Le Origini Storiche del Potere dello Sguardo — Da Babilonia all'EMDR/en

The Historical Roots of the Power of the Gaze — From Babylon to EMDR

The historical roots of the power of the gaze as a systematic concept are already found in Babylon and Assyria — four thousand years before Donato. The Assyrian term for the evil eye already revealed an understanding of the phenomenon.

Source: Seligmann, «Die Zauberkraft des Auges», Vol. 2, p. 178 — Drive ISI-CNV

The Assyrian term: «the rotation of the eyes»

Seligmann cites the Assyrian term for the evil eye: «i-nu li-mut-tu» — which literally means «the rotation/movement of the eyes».

Four thousand years ago, the Assyrians had already understood that the power of the eye was linked not to inert fixity but to a **specific movement** of the eyes — the movement that produces disorientation in the one being looked at, that captures, that paralyzes.

This is the oldest documented term for the evil eye/fascination in history — and it already carries within it the understanding that the lethal gaze is an **active** gaze, in motion.

The counter-technique: the «steady gaze»

From the steady gaze of the fascinated (by Donato) to the steady gaze as a defense against the evil eye: in many traditions, the way to resist the evil eye is to keep one's own gaze steady and direct — not to lower it, not to avert it.

This is the same logic of the duel of gazes that Seligmann documents: whoever lowers their gaze first succumbs to the evil eye. The «steady gaze» is the instinctive counter-technique.

From Babylon to Braidism

The historical chain of eye movement as a technique:

• **Babylon** (2000 BC) — «i-nu li-mut-tu» = rotation of the eyes as a fascinating power
• **Classical Greece** — hippus (nystagmus) as a sign of the eye's power
• **Mesmer** (1775) — magnetic passes around the eyes and body
• **Braid** (1842) — fixation on a bright object to produce altered states
• **Bernheim and Nancy** (1880) — hypnotic suggestion with visual fixation
• **Donato** (1875-1900) — abrupt «plunge» of the eye into the eye, circular movement
• **EMDR** (Shapiro, 1987) — guided lateral eye movement for trauma
• **Paret Method** — direct fascination with gaze control

The continuity is unbroken: from Assyria to EMDR, the understanding that eye movement and fixity are vectors of altered states.

Sources

• Seligmann, Vol. 2 — Drive ISI-CNV

See also

• Hippos — Il Cavallo nell'Occhio: Nistagmo, Movimento Oculare e Fascinazione
• Il Potere dello Sguardo — Dalla Tradizione Mondiale alla Neuroscienze
• Donato — Il Padre della Fascinazione

Donato e la Fascinazione — Navigazione ISI-CNV

★ INDICE GENERALE WIKI ★★ CORPUS FONTI DONATO — Riferimento accademico ISI-CNV mondiale Il personaggio Donato (1845-1900) — Vita e opera Come tutto iniziò: il Canonico Mouls (1874) L'autobiografia: come diventò magnetizzatore Cosmopolitan ca.1890: episodi biografici esclusivi Il metodo ★ GUIDA COMPLETA AL METODO Tecnica precisa: l'ébranlement e le fasi La scienza: segni fisiologici non simulabili La rivista 1880-1886 (fonte primaria) Moréty/Paret — Storia critica completa

I protagonisti della rivista Canonico Mouls — lo scopritore di Donato Baron du Potet — il maestro delle passes (1820) Charles Lafontaine — predecessore (1840) Karl Hansen — contemporaneo danese Dottor Marc Dufour — testimone scientifico Losanna 1880 Edouard Cavailhon — primo libro sulla fascinazione (1881) Professor Heidenhain — avversario confutato Dottor Ladame — il plagiario L'eredità Charles Lafontaine — Il Magnetizzatore Franco-Svizzero John Braid — la versione corretta: spettatore di Lafontaine Beauregard -- tradizione egiziana, critica a Lafontaine, loggia in Egitto Tradizione europea: da Mesmer a Paret Erminio Di Pisa → Paret / Paret Method La Palla di Luce — eredità diretta di Donato