Promoted the theory of cosmic magnetism whereby “heavenly bodies influence the behavior of men.”

How can astrological influence be possible? How can it make sense inside the mechanical philosophy, where causation means immediate material impact? This is the intuition—that propagation presupposes contact—that drove Paracelsus to postulate a universal magnetic fluid.

Paracelsus created the basic paradigm of Mesmeric and post-Mesmeric psychotherapy. It may have been the first mechanical binding occult field that was the decisive metaphorical move that set the metaphysics and gateway to spiritual-communicational therapy. Before Breuer invented the notion of the talking cure, the other-power that healed people was a field—either God or, for the mechanically minded, a volume of space where physical force affects material inhabitants.