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MESMER
On April 24, 1784, Benjamin
Franklin, part of a royal commission set up to investigate the claims of mesmerism, underwent continuous mesmerizing and observed patients falling into trances and convulsions. Franklin's psychic investigators found a false report that one of Mesmer's subjects was being 'mesmerized' through a door caused a woman patient to have a " crisis ". A series of such experiments, presented
in a clear, rational manner, supported the commission's conclusion:
Mesmer's so-called "magnetic fluid" or his claims about hypnotism did not exist.
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