A European Entrancement: Animal Magnetism among the Russian Nobility in France and St Petersburg, 1784–1787

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines the reception of animal magnetism among the Russian nobility in the mid 1780s, at a time when this pseudo-science aroused the curiosity and scorn of many across Europe. The first part of the article focuses on how young Russian noblemen — including Catherine II's illegitimate son, Aleksei Bobrinskii — first encountered animal magnetism in France during Grand Tours, via Masonic networks that were utilized by their governors. Significantly, the Russian noblemen were not only introduced to Franz Mesmer's well-known form of animal magnetism, which sought to cure ailments through physical contact and the use of baquets , but they were also exposed to magnetic somnambulism. This strand of animal magnetism purportedly enabled patients to see the cause of ailments within themselves and others. Moreover, practitioners in Lyon believed that magnetic somnambulism offered the potential for a somnambule to obtain powers of clairvoyance and to be able to achieve a higher state of spiritual consciousness. The second part of this article studies how both strands of animal magnetism — Mesmeric and magnetic somnambulism — briefly flourished in St Petersburg in 1786, the first practitioner being Borbinskii's governor, before Catherine II effectively banned the practice.