Legendary Hypnotist - Franz Mesmer

Franz Anton Mesmer (May 23, 1734 – March 5, 1815) sometimes incorrectlyreferred to as Friedrich Anton Mesmer, was a German physician with an interest in astronomy, who theorised that there was a natural energetic transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called animal magnetism, sometimes later referred to asmesmerism. The theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the century; it is now almost entirely forgotten. In 1843 the Scottish physician James Braid proposed the term hypnosis for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today this is the usual meaning of mesmerism.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Mesmer