesmerist, 55, 56, 58, 59 ; writ- 
 ings of, 56-59, 105. 
 
 Prel, du, his " Philosophy of Mys- 
 ticism," 198. 
 
 Prevision, bewildering mysteries 
 of, 201. 
 
 Psychic force, influence of, 89. 
 
 Psychic organism, a kind of body, 
 194. 
 
 Puyse'gur, Marquis Chastenet de, 
 writings of, on animal magnet- 
 ism, 43-46. 
 
 Reichel, Miss, one of Baron von 
 
 Reichenbach's sensitives, 25, 
 
 26. 
 Reichenbach, Baron Charles von, 
 
 4, 5 ; his " Researches," 23-31, 
 
 112. 
 
232 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Reincarnation, the occult theory 
 
 of, 194-196. 
 Ricard, J. J. A., record of his 
 
 work in curative mesmerism, 
 
 49-54. 
 
 Scoresby, Dr., his "Zoistic Mag- 
 netism," 69. 
 
 Sensation, the transfer of, from 
 operator to subject, 140, 141, 
 143, 144. 
 
 Senses, the five, not the only 
 avenues of perception, 142. 
 
 Sensitives, at first sought for 
 only among sick persons, 23, 
 24 ; experiments with, 25, 28, 
 30, 52 ; not necessarily weak- 
 minded, 152. 
 
 Soul, occult idea of the, 97. 
 
 Spiritual plane, the, 93, 102, 103. 
 
 Spiritual science, 87. 
 
 Sunlight, as source of energy, 28. 
 
 Swine, parable of the herd of, 
 120, 121. 
 
 Teste, A., on animal magnetism, 
 180-182. 
 
 Time, a relative mode of regard- 
 ing things, 202. 
 
 Topham, Mr., and Mr. Ward, 
 mesmerism used by, in ampu- 
 tation, 169, 170. 
 
 Townsend, Rev. Chauncy Hare, 
 records of mesmeric investiga- 
 tions by, 70-72. 
 
 Treves, the "Holy Coat" at, 
 21. 
 
 Vicq d'Azir, M., 178. 
 
 Vision, unequal power of, in dif- 
 ferent persons, 4. 
 
 Vital energy, and animal magnet- 
 ism, 98. 
 
 Ward, Mr., and Mr. Topham, 
 mesmerism used by, in ampu- 
 tation, 169, 170. 
 
 "Zoist,"the, 67, 69, 72-74. 
 
Two Standard Books 
 
 ON 
 
 Theosophy 
 
 AND 
 
 Eastern Occult Science 
 
 BY 
 
 The President of the Simla 
 
 Eclectic Theosophical 
 
 Society, Simla, 
 
 India 
 
 Houghton, Mifflin & Company 
 
 Boston and New York 
 
Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Company desire to call the atten- 
 tion of the public to the two following works by Mr. A. P. Sinnett, 
 the President of the Theosophical Society of Simla, India, which may 
 be regarded as the most authoritative statements of Eastern Occult 
 Science yet given to the public. 
 
 They will appeal most strongly to all lovers of the marvellous, to 
 all who are students of Eastern thought, to all who are interested in 
 the varied phenomena of spiritualism and its kindred topics, and es- 
 pecially to that portion of the public which is attracted by Theosophy. 
 " A book more or less," says Mr. Sinnett, " in this ocean of books 
 which is constantly welling forth from active Western civilization, 
 may seem a very small matter ; but, to the highly conservative devo- 
 tees of occult science in the East, a book which sets forth in plain 
 language, which all who run may read, the hitherto secret interpreta- 
 tions of Nature's spiritual design that have hitherto been communi- 
 cated only in the deadliest secrecy to students of long absorption in 
 the pursuit of such teaching, constitutes a violation of old occult 
 usage which is quite bewildering and appalling. . . . To all intents 
 and purposes, though the knowledge here set forth is no new dis- 
 covery for those by whom it is now revealed, it is a new revelation 
 for the whole world, — Eastern and Western alike, — in its present 
 explicit distinctness." 
 
 Mr. Sinnett has written special introductions for the American 
 edition of these works, which have already run through several edi- 
 tions in England. 
 
 The Occult World. 
 
 By A. P. Sinnett. 
 
 Third American from the Fourth English Edition, with the Author's 
 Corrections and a new Preface. i6mo, $f.2J. 
 
 Contents : Preface ; Introduction ; Occultism and its Adepts ; 
 The Theosophical Society ; First Occult Experiences ; Teachings of 
 Occult Philosophy ; Later Occult Phenomena ; Appendix. 
 
 The book is probably the most comprehensive and suggestive of anything in the 
 way of theosophic explanation. There can be little doubt that we are on the eve of 
 a great spiritual awakening, in one form or another. The signs of the times all 
 point that way. The Theosophical Society are collecting and tabulating much im- 
 portant data, and no contribution is of greater interest and value than Mr. Sinnett's 
 " Occult World." —Boston Traveller. 
 
 His own sincerity is apparent ; his devoted earnestness and ingenious arguments 
 enlist and interest the reader. — Religio-Philosophical Journal (Chicago). 
 
 It has excited the interest of many earnest thinkers. ... It shows one more phase 
 of the modern search for spiritual truth -—Worcester Spy. 
 
Esoteric Buddhism. 
 
 By A. P. Sinnett. 
 
 Sixth American from the Fifth English Edition. With an Introdttc- 
 tion written especially for the American Edition. i6mo, $1.25. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Esoteric Teachers. Nature of the Present Exposition. — Se- 
 clusion of Eastern Knowledge. — The Arhats and their Attributes. 
 
 — The Mahatmas. — Occultists generally. — Isolated Mystics. — 
 Inferior Yogis. — Occult Training. — The Great Purpose. — Its 
 Incidental Consequences. — Present Concessions. 
 
 II. The Constitution of Man. Esoteric Cosmogony. — Where 
 to Begin. — Working back from Man to Universe. — Analysis of 
 Man. — The Seven Principles. 
 
 III. The Planetary Chain. Esoteric Views of Evolution. — 
 The Chain of Globes. — Progress of Man round them. — The 
 Spiral Advance. — Original Evolution of the Globes. — The Lower 
 Kingdoms. 
 
 IV. The World Periods. Uniformity of Nature. — Rounds and 
 Races. — The Septenary Law. — Objective and Subjective Lives. 
 
 — Total Incarnations. — Former Races on Earth. — Periodic Cat- 
 aclysms. — Atlantis. — Lemur ia. — The Cyclic Law. 
 
 V. Devachan. Spiritual Destinies of the Ego. — Karma. — Di- 
 vision of the Principles at Death. — Progress of the Higher Duad. 
 
 — Existence in Devachan. — Subjective Progress. — Avitchi. — 
 Earthly Connection with Devachan. — Devachanic Periods. 
 
 VI. Kama Loca. The Astral Shell. — Its Habitat — Its Nature. 
 
 — Surviving Impulses. — Elementals. — Mediums and Shells. — 
 Accidents and Suicides. — Lost Personalities. 
 
 VII. The Human Tide- Wave. Progress of the Main Wave. — 
 Obscurations. — Twilight and Dawn of Evolution. — Our Neigh- 
 boring Planets. — Gradations of Spirituality. — Prematurely De- 
 veloped Egos. — Intervals of Re-Incarnation. 
 
 VIII. The Progress of Humanity. The Choice of Good or 
 Evil. — The Second Half of Evolution. — The Decisive Turning- 
 Point. — Spirituality and Intellect. — The Survival of the Fittest. 
 
 — The Sixth Sense. — Development of the Principles in their Or- 
 der. — The Subsidence of the Unfit. — Provision for All. — The 
 Exceptional Cases. — Their Scientific Explanation. — Justice Satis- 
 fied. — The Destiny of Failures. — Human Evolution Reviewed. 
 
 IX. Buddha. The Esoteric Buddha. — Re-Incarnations of Adepts. 
 
 — Buddha's Incarnation. — The Seven Buddhas of the Great 
 Races. — Avalokiteshwara. — Addi Buddha. — Adeptship in Bud- 
 dha's Time. — Sankaracharya. — Vedantin Doctrines. — Tsong- 
 ka-pa. — Occult Reforms in Tibet. 
 
X. Nirvana. Its Remoteness. — Preceding Gradations. — Partial 
 Nirvana. — The Threshold of Nirvana.* — Nirvana. — Para Nir- 
 vana. — Buddha and Nirvana. — Nirvana attained by Adepts. — 
 General Progress towards Nirvana. — Conditions of its Attainment. 
 — Spirituality and Religion. — The Pursuit of Truth. 
 
 XL The Universe. The Days and Nights of Brahma. — The 
 Various Manvantaras and Pralayas. — The Solar System. — The 
 Universal Pralaya. — Recommencement of Evolution. — " Crea- 
 tion."— The Great First Cause. —The Eternal Cyclic Process. 
 
 XII. The Doctrine Reviewed. Correspondence of the Esoteric 
 Doctrine with Visible Nature. — Free Will and Predestination. — 
 The Origin of Evil. — Geology, Biology, and the Esoteric Teach- 
 ing. — Buddhism and Scholarship. — The Origin of all Things. — 
 The Doctrine as Distorted. — The Ultimate Dissolution of Con- 
 sciousness. — Transmigration. — The Soul and the Spirit. — Per- 
 sonality and Individuality. — Karma. 
 
 We come upon interpretations of well-known Buddhist terms, as Nirvana, Karma, 
 and Buddha, so much plainer and more reasonable than have been given before 
 that we are inclined to believe we have before us the genuine inner doctrine of 
 Buddhism. Nothing in the book detracts from the majesty of this great rival of 
 Christianity, nor diminishes our respect for the intellectual power of its sages. Even 
 a hasty reading reveals the grandness of Buddhistic thought and the comprehensive- 
 ness of its plan of evolution. Many doctrines are enlarged upon, which are only 
 hinted at in our Christian teaching, and doctrines of the deepest interest to every 
 human being. After reading Esoteric Buddhism, we are more than ever convinced 
 that in the Orient is a store of wisdom, which, when opened to the Occident, will 
 be of the greatest value. . . . Whoever patiently and thoughtfully reads the whole, 
 will, we think, be amply rewarded. — Omaha Republican. 
 
 Its popularity has carried the book through three English editions, and induced 
 the author to prepare a special introduction to the American edition, in which he 
 gives much additional information bearing on many of the problems dealt with. His 
 original statements, however, were made with care, and have not been proved by 
 living Indian philosophers to be incorrect. They have given him the assurance that 
 the book as it now stands is a sound and trustworthy statement of the scheme of 
 nature as understood by the initiates of occult science. In the East the inner spir- 
 itual meaning of Buddhism has never been put into books, but is confined to those 
 who have the religious exaltation that enables them to receive it. It is this mean- 
 ing which Mr. Sinnett has been the first to give to the Western world. . . . Mr. 
 Sinnett has rendered an important service to speculation as well as to religious 
 thought. — Boston A dvertiser. 
 
 The book possesses an intrinsic interest as an exposition, in plain, straightforward 
 English, of the huge volume of Indian philosophy, heretofore veiled by allegory and 
 symbolism. — San Francisco Bulletin. 
 
 Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Publishers, 
 4 Park St., Boston; ii East 17TH St., New York. 
 
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