BY TERENCE HINES
In 1783 King Louis XVI of France organized a royal commission to investigate whether mesmerism was a real phenomenon or a sham. It is well known that Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier were authors of the Commission’s report. The report was translated into English and published in a 1996 issue of Skeptic magazine with a commentary by Michael Shermer, who noted:
Franklin and Lavoisier devised a test whereby some subjects would be deceived into thinking they were receiving the experimental treatment (magnetism) when they really were not, while others did receive the treatment and were told that they had not. The results were clear: the effects were due to the power of suggestion only.1