Professor Daniel Bulte Associate Professor in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford spoke at the "Modern Mesmerism: The history and future of medical magnetism in the brain" event held at the IET Savoy Place organised by the IET Central London Network.

He gave a very entertaining talk on how Franz Mesmer was able to use magnetic energies and animal-magnetism to promote wellbeing in the Victorian age. From the talk, it sounded like the approach was genuinely ground breaking, in that, it probably created the first franchise model in the Victorian age where his theories even warranted a Royal commission which created one of the first ever peer review processes for clinical trials. The scientists that reviewed his theories included Benjamin Franklin. Charles Dickins and Mozart were fans of Mesmerism too ..


Read the account of the bizarre talk on the IET Central London Network London blog here.