In mesmeric treatment it is just as well to remember there is no need to remove the clothing under any circumstances, unless it is composed of silk or other non-conducting material. For economical reasons old clothing is better than new.
Toothache is a common affliction. You will have many opportunities of immediately relieving it, if not effectually and ultimately curing it.
A very good and practical method of cure is to lay your hand upon the affected side of the face, and hold it there for a few minutes, and this prepares the face for the next movement. Then place a piece of flannel over the ear (on the same side of the head as the toothache); keep your hand still on the face, but now over the flannel, with the other hand over the head, holding the upper portion of the flannel (or four-fold ordinary pocket handkerchief) over the ear.
Now breathe strongly and steadily into the ear through the covering thus made. Do this two or three times, strongly willing the removal [of] the pain. A warm, soothing influence will reach the offending tooth, and peace will ensue. At the last breath remove the handkerchief quickly, and the pain will be gone.
A little success in this direction will enable you to try your hand at more serious business.
Violent headaches—even arising from bilious attacks—can be relieved in a remarkable way by passes. Stand behind the patient, who should be seated. Place your hands on the forehead.
Keep them there a little, and then make short passes in contact, gently and firmly, with slight pressure on the temples and backward over the side and top head to the crown; then draw out and shake your fingers as if you were throwing water off them, and proceed again to make passes as before.
In from five to fifteen minutes relief will be given, if the pain is not removed altogether.
In rheumatism and such diseases, in which pain is a marked characteristic, Mesmerism “works like a charm.”
The patient is always pleased to be relieved of pain, and as the pain subsides, his mental and physical conditions become more favorably receptive to your influence. If, in treating a rheumatic patient, a pain is moved—say from the shoulder to the middle of the arm above the elbow—continue your treatment, and, instead of drawing passes to the fingers, endeavor to draw the pain down to, and out of, the elbow joints.