What is a ‘magnétiseur’?

I have heard of people locally going to a magnétiseur - what is this?

This is a form of alternative therapy, where the practitioners claim to use a person’s magnetic energy to rebalance their bodies and spirits.

Medical booking service Doctolib used to list such practitioners, but ceased doing so, along with others such as people who ease pain from burns known as coupeurs de feu, or guérisseurs (faith healers) after government pressure.

You may also come across traditional healers called rebouteux, who often use massages together with herbal remedies – the word’s origins relate to ‘straightening out’ something which has gone wrong (they offer to help with issues such as muscular or tendon pain or bumps and bruises). 

Often seen as a rural tradition, such practitioners are, however, also found in cities. Some charge for their work, others do not. Coupeurs de feu, notably, often do this alongside other paid work and may do it free or charge, or in return for gifts.

Richard Monvoisin, a researcher in alternative medicines at the Université Grenoble Alpes, told French radio barreurs were most commonly called on for fairly minor burns. If the person feels better afterwards they will put it down to the barreur’s ceremonies, he said, but the pain may just have passed anyway.

Guérisseurs usually claim to be able to heal people, sometimes through laying on hands while reciting secret prayers handed down through the family. Magnétiseurs say they can use their skills to help people’s own bodies to heal themselves.

Dr Monvoisin said the appeal included the fact they may spend more time with patients than a doctor, which can give a positive outcome even if only via a placebo effect, and the fact that “more people are living longer with conditions which cannot be cured by medicine, so seek alternatives that give a sense they are doing something to try to get better.”