Telepathy and the Subliminal Self Part 5

The first series of experiments is given by Prof. Pierre Janet of Havre and Dr. Gibert, a prominent physician of the same city. The subject was Mme. B., a heavy, rather stolid, middle-aged peasant woman, without any ambition for notoriety, or to be known as a sensitive; on the contrary, she disliked it, and the experiments were disagreeable to her. She was, however an excellent example of close rapport with her hypnotizer.

While in the deep sleep, and perfectly insensible to ordinary stimuli, however violent, contact, or even the proximity of her hypnotizer's hand, caused contractures, which a light touch from him would also remove. No one else could produce the slightest effect. After about ten minutes in this deep trance she usually pa.s.sed into the alert, or somnambulic stage, from which also no one but the operator could arouse her. Hypnotization was difficult or impossible unless the operator concentrated his thoughts upon the desired result, but by simply willing, without pa.s.ses or any physical means whatsoever, the hypnotic condition could be quickly induced.

Various experiments in simply willing post-hypnotic acts, without suggestion through any of the ordinary channels of communication, were also perfectly successful. Dr. Gibert then made three experiments in putting this subject to sleep when she was in another part of the town, a third of a mile away from the operator, and at a time fixed by a third person, the experiment also being wholly unexpected by the subject.

On two of these occasions Prof. Janet found the subject in a deep trance ten minutes after the willing to sleep, and no one but Dr. Gibert, who had put her to sleep, could rouse her. In the third experiment the subject experienced the hypnotic influence and desire to sleep, but resisted it and kept herself awake by washing her hands in cold water.

During a second series of experiments made with the same subject, several members of the Society for Psychical Research were present and took an active part in them. Apart from trials made in the same or an adjoining room, twenty-one experiments were made when the subject was at distances varying from one-half to three-fourths of a mile away from her hypnotizer.

Of these, six were reckoned as failures, or only partial successes; there remained, then, fifteen perfect successes in which the subject, Mme. B., was found entranced fifteen minutes after the willing or mental suggestion. During one of these experiments, the subject was willed by Dr.

Gibert to come through several intervening streets to him at his own house, which she accomplished in the somnambulic condition, and under the observation of Prof. Janet and several other physicians.

Another series of experiments was made with another subject by Dr.

Hericourt, one of Prof. Richet's coadjutors. The experiments included the gradual extension of the distance through which the willing power was successful, first to another room, then to another street, and a distant part of the city.

One day, while attempting to hypnotize her in another street, three hundred yards distant, at 3 o'clock P. M., he was suddenly called away to attend a patient, and forgot all about his hypnotic subject. Afterward he remembered that he was to meet her at 4:30, and went to keep his appointment. But not finding her, he thought possibly the experiment, which had been interrupted might, after all, have proved successful. Upon this supposition, at 5 o'clock he willed her to awake.

That evening, without being questioned at all, she gave the following account of herself: At 3 P. M. she was overcome by an irresistible desire to sleep, a most unusual thing for her at that hour. She went into an adjoining room, fell insensible upon a sofa, where she was afterward found by her servant, cold and motionless, as if dead.

Attempts on the part of the servant to rouse her proved ineffectual, but gave her great distress. She woke spontaneously and free from pain at 5 o'clock.

By no means the least interesting of the higher phenomena of hypnotism are post-hypnotic suggestions, or the fulfilment after waking of suggestions impressed upon the subject when asleep.

A few summers ago at a little gathering of intelligent people, much interest was manifested and a general desire to see some hypnotic experiments. Accordingly, one of the ladies whose good sense and good faith could not be doubted, was hypnotized and put into the condition of profound lethargy. After a few slight experiments, exhibiting anaesthesia, hallucinations of taste, plastic pose, and the like, I said to her in a decided manner:

"Now I am about to waken you. I will count five, and when I say the word 'five' you will promptly, but quietly and without any excitement, awake.

Your mind will be perfectly clear, and you will feel rested and refreshed by your sleep. Presently you will approach Mrs. O., and will be attracted by the beautiful sh.e.l.l comb which she wears in her hair, and you will ask her to permit you to examine it."

I then commenced counting slowly, and at the word "five" she awoke, opened her eyes promptly, looked bright and happy, and expressed herself as feeling comfortable and greatly rested, as though she had slept through a whole night. She rose from her chair, mingled with the company, and presently approaching Mrs. O., exclaimed:

"What a beautiful comb! Please allow me to examine it."

And suiting the action to the word, she placed her hand lightly on the lady's head, examined the comb, and expressed great admiration for it; in short, she fulfilled with great exactness the whole suggestion.

She was perfectly unconscious that any suggestion had been made to her; she was greatly surprised to see that she was the centre of observation, and especially at the ripple of laughter which greeted her admiration of the comb.

To another young lady, hypnotized in like manner, I suggested that on awaking she should approach the young daughter of our hostess, who was present, holding a favorite kitten in her arms, and should say to her, "What a pretty kitten you have! What is her name?"

The suggestion was fulfilled to the letter. It was only afterward that I learned that this young lady had a very decided aversion to cats, and always avoided them if possible.

Suggestions for post-hypnotic fulfilment are sometimes carried out after a considerable time has elapsed, and upon the precise day suggested.

Bernheim, in August, 1883, suggested to S., an old soldier, while in the hypnotic sleep, that upon the 3d of October following, sixty-three days after the suggestion, he should go to Dr. Liebeault's house; that he would there see the President of the Republic, who would give to him a medal.

Promptly on the day designated he went. Dr. Liebeault states that S. came at 12:50 o'clock; he greeted M. F., who met him at the door as he came in, and then went to the left side of the office without paying any attention to any one. Dr. Liebeault continues:--

"I saw him bow respectfully and heard him speak the word 'Excellence.'

Just then he held out his right hand, and said, 'Thank your Excellence.'

Then I asked him to whom he was speaking. 'Why, to the President of the Republic.' He then bowed, and a few minutes later took his departure."

A patient of my own, a young man with whom I occasionally experiment, exhibits some of the different phases and phenomena of hypnotism in a remarkable manner. He goes quickly into the stage of profound lethargy; after allowing him to sleep a few moments, I say to him: "Now you can open your eyes and you can see and talk with me, but you are still asleep, and you will remember nothing."

He opens his eyes at once, smiles, gets up and walks, and chats in a lively manner. If I say: "Now you are in the deep sleep again," and pa.s.s my hand downward before his eyes, immediately his eyes close and he is in a profound slumber. If five seconds later I again say, "Now you can open your eyes," he is again immediately in the alert stage.

For experiment I then take half a dozen plain blank cards, exactly alike, and in one corner of one of the cards I put a minute dot, so that upon close inspection it can be recognized. Holding these in my hand, I say to him:

"Here are six cards; five of them are blank, but this one (the one I have marked, he only seeing the plain side) has a picture of myself upon it.

It is a particularly good picture, and I have had it prepared specially for this occasion. Do you see the picture?"

"Of course I do," he replies. "What do you think of it?" I ask him. He looks at me carefully and compares my face with the suggested picture on the card and replies, "It is excellent."

"Very well, give me the cards."

He hands them to me and I shuffle and disarrange them as much as possible.

I then show them to him, holding them in my hand, and say:

"Now show me the card which has my picture upon it."

He selects it at once. I only know it is correct by looking for the dot upon the back, which has all the while been kept carefully concealed from him.

I then say to him: "Now, I am going to awaken you, and when awake you will come to the desk, select from the cards which I now place there the one which has my picture, and show it to me."

He awakes at my counting when I reach the word five, as I have suggested to him. He remembers nothing of what has pa.s.sed since he was hypnotized, but thinks he has had a long and delightful sleep. I sit at my desk; he walks up to it, examines the six cards which are lying there, selects one, and showing it to me, remarks, "There is your picture." It was the same marked card.

On another occasion, while he was asleep and in the alert stage, Mrs. M.

was present. I introduced her, and he spoke to her with perfect propriety.

Afterward I said: "Now, I will awake you, but you will only see me. Mrs.

M. you will not see at all."

I then awoke him, as usual. He commenced talking to me in a perfectly natural and unrestrained manner. Mrs. M. stood by my side between him and myself, but he paid not the slightest attention to her; she then withdrew, and I remarked indifferently:

"Wasn't it a little peculiar of you not to speak to Mrs. M. before she went out?"

"Speak to Mrs. M!" he exclaimed, with evident surprise. "I did not know she had been in the room."

One day when Drs. Liebeault and Bernheim were together at their clinic at the hospital, Dr. Liebeault suggested to a hypnotized patient that when she awoke she would no longer see Dr. Bernheim, but that she would recognize his hat, would put it on her head, and offer to take it to him.

When she awoke, Dr. Bernheim was standing in front of her. She was asked: "Where is Dr. Bernheim?" She replied: "He is gone, but here is his hat."

Dr. Bernheim then said to her, "Here I am, madam; I am not gone, you recognize me, perfectly."

She was silent, taking not the slightest notice of him. Some one else addressed her; she replied with perfect propriety. Finally, when about to go out she took up Dr. Bernheim's hat, put it on her head, saying she would take it to him; but to her Dr. Bernheim was not present.

To the number of curious phenomena, both physical and mental, connected with hypnotism, it is difficult to find a limit; a few others seem too important in their bearing upon the subject to be omitted, even in this hasty survey.

Some curious experiments in the production of local anaesthesia were observed by the committee on mesmerism from the Society for Psychical Research.

The subject was in his normal condition and blindfolded; his arms were then pa.s.sed through holes in a thick paper screen, extending in front of him and far above his head, and his ten fingers were spread out upon a table. Two of the fingers were then silently pointed out by a third person to Mr. S., the operator, who proceeded to make pa.s.ses over the designated fingers.

Care was taken that such a distance was maintained between the fingers of the subject and operator that no contact was possible, and no currents of air or sensation of heat were produced by which the subject might possibly divine which of his fingers were the subject of experiment. In short, the strictest test conditions in every particular, were observed. After the pa.s.ses had been continued for a minute, or even less time, the operator simply holding his own fingers pointed downward toward the designated fingers of the subject, the two fingers so treated were found to be perfectly stiff and insensible. A strong current of electricity, wounding with a pointed instrument, burning with a match--all failed to elicit the slightest sign of pain or discomfort, while the slightest injury to the unmagnetized fingers quickly elicited cries and protests. When told to double up his fist the two magnetized fingers remained rigid and immovable, and utterly refused to be folded up with the others.