Le Magnétisme Expliqué par Donato — Come Tutto Iniziò/en

The article «Le Magnétisme et la Fascination — Enseigné par Demandes et par Réponses» (subtitle: Le Magnétisme Expliqué par Donato, Milite.) is one of the most important texts published by Donato in his journal Le Magnétisme. It is written in a Question/Answer dialogue form — a didactic format Donato deliberately chose to reach a wider audience — and contains the autobiographical account of how it all began, his vision of the method, and the fundamental distinction between fascination and hypnotism.

The text is excerpted from the Union Républicaine of November 28, 1885 and following days, then republished in the journal.

The autobiographical account: how Donato became a magnetizer

The most important passage of the article is the first-person account of how Donato began practicing magnetism. The key lies in the comparison with Braid:

«It is thus that later I was led myself to study magnetism, after having seen only one magnetizer, from whom I was careful not to imitate the method, because he succeeded very little. Having seen only this one magnetizer, Canon Mouls, having never read anything on the subject, I managed to create new procedures and to establish an unprecedented method, the idea of which would certainly not have occurred to me if my inventive spirit had not necessarily had to compensate for my ignorance in the matter.»

This passage is fundamental for three reasons:

First: Donato saw only one magnetizer — Canon Mouls — and that one succeeded «fort peu», very little. Donato does not imitate his technique: he starts from scratch.

Second: He has never read anything on the subject. He is not conditioned by any school.

Third: It is exactly the parallel with Braid — who in turn had seen only one magnetizer, Charles Lafontaine, in Manchester, and had then developed his own method without imitating him.

The Donato/Braid parallel — both starting from a single vision, both arriving at original methods — is not accidental: Donato deliberately constructs it to claim the same historical dignity as Braid, whom official science had already accepted.

The three conditions of the magnetizer

In dialogue form, Donato sets out the three indispensable conditions for being an excellent magnetizer:

1. Special personal power — a set of physical and moral qualities: the gaze, the voice, the gesture, directed by a strongly tempered soul. «Fulminating eyes fascinate a hundred times better than dull eyes.» Every innovator calls this force by a different name: Mesmer called it «animal magnetism», Baréty «radiant neuric force», Lafontaine «vital magnetism». Donato merely notes the fact without committing to theories.

2. The art of magnetizing — a sui generis intuition that guides the search. «The great art consists in creating a perfected method, supported by the rules that science teaches.» Donato situates his «art de fasciner» in a precise genealogy: just as Puységur, Deleuze and Du Potet had created the art of somnambulizing with passes, as Mesmer had created the art of healing with the baquet, as Faria possessed the art of putting to sleep by shouting «Sleep!» — so he has instituted «l'art de fasciner», distinct from all others.

3. The science of magnetism — «The result of reasoned experience, the fruit of enlightened observation, the exact knowledge of effects and causes.» He does not seek the why things exist: he studies them as they exist.

The fundamental distinction: fascination ≠ hypnotism

The article contains the most articulated defense Donato ever wrote of the distinction between his method and Braid's hypnotism:

The term «hypnotism» literally means only «sleep» — and Donato works on fully awake subjects. Using «hypnotism» to describe fascination would therefore be scientifically incorrect.

«The term hypnotism can only be scientifically used in two senses: 1° as a synonym for true sleep; 2° as characterizing Braid's procedure. I would be very wrong to say that I practice hypnotism, when I do not put my subjects to sleep and do not use Braid's procedures.»

Donato also criticizes the tendency of doctors to use the term «hypnotism» for phenomena that have nothing to do with Braid: subjects clearly awake, no fixation of a bright point, none of the conditions that Braid had established. For him this is an improper use that obscures reality.

The comparison of the great methods

The article lists the great «arts» of magnetism in history, each with its creator:

Creator	Art	Specific method
Mesmer	Art of healing	The baquet
Puységur + Deleuze + Du Potet	Art of somnambulizing	Magnetic passes
Braid	Art of hypnotizing	Fixation of a bright point 15-30 min
Abbé Faria	Art of putting to sleep	Voice — «Sleep!» without passes or gaze
Liébeault + Bernheim	Suggestive art	Verbal suggestion in sleep state
Donato	Art of fascinating	Gaze + voice, awake subjects

Donato specifies: «For my part, for eleven years I have magnetized with the gaze and with the word, without making the slightest magnetic pass — that is, I have replaced the ancient method with fascination, suggestion and involuntary automatic imitation.»

On the rejection of refractory subjects

An important practical point: Donato does not believe in absolutely «refractory» subjects.

«It frequently happens to me to succeed on the second, third, even the tenth trial on people who had perfectly resisted previous trials. How many times subjects whom I declared refractory because they were not sufficiently sensitive have affirmed to me that they felt my influence.»

This is a fundamental didactic principle transmitted in the Paret Method: apparent resistance is not a definitive refusal — it is often a lack of time, wrong context, or critical sense not yet deactivated.

The Donato–Braid parallel: two founders of the same rank

The theoretical heart of the article is the claim of historical parity with Braid. Donato constructs this parallel point by point:

Braid saw only one magnetizer (Lafontaine) → Donato saw only one magnetizer (Mouls)
Braid belonged to no school → Donato had read nothing
Braid developed an original method → Donato developed an original method
Braid obtained academic recognition → Donato claims it for himself

The difference is that Braid «understood that a denied truth often only needs to dress itself in a Greek word to enter triumphantly into the sanctuaries of science» — and coined «hypnotism». Donato does not play this game: he insists that fascination is something different that deserves its own name.

Importance for the Paret Method

This article is the most direct primary source for understanding how Donato thought about his own method. Three principles enunciated here are central to the Paret Method:

Originality as strength: Donato was born from zero. Not imitating a pre-existing model is not weakness — it is the condition that allows true invention.

Fascination is a specific art: It is not a variant of hypnosis, not somnambulism, not verbal suggestion. It has its own logic, its own tools (gaze + voice), its own specific state (awake subject).

No definitive refractory: Persistence and adaptation of the method to the person are more important than any predisposition.

Source

Donato (Alfred d'Hont), «Le Magnétisme et la Fascination — Enseigné par Demandes et par Réponses», excerpt from the Union Républicaine of November 28, 1885, republished in Le Magnétisme — Journal de Psycho-Physiologie, Paris 1886