99:18 Those individuals, who adopt theosophy, spiritualism, or hypnotism, may possess natures above some others who eschew their false beliefs. Therefore my contest is 99:21 not with the individual, but with the false system. I love mankind, and shall continue to labor and to endure. The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the 99:24 manifestations of which are health, purity, and self- immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposi- 99:27 tion, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man. CHAPTER V - ANIMAL MAGNETISM UNMASKED For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man. - JESUS. Earliest investigations 100:1 MESMERISM or animal magnetism was first brought into notice by Mesmer in Germany in 1775. Ac- 100:3 cording to the American Cyclopaedia, he regarded this so-called force, which he said could be ex- erted by one living organism over another, as 100:6 a means of alleviating disease. His propositions were as follows: "There exists a mutual influence between the celestial 100:9 bodies, the earth, and animated things. Animal bodies are susceptible to the influence of this agent, disseminat- ing itself through the substance of the nerves." 100:12 In 1784, the French government ordered the medical faculty of Paris to investigate Mesmer's theory and to report upon it. Under this order a commission was 100:15 appointed, and Benjamin Franklin was one of the com- missioners. This commission reported to the govern- ment as follows: 100:18 "In regard to the existence and utility of animal mag- netism, we have come to the unanimous conclusions that there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic 101:1 fluid; that the violent effects, which are observed in the public practice of magnetism, are due to manipula- 101:3 tions, or to the excitement of the imagination and the impressions made upon the senses; and that there is one more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of 101:6 the human mind, and an important experiment upon the power of the imagination." Clairvoyance, magnetism In 1837, a committee of nine persons was appointed, 101:9 among whom were Roux, Bouillaud, and Clo- quet, which tested during several sessions the phenomena exhibited by a reputed clairvoyant. Their 101:12 report stated the results as follows: