Marquis de Puységur Quotes
Actively will to do good; firmly believe in your own power; and have entire confidence in its use.
That is truly the whole secret,” replied De Puysegur, “the whole science is contained in two words : Believe and Will.”
By questioning patients in crisis about their sensations we may learn what is the action of influences to which we are not susceptible on the normal state.
They (his somnambules) have all assured me that they kept their judgment and reason while in that state, and that they could very quickly perceive any bad intentions towards them ; when they felt that, it caused them to awaken on the spot.
I believe that there exists a universal fluid, giving life to the whole of Nature ; that this is not an ancient error, but an ancient truth. I believe that this fluid on earth is continually in movement, and that this is a truth no less ancient and not less demonstrated to-day.
The eye seems to be more susceptible than any other organ. It is by a light rubbing of the eye that I charge my subjects, and bring on somnambulism ; and it is also by a very light friction on the eye that I operate a sudden discharge, from which results awakening into their natural state
I believe in the existence within myself of a power.
From this belief derives my will to exert it.
The entire doctrine of Animal Magnetism is contained in the two words: Believe and Want.
I believe that I have the power to set into action the vital principle of my fellow-men;
I want to make use of it; this is all my science and all my means.
Believe and want, Sirs, and you will do as much as I.
“ It is from this tall stout rustic that I derive instruction and knowledge. When in the magnetic state he is no longer a peasant, who can hardly utter a single sentence ; he is a being to describe whom I cannot find a name. I need not speak, I have only to think before him, when he instantly hears and answers me. . . I know of no subject more profound, more lucid, than this peasant in his crisis.”
One day I questioned a woman in the crisis about the power which I had over her; I had just forced her (without speaking) to hit me with a fly-flap she had in her hand ; and I said to her, ‘ I would wager that if I willed it determinately I could make you do anything I liked, since I can make you hit me, me who have done you so much good. I could, for instance, make you take off all your clothes.’ ‘ No such thing, sir,’ she replied, ‘ that is not the same thing. What you made me do did not seem to me quite right, and I resisted for some time ; but as it was only a jest, and you wished it greatly, I consented ; but as to what you now say, you would never be able to make me undress myself ; my shoes and my hat, yes ; but not anything more.
You are to consider yourself as a magnet ; your arms, and particularly your hands, being its poles ; and when you touch a patient by laying one of your hands on his back, and the other in direct opposition upon his stomach, you are to imagine that the magnetic fluid has a tendency to circulate from one hand to the other through the body of the patient. You may vary this position by placing one hand on the head and the other on the stomach, still with the same intention, the same desire of doing good. The circulation from one hand to the other will continue, the head and stomach being the parts of the body where the greatest number of nerves converge ; these are, therefore, the two centres to which your action ought to be mostly directed. Friction is quite unnecessary ; it is sufficient to touch with great attention.
According to my usual practice, I was magnetising a young man by laying one of my hands on his head and the other on his stomach. After a quarter of an hour’s attention and concentration on my part, and perfect tranquillity on his, he told me that he felt nothing. As he had no complaint this appeared to me quite natural. I, however, again pressed him between both my hands, merely to try whether I would be more successful ; but he felt no more this second time than he did the first. I was at length about to leave him, when, on slowly removing my hands from his stomach, he fetched a sigh and complained that I was hurting him. As I did not then touch him, I could not at first believe it, but he hastily took my hand and lowered it, saying that it stopped his breath. I quickly brought myself again into contact with him, expecting that he would now feel a more decided sensation, but it proved quite the contrary ; the pressure of my hand had no effect whatever. On removing it to a distance of about one foot from him, he again complained ; at two feet distance he felt a weight on his breast and desired me to withdraw. I then drew myself back by degrees, and stopped only when he told me that his pain was gone and he felt nothing. I was then five paces from him ; I magnetised him at that distance by a slow and circular oscillation of my hand ;* and immediately his head reclined on his shoulder, and somnambulism supervened.
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