Animal Magnetism — Poles, Pivot and Crises
Animal Magnetism — Poles, Pivot and Crises is a Western Esoteric / Medical — Hermetic Animal Magnetism (Mesmerism) body system as transmitted through the lineage Mesmer's eighteenth-century animal magnetism posited a universal fluid whose distribution could be directed by passes, contact, and bodily poles. This map renders the head crisis pole, epigastric pivot, extremity discharge points, and the crisis associated with baquet practice; later Puységur reframed crisis through magnetic somnambulism.. This page lists every point in the system with sourced placements and links to cross-tradition correspondences curated for The Body Spiritual.
Open in interactive explorerPrimary sources
- Franz Anton Mesmer, Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal (Paris: P. Fr. Didot le jeune, 1779) — Mesmer's propositions describe animal magnetism as a universal physical fluid, bodily poles, therapeutic passes, and crises; this is the canonical source for the vocabulary represented here.
- Armand-Marc-Jacques de Chastenet, marquis de Puységur, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire et à l'établissement du magnétisme animal (Paris: Dentu, 1820) — Historical account and development of magnetic somnambulism and crisis practice in the post-Mesmerian tradition; used to contextualise the baquet-era crisis locus.
- Adam Crabtree, From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing (Yale University Press, 1993) — Modern scholarly history of Mesmerism, including crisis and somnambulism and the transition from fluidic explanations to psychological accounts.
Known lineage variants
- Mesmer's terms 'poles' and 'crises' are historical categories; this front-view x/y placement is an editorial projection rather than an anatomical measurement or a claim that a magnetic fluid exists.
- The epigastric point is rendered as a solar pivot because the epigastrium functions as a recurring focus in Mesmerian treatment reports; 'solar plexus' is a modern interpretive label, not Mesmer's anatomical terminology.
- Hands and feet are shown as bilateral extremity discharge points because passes, contact, and terminal movement are described in Mesmerian practice; schools varied in the exact course and polarity.
- The baquet crisis locus is a schematic body anchor for a whole-body crisis state and crisis-room setting; it is not a single organ or universally fixed point.
- The animal-magnetic fluid, magnetic poles, and therapeutic efficacy are superseded by modern physiology; this map preserves the historical claims as history and must not be read as scientific validation.
- Anatomical right follows the corpus convention x < 0.5; front-view placement does not assert a back-side anatomy.
Cross-tradition overlaps
- Right hand discharge point ↔ Axé — right hand (distance 0.010)
- Left hand discharge point ↔ Axé — left hand (distance 0.010)
Related systems
No other systems share this tradition label.
Points
- Head crisis pole — Cranial pole of animal magnetism
- Épigastre — solar pivot — Upper-abdominal magnetic focus
- Right hand discharge point — Anatomical right — terminal extremity
- Left hand discharge point — Anatomical left — terminal extremity
- Right foot discharge point — Anatomical right — lower extremity terminus
- Left foot discharge point — Anatomical left — lower extremity terminus
- Baquet-era crisis locus — Schematic anchor for the whole-body crise
Frequently asked
What is Head crisis pole?
In Mesmer's pole-and-crisis vocabulary, the head is rendered as the cranial crisis pole, the upper focal end of the patient's magnetic field. The dot is a front-view editorial anchor for a diffuse cranial region; it does not identify a brain structure or a validated physical pole.
What is Épigastre — solar pivot?
The epigastrium is rendered as a solar pivot, a central contact and attention locus in Mesmerian treatment reports and later accounts. 'Solar' is a rendering shorthand for the upper-abdominal pivot, not a claim that Mesmer used modern solar-plexus anatomy.
What is Right hand discharge point?
The hand marks one bilateral extremity discharge point in the magnetic-pass vocabulary, where magnetizer contact and directional passes were performed. Anatomical right is x < 0.5 under the corpus convention; exact terminal polarity varies by account and school.
What is Left hand discharge point?
The hand marks one bilateral extremity discharge point in the magnetic-pass vocabulary, where magnetizer contact and directional passes were performed. Anatomical left is x > 0.5 under the corpus convention; exact terminal polarity varies by account and school.
What is Right foot discharge point?
The foot marks a lower bilateral extremity terminus in the discharge reading of a Mesmerian body field. Its broad uncertainty radius records that the historical sources describe passes, contact, and crisis effects more readily than a fixed foot point; the coordinate is an editorial front-view anchor.
What is Left foot discharge point?
The foot marks a lower bilateral extremity terminus in the discharge reading of a Mesmerian body field. Its broad uncertainty radius records that the historical sources describe passes, contact, and crisis effects more readily than a fixed foot point; the coordinate is an editorial front-view anchor.
What is Baquet-era crisis locus?
The baquet crisis locus is an iconic anchor for the crisis state that could arise during group baquet sessions and their associated crisis-room practice. A crisis was a whole-body event in the historical accounts, so this midline torso coordinate is deliberately schematic rather than a single fixed organ or point.