Johann Joseph Gassner, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Johann Joseph Gassner

Austrian priest

Date of Birth: 22-Aug-1727

Place of Birth: Bludenz, Vorarlberg, Austria

Date of Death: 01-Jan-1779

Profession: Catholic priest, faith healing

Nationality: Germany

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Johann Joseph Gassner (22 August 1727 in Braz, near Bludenz, Vorarlberg – 1779 Pondorf, now part of Winklarn, Bavaria) was a noted exorcist.
While a Catholic priest at Klösterle he gained a wide celebrity by professing to "cast out devils" and to work cures on the sick by means simply of prayer; he was attacked as an impostor, but the bishop of Regensburg, who believed in his honesty, bestowed upon him the cure of Pondorf.
Gassner's methods have been linked to a special form of hypnotic training.
He has been described as a predecessor of modern hypnosis.
Henri Ellenberger, in his "Discovery of the Unconscious", placed the dispute between Gassner and Franz Anton Mesmer at the center of modern psychotherapy.