 According to Willa Cather and Georgine Milmine, writing for "McClure's" in 1907, Quimby was so excited by Poyen's lectures that he "followed him from town to town".Quimby hired an assistant, Lucius Burkmar, and from 1843–1847 put him in trances in front of audiences; Burkmar would purport to read minds and diagnose the audience's illnesses.Later, when he had changed his mind about mesmerism, deciding instead that he was witnessing the power of suggestion, Quimby said he had heard just one of Poyen's lectures and had "pronounced it a humbug as a matter of course".