animal magnetism, a presumed intangible or mysterious force that is said to influence human beings. The term was used by the German physician Franz Anton Mesmer to explain the hypnotic procedure that he used in the treatment of patients. (See hypnosis.) Mesmer believed that it was an occult force or invisible fluid emanating from his body and that, more generally, the force permeated the universe, deriving especially from the stars. The term is often used colloquially to mean sex appeal.