# Searchlights on Health/Animal Magnetism

ANIMAL MAGNETISM.
WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO USE IT.
1. MAGNETISM EXISTING BETWEEN THE BODIES OF MANKIND.—It is rational to believe that there is a magnetism existing between the bodies of mankind, which may have either a beneficial or a damaging effect upon our health, according to the conditions which are produced, or the nature of the individuals who are brought in contact with each other. As an illustration of this point we might consider that, all nature is governed by the laws of attraction and repulsion, or in other words, by positive and negative forces. These subtle forces or laws in nature which we call attraction or repulsion, are governed by the affinity—or sameness—or the lack of affinity—or sameness—which exists between what may be termed the combination of atoms or molecules which goes to make up organic structure.
2. LAW OF ATTRACTION.—Where this affinity—or sameness—exists between the different things, there is what we term the law of attraction, or what may be termed the disposition to unite together. Where there is no affinity existing between the nature of the different particles of matter, there is what may be termed the law of repulsion, which has a tendency to destroy the harmony which would otherwise take place.
3. MAGNETISM OF THE MIND.—Now, what is true of the magnet and steel, is also true—from the sameness of their nature—of two bodies. And what is true of the body in this sense, is also true of the sameness or magnetism of the mind. Hence, by the laying on of hands, or by the association of the minds of individuals, we reach the same result as when a combination is produced in any department of nature. Where this sameness of affinity exists, there will be a blending of forces, which has a tendency to build up vitality.
4. A PROOF.—As a proof of this position, how often have you found the society of strangers to be so repulsive to your feelings, that you have no disposition to associate. Others seem to bring with them a soothing influence that draws you closer to them. All these involuntary likes and dislikes are but the results of the animal magnetism that we are constantly throwing off from our bodies,—although seemingly imperceptible to our internal senses.—The dog can scent his master, and determine the course which he pursues, no doubt from similar influences.
5. HOME HARMONY.—Many of the infirmities that afflict humanity are largely due to a want of an understanding of its principles, and the right applications of the same. I believe that if this law of magnetism was more fully understood and acted upon, there would be a far greater harmony in the domestic circle; the health of parents and children might often be preserved where now sickness and discord so frequently prevail.
6. THE LAW OF MAGNETISM.—When two bodies are brought into contact with each other, the weak must naturally draw from the strong until both have become equal. And as long as this equality exists there will be perfect harmony between individuals, because of the reciprocation which exists in their nature.
7. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.—But if one should gain the advantage of the other in magnetic attraction, the chances are that through the law of development, or what has been termed the "Survival of the Fittest"—the stronger will rob the weaker until one becomes robust and healthy, while the other grows weaker and weaker day by day. This frequently occurs with children sleeping together, also between husband and wife.
8. SLEEPING WITH INVALIDS.—Healthy, hearty, vigorous persons sleeping with a diseased person is always at a disadvantage. The consumptive patient will draw from the strong, until the consumptive person becomes the strong patient and the strong person will become the consumptive. There are many cases on record to prove this statement. A well person should never sleep with an invalid if he desires to keep his health unimpaired, for the weak will take from the strong, until the strong becomes the weak and the weak the strong. Many a husband has died from a lingering disease which saved his wife from an early grave. He took the disease from his wife because he was the stronger, and she became better and he perished.
9. HUSBAND AND WIFE.—It is not always wise that husband and wife should sleep together, nor that children—whose temperament does not harmonize—should be compelled to sleep in the same bed. By the same law it is wrong for the young to sleep with old persons. Some have slept in the same bed with persons, when in the morning they have gotten up seemingly more tired than when they went to bed. At other times with different persons, they have lain awake two-thirds of the night in pleasant conversation and have gotten up in the morning without scarcely realizing that they had been to sleep at all, yet have felt perfectly rested and refreshed.
10. MAGNETIC HEALING, OR WHAT HAS BEEN KNOWN AS THE LAYING ON OF HANDS.—A nervous prostration is a negative condition beneath the natural, by the laying on of hands a person in a good, healthy condition is capable of communicating to the necessity of the weak. For the negative condition of the patient will as naturally draw from the strong, as the loadstone draws from the magnet, until both become equally charged. And as fevers are a positive condition of the system "beyond the natural," the normal condition of the healer will, by the laying on of the hands, absorb these positive atoms, until the fever of the patient becomes reduced or cured. As a proof of this the magnetic healer often finds himself or herself prostrated after treating the weak, and excited or feverish after treating a feverish patient.