Who better than a Dormer (dormir, of course, meaning "to sleep") to write of a mesmerist's secret?

"It tells how you can charm those you meet."  From an 1899 advertisement.

"The weaker will had been easily conquered," from The Dealer in Death and Other Stories by Arthur Morris and illustrated by C. May, 1897.

A class in mesmerism?  From Stories in Rhyme for Holiday Time, written by Edward Jewitt Wheeler and illustrated by Walter Satterlee, 1884.

"Our first mesmeric séance," from The Children's Fairy History of England by Forbes Edward Winslow and illustrated by E. Marillier, 1889.  This should be of interest: Seance Parlor Feng Shui.

"Struggled with all her will-power against the hypnotic infuence," from 1890.

"Mesmerized skull," from Illustrated Descriptive Price-List of Magical Apparatus and Illusions, 1884.

"Mesmeric Ghosts": an illustration from The Children's Fairy History of England by Forbes Edward Winslow (1889).

From St. Nicholas magazine.

"A Séance on the Ice": an illustration from The Children's Fairy History of England by Forbes Edward Winslow (1889).  The caption reads: "What!  Mesmerise you on the ice!  Well, I never!  Did any one ever hear of such a thing?  Oh, you all want it, do you?  Well, I will try.  You need not take off your skates.  I will mesmerise you skating, and we will be here, and there, and everywhere, at the same time.  Just come close round me and look at me; don't speak, simply watch my hands. * * * * * * *"

"Animal Magnetism": an illustration from an 1841 issue of Punch magazine.

An illustration from Past, Present and Future by James E. White (1909).  The caption reads: "Falling, gently falling. —Scene at Denver, Colo. / A Dangerous Power. —Scene at South Bend, Ind."

"A hypnotic tea party": an illustration from Hypnotism: Its Facts, Theories and Related Phenomena by Carl Sextus (1893).

"Now you cannot move!"  An illustration from a 1909 issue of Saturday Evening Post magazine.

An illustration from a 1910 issue of Hampton's magazine.  The caption reads: "Marthe cried out that something was pulling her hair."

"Nothing less than a hypnotising machine":  an illustration from an 1897 issue of magazine.