An Exposition of the Involuntary Powers and Instincts of the HUMAN MIND.

John Bovee Dods (1795-1872) was a writer, philosopher, spiritualist, mesmerist, and early psychologist. He was born in New York City and died in Brooklyn (on 21 March 1872), but much of his productive life was spent in Maine. He published "Thirty Sermons", "Philosophy of Mesmerism" (New York, 1847), "Philosophy of Electrical Psychology" (1849), "Immortality Triumphant" (1852), and " Spirit Manifestations Examined and Explained" (1854)[1].

“The Rev. Mr. [John Bovee] Dodds [Dods] of Boston, Mass., we believe, deals more extensively in the Magnetic Fluid than any other magnetizer. We have examined his work upon the subject of Mesmerism and can but smile at proofs so conclusively drawn in support of his theory. . . . If we were to take up all the points in his theory and discuss them, we fear our pages would be too voluminous for ordinary purposes and that few would be inclined to pursue the investigation. Dods, like all others who believe in the fluid theory, supposed that something must be the medium of communication between mind and mind and between mind and matter separate from the bodily senses, and he has at once brought in the aid of a subtle fluid which pervades all nature.”

Phineas P. Quimby

Rev. John Bovee Dods was one of the few religious trained practitioners who helped to define the popular culture taught along the east coast lecture circuit making its way from the Washington, D.C. are to Philadelphia and new York City, to Hudson, Troy, Albany, and then across to Boston. Reverend Dods resided in Boston, but frequented the various lecture halls along the east coast trying to promote his own take on the philosophy of Franz Anton Mesmer published more than 50 years earlier. Since the Hudson Valley had well-defined economic or commercial routes, and Dods made good use of the ships, stage coaches and on occasion trains following these routes, he was able to rise in popularity fairly quickly due to his own unique philosophy of magnetism and hypnotism.
Dods wasn’t the first to introduce hypnotism in its earlier period of history to the valley. The knowledge of this earlier form known a mesmerism came to the valley as a part of traditional Hudson Valley. Mesmer’s philosophy first made its way into the Hudson Valley and permanently planted itself in the region sometime between 1815 and 1829, when French Professor Joseph du Commun began to share his review of Mesmer’s writings with his students at West Point. Another was Charles Poyen who came to American as a fresh graduate of his medical school in France around 1839, and was a major influence on Quimby. Another visitor to the area was Dr. Robert H. Collyer.
One writing about Dods which appeared in the Saratoga Republican, the birth place of one of the more famous mineral springs, noted that a former Congressional member nearby had judged Dods to be the discoverer of a new science, which he described as Dods’s ability to perform a unique series of hypnotic suggestions:

“…he professes to able to perform the most startling and cunning experiments, upon person fully awake, and in the most perfect possession of all their faculties. Controlling their motions–standing up, they find it impossible to sit down; if in a sitting posture, they are unable to rise till the operator allows them to do so. He claims to have the power to take away the powers of hearing, speech, sight, and the memory, etc., whenever he pleases, and to return again these faculties instantly; that he can change the personal identity of certain individuals, making them imagine for the time being that they are persons of color, that they belong to the opposite sex, or that they are some renowned general orator, statesman, or what-not.”

Dods made his participants drink water and think it was honey, lemonade, coffee, or even brandy. He could make them imagine the “threatening thundercloud,” leading them to flee to find a place of shelter. All along, Dods claimed he could accomplish this while they appeared awake and “in possession of their faculties.” To further convince any skeptical audience member of this claim, he recollected statements of support provided to him by others laboring in this spiritual healing world. One of these was Hiram Bostwick, an Esquire residing in Auburn County, New York (alongside Syracuse), who witnessed Dr. Dods’s heal his inability to walk and blindness to the differences between light and dark due to “a stroke of palsy” he had. He was cured less than a week after meeting with Dods .
Reverend John Bovee Dods began preaching his healing faith in New York about 1830.
In his published lectures he gave twelve lectures entitled:

I. Electrical Psychology–its definition, and importance in curing diseases
II. Beauty of Independent Thought and Fearless Expression
III. Connecting Link between Mind and Matter and Circulation of the Blood
IV. Philosophy of Disease and Nervous Force
V. Cure of Disease and being acclimated
VI. Existence of Deity proved from Motion
VII. Subject of Creation Considered
VIII. Doctrine of Impressions
IX. Connection between the Voluntary and Involuntary Nerves
X. Electro-Curapathy is the best medical system in being, as it onvolves the excellences of all other systems.
XI. The Secret Revealed, so that all may know how to experiment without an Instructor
XII. Genetology, of Human Beauty Philosophically Considered

The following set of instructions on how to perform hypnosis was pasted in his book:

“When you wish to magnetize persons, let them sit down in an easy position and place the thumb of the right hand on the pulse and wrist of the left hand. Let them close their eyes and count their pulse fifteen minutes. Then ask them to rise. Take hold of their hand, place your other hand on the top of their head and your thumb between the eyebrows. Have them close the eyes, and say in a firm tone, “Open them, if you can,” or, “You cannot open them!” To wake them up say “All right, wide awake!” The theory of magnetism is that you use the word or an assertion with the will power to control their thoughts, and a touch to control the body. The ulnar nerves lie on the outside of the hand, and the median nerve on the inside of the hand near the roots of the thumb. To put them to sleep say “Deep asleep!” To wake them touch the forehead and say “Wide awake! Leave them bold and strong.”

Additional works:

THE PHILOSOPHY of ELECTRICAL PSYCHOLOGY:

IN A COURSE OF TWELVE LECTURES,

BY JOHN BOVEE DODS

1876

SIX LECTURES On the PHILOSOPHY OF MESMERISM.

DELIVERED IN THE

Marlboro Chapel Boston

By JOHN BOVEE DODS.

1876

[1] Spirit manifestations examined and explained: Judge Edmonds refuted; or, An Exposition of the Involuntary Powers and Instincts of the HUMAN MIND.
[see
• http://pvrguymale.blogspot.ca/2012/02/john-worth-edmonds.html
• http://pvrguymale.blogspot.ca/2012/03/ouija-board-planchette-table-tipping.html
• http://goalhypnosis.blogspot.ca/2012/03/illusions-for-realities-fantasy.html]