Dr. Jewett gave a long history of experiments
on animal magnetism, and said it had nearly cured him of infidelity, and he thought
the Mormons would understand the principle. I told him I did perfectly, that we
believed in the Lord’s magnetizing, that he magnetized Belteshazar so that he
saw the hand writing on the wall. (Brigham Young, March 3, 1846, in Manuscript
History of Brigham Young, 1846-1847, comp. Elden J. Watson [Salt Lake City:
Elden J. Watson, 1971], 62; as Watson notes, “Animal magnetism was the name for
mesmerism or hypnotism” [ibid., 571 n. 8])
