RR Pod E43 [Free Content] Dr. Bastiaan van Rijn: Mesmerism & Afterlife Research

*Note: this is the Free Content version of my interview with Bastiaan van Rijn. To hear the entire interview, please consider joining my Patreon and becoming a member; alternately, this episode can be purchased for a one-time fee. More information at www.patreon.com/RejectedReligion.

My guest this month is Dr. Bastiaan van Rijn.

Bastiaan is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. During his PhD, he has investigated how practitioners of different movements in the nineteenth century tried to scientifically prove life after death exists. The outcome of this project is the book Afterlife Research (forthcoming), as well as several open-access articles. Beside this, he is also interested in playful approaches to religion and divination in the contemporary West. His newest project centers on spiritual tourism.

This interview takes us into the fascinating world of Mesmerism—also known as animal magnetism—and its enduring influence on the boundaries between science, mysticism, and spiritual inquiry. Bastiaan gives a brief bio of Franz Anton Mesmer, who in the late 18th century proposed that an invisible fluid flowed through all living beings, capable of healing and revealing hidden truths. Though controversial and dismissed by many, Mesmer’s ideas sparked a lineage of thought that continues to shape contemporary conversations about consciousness, healing, and the legitimacy of scientific inquiry.

We discuss how Mesmerism blended science and mysticism, influenced public perception, and laid the groundwork for practices ranging from hypnotism and New Thought to modern-day energetic healing. Bastiaan’s own research picks up this thread, tracing how the experimental impulse to make the invisible visible evolved into afterlife studies, somnambulism, and psychical research.

From there, we dive into Bastiaan’s dissertation, which examines the emergence of a “scientific culture” in afterlife research—one grappling with empirical inaccessibility, unreliable intermediaries, and skeptical resistance. Through case studies of three spiritual animal magnetizers, Bastiaan uncovers how different strategies were used to stabilize claims and navigate the tension between belief and method.

Ultimately, this conversation invites us to rethink what counts as scientific, Bastiaan invites us to consider not just what these researchers claimed to find, but how they tried to find it, as well as how experimental practices in esoteric and spiritual domains contribute to broader dialogues about religion, and the unseen dimensions of human experience.

What emerges is a rich, transhistorical culture of inquiry—one that challenges our assumptions about science, religion, and the boundaries of legitimate knowledge.

PROGRAM NOTES

Find Bastiaan:
Bastiaan Benjamin Van Rijn - University of Fribourg
Bastiaan van Rijn | LinkedIn
Instagram

ResearchGate – all research
[PhD Diss.] The Experimental Culture of Afterlife Research: Attempts by Spiritual Animal Magnetizers to Prove Life after Death | Request PDF
(PDF) Chapter 9 Building a Typology for Intentional Transformative Experiences: Louis- Alphonse Cahagnet’s Experiments with Magnetic Somnambulism and Hashish
Bastiaan van Rijn (0000-0003-4247-9198) - ORCID

Other Resources:
1784: The Marquis de Puységur and the psychological turn in the west - PubMed

The seeress of Prevorst; being revelations concerning the inner-life of man, and the inter-diffusion of a world of spirits in the one we inhabit : Kerner, Justinus Andreas Christian, 1786-1862 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Investigations of psychic/spiritual phenomena in the nineteenth century: somnambulism and spiritualism, 1811-1860

A Republic of Mind and Spirit – Wonderful history of Metaphysics in the USA

🕯️ MESMER 🕯️ (1994) Watch FULL MOVIE subtitled in English (ALAN RICKMAN, AMANDA OOMS)

 

Music and Editing: Daniel P. Shea

End Production: Stephanie Shea