steepholm | Ancient Air Looms

A few years ago I wrote an article on the relationship between Mind Control, Hypnosis and Enchantment in children's literature, which involved trying to find out when the earliest example of mind control actually was. The idea of enchantment, whether affecting the body or the affections, is of course ancient. Love potions, for example, are mind control drugs of a sort - but examples of the total control of one person's mind by another, a la Fu Manchu or the Demon Headmaster, are harder to locate. In fact, I couldn't find any, pre-Mesmer (but maybe you know different?).

One footnote that got written too late for inclusion referred to the earliest real-life example I came across, which was the case of James Tilly Matthews - a paranoid schizophrenic (to use anachronistic terminology for a retrospective diagnosis) who was convinced that his mind was being controlled by a gang of Jacobins working an "air loom". Using a combination of cutting-edge technologies derived from Lavoisier, the Jacquard Loom, and Mesmerism, these monsters were able to implant thoughts and even cause death - and, as far as Matthews was concerned, they were working their evil magic on, amongst others, William Pitt the Younger, in a plot strangely preminiscent of The Manchurian Candidate. For the full, fascinating story, which includes an account of a pioneering approach to mental illness in the early nineteenth century, I highly recommend Mike Jay's The Air Loom Gang. Amongst the lethal operations at the gang's beck were a) kiteing, an early version of the ear-worm, where an idea is forced into the thoughts of the victim, where it "floats and undulates in the intellect or hours together; and how much soever the person assailed may wish to direct his mind to other objects, and banish the idea forced upon him, he finds himself unable"; b) Thought-making, which involves the victim's thoughts literally being "sucked out" and replaced with another subject, and c) Lobster Cracking - in which the pressure of the magnetic atmosphere is increased, "so as to stagnate his circulation, impede his vital motions, and produce instant death." Napoleonic steampunk on the non-fiction shelves - who could resist?

Anyway, I'm posting this because I've just learned that artist Rod Dickinson actually built an air loom, based on Matthews' descriptions, in the early 200os. Is this not the coolest thing? I long to try it out.

In other news, my daughter has just asked me, why do people cry? What is the evolutionary advantage of secreting salt water from one's eyes in moments of sadness, pain, or proximity to onions? This is firmly in the category of things I ought to know but don't. Can you enlighten us?

ETA: Tear theories found so far:

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/31/science/biological-role-of-emotional-tears-emerges-through-recent-studies.html

http://www.salon.com/health/feature/1999/05/17/emotional_tears/print.html

http://www.livescience.com/culture/080828-why-we-cry.html

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n reverse order, I dunno, but crying *does* help you release chemicals that, once they're out, you feel better!

And ... did you include the John Christopher Tripod series in your article? (I have just realized that I ask about these books a lot -- I read them and Andre Norton's Ice Palace the same week, I think, when I was 11, and they marked the first time I realized that sf was an actual genre I could seek out. But there was mind control in those.

I would think that pre-Mesmer it was demonic possession.

Dunno on crying.

Armchair evolutionary psychology theorizing has never struck me as an activity likely to generate productive results.

Well no, hence my refraining from it and asking for firmer information.

I didn't mention the tripods, no, though I might well have. Once you get into the twentieth century examples are plentiful, but I was particularly interested in the ways that hypnosis is described as an experience, as compared to enchantment. I don't recall if the experience of being capped (is that the word?) is actually described in Christopher's books.

Yes, there's a big intersection with possession. The interesting thing there (to me) is the extent to which the demonic mind "replaces" the human one, essentially hijacking the body ("I am Legion, for we are many"), as opposed to subduing and controlling the human will.

Unfortunately, that'll be what you get, if you get anything. Evolutionary psychology consists of about 50% airy armchair theorizing and 40% vague memories of high-school biology, leaving very little room left for anything substantive or worthwhile.

The Air Loom is wonderful (and it was at the Laing! and I didn't know, and therefore didn't get to see it!) Are you acquainted with Jess Nevins (

ratmmjess)? It sounds very much his sort of thing...

Crying: I don't know why we weep for emotional reasons, but onions, surely: washing eyes in response to presence of irritants?

And while I'm here: did you ever get to Iceland? And if so, did you have fun?

No, I don't know Jess Nevins, but having just looked at his userinfo I can see what you mean!

Yes, that does make sense about the irritants.

And I've not gone to Iceland yet, but should be in Akureyri in early February - with your guidebook in my luggage, of course! (For which, again, much thanks.)

Because I actually *do* have rather a good memory for such things, this is about a study that came out when I was at university, but I'm pretty sure I've read in New Scientist about follow-up work in the last 15 or so years.

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/31/science/biological-role-of-emotional-tears-emerges-through-recent-studies.html

I don't know that the being capped is -- I think the kids are summoned and come back with the cap and a loss of spirit and free will (IIRC), but the removal of the cap was pretty graphic, again IIRC (because it's been 36 years...)

Thanks - that's very interesting!

What would be interesting is to find out if the sympathy response to tears is a hardwired thing or not - some animals cry tears, too, so there must be some use for it. And look at the way pictures of baby seals crying are used for anti-seal hunt propaganda. If crying meant that you got sympathy and thereby perhaps escaped being killed or eaten... could be a survival technique?

I suppose that would depend on whether polar bears were susceptible to pity - a whole other research project! The nearest I could get to that would be that, with mammals, large eyes --> young --> protective instinct. So, if watery eyes refract the light so as to make them look larger, then-- but no, I feel

calimac's disapproving gaze (and quite right too), so will refrain from further speculation.

Except, of course, that there's also the matter of the crocodiles...

Crying gets the sad out of you... washing all the mad out of you....

But now I want to know. I bet it shifts chemicals. Promise you'll post the answer if you find out?

Thanks for the link! Sad to see the latest Youtube commenter fondly recalling days at Junior High spent using it to taunt younger boys into gender conformity, though.

Sure I will.

a_d_medievalist's link above seems like a good start.

Never read youtube comments! They'll use up your Sanity Watchers points for the whole week.

but examples of the total control of one person's mind by another, a la Fu Manchu or the Demon Headmaster, are harder to locate. In fact, I couldn't find any, pre-Mesmer (but maybe you know different?).

Mostly what comes to mind are stories of control of the living by the dead, which is possession and therefore something different; but I'll think about it.

Using a combination of cutting-edge technologies derived from Lavoisier, the Jacquard Loom, and Mesmerism, these monsters were able to implant thoughts and even cause death - and, as far as Matthews was concerned, they were working their evil magic on, amongst others, William Pitt the Younger, in a plot strangely preminiscent of The Manchurian Candidate.

I must read up on this.

What is the evolutionary advantage of secreting salt water from one's eyes in moments of sadness, pain, or proximity to onions?

In proximity to onions, to wash the eyes of onion fumes (or dust, or fur, or perfume, etc.). Emotionally? I have no idea. For all I know, it's simply chemically linked in to some other mechanism regulating adrenaline or all the other chemistry that clutters up your brain when you're upset.

Ancient Air Looms

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