--- In hypnosis-hypnotherapy-UK@yahoogroups.com, "jezzwhizz"
<jezzwhizz@...> wrote:
> So what is the difference between hypnotism and mesmerism?
> Are they the same thing?
> If they are different, how?
> Can anyone answer?
> Does anyone know?
> Is being mesmerised and hypnotised the same thing?

Mesmerism and hypnotism are definitely not the same thing. Hypnotism
developed out of Mesmerism being debunked. People frequently confuse
the two things because "stage hypnotists", Hollywood films, and New
Age therapists frequently confuse the two things for dramatic
effect. "Mesmerism" doesn't really exist, it's based on bogus
pseudoscientific claims and theories.

Franz Mesmer developed Mesmerism or animal magnetism at the end of
the 18th century. He believed that he was channelling an invisible
energy from outer space, through his body, and into the body of the
subject. Mesmer therefore believed that the effects he perceived,
therapeutic improvement, muscular seizures, emotional "crises", etc.,
were mainly due to his power rather than to the belief or
expectation, etc., of the client. Mesmer thought that animal
magnetism resembled ordinary ("mineral") magnetism, and was literally
a kind of magnetic force in the body. He thought it bounced off
mirrors, and could be stored in bottled water. Later Mesmerists
thought it resembled electricity and could be stored in trees and
crystals. This whole theory was easily debunked by critics who
carried out very early placebo controlled experiments and showed that
Mesmerised water, e.g., did absolutely nothing unless the subject had
been led to believe that it would. Hence, the French Academy of
Sciences, concluded that its effects were NOT due to any form
of "magnetism" or "energy" but merely the result of belief,
imagination, suggestion, expectation, and other mundane psychological
factors. Mesmer himself has since been exposed by historians as a
charlatan who plagiarised his doctoral thesis. He used to dress in
robes with astrological symbols on them, and played a kind of glass
wind-chime. He also charged exorbitant fees for students to be
admitted to progressively higher levels of initiation into his
society, a practice common among modern purveyors of quack remedies.
Other Mesmerists frequently claimed that their subjects gained
paranormal powers while entranced. Many Mesmerists also claimed that
they influenced their subjects by telepathic communication ("silent
willing") and could therefore Mesmerise people at any distance,
through a wall, etc. A claim which was easily put to the test and
disproven many times.

At the start of the 19th century, Dugald Stewart, an influential
professor of mental philosophy at Glasgow university, argued that
British doctors and scientists should try to salvage something from
Mesmerism by removing the "occult" theory of animal magnetism and
replacing it with a more credible and down-to-earth scientific theory
based on Scottish "Common Sense Realist" philosophy of psychology.
Influenced by the philosophers of this tradition, a Scottish eye and
musculo-skeletal specialist, James Braid, developed his theory
of "hypnotism" in 1841. Braid argued passionately, and conducted
many primitive experiments to prove, that the effects of Mesmerism
and a range of other Victorian "nostrum" or "quack" remedies
(prototypical complementary therapies) were due to the placebo
effect, suggestion, mental association, focused attention,
relaxation, imitation, and other ordinary and well-established
psychological and physiological processes. Braid was, therefore,
essentially a skeptic, and hypnotism was a skeptical re-
interpretation of Mesmerism. Braid originally toyed with the idea of
calling it "rational Mesmerism" as opposed to supernatural
or "transcendental Mesmerism" but soon abandoned this nomenclature
altogether, to avoid confusion. Hence, Braid wrote,

"I beg farther to remark, if my theory and pretensions, as to the
nature, cause, and extent of the phenomena of nervous sleep
[hypnotism] have none of the fascinations of the transcendental to
captivate the lovers of the marvellous, the credulous and
enthusiastic, which the pretensions and alleged occult agency of the
mesmerists have, still I hope my views will not be the less
acceptable to honest and sober-minded men, because they are all level
to our comprehension, and reconcilable with well-known physiological
and psychological principles." (Braid, 1853: 36)

I would recommend that anyone who is genuinely interested in this
area read Braid's own account in my forthcoming book The Discovery of
Hypnosis, or my article of the same name in the forthcoming (April, I
think) edition of the International Journal of Clinical &
Experimental Hypnosis (IJCEH).

http://www.ijceh.com/

Donald Robertson