Here it is folks. It's what you've all been waiting for:
MORE GREAT FACTS!
That's right, we're BACK and better than ever! Ready to be
MESMERIZED!?
Of course you are. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here!
Wait, what was that word? Mesmerized? You may have asked yourself:
"self, where in tarnation did that word come from?" Well, you're in luck because today I learned about it and you're all about to find out! ALL RIGHT, LET'S GO!
A long time ago, in a land far, far away, there lived a man named Franz. While working as a trained medical doctor and serving the wealthy class of Vienna, he utilized a fairly popular concept of the time: manipulating the "tides" of his patients using magnets. At some point, though, Franz decided his own "animal magnetism" was just as good as regular old magnets. He developed a treatment which consisted of him staring at his patients and waving his hands over them for hours, to much success.
Not satisfied with treating one client at a time in a private setting, he took his healing powers on the road and became quite famous, even drawing the attention of Marie Antoinette. Many of his patients (who were mostly women) swore by his treatments. They often reported achieving a trance-like state (and sometimes convulsions) followed by a sense of healing and relief. One can certainly do the math there.
But success, as it is said, often breeds imitation. Many practitioners of this dark magic medicine emerged, so much so that the king of France launched an investigation. Even good old Ben Franklin participated in the scientific inquest.
Unfortunately for Franz Anton Mesmer, the science of the time didn't support his methodology. The art of Mesmerism fell from public grace, and Franz died not knowing that he may have stumbled upon the much more accepted practice of hypnotism still used by some practitioners today.