Early American Mesmeric Societies: A Historical Study

Abstract

Following an unsuccessful attempt by Mesmer to bring animal magnetism to the United States in 1784 through the Marquis de Lafayette, there was a period of little activity there for several decades. Then, concurrent with its revival in Europe and led by a few American practitioners who had been trained in France, several early societies of American magnetizers were founded beginning about 1815. These were initially organized in New York City and subsequently in New Orleans, Boston, Clinton, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Philadelphia. They played an important role in the development of hypnosis in America.

Brain, Mind and Medicine: Essays in Eighteenth-Century Neuroscience

“…Mesmerism had a limited resurgence in Britain in the 1840s and 1850s (Winter, 1998), in the United States in the early nineteenth century (Gravitz, 1994;McCandless, 1992;Roth, 1977;Tomlinson & Perret, 1974;Wester, 1976), and in Germany (Frankau, 1948). To this day mesmerism continues to resonate in numerous cultural echoes, in the form of carnival hypnotists, fringe healers, spiritualists, Christian Science, 4 continued belief in the therapeutic value of magnets (Shermer, 2002), mainstream advertising, 5 movies (Spottiswoode, 1993), and indeed in the very fabric of language (e.g., with continued, albeit altered, usage of the terms "animal magnetism" and "mesmerize").…”

An Early Nineteenth Century Absorption-Based Theory of Mesmerism

“…Self-hypnosis had by then been practiced, having originally been described by Mesmer who treated himself for a gastrointestinal problem (Gravitz, 1994b); the modality had already been effectively utilized in a number of clinical areas, especially surgical anesthesia and pain management (Gravitz, 1988); professional societies had been founded in a number of parts of the United States; and numerous specialty periodicals had been published (Gravitz, 1987(Gravitz, , 1994a. It is evident that many of the clinical applications of hypnosis in use today had their origins more than a century ago.…”

“…While Yorke's monograph was published in Philadelphia, there is no evidence that he came from that city, and according to the Chief of Reference of the authoritative Library Company of Philadelphia his name does not appear in any of the City Directories through the 1840s (Lapsansky, 2006). Some years prior to his work, there was founded the Philadelphia Pathematic Association, a group that was based on Sunderland's earlier theory of pathetism and certain vague mesmeric principles (Gravitz, 1994a); but that organization was focused on a religion-based revivalism and spiritualism rather than classical mesmerism. Furthermore, being a mesmerist himself, Yorke would assumedly have had little if any interest in becoming part of the so-called pathematic movement in that city.…”