COVE

These illustrations are from the book A Key to Physic and the Occult Sciences. This text was published at the turn of the 19th century. Written by Ebenezer Sibly who is a student of the experimental pursuit of scientific and psychological advancements which was a very popular topic at the time. Inside the book, Sibly provides a information to animal magnetism and mesmerism. These are two theories that were very popular. Animal magnetism was the name given by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century. He describes it as an invisible natural force possessed by all living things, including humans, animals, and vegetables. He believed that the force could have physical effects, including healing. The act of manipulating this natural force was called mesmerism, which was a early form of hypnotism. He tried to achieve scientific recognition for his theories but was unsuccessful. However, his ideas were sought after in popular culture, often being used in literature. Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 short story "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" is based on the premise that a person could be mesmerized at the moment of death. Poe published the work without explicitly stating that it was fictional, leading some readers to believe it was a true account. 

Charles Dickens was one author that got swept up in the ‘mesmeric mania’ in Britain. He even had asked his friend Dr Elliotson to teach him the process where he then practiced on family and friends. He even successfully mesmerized his wife on a few occasions. In 1849 Dickens’s claimed to have helped his friend, who had fallen and received a head injury recover using mesmerism. 

The study of animal magnetism spurred the creation of the Societies of Harmony in France, where members paid to join and learn the practice of magnetism. Doctor John Bell was a member of the Philosophical Harmonic Society of Paris, and was certified by the society to lecture and teach on animal magnetism in England. The existence of the societies transformed animal magnetism into a secretive art, where its practitioners and lecturers did not reveal the techniques of the practice based on the society members that have paid for instruction, veiling the idea that it was unfair to reveal the practice to others for free. 

The French revolution breed existing internal political friction in Britain in the 1790s and a few political radicals used animal magnetism as a political threat. In one of the lectures warning about government oppression Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote, "William Pitt, the great political Animal Magnetist, ... has most foully worked on the diseased fancy of Englishmen ... thrown the nation into a feverish slumber, and is now bringing it to a crisis which may convulse mortality!" Major politicians and people in power were also accused by radicals of practicing animal magnetism on the general population.