PARISIANS including Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI, were in love with a man by the name of Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer.
The Paris press reported the phenomenon as “Mesmeromania.”
The gregarious Dr. Mesmer was wealthy because he married a rich widow, but also because he became a successful Viennese physician.
He lived on a well-appointed estate, and often hosted a twelve-year-old musical prodigy named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Mozart was introduced to Benjamin Franklin’s invention, the “Armonica,” by Mesmer, (who used it to ‘mesmerize’ his patients.)
The young Mozart composed a musical piece for Mesmer’s “Glass Armonica,” and later wrote a solo Armonica piece, and a larger quintet for Armonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello.
Mesmer was the darling of Parisian Elite Society in the 1780’s, a confidant of the super rich and super powerful.
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All over Paris, people were throwing themselves under trees Mesmer had ‘mesmerized.’ They would flail, convulse, scream and claim healing. Mesmer said he had a healing power in his hands he called “Animal Magnetism.”