"The distinguished Parisian Professor of Medicine, Rostan, gave at the time his corroborative testimony to the existence of this power in the article ' Magnetisme,' in the ' Dictionnaire de Medecine,' wherein he remarked : 'There are few facts better demonstrated than clairvoyance' ....Innumerable instances are recorded of the possession of the faculty of clairvoyance by persons in the normal state, in sleep [hypnotism], and in some abnormal conditions of the system, " -- Edwin Lee, MD, "Animal Magnetism and Magnetic Lucid Somnambulism" page 103 and page 133.
It was documented by many nineteenth century writers and authorities that under hypnosis a person could show paranormal powers of clairvoyance or telepathy. In the long posts here and here and here I discuss some of the abundant observational evidence for such a thing. I may note that the reality of clairvoyance under hypnosis was firmly declared by a high-prestige French academic committee, a six-year investigation of the Royal Academy of Medicine that issued its report in 1831.
During the nineteenth century hynotized people were often asked to engage in a kind of thought sharing or "mind meld" with another person, a state that was called being en rapport with that person. A nineteenth century work on hypnotism (written by Professor William Gregory) gives this summary, using the word "sleeper" for a hypnotized person:
"Thought reading presents itself in every possible variety of form. The sleeper, being placed en rapport with any person, can often describe, with the greatest accuracy, the subject that occupies the thoughts of that person. It may be an absent friend, or his own house, or that of another, or his drawing-room, bed-room, study, &c. &c. All these things the sleeper perceives, as they pass through the mind of the experimenter, and describes with great minuteness and accuracy, so as to excite our astonishment. Or he goes further ; he not only perceives the present, but the past thoughts of the person en rapport with him ; he shares his memory. Thus he will mention facts, no longer so existing, but remembered by the experimenter. Nay, he goes still further even than this ; for he perceives things once known to, and now forgotten by, the experimenter, who very often contradicts the sleeper, and persists in maintaining his own opinion, until, on further enquiry, he not only finds him to be right, but himself is enabled to recall the fact, which had, as we say, escaped his memory."
Professor Gregory here makes a very remarkable claim: that under hypnosis a subject may display a mental power beyond mere telepathy: a power not just of mind-reading or thought-reading, but also of memory-reading. The same nineteenth century work (Letters to a Candid Inquirer, on Animal Magnetism) by Gregory gives some very specific numerical details relating to clairvoyance in hypnotic trances (referred to below as "mesmeric sleep"):
"Major Buckley has thus produced conscious clairvoyance in 89 persons, of whom 44 have been able to read mottoes contained in nut-shells, purchased by other parties for the experiment. The longest motto thus read, contained 98 words. Many subjects will read motto after motto without one mistake. In this way, the mottoes contained in 4860 nut-shells have been read, some of them, indeed, by persons in the mesmeric sleep, but most of them by persons in the conscious state, many of whom have never been put to sleep. In boxes, upwards of 86,000 words have been read; 'in one paper, 371 words. Including those who have read words contained in boxes when in the sleep, 148 persons have thus read. It is to be observed that, in a few cases, the words may have been read by thought-reading, as the persons who put them in the boxes were present; but in most cases, no one who knew the words has been present, and they must therefore have been read by direct clairvoyance. Every precaution has been taken. The nuts, inclosing mottoes, for example, have been purchased of 40 different confectioners, and have been sealed up until read. It may be added, that of the 44 persons who have read mottoes in nuts by waking or conscious clairvoyance, 42 belong to the higher class of society; and the experiments have been made in the presence of many other persons. These experiments appear to me admirably contrived, and I can per- ceive no reason whatever to doubt the entire accuracy of the facts."
Later in the same work we read many detailed descriptions of clairvoyance under hypnosis, one of which is the account below (which uses the term "magnetic sleep" to refer to a hypnotic trance):
"E., in the magnetic sleep, as I saw more than once, could see perfectly what passed behind her, her eyes being closed ; or any thing placed in such a position, that, had her eyes been open, she could not have seen it ; she could also see very often all that passed outside of the door, and when I was there, told us how many of the servants of the hotel were listening at the door, in hopes of
hearing wonders ; she would also often tell what was doing in the room above or below her. In short, she frequently exhibited direct clairvoyance in every form, not only in those just mentioned, but also in that of seeing prints or pictures shut up in boxes. Besides seeing various instances of direct clairvoyance, I was able to satisfy myself that Dr. Haddock's experiments were made with the greatest care and judgment ; that he was particularly well acquainted with the various causes of error and confusion, very careful to avoid these, and that in short his accounts of such experiments as I had not seen were entirely trustworthy."
On page 334 in the same work by Professor Gregory, we read this account of clairvoyance under hypnotism:
"We requested her to visit the house of Mrs. P., one of the ladies present. This house was in Greenock, distant from my cottage about a mile and a quarter. She saw her servant in the kitchen, but said that another woman was with her. On being pressed to look earnestly at the woman, she said it was C_____ M______. This, Mrs. P. declared to be true. We then asked her to see if any person was in Mrs. P.'s parlor, when she said that Miss Laing was there, a young lady from Edinburgh, who was boarding with Mrs. P. at the time ; that she was sitting on the sofa ; that she was crying, and that a letter was in her hand. On the party breaking up, I walked into Greenock with the ladies and gentlemen, in order to see if she was right about Miss L. It was true. Miss L. had received a letter by that evening's post from her father in Edinburgh, stating that her mother was not expected to live, and requesting her to come home by the first train in the morning."
Many specific case examples of such a thing can be found in the three posts mentioned above (the posts here and here and here).
Although living mind researchers have usually displayed an appalling failure to research the topic of clairvoyance under hypnosis that was so well-documented in the nineteenth century, we occasionally get evidence of it even in recent years. A 2020 paper found that hypnosis increased success in remote viewing efforts, remote viewing being essentially a synonym for clairvoyance. Using RV for a non-hypotic "remote viewing" attempts, and OB-RV for a hypnotically aided "remote viewing" attempts, in which subjects were encouraged to mentally travel out of their bodies, the paper states the following:
"The purpose of this study was to compare the ability to identify and describe physical targets, from a distance, in the RV and OB-RV states of consciousness.The results clearly demonstrate that in both conditions, the amount of correct information is clearly greater than wrong information, with a difference of around 20%. The only difference in performance between the two is in the number of correct information, which is slightly greater in the OB-RV condition."
The author Joseph Haddock reported that after hypnotizing a subject, the subject would respond to any pain inflicted on Joseph, just as if the hypnotized person had felt the pain: "I have got individuals to tread on my toes, pull my hair, or pinch different parts of the body ; and I invariably found that, with this subject, not many seconds would elapse before she would complain of exactly similar treatment, and refer the pain to the exact corresponding part; and sometimes I have experienced considerable difficulty in dispelling the illusion."
An effect totally inexplicable under materialist assumptions is what is called "community of sensations" under hypnosis. It has been very frequently reported that a hypnotized person may instantly feel sensations felt by the person who hypnotized him. A set of experiments on this effect is reported in the "First Report of the Committee on Mesmerism" pages 225-229 of Volume 1 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (April, 1883), a committee including the illustrious names of Frederic Myers, Edmund Gurney, Frank Podmore, George Wyld M.D. and the eventually knighted physicist W.F. Barrett. We read this on page 226: "Thus out of a total of 24 experiments in transference of pains, the exact spot was correctly indicated by the subject no less than 20 times." These were experiments in which the hypnotized subject was asked whether he felt anything, after the hypnotizer had been given some type of pain or sensation while in another room where the hypnotized person could not see him. Similar results were obtained by Dr. Edmund Gurney and reported in his paper "An Account of Some Experiments in Mesmerism," published on page 201 of Volume II of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research ( June 1884). As reported on page 205, a hypnotized subject identified with high accuracy many tactile and taste sensations occurring in a hypnotizer sitting behind him.
On pages 22-23 of one of his books, Professor William Gregory describes various forms of "community of sensation" between hypnotized subjects and hypnotists, or those who they have been put en rapport with:
"There is Community of Taste. If the operator [i.e. hypnotist], or any person, en rapport with the subject, takes any kind of food or drink into his mouth, the sleeper, in many cases, instantly begins going through the pantomime of eating or drinking ; and, if asked, he declares he is eating bread, or an orange, or sweetmeats, or drinking water, wine, milk, beer, syrup, or lemonade, or infusion of wormwood, or brandy, or whisky, according as the operator takes each of them, or any other substance. When the thing taken is bitter or disagreeable, the countenance of the sleeper at once indicates this, while his eyes, as usual, are closed, and the mesmerist or friend may stand behind him, so that he cannot see what is taken....The same thing occurs with regard to Smell. If the person en rapport with the sleeper, smell a rose, the latter at once begins to inhale the delightful perfume. If he smell assafoetida, the sleeper expresses disgust ; and if he place strong hartshorn under his own nostrils, the sleeper starts back, complaining of its pungency....There is Community of Touch. Whatever touches the person en rapport , is felt by the sleeper, in precisely the same part. If the former shake hands with any one, the latter instantly grasps a visionary hand. If a pin be driven into the back of the mesmerist’s hand, the sleeper hastily withdraws his hand, rubs the part, and complains loudly of the injury. This may be tried in all forms with perfect success in very many subjects."
In a discussion of twentieth century research we read this:
"Summarizing the results of recent ESP research using hypnosis, Honorton points out that, out of 42 series of trials, slightly over half have provided positive results, as against a chance expectation of five per cent. 'I believe the conclusion is now inescapable that hypnotic induction procedure enhance psi receptivity.' "
Beginning on page 223 of the 1841 book Facts in mesmerism or animal magnetism : with reasons for a dispassionate inquiry into it by Chauncy-Hare Townshend, we have many pages of the author describing clairvoyance in a hypnotized subject Anna M. We hear report after report of Anna identifying things with closed eyes, seemingly as if she had vision rising from her forehead rather than her eyes. On page 231 the same author states this about another subject he studied under hypnosis: "His eyes being always firmly shut, (as far as the strictest observation could determine,) he was able to read any number of words in the minutest type with perfect ease, and to discern small or large objects, near or distant, with the same felicity of vision which is possessed by a waking person." We read this:
"This power of perception, analogous to sight, seemed to reside principally in his forehead. Whatever objects he took up to examine he immediately carried there."
Later in the same book we have an account of the most varied and careful tests consistently showing clairvoyance in a hypnotized subject (subject E. A.), tests involving conditions so stringent they seem to rule out any possibility of trickery:
"1st. I laid the patient on a sofa, in bright day-
light, with his face turned towards the window, and
made him lean his head back until I could see com-
pletely under his eyes. When he was so placed, I
could have detected the slightest gleam of the eye
through the smallest opening of the lids. I have
then given him a book, from which he has read with
ease, (holding it nearly parallel to his forehead,)
while all the time I fixed my eyes earnestly on his,
and yet could perceive not the slightest tendency in
them to unclose.
2dly. I laid the palms of my hands, the fingers
pointing upwards, on the eyes of various persons, in
such a manner as that the projecting parts of each
hand should exactly fit into the concavities about the
eyes. These persons assured me that, with their
eyes so covered, they could see nothing whatever. I
have given them cards or books in their hands, but
by no efforts on their parts could they distinguish
these objects. I have repeated the same experiment
again and again upon E. A., in a state of [hypnotized] sleepwalking, and never found that the palms of my hands in
any way impeded his vision. He could see cards, or
read in books, under the above circumstances, with
perfect ease. I never felt any motion beneath my
hand, as if the patient were trying to open his eyes ;
nor did he evince the slightest inclination to draw
his head back from the pressure of my hands.
3dly. Standing behind the patient, I have laid my
closed fingers over his eyes horizontally, or I have
forcibly pressed down his lids with one finger of each
hand. This, which, when tried on others, effectually
impeded their sight, made no alteration in the visual
perceptions of the [hypnotized] sleepwalker.
4thly. Having filled a couple of china eye-glasses
with wadding, I, or some other person, held them
firmly to the patient's closed eyes when in sleepwalking.
This also made no difference in his visual
perceptions....
5thly. I have tried various methods of bandaging
the patient's eyes. I have tied a broad and thick
silk handkerchief over them, and then I have held
down with my fingers, or the palms of my hands,
the whole of the bottom part of the bandage. This
method seems to me as perfect as any. It did not at
all impede the sleepwalker's vision. In addition to
this, (the same result always ensuing,) I have laid
strips of wadding over the eyes before applying the
handkerchief, and I have firmly secured every possible
interstice between it and the cheek with cotton.
In the presence of Dr. Foissac, strips of diachylum
were added to all the above apparatus, in order to
fasten down the edges of the handkerchief to the
cheek ; but the sleepwalker saw as well as ever. On
several occasions I bandaged his eyes, adding the
cotton and the wadding before beginning to mesmerise [hypnotize] him, when he has assured me that he could not distinguish day from night. Then, having passed
into sleepwalking, he has immediately given proofs of
perfect vision — quite as perfect, indeed, as that enjoyed
by persons whose eyes are open and unbound.
6thly. I threw over the patient's head two thick
and large towels, which covered him in front down
to the hips. Through these he has read, holding the
book at an angle with his forehead, and has distin-
guished cards with perfect accuracy. This kind of
experiment was occasionally varied. Sometimes the
sleepwalker has been bandaged, and, in addition to
this, a towel has been thrown over his head ; but the
result was equally satisfactory."
Can we imagine a more stringent series of tests? And the subject kept demonstrating clairvoyance, despite each and every thing impeding normal vision. You will never hear about such tests in the writing of materialists or skeptics. They will only tell you about some poorly designed test in which someone might have peeked by looking down at his chest through a blindfold that was not very tight. They will not tell you about the innumerable successful tests of clairvoyance in which there was no possibility of someone cheating.
On page 84 to 88 of the September 22, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist, we have a long article by scientist William Barrett. Barrett describes witnessing people put under hypnosis who seemed to have powers of telepathy and clairvoyance that blossomed in such a state. First on page 86 we read this about telepathy between the hypnotized and the hypnotist (called the operator):
"I noticed that if the operator tasted, smelt, or touched anything, or experienced any sudden sensation of warmth or
cold, a corresponding effect was instantly produced on the subject, though nothing was said, nor could the subject have
seen what had taken place in the operator. To be assured of
this, I bandaged the girl’s eyes with great care, and the operator
having gone behind the girl to the other end of the room,
I watched him and the girl, and repeatedly assured myself
of this fact. If he placed his hand over the lighted lamp,
the girl instantly withdrew hers, as if in pain; if he tasted
salt or sugar, corresponding expressions of dislike and
approval were indicated by the girl. If, however, any one
else in the room other than the operator tried the experiment, I could perceive no indications on the part of the
subject. Certainly, so far as my observations extended,
there did seem to be a vast difference between the influence
exerted on the subject by the operator, and that which would be exerted by anyone else."
Barrett then tells us on page 86 about witnessing clairvoyance or telepathy in a hypnotized subject:
"Having mesmerised [hypnotized] the girl myself, I took a card at random from a pack that
was in a drawer in another room. Glancing at the card to
see what it was, I placed it within a book, and in this state
brought it to the girl. Giving her the closed book, I asked
her to tell me what I had put within its leaves. She held
the book close to the side of her head (a peculiar position
always resorted to for information), and said 'I see something
inside with red spots on it.' 'Count the spots,' I told her;
she did so, and said there were five red spots. The card was
the five of diamonds. With another card, chosen in a
similar way, the same result occurred; and when an Irish
bank note was substituted she said, ' Oh now I see a number of heads; so many I can’t count them.' She sometimes
failed to guess correctly, asserting the things were dim, and
invariably I found she could give me no information of
what was within the book, unless I had previously known
what it was myself. More remarkable still, I asked her to
go in imagination to Regent-street, in London, and tell me
what shops she saw. The girl had never been out of her
remote Irish village, but she correctly described to me Mr.
Ladd’s shop, of which I happened to be thinking, and
mentioned the large clock that overhangs the entrance to
Beak-street.
In many other ways I convinced myself that the existence
of a distinct idea in my own mind gave rise to an image of
the idea in the subject’s mind ; not always a clear image, but
one that could not fail to be recognised as a more or less
distorted reflection of my own thought. The important
point is that every care was taken to prevent any unconscious muscular action of the face, or otherwise giving any
indication to the subject."
Barrett quotes another experimenter (W. E. Wilson) who said this:
"You are correct, as I remember several experiments of the same
kind. I think we proved beyond all doubt that the subject is able to
read the thoughts of the mesmeriser [hypnotist]. Also that they are able to see
through things which are optically to us opaque, provided that they
could touch them or hold them in their hand....Another instance I
remember was with a country boy. He was mesmerised [hypnotized] in a room
which we made perfectly dark. Cards were given to him at random
from a pack. He told fourteen correctly without a mistake, and I have
no doubt would have gone through the pack if we liked. Of coarse
you know that they don’t try to use the eyes to see with. They always,
without exception, put whatever is put in their hand to the side of
their head, a little behind the ear, and about six inches from them."
On March 27, 1887 the New York Sun published this report by one of its correspondents who described a boy who dramatically demonstrated clairvoyance under hypnosis:
"The subject on this night was a boy of fourteen named Wally Andrus. He is what is termed a susceptible subject. Mr. Alderman can draw him across the street by a wave of the hand. He can look at the boy and say to himself, ' I want you to come to my house tomorrow night,' and the boy will come without any further understanding. The lad was placed in an easy chair, a few passes of the hand put him under the influence, and here is the colloquy and the result :
Mr. A. — 'Wally, I want you to go down to the hotel and
go up one flight of stairs.'
Wally.— 'Yes, sir, I'm there.'
' Now turn to your left and go to the second door, on the left hand side. Is there a number on the door? '
'No, sir, there is a letter L. '
'Very well, go inside and tell me what you see.'
The mesmerized boy entered the room and described and accurately located every article of furniture, described every picture, told the time by the clock, and then gave the colors of the gas globes. Neither Mr. Alderman nor the boy had ever entered the hotel. Some of the articles described had been placed in the room only an hour before. He was sent into three different rooms in the same hotel and did not make one mistake. The hotel is a mile from the residence where the exhibition was given. He was brought out of the hotel and sent to a residence a mile further away, and the colloquy went on.
'Are you there?'
'Yes.'
'What kind of a house is it ? '
'A double brick.'
'Are the steps wood or stone? '
' Neither; they are iron.'
' Now go inside. Is there a carpet on the floor? '
'No; the floor is of tile.'
'Where is the parlor? '
'To the right.'
' Go in and tell me what you see? '
'There's a square piano, a sofa, chairs, etc.' (He described everything, even to photographs, and told the time by the parlor clock.)
' Now go upstairs. Anyone there? '
'Yes; an Irish woman.'
'Ask her name? '
'She won't give it. She wants to know what I am doing here.'
' But ask her name? '
'She says it's Mollie.'
Such, in truth, was and is the name of the Irish servant. He afterward located a girl reading at a table, and gave the name of the book in her hand, and the next' day we verified his statements."
It is important to understand the history of hypnosis. Although there is reason to suspect that it existed before the time of Mesmer, the modern practice of hypnosis began with the work of the physician Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). Mesmer introduced a psychological medical practice he called animal magnetism. He thought that it involved some mysterious fluid that could be manipulated using magnets or rods. Mesmer seemed to have produced mysterious new results of great importance, although he and his disciples seemed to have been too dogmatic in theorizing how the results were produced. The disciples of Mesmer made claims that his techniques could produce various mysterious and wonderful effects. A disciple of Mesmer (Amand-Marie-Jacques de Chastenet, the Marquis de Puységur) developed a technique called "artificial somnambulism" that was equivalent to hypnosis.
For the first half of the nineteenth century, hypnotism was very widely practiced and studied, but was not yet recognized by most mainstream authorities. During this time it was very widely reported in print that clairvoyance could be produced under hypnosis. Before 1850 hypnotism was called various things other than hypnosis, such as "Mesmerism," "animal magnetism" or "artificial somnambulism."
Around the middle of the nineteenth century, James Braid coined the term "hypnosis." Braid seemed to have had the goal of taking a fraction of the phenomena reported under the names of "Mesmerism," "animal magnetism" or "artificial somnambulism" (a less remarkable and more easily explicable fraction) and positioning that as something that could be understood within the assumptions of mainstream science. Under the new name of "hypnosis," a fraction of the observational phenomena described before as "Mesmerism," "animal magnetism" or "artificial somnambulism" was then recognized by mainstream science professors as an observational fact. But this was all a case of severe "reality filtering," in which half of the reported phenomena were still denied. A rough analogy might be if someone who did not want to believe in very bad weather reluctantly confessed the reality of hurricanes, while still refusing to believe in the reality of tornadoes, denying the truth of all the observational reports of tornadoes.
The diagram below illustrates the situation. Psychology textbooks and psychology professors will typically confess the reality of hypnosis, and describe various hypnotic phenomena (represented by the blue circle). But such textbooks and professors will discuss only the less impressive phenomena observed under hypnosis. No mention will be made of the more impressive phenomena, even though the written evidence for such phenomena is very abundant.
On page 18 Gregory states this, discussing a kind of "telepathic knockout":
" After the operator [i.e. hypnotist] has succeeded in producing the sleep [i.e. hypnosis] easily and in a short time, he can, in many cases, produce it by the silent exertion of the will, without any passes, or other process of any kind. This I have myself done, and in one case, where the subject was deeply engaged in conversation without any idea that I intended any thing of the kind, as I had taken, up to that moment, an active share in the conversation, I put him into a sound mesmeric sleep in 25 seconds (his eyes having been directed to other persons present), by the silent power of the will. I sat about four or five feet from him, to one side."
This claim of a kind of "telepathic knockout" was also made by Emilie Boirac (as I discuss in my post here). On page 104 of the book "Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain" by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, we read a chapter discussing many examples of so-called "telepathic knockouts." During such events it would appear that a person was put into a state of deep sleep or unconsciousness solely because of the mental suggestion of some other person. We read, "The ability to put people to sleep and wake them up telepathically from a distance of a few yards to over a thousand miles became the most thoroughly tested and perfected contribution of the Soviets to international parapsychology." After reading of countless successful experiments of such an effect, we read of such a test being successful at a distance of a thousand miles. At a scheduled time, one scientist mentally commanded a subject a thousand miles away to fall asleep. We are told, "A thousand miles away Ivanova lost consciousness on schedule as she talked to Dr. Doubrovsky."
On page 178 of the work here, Professor Gregory begins to describe very many specific cases of clairvoyance under hypnosis. For example, we read this test:
"Case 29. — 1. Before I had seen E., I sent to Dr. Haddock the writing of a lady, without any details, requesting merely to know what E. should say of it. I did not even say it was a lady’s writing, and, indeed, as the hand is a strong hold one, Dr. H. supposed it was that of a man. E. took it in her hand, she being in the sleep, and soon said 'I see a lady. She is rather below middle height, dark-complexioned, pale, and looks ill.' She then proceeded to describe the house, the drawing-room in which the lady was, her dress, and the furniture, all with perfect accuracy as far as she went. She said the lady was sitting at a long table close to the wall, something like a sideboard, writing a letter; that on this table were several beautiful glasses, such as she had never seen. (In fact, this lady writes at a long sofa-table at the wall, on which then stood several Bohemian glasses.) She further detailed, with strict accuracy, all the symptoms of the lady’s illness, mentioning several things, known to the lady alone. She also described the treatment which had been followed, and said, among other things, that the lady had gone over the water, to a place where she drank ' morning waters' for her health ; that the waters had a strange taste, but had done her good. (The lady had been at a mineral water in Germany, and had derived benefit from it. The water was always taken in the morning.) I need not enter into all the details ; it is enough to state, that not only Dr. H. did not know the lady, nor even her name, but that he had had no means of knowing any one of the details specified."
This is only a small part of a very long narrative involving this hypnotized subject E., one in which we hear many similar accounts of her clairvoyant prowess. Here is an excerpt from another page, in which Professor Gregory describes giving E. some paper with writing from his son:
"She then put it on her head, and said that it was written by a little boy, whom she described very accurately, dwelling particularly on the peculiarities of his disposition, his old-fashioned ways, as she called them, his love of reading, and various other points all more or less characteristic. His dress astonished her very much, and she described it most minutely in every part. It was the Highland dress, and she gave the colours and pattern of the tartan, as well as every other detail of the boy’s dress and accoutrement. It appeared that she had never seen the Highland dress worn, and she thought it must be very cold. The boy was my own son, then in Edinburgh, and neither E. nor Dr. H. knew that I had a son, or that he wore the Highland dress."
On the next page Professor Gregory tells us this: "After I returned to Edinburgh, I had very frequent communication with Dr. H., and tried many experiments with this remarkable subject, sending specimens of writing, locks of hair, and other objects, the origin of which was perfectly unknown to Dr. H., and in every case, without exception, E. saw and described with accuracy the persons concerned." This occurred before the invention of the telephone and the internet, and cannot be accounted for without admitting the reality of clairvoyance or telepathy, except by appealing to some fantastically improbable set of coincidences. In Case 31 discussed here, E. describes the exact details of a watch stolen very far away, merely referred to as a gold watch, and provides exact details (unknown to her) about the watch's owner and the place where it was stolen, and also provides information that leads to the recovery of the watch.
On another page Professor Gregory states this:
"I have mentioned before, in this work, a remarkable case, in which this same clairvoyante, with the aid of handwriting, traced the progress of a gentleman, Mr. W. Willey, then in California, as well as of another person who accompanied Mr. W., and whose writing was also shown to her. In this case, which was published in the newspapers, E. gave a multitude of details in regard to the persons, their voyage, their occupations, and various occurrences, the whole of which details were, in so far as concerned the period subsequent to their embarking at Liverpool, entirely unknown to their families, but were afterwards fully confirmed in every point by Mr. W. on his return."
On page 246 of the May 21, 1880 edition of The Spiritualist, Percy Wyndham tells of visiting a clairvoyant, unannounced. He asks the person to mentally travel to his son's school. We read this about what happened after Percy asked for details of a particular room:
"He described it as a very long room,
wainscoted with oak ; I then said, ' Do you
see anything else in it ?” He replied, ' I see
a row of busts round the room, and the tops of
the heads are covered with dust.' This was
the feature which I wished to see whether he
would notice or not, the peculiarity of the
upper school at Eton being the row of busts
of distinguished men who have been educated
there placed round the room."
On pages 61 to 64 of the document here, we have an account of very powerful clairvoyance in a 15-year-old boy, when he was hypnotized.
Below is a 19th century diagram trying to express the complexity of the human mind and its relation to a hypothesized "world mind."
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