EVEN A CHILD CAN UNDERSTAND IT
Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France – Maria Rockliff, with illustrations by Iacopo Bruno
I’m not sure what to make of Kev buying me a children’s book on mesmerism!
This book arrived on a Saturday morning when I was busily batch-cooking apocalypse-soup. Disappointed at me not paying adequate attention to the beautiful illustrations he was flashing at me, he then proceeded to read to me…
As if I was a small child being read a bedtime story.
Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France explains the scientific method to children via the story of Benjamin Franklin debunking Mesmer in 1784.
It’s simply told and stunningly illustrated. It’s also refreshing to see the story told from the perspective of Franklin and science; once you ‘fall down the rabbit hole’ on hypnosis you sort of forget your interest is niche and fleeting for most.
Mesmer is portrayed as ‘the baddie’, of course – the charlatan; a proud fool who could neither question nor escape his own beliefs and experiences.
OBVIOUSLY I have myriad thoughts on what a grave injustice this is to Mesmer, in all his lilac-coated, wand-wielding complexity. But you gotta keep it simple for the kiddos, I suppose.
I opened this book to a trippy optical illusion. I closed it with a troubling sense that many hypnosis practitioners today still value personal beliefs as to ‘what works’ over the scientific method.
Part of the reason the scientific method began to be taught in schools was because of the fallout from the mesmeric craze. More than two centuries later, we still have some way to go…
