Six lectures on the philosophy of mesmerism
Publisher Information: Boston: Willam A. Hall & Co., 1843.
Dods, John Bovee (1795-1872). Six lectures on the philosophy of mesmerism, delivered in the Marlboro’ Chapel . . . 68pp. Boston: William A. Hall & Co., 1843. 180 x 113 mm. Disbound. First and last leaves a bit soiled, but very good.
First Edition. Dods’ enormously popular and often reprinted Six Lectures, together with his numerous public appearances, helped to spread the “gospel” of mesmerism throughout the eastern United States in the 1840s. “Dods expresses his belief in the power of the agent discovered by Mesmer, but rejects the term magnetism in favor of ‘mental electricity’ or even ‘spiritualism’ . . . Dods describes six degrees of mesmerism, the sixth being clairvoyance. He also mentions surgical uses for mesmerism” (Crabtree, Animal Magnetism, Early Hypnotism and Psychical Research 1766-1925, no. 473). Dods believed that electricity was the connecting link between mind and matter, and that magnetized subjects could be placed into an “electro-psychological” state (which Dods distinguished from mesmeric sleep) in order to effect cures. Gault, A History of Hypnotism, pp. 186-188.
Book Id: 45230Price: $500.00