Here we continue the sequence of translated extracts from Heinz Schott’s Fluidum section in his book Magie der Natur, followed by a commentary by Clare Mingins.
Please see this page for the introduction to this project.
Related introductory article: Franz Anton Mesmer - Discoverer of Animal Magnetism
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Translation from Heinz Schott - Magie der Natur [Magic of Nature], 2014, p.471
The Theology of Electricity
With the artificial generation of electricity and its sparkling light effects, the divine light now seemed to become within reach for people. Hardly any historian of science has worked out the theological implications of this new electric world as impressively as the Protestant theologian Ernst Benz (1907-1978), who above all wanted to elucidate the history of mesmerism. He was an authority on Mesmer's teaching and an admirer of the Master, to which he gave a final underlining by the fact that he was himself buried in 1978 next to Mesmer's grave in the cemetery at Meersburg. Magnetism and electricity seemed at that time to be "the clearest representation of the hidden presence of the divine power in the world" and "a new symbol of God" [1]. With its mysterious power of attraction, the magnet symbolised Divine Love, whereby already with Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), “the personal elements of his idea of God increasingly recede, and instead the impersonal elements of the conception of God as an all-pervading and all-enlivening, shaping and sustaining force and emanation come more and more to the fore" [2]. Thus, a "pansophical theology of Nature" emerged as “the transition to Mesmer’s 'Gospel of Nature.' ” To Benz, this confirmed Mesmer's "intuitive sense of Nature and a very extraordinary charismatic gift." [3].
References
[1] Benz, Ernst - Theologie der Elektrizität. Zur Begegnung und Auseinandersetzung von Theologie und Naturwissenschaft im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur (Mainz), 1971, p.7.
[2] ibid. p.14.
[3] ibid. p.16.
English translation of Theologie der Elektrizität, 1971:
Benz, Ernst - The Theology of Electricity: On the Encounter and Explanation of Theology and Science in the 17th and 18th Centuries (tr. Taraba, Wolfgang), Pickwick Publications (Eugene, Oregon), 1989. [Amazon paperback]
Commentary by Clare Mingins
In the short translated excerpt above, Heinz Schott calls attention to the attractive power of the magnet which in the 18th century, as well as other times, provided a potent simile for the idea of Divine Love. Such love can be pictured as drawing all the world to itself. And as quoted in Fluidum (4), William Law made the striking statement, “There is nothing in the Universe but Magnetism, and the Impediments of it.”
As well as Divine Love, lesser grades of love can be seen in magnetic terms: love within the family and among friends, unilateral and mutual attraction, bonding and uniting. The triad of magnetism, romantic love and sexual attraction deserves a whole special study, and the term animal magnetism is to this day associated with sexual vitality and attractiveness.
The French word l’aimant, meaning magnet, has a fortuitous juxtaposition with the adjective aimant, loving, from aimer, to love. However, l’aimant, the magnet, actually derives from Latin adamas, which also is the root of our English word adamant.
Of course, the magnet exhibits not only attractive properties, but also repels. The existence of polarity in the magnet, that it has two opposing poles of action, has itself given rise to many analogies.
I would like to look a little into how Mesmer viewed the attraction and repulsion exerted by the magnet, and analogously by human beings and all other bodies upon each other.
In Mesmer’s little-known work, Théorie du Monde [Theory of the World] of 1784, often erroneously attributed to his pupil Bergasse, he gives an illustration of how he sees the underlying cause of attraction and repulsion being the ebb and flow of currents of fine matter, or “the universal fluid”:
Let the two towers be A B, the Boat C and the current D.
If Boat C moves to Tower B, if one does not see the current D which draws it and if one sees only the Tower B, towards which the Boat C moves, one will say that B attracts C, and we call this Phenomenon attraction.
If Boat C moves away from Tower A, and if we do not perceive the current D which draws it, we shall say that C is pushed or repelled by A, and we call this Phenomenon impulsion or repulsion.
If we perceive the current D which draws C from A towards B, we say that C is drawn from A to B by the current D, and we will call this Phenomenon entrainment.
Everything in Nature is done by entrainment. The attraction or impulsion and repulsion that we observe are only apparent.
The cause of apparent attraction, or impulsion, and of repulsion is in the incoming and outgoing currents of the universal fluid.
There cannot be an incoming current without an outgoing current because everything in the Universe is a plenum.
[Mesmer, F.A.] – Théorie du monde et des êtres organisés Suivant les Principes de M . . . [Theory of the world and of organised beings Following the Principles of M . . .], n.p. (Paris) 1784, Section 1, p.5-6. [N.B. The words in bold are represented by symbols in the original text.]
It will be worth bearing the above in mind when we further examine some of Mesmer’s ideas and practices.