De Medicina Magnetica Libri Tria in quibus tam Theoria quam Praxis continetur, On magnetic medicine, three books containing both theory and practice. The author, William Maxwell, is rather mysterious. He has practically no biography, but this did not prevent Mesmer from borrowing many of his ideas from him.
In the first chapter of the first book, you can find a compendium of his thinking, which Maxwell calls “conclusions”, and they are very interesting:
First conclusion: The soul is not only in the visible body but also outside the body, despite the latter limits it;
Second conclusion: The body and the soul outside the body influence each other reciprocally;
Third conclusion: Each body emits corporal rays, with which the soul manifests its presence and pours out energy and power. In reality, those rays are not only corporal but from different parts;
Fourth conclusion: These rays, which are emitted by animal bodies, delight thanks to the spirit of life, through which the operations of the soul are dispensed;
Fifth conclusion: The animal bodies’ waste keeps a portion of the spirit of life. And this life propagated with the life of animal species by the soul itsef;
Sixth Conclusion: Among the bodies, and the waste that comes from the bodies, there is a concatenation of spirits or irradiation, even if the waste has been separated from a body for a long time. The same applies to the blood;
Seventh conclusion: This vitality exists until the separated parts have been switched into bodies of a different nature;
Eighth conclusion: When one part of the body is affected, or the spirit damaged, the other parts also suffer;
Ninth conclusion: If the vital spirit is strengthened in some part, the same applies to the whole body;
Tenth conclusion: Where there is the purest spirit, there it settles faster;
Eleventh conclusion: In the excrements, in the blood, etc, the spirit does not abide as deeply as in the body. For this reason, it can be influenced more quickly;
Twelfth conclusion: Intermixture of spirits causes empathy, love is born from empathy.
Am I wrong or was following these practices defined as “Uniting the Superior with the Inferior”?
The system to be practiced was defined as “preventing the water element from escaping”. The result was known as “macrocosmic seed extraction.”
Why that kind of medicine was called “magnetic medicine”?
The system to be practiced was defined as “preventing the water element from escaping”. The result was known as “macrocosmic seed extraction.”
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