He was the first to use hypnosis for healing: Who is Franz Anton Mesmer?

He was a German physician who lived between May 23, 1734 - March 5, 1815.

According to Mesmer, some diseases could be cured by allowing invisible and immeasurable life energy (a kind of magnetic energy) to flow to other areas through various channels. The evolution of these ideas and practices of Mesmer led James Braid to discover hypnosis in 1842.

Mesmer, who studied at Jesuit schools for a while, studied medicine at the University of Vienna. He completed his doctorate at the same school. Mesmer developed theories that he tried to explain human behavior by basing it on the movements of the Sun and the Moon. Although these are not scientific explanations, they have become a starting point for scientists after him.

Franz Anton Mesmer (23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorised the existence of a natural energy transference occurring between all animated and inanimate objects; this he called "animal magnetism", sometimes later referred to as mesmerism. Mesmer's theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the 19th century. In 1843, the Scottish doctor James Braid proposed the term "hypnotism" for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today the word "mesmerism" generally functions as a synonym of "hypnosis". Mesmer also supported the arts, specifically music; he was on friendly terms with Haydn and Mozart.

Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer, who laid the foundations of modern hypnotherapy and inspired many famous names such as Dr. Freud, was the first person in the West to use hypnosis for healing in the 18th and 19th centuries. The genius beyond the time that he cured thousands of people and whose techniques were used successfully in more than three thousand surgeries in India is beginning to be rediscovered in the dusty pages of history with the rise of hypnotherapy today.

Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer was the first to use hypnosis for healing. With his long cloak and colorful clothing, he looked more like an entertainer than a healer. Among his close friends and colleagues were such famous people as Dr. Freud, Dr Charcoat, and Dr Babinski (Babinski reflex). According to Mesmer's thoughts, the planets had an indisputable influence on the human body.

Inspired by Newton's ideas about the universe, Mesmer published a book called "De planetarum influxu in corpus humanum". But what makes Mesmer more interesting and successful is what he describes as animal magnetism. According to this, there was an invisible substance forming the fabric of the universe, and the imbalance of this substance in the human body caused various diseases. Dr Mesmer claimed that he could influence the flow of the raw material of the universe. In this way, a healthy balance in the human body could be established.

In 18th-century Vienna, Dr Mesmer was working with many patients in his own home. He started to get very good results in psychosomatic diseases and the number of patients was increasing rapidly. He was getting ahead of the patients and treating people by influencing the flow of the so-called universal fluid with hand gestures he called Mesmeric Transitions. Those who had fainted and had hysterical seizures claimed that Mesmer was a true healer after they came to their senses.

Over time, perhaps the theatrical appearance of his treatments, perhaps his success in healing, or the fact that the medicine at that time was still in its infancy, caused a great hostility towards Mesmer. After a while, he was banned from working in Vienna on the grounds that he was a charlatan and had to leave there.

Mesmer, who moved to Paris and continued to work there, quickly began to reach large masses. Soon, his achievements were talked about all over France. He was said to have healed hundreds of people at once. First, he was touching a tree and transferring the so-called magnetic energy to the tree, then saying that it was enough for people to touch the tree to heal.