How the word magnetism originated

Here’s what William Walker Atkinson had to say about the origins of the word “magnetism”:

The word “magnetism,” of course, arises from the word “magnet.” Now here is an interesting bit of history. You will see in the dictionaries that the term “magnet” was given the lodestone, or natural magnet, because it was first discovered near Magnesia, a town in Asia Minor.

This explanation is most amusing to those familiar with the records of the old occult brotherhoods, for the latter know that instead of the magnet being named after the town, the town was named after the magnet, the latter being known centuries before the town of Magnesia was built.

The natural magnet was known in China, India, and Persia thousands of years ago. Its name “magnet,” arose from the same Persian word as “magic,” namely, “mag,” signifying the esoteric priesthood or Magians.

The name was given because the power of the natural magnet resembled the mental power exerted by the Magians, and the stone was called literally “the Magian Stone,” or the “Magic Stone,” hence the words “magnet” and “magnetism.”

So you see we come by our use of the word in a perfectly natural way.

An interesting fact (and one that goes to prove that minds work in accustomed channels) is to be noted in the circumstance that the mysterious phenomena of Magnetism, noticed in Europe and America during the past century or so, came to be naturally called “Animal Magnetism”; “Personal Magnetism,” etc., the mind of the public intuitively connecting the phenomena with that of the magnet, which it very much resembles.

And, in our day, we speak of people being “very magnetic,” “lacking magnetism,” having a “magnetic presence,” etc., etc.

And so history repeats itself. The magnet which was originally called the “Magian or Magic Stone.” because its force resembled the mentative attraction manifested by the Magi or Magians, serves to give a name to similar manifestation of mental force centuries after.

The “magnet” gives back to the Twentieth Century Magians the name it borrowed from the Magians of Ancient Persia. It has repaid the debt.”

Whether this is actually true or not is of little consequence.

The word personal magnetism correctly represents the actual phenomenon we are experiencing (and training).

“All have noticed that some individuals seem to have a “winning way” about them, and are able to induce others to fall into their way of thinking, and to do what they wish done.

The so called “magnetic” man is able to sway audiences or individuals by his mystic power, and one often fails to realize just how it was done when he recalls the words spoken, or reads them in cold type the morning after.

The secret lies not alone in what is said, or even in how it is said, but rather in how great a degree personal magnetism was emanated by the speaker.”

That’s what we train for!

Start your personal magnetism training with the 10 Steps to Inner Power.

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