Mesmerism and hypnosis are historically related, but they are not the same thing.
Mesmerism was an eighteenth-century healing system associated with Franz Anton Mesmer. It was based on the idea that a natural force—called animal magnetism—flowed through living beings and could be directed to restore health.
Hypnosis is a later term for a set of procedures and responses involving focused attention, absorption, suggestion, and changes in perception or behavior. It does not require belief in magnetic fluids or any other invisible healing force.
Mesmerism helped draw attention to phenomena that later became important in hypnosis, including expectation, suggestion, attention, and the relationship between practitioner and client. Its theory of animal magnetism, however, is not supported by modern scientific evidence.
What Was Mesmerism?
Franz Anton Mesmer was an Austrian physician who became well known in Europe during the late eighteenth century. He proposed that an invisible natural force moved through living organisms. He called this force animal magnetism.
According to Mesmer’s theory:
The force existed in and around living beings.
Health depended on its proper flow.
Illness resulted from an obstruction or imbalance.
A practitioner could correct the problem by directing the force.
Mesmer initially used magnets in some of his treatments. He later relied more heavily on gestures, hand movements, and passes made near a person’s body. He believed these actions transmitted or redirected animal magnetism.
The word mesmerism came to refer both to Mesmer’s theory and to the practices associated with it.
What Happened During Mesmerist Treatments?
Mesmer sometimes treated people individually, but he also conducted group sessions. These could involve a device known as a baquet: a large container associated with iron rods, which participants might hold while sitting around it.
Reports from the period describe patients experiencing:
Trembling
Crying
Fainting
Muscle movements
Emotional reactions
Changes in awareness
A calm or trance-like state
Mesmer and his followers interpreted these responses as signs that animal magnetism was moving through the body or being restored to balance.
From a modern perspective, the reactions may have resulted from a combination of expectation, suggestion, attention, social influence, emotional arousal, and the setting of the treatment. This interpretation does not mean that people were pretending. A person can experience genuine changes in pain, emotion, movement, or awareness even when the explanation offered for those changes is incorrect.
Did Animal Magnetism Exist?
Modern science does not support the existence of a special magnetic fluid that can be manipulated by a practitioner to cure illness.
Mesmer’s claim was tested during investigations commissioned in France in 1784. The committees included prominent scientists and physicians, including Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier. The investigators found no reliable evidence for a physical force corresponding to animal magnetism. They concluded that expectation and imagination could account for many of the reported effects.¹
The investigations did not prove that every experience reported during mesmerist treatment was false. Rather, they challenged the proposed explanation. The experiences could occur without the existence of animal magnetism.
This distinction remains important:
The theory of animal magnetism is not accepted by modern science.
The experiences reported by people during mesmerist sessions may have involved real changes in perception, emotion, behavior, or bodily symptoms.
The mechanisms may have included suggestion, expectation, attention, social context, and emotional response.
How Did Mesmerism Contribute to Hypnosis?
Mesmerism was one of several historical influences on the development of hypnosis. Two figures are especially important.
Marquis de Puységur
In the 1780s, the Marquis de Puységur reported that some people entered a quiet, responsive state during mesmerist treatment. He called this state artificial somnambulism.
People in this state did not always display the dramatic reactions associated with Mesmer’s group sessions. Some appeared calm, focused, and able to respond to suggestions. These observations helped shift attention toward altered consciousness and psychological response.
James Braid
The Scottish physician James Braid observed demonstrations of mesmerism but rejected the explanation based on animal magnetism. He proposed that many of the effects could be produced through attention, concentration, and changes in nervous-system functioning.
Braid introduced the term hypnotism, drawing on the Greek word for sleep, although he later recognized that hypnosis was not simply sleep. His work helped move discussion away from magnetic forces and toward attention, suggestion, and observable responses.²
Mesmerism therefore influenced the history of hypnosis, but hypnosis developed through a change in explanation and method rather than through simple renaming.
Mesmerism and Hypnosis: Main Differences
Mesmerism | Hypnosis |
|---|---|
Originated in the eighteenth century | Developed as a later psychological and clinical concept |
Associated with Franz Anton Mesmer | Associated with several later researchers and clinicians |
Based originally on animal magnetism | Does not require belief in a magnetic fluid |
Often involved passes, gestures, ritual, and special equipment | May involve verbal suggestions, imagery, focused attention, or other procedures |
Explained effects through a physical or semi-physical force | Commonly explained through attention, expectation, suggestion, absorption, and social or cognitive processes |
Often presented as a healing system | Used as a research method or as an adjunct to some forms of clinical care |
Historically important | Continues to be studied and used in some professional settings |
The terms are sometimes used loosely, especially in historical writing or popular culture. In a precise sense, however, they refer to different traditions.
What Do Mesmerism and Hypnosis Have in Common?
Although their theories differ, mesmerism and hypnosis share several features:
Focused attention
The person may concentrate on the practitioner, an idea, an image, a bodily sensation, or an internal experience.Expectation
What someone expects to happen can influence how they interpret sensations and how they respond to suggestions.Suggestion
Words, tone of voice, gestures, and context can influence perception, emotion, movement, and reported symptoms.A structured setting
A formal procedure can signal that something important is about to happen and help organize attention.A relationship with the practitioner
Trust, confidence, cooperation, and perceived authority can affect a person’s response.Absorption
Some people become deeply involved in an image, thought, feeling, or activity while noticing less of what is happening around them.
These factors are not unique to hypnosis. They can also influence responses in ordinary social interactions, medical care, psychotherapy, religious practices, performance, and other settings.
Why Did Mesmerism Appear to Work?
Several processes may help explain why mesmerist treatments could seem powerful.
Expectation
If people expect a treatment to produce relief or a dramatic reaction, that expectation can shape their experience. Expectations may affect how sensations are noticed, interpreted, and reported.
Suggestion
A practitioner’s words and behavior can guide attention and influence how a person understands what is happening. Suggestions may concern relaxation, warmth, movement, pain, emotion, or recovery.
Attention
Directing attention toward a body part or internal experience can change the way sensations are perceived. Attention can also make some sensations more noticeable while reducing awareness of others.
Social influence
In a group setting, one person’s reaction can affect other people’s expectations and responses. The visible reactions of others may reinforce the belief that a powerful process is taking place.
Ritual and meaning
Objects, movements, formal procedures, and confident explanations can give a treatment meaning. Meaning can influence expectation and the way a person responds.
Emotional expression
Some people may have used the treatment setting to express distress, release emotion, or respond to a strong interpersonal experience. Such responses could be interpreted at the time as evidence of an invisible force.
These possibilities do not establish that mesmerism was an effective medical treatment. They help explain why experiences during mesmerist sessions could be intense and convincing.
Is Mesmerism the Same as Hypnosis?
No.
A useful summary is:
Mesmerism was a historical theory and healing practice based on animal magnetism. Hypnosis is a later term associated with focused attention, suggestion, and changes in perception or behavior.
A mesmerist might have believed that a physical force was being transmitted through the hands. A hypnotist does not need to hold that belief. Hypnosis can be studied without assuming that a magnetic substance or invisible fluid is involved.
Some historical mesmerist practices may have produced responses that resemble hypnosis. Similar responses do not make the two systems identical.
Is Hypnosis a Trance?
The word trance is often used informally, but it can create confusion. Hypnosis is not necessarily a dramatic or unconscious condition. A person may remain aware of the practitioner, hear what is being said, and remember the session afterward.
Hypnotic responses vary widely. Some people experience:
Increased relaxation
Absorption in imagery
Changes in pain perception
A sense of heaviness or lightness
Altered time perception
Emotional changes
Increased responsiveness to suggestions
Others experience only subtle changes. Hypnosis does not guarantee a particular response, and it does not remove a person’s ability to make decisions.
Can Mesmerism Cure Illness?
There is no reliable scientific basis for claiming that animal magnetism cures disease.
A person may report feeling better after a mesmerist session for many reasons, including relaxation, expectation, attention, emotional support, natural symptom fluctuation, or changes in behavior. Improvement alone does not demonstrate that animal magnetism exists or that a particular treatment caused the improvement.
Mesmerism should not replace medical evaluation or evidence-based care. Anyone with persistent, severe, or unexplained symptoms should seek appropriate medical advice.
What Does “Mesmerized” Mean Today?
The everyday word mesmerized comes from Mesmer’s name. Today it usually means deeply fascinated, absorbed, or unable to look away.
Popular culture often presents mesmerism as:
Mind control
Magical eye contact
Instant obedience
Supernatural influence
Complete loss of free will
These portrayals are not accurate descriptions of hypnosis or historical mesmerism. Human responses to suggestion are more variable and depend on factors such as attention, expectations, motivation, context, and the relationship between the people involved.
Why Does Mesmerism Still Matter?
Mesmerism matters mainly for historical and psychological reasons.
Historically, it helped stimulate sustained interest in:
Suggestion
Altered attention
Trance-like behavior
Mind-body interactions
The role of the practitioner
The effects of expectation and social context
It also shows how an incorrect theory can be connected to genuine observations. Mesmer’s explanation was not supported, but people did experience real changes during his treatments. Later researchers increasingly examined those changes through psychological and physiological explanations rather than animal magnetism.
For modern hypnosis, the central lesson is that an experience can be real even when the explanation given for it is wrong.
The Bottom Line
Mesmerism and hypnosis are related but different.
Mesmerism was an eighteenth-century system based on Franz Anton Mesmer’s theory of animal magnetism.
Animal magnetism is not supported as a physical healing force.
Hypnosis developed later as a framework involving focused attention, suggestion, absorption, expectation, and changes in perception or behavior.
Mesmerism helped direct attention toward phenomena that became important in hypnosis, but it is not simply another word for hypnosis.
Neither term should be used to imply automatic mind control or guaranteed medical healing.
Mesmerism is best understood as an important historical predecessor to hypnosis—not as a scientifically supported magnetic treatment and not as an exact synonym for hypnotic practice.
Notes
Royal Commission, Report of the Commissioners Charged by the King with the Examination of Animal Magnetism, Paris, 1784. The commission included Benjamin Franklin, Antoine Lavoisier, and other physicians and scientists. Its report rejected animal magnetism as a demonstrated physical force and emphasized imagination and expectation as explanations for many observed effects.
James Braid, Neurypnology; or, the Rationale of Nervous Sleep, Considered in Relation with Animal Magnetism, John Churchill, 1843. Braid developed an account centered on attention and nervous-system processes rather than Mesmer’s theory of animal magnetism.