The death of Franz Mesmer
Franz Mesmer, who taught that a natural energy flows between all things, died at Meersburg on 5 March 1815.
Franz Mesmer was born at Iznang on 23 May 1734 and died at Meersburg in Germany on 5 March 1815. He was buried there. He practised in Austria, then France, then Germany, and ended up in Switzerland, withdrawn from public life.
Mesmer theorised that a natural energy passes among everything living or lifeless, and he named it animal magnetism. The idea, later called mesmerism, drew many followers from about 1780 to 1850. The public lionised him, but a royal panel of leading scientists ruled in 1784 that his claimed discovery of a new physical fluid had no basis. The Scottish doctor James Braid suggested the word hypnotism in 1843 for a technique that grew out of animal magnetism, and mesmerism now works as a synonym for hypnosis.
"He theorized the existence of a process of natural energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimate objects; this he called "animal magnetism", later referred to as mesmerism. Mesmer's theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the 19th century.[2] In 1843, the Scottish doctor James Braid proposed the term "hypnotism" for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today the word "mesmerism" generally functions as a synonym of "hypnosis"."
- Friedrich Anton Mesmer, Encyclopedia.com
- Franz Mesmer, New World Encyclopedia