Showing posts with label mesmerism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mesmerism. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

The Principles of Occult Healing: Now Available!



This work was compiled by multiple Theosophists and ruminates on the general idea of healing with methods outside of the generally orthodox such as pills and so forth. "Drugless healing" is discussed at length- that is, the use of mesmerism, etc, as pain relief, or of using autosuggestion. Indeed, some of the methods here for the purposes of psychological disturbance are still employed- such as the use of certain music to create relaxation, stress reduction being important in a medicinal context.

102 pages.

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Jacobs Rod: Now Available!



This is a text in two parts; first a translated late 17th century work by Baritel, then an "addendum" (really its own short work) by the translator, regarding mesmeric and dowsing experiments by his wife and him and various energetic lore related to finding mines or water using a hazel rod or the use of "mesmeric passes."

The second text is oddly more fun than the first in this compiled work, but Baritels' own text is definitely worth a read, since it speaks at length on the concept of energized water among other arcane topics.

113 pages.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Clairvoyance and Thought Transference: Now Available!



The notable L W deLaurence returns to this blog with another excellent work, this time compiling a laundry list of phenomena together (telepathy, spiritualism, somnambulism, mesmerism, and clairvoyance) to analyze them and draw them together while explaining, basically, their function and use. As usual, the notable (notorious?) author manages to remain collected enough to sometimes express skepticism, or at least to denote his opposition to others' theories within each subtopic. It should be noted that this work references several secondary texts which can be consulted for further reading on these topics.

112 pages.

Friday, September 27, 2019

A Treatise on Animal Magnetism: Now Available!



This intermediate length work is presented here partially for cautionary reasons; Mesmer and his school of thought were briefly accepted as miraculous and spiritually significant until the fraudulent nature of some of his practices were exposed. That being said, this text is mostly a compilation of testimonial work regarding the efficacy of magnetic bathing and associated practices within a medical context. No less important than studying the claims of those involved with the witch trials (also self evidently true, or so the people then living believed at the time!) the claims of this era with regards to some of the fantastical medical movements of the day are of import to any serious student of occultism genuinely speaking, teaching the often hard lesson to question things, even if they are presented as self evident, scientific, or miraculous.

103 pages.

Monday, August 12, 2019

The Law of Natural Healing: Now Available!



This fine work is essentially about autosuggestion and its various uses. Since it dates to the dawn of the 1900s, these were profuse in number- it is worth noting that a few of the usages of the same therapeutic means are still accepted even to this day by some, including in some cases, mainstream medicine. Hypnosis after a fashion is still utilized to some degree of success within the scope of trauma healing and addiction treatment.

Less accepted uses of suggestion from this work include curing goiters and lead poisoning. A very interesting piece of medical history!

132 pages.

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Animal Magnetism: Now Available!



This very short manuscript is slightly amusing as well as informative; it gives a good mid 19th century (and then-rational) look at mesmerism and hypnotism- applauding the latter, even in its rationalism, for abilities which are now seen as bunk just as much as the way the author here chastises Mesmer as having been a fraud (he was.)

It is true, though, that some of the abilities of hypnotism spoken of here are still held to be true- and it is irrefutable that hypnotizing a chicken is both possible and itself slightly funny.

24 pages.

Sunday, March 31, 2019

The Remedial Uses of Hypnotism: Now Available!



While extremely short this work needed to be released in a modern edition because it is perhaps one of the best examples of claims made by proponents of hypnotism in its era; its efficacy at treating certain disorders is now beyond question but claims here that it works almost invariably and can cure everything from tuberculosis to asthma of course are now rendered into the same family as bloodletting and electroshock.

The arguments made against the comic use of mesmerism as entertainment, and its words about the use of hypnotism in crimes are both quite a good read.

24 pages.

Friday, March 22, 2019

The Secrets of Animal Magnetism: Now Available!



This work is quite interesting; and at this point it takes quite a bit to trip my interest since I read and edit similar works all day. Written at the dawn of the 20th century, it is partly about how to mesmerize (theory and action both) and partly about mind reading and similar topics, but it meanders into the realm of sociology and begins, about two thirds of the way through, to give advice on society and civics in a general sense, as works of the era sometimes did.

It should be noted that mesmerism is indeed real; however some of the claims then accepted about it were overblown; it remains medically accepted for a limited number of uses to this day.

61 pages.

Thursday, February 21, 2019

Mystic Will: Now Available!



Charles Leland (who is notable for his most famous work, Aradia, and for some other significant folkloric work especially in Italy) wrote this work under a different title originally but ended up creating this variant (which was published posthumously) for an American audience. It is quite good, and fuses a bit of fairies and folklore in with its essentially psychological content which revolves around willpower and mindfulness practices to improve the mentality of the reader.

Much of this basic content is of mainstream acceptance (such as the topical use of hypnosis, "thinking positively" and such) while some of its larger claims (for example healing diseases by mere thought) are a bit more "out there." It contains as well a section on Paracelsus and sprinkles poetry and prose throughout to illustrate its points. Altogether well made and quite interesting- a fine 200th edition indeed.

123 pages.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Hypnotism: Magnetism, Mesmerism, Suggestive Therapeutics: Now Available!




This work is one of the better things that LW DeLaurence wrote. Containing fewer self-advertizements and a lot more how-to content, it dispels some myths about mesmerism and hypnotism, and proposes about a dozen methods by which various suggestive states can be induced- including the famous trick of hypnotizing a chicken using a chalk line or a finger (it apparently does indeed work.)

While some of the methods are now known not to function (at the time this was written- and it alludes to it explicitly!- the French were experimenting with spinning wheels and lights to induce anesthesia- one of the earliest- maybe THE earliest literary reference to this trope!) others are accepted even today. Some of its content would later be adapted into the 20s and 30s era "how to hypnotize your friends" style pulp works.

112 pages.

Friday, October 27, 2017

Projection and Propaganda: Now Available!




This short work is a sort of wrap-up and short addendum to my other political releases; a treatment of some propaganda deployed by the corporate media, politicians, etc- dwelling on the behavioral. Within this tract I try my best to educate on this topic so people will hopefully be able to resist, to some degree, the same strategies.

26 pages.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Mesmerism, Spiritualism, Witchcraft, and Miracles: Now Available!



This work is something I do not necessarily agree with in an occult sense but, for historical reasons and because of its (extremely) interesting take on the Salem Witch Trials, it is certainly worthy of inclusion in the ever-expanding library of releases here.

Written by Putnam in the middle of the 1800s, it is notable in that it makes the claim (though not directly) of a new spirit age having dawned on the world in which spirits have begun to communicate with mankind in a manner not unlike the telegraph- predating theosophical claims of a similar nature by many decades. The author himself claims to have established the veracity of mediums and spiritualism personally, and remarks at length upon the different stages or categories of mesmerism and its abilities.

62 pages.

Monday, November 21, 2016

General Update Time!

Things are going along quite smoothly at present; due to the sudden coming of snow (far earlier than usual) I've gotten a little ADHD addled I suppose and I have three works not complete but all more than half complete; namely the (very good) South Sea Herbal, the Asuri Kalpa, and A work called "Everybody's Astrology." I figure at least one will be done before November ends, and the other two in the first week of December, with three more works to go before the big #100.

That completes the first stage of my work; but there is an enormous load ahead for 2017; namely at least one and probably two entire categories' worth of work ("medical" will combine herbals with homeopathy, and I envision a new category for works related to the psychic arts, mediumship, mesmerism, and similar topics), as well as a planned massive addition of new subjects to the occult playlist I have made.

This is in addition to two side projects; tomorrow I should receive the three booklets I grabbed off ebay, and with my patreon-based donations far higher now I have the cash necessary to seriously look at some of the better booklet lots on ebay over time and grab a few to roughly double the occult archive- this has been actively planned for some time but until now I had so much else to do that I didn't have the time; I want to field at least 200 free scans by the end of 2017 and another 100 on top of that by the middle of 2018.

The second side project is, of course, finalizing the kindle ebook releases and adding links to them to the categories on this blog; unfortunately at least four separate editions were messed up (I'm good at dealing with createspace' system for paperbacks, but I am not used to the kindle process) and I had to completely redo them. If you do find that any of my ebook releases are not properly formatted, please do not hesitate to tell me here in a comment or by message on my Youtube channel.

I am also happy to announce that more than 120 copies of Sickness in Hell have been sold since its release about five weeks ago- this doesn't sound like a lot until you realize that the genre is the literal fringe of the fringe being self released without commercial advertisement by a largely unknown author of fictional works.

Friday, September 16, 2016

The Book of Forbidden Knowledge: Now Available!




The Book of Forbidden Knowledge should in no way be judged based on its era and type of manufacture. A simple paperback released at the dawn of the 20th century, it's really more of a modern grimoire influenced by the Oracle/Napoleonic tradition than it is a hand guide of trickery typical of that late Victorian age.

Covering charms, talismans, fortune telling, prognostication, physiognomy, mesmerism, seances, and more, it's similar to Hohman's Pow Wows in the 1800s or the Petit Albert of the 1700s. That is to say, a compilation of many types of lore from multiple backgrounds; indeed the similarity it shares with these two works leads me to believe that it borrows some of its content from each. It's an extremely good work; far better than I expected when I first saw the cover and presumed it to be silly.

106 pages.

Friday, July 29, 2016

Several Work Updates

Update 1: Hohman's Pow-Wows is rapidly approaching completion. The work is going much faster than the Fortune Teller did because of the English being so much closer to that used in modern speech. I have not yet decided whether to include or omit the publishers' added section (which dates to the original work but is not entirely of German/Pennsylvanian origin.)

Update 2: I am going to expedite the Ars Goetia if it is within my capability to do so.

Update 3: I will be editing and releasing the "Ophiolatreia."

Update 4: Sickness in Hell will be taking rudimentary form over the course of August and I hope to release it before Halloween. If not, it will definitely be done before December.

Update 5: I still have to release the Trinosophia of St. Germaine, the Magus by Francis Barrett, and a dozen other works. Whether even working at full tilt I can complete them all before 2017 is not certain; the last slew of works I released quickly were all shorter in length and all were edited into English before modernity- the Trinosophia has to be translated from French as the Petit Albert was (Hall's translation is copyrighted and flawed) and The Magus is quite long and detailed. Two more apocryphal works, and at least three more alchemical texts, as well as the booklet I possess on Hypnotism and Mesmerism will join their ranks also, along with Faust's "Black Raven."

Saturday, July 2, 2016

A Slew of New Work

Coming soon: Johannes Trithemius' "The Art of Drawing Spirits Into Crystals"- a sort of short-ish grimoire and similar in infamy and length to De Septum Secundeis- these two works form the twin counterparts to the Steganographia and never obtained the level of fame of this much longer, Latinized work. I have already fully edited this manuscript and it will be released in two days.

In addition to this July release, I am looking forward to another double release; the Universal Fortune Teller, an 1860 work similar to the Oraculum, and a work on mesmerism and hypnotism of note from the 1930s which I scanned from my very own collection.

In addition to these two notable works of paranormal Americana, I want to begin the Nigromancia as soon as possible due to its fame, alongside beginning Sickness in Hell; it needs to take rough form before October, which is for obvious reasons the best month for editing works of darkness.