Mesmerize (rem.): enchant, charm, seduce.
Marbleized: enchanted, charmed, captivated.
Mesmeric: seductive. From the name of the doctor and astrophysicist Franz Anton Mesmer.
In 1784, Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier attempted the first public placebo experiment to debunk magic. A rock of scandal was Franz Anton Mesmer who had developed a healing method after researching a famous priest-exorcist, claiming he could achieve the same results without the need to invoke God or Jesus. In his view, he had discovered "animal magnetism", a fluid analogous to the force of gravity, with which his "bewitched" patients (usually women) would experience a seizure with convulsions, crying, uncontrolled gesticulation and fainting. By the way, many "bewitched" patients of Mesmer, after the crisis, said that they saw beneficial results.
Naturally, controversy ensued, as with all such controversial experiments, with Louis XVI appointing a royal commission. Her purpose was not to discover whether "animal magnetism" really did heal, but whether there really was a new physical force. And so the placebo experiment was carried out, with the scientific team administering the fake objects and the real ones in such a way that the patients would not know which was which. So some patients went into a state of amok when they were told that the water they drank was bewitched, but felt nothing when they drank water with "animal magnetism," and the panel concluded that the results all belonged to the realm of the imagination.
But behind all this, there is a history of trick tests and diabolical feuds, religious fanaticism and evil spirits that never existed.
Historically, from 900 to 1400 AD. the church did not accept the existence of witches and therefore did not prosecute people for witchcraft. But a few centuries later, he would change his mind. And the religious - Protestant - reformation played a role in this. So in 1517, with the reformation, the two churches, Catholic and Protestant, trying either to keep their followers or to increase them, used the trials as a means of attraction. The basis of exorcisms was found in the Gospels: according to Mark Jesus declared that in his name the devils would be cast out, according to Matthew and according to Luke they recognized his authority as the Son of the Most High God. Consecrations, garlic, crosses and readings of the Scriptures in Latin were employed, mainly by Catholic priests, as a demonstration of the powers of the Divine to drive demons out of the bodies of their victims. It is estimated that in the countries where Protestantism found a wide appeal (Switzerland, France, Holland, England), 35% of the persecutions concerned exorcisms, in Germany, the home of the reformation 40%, while in purely Catholic countries, such as Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal, they were barely up to 6%.
Exorcisms were a spectacular show for the time. Their audiences could reach as many as 20,000 people, and leaflets were distributed well in advance inviting the faithful to attend, at distances covering far more than a parish. On platforms inside or outside the churches and after mass conversions and confessions, the "possessed" with strange grimaces, obscene or sexual gestures and special screams, provided entertainment with their "purification".
It follows that such exorcisms created controversy within the Catholic church. The high hierarchy worried that these practices were paving the way for more chaotic ones. Others argued that these creatures, the "possessed" who were mostly women, suffered from diseases and were forced by zealots to bear false witness and ultimately suffer.
In 1599, a trial was held in response to criticism and skepticism, in Loire, France, a year after the formalization of peace with the Huguenots (Calvinists).
A family claimed that their daughter, Marthe Brossier, was possessed by demons. During daily exorcisms, the demons said that "all the Huguenots belonged to them." Henry D, who had signed the Treaty of Nantes with the Huguenots, sent a commission to discredit this process. Henry D's commission, behind closed doors, proceeded to exorcise the girl by secret sanctification but without effect. Later, she was given ordinary water from a flask used by priests for consecration, and she writhed in pain. When she was shown a piece of iron as a relic of a real cross, she fell to the ground in agony. The priests continued to read passages to her in Latin, telling her they were from the Bible, when in fact they were reading Virgil's Aeneid to her, and she twisted her body into a strange position. Priests on the other hand who were against the Huguenots, reported that unlike the royal commission, they could distinguish the false from the true revelations... Eventually, commissions of inquiry began to circulate throughout Europe.
But did the economy have anything to do with all this? Clearly: on the one hand, with the reformation, the Catholic church lost a large part of believers and therefore income, on the other hand, historically it seems that Protestant societies were financially stronger at that time. But no other purge and runaway witch trials had more to do with the economy than the famous Salem trial.
In the spring of 1692, a group of girls, in a state of hysteria, claim that Satan has possessed them and that some women who have bewitched them are responsible. The wave of hysteria takes over the entire Puritan colony of Massachusetts and a special court is formed for the trial. The first woman, Bridget Bishop hangs herself that June. 18 more women follow the same fate and in the coming months 150 more women, men and children will sit in the accused's dock. The story is pretty well known. Despite the superstitions and fear of witches, however, the reality of Salem was harsh.
A measles epidemic, the effects of the Franco-British war on the American colonies, a weak government, the fear of a native invasion, and especially the long winters that decimated the crops, provided suitable fuel for the witch hunt. Salem was in deep financial crisis. It is no coincidence then that the majority of the charges came from the poorest families to those who still had the financial means. In January 1697, the Massachusetts court ordered a day of fasting for the tragedy. He apologized, saying the trials were unfair, and later passed legislation on reparations to the victims' heirs. But the damage had already been done and was irreparable.
The exact reasons behind this mass hysteria have yet to be discovered. However, in addition to financial incentives, fraud and financial hardship that prompted some families to file complaints, it is speculated that unusually cold weather, or even some sort of illness, such as encephalitis or Lyme disease and epilepsy, may have played a role. their. Without excluding a mass poisoning from the fungus of the rye, which gave years later the well-known LSD.
But back to Franklin and Lavoisier. Back in the Renaissance, Montaigne condemned the strange practices of doctors of the time who took advantage of the gullibility of their patients and drained them financially with "false promises and fraudulent constructions". Both Franklin and Lavoisier were avid readers of Montaigne and equally skeptical of all these so-called medical theories. Mesmer mirrored all these charlatans and with this experiment, they wanted to prove that there is no place in medicine for people like him and proved that there is always a strong relationship and chaos between skepticism and blind human faith.
Be that as it may, even Mesmer came out victorious, as his name became a verb in dictionaries.