Du Potet e la Fascinazione — Passes Sguardo Eredità/en

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This page explores the second of the three intertwined stories in the ISI-CNV wiki: the historical evolution of fascination — the power of the eye and gaze in magnetism — from du Potet to Donato, Di Pisa, and beyond.

The central thesis: fascination is not an invention of Donato but the culmination of an evolutionary line that begins with early 19th-century magnetizers and develops through three generations of practitioners.

The evolutionary line: passes → gaze → pure fascination

Figure	Technique	Innovation toward the eye
Mesmer (1778+)	Passes with hands, baquet, contact	None; the fluid is transmitted through hands and instruments
Puységur (1784+)	Magnetization of trees, passes at a distance	Introduces the idea of the magnetizer's mental will
Du Potet (1820+)	Passes at a distance without contact + gaze	First explicit documentation of the gaze as a tool; passes + «action du regard»
Lafontaine (1840+)	Fixation of animal eyes; direct stare	«Je fixai mes yeux sur les yeux du lion» — gaze as a technique
Donato (1875+)	Pure gaze, instantaneous fascination	Elimination of passes; only gaze + intention
Di Pisa (1940s-1990s)	Primarily the gaze for instantaneous healings	Direct legacy of Donato, applied in a medical context (S. Raffaele Milan)

Du Potet: the first to systematize the gaze

Donato in Le Magnétisme Triomphant documents that du Potet «employed passes at a distance without preliminary contact, aided by the action of the gaze». This is the first systematic attestation of the combination of passes + gaze in magnetic literature.

In du Potet's practice, the gaze was not yet the center — it was an amplifier of the passes. But his Magic Telegraph (described in La Magie Dévoilée — Magnetism and Magic) demonstrates that he understood something essential: fascination can occur even without physical contact, through figures traced on the ground and the projection of intention. The subject did not know what to expect — and yet was «fascinated» (the term used by Paret).

Lafontaine and the lion: the gaze as an explicit technique

The most eloquent historical moment is the magnetization of a lion at the London Zoo (1840), documented in the Paret History of Hypnotism with a direct quote from Lafontaine:

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Translation: «I said nothing to anyone. I placed myself near the cage and fixed my eyes on the lion's eyes. After a moment it could no longer sustain my gaze and its eyes closed. At that point I began to make passes from a distance and obtained a deep sleep in 20 minutes.»

This passage is crucial for two reasons:

Lafontaine uses the gaze first (fixes the lion's eyes), then the passes — the reverse of du Potet
It demonstrates that the gaze works on animals as well — excluding imagination as the sole explanation

Donato: fascination as an autonomous technique

Donato took the decisive step: he eliminated the passes and worked exclusively with the gaze and intention. This was not just a technical change — it was a conceptual revolution: the «fluid» (if it exists) can be transmitted through the eye without the need for physical movements.

The ISI-CNV corpus preserves numerous texts by Donato on fascination: Donato corpus Drive

Di Pisa: fascination applied to medicine

Prof. Erminio Di Pisa was the direct master of Marco Paret. Paret (History of Hypnotism) documents:

«Our Master Prof. Erminio Di Pisa used mainly the gaze to achieve his instant healings.»

Di Pisa applied the technique of fascination in an institutional medical context — he collaborated with doctors and worked at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan. He achieved «instantaneous healings of many pathologies in a few seconds». This is the endpoint of the line: from the gaze as an amplifier (du Potet) to clinical hypnotism with the gaze (Di Pisa).

Wolinsky: the deep therapeutic dimension

Stefan Wolinsky, whom the ISI-CNV corpus will integrate when the text is uploaded, delves into the therapeutic aspects of fascination — the psychological mechanism through which intention and the gaze act on the nervous system. His perspective is that of transpersonal psychology.

[This section will be completed when the Wolinsky text is available on Drive — Marco will upload]

The neurological structure of the magnetic gaze

Paret (History of Hypnotism) offers an interesting bridge to modern science:

«The gaze is in fact a main element for taming animals and every person who works with wild animals can confirm how very powerful it is.»

«Using the hands and the gaze for healing is attested in every culture. It is something that pertains not only to the human world, but also to the animal world.»

The «baroque» of fascination — passes + spirals traced on the ground (du Potet), direct stare at the lion (Lafontaine), instantaneous gaze (Donato, Di Pisa) — is partly explained by the biology of eye contact: the autonomic nervous system responds to direct gaze in all mammals.

Summary evolutionary scheme

The historical path can be summarized as three generations:

Generation 1 (1820s-1840s): du Potet and Lafontaine — passes remain central, but the gaze enters as an accessory element. Du Potet: passes + gaze. Lafontaine: gaze → passes.

Generation 2 (1875-1900): Donato — the gaze becomes the main instrument. Passes are accessory or absent. Fascination is an act of will projected through the eyes.

Generation 3 (1940s-present): Di Pisa, Paret — fascination systematically applied in a therapeutic context, transmitted as a teachable discipline (ISI-CNV). Wolinsky adds the deep psychological dimension.

Primary sources

Anti-hallucination system: every statement is traced back to the sources below. Verified extracted dossier ISI-CNV (17/05/2026).

Texts by du Potet — Drive

Manuel de l'étudiant magnétiseur (Paris 1850) — 30 years of experience; includes Husson Academy Report
Thérapeutique Magnétique — clinical cases and methodology
La Magie Dévoilée (Paris 1852) — magical philosophy; verified OCR preface
Magnetism and Magic (English trans. Paret, .doc)
Drive folder: all books by du Potet

Testimonies on du Potet

Donato, Le Magnétisme Triomphant — Google Doc — sect. III «De Mesmer à Donato»: biog. + critical evaluation of du Potet | PDF gallica
Paret, History of Hypnotism — Google Doc — sect. «Dupotet and Lafontaine» (lines 1705-1775 in TXT) | Searchable TXT | PDF

Historical journals and periodicals

Donato, Journal de Psycho-Physiologie (162 pp., 290MB) — Donato's journal; meeting Donato-du Potet-Durville (OCR in progress — 51/162 pp. with readable text)
La Revue Magnétique Donato-Durville — PDF — secondary source