In our own age, a parallel development, which adequately illustrates our subject of inquiry, has taken place in the United States: fragments of magical lore bequeathed by mesmer and his immediate predecessors, the alchemists, were practically and honestly applied to the practice of magnetic healing and healing through mental suggestion by a small group of practitioners in Massachusetts, and then with much ingenuity and real genius were applied by Mary Baker Eddy to the interpretation of miraculous healing by Jesus Christ.
"The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries"
W. Y. Evans Wentz
These facts were first discovered nearly a hundred and fifty years ago by a French doctor named mesmer.
"The Book of Life: Vol. I Mind and Body; Vol. II Love and Society"
Upton Sinclair
I am not a believer in mesmer; but certainly there must have been some influence at work-very like what we hear of "magnetism"-for before the breakfast was concluded, there seemed at once to spring up a perfect understanding between this family and myself, which made me feel as much 'chez moi', as I had ever done in my life; and from that hour I may date an intimacy which every succeeding day but served to increase.
"The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete"
Charles James Lever (1806-1872)