The True Story of Mesmerism and Edgar Allan Poe
Mesmerism, a precursor to hypnosis, was invented by German doctor Franz Anton Mesmer in the late 18th Century. His theory was that an invisible force, that he dubbed Animal Magnetism, coursed through humans, animals, plants, and all other living things. Practitioners of Mesmerism, or "mesmerists", manipulated this "magnetic fluid", using it to put human subjects into trances, command them to perform actions, cause them to speak in unknown languages, and sometimes heal their physical and/or mental ailments.
Mesmer's theories, and the demonstrations by him and other practitioners, caused quite a stir and word of them traveled to America, catching the ears of famous American figures such as George Washington, Ben Franklin, and the writer Edgar Allan Poe.
Poe witnessed a mesmeric trance first-hand, via Andrew Jackson Davis. Davis was famous not for being a practitioner of mesmerism, but as a subject who had a talent for entering trances. Davis would have ecstatic experiences in his trance states, including vivid visions, where he would speak to angels and the dead, visit ethereal realms, and receive secret knowledge about the workings of the universe and spirit world.
In 1845, Davis moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut to dictate his trance states to a minister friend, eventually resulting in an 800 page book titled The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind. His daily trance dictation sessions went on for months, and were open to public. And it was during one of these sessions that Edgar Allan Poe, a journalist at the time, was in attendance.
Poe was so inspired by what he witnessed, that later that year he wrote the horror story "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar". In the story, the dying Valdemar agrees to be put into a trance state just before death. The Mesmerist, and narrator of the story, witnesses the moment of his passing:
"The eyes rolled themselves slowly open... The upper lip, at the same time, writhed itself away from the teeth, which it had previously covered completely; while the lower jaw fell with an audible jerk, leaving the mouth widely extended, and disclosing in full view the swollen and blackened tongue."
The corpse of Valdemar begins to speak with a "harsh, and broken and hollow" voice, from his "distended and motionless jaws", telling the narrator that he is dead. The narrator confirms with a doctor, through a series of scientific tests, that the man is indeed dead. Valdemar's body stops speaking, but continues to move his tongue, and he's left in this state of half-death for 7 months until the mesmerist returns to awaken him from his trance. And what happens next... you'll have to read the story to find out. I included a link at the end of this article.
Poe's widely read story was written like a medical case study and it was never presented as fiction, causing London's The Sunday Times to include it in a January 1846 issue, with the headline: Mesmerism in America: Astounding and Horrifying Narrative. The story, taken by many as a true account, served to popularize and legitimize Mesmerism to the masses. "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" continues to be one of Poe's most popular and horrifying stories, and was even adapted for film in Dario Argento and George Romero's movie Two Evil Eyes, albeit with a new, and unfortunate, revenge sub-plot centered around Valdemar's conniving gold-digger wife.
Read Poe's story "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" for free or listen to a free audio version of the story
Stream Two Evil Eyes on Vudu for free (with ads and sign up)
My main source for this article was Occult America by Mitch Horowitz.