Kerner, Justinus Andreas Christian, * 18 Sep 1786 (Ludwigsburg), † 21 Feb 1862 (Weinsberg)

German Romantic poet and writer, physician, and early investigator of occult phenomena. Born as the sixth and youngest child of a county commissioner and civil servant, Kerner was originally trained for a business career. At the age of twelve he was healed of a nervous ailment by the practitioner of → animal magnetism Eberhard Gmelin (1751-1809): his first contact with a method of treatment he would himself practice in his later medical career. From 1804 to 1808 he studi…