現代哲学において、すべての空間にはそれを占める流体物質が存在するという完全または普遍的な原理を認めている。そして世界を移動するすべての物体には孔があるように、この流体物質はその間隙を通ってそれ自体を引き入れたり、戻したりするが、その時に発生する電流によって、磁石のように1つの身体を通って別の身体に流れることで、我々が動物磁気と呼ぶ現象を引き起こす。この流体は火(fire)・空気(air)・精神(spirit)から成り、他のすべての流体と同じく平衡を保つ性質がある。したがって、身体を互いに作用させることによって動物電気(animal electricity)が生じることは容易に想像できるが、実際には一方が他方よりも運動量が多い2つの身体の間で生じているに過ぎない。この現象は運動する媒体が2つの身体の間で平衡状態になるまで、最も運動している方が、そのもう一方にそれを伝え、そしてこの運動の平等性が動物電気を生み出すことを立証するのに意味を持つ。
— Eighteenth Century Collections Online. London (1791): pp.11–12[27]
動物磁気の研究の隆興によってフランスでは調和学会(la Société de l'harmonie)が設立され、その技術を学びたい者は会費を払って入会した。例えば、パリの哲学的調和学会の会員であったジョン・ベル博士は、同学会からイギリスでの動物磁気の講義や指導を行う資格を与えられていた[32]。このような学会の存在は動物磁気を秘伝の技術に変え、実践者や講師は金銭的な利益に基づいて技術の教授がなされるべきであり、無料で他者にその技術を公開することは不公平である、というような考えに侵食されていった[33]。こうした秘密主義の強まりは、動物磁気に対する懐疑的な見方をもたらしたが、その支持者や実践者は誰もが簡単に技術を取得することができるとアピールしていた[34]。
— Requoted from: Fulford, Tim. "Conducting and Vital Fluid: The Politics and Poetics of Mesmerism in the 1790s", Studies in Romanticism 43.1 (2004): pg.1
大物政治家や権力者が一般民衆に対して動物磁気を使用していると急進派たちは非難していた。
歴史家のロイ・ポーターは論文「Under Influence: Mesmerism in England」の中で、フランス人が動物磁気を使ってイギリスを侵略しているとJames Tilly Matthewsが示唆していたことを指摘している。マシューズは、「磁気スパイ」がイングランドに侵入し、動物磁気の波動を用いて政府や国民を服従せしめようとしていると考えていた[37]。このような外国からの影響による侵略は過激な脅威と認識されていた。
^Wolfart, Karl Christian; Friedrich Anton Mesmer. Mesmerismus: Oder, System der Wechselwirkungen, Theorie und Anwendung des thierischen Magnetismus als die allgemeine Heilkunde zur Erhaltung des Menschen (in German, facsimile of the 1811 edition). Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN9781108072694. Foreword.
^Thouvenel, Pierre, Mémoire et medical physique Paris Ed. Didot Chez le jeune, Quai des Auguftins. (1781) p. 300
^[[:en:Baron du Potet|]], Student Handbook Magnetizer , ed. Life – 3rd Edition, 2013
^フランツ・アントン・メスメル, Mémoire sur la découverte du animals magnétisme , 1779, Édition numérique disponible sur Wikisource. Il ya aussi une édition papier chez Allia, 2006 ISBN2844852262
^Gorsas, Antoine-Joseph, L'Ane promeneur, 1784, p. 41 and p. 342
^Connor C. (2005). A People's History of Science, Nation Books, pp. 404–5
^See, for example, The Zoist, 1854-1855, Vols. 1-13, passim; Podmore (1909), pp.1-
150; Edmondston (1986), pp.1-121; Gauld (1992), pp.1-270; and Crabtree (1993), pp.109-144.
^See, for example, Hallaji (1962); Völgyesi (1966); MacHovec (1975, 1979); Pulos (1980); Chester (1982), McGarry (1987); Gauld (1988, 1992); and Gibson & Heap (1991), etc.
^Wonders and mysteries of animal magnetism displayed; or the history, art, practice, and progress of that useful science, from its first rise in the city of Paris, to the present time. With several Curious Cases and new Anecdotes of the Principal Professors. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. London (1791): pp.11–12
^"Wonders and mysteries of animal magnetism displayed; or the history, art, practice, and progress of that useful science, from its first rise in the city of Paris, to the present time. With several Curious Cases and new Anecdotes of the Principal Professors". Eighteenth Century Collections Online. London (1791): p.16
^Wonders and mysteries of animal magnetism displayed; or the history, art, practice, and progress of that useful science, from its first rise in the city of Paris, to the present time. With several Curious Cases and new Anecdotes of the Principal Professors. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. London (1791): p.7
^Porter, Roy. "UNDER THE INFLUENCE: MESMERISM IN ENGLAND," History Today 35.9 (1985): pg.28
^Eddy, Mary Baker, "Animal Magnetism Unmasked," Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Trustees Under the Will of Maker Baker G. Eddy, Boston, 1934. pp.101
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