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Spiritualism and allied causes and conditions of nervous derangement
Spiritualism and allied causes and conditions of nervous derangement Author:William Alexander Hammond Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. MAGNETISM IN ITS RELATIONS TO SPIRITUALISM. IT has been supposed that Magnetism—a force correlative with electricity—resides in the body, and t... more »hat some persons are peculiarly sensitive to the influence of the magnet and to the magnetism evolved by other individuals. This subject has been thoroughly investigated by the Baron von Reichenbach, a very learned, but certainly a very imaginative man, who has developed from his inquiries some truth and a great deal of fancy. He sought to give an explanation of mesmerism, and really succeeded to a certain extent. The following observation is certainly true: "If a strong magnet, capable of supporting about ten pounds, be drawn downward over the bodies of fifteen or twentv persons, without actually touching them, some among them will always be found to be excited by it in a peculiar manner. The number of people who are sensitive in this way is greater than is generally imagined. . . . The kind of impression produced on these excitable people, who otherwise may be regarded as in perfect health, is scarcely describable ; it is rather disagreeable than pleasant, and combined with a slight sensation of cold or warmth, resembling a cool or gently warm breath of air, which the patients imagine to blow softly upon them.Sometimes they feel sensations of drawing, pricking, or creeping ; some complain of sudden attacks of headache. Not only women, but men in the very prime of life, are found distinctly susceptible to this influence; in children it is sometimes very active." Reichenbach supposed that these and other phenomena were due to a hitherto undescribed force which he denominated od, the odicforce, or odyk, and which was present in the body. When evolved in large quantity, the subjects were said to be sensitive, and cou!...« less