The secret of the sects : a few words on mesmerism, psychomancy, etc. : a caution for the times.

Date:
[1882?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The secret of the sects : a few words on mesmerism, psychomancy, etc. : a caution for the times. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    the magic art,^ On the strength of this identity Ennemoser, a professor of magic, and author of an interesting history of the art (translated into Enghsh, and published in Bohn's Scientific Library), incorporates the Mesmeric system into the science of magic as an integral, and indeed principal part of it {Orig. Prot., p. 327). Mr. Bonwick, in his Egyptian Belief and Modern Thottght, p. 339, cites the profoundly learned author of Art Magic as remarking of the ancient Egyptian magicians:— They were highly educated, scientific men. They understood the nature of the loadstone, the virtues of mineral and animal magnetism, which, together with the force of psychological impression, constituted a large proportion of their theurgic practices. They perfectly understood the art of reading the inmost secrets of the soul, of impressing the suscep- tible imagination by enchantment and fascination, of sending their own spirits forth from the body, as clairvoyants, under the action of powerful will—in fact, they were masters of the arts now known as Mesmerism, Clairvoyance, Electro-biology, &c. There can be no doubt whatever that, in the present day, ; the practice of these occult arts is alarmingly on the increase ; and that—far more frequently than the uninitiated have any conception of—they are being employed by the Secret Societies of this and other countries to injure persons who are obnoxi- ous to them, as well as by fanatics and others for various delusive, immoral, and revengeful purposes.^ In 1866, the \ ^ The late Dr. Gregory, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edin- burgh, says:—There is, indeed, one useful application of our knowledge of Mesmerism which has already been made, and will yet be made to a greater extent; I mean that of explaining many things which to the ignorant appear supernatural, and which the knowledge of their real nature having, in earlier ages, and even down to a period not very remote, been considered as a secret, or mys- tery, and confined to certain classes of men, such as priests, adepts, magicians, sorcerers, and perhaps astrologers and physicians, . . . acquired the names of Magic, Sorcery, Witchcraft, and the Black Art. All soyts of necromancy, divina- tion, and oracles, may be ranked in the same category; and it may be safely said that the fiiore intimately we become acquainted with Mesmerism, the more do we find that every notion which has prevailed among men in regard to those matters may be referred to natural causes connected with Mesmerism in some of its innu- merable drdcloptnenls (Letters on Animal Magnetism, ed. 1877, p. 112). See also Dr. Herbert Mavo's Truths contained in Popular Superstition, with an Account of Mesmeris?n, 3d ed., pp. 181, seq. ^ An Anglican clergyman, residing in London, informed the present writer that the practice of these occult arts is very common in that city ; and an eminent Lon- don physician wrote in 1878 :—The whole subject in which you are interested is occupying considerable attention just now. I was only a short time since dis- cussing this matter with a very intelligent man, who takes your view in many par- ticulars. I have just returned from Paris, where Professor Ciiarcot is giving a