La Tradizione Europea dell Ipnosi — da Mesmer a Paret/en

Page title: The European Tradition of Hypnosis — from Mesmer to Paret

This page is the complete historical map of the tradition of magnetism, fascination, and hypnosis in Europe — from the documentary perspective of ISI-CNV and the Paret Method.

Our vision differs from conventional history on one central point: direct fascination — open-eye hypnosis produced by the gaze — is not a marginal episode in history, but the heart of the tradition, systematically obscured by the academic narrative that privileged Braid and the Nancy school.

The conventional narrative and its limits

The official history of hypnosis reads:

Mesmer (1775) — animal magnetism, condemned as charlatanism
Braid (1842) — "discovers" hypnotism as a neurological phenomenon
Charcot (1882) — hypnosis as a symptom of hysteria (Salpêtrière)
Bernheim and Nancy (1886) — hypnosis as suggestion, accessible to all
Modern hypnosis as a therapeutic technique

In this narrative, the practical magnetizers — Du Potet, Lafontaine, Donato — are picturesque superstitious precursors. Braid is the scientific turning point.

The problem: Braid was a spectator of Lafontaine. His "discovery" is a re-labeling. And the most powerful technique — Donato's direct fascination — does not appear in the official narrative because it cannot be reduced to the "nervous sleep" framework.

The documented transmission line

Mesmer (1734-1815)

Franz Anton Mesmer, Austrian physician, theorizes "animal magnetism" — an invisible fluid that permeates all living beings and can be channeled to produce healings. His demonstrations in Paris (1778-1784) produce real effects: altered states, crises, documented healings.

The Royal Academy condemns the fluid theory (1784) — but cannot deny the phenomena. The tradition survives in practice.

Puysegur and magnetic somnambulism (1784)

The Marquis de Puysegur discovers that magnetism produces not only convulsive crises but also magnetic somnambulism: a state of sleep with altered consciousness in which the subject responds to questions. It is the first systematic observation of a deep hypnotic state.

Du Potet (1796-1881)

Baron du Potet systematizes the tradition. He founds a school in Paris, writes fundamental books, introduces the use of passes as a standardized technique. He is the direct master of Lafontaine. His most important work: "Manuel de l'etudiant magnetiseur" (1852).

Lafontaine (1803-1892)

Charles Lafontaine brings magnetism to England in 1841. His demonstrations in Manchester are observed by James Braid — who uses them as a starting point for his theoretical framework.

Key point: Braid does not invent hypnosis. He observes Lafontaine and reinterprets. The practical tradition is already there.

Braid (1795-1860) — the re-labeling episode

James Braid coins the term "hypnosis" and proposes the physiological explanation. Real contribution: makes the phenomenon acceptable to academic medicine. Limitation: his technique (fixation on an object) produces more superficial states than Donato's direct fascination.

Towards the end of his life, Braid himself admits that verbal suggestion produces the same effects — approaching the positions of Nancy.

Donato (1845-1900) — THE QUALITATIVE LEAP

Alfred d'Hont "Donato" inaugurates in 1875 something radically new: the fascination of healthy subjects, in public, with eyes open, with immediate anesthesia and complete automatism.

Differences from Braid:

The subject is awake — not asleep
The entry is instantaneous — not progressive
The subject does not know they are fascinated — there is no conscious cooperation
The phenomena are more powerful: complete anesthesia, personality change, post-hypnotic suggestions

Donato fascinates over 20,000 people in 25 years, inspires the neurologist Morselli (who gets fascinated in person), Prof. Luys at the Charité, Col. de Rochas. The word "donatization" enters the medical vocabulary.

Charcot and the Salpêtrière (1882)

Jean-Martin Charcot studies hypnosis only on hospitalized hysterical patients. He describes three stages (lethargy, catalepsy, somnambulism) which turn out to be artifacts of institutional observation — the subjects conform to the great doctor's expectations.

Charcot is important for academic legitimation, but his hypnosis is limited and partially invalid as science.

Bernheim and Nancy (1886)

Hippolyte Bernheim demonstrates that hypnosis is not a pathology (against Charcot) but a normal phenomenon accessible to the majority of people. The key is verbal suggestion. The Nancy School wins the academic debate.

Bernheim does not know Donato's fascination — or ignores it.

Morselli and Luys (1886-1897)

From the Italian and French scientific side:

Prof. Morselli (Turin) — attends all of Donato's sessions, gets fascinated in person, publishes the first systematic neurological study of fascination. Coins the term "conscious automatism."

Prof. Luys (Paris) — brings fascination to the Charité as a therapeutic technique: 12 documented clinical cases, painless childbirth, miroir rotatif. Fascination in the clinic.

Beauregard and Regazzoni

Beauregard — figure of the European tradition in documentary research
Regazzoni — Italian tradition in documentary research

The Italian transmission: Ceccarelli, Taurus, Di Pisa

In Italy, the tradition of public fascination continues through:

Enrico Ceccarelli — Italian mass hypnotist, hundreds of shows
Taurus do Brasil — student of Ceccarelli, operating in Brazil
Erminio Di Pisa — physician, student of the tradition (Caravelli), explicitly cites Donato in his video, applies fascination to therapy in seconds

Marco Paret and the Paret Method

Marco Paret studies directly with Di Pisa, meets Ghigi (the unique cassette), studies Ceccarelli/Taurus. Integrates the practical tradition with:

Porges' polyvagal theory
Mirror neurons (Rizzolatti/Gallese)
Understanding of the autonomic nervous system

The result is the Paret Method — taught worldwide by ISI-CNV.

The original historical vision of this wiki

Year	Figure	Contribution	Critical note
1775	Mesmer	Animal magnetism	Wrong theory, real phenomena
1784	Puysegur	Magnetic somnambulism	First description of the deep state
1820s-40s	Du Potet	Systematization of passes	Master of Lafontaine
1840s	Lafontaine	Public demonstrations in Europe	Braid was his spectator — not the opposite
1842	Braid	"Hypnotism" as a physiological framework	Re-labeling of magnetism, not discovery
1860s	Charcot	Academic hypnosis	Only on hysterics, institutional artifacts
1875+	Donato	Direct fascination — the qualitative leap	The center of the tradition
1886	Morselli	Neurological study of fascination	"Conscious automatism"
1886	Bernheim/Nancy	Suggestion as universal mechanism	Useful but ignores fascination
1890	Luys	Therapeutic fascination at the Charité	12 clinical cases, painless childbirth
1970s+	Di Pisa	Italian therapeutic fascination	Explicitly cites Donato
2000s+	Paret Method	Integration with neurosciences	ISI-CNV worldwide

The complementary hermetic cluster (hermetic wiki)

The technical history of magnetism reconstructed here has an initiatory-doctrinal counterpart in the cluster of 36 pages of the hermetic wiki, developed in May 2026. The two wikis are not in competition but complementary: the magnetic wiki documents the technique + lignée (the gaze, the passes, fascination, the documentable historical transmission), the hermetic wiki documents the doctrine + initiatory context (the theurgy of Pasqually, the inner path of Saint-Martin, the CBCS of Willermoz, Cagliostro's Egyptian Rite, the Neapolitan Arcana Arcanorum).

The hermetic pages from which the magnetic lignée starts

Il Martinismo — section VIII «Magnetism as inspiration» documents that the Barberinist School of animal magnetism was born in Lyon between 1773-1789 as an internal magnetic branch of the network of Willermoz's La Bienfaisance lodges, with Saint-Martin as co-developer (textual citation from the authorial manuscript History of Hypnotism by Marco Paret)
Il Martinismo section X «The progressive reduction of magnetism's influence» — documents how later academic historiography has concealed the role of magnetism in the genesis of Martinism, and maps the 5 post-Mesmer strands (Animal Magnetism / Braidism / Statusvolism / Pathetism / Electrobiology) and the 20th-century recombinations
Alchimia e Magnetismo — the structural relationship between internal alchemy and magnetism in Western hermetic traditions, with the Evola-Reghini «vital fluid» as an explicit recovery of the 18th-century line
Massoneria Egizia e Magnetismo — the convergence between magnetism and 18th-century Egyptian rites
La Massoneria Mesmerica — Mesmeric Freemasonry as a continuation of the Barberinist School
Kremmerz e Ordine Osirideo Egizio — the Neapolitan magnetic-hermetic tradition, heir to the Barberinist School through 19th-century mediations
Le Catene Magnetiche di Loggia — the practice of the magnetic chain in 18th-century obediences
Athanasius Kircher SJ alchimista e magnetista — the conceptual father of the «magnetic fluid» in the 17th-century Jesuit tradition
Cagliostro e il Rito Egizio — Cagliostro in Lyon 1784-85, contemporary with the Barberinist School

The three axis-themes of the hermetic wiki

Il Risveglio — the transversal axis-theme that unifies all initiatory traditions (4 phases: nigredo → albedo → rubedo → illumination)
Alchimia e Magnetismo — the relationship between internal alchemy and magnetism
The chivalric tradition — the path of rubedo in the world (Templars, Grail, CBCS)

The overall picture

The reconstruction presented here of the technical tradition of magnetism from Mesmer to Paret becomes fully readable when completed by the initiatory-doctrinal framework of the hermetic wiki. The separation between the two dimensions — technical and initiatory — is a late construction of 19th-20th century academic historiography that expelled from the scientific canon everything that did not fall within the positivist method (cf. Il Martinismo sec. X). The restoration of the complete picture requires the cross-reading of the two wikis.

Sources

Primary sources

For the framework of the 19th-century European magnetic tradition, the main primary sources, all digitized in the ISI-CNV Drive folders, are:

Franz Anton Mesmer, Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal, Genève-Paris, 1779.
Armand-Marie-Jacques de Chastenet, marchese di Puységur, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire et à l'établissement du magnétisme animal, Paris, 1784.
Joseph Philippe François Deleuze, Histoire critique du magnétisme animal, 2 voll., Paris, 1813.
Charles Lafontaine, L'Art de Magnétiser ou le Magnétisme Animal, Paris, Germer Baillière, 1847 — PDF Drive ISI-CNV.
Charles Lafontaine, Mémoires d'un magnétiseur, 2 voll., Genève, 1866 — vol. I PDF · vol. II PDF.
Baron du Potet de Sennevoy, Manuel de l'étudiant magnétiseur, Paris, 1846; Traité complet du magnétisme animal, Paris, 1875; La Magie dévoilée, Paris, 1852.
Donato (Alfred d'Hont) e Edouard Cavailhon (ed.), Le Magnétisme — Journal de Psycho-Physiologie, Paris-Bruxelles, 1880-1886 — fascicoli 1-50, 50-104, 104-154, 154+ digitalizzati nel Drive ISI-CNV (vedi pagina Donato — Il Padre della Fascinazione per i link diretti).
Édouard Cavailhon, La Fascination Magnétique, Paris, E. Dentu, 1882.
Albert de Rochas d'Aiglun, Les états profonds de l'hypnose, Paris, Chamuel, 1892; L'extériorisation de la sensibilité, Paris, 1895; Les états superficiels de l'hypnose, Paris, 1893.
Hector Durville, Magnétisme personnel ou psychique, Paris, 1903; Traité expérimental de magnétisme, 2 voll., Paris, 1904-1907 — folder Drive ISI-CNV: Durville Books.

Anti-hallucination verification dossier

The verifiable primary source extracts for the Lafontaine/du Potet/Deleuze school are collected in the primary source extracts dossier on Drive ISI-CNV, part of the anti-hallucination verification system adopted by the School to ensure that every historical claim is traced back to a verifiable textual passage.

Secondary reference bibliography

Adam Crabtree, From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing, Yale University Press, 1993.
Henri F. Ellenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry, Basic Books, 1970 (chapters on mesmerism and early hypnosis).
Alan Gauld, A History of Hypnotism, Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Bertrand Méheust, Somnambulisme et médiumnité (1784-1930), 2 voll., Le Plessis-Robinson, Synthélabo, 1999.
Nicole Edelman, Voyantes, guérisseuses et visionnaires en France 1785-1914, Paris, Albin Michel, 1995.
Daniel Pick, Svengali's Web: The Alien Enchanter in Modern Culture, Yale University Press, 2000.
Marco Paret, A History of Hypnotism (ISI-CNV), for the placement of French-Italian magnetism in the line Mesmer → Puységur → du Potet → Lafontaine → Donato → Caravelli → Di Pisa → Paret.