From Fluidum to Prāṇa: Reading Mesmerism Through Orientalist Lenses
- Author(s)
- Dominic Zoehrer
- Abstract
Energy healing has evolved as a key component of the holistic milieu. A broad current of recent energetic practices can be traced to “animal magnetism,” a healing system introduced by the charismatic physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815). Rejected by the nascent science-based medicine of his time, Mesmer’s ideas and techniques were reinterpreted through the occult adoption of yogic transmissions. This chapter focuses on a particular line of this transcultural reception process by mapping out the synthesis of animal magnetism with the notion of prāṇa (“breath” or “vital principle”) at the end of the nineteenth century. It concludes that although mesmerism was rejected on scientific grounds, it survived through “Pranic Healing,” which is essentially a mesmeric technique reframed in the context of occult orientalism.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Religious Studies
- Pages
- 85-110
- Publication date
- 2021
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 603909 Religious studies
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/from-fluidum-to-prana-reading-mesmerism-through-orientalist-lenses(27ad19c1-ef16-4cd9-9113-fe8b47c1034b).html