“The ability of Whitman's persona to shift quickly between different identities, including those of blacks and woman, and to emanate health to everyone approximated the mesmerists' posture.”

"Have you learned the lessons only of those who admired you, and were tender with you, and stood aside for you? Have you not learned great lessons from those who braced themselves against you, and disputed passage with you?" - Walt Whitman

This statement makes it sound like Whitman is doing a little role reversal. Instead of him hypnotizing the reader into making them feel a shift in their identity, Whitman takes on the role of the subject by shifting his own identity. It just doesn't really make sense to me to call him a mesmerist when he's taking on the the position of someone that is being mesmerized. It makes sense that Whitman would not attempt to mesmerize his readers because that would involve some sort of hypnotism which I'm pretty certain requires making actual contact with the hypnotist. I think Reynolds is saying that Whitman shifted his identity because he had observed or read that a hypnotist would make their patients shift their identity. I interpret the term mesmerist as someone who is able to hypnotize people and make up an identity for them that they then internalize. I definitely agree that Whitman tries to emanate health when he describes himself as healthy. I think it goes without saying that he wants his readers to share his experience or at least feel the emotions he projects. For example when he poetically describes a feeling of bliss he wants his readers to feel bliss, and even if you only do a little bit he's accomplished his purpose.

The poetry Whitman writes is so descriptive and the words are so artistically crafted together that I am often hypnotized by it. I am awestruck at his verses and struggle to keep up with them at the same time. This state of admiration and confusion has the capability to possess my mind. In this sense Whitman is taking on the role of a mesmerist. The way he speaks so directly to his audience makes them share his thought processes and emotions. When he takes on a new identity in his poems the reader is so enveloped that they can shift their identity smoothly along with him. He has the rare talent of putting his readers in a semi-conscious state. To achieve this impressive act of hypnotism the reader must also be able to hold up their end of the bargain. This means deeply focusing on the writing and being apt at understanding the definitions and possible variations that are exercised in the English language. It also includes translating his imagery into your own head. I speak from experience because I can't get into a text or poem unless I understand it or am at least trying to. Whitman refines mesmerism to fit his needs by removing all of the false excess that it's widely known for. There is nothing hokey about Whitman's creative genius and his ability to shift identities. It's the result of experience and inventiveness that needn't rely on a placebo effect.

"Walt Whitman Quotes - The Quotations Page." Quotes and Famous Sayings - The Quotations Page. Web. 11 Mar. 2011. <http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Walt_Whitman/>.