the facts in the case of m. valdemar
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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’
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