Chiseling into the Past – The Society of Magnetism

This summer, I’ve been intensely involved in deep edits for my novel The Alchemist’s Bride. This book, entirely set in turn-of-the-century New Orleans, has afforded me the opportunity to dig around in New Orleans’ illustrious past. And finding a few historical nuggets that I had no idea existed previously.

As this book touches on some metaphysical concepts, such as astral projection, alternate planes of existence, and mesmerism, it was of great value to me to discover that a group formed back in the 1850s, composed predominantly of French-speaking citizens, studied mesmerism, drawing from the renowned work of Franz Mesmer. They were called The Société du Magnétisme de la Nouvelle-Orléans or The Society of Magnestism of New Orleans. During its existence, its membership included doctors, attorneys, and brokers.

“The Société du Magnétisme de la Nouvelle-Orléans was the largest, most active, and most enduring American mesmeric (hypnotic) organization of its day.

This important group was officially established in 1845 and was in existence until the time of the Civil War. French influence upon the early course of development of hypnosis in America was significant in New Orleans, and also New England. The New Orleans Society’s transactions were published in a Paris-based French-language periodical, Journal du Magnétisme, the constitution was published in the 1847 volume.

Rules of the New Orleans Society of Magnetism

The study of magnetic phenomena and research into their origins, as well as the most appropriate procedures for bringing them about.
The dissemination of magnetism by informing the world of the universal means of healing and preservation that nature has given to each of us.
The therapeutic application of human magnetism to the treatment of diseases.
To reach that goal, the New Orleans Society of Magnetism, founded on the 9th of April 1845, established …

The New Orleans group dissolved probably because of the blockade of the South which disrupted contact with France and other difficulties occasioned by the conflict. … No hypnosis organization of consequence subsequently appeared on the American scene until nearly a century later when the Society for Clinical and Experiment Hypnosis was founded in 1949.”

Gravitz, M.A., Gerton, M.I. (1986) The Société du Magnétisme de la Nouvelle-Orléans: its place in the early history of hypnosis in America. International Journal of Psychosomatics. 33(4):11-4.

It is no secret, or perhaps in our present-day society it is, that the Spiritualism movement, which took root overseas in the early nineteenth century, also gained a foothold in New Orleans, attracting considerable study in the realm of esoteric arts. It seems that the lost Society of Magnetism may have also been part of that wave.

There is no question that there are still treasures in the past and knowledge that may require a bit of rediscovery.

A Journey to Healing

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently working on the audiobook for A Quiet Moment. A Quiet Moment is part of The Mystic’s Collection, a box set of three paranormal novels I wrote in succession.


While Sanctuary of Echoes and Treading on Borrowed Time are books that turn on what I’d consider highly dramatic plot points, A Quiet Moment is a bit of a different beast. I would categorize it more as a book that leans heavily in the direction of a contemporary romance but with extraordinary complications. That doesn’t mean it isn’t dramatic. Sometimes the most dramatic moments of someone’s life happen on a smaller more personal scale not on a grand stage, but on a smaller one, an intimate and personally significant one. That’s the stuff and meat of life.

Revisiting and spending time with this book reminds me how vast the stage of life is and how little we really know about each other and our personal struggles. These characters while dealing with extraordinary psychic gifts are also battling to overcome their own fear, their own past traumas, and learning to help each other and trust again.


I can say honestly, it’s one of the books I’m proudest of because it could really be anybody. We are all extraordinary in ways most never see or acknowledge. And we all struggle and hopefully try to become better people through that struggle. That’s makes us human and capable of greatness on whatever scale, even a very personal one.

A Quiet Moment

Jacob Wyss is caught in a rut, in fact on the verge of being engulfed by it. After an excruciating and disillusioning divorce, his life as an artist in a sleepy college town at the foot of the Appalachian mountains has become quiet, routine, and maddening in its predictability. One wintry day, his deep restlessness drives him out in precarious conditions to a largely empty bookstore nearly devoid of another living soul, nearly.

Aimee Marston isn’t like everyone else. On the surface, she lives a sedate life working as a feature writer for a small local newspaper in addition to several other editorial jobs to help make ends meet. But just beneath, her existence is largely not her own. She is a sensitive, an empathic psychic, guided by her calling to use her gifts to help others. Unfortunately, as a result, her secretiveness has made her defensive and protective of herself, preventing her from having much of a life of her own.

A psychic call for help sends Aimee out on a freezing January morning, where her destiny and Jacob’s collide, sending both their lives spiraling onto an unexpected and often disturbing track. Two lonely souls connect, not by accident but by design. Theirs is the intersection of two spiritual paths, two lovers who must struggle to overcome the phantoms of a past life as well as the challenges of their inner demons to carve out an extraordinary future together.

The Mystic’s Collection

Love is complicated, but even more so, if you are a seer, a psychic sensitive to the unseen world. The Mystic’s Collection is a box set of three haunting and unforgettable novels masterfully woven by paranormal author Evelyn Klebert.