Theos-Talk Archives (March 2002 Message tt00500)

1. Theosophical belief in the Devil.

Dallas in his recent posting on "Astral Body of Man" presents a 
Theosophical belief in the "Devil" that needs to driven out 
by "Magnetism."

I think it is therefore in place to explain a bit about the
development of this theosophical Mesmerism.

Mesmer had started in Vienna and then moved to Paris, where he 
started the (Masonic) "Loge de I'Harmonie" and eventually the
"Societe de I'Harmonie Universelle". The plan was to enlist one hundred
charter members, each of whom would pay Mesmer a one time 
membership fee of one hundred louis d'or. Others would be able to join 
for a fee, in return for which Mesmer would agree to teach them how to 
apply animal magnetism. At the end of a series of sessions, the students 
would receive a diploma to practice animal magnetism, and this would 
alone legitimize practitioners; only they would be allowed to set up 
magnetic clinics. The form of the contract was finalized on March 10, 
1783.

His assistent Bergasse worked assiduously to promote the society, and 
the one hundred charter members were soon found. The society's first 
membership lists included some illustrious names, such as the marquis 
de Lafayette, the marquis de Chastellux, the comte de Puys6gur, and
the comte de Choiseur. Also on the lists was P6re Charles Hervier of the 
Augustine convent in Paris, who was himself cured of a nervous
disorder by animal magnetism and went on to promote the system and 
encourage others to take treatment. The initial members of the
society came from a variety of backgrounds, but by and large they were 
men of intellect and means.

When the Society of Harmony began its meetings, Nicolas Bergasse was 
the main speaker. Mesmer, not very confident in his powers of 
elocution, was glad to leave that task to Bergasse. In the process
of carrying out his duties, Bergasse wrote a philosophical guidebook to
the theory of animal magnetism for the society's adepts entitled Thiorie
du monde et des etres organisis suivant les principes de M . . .
(1784c). In its structure and in the conduct of its meetings, the Society of
Harmony resembled the many secret mystical societies of the day, 
particularly masonic groups. 

Bergasse's treatise, composed in a coded format reminiscent of 
alchemical works, could be understood only by initiates of the
society, who bad been given the key to the code. Bergasse elaborated 
on Mesmer's basic principles but developed political and social
implications far beyond anything Mesmer ever taught.

After the first Society of Harmony was formed in Paris, others were 
founded in the provinces, at Lyon, Strasbourg, Bayonne, Montpellier, 
Dijon, Nantes, Marseille, Bordeaux, and Lausanne. 

Mesmer emphasized the importance of understanding the nature of 
the "magnetic fluid" in order to grasp the essence of healing through 
animal magnetism. 

One of his students, Puysegur however, while not denying the
existence of the fluid, thougt knowledge of it irrelevant to magnetic 
healing: "I do not know any longer if there is a magnetic fluid, an 
electric fluid, a luminous fluid, etc. I am only sure and certain that to 
magnetize well it is absolutely useless to know whether a single fluid 
exists or not" (1820)

To say that Mesmer's orientation was physicalist is not to deny him
his due on the level of psychology. From certain points of view one 
might see Mesmer as a master psychologist. His instincts told him he 
had to pay attention to the psychology of his patients and enhance his 
treatment with drama where possible. He certainly knew how to create 
a mood of mystery and expectation of cure in his healing salons, how
to orchestrate the patient's environment to produce a state of great 
suggestibility, and how to employ paraphernalia and costume to focus 
the patient's attention on himself as master healer.

But Mesmer was not the one to develop the potential of his system to 
explore the human psyche. First of all, Mesmer's psychological 
canniness was more instinctual than thought out. He exercised it on
the level of his magnetic practice but never attempted a theoretical 
discussion of this aspect of his technique. Second, Mesmer's 
psychological canniness had a very narrow focus: to create an 
atmosphere of confidence and heightened expectation of cure. He did 
not look more deeply into the minds of his patients to see why this
was important, what it might indicate about the nature of human 
psychological functioning, and what further potentials for
psychological healing his system might reveal. Third, Mesmer did not 
recognize the significance of magnetic somnambulism. This was a 
crucial oversight, undoubtedly produced by a flaw in Mesmer's own 
psychology: since he was not the first to point out the importance of 
magnetic somnambulism, he could not bring himself to give it its due.

With the publication of the Memoires in 1784, Puysegur split the 
magnetic tradition in two. Many continued to follow Mesmer's approach 
to the letter, ignoring or downplaying Puys6gur's findings on
magnetic sleep. Others received Puysegur's discoveries enthusiastically 
and began to carry out research of their own in the same psychological
direction. 


Bri.
--- In theos-talk@y..., <dalval14@e...> wrote:

MAGNETIC IMPRESSION

Keeping the present case in view, we see a man highly susceptible
to magnetic impressions, ignorant of the nature of the
"materializations" and, therefore, unable to protect himself
against bad influences, brought in contact with promiscuous
circles where the impressionable medium has long been the
unwitting nucleus of evil magnetisms, his system, saturated with
the emanations of the surviving thoughts and desires of those who
are living and those who are dead.

The reader is referred to an interesting paper by Judge Gadgil of
Baroda (see our December number), on "Hindu Ideas about Communion
with the Dead," for a plain exposition of this question of
earth-tied souls, or Pisachas. "It is considered," says that
writer, "that in this state, the soul, being deprived of the
means of enjoyment of sensual pleasures through its own physical
body, is perpetually tormented by hunger, appetite and other
bodily desires, and can have only vicarious enjoyment by entering
into the living physical bodies of others, or by absorbing the
subtlest essences of libations and oblations offered for their
own sake." [Shraddha and Pinda -- see Thst, Vol. III, p. 119-20]

What is there to surprise us in the fact that a negatively
polarized man, a man of a susceptible temperament, being suddenly
brought into a current of foul emanations from some vicious
person, perhaps still living or perhaps dead, absorbs the
insidious poison as rapidly as quicklime does moisture, until he
is saturated with it? Thus, a susceptible body will absorb the
virus of small-pox, or cholera, or typhus, and we need only
recall this to draw the analogy which Occult Science affirms to
be warranted.

Near the Earth's surface there hangs over us--to use a convenient
simile--a steamy moral fog, composed of the undispersed
exhalations of human vice and passion. This fog penetrates the
sensitive to the very soul's core; his psychic self absorbs it as
the sponge does water, or as fresh milk effluvia. It benumbs his
moral sense, spurs his baser instincts into activity, overpowers
his good resolutions. As the fumes of a wine-vault make the
brain reel, or as the choke-damp stifles one's breath in a mine,
so this heavy cloud of immoral influences carries away the
sensitive beyond the limits of self-control, and he becomes
"obsessed," like our English patient.

What remedy is there to suggest? Does not our very diagnosis
indicate that? The sensitive must have his sensitiveness
destroyed; the negative polarity must be changed to a positive;
he must become active instead of passive. He can be helped by a
magnetizer who understands the nature of the obsession, and who
is morally pure and physically healthy; it must be a powerful
magnetizer, a man of commanding will-force.
But the fight for freedom will, after all, have to be fought by
the patient himself. His will-power must be aroused. He must
expel the poison from his system. Inch by inch he must win back
the lost ground. He must realise that it is a question of life
or death, salvation or ruin, and strive for victory, like one who
makes a last and heroic effort to save his life. His diet must be
of the simplest, he must neither eat animal food, nor touch any
stimulant, nor put himself in any company where there is the
smallest chance for unclean thoughts to be provoked. He should
be alone as little as possible, but his companions should be care
fully chosen. He should take exercise and be much in the open
air; use wood-fire, instead of coals. Every indication that the
bad influence was still working within him should be taken as a
challenge to control his thoughts and compel them to dwell upon
pure, elevating, spiritual things, at every hazard and with a
determination to suffer anything rather than give way. If this
man can have such a spirit infused into him, and his physician
can secure the benevolent help of a strong healthy magnetizer of
pure character, he may be saved. A case almost exactly like this
one, except that the patient was a lady, came under our notice in
America; the same advice as the above was given and followed,
and the obsessing "devil" was driven out and has been kept out
ever since. -- H. P. Blavatsky

THEOSOPHIST, May 1880