The evil of mesmerism
We say that one human mind can influence another and
in this way affect the body, but we rarely remember that
we govern our own bodies. The error, mes-
merism - or hypnotism, to use the recent term
- illustrates the fact just stated. The operator would
make his subjects believe that they cannot act voluntarily
and handle themselves as they should do. If they yield
to this influence, it is because their belief is not better
instructed by spiritual understanding. Hence the proof
that hypnotism is not scientific; Science cannot produce
both disorder and order. The involuntary pleasure or
pain of the person under hypnotic control is proved to be
a belief without a real cause.
