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Catching up with eighteenth century science in the evaluation of Therapeutic Touch
Skeptical Inquirer, July-August, 1998 by Thomas S. Ball, Dean D. Alexander
Possibly in response to the turmoil generated by Animal Magnetism, the French King Louis XVI appointed a commission to investigate the practice. The four commissioners appointed five additional commissioners including the American ambassador, Benjamin Franklin, and Lavoisier, the chief founder of modern chemistry. The latter designed the scientific experiments. Avoiding a blind alley taken by several contemporary researchers and funding groups, they rejected Mesmer's demand that they focus on cures. This strategy was based upon a remarkably sophisticated appreciation of how psychological factors and the body's ability to heal itself confound the results of therapeutic studies. As noted by Pattie (1994), "The commissioners considered that their first duty was to find out whether animal magnetism existed; the question of its utility could be taken up only after the question of its existence had been answered affirmatively" (145-146).
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In one experiment, a woman who claimed that she experienced warmth in any part of her body while receiving magnetism was blindfolded. "The parts of her body which were exposed, without her knowledge, to magnetism did not respond, but when she was made to believe that she was being magnetized while blindfolded, she felt the usual sensations, although nothing whatever was being done" (Pattie 1994, 148). From this study it was concluded that imagination controlled these sensations. In another experiment, the commission sought to test the power of imagination in the production of convulsions. A particularly susceptible subject was blindfolded and asked to touch four trees in succession, one of which had been charged with Animal Magnetism. At the fourth tree, 24 feet from the magnetized one, he fell in a convulsion, losing consciousness. Similarly, several nonmagnetized cups were presented in succession to another subject. The second cup agitated her somewhat and the fourth provoked a crisis. She was calmed afterwards by drinking from an additional cup that had, in fact, been magnetized. From their series of experimental findings the commission concluded that "imagination without magnetism produces convulsions and . . . magnetism without imagination produces nothing" and "that this fluid without existence is consequently without utility" (Pattie 1994, 151).
Mesmer cited the patients' experiences of sensations and therapeutic convulsions as evidence of the effects of Animal Magnetism. These were claimed to be the objective effects of a mysterious, invisible force.
In evaluating the existence of Krieger's version of such a force, our approach differed slightly from that of the French commission. This difference can be seen in the experimental evaluation of another paranormal phenomenon, dowsing. Dowsers claim that a source of underground water can be sensed through the movement of a hand-held divining rod. Edwards (1950) evaluated one water witch's claims by presenting him with a randomly arranged array of identical tin cans, all covered with plywood squares. The dowser's task was to position the divining rod over each can in succession and identify the water-filled ones. (He did not succeed.) Similarly, we assessed the ability of a practitioner to identify the physical presence or absence of a human subject.(1) Our practitioner's beliefs regarding detection through energy centers in the hands were identical to Krieger's.
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