Popular Superstitions, and the Truths Contained Therein: With an Account of Mesmerism — John Shaqi
Popular Superstitions, and the Truths Contained Therein: With an Account of MesmerismMayo, Herbert
History
Popular Superstitions, and the Truths Contained Therein: With an Account of Mesmerism
Mayo, Herbert
Mesmerism; Parapsychology and medicine; Superstition
1. It is shown, by the testimony adduced, that whereas in the hands
of most persons the divining rod remains motionless, in the hands of
some it moves promptly and briskly when the requisite conditions are
observed.
2. It is no less certain that the motion of the divining rod has
appeared, to various intelligent and honest persons, who have succeeded
in producing it, to be entirely spontaneous; or that the said persons
were not conscious of having excited or promoted the motion by the
slightest help of their own.
3. It appears that in the ordinary use of the divining rod by competent
persons, its motion only manifests itself in certain localities.
4. It being assumed that the operator does not, however unconsciously,
by the muscular action of his hands and wrists produce the motion of
the divining rod, the likeliest way of accounting for the phenomenon is
to suppose that the divining rod may become the conductor of some fluid
or force, emanating from or disturbed in the body by a terrestrial
agency.
But here a difficulty arises: How can it happen that the hypothetical
force makes so long and round-about a course? Why, communicated to the
body through the legs, does not the supposed fluid complete a circuit
at once in the lower part of the trunk?
Such, at all events, would be the course an electric current so
circumstanced would take.
The difficulty raised admits of being removed by aid derived from
a novel and unexpected source. I allude to the discovery, by Von
Reichenbach, of a new force or principle in the physical world, which,
whether or not it is identical with that which gives motion to the
divining rod, exhibits, at all events, the very property which the
hypothetical principle should possess to explain the phenomena which we
have been considering.
No attempts have indeed been made to identify the two as one; and my
conjecture that they may prove so, should it even appear plausible,
is so vague, that I should have contented myself with referring to
Von Reichenbach’s new principle as to an established truth, and have
introduced no account of it into this Letter, had I not a second
motive for insuring your cognisance of the curious facts which the
Viennese philosopher has brought to light. It is less with the view
of furnishing a leg to the theory of the divining rod, than in order
to provide the means of elucidating more interesting problems, that
I now proceed briefly to sketch the leading experiments made by Von
Reichenbach, and their results.
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