Jim Marrs - PSI Spies - Amazon S3

The Past is Prologue 57stars and the planets cause “tides” in this fluid....Mesmer believed that these “tides” cause sicknessand health in human beings, for we are also full of akind of magnetic fluid generated by the nerves. Whenthis fluid becomes blocked or stagnant, we become ill.When it is unblocked—by magnets, or by the doctor’sown “animal magnetism”—we become well again. 28After moving to Paris in 1778, Mesmer’s odd claimscaused such an uproar that a Royal Commission of Inquirywas convened to look into the matter. This commission, whichincluded the American ambassador, Benjamin Franklin, concludedthat Mesmer’s claims of healing through magnetismwere most probably caused by suggestion. However, despitethis report and the chaos of the French Revolution, interest inMesmer’s claims continued.In 1826, the French Academies of the Sciences and ofMedicine created a second commission to study Mesmer’smethods. Skeptics fully expected a report as dismissive asthe first. However, they were startled by the commission’sconclusions.According to Richard Broughton:The Commission acknowledged that they couldnot precisely identify what the trance state was but thatthey were convinced that it was genuine. Moreover,they felt it could give rise to “new faculties which havebeen designated by the terms clairvoyance, intuition,interior prevision.” Finally they urged the academies toencourage further research into “magnetism,” whichthey regarded as a “very curious branch of psychologicaland natural history.” The leaders of the academies