Alongside Mesmer’s combination of aether and gravity was the already-popular medical use of magnets. Magnets are concrete, their force is immediately present for us, and this force is selective—it only pushes on certain things. Maybe the human body contains stuff that feels its force. Or maybe certain of our tissues just happen to feel the magnetic force. Or maybe there is in fact a special mineral-magnetic fluid flowing through my system. Or maybe the life force itself is a magnetic fluid. In that case magnetic therapy would be dramatically effective.