IN early XVII V. many scientists argued that a person can influence the body and psyche of another person through the mysterious “life force” - fluid.
Fluid was considered to be magnetic energy released by people and emanating from the hands, eyes and other human organs.
The concept of “animal magnetism” was first formulated and put into practice by the Austrian physician Friedrich Anton Mesmer (1734–1815).
The scientist believed that “all bodies are, to one degree or another, capable of conducting magnetic fluid in the same way as a natural magnet does.
This fluid permeates all matter and can be accumulated and amplified, just like electricity. The fluid can be transmitted over a distance. There are two types of bodies in nature: some strengthen the fluid, while others weaken it.”
Animal magnetism can affect any living and inanimate objects, act at any distance, and can accumulate or be amplified by mirrors or sound.
It was believed that uneven distribution of fluid in the body causes disease. According to F.A. Mesmer, by achieving a harmonious redistribution of fluid, a disease can be cured.
The scientist wrote: “Animal magnetism (fluid) is transmitted primarily through feeling. Only feeling allows one to comprehend this theory.” He argued that the doctor's fluids are transmitted to the patient through magnetic passes and touches, directly or indirectly.
F. Mesmer was the first to use “animal magnetism” for medical purposes, thereby laying the foundation for modern hypnosis. He contributed to the formation of scientific ideas about hypnosis and practical methods hypnotherapy.
The scientist coined the term “rapport,” meaning physical contact through which fluid was transferred. Subsequently, “rapport” in hypnotherapy began to mean verbal contact between the hypnotist and the patient in a hypnotic state.
Beginning in 1775, the doctor conducted public hypnosis sessions, causing hysterical convulsions, twitching, uncontrollable laughter or crying in patients. Coming to their senses after the session, some patients actually got rid of their ailments.
To study the phenomenon of “animal magnetism” in France in 1784, a special commission was established of authoritative scientists from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Paris and the French Academy of Sciences. The commission came to the following conclusions:
“nothing proves the existence of an animal-magnetic fluid, therefore this non-existent substance cannot be beneficial;
the painful effects observed during public treatment arise from touch, from excited imagination, and from mechanical imitation, forcing us to involuntarily repeat what strikes us.”
And only after a century of disgrace by the medical faculty of the University of Paris, in 1882, F.A.
Mesmer was publicly rehabilitated. His method was recognized as a scientifically based medical remedy, not as a treatment with “animal magnetism”, but as a mental suggestion.
In the same year, a group of prominent scientists from Cambridge University created the Society for Psychical Research. Later, similar societies were opened in many countries of Europe, America, and Asia.
Subsequently, the study of human energy and biological fields developed in two directions:
research in the field of energy sources and methods of its transmission in the human body itself;
searching for possible ways to record and measure a person’s energy flows and his external aura.
Biological field
Life on Earth would be impossible if living beings did not capture the energy and information coming from environment, did not know how to process it and send it to other living beings.
In 1923, Soviet, Russian scientist, laureate of the Stalin Prize in biology Alexander Gavrilovich Gurvich (1874–1954) discovered mitogenetic rays - ultra-weak ultraviolet radiation living tissues, stimulating cell division through chemical chain reactions.
On the basis of this discovery, back in the 20s of the last century, the scientist proposed the concept of a morphogenetic (biological) field.
He later developed a scientific theory to explain direction and order in the development and functioning of organisms.
The main provisions of the theory were formulated in the monograph “Biological Field Theory” (1944).
The scientist used the term “biological (cellular) field” to designate a hypothetical anisotropic field physical nature, which determines the molecular and cellular orderliness in space of both the entire organism and its individual organs.
He proposed to consider the “field of a chromosome equivalent” as an elementary biological field. As a possible material carrier of the “cellular field” A.G. Gurvich considered chromatin - a complex of DNA and proteins that make up chromosomes.
The scientist put forward a hypothesis according to which ultraviolet mitogenetic radiation acts as a carrier of the energy necessary to initiate protein synthesis and, accordingly, cell division.
The scientist determined the approximate range of wavelengths that generate the minimum energy required for the abstraction of a hydrogen atom from the amino group that is part of the amino acids.
The field itself is electromagnetic and manifests itself in the form of radiation with an average intensity of 300–1000 photons/s per square centimeter. This radiation is in the mid and near ultraviolet range
The greatest merit of A.G. Gurvich is the assumption that the cell field is associated with heredity.
The concept of a biological field, introduced by A.G. Gurvich, entered world biology already in the 20s of the last century, and in the 60s the expression “biofield” entered into cultural use with the broad meaning of the factor of the influence of organisms on each other.
Simultaneously with A.G. Gurvich and independently of him, another Soviet scientist, a specialist in general problems of biological systematics, A.A., came to approximately the same conclusion. Lyubishchev (1890–1972).
According to the scientist, “genes are neither living beings, nor pieces of a chromosome, nor molecules of autolytic enzymes, nor radicals, nor a physical structure, nor a force caused by a material carrier; we must recognize the gene as an immaterial substance...”
The concept of human bioinformation fields has received further development in the second half of the last century thanks to the works of the Russian scientist, professor, academician Russian Academy Medical Sciences (RAMS) Vlail Petrovich Kaznacheev (born 1924).
In the laboratories of the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine at the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences V.P. Kaznacheev and a group of colleagues conducted more than 5 thousand experiments that established remote electromagnetic interactions of living cells with each other.
The essence of the experiments was as follows. Cell cultures were grown in two vessels, one of which was infected with a pathogenic virus.
Despite the fact that the vessels were sealed and were in contact only through quartz glass, almost simultaneously, a similar pathological process was observed in the population of cells in the second vessel.
Healthy cells were infected from patients without contact! The researchers explained this amazing ability by the fact that it may be possible for cells to exchange information at the level of electromagnetic radiation.
In an attempt to prove their guesses, scientists developed a way to increase the sensitivity of healthy cells, and the effect of “mirror” disease intensified.
Research by V.P. Kaznacheev became a breakthrough event in the formation of the concept of information channels in biological systems.
The most significant discovery is “the phenomenon of intercellular distant electromagnetic interactions in a system of two tissue cultures,” the essence of which was the possibility of transferring biological information from one cell culture to another.
This discovery was officially registered in the “State Register of Discoveries of the USSR” in 1966.
And although this discovery was received with caution by the scientific community, experts recognized that the development of the idea could help medicine find new ways to treat and diagnose diseases.
Scientific discoveries, theories and hypotheses of Russian scientists laid the foundation for the emergence new science– wave genetics.
Magnetism aroused less general interest because its manifestations did not look so impressive. But he also attracted attention, especially after his mysterious connections with lightning, which magnetizes iron, were discovered.
In search of explanations, many turned to ancient treatises. And in the past, a magnet with all its properties was inseparable from magic and the art of medicine. Remember the incredible recipes of the medieval aesculapians - Agrippa, Paracelsus and even Gilbert himself...
Among the adherents of conversations about various “miracles” there were also those who wanted to attract public attention at any cost, to be original and interesting. We will not take into account outright charlatans and scammers. As a rule, please note that the majority of followers and supporters of all kinds of teachings are not deep experts in their chosen field. They are based on the opinions of authorities. And this, as Soviet academician A. B. Migdal writes, is a thing that needs to be handled very carefully.
At one time, Gilbert also devoted a lot of energy to the study of magic. But he got out of its wilds into the vastness of genuine science. However, this does not mean at all that this is the fate of all other “researchers of great mysteries.” Many of them remain captive of delusions until the end of their lives, unable to abandon the doctrine accepted as the truth and which has become a fulcrum for the formation of their own views, their own worldview.
The history of these misconceptions is no less interesting and instructive than the history of science, and is closely connected with the latter.
Paracelsus compared a magnet to a person and called its poles “belly” and “back”. But if a magnet is a “man,” then a man must also be a magnet. Then there was only one step left until the recognition of the existence of magnetic forces in people.
In the middle of the 17th century, the physician of the Swedish king Charles XI, a certain Maxwell, wrote a treatise on the “magnetic fluid” allegedly contained in the human body and giving people the ability to influence each other with its help. This was the “first swallow” of a huge flow of “magnetic” literature, which, alas, does not dry up to this day.
In February 1778, an Austrian doctor, the famous Viennese “magnetopath” Franz Anton Mesmer, came to Paris. He's rich. In Vienna he still had a magnificent house with a garden, turned into a magnetic clinic, and many patients and admirers remained... Why did he then leave Austria and why, after a short trip to Switzerland, did he arrive in Paris? Informed people, of whom there are always many in any society, especially among idlers, hinted at some mysterious love story with a blind girl who regained her sight in Mesmer's clinic, but, taken by force from her healer by her parents, allegedly lost her sight again...
Parisians love secrets, especially romantic ones. And society welcomed the doctor Mesmer with open arms. He is 44 years old. He is tall and imposing. He speaks slowly and thoroughly. He has steel-colored eyes and a strong, strong-willed chin.
The aristocrats he used in Austria give him access to high society. However, it's not that difficult. The twenty-three-year-old daughter of the Austrian Emperor Marie Antoinette, now the wife of King Louis XVI and Queen of France, is crazy about the secret sciences.
It was an alarming time for France. The extravagance of Louis XV, famous, by the way, for his phrase: “After us, even a flood,” led not only the treasury, but also the people to ruin. And his grandson, Louis XVI, who ascended the throne in 1774, received an unimportant inheritance. The development of industry was hampered by remnants of guild relations. Agriculture remained entangled dense network feudal duties. The country did not have a unified customs law. Everything was unsteady and uncertain. It is no wonder that part of society in such an environment became interested in secret sciences and mysticism. On the one hand, many stopped believing in biblical legends and Christian saints, but on the other hand, people did not yet have the strength to rise to true knowledge and therefore rushed into mysticism. The propertied set up alchemical laboratories and listened with bated breath to the ravings of the Rosicrucian charlatans *. Crowds of the urban lower class and representatives of the third estate went on a rampage in Parisian cemeteries, expecting healing from their deceased idols.
* (Rosicrucians - members of a secret society of mystics and alchemists who are part of the Masonic movement)
In such an atmosphere of general exaltation, Mesmer began his experiments in magnetic treatment in Paris. His patients, as a rule, were people suffering from nervous disorders and hysteria. Gradually, Paris is filled with rumors of miraculous healings. More and more patients from high society experience the effect of Mesmer’s magnetic overlays, the power of his gaze and manual passes. The results of the treatment are truly like a miracle. Patients become agitated, which in some cases ends in a nervous attack. Mesmer calls this a crisis. At the end of the attack, patients calm down, they sweat, many fall asleep, and when they wake up, they declare that they feel completely healthy.
By order of the queen, the French government offers Mesmer 20 thousand livres a year for life and another 10 thousand for housing expenses. There is only one condition - to prepare three students who will confirm the benefits of magnetic therapy. But this is not enough for Mesmer. He informs the queen that he will remain in France if 400 or 500 thousand livres are given to him. Besides, he needs recognition from others. official science. However, the treasury of Louis XVI is empty, and the French Academy is too rationalistic to recognize or even consider the experiments of a visiting magnetizer.
And then Mesmer leaves Paris. And in the city he left behind, a fierce struggle unfolds among supporters of the new teaching for the return of their prophet.
What is the essence of Mesmer's method?
An incident brought him together with the fact that applying a magnetic belt made to the shape of the abdomen helped relieve pain in the stomach. However, behind every happy occasion there is something hidden from the eyes of superficial observers.
Studying on Faculty of Medicine, Mesmer spent a lot of time in the quiet of libraries, absorbed in abstruse Latin in the writings of Paracelsus, van Helmont and Robert Flood. And he received his doctorate in medicine for his dissertation “On the influence of planets.” In it, under the impression of medieval astrology and ancient authors, he asserts that the celestial bodies influence man, that there is a certain mysterious force that, “pouring through the distant celestial spaces, acts on every matter from the inside,” that a certain primordial ether, a mysterious fluid “ permeates the entire universe, and with it man..."
Student Mesmer calls this mysterious force the force of universal attraction. But a magnet is the closest relative of meteorites, which originate from the stars themselves. This is how the logical chain of future teaching is built. It is magnetism that is the universal attractive force to which stars and people obey. And if so, then it is the magnet that should become a healing agent.
This thought completely takes over Mesmer, and on the altar of the world fluid and magnet he brings Esa: fortune, reputation and, finally, life. He carries out hundreds of experiments using specially made magnets for patients. He himself wears a magnet around his neck, sewn into a leather pouch, and claims that it enhances his own healing influence. Mesmer is obsessed with fantasy, with the obsession that magnetic energy can be transmitted over a distance and accumulated. It magnetizes the patient’s clothes and bed, his porcelain dishes and mirrors in which he looks, water, trees. And he treats, treats, and in many cases cures his patients of their ailments...
Now his house is being turned into a clinic. The fame of miraculous healings spreads like wildfire. Mesmer no longer has time to treat everyone individually. He begins to take in groups, but in a crowd his treatment is even more effective. He hires his assistants. He designs the famous “health tub” - a wooden tub with bottles filled with magnetized water. Wires extend from the iron rod coming out of this “apparatus”, which patients themselves can apply to the affected areas. At the same time, Mesmer tells people to hold hands, since, passing through people’s bodies, the magnetic fluid intensifies...
The swimming pool in the garden also plays an equally important role. The patients sat closely along its edges, dipping their feet in the water. Their hands are tied to the trees with thick ropes. And Franz Anton himself immediately plays the glass harmonica. Everything here is magnetized: the water in the pool, the trees, the harmonica and... Mesmer himself.
But the strangest thing in this whole performance was that Mesmer cured hysterical and suspicious patients, healed them from nervous paralysis, and restored sight to those blind from nervous shock. He cured ailments that school and official medicine seemed unable to combat.
A year of practice leads Franz Anton Mesmer to a surprising conclusion. Most often he succeeds in treatment without any magnets... But this means that the wonderful energy is hidden not in dead matter, but in the living person in it, Franz Anton Mesmer!
Now the shoots of the future “teaching”, which will be called “mesmerism,” begin to break through in his consciousness. It will also be included in other equally “scientific” theories. The will to health and to life is inherent in every person. Each person is, first of all, his own doctor. The task of the magnetopath is to strengthen this will to health, to instill confidence in a person, to convince him that he can cope with the disease. Moreover, while raising a person’s vitality, the doctor must be prepared for the fact that the signs of the disease will become sharper, worsen to the extreme, to the point of convulsions, to a crisis, after which recovery will begin...
Those who are familiar with the history of medicine will immediately say that this practice of crises was widely used back in the Middle Ages when driving out demons from the possessed. We now understand that Mesmer's treatment consists of the practice of hypnosis and suggestion. But in the 18th century, hypnosis was not yet widely known. It will be discovered later, later it will be given this name and will immediately be distinguished from “mesmerism”, although in essence there was no difference between them. But that’s all later... In the meantime, the wild success of magnetic sessions daily and hourly attracts crowds of people wishing to join the secret of the new teaching to the house of the miraculous healer.
It is quite clear that with the growing popularity of Mesmer, the attitude of his colleagues towards him changes radically. He could have his own opinion about music, about art in general, but - medicine! Moreover, he treats without any medications. What should respectable pharmacists do if other doctors follow his example? Then the dull whispers die down: they don’t call him a “charlatan” yet. Still - three diplomas! Two hundred years ago this circumstance acted with no less force than today.
It was then that the notorious story of the girl Paradise, a very noticeable person in Viennese society, arrived. Having gone blind in early childhood, she became widely known as a performer of music on the harpsichord. The empress herself took part in the girl’s fate. Her parents were given a decent pension, and talented child received a good upbringing. It was believed that Maria Theresa Paradise had an optic nerve disorder. Therefore, it is incurable. However, some signs also indicated that not all was well with the nerves here.
She is brought to Mesmer, who finds that she has a general nervous disorder, takes her into his house, subjects her to treatment and... Mesmer's testimony and the report of the girl's father speak of the return of her vision. Curious details of the insight and surprise of a man who was blind for so many years are given. But nearby are the conclusions of venerable professors, who claim that there has been no improvement in the patient’s condition, and everything that Mesmer and others talk about interested people, is nothing more than deception or "imagination".
After this incident, Mesmer was forced to leave Vienna.
The return to Paris brought glory to Mesmer and gave rise to real mesmeromania - a kind of mass insanity, addiction, uncontrollable attraction. Bored aristocrats made his clinic very fashionable. This is how Stefan Zweig describes the situation of a magnetic session in a large essay dedicated to Franz Mesmer and written in our century:
“The room itself, with its unusual furnishings, has an alarming and exciting effect on visitors. The windows are darkened with curtains to create a soft twilight, heavy carpets on the floor and along the walls muffle any sound, mirrors reflect golden tones of light from all sides, strange symbolic signs of stars arouse curiosity, without satisfying him. Uncertainty always makes the feeling of expectation more acute, mystery increases tension, silence and silence contribute to mystical moods; therefore, in Mesmer's magical waiting room, all the senses - sight, hearing and touch - are strained and spurred on in the most subtle way. In the middle of the large hall there stands a "tub of health" wide, like a well. In deep silence, as if in a church, the sick are sitting around this magnetic altar with bated breath, no one dares to move or utter a word, so as not to disturb the tension reigning in the hall. From time to time, those gathered around " tub" form, according to this sign, the famous (later borrowed by spiritualists) magnetic chain. Each one touches the fingertips of his neighbor so that the imaginary current, intensifying as it passes from body to body, permeates the entire reverently frozen row. Among this deep silence, broken only by light sighs of silence from next room the chords of an invisible harpsichord or quiet choral singing are heard; sometimes even Mesmer himself plays his glass harmonica in order to moderate the work of the imagination with a gentle rhythm or increase it, if necessary, accelerating the rhythm. Thus, over the course of an hour, the body is charged with magnetic force (or, as we would say today, hypnotic tension is prepared due to the fact that the nervous system is irritated by monotony and expectation). Then Mesmer himself finally appears.
Serious and calm, he enters slowly, with stately gestures, radiating peace amid the general restlessness; and as soon as he approaches the patients, a slight trembling, as if from a breeze blowing from afar, runs through the chain. He wears a long purple silk robe, evoking thoughts of Zoroaster or the clothing of Indian magicians; sternly and concentratedly, like a tamer who, with a light whip in his hand, only by force of will keeps the beast from jumping, he walks with his iron rod from one patient to another. He stops in front of some, quietly asks about their condition, then in a special way moves his magnetic wand down one side of the body and up the opposite side, at the same time imperiously and persistently drawing the patient’s gaze to himself, full of expectation. He doesn’t touch others with the rod at all, he just moves it through the air with an important look, as if outlining an invisible halo above the head or over the place where the pain is concentrated, and at the same time does not take his eyes off the patient, focusing all his attention on him and thereby riveting his attention to yourself. During this procedure, others reverently hold their breath, and for some time in the spacious, muffled room, nothing can be heard except his slow steps and sometimes a relieved or depressed sigh. But usually this does not last long, and one of the patients begins to tremble at Mesmer’s touch, a convulsive spasm passes through his limbs, he breaks into a sweat, he screams, sighs or groans. And as soon as one shows visible signs of a nerve-stimulating force, other participants in the chain also begin to feel the famous crisis that brings healing. Like an electric spark, a wave of twitching runs through a closed series, mass psychosis arises; the second, third patient goes into convulsions, and in the blink of an eye the coven of witches reaches its peak. Some, rolling their eyes, writhe on the floor, others begin to laugh shrilly, scream, moan and cry, some, seized by convulsions, rush around in a devilish dance, some - all this can be seen captured in the engravings of that time - seem to fall under the influence of a rod or stubborn Mesmer's gaze into a fainting state or hypnotic sleep. With a quiet smile frozen on their lips, they lie indifferently, in a cataleptic stupor, and at this time the music next door continues to play so that the state of tension intensifies and intensifies, because, according to the famous “crisis theory”
Mesmera, every nervously caused disease must be brought to the highest point of its development, must, as it were, come out, so that the body can then be healed. Those who are too much in the grip of a crisis, who scream, rage and writhe in convulsions, are quickly carried away by Mesmer's servants and assistants to the next, tightly padded, tightly isolated room... so that they can calm down there (which, of course, gave the mocking articles a reason to claim that as if nervous ladies get calm there in a highly physiological way). The most amazing scenes are played out every day in Mesmer's magical office: patients jump up, break free from the chain, declare that they are healthy, others throw themselves on their knees and kiss the hands of the savior, some beg to increase the current and touch them again. Little by little, faith in the magic of his personality, in his personal charms, becomes for his patients a form of religious insanity, and he himself becomes a saint and healer of countless people. As soon as Mesmer appears on the street, those possessed by illness rush to him just to touch his clothes... And one fine day Paris can contemplate the stupidest picture: in the very middle of Bondi Street, a hundred people, tied with ropes to a tree magnetized by Mesmer, are waiting " crisis." Never has any doctor known such rapid and noisy success as Mesmer; For five years in a row, Parisian society has been talking only about his magical-magnetic treatment.
Day by day the madness increases, and the more laymen begin to entertain themselves with a new parlor game, the more fantastic and absurd the extremes become. In the presence of the Prince of Prussia, as well as all members of the magistrate, in full official garb, an old horse is magnetized in Charenton. Magnetic groves and grottoes appear in castles and parks, secret circles and lodges appear in cities, it comes to open hand-to-hand combat between adherents and opponents of the system, even duels; in short, the force evoked by Mesmer goes beyond its own sphere, medicine, and floods the whole of France with a dangerous and contagious fluid of snobbery and hysteria - mesmeromania."
Over the course of just a few months in 1784, Mesmer was visited by more than 8,000 patients. The miracle worker also had failures. Some could not stand the “crisis” and died during a hysterical attack, while others suffered from real paralysis. But failures are not remembered.
Finally, the fat Louis XVI, who instinctively hated any kind of disorder and unrest, expressed the wish that scientists would bring clarity to the endless quarrel over “animal magnetism.” In March 1784, he signed a decree appointing two commissions - one from members of the Academy, which included Franklin, Lavoisier, Jussier, the other - from representatives of the Society of Physicians, which included the well-known Doctor Guillotin, the inventor of a machine that “cures” all earthly diseases in blink of an eye.
Having carefully examined the instruments used by the magnetizer, the commission members were convinced that the magnetic rods and plates with which Mesmer and his assistants treated the sick did not contain either electricity or magnetism. They did not feel any influence from the hands of the magnetizer. The widespread occurrence of seizures was explained by imitation. As soon as one hysteria began in the crowd, which became excited at the appearance of Mesmer, it immediately spread to others. And now all or most of those present are rolling on the floor and convulsing...
Having examined the control group of patients, doctors did not find any new phenomena in their bodies after the magnetization session. The members of the commission carried out the following experiments: they brought patients to those trees that obviously did not fall within the range of action of the magnetizers and convinced the patient of the opposite. After which the symptoms of a seizure were also observed. Conversely, for a person who did not know that a “real” magnetic plate was being applied to him, it had no effect.
There could be only one conclusion - the usefulness of the influence of the magnetizer is purely imaginary, suggested. This conclusion sowed mistrust among Mesmer's patients. He started having troubles. Popularity fell catastrophically. And Mesmer was forced to leave Paris.
His followers split into small groups, continuing to test his techniques on themselves and others, from which they expected a complete revolution in medicine, until it became known that Abbot Faria achieved the same effect in hysterical patients without any passes, with just the order “Go to sleep! “, the belief in “animal magnetism” collapsed completely. It was replaced by the study of the phenomena of hypnosis.
Was Mesmer a charlatan, that is, a person who deliberately creates fog, commits deception, taking advantage of public ignorance? IN popular books there is such a qualification for his activities. I think it's not entirely correct. It seems to me that the creation of his “teachings”, and especially the beginning of practice, are an example of a typical error of Mesmer himself. Blinded by the first incredible successes, he himself believed in his chosenness, in his own abilities, especially since discussions about magnetic and electrical fluids were extremely occupied by the society of his time.
When the appointed commissions presented impressive evidence that Mesmer had no special gift and that his treatment was nothing more than a psychological state of artificial vivacity instilled for a while, which had no effect on the continuing development of the disease, the “great magnetizer” himself could have doubted its exclusivity. But it is not easy to give up the guiding idea of your whole life. And he continued to cling to the crumbling house of cards of his views.
Mesmer's fate is not unique. You can find other examples in history when the creator of a hypothesis or assumption was much worried about his brainchild and continued to hold on to what had long been refuted.
Today, mysticism and the occult have regained wide popularity in the bourgeois world. They dress up in the clothes of science and speculate on people's respect for knowledge. And of course, as always, the ubiquitous charlatans immediately attach themselves to those who are sincerely mistaken. Hoping to get their piece, they turn any kind of public curiosity into a business.
In 1781, Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer published a dissertation in which he briefly formulated the main paragraphs (provisions) of his discoveries in the field of “animal” magnetism. Namely, the ability of a human being to generate within himself and then focus and distribute outside the boundaries of his body special specific flows, similar in their sensations and the nature of the impact to “fire”. With these “streams of energy” it is then possible to influence other living organisms by awakening and concentrating in them the same “energies” of their own in order to cure any diseases. Healing occurs by strongly stimulating the diseased area with a focused flow of such “magnetic energy.” As a result of the impact, an awakened, enhanced “energy seething” appears in this area, which carries out a therapeutic effect, often through a “Crisis” (deterioration before improvement).
“Animal” magnetism, of course, does not mean only the ability of animals (for example, cats) to have a healing effect on us and also does not mean, for example, exclusively the specificity of the “animal world,” which, unlike the “human world,” has the characteristics of mutual connections at a distance and other qualities, although the meaning and mechanism of such influences is exactly the same.
By “Animal magnetism” we mean precisely the “energy” awakened by the human consciousness itself in its physical body, which is then focused and capable of spreading from the boundaries of this body through conductors (air, material objects, other living beings, plants).
1) Celestial bodies, Earth and animal bodies have a mutual influence on each other.
2) This mutual influence occurs through a universal, omnipresent, ultra-fine fluid, which has the ability to take the form of any energy, spread through it, and be transmitted to other bodies.
3) This mutual influence is subject to mechanical, but still unknown laws.
4) This mutual influence causes phenomena that are similar to the ebb and flow of the tide.
5) This ebb and flow [of the superfine fluid] is of a universal nature, and affects every object to a greater or lesser extent, and manifests itself to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the reasons that give rise to this ebb and flow.
6) In this way, all celestial bodies, the Earth and the parts inhabiting it are in constant, active interaction (this is a universal law for all nature).
7) The properties of mineral matter and organic bodies depend on this interaction.
8) This interaction manifests itself on animal bodies in the form of penetration of [superfine] fluid into the nervous substance, and its direct influence on it.
9) The human body has the properties of a magnet, such as opposite poles that are connected to each other; variability of field strength - its weakening or strengthening; in addition, magnetic affinity (inclinatio) is also observed.
10) It is this ability of animal bodies to perceive magnetism celestial bodies and transmit it into the surrounding atmosphere, which makes them similar to magnets, prompted me to call my theory animal magnetism.
11) The strength of the energy of animal magnetism can be changed, it can be transferred to other bodies, both living and inanimate, but all bodies have different abilities to perceive animal magnetism.
12) This influence and this power can be enhanced and transmitted with the help of certain bodies.
13) Practical observations show that this magnetic force is a very subtle matter that lowers all bodies without losing its intensity.
14) This magnetic force acts at a distance without the help of any intermediaries.
15) This magnetic force, like light, is reflected and collected and amplified by a mirror.
16) This magnetic force spreads and intensifies through sound.
17) This magnetic force can be collected, compressed, and transferred from one place to another.
18) Not all bodies have the same properties of animal magnetism. Some very rare bodies have such opposite properties [to the general background] that their mere presence destroys the manifestation of animal magnetism in other bodies.
19) This opposite force also penetrates all bodies, communicates from one body to another, spreads, gathers, compresses, transmits from one place to another, is reflected by a mirror, spreads by sound, and there is not negative, but actually opposite positive energy.
20) Mineral magnets [with their different poles] exert the same influence on metals through both their one and the other opposite forces, which cannot be said about animal magnetism, in which the action of the opposite forces is unequal. This phenomenon is the fundamental difference between ordinary and animal magnetism.
21) This system of interactions sheds New World on the nature of fire, light, the theory of attraction, ebb and flow, magnetism and electricity.
22) Magnets and electricity used to treat certain diseases, if they lead to a positive effect, are only due to animal magnetism.
23) The practical rules that I will give later must be studied in the practice of curing nervous diseases with the help of this fluid, which acts directly or through an intermediary.
24) This theory provides the physician with invaluable support in the use of drugs whose effects are enhanced, leading to beneficial crises that can be controlled and controlled.
25) In the description of my methods, I will describe the theory of diseases and prove the general usefulness of my method for medicine.
26) A physician armed with this theory will be able to discover the cause, nature and course of any disease, including complex diseases. He will be able to control the development of the disease, reducing or increasing its degree, without causing any harm to the patient. In this case, age, gender, temperament do not play any role. Even pregnant women and women in labor will appreciate the benefits of this theory.
27) In a word, this theory will give the doctor the ability to determine the health of his patient, to cure him of all the diseases to which he is exposed, due to which the level of medicine will reach the highest point of perfection.
There is a “triple point” on the map of Europe - Lake Constance, where the borders of three states meet: Austria, Germany and Switzerland. From here flows the great river Rhine ( him. Rhein, Greek. rheos - flow, stream). And here, in the family of a huntsman who served in the Bavarian possessions of the bishop, Franz Anton Mesmer was born - a man who was to unite together three areas of science that then seemed completely separate: physics, physiology and psychology.
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)
What was the young man interested in? By the age of thirty he became a doctor of philosophy and law, and later, in 1766, a doctor of medicine. Thanks to numerous healings with magnets and “magnetized” (“charged”) objects applied to the sick, Mesmer gained European fame. Patients flocked in droves to the miracle doctor, whose methods made it possible to treat several people painlessly at once, and the poor for free. For many, to heal, it was enough to drink water “magnetized” by the doctor or dip their feet in it; for others, sit for a while in the garden under a tree “magnetized” by the doctor while listening to quiet music. Anton Mesmer demonstrated his healing techniques to the largest physicians in Europe, and before their eyes he performed experiments to identify the properties of the cosmic “magnetic force”. Mesmer used this force, which he called “animal magnetism,” following many of his predecessors, among whom were outstanding doctors: Paracelsus (1493-1541), van Helmont (1577-1644) and others.
Widely educated, a good musician, an intelligent and handsome man and, of course, a successful doctor, Mesmer married favorably and lived in grand style in Vienna. Prominent politicians, scientists, and musicians enjoyed the hospitality of his house, surrounded by a luxurious park located on the banks of the blue Danube. The great Haydn and Gluck, father and son Mozart, performed their works here. Sometimes the hospitable host himself played for his guests on the piano, harpsichord, cello, or on a rare glass harmonica then (and even now). The mesmerizing sounds of the harmonica prompted the young Mozart to master this instrument and compose a quintet for it, and Mesmer used “harmonic” music in his “magnetic” sessions. In 1766, his dissertation “On the influence of planets on people and the mysteries of the ancient Magi” was welcomed by everyone, and no one saw in it either pseudoscience or a revival of witchcraft. The life physician of Empress Maria Theresa, Professor of the University of Vienna Gerhard van Swieten himself, awarded Mesmer the diploma of Doctor of Medicine. With his son Gottfried, director of the royal library and president of the commission of public education, the physician became a frequent guest at Mesmer's musical evenings. But this medical-musical idyll ended as soon as Viennese doctors and pharmacists, united in the fight for the health (and money!) of their clientele, saw the spread of mesmerism as a threat to their existence. Scientific authorities generously paid by pharmacists declared “animal magnetism” quackery, and the “magnetizer” was forced to leave Vienna.
Alas, mesmerism as such was then (as now) incomprehensible to scientists, and its healing effects were not only unexpected, but also inconsistent. Because of this, in some countries, for example, in the USA, magnetic therapy ( Greek. - magnetic treatment) was rejected until the end of the twentieth century. The change in views began here with the work of the young doctor Andrew Basset from Columbia University in New York. Basset got amazing results when processing variables magnetic field damaged limbs of people: in 70% of cases amputation was avoided! In many countries (and here in Russia) a lot of magnetic therapy devices are produced and used. In Japan, magnetic pillows and mattresses are popular, normalizing the state of people during their rest.
Has science figured out the nature of mesmerism? No, people understand that scientists could not always explain everything. And if the “understandable” does not help, they resort to the incomprehensible: over time, science will figure everything out. And the fact that the healing effects of magnetism were not only hushed up, but also slandered, directly indicated the weakness of the “scientific” arguments of Mesmer’s opponents.
On the wave of success, Mesmer and his followers opened magnetic clinics in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, England and even in distant America (Mesmer knew well the family of the hero of the American Revolution, the Marquis Lafayette, and the American ambassador in Paris, Benjamin Franklin). By healing with simple, even “stupid” methods those who seemed hopeless to doctors, Mesmer, as it seemed to his opponents, “mocked” science. Therefore, sooner or later - but this happened everywhere! - local doctors and pharmacists sought to connect the luminaries science of that time to discredit Mesmer's "charlatan" methods. And they expelled the miracle worker.
After the Great french revolution, in 1793, having lost all his fortune, Mesmer fled from Paris. He returned to his Viennese home, from which he had once set off to “conquer” Europe. But he was soon expelled from there too. Now in Vienna he was accused of sympathizing with the French revolutionaries.
Repeatedly humiliated, but still confident in the healing capabilities of the “magnetic force” he discovered (the famous doctor’s confidence was attributed to his delusions of grandeur), the aged Mesmer continued to treat people. Now - in a provincial Swiss village on the southern shore of Lake Constance, on the northern, Bavarian side, the side of which he was once born. Here Mesmer died - in poverty and oblivion (see the epigraph with words borrowed by the author from the text on the grave of Paracelsus).
The Berlin Academy, shortly before Mesmer's death, invited him to speak at its meeting, but the proud old man refused.
Mesmer died-mesmerism was born
Prophets are mortal, but the “powers” they serve continue to operate in the world. “Magnetism,” van Helmont prophetically wrote a hundred years before the birth of Mesmer, “is an unknown property of celestial nature, very reminiscent of the stars, which is not at all hampered by the limitations of space or time... Each creature has its own celestial power and is closely connected with the heavens . This magical power of man, which can act outside of him, lies, so to speak, hidden in inner man. This magical wisdom and power is thus dormant, but can be brought into action by simple suggestion, and then it will come to life and thus more will come to life, the more the outer man of flesh and darkness is suppressed in him... And this, I say, is carried out by Kabbalistic art; it returns to the human soul a magical, albeit natural, power that was lost by it, like a dream.”
No, not without reason, some of Mesmer’s opponents accused him of plagiarism, almost of rewriting the works of his famous predecessors.
Mesmer’s own “imitation theory” ( lat. imitatio - imitation; in this case - imitation of nature) was an attempt to “materialistically” - through ethereal flows - to explain the healing effect of magnets. Mesmer undoubtedly knew well the role of human consciousness in the form of the magic of suggestion, since he was personally acquainted with the great magicians Saint-Germain and Cagliostro. Today interested scientists would call them mediums and spiritualists, but then only magicians and swindlers. Mesmer was interested in the physics and physiology of magnetism: as a practicing physician, he prophetically saw their deep inner unity. Mesmer actively used human psychology in his medical sessions (quiet music, a darkened room and other “magical” paraphernalia), but he was interested in the psyche only if it was sick: nervous diseases, mental disorders, perhaps, were most quickly normalized when treated with magnets. Mesmer clearly shied away from the magic of magnetism. Back in 1784, an ardent admirer of mesmerism, the Marquis de Puysegur informed Mesmer about his discovery of provoked somnambulism (lat. somnus - sleep and ambulo - walking, otherwise - sleepwalking) and the ability to enter into verbal contact with a “magnetized” subject. And in 1808, seven years before Mesmer’s death, Dr. Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling (Jung-Stilling, 1740-1817) made another astonishing discovery: “animal magnetism” allows a “magnetized” person to “go into the astral plane” ( Greek. - star) and purchase out of body experience(OOBE - Out-Of-the-Body Experience). Avoiding the psychic nature of magnetism, Mesmer did not even want to define it. In 1843, the English surgeon and psychiatrist James Braid (1795-1860) did this for him. And he immediately paid the price: his ill-wishers turned his name into the term “nonsense.”
Perhaps Mesmer carried out the “depsychologization” of magnetism in the heat of the struggle for the “materialization” of his method. After all, the largest scientists who were part of the French academic commission that studied mesmerism at the direction of King Louis XVI insisted on precisely this “psychism”: “Everything is determined by the person himself, who magnetizes patients. If at each subsequent appearance of the magnetizer they lay completely exhausted, then the glance or voice of the magnetizer soon brings them out of this state. There is undoubtedly some force at work here that controls human actions and subordinates them to itself. This is the power of the magnetizer himself.” Among the members of the commission that “ruined” Mesmer’s hope of becoming a normal academic scientist were the chemist Lavoisier (the destroyer of the phlogiston theory), the astronomer Bailly (the future mayor of Paris), the physicist and politician, the main author of the US Declaration of Independence, Franklin (a friend of Mesmer, at that time an American Ambassador to Europe), and the botanist Jussier supported Mesmer's claims to a physical interpretation of magnetism and refused to sign the commission's decision. Among the four doctors who were members of the commission was the famous Doctor Guillotin, the inventor of the execution device named after him. As they say, “by the irony of fate,” and not by unknown laws of nature, several members of this commission (Lavoisier, Bailly and Guillotin himself, as well as its organizers - Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, a great admirer of Mesmer) had to during the revolution of 1793 years to lose their heads on Dr. Guillotin's guillotine.
So develop the emerging psychological direction of mesmerism for a long time there was no one in France. But in Russia psychophysics took root: the Russian Emperor Alexander I, the conqueror of Napoleon, met with Jung-Stieling and contributed to the transfer of his mystical ideas to Russia. And although our encyclopedias are silent about this, the marvelous Russian romantic mysticism of the 19th-20th centuries - from Pushkin and Gogol through Blavatsky and the Roerichs to Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” - is connected with mesmerism through the books of Jung-Stieling, once popular in Russia.
Supporters of Jung-Stieling - pietists (lat. pietas - respect) - they say: beyond the limits of the sensory world, our mind knows nothing. Agreeing with the Pietists, we believe that the opposite is also true: there is nothing outside Thought and Reason. God and matter are products of our mind. Consequently, materialism and idealism are as inseparable as they are unmerged. This philosophical synthesis of opposites directly reflects the nature of Mesmer's magnetism, clearly visible in the example of the mutual generation of two opposite poles of any magnet.
Pietists are supporters of direct communication with God. They claim: God is a perfect man, open to everyone. The ideas of Christian pietism in Europe for centuries were carried by “people of free spirit”, who were called differently: in the first centuries of Christianity it Gnostics, Then - Templars, Bogomils, Cathars, V XV-XVII centuries - bohemian(they are Moravian, Czech) brothers, and in Germany it is a Protestant sect Herrnhuters, one of the leaders of which was the already mentioned mesmerist doctor Jung-Stiling. By the way, a friend and classmate of two titans: Goethe and Herder (1744-1803, German philosopher, critic, esthetician).
In Russian translation, herrnhuters mean “good gentlemen”, or “good people”. If the Herrnhuter communes, which arose on the territory of Russia back in the time of Elizabeth Petrovna, could develop freely, and the ideas of Pietism could spread freely, you and I, reader, would be different. And, perhaps, people would not have known either the horrors of Hitlerism with its Holocaust, or the cruelties of Stalinism, or the cities of modern Donbass wiped off the face of the earth.
The reunification of physics and psyche sought by Mesmer, outlined in quantum mechanics, and now (200 years after the death of the prophet) has not ended. That is why we still have to consider grandiose (in terms of consequences) chains of facts as a “mystical coincidence of prevailing circumstances.”
For example, the great chemist Lavoisier died on the guillotine, not allowing not only the objective existence of the physical basis of therapeutic magnetism, but also meteorites: he owned the famous exclamation “stones cannot fall from the sky!” . And Mesmer, paying attention to magnetic properties iron, considered magnetism as a representative of cosmic, omnipotent astral forces. In this regard, let us remember the Islamic shrine of the Kaaba ( Arab. cube - a temple over an iron meteorite). Let's remember the giant magnet - the Earth, the magnetic properties of which were studied on a large magnetite model by Mesmer's English predecessor, the royal physician William Gilbert (1544-1603). Let us also remember about the “twin” of the Kaaba - a black meteorite stone, bequeathed by the poet, playwright and magician Dietrich Eckart (1868-1923) to the “German Tsiolkovsky” - Hermann Oberth (1894-1989). By the way, to the teacher of Wernher von Braun, the author of the famous FAU rockets and then the lunar successes of American astronautics.
The magic of magnetism
Magic outside the bounds of strict science is extremely dangerous. Ignoring the magic modern science loses the opportunity to master this powerful psychophysical tool, evades his role as the savior of humanity , , , , .
It is curious that the term "mesmerism" belongs to the founder homeopathy Samuel Christian Hahnemann (1755-1843). Homeopathy ( Greek. - a semblance of a disease) tries to treat, like magnetism, all diseases. But not with magnets, but with vanishingly small doses chemical substances that cause symptoms of the disease. Here, as in treatment with magnets, the mental impact on the patient from the invisible “cosmic doctor” comes to the fore. True, it is believed that the patient “heals himself.” The hidden influence of the “cosmic doctor” during homeopathic treatment is obvious and visible, and is physiologically reinforced by the use of drugs with the tiniest amount of active substance. A similar doctrine about iatrotherapy (Greek. - improving my health) and pharmaceutical chemistry created by the same Paracelsus, and later developed by Helmont and other “medical alchemists”. “The real purpose of chemistry (alchemy) is not to make gold, but to prepare medicines,” taught Paracelsus.
So the tradition of ancient healing magic has never been interrupted, and mesmerism in the 19th century it became widespread, and in diverse forms. First, as a method of surgical anesthesia: “magnetized” patients on the operating table did not feel pain (how can we not recall our contemporary A.M. Kashpirovsky!). Hundreds of successful surgical operations were performed, especially many in England and in its then colony - India. Like Mesmer, his followers - surgeons, obstetricians and dentists - were accused of quackery and shameful contracts with patients. When did simple and reliable chemicals painkillers (ether, chloroform), anesthesiologists around the world began to use them.
But mesmerism still did not disappear - it changed its name and became hypnotism (Greek. - dream, coined by James Brad, 1843). Brad tried to explain the nature of magnetism from the perspective of neuropsychiatry. In those same years (mid-end of the 19th century), homeopathy - sister of mesmerism. Then it became widespread mediumship (lat. - middle , position between spirit and matter; aka - spiritualism, or spiritualism , lat. spiritus - spirit, soul).
Isn’t it the power of thought that has always moved and is moving humanity forward? Isn’t it this force that takes care of us, isn’t it the one that keeps us alive? Isn't science in some way the child of magic? In the author’s opinion, science is a modern, but very shy continuation of magic about its older ancestors. Unfortunately, as often happens in large families, magic, science, and all world religions today, alas, are fiercely opposed to each other. They are mired in disputes, quarrels, and even in open (hot) and secret (cold, propaganda) wars. Of course, not these most venerable trends of human thought themselves, but their adherents - people. But the Orthodox Saint John of Kronstadt (in the world Ivan Ilyich Sergeev, 1829-1908) not only himself, but also with God’s help, healed with prayer ordinary people and reigning persons. He also officially dedicated the first homeopathic clinics in Russia, which have been remarkably preserved to this day and officially operated even in the ideologically harsh Stalinist times.
Mesmer's magnetism at the beginning of the twentieth century became the forerunner of the all-powerful “cosmic magnet” of the Roerich family - physical basis their Teachings, called Agni Yoga or Living Ethics. And at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, this “cosmic magnetism” not only continues to exist, but is also successfully developing. Moreover, even in the forms of traditional science (see, for example, below, as well as the author’s articles (, , , , , , , , ).
Since ancient times, people everywhere have shown interest in the “mysterious power” contained in magnets - stones that attract iron. Natural magnets are pieces magnetic iron ore, or magnetite(31% FeO, 69% Fe 2 O 3). Some etymologists believe that in Russian the double “nn” can be replaced by “gn” and vice versa. Then the word “magnet” is read as “mannit” and can be the same root with the verbs “to lure”, “to lure”. This conveys equally well physical properties both magnet and magic.
Already the priests of the Greek Magnesian temples dedicated to Hercules used magnets for healing and magical use. That's why the magnet was called herculean or Heraclean stone. Some European magicians derive their name from the Sanskrit word magh; its Latinized version magus may come from Sanskrit mahaji - great or wise. They believe that Greek (now Turkish) magnesia, and the “magnesian stone” magnetite, and the magnet as such could be named in honor of the Indian discoverers of its wonderful properties. Pierre de Maricourt introduced European science to magnets in detail in his letter “Message on the Magnet of Pierre de Maricourt, nicknamed Peregrina (wanderer. - B.R.), to the knight Shigeru de Fukokuru" (1269). Be that as it may, magnetism has a long history and is famous for its various, including medicinal, applications.
Mesmer's living legacy today is not only modern magnetotherapy and magnetobiology. This is not only hypnosis with psychotherapy and psychosomatics ( Greek. soma - body). This includes homeopathy and so-called “traditional” or “folk” European and “Oriental” medicine. But don’t the pop “tricks” of Uri Geller and Lior Suchard, who freely bend steel spoons with the “power of thought” and remotely stop clocks, require an immediate revision of our worldview? What did Mesmer bequeath to us in terms of worldview?
The living force of mesmerism
According to Mesmer's teachings, all objects of living and inert nature are interconnected and interact with each other through invisible magnetic flows - jets of “magnetic fluid” ( lat. flue - to flow). Already in 1776, Mesmer came to the conclusion that magnetotherapy has a positive effect on the patient due not only to various kinds magnets, moving, as he first thought, streams of natural magnetic fluid in the patient’s body, and thanks to “animal magnetism” - mysterious forces entering the body and emanating from each person through certain all-pervading channels. Mesmer did not know that such channels ( Skt.. nadi) have long been known to oriental medicine. Otherwise he would have said that those sent by nadi magnetizer in nervous system the patient, mysterious beneficial cosmic energies (forces) are able to change the condition of the organs, curing the most terrible diseases.
Figuratively speaking, if in the first half of his life Mesmer thought that people were healed by his magnets, then in the second half of it he knew that the sick were healed by a “magnetized” person who came into contact with the cosmos - a doctor (hypnotist).
The influence of a person on this force, and it on a person (action is equal to reaction) is carried out and perceived by us as our own will. Cosmic power, like our will, is embodied in the word, posture, movement, and feeling of a person. Or in a physico-chemical effect produced with the help of some creatures (for example, the creative hand of a surgeon, leeches during hirudotherapy or bees at apitherapy), as well as with the help of “inanimate” substances and materials, devices or equipment. An influencing person - a doctor, hypnologist, surgeon, healer - by correctly interacting with cosmic force in any of the above ways, ensures health for himself and his patients.
When healing can be considered as a result of already well-known physical and chemical influences, the good cosmic force remains, as it were, in the shadows. Previously, perhaps a very long time ago, many “completely material” physical and chemical effects were considered as the greatest miracles. But a person gets used to everything: “a daily miracle is not a miracle.” And the wonderful cosmic good force becomes an “element of science”, and its once amazing result becomes an immutable scientific fact. For ignorance of such facts, students are given two marks in exams. And the good cosmic force appears before us in the form of science. Having become scientific knowledge, it helps people to know themselves and the world. cognize spiritual And material- this is what they say if you stand on two opposite poles of an inherently united Knowledge. Elena Ivanovna Roerich attributed the blazing, fiery power diffused in nature and man, To the Cosmic Magnet.
Following the Greek Parmenides (5th century BC), the author presents the world that opens to our minds in the form of a giant openwork ball, covering the entire Universe and containing everything within itself. Should this Ball be considered infinite? Hardly. After all, our world, or more precisely, information about it (and we are not given anything else), quietly fits in our completely “finite” heads. The sphere - the noosphere - consists of the finest branching threads along which magnetic fluxes flow ( power lines Faraday-Dirac). Magnetic Ball The Universe is our common giant Brain, Supercomputer or noosphere - call the world what you like best. Materialized magnetic threads of the noospheric Supercomputer - fluxes - and their varieties, “rings” - fluons and "sticks" - fluxons, - as well as their combinations with ordinary atoms and with each other - nadi And reos(the Latin, Sanskrit and Greek roots of these terms can be translated as channels, jets, streams) - This noosphere neurons(, , , , , , , , ).
One of the clearest confirmations of the unity of the material world with human consciousness is anthropic principle cosmology, established in the science of the twentieth century ( Greek. αντροπος - person). The pioneers in the development of the anthropic principle were the Soviet philosopher and astronomer Grigory Moiseevich Idlis and cosmologist Abram Leonidovich Zelmanov. The finishing touches belong to J. Wheeler, one of the indisputable authorities of physics of the twentieth century. The anthropic principle states that all the most important numerical characteristics of the nature (world) surrounding us are strictly tied to man: if any of the world characteristics ( physical constants) change a little, then human existence becomes impossible. And if so, then why not consider man not only the most important, but also the originally “conceived” component of all nature?
The question of the origin of the Universe is a purely human question. Each of us was born at some point, and we want to know when man as such appeared, and when the Universe appeared. We can reason about any subject using our human knowledge, feelings, sensations. It is not for nothing that Christians have the Son of God - Jesus Christ - in human form. According to an even more ancient tradition of Egyptian magicians, called hermeneutics(the founder is considered to be the Egyptian god Thoth, who is also the “Thrice Greatest” Hermes Trimegistus among the Greeks), anthropics assumes that the Universe is similar to man. The author also sees a similarity in the fact that all living and intelligent objects and subjects of the Universe are structurally thread-like. How thread-like (and smart!) the mycelium is - rhizome , This is how our brain is structurally thread-like, built from neurons, and neurons are made from thread-like molecules. Structurally, the star-studded spiral tangles of the galaxies of the Universe are thread-like.
Hokkaido University biophysics professor Toshiyuki Nakagaki performed experiments related to the growth of filamentous shoots - gifs fungus Physarum polycephalum. The fungus naturally grows on leaves and stones, filling their surface with its hyphae. In Nakagaki's experiments, the hyphae grew in mazes similar to those used to test the intelligence of mice. Spreading in a 30-centimeter labyrinth with a piece of mycelium (mycelium) at the entrance and food at the exit, different hyphae grew and moved toward food along different trajectories, gradually filling the space of the labyrinth. When one of the hyphae finally reached the food, a piece was cut off from it and in a new, exactly the same labyrinth, with food at the exit and a piece of mycelium at the entrance, a new mycelium was grown, the hyphae of which immediately rushed to the food along the shortest route. Fungus remembered and took into account his previous biography! This example is not far from understanding the fundamental nature of living things...
Neuron ( Greek. - vein) - a thread-like brain cell with branches. And flux is a thread-like “cylindrical atom”: in its structure (in cross-section) it is similar to an ordinary spherical atom. Flux, like an ordinary atom, has a central thread-like core, in many cases surrounded by an electron shell. The flux core is an analogue of an electromagnet coil - solenoid (Greek. - tube) with circular currents from u- and d- quarks. Quarks create a beam of Faraday waves inside the solenoid along its entire length (and it can be infinite!) magnetic lines, representing quantized magnetic flux. Such magnetic thread with a variable quark composition along its length and electrons located at the radial periphery of the filament, it can have a complex spatial configuration. The interaction of the threads with each other and with the atomic-molecular substance contained in the “cotton wool” of the fluxes leads to constant and eternal (no friction!) local movement of the threads. In their eternal movement relative to each other and in their self-organization, arising due to resonances, lies the physical beginning of the noospheric mind and life. The undamped movement is expressed in a constant change in the ordered states of the invisible universal “cotton wool” of fluxes. This is it, “sprinkled” with atoms, biologists (mushroom specialists - mycologists, Greek. mikos - mushroom) is called a rhizome.
Astronomers call this same flux “cotton wool”, “sprinkled” with stars, galaxies, galaxy clusters, the Universe (its general structure for us has a network appearance. - Ed.). And physicists - space specialists (cosmologists) - call the “cotton” basis of the Universe dark matter. One might think that our life is determined by the bending of magnetic threads, the flow of currents through them and changes in the quark composition of the elements of the volumetric structure of the cosmic rhizome! What about the energy of the rhizome?
Unlike the usual electron shell of a spherical atom, the flux shell is dense and negatively charged Bose liquid. If an ordinary positively charged atomic nucleus hits the flux, it is enveloped in a negatively charged electron liquid, compensating for its positive charge. Between such nuclei “glued” to the flux, Coulomb repulsive forces no longer act (experts say: Coulomb barrier absent), and the nuclei can easily fuse with each other in the reaction nuclear fusion. Fluxes are excellent catalysts for so-called “cold” (low barrier) catalysts. nuclear reactions. And the current one according to fluxes dark energy transmitted without loss over long distances due to the phenomena superconductivity And superfluidity, characteristic of Bose liquids.
The functioning of organisms requires much larger amounts of memory and much higher speed than previously thought, and a transition from atomic-molecular mechanisms to nuclear processes and structures is necessary. From nanolevel(these are the characteristic sizes of molecules) you need to go down almost a million times deeper - to femto level, to characteristic sizes atomic nuclei(10 -15 m). The quark composition, variable along the length of the flux, ensures the functioning of the magnetic thread memory as a “neuron of the noosphere” with a gigantic information recording density of 10 14 bits/m. Thus, the mechanics of life is the mechanics of dynamic femtosystems from which the world around us is built, and we ourselves. The material world can be likened to a well-coordinated quantum mechanism made from a self-propelled “cotton” flux rhizome.
Who is the creator of this wonderful mechanism that spans the Universe, the smallest details of which are nuclear femto-sized? Who controls this gigantic complexity mechanism? Who is improving it? The traditional answer in religion is God. The traditional atheist answer (called "scientific") is matter. From the perspective of anthropology, you and I, reader, are also participating in this. All three answers converge when reverence - respect for any reasonable opinion, no matter how fantastic it may seem.
Mesmer's cosmic magnet
In 1775, at the height of recognition of the effectiveness of animal magnetism, Mesmer was elected a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Meeting the wishes of his fellow academics, Mesmer revealed the essence of his ideas about the world in 27 theses. These points are highlighted in bold below, some of them followed by a brief final comment from the author (“asterisks”):
1. There is interaction between the celestial bodies, the Earth and animate bodies.
*All bodies of the Universe are permeated with fluxes, which carry out universal interconnection (, , , , , , , , ).
2. The fluid is distributed everywhere, so that emptiness does not exist; this fluid is distinguished by incomparable permeability and by its nature has the ability to perceive, distribute and unite all manifestations of movement, which is how its influence is achieved.
*Fluxes are the neurons of the Super Brain, except for the Thoughts of which, which we perceive as “our thoughts,” there is nothing in the world.
3. This interaction is subject to mechanical laws, unknown to this day.
*Mesmer’s “mechanical laws” are the laws established by modern theoretical physics, which unravels the mysteries of Superbrain programming itself. The author suggests calling this way of cognition hyperphysics , , .
4. It results in alternating effects that can be compared to the ebb and flow of the sea.
*Various types of excitation of fluxes (, , , , , , , , ) in certain areas of the universal rhizome determine the specific state of the Superbrain and its Thoughts. Mesmer emphasizes the wave nature and rhythm of life processes.
5. These ebbs can be more or less general, more or less particular, more or less composite, depending on the nature of the reasons that determine them.
6. It is precisely this process, the most universal of all that nature can present to us, that expresses the interaction between celestial bodies, the Earth and its component parts.
*Noospheric thinking is the most universal natural process.
7. The properties of matter and organized bodies depend on this process.
8. Animal bodies experience the alternative effects of this action, which penetrates into the substance of their nerves and directly excites them.
9. This action causes, especially in humans, properties similar to those of a magnet: the same dissimilar and opposite poles are observed, which can communicate, change, be destroyed or intensified, even deviation phenomena are observed.
10. The ability of the animal body to perceive the influence of celestial bodies and interact with the environment is similar to a magnet, which is why I called it “animal magnetism.”
11. The action and property of “animal magnetism,” thus characterized, can be communicated to other animate and inanimate bodies, since both are capable of such perception.
12. This action and this property can be enhanced and changed by the bodies themselves.
13. Practical observations indicate the existence of a special subtle matter that permeates bodies without revealing a noticeable weakening of its activity.
14. The influence of this matter manifests itself at a great distance without the assistance of an intermediary medium.
*The mediating medium is always there, but in this case it is invisible and imperceptible, since it is the fluxes themselves. (For long-range action, see, for example, , , .)
*If the “magnetic force” is transmitted through flux oscillations, which turn into fluon oscillations, then fluons can be transmitted from one body to any other body.
18. I affirm that animate bodies are not equally capable of perceiving it; It is possible, although very rare, for the appearance of an ability so opposite that its mere presence is completely sufficient to destroy the entire influence of “animal magnetism” on other bodies.
*It is possible to block any noospheric influence by any person due to the anthropic principle of the world order. Thus, our ability to voluntarily or unwittingly block the will of a doctor, medium, or magician prevents the scientific recognition of the possibility of miracles.
19. This opposite faculty also permeates all bodies and can, in turn, be communicated, multiplied, accumulated, concentrated, transferred, reflected by a mirror, amplified by sound, which indicates not only negative, but also positive side opposite force.
*Mechanism of flux transmission of signals, both stimulating and blocking physical phenomena, is the same.
20. The magnet, natural or artificial, is also, like other bodies, sensitive to "animal magnetism" and the force opposite to it, although in neither case does its action on fire and darkness undergo any change, which shows that the beginning "animal magnetism" differs significantly from the beginning of mineral magnetism.
*Mesmer’s mineral magnetism is also associated with fluxes, but the connection between Thought and matter is hidden in the unconscious of our psyche [2],), details of the connection are established hyperphysics.
22. It will make it possible to understand that the magnet and artificial electricity in relation to diseases are distinguished by properties common to thousands of other agents known in nature, and that if this magnet and this electricity exhibit some beneficial effects on the sick, then they owe this to “animal magnetism” .
*Fluxes and fluons are saturated with healing information of the “noospheric man”. So are both the patient and his doctor. To a greater extent, healers, healers, shamans, magicians, and saints are “noospheric”.
23. With the help of the practical rules I have established, it will actually be proven that the principle of “animal magnetism” can cure nervous diseases directly and others indirectly.
*Indeed, flux signals affect the patient’s brain, and the brain affects the rest of the body.
24. With its help, medicine will gain a clear understanding of the use of drugs, improve their action, make it possible to cause and manage a beneficial crisis, and thereby provide a service to the doctor.
*This prediction of Mesmer, based on the works of Paracelsus, was implemented on a large scale by Christian Hahnemann, creating homeopathy.
25. Having outlined my method, I will try to prove it using new theory substances the usefulness of a universal principle, which I contrast with modern medicine.
26. With this knowledge for medicine, both the beginning, nature, and development of diseases, even the most complex ones, will become clear; it will prevent their intensification, and cure will be achieved without the risk for the patient to be exposed to severe and often regrettable accidents in their consequences, whatever his age, temperament and gender, even for women in a state of pregnancy and childbirth.
27. This doctrine will finally make it possible to judge the degree of health of each individual and the presence of already existing but not yet manifested diseases. The art of treatment will thus reach its highest perfection.
Having sent out his 27 theses to all the scientific communities of Europe, Mesmer received the only response: the Berlin Academy of Sciences called him a dreamer, and his healing method was erroneous.
The 18th century gave humanity not only musicians, writers and scientists, but also an amazing breed of pseudo-scientific figures, capable of making a brilliant discovery, a multi-step intrigue or a deafening scandal out of nothing. A true master in all these matters was Franz Anton Mesmer, who, nevertheless, is considered the founder of modern hypnosis.
Lover of the arts, connoisseur of people
The future “father of hypnosis” was born in 1734 in a small German town into a respectable family of a huntsman. As was expected in those days, little Franz received a very diverse education: the boy studied philosophy, law, theology and rhetoric, but in the end chose the medical path.
He entered medical school at the University of Vienna, however, he studied without much zeal and graduated only at the age of 32, having defended his dissertation “On the influence of stars and planets as healing forces.” The topic, as we see, was not entirely medical. The content of the work caused confusion among the examiners: Mesmer declared in it that the constellations are capable of influencing a person through a mysterious force, the so-called “universal fluid”, which permeates the entire Universe, and at the same time human beings.
The dissertation had little to do with science, but was filled with mysticism, and it remains a mystery why it was accepted. Apparently, Mesmer was quite eloquent and managed to convince the commission that he was right.
Having become a doctor, Mesmer was in no hurry to delve into medicine. He made acquaintance with a rich widow, got married happily and took up what his soul was in - music, home theater and organizing noisy holidays. Haydn, Mozart, Gluck and other famous musicians were regulars at his salon at that time.
The owner himself played the cello, clavier, and even personally built a glass harmonica, the sound of which was praised by all the guests. He could have lived in high society for a long time if not for an annoying surprise: Mesmer suddenly ran out of money. This is not surprising, since holidays, home theater productions and other social expenses required a fair amount of money.
Anyone would have fallen into despondency, but not Mesmer. The medical degree was still valid and allowed him to earn a living, although perhaps not as luxurious as before. True, Mesmer was going to surround medical practice with theatrical entertainment, and for this it was necessary to come up with a fundamentally new method of treatment. And chance allowed Mesmer to discover such a method just when the need arose.
Foundation of the Universe
In the summer of 1774, a visiting Englishman turned to astronomer Maximilian Gell with a request to make a specially shaped magnet for his wife to treat stomach cramps.
Gell told Mesmer about the unusual order, and he immediately seized on it. interesting idea. Less than a month had passed before he had already tested miraculous magnets on one of his patients. Fraulein Esterlein suffered from migraines, hysterical attacks, convulsions and vomiting, and none of the remedies suggested by Mesmer helped her. But as soon as several strong magnets were placed on the girl’s chest, the convulsions sharply intensified and stopped almost immediately.
After several sessions, the patient was completely cured, and Mesmer made an attempt to present his newest method to his fellow scientists. He was not successful in scientific circles, which did not stop the innovator from opening his own clinic and taking up magnet treatment on an ever-increasing scale.
In order for the treatment to have a scientific basis, Mesmer came up with the theory of so-called animal magnetism, according to which everything around - from nature to living beings - is permeated with magnetic fluids. A person should be considered healthy if his fluids move through the body correctly. But it's worth it magnetic lines at least a little distorted, as the body is overcome by illnesses. To get rid of them, it is necessary to use magnets that can direct magnetic currents in the right direction.
As time passed, the number of patients grew geometric progression, and Mesmer began to think about the accumulation of magnetic fluids, which could provide treatment to entire groups of patients at the same time.
After thinking a little, he came up with a “health tub” - a large wooden vat containing bottles of magnetized water. The bottles were connected to steel plates around an iron rod, from which wires ran to the patients' diseased organs. The patients sat around the unit, touching each other with their hands, which ensured better flow of fluids. During the sessions, Mesmer moved along the circle of patients, looking intently into the eyes of each of them in turn.
The healer's fame grew so quickly that soon the miraculous tub could no longer cope with the cure of those who wanted it. Mesmer, however, was only pleased by this. He magnetized an entire marble pool, and then also the trees in his park, so that the fluids hovered uncontrollably absolutely everywhere. It would seem that all these dubious actions looked much more like quackery than a new word in medicine, but the number of patients not only did not decrease, but, on the contrary, kept increasing.
The success was so obvious that the Bavarian Academy of Sciences solemnly elected Mesmer as a member. However, this was the first and last example of official recognition of the magnetizer's work. The published 27 theses on animal magnetism did not find a response in any other scientific community. The Berlin Academy of Sciences called Mesmer a dreamer, and branded his method as erroneous.
All that remained was to be consoled by the number of recovered patients and the financial success of the enterprise. The treatment with fluids seemed to be going well. took its course, but Mesmer was haunted by one inexplicable oddity, to which at first he did not pay attention at all.
"This is the power of the magnetizer himself"
In some patients, miraculous healing occurred even before exposure to magnets, as a result of just one conversation with the healer. One day Mesmer was working with a group of women who were deaf and had lost their voice. As soon as he went out to the patients and carefully examined them, two of them immediately regained their hearing and voice, and several other ladies felt a noticeable improvement.
No one, of course, noticed that the matter had not come to magnets, but Mesmer himself was at a loss. Obviously, in a number of cases, it was not the magnets to which the doctor attributed a miraculous effect that had a therapeutic effect on patients, but Mesmer himself, his personality, bewitching gaze and hand passes. Just one step was not enough for the magnetizer to reach the present scientific discovery: Suggestion sometimes works better on patients than any medicine. But fearing for the well-functioning harmonious treatment scheme, Mesmer stubbornly continued to develop the idea of miraculous fluids permeating the Universe.
Doctors throughout Europe unanimously considered him a charlatan and little by little ridiculed his method with increasing zeal. Anonymous articles and poetic libels about the deceiving doctor appeared, but for a long time they did not dare to persecute him openly. However, Mesmer's enemies soon had the opportunity to significantly spoil his medical reputation.
One day, a certain Maria Theresa von Paradise, who became blind in early childhood, turned to a healer. This girl was such a talented musician that the empress herself patronized her. The best ophthalmologists in Vienna did not help Maria regain her sight; they considered her blindness incurable due to damage to the optic nerves.
Mesmer, however, considered the nature of her illness to be hysterical and began treatment. Magnetism did not fail: the girl partially regained her sight. But a specially assembled medical council decided that the return of vision was suggested to the patient, but in fact there was no improvement. As a result, Maria again became completely blind, and an unheard-of scandal broke out.
The healer had to give up all his acquired property and clientele and leave Germany. First he moved to Switzerland, and after some time he found himself in Paris.
The finale of an adventurous biography
It must be admitted that Mesmer arrived in Paris on time. On the eve of the revolution, French society was more interested in magic, fortune telling, and the like than ever. The wonderful methods of the German physician created a sensation in Parisian living rooms. Mesmer's popularity grew day by day, everyone was interested in him, from the common people to the royal couple.
Mesmer himself did not consider himself a sorcerer and did not find anything mystical in his theory. On the contrary, he believed that he was healing on the basis of a strict scientific theory, and he passionately desired to gain recognition in the scientific world. But the French Academy of Sciences, having received unflattering reviews of Mesmer from their Viennese colleagues, completely ignored the dubious magnetism. And although the success of the healer in French salons was absolute, scientists were in no hurry to recognize the new method.
Louis XVI issued a decree obliging the scientific world to make a final decision on Mesmer's methods. The commission in its conclusion firmly stated that there is no animal magnetism, but noted something in the personality of the physician: “Everything is determined by the person himself, magnetizing patients... There is undoubtedly a certain force at work here that controls the actions of a person and subjugates them to itself. This is the power of the magnetizer himself.”
The verdict was final and deprived Mesmer of any hope of gaining recognition among his colleagues. Deprived of any further reason for existence, he went to Switzerland and lived there in the wilderness for several more decades, so unnoticed that many considered him dead.
Even during his lifetime, Mesmer found followers, but he himself died forgotten. Stefan Zweig wrote about him: “There is hardly an example in all of world history of such a rapid fall from the peak of noisy glory into the abyss of oblivion and obscurity...”
Ekaterina KRAVTSOVA