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Chapter VI: The Principles of Pranic Healing.1993
soothing my patients, as if there were a singular property in my hands to
pull and draw away from the affected parts aches and diverse impurities, by
laying my hand upon the place, and by extending my fingers toward it. Thus
it is known to some of the learned that health may be implanted in the sick
by certain gestures, and by contact, as some diseases may be communicated
from one to another.”
Aesculapius treated diseases by breathing on the affected parts, and by
stroking them with his hands. The ancient Druids, that is the priesthood,
performed cures in this way, the same being made a part of their religious
ceremonies and rites. Tacitus, Vopiscus, and Lampridius, report these things
of the Druids, and give wonderful testimony regarding their “gifts.”
The records of the Middle Ages are filled with similar accounts of
wonderful cures accomplished by the laying on of the hands, the churches
being the usual scene of the cures. Van Helmont, who lived about the
first part of the seventeenth century, seemed to be acquainted with the
principles of Pranic healing, for he writes: “Magnetism is active everywhere,
and there is nothing new in it but the name; it is a paradox only to those who
ridicule everything, and who attribute to the power of Satan whatever they
are unable to explain.”
About the same time, a Scotchman named Maxwell, taught similar
methods of healing. He believed in a vital spirit pervading the universe,
which man could draw upon in order to cure diseases. In 1734, Father Hehl,
a priest, taught the existence of an “universal fluid,” which might be used to
cure diseases. He made many wonderful cures, but was driven out of the
church for possessing the power of the devil, and using witchcraft. Mesmer
taught the theory of Animal Magnetism, and accomplished cures by its
aid, always using his hands in applying it. Mesmer left many followers and
disciples, many of whom gained great prominence, the Marquis of Puysegur
being one of these.
In Germany Mesmer’s doctrines, and those that grew of them, gained
great popularity and prominence. Bremen was a great centre of the “Animal