|
|
Abbé Faria, or José Custódio de Faria, (1756-1819) was an Indo-Portuguese monk who was one of the pioneers of the scientific study of hypnotism, following on from the work of Franz Anton Mesmer. Unlike Mesmer, who claimed that hypnosis was mediated by "animal magnetism", Faria understood that it worked purely by the power of suggestion.
Abbé Faria was the first to affect a breach in the theory of the "magnetic fluid," to place in relief the importance of suggestion, and to demonstrate the existence of "auto-suggestion"; he also established that nervous sleep belongs to the natural order. From his earliest magnetizing séances, in 1814, he boldly developed his doctrine. Nothing comes from the magnetizer; everything comes from the subject and takes place in his imagination (The Indian concept Sammohan Bhavana shakti) Magnetism is only a form of sleep. Although of the moral order, the magnetic action is often aided by physical, or rather by physiological, means -- fixedness of look and cerebral fatigue.
Faria changed the terminology of mesmerism. Previously focus was on the "concentration" of the subject. In Faria's terminology the operator became "the concentrator" and somnambulism was viewed as a lucid sleep. The Indian method of hypnosis used by Faria is command, following expectancy.
José Custódio de Faria was born in Candolin at Goa, India on May 31, 1756. His father was Caetano Victorino de Faria, an Indian Brahmin. Faria reached Lisbon in 1771. He participated in "Pintos conspiracy" in 1787, and gone to France in 1788. Faria joined with revolutionaries during the French Revolution in 1789 and was jailed by the Imperial government.He worked as a high school teacher in Paris. He died in France on September 30, 1819. His book "On the causing lucid sleep" was published in 1820.
There is a striking bronze statue of him in Panjim, India, next to the Government Secretariat Goa, sculpted in 1945 by Ramchandra Pandurang Kamat of Madkai. http://www.dommartin.cc/Literature/AbbeFaria.html
Alexandre Dumas used a fictionalised version of the Abbé in his novel "The Count of Monte Cristo". Faria was a prisoner of the Château d'If (as was the real Abbé) who taught the main character, Edmond Dantès, mathematics, science and foreign languages, and helped him to escape from the island prison. He told Dantés about a hidden hoard of jewels on Monte Cristo, a small island near the Italian coast.
References
- O Padre Faria na história do hipnotismo (Abbé Faria in the history of hypnotism), Lisbon, 1925.
- Hypnotism-Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07604b.htm)
- Goa and the revolt of 1787—Charls. J. Borges.
- Jose Custodio de Faria: Hypnotist, Priest and Revolutionary http://www.carreroffice.com/defaria.html