A deeper and clearer recognition of God's nature—a more faithful acceptance of Him—is the key to understanding reality. God is All. He is never absent. He constitutes the essential substance of reality. He is the very center of being. He is the very circumference—the All—of infinity. Man is a divine idea, wholly spiritual, fully representative of Spirit's perfection.
If we fail to understand the allness and supremacy of God, animal magnetism may seem to be mysterious. But if we grasp at least a beginning understanding that good is absolutely infinite and that divine Love is the only power and presence, we will assess animal magnetism properly. If we are frightened by it, we haven't sufficiently glimpsed God's omnipotence. If we are fascinated by it, we are not sufficiently loving God's omnipotence. If we are ignorant of it, we haven't proved His omnipotence over it. As we begin learning more of God's presence and power, animal magnetism loses any air of mystery.
At about the time of the American Revolution, Franz Anton Mesmer, an Austrian physician, was popularizing what is today widely known as hypnotism. This process of thought control was called mesmerism. Mesmer believed there was a powerful influence or force, which he named animal magnetism, that could be used by one person over another. His lectures and practice of hypnotism, intended to aid patients, led him to Paris, where his fellow physicians viewed him with suspicion. But his work stirred such a sensation that the French Government ordered his theory investigated by a commission.
