*The REALL News*

"It's a very dangerous thing to believe in nonsense." -- James Randi


Volume 7 Issue 3 March 1999

Dr. Kreider Speaks Out
Part 3: On Mesmerism

by Randy Alley

xDr. Kreider's outrage did not stop with phrenology. He was also skeptical of another pseudoscience: mesmerism or, as Mesmer originally called it, animal magnetism.

As you will recall (Vol. 6, #10), Franz Anton Mesmer was a German physician who developed the theory of animal magnetism (mesmerism). Animal magnetism decreed that magnetic forces from stars, planets, and objects exerted influences on all living things. Mesmer proposed that these magnetic forces could be directed and used to cure physical ailments and diseases. Kreider recognized that mesmerism was fraudulent and was determined to convince others. Kreider began his discussion against the validity of mesmerism by presenting the comical situations associated with it. He then finished with a review of the commissions on mesmerism.MoreMore

 

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