The facts in the case of M. Valdemar

The Facts in the case of

M. Valdemar

Mesmerism

• Animal magnetism

• Trance

• Hypnosis

• Altered state

• Medical fraud

• Early evidence of PNI

• Austrian Physician (1734-1815)

Franz Anton Mesmer

Invisible ‘fluid’ – ‘the force’

Invisible ‘fluid’ – ‘the force’

• Affected by magnets & ‘passes’

• Mesmeric tubs & chains

The Mesmeric Process

Surgery without anaesthetic!

Dismissed by Royal Commission (1784)

It’s clearly a load of old

codswallop!

But persists as ‘pseudo-science’

What if…

There was a Mesmeric fluid?

What if…

It could induce a ‘suspension’ of consciousness?

And what if…

You mesmerised a man about to die from terminal illness?

Could life be extended indefinitely until a cure could be found?

Medical Vocabulary

In articulo mortis = ‘at the point of death’

Phthisis = tuberculosis (disease of the lungs – consumption)

Semi-osseous = partly ‘fossilised’

Cartilaginous = gristly

Aneurism = abnormal enlargement

Aorta = heart’s artery

‘amid ejaculations of ‘Dead! Dead! absolutely bursting from the tongue …’

Ejaculation = ‘outburst’