Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism

A royal commission is a special team of people appointed by a government to investigate a particular issue and give advice on what should be done about it. The Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism was a group people appointed by the British government in 1784 to look into the practice of animal magnetism (sometimes called mesmerism). Animal magnetism involved people using a form of hypnosis, which was the belief that a person could be persuaded to do something unusual or strange by a hypnotist. The commission looked at whether animal magnetism had any scientific, medical or useful purpose. In the end, the commission concluded that there was not enough evidence to support the claims that animal magnetism had any useful purpose, so it made no recommendations.