Animal Magnetism and Somnambulism (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. Since the remotest times, the wonders of animal magnetism appear to have been well known to all the nations of the earth. But in consequence of the total ignorance which has prevailed respecting the agency through which they were produced, these wonders have, for the most part, been ascribed to supernatural causes, such, for instance, as witchcraft and talismans. The means, however, of regulating them and turning them to account, were, at an early period, discovered not only by the priests of Egypt, but even by those of some parts of Greece. Such men made use of animal magnetism both for the purpose of increasing their own power, and giving au exalted opinion of the religion they professed. But the science was as yet so much a secret, as to have been communicated only to those adepts whose discretion could be so far relied upon as to leave no reason to suppose they would ever reveal the important secret. As to such of the inferior priests as were not considered trustworthy, tbey were merely employed as so many passive instruments, acting only in conformity with the instructions they had received from their inferiors, and attributing the cures they effected to their gods. They little suspected that the success of their operations was due to a power inherent in themselves, and which was called forth by the force of their will and strong faith. In the beginning of the eighteenth century, animal magnetism was considered as a particular principle or agent. The study of it may be well said to be the study of the principle of life in man, and also of the phenomena obtained by the Action of his organs. The magnetic agent or vital fluid, whjch has been also styled animal electricity, and the nervousfluid is the vital agent itself, is that mysterious something by whi...