Magnetizers, also known in the countryside as bonesetters, dowsing healers, now use the term energy healing practitioners. This profession, practiced under the cloak a few centuries ago, is beginning to become more democratic and to take hold. Victims of witch hunts and hunted down by so-called “western” religions and medicine, magnetizers have long remained discreet. More recognized in the countryside, the magnetism was done on the farms, with the elders, who practiced in their kitchen in the middle of the rest of the family. Everyone knows someone who “heals warts, glasses, shingles or cuts fire …”. What does the term magnetizer mean? How is this profession defined today?

If we take the definition of classic dictionaries like the Larousse: “A magnetizer is a healer who claims to have a particular fluid thanks to the laying on of hands or who performs passes from a distance, he uses magnetism”. Servane Mercier, magnetiser for Vertou in the south of Nantes, would like to point out “in my opinion, we must avoid associating a magnetiser with a healer; We are not doctors. “.

This magnetism is to be distinguished from that of magnets, which represents a set of physical phenomena in which objects exert attractive or repulsive forces on other materials.

Magnetism, as used here describes the fluid that magnetizers say every human being has. Each human being develops it or not, and masters it or not according to his life goals. “So magnetizers have a lot of it because some people want to use it but don’t have enough. Basically it is not because we practice it that we will have more, the more we practice the more we master it is very different. “

In his novel “The Healer of the Enlightenment” the French writer and publisher Frédéric Gros offers a foray into the phenomenal life of Franz-Anton Mesmer. The inventor of the term “animal magnetism”.

This controversial physician, who died in 1815, devoted his life to studying magnetism and theories of healing by a kind of universal fluid to be balanced in the body through “passes” made by the hands. This learned man, who was also a wealthy patron and musician and then frequented the greatest musicians, such as Mozart, believed he had discovered how to cure illnesses with the simple touch.  

Based on his own research and experiences, Frédéric Gros tells the fascinating life of Mesmer.  

Mesmer would have succeeded in producing unexplained, even miraculous cures, even if he was rejected by the scientific community. At the time, everyone wanted to be “magnetized” and his office was always full.  

Frédéric Gros, tells the story of the inventor of “mesmerism” in the form of letters written by Mesmer in the last months of his life. A life where he never stopped believing in the power he had at his fingertips, in the power of this fluid which was “the elementary music of the Universe”.  

He describes the importance of the body, of touch. Messmer has often been associated with hypnosis while magnetism is something that is on the side of touch, (physical feeling) more than psychic control.

To exercise as a professional, you must therefore have a lot of natural magnetism, and know how to master it to use it. This magnetism is transmitted in the family from one generation to another or we can be endowed with it without having had any transmission “For my part I learned all alone like many other magnetizers who are the only ones in their family” . As in all other professions, where the professional is originally gifted at drawing or singing, using his hands etc … this “gift” would allow, depending on the personality of the person who wishes to develop it, to use this natural magnetism in several areas.

Dowsers or geobiologists

To find water: we then call these magnetizers dowsers or geobiologists. They work in collaboration with drillers to dig wells, or architects or geologists to study land. They can be very precise on the depth of the source, the flow of the water, if the source is drinkable, what layer of sediment should be dug before finding water.

The “gunmen”

Magnetism is also known to “cut the fire”, meaning that some people are able to reduce the pain of a burn. No scientific explanation has explained this phenomenon, but many structures collaborate with firefighters, or fire coxswains, for severe burns or during chemotherapy, in order to reduce the effects. Surprisingly, some magnetizers also act by telephone, from a distance.

Without the magnetism being recognized by the national directory of trades, magnetisers are emerging from the shadows and are often better accepted by paramedics, because they can act in collaboration with osteopathic care for example.

Magnetism helps to untie the knots of the body and the mind to feel more peaceful and to release energy so that it circulates well from head to toe. This is called alignment. It is this energy base that we will find with practices such as acupuncture or yoga for example.

Anyone can practice a magnetism session to rebalance their body and ease their tensions. So magnetism can help adults as well as children, babies or even animals.

A magnetizer can relieve all kinds of ailments: such as joint pain, intestinal or urogenital disorders, skin problems such as warts. Magnetism activates healing, it is effective for shingles, and eczema, “also for sleep disorders, chronic pain, migraines, stress, fatigue, all themes where traditional medicine has given a diagnosis but where the problem persists. People often come to see us when we have already tried everything ”indicates Servane Mercier.

Magnetism does not in any way replace traditional medicine, and on this point all magnetizers warn their clients by reminding them that magnetism does not replace medical monitoring or treatment, but that it is there in addition. “For example, it does not cure cancer but relieves the side effects of treatment,” explains Servane Mercier.

The magnetizer can also help to relieve certain psychic or emotional disorders and thus reduce muscle tension and clients have a feeling of appeasement. It can allow a letting go which releases the emotions: fears, anxieties… It is also very effective against overwork, burn-out, emotional shock, sleep problems, ophthalmic migraines.

Each magnetizer develops his gift and his own “passes” or techniques according to his feelings. For the most part, magnetizers have followed a long personal journey before starting, which has allowed them to develop their own way of doing things, in complete freedom, in order to become effective.

Some prefer to offer a seat to their client, others offer to be lying on the table. The length of the appointment varies depending on the issue. The price also. Some believe they have received this gift from heaven and do not make it their job, others become professional and offer sessions between 20 and 60 euros

The question remains open and the term “medicine” does not apply here. It is more of an alternative practice complementary to traditional medicine. Many health professionals are wondering because science does not yet explain everything and many human faculties are still to be discovered. Many French people use these practices and feel the benefits. Without explaining it, we can however see the effects.