Uncanny Skills of the Trance Seers

In previous posts here and here I have discussed evidence that there can exist extremely powerful clairvoyance that may arise when someone is in a trance or put in a hypnotic state. Let us look at some additional evidence for such a thing. 

 On page 32 of the 1852 book Natural and Mesmeric Clairvoyance by James Esdaile we have an example of a skill that is reported by many other sources in the two posts I just mentioned: an ability to read while blindfolded. We read the following:

“On the 20th November the reporter took a black silk handkerchief, placed between the folds two pieces of cotton wadding, and applied it in such a way that the cotton came directly over the eyes and completely filled the cavity on each side of the nose : various names were then written on cards, both of persons with whom she was acquainted, and of those who were unknown to her, which she read as soon as they were presented to her.”

On page 34 of the same book, we have an account by a man who suddenly got a mental vision regarding a stranger he had encountered. We read the following:

“This man's former life was at that moment presented to my mind. I turned to him, and asked whether he would answer me candidly if I related to him some of the most secret passages of his life, I knowing as little of him personally as he did of me ? He promised, if I were correct in my information, to admit it frankly. I then related what my vision had shown me, and the whole company were made acquainted with the private history of the young merchant : his school-years, his youthful errors, and lastly, with a fault committed in reference to the strong box of his principal. I described to him the uninhabited room with whitened walls, where to the right of the brown door, on a table, stood a black money box, &c. A dead silence prevailed during the whole narration, which I alone occasionally interrupted by inquiring whether I spoke the truth. The startled young man confirmed every particular, and even, what I had scarcely expected, the last mentioned.”

On page 76 we read of a test done by a Dr. Chalmers of a lad in Calcutta said to be a clairvoyant. A bank note note was put between two candles in a bathroom. The boy was put into a hypnotic trance, which is referred to in the text as a "somnambulistic state."  Asked to describe the bathroom he could not see, the boy stated that he could see the two candles and some paper between them. When asked what type of paper it was, the boy correctly identified the value (25 rupees) and four numbers on the note. When the note was replaced with a 10-rupee note, the lad also noted that the note now said “10.” When a gold watch was placed on the note, the boy also reported seeing such a watch.

On pages 84-86 we read of a Lord Ducie who tested a young woman said to have clairvoyant powers. The following happened after the woman was put in a hypnotic trance by a surgeon:

"He (Lord Ducie) had before seen something of Mesmerism, and he sat by her, took her hand, and asked her if she felt able to travel. She replied : ' Yes ;' and he asked her if she had ever been in Gloucestershire, to which she answered that she had not, but should like very much to go there, as she had not been in the country for six years ; she was a girl of about seventeen years old. He told her that she should go with him, for he wanted her to see his farm. They travelled (mentally) by the railroad very comfortably together, and then (in imagination) got into a fly and proceeded to his house. He asked her what she saw ; and she replied : ' I see an iron gate and a curious old house.' He asked her : ' How do you get to it ?' She replied : ' By this gravel walk;' which was quite correct. He asked her how they went into it, and she replied : ' I see a porch, a curious old porch.'  It was probably known to many that his house, which was a curious old Elizabethan building, was entered by a porch as she had described. He asked her what she saw on the porch, and she replied, truly, that it was covered with flowers. He then said : ' Now we will turn in at our right hand ; what do you see in that room?' She answered with great accuracy : ' I see a bookcase and a picture on each side of it.' He told her to turn her back to the bookcase, and say what she saw on the other side ; and she said : ' I see something shining like that which soldiers wear.' She also described some old muskets and warlike implements which were hanging up in the hall ; and upon his asking her how they were fastened up (meaning by what means they were secured), she mistook his question, but replied :  'The muskets are fastened up in threes,' which was the case. He then asked of what substance the floors were built ; and she said : ' Of black and white squares ;' which was correct. He then took her to another apartment, and she very minutely described the ascent to it as being by four steps. He (Lord Ducie) told her to enter by the right door, and say what she saw there. She said : ' There is a painting on each side of the fire-place.' Upon his asking her if she saw anything particular in the fire-place, she replied : ' Yes, it is carved up to the ceiling ;' which was quite correct, for it was a curious old Elizabethan fireplace. There was at Tortworth Court a singular old chestnut-tree, and he told her that he wished her to see a favourite tree, and asked her to accompany him. He tried to deceive her by saying : ' Let us walk close up to it ;' but she replied : ' We cannot, for there are railings round it.' He said : ' Yes, wooden railings ;' to which she answered : ' No, they are of iron ;' which was the case. He asked : ' What tree is it ;' and she replied that she had been so little in the country that she could not tell ; but upon his asking her to describe the leaf, she said : ' It is a leaf as large as the geranium leaf, large, long, and jagged at the edges.' He (Lord Ducie) apprehended that no one could describe more accurately than that the leaf of the Spanish chestnut. He then told her he would take her to see his farm...She then went on and described everything on his farm with the same surprising accuracy ; and upon his subsequently inquiring, he found that she was only in error in one trifling matter, for which error any one who had ever travelled (mentally) with a clairvoyant could easily account, without conceiving any breach of the truth."

On pages 87-88 of the same book, we have an account of a man who began spontaneously to become clairvoyant after five or six weeks of hypnotic treatment (also called Mesmeric treatment).  On page 88 we read this: 

"I have put on a shooting-jacket, in which were eight or ten pockets ; I have put various articles into each pocket, of a description very unlikely to be mixed together ; and then, with all the pockets closed, and the jacket buttoned up to my throat, I would proceed to the dark room where Homer was, and, I standing a couple of yards before him, he would tell me truly the several articles in the several pockets, describing the situation of each pocket, and naming each article within it."

I have previously quoted many accounts describing clairvoyance under hypnotism involving Alexis Didier. There are many similar accounts involving his brother, Adolphe Didier. You can read some of them in Adolphe Didier's book Animal Magnetism and Somnambulism.  On page 209 Adolphe quotes a witness of his skills:

"I proceeded to mesmerise him... Lord ---- directly reached (quite at random) a book from a shelf, and, holding it behind him, asked, 'What book have I now in my hand ?' Adolphe Didier in a few seconds replied, ' Voyage en Suisse.' The inquirer immediately held up the book, that we might perceive that Didier had correctly read the gilt lettering on its back. Placing the book behind him again, and without opening it, he requested that Adolphe would read the first four lines on page 27. Adolphe immediately repeated several sentences in French. On opening the book and turning to page 27, we found that Adolphe had correctly read four lines from the twenty-seventh page of a closed book, held behind his querist, entirely out of all possible range of natural vision."

The witness then describes on page 211 a remarkable success by Adolphe Didier, in which he is able to tell lots of relevant information after being given only the name of a lady:

"As I happened, on perusing my note, to say that I must now 
go and mesmerise Adolphe Didier, the French clairvoyant, the lady remarked, 'I wish he could tell you about a ring which was stolen from me two years ago.' I rejoined that I would, if an opportunity occurred, ask him about it ; that I did not know anything of his method of perceiving, but that if she wrote her name on a piece of paper I would give it to him, and try if he could make out her wishes, or discover anything respecting the lost article. I now placed this piece of paper in his hand: He put it to his lips and on his forehead ; and, after a short interval of apparent reflection, he stated that it written by a lady, whom he described correctly ; and that she wanted to know about a lost ring. He then described the ring ; the apartment from which it was taken ; what articles were in the box where it had been previously deposited ; who had taken it, and where it was pawned ; adding, that it would not be recovered unless the pawnbroker would admit having received it, and declare where he had disposed of it. His description of the lady, of the apartment, of the box, and the various articles contained therein, one article being very curious and having therefore puzzled him much, were all perfectly correct : the person who he stated had taken it is deceased. There was some difficulty in ascertaining the pawnbroker indicated by him. The party who was presumed to be meant denied ever having taken in pledge any ring of so great a value, and thus verification of the latter part of his statement was not possible. This was not cerebral sympathy or thought-reading. The particulars were totally unknown to any one present, and the event to which they referred had taken place two years previously. It is somewhat curious and corroboratory, that on Alexis Didier being asked in Paris, and Ellen Dawson subsequently in London, also respecting the ring, they each described the same person as having stolen it. For these three clairvoyants each to have described the same person and circumstances without a possibility of any of them knowing what the others had said, is a fact somewhat too remarkable to be accounted for on the ground of extraordinary coincidence,' or 'fortunate guess-work.'  "

On page 240 Aldophe quotes a newspaper account regarding him, in which he is referred to as "the somnambulist" (a term which then meant someone showing activity while hypnotized):

"A short repose being granted, a journalist who had no faith in clairvoyance, being put en rapport, requested the somnambulist to describe to him his apartment. 'Travel there mentally yourself,' said the somnambulist, 'and I shall follow you.' 'Well, I am doing so,' said the journalist. 'Your apartment,' observed then the somnambulist, 'is on the third floor. Yes, it is on the third floor, and I am now in your room. Everything in it appears in disorder. There is a table by the side of the window with many papers upon it ; but I can see nothing striking in your apartment ; in short, there is scarcely anything in it.' 'That is very true,' admitted the journalist ; 'but now I am thinking of something. Can you see what it is?' 'You are thinking of a portrait which hangs over the mantelpiece; it is a daguerrotype; it is even your own likeness.'  'Still very true,' again admitted the journalist. Another gentleman tried the same experiment, and the very objects he only thought of were named 
to him, which further proved the extraordinary lucidity of the somnambulist."

On page 270 Adolphe quotes this account from the Cardiff Journal, using the term "somnambulic state" to mean a hypnotized state:

"In order to satisfy the doubt of some gentlemen, it was arranged that a billiard match should be played by Adolphe when blindfolded, in the somnambulic state. This took place immediately after the public seance, on Monday evening ; when, his eyes having been bandaged with three handkerchiefs, under which were two large pieces of cotton-wool, and all possibility of seeing in the ordinary way quite done away with, Adolphe took the cue, and played his game as well as many could have done in their natural state with, open eves. He described the position and colour of the balls, and made his remarks on the strokes, showing that he was perfectly clairvoyant. As he expressed himself as being much fatigued, the game was brought to an [early conclusion ; most sceptics being convinced of the astounding fact, that in a peculiar state of the human brain, preception can and does take place without the use of the ordinary means of vision."

On page 289 Adolphe quotes another press account of one of his innumerable public exhibitions, one in which plaster was affixed over his eyes:

"These gentlemen no longer considered the balls of carded 
cotton as sufficient, for they literally closed up M. Didier's eyes with two real plasters, which they first took care to scrutinize. But all this could not hinder the somnambulist from playing with extraordinary celerity, and remarkable certainty, several games of cards, dominoes, and draughts, nor from reading at the instant whatever was presented to him."

On page 307 Adolphe quotes another of a great number of favorable press accounts of his public exhibitions:

"A gentleman handed to the clairvoyant a gold watch, requesting him to read what was written inside. M. Didier answered as quickly as the question was put to him, Venitia. The watch was then opened and this word was, in fact, found inside." 

On page 127 of his 1869 book "Artificial Somnambulism, Hitherto Called Mesmerism, or Animal Magnetism" William Baker Fahnestock MD states that he "very much doubted" ESP under hypnosis, but was forced to believe in it because he "proved more than a thousand times" that it occurs. On page 132 he states this about hypnotized persons:

"It is astonishing with what facility some subjects follow, or read the minds even of strangers who may desire to take them to places where they have never been ; and when there with what accuracy they describe places, persons, or things existing or passing at the time."

On the same page we read this:

"Mr E was desired, at the request of a gentleman, to visit his home with him — which was distant about fifty miles — and when he had followed him by reading his mind, he described the peculiarities of the mill and the house attached to it, the number of rooms in the house, where entered, the furniture and relative position of the same, his wife, whom he described as being slim, tall, with very dark hair and dark complexion, dressed in a brown gown, having a child in her arms. Another child, of about four years old, was described as running about the room ; and an old gentleman, rather portly, bald, and dressed in drab clothes, was seated upon a settee. All this the gentleman declared was correct, and could not have been better described by the subject if he had been there in body at the time ; and, as the gentleman had never seen the subject before, nor the subject either him or any of the family, he was convinced, though skeptical before, that he must have just seen what he described. The description of the above residence and family was so minute, so clear, and so unhesitatingly done, that if it, or a like description, had been given to the most skeptical, it must have convinced him that there was something more in their powers than 'is dreamed of in the world's philosophy.' " 

In the following pages (133-135) the author gives equally impressive examples of clairvoyance under hypnotism. On page 219 Dr. Fahnestock states this about hypnotized clairvoyants: 

"Darkness, matter, and space, seem to offer no ob- 

struction to their view, and I have had them, times 

without number, correctly to describe and name arti- 

cles held in the closed hands of others, of which I had 

no knowledge whatever. In the same manner they have described pictures, etc., held behind them, and named persons outside of the house, although their presence was not expected, and they arrived after the subject had been in this  state for some hours. They have told the contents of closed boxes at a distance, which they never saw, and named the amount of money, and kind of coin in pocket-books and purses which were held in the hands of inveterate skeptics. They have found persons at a distant city, with whom they were acquainted, without ever having been there themselves, and told accurately — neither more nor less — what they had been doing at a certain time and place. They have described places and scenes at a distance, where they had never been, to the perfect satisfaction of hundreds of skeptics who, at different periods, requested them to go with them in thought." 

On page 221 and the next page we have specific examples of such clairvoyance. A female was asked what a Mr. K was doing in the next room, the door to which was closed.  She answered, "He is standing in the center of the room, and is holding a chair above his head."  When the room was inspected, Mr. K was found doing  exactly that.  The experiment was repeated, and the person correctly stated that the unseen Mr. K was holding a pillow upon his head.  The experiment was repeated again, and the female correctly stated that Mr. K was lying down on the floor. We read the following about experiments with a Mr. S.:

"On another occasion the same subject was requested by several other skeptics to tell what Mr. S. was doing in the next room. Answer. — 'He is standing up, and is holding the piano-stool upon his right shoulder.' Her answer was correct ; and in like manner she told that he was holding a note book upon his head; and again that he had thrown a shawl about his shoulders, and had placed a bonnet on his head. The same precautions were taken by the gentlemen to prevent deception that had been used on a former occasion. The door was guarded closely, and opened by themselves, and the positions which Mr. S. assumed were not premeditated by him, but assumed upon the instant after the door had been closed. Deception was therefore out of the question."

In the next twenty pages the author then describes numerous other similar cases of clairvoyance under hypnotism. 

In his book on hypnotism Teste states the following on page 75, using the term "magnetizer" for a hypnotist and "somnambulist" for the hypnotized: 

"Vision through the closed eyelids and through opaque bodies is not only a real fact, but a very frequent fact. There is no magnetiser who has not observed it twenty times, and I know at the present day in Paris alone a very great number of somnambulists who might furnish proofs of it."

There then follows in Teste's book many pages documenting such an ability in a Madame Hortense.  In his book Animal Magnetism and Magnetic Lucid Somnambulism by Edwin Lee, we read the following on page 105 about a patient who would fall into hypnotic trances: "The patient would frequently announce the arrival of unexpected  visitors, and describe their attire, and the objects which they held in their hands, while they were yet only approaching the house, and even perhaps a mile away from it."  On page 110 of the same work we read the following (in which a hypnotized person is called a somnambulist): "Thus, a somnambulist, after accurately describing a distant friend of the questioner, can sometimes state what that friend is occupied about at the time, or, having described a distant residence by means of thought-reading, will also describe the persons there, in the drawing-room, or in some other part of the house or grounds, and state what they are doing ; and these statements are found by subsequent inquiry to be true." The book gives innumerable accounts backing up such claims. 

On page 124 we read the following, referring to cotton wadding:

"His eyes being padded over with wadding, and bandaged by any one of the audience, the exhibitor gropes his way down from the platform to distribute to any persons who choose to take them, tablets, and chalk or pencil, wherewith to write on them whatever they please—as a series of names of celebrated artists, authors, &c., the towns through which they would pass on making an imaginary journey, dates referring to historical events, &c. He then tells the holder of each of the tablets what he has written and what it refers to.... A gentleman sitting not far from me had written down the names of a dozen literary and artistical celebrities, which, like the other trials, were correctly told."

On pages 130-131 we read the following (using the word "somnambulist" for someone hypnotized, and "magnetizer" for a hypnotist):

"Dr. Macario, adverting to this part of the subject, 

observes : ' Of all the faculties of somnambulists, 

the transmission of the thoughts of the magnetiser is 

that which the least shakes our belief, and which 

consequently reckons the greatest number of believers. 

I have witnessed this phenomenon in company with 

several physicians of repute. This is what we saw : 

On the magnetiser simply willing it, a male somnambulist

began to sing an air of an opera, or a romance which is mentally indicated to him by the magnetiser; and he ceased singing in the midst of a phrase or of a word, as soon as the magnetiser mentally ordered him to be silent. We took all imaginable precautions against being made the dupes of trickery. The somnambulist had a thick bandage over his eyes, which completely intercepted the transmission of luminous rays, and the magnetiser was placed at the distance of several yards behind him, no material means of communication existing between them. It was one or the other of 

us who intimated to the magnetiser, by means of a 

sign agreed upon beforehand, when to cause the somnambulist to sing, and when to stop.' ” 

In this post and previous posts here and here I have discussed very abundant evidence (attested to by a very large number of witnesses) that there can exist extremely powerful clairvoyance and ESP that may arise when someone is put in a hypnotic state. The failure of living researchers to investigage this very promising lead is deplorable. 

Postscript: Francois Noizet wrote a 428-page work on this topic which I am unable to read because I can find only a French edition. But I have found a very notable quote from the book in the work Mental Suggestion by Julian Ochorowicz. Noizet states the following, using the term "magnetizer" for a hypnotist, and "somnambule" to mean the hypnotized person, and referring to a Duke de Montpensier who was the King's youngest son:

"I reached my friend's place before the magnetizer and his somnambule, and the master of the house told us that among the extraordinary powers she was credited with was, that she could tell what a person with whom she was put in rapport had been doing throughout the day. Now, on that very day it chanced that I had done something quite out of the common — I had gone to the Hotel des Invalides with the Duke de Montpensier, to show him the gallery of relief -plans of the fortifications. I proposed to test on myself the somnambule's power, and this proposition was accepted by my two friends. The somnambule having arrived...I forthwith put myself in rapport with her, and asked if she was able to see what I had been doing that day. After some details of little consequence, and obtained with difficulty, as to how I had passed the morning, I asked whither I had gone for breakfast. She answered, without much hesitation, 'To the Tuileries.' That might mean a simple stroll thither, so I persisted and asked at what point I had entered. 'By the wicket on the quay hard by the Pont-Royal.'  ' And then ? ' ' You went up into the chateau.' ' By which steps, the middle ones ? ' ' No ; by those at the corner, near the wicket.' Here she lost herself among the different sets of steps — and well she might, for there are many of them. Finally she set me down in a large hall where some officers were. It was a reception hall on the ground floor. ' You waited,' said she to me. ' And then ? ' ' A tall young man came and spoke to you.' 'Who was that young man?' 'I do not know.' 'Try hard to find out.' ' Oh, it is the King's son.' 'Which?' 'I do not know.' (I tell her it was the Duke de Montpensier.) ' Afterward ? ' ' You entered a coach.' 'Alone?' ' No ; with the prince.' 'Where was I placed ? ' ' In the rear, to the left of him.' ' Were we two alone in the coach ?'  ' No ; there was, further, in front, a stout gentleman ? ' 'Who was that gentleman ? ' ' I do not know.' ' Try.' (After reflecting) ' 'Twas the King.' ' How,' said I, ' I on the rear seat and the King on the front ? You see that is not reasonable.' ' I can't say ; I do not know that gentleman.' ' Well, it was the Prince's aide-de-camp.' ' I do not kriow him.' ' Where did we go ? ' 'Along the riverside.' ' And then ? ' ' You entered a large chateau.' ' What chateau ? ' ' I do not know ; there are trees before you come to it.' 'Take a good look ai: it, you must know it.' ' No ; I don't know.'...At last she said to me : ' There were long tables.' ' And what was on the tables ? ' 'It was not high nor was it entirely flat.' (I could not bring her to tell me that it was relief-plans — things that she, no doubt, had never seen.) ' What did we do then, at those tables ? ' 'You got on a bench, and with a long rod pointed out something ? ' (This remarkable specification was perfectly exact.) At last she had us in the coach again and away. I then said to her : ' But just look back ; you must recognize the place we are leaving.' ' Ah ! ' she said, as though astonished and confused, ' 'tis the H6tel des Invalides.' She said, furthermore, that the Prince quitted me at the door, which was the fact.  Though familiar with the phenomena of somnambulism, this scene nevertheless impressed me much, and I could not reasonably attribute to any cause save the faculty of reading my thoughts or of deciphering impressions still existing in my brain, the kind of divination exhibited by the somnambule. That is the only explanation I can give even to-day." 

Still More Nineteenth Century Evidence for ESP

"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.

In the posts here and here and here I discussed evidence for extrasensory perception (ESP) dating from the nineteenth century. Below is some more evidence for ESP dating from that century. 

On pages 108-109 of the book Enigmas of Psychical Research by James Hyslop, we have an account by Sir John Drummond hat seems to involve in 1879 a telepathic recognition of the exact words of a distant speaker:

"I was woke by hearing distinctly the voice of my daughter-in-law, who was with her husband at Mogodor, saying in a clear but distressed tone of voice, ' Oh, I wish papa only knew that Robert was ill.' There was a night lamp in the room. I sat up and listened, looking around the room, but there was no one except my wife, sleeping quietly in bed. I hastened for some seconds, expecting to hear footsteps outside, but complete stillness prevailed, so I lay down again, thanking God that the voice which woke me was an hallucination. I had hardly closed my eyes when I heard the same voice and words, upon which I woke Lady Drummond Hay and told her what had occurred, and I got up and went into my study, adjoining the bedroom, and noted it in my diary....A few days after the incident a letter arrived from my daughter-in-law, Mrs. R. Drummond Hay, telling us that my son was seriously ill with typhoid fever and mentioning the night during which he had been delirious. Much struck by the coincidence that it was the same night I had heard her voice, I wrote to tell her what had happened. She replied, the following post, that in her distress at seeing her husband so dangerously ill, and from being alone in a distant land, she had made use of the precise words which had startled me from sleep, and had repeated them. As it may be of interest to you to receive a corroboration of what I have related, from the persons I have mentioned, who happen to be with me at this date, they also sign, to affirm the accuracy of all I have related."

The narrative was signed by three members of the family besides Sir John. It would be hard to get a more convincing account to establish ESP.  We have a very distinguished witness, multiple corroborating witnesses, and an exact match not only in time but an exact match of the words spoken and the words heard by the distant person. 

On pages 122-123 of the book Psychical Research by Sir William Barrett,  we have the following account of a wife who seemed to telepathically hear what her husband was saying 150 miles away:

"On September 9, 1848, at the siege of Mooltan, my husband, Major- General Richardson, C.B., then adjutant of his regiment, was most severely and dangerously wounded, and supposing himself dying, asked one of the officers with him to take the ring off his finger and send it to his wife, who, at that time, was fully 150 miles distant, at Ferozepore. On the night of September 9, 1848, I was lying on my bed, between sleeping and waking, when I distinctly saw my husband being carried off the field, seriously wounded, and heard his voice saying, ' Take this ring off my finger, and send it to my wife.' "

Below is another case  described on pages 284-285 of  Volume 1, Number 3 of the Psychical Review (February 1893).  We read of someone who had a dream exactly matching the trouble his son far away was experiencing at the same time, with the man's anxiety lasting until the exact time that his son's problem cleared up:

"In the spring of 1837, Mr. A. C. K., a merchant of Terre Haute, Ind., was at the St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans, La. One night he dreamed that his son James, then a year old, was choking; that he breathed with great difficulty, and with a deep, hoarse sound. The child’s mother, his Aunt Mary, and young Dr. Hitchcock were standing by the bedside, evidently much alarmed. It seemed strange to Mr. K. that the old family physician, Dr. Daniels, was not there. Soon the child gasped and struggled for breath. The doctor said to the mother, 'I think that he is dying.' Mr. K. awoke much alarmed; the dream had been so vivid that it seemed to be a reality. When fully awake he could not shake off the effect. As he found it impossible to sleep, he went down into the rotunda of the hotel and tried to read, but could not, he felt so anxious and excited. About two o’clock he suddenly felt relieved, went up to bed, and slept soundly until late in the morning. He thought nothing more of his night’s experience, except to consider it a very disagreeable dream. When he arrived home several weeks after this, his wife said, 'We came very near losing James one night while you were gone. He had the croup. From midnight until two o’clock we were very much alarmed about him. Once the doctor said that he thought that he was dying. At two o’clock he was relieved, and slept till morning.' " 

Some of the most astonishing nineteenth century evidence for ESP comes in accounts involving Alexis Didier.  The original accounts can be read in the pages of the nineteenth century journal The Zoist, which can be read here.  At the link here you can read an account of many pages describing evidence regarding this person. 

Alexis Didier

Before discussing Alexis Didier, the author (a doctor) gives on page 478 a remarkable account of a female clairvoyant: 

"For six years I have made repeated trials with numerous patients of my own : but never have found one who I was satisfied could even see the objects about them with the eyes closed, or look into the interior of the bodies of others and state their condition and prescribe for them. But among my searches after clairvoyance I have at length found one example of the highest kind...This patient is the perfection of integrity and every other moral excellence. Her word is a fact : and her truth is not less absolute than her freedom from vanity. She dislikes to exert her clairvoyance....

She will accurately describe who are in a particular room at her father's house at a particular moment, and the arrangement of the furniture, &c. —a distance of above fifty miles : or she will search for and see a member of her family, and describe the place in which he or she is, and the others also present. I at length succeeded in prevailing upon her to see some others, not members of her family, or known to them or to herself, and whose names even I did not mention, but only a very few particulars about them. She has described their persons most accurately, the places in which they were, their occupations at the moment ; and told what others were in the same room with them : and all this when I knew nothing of the truth at the time, and had to verify it afterwards. Far more than this she would tell : and tell with perfect accuracy : and predict numerous things relating to others which have since exactly taken place."

The author then describes many feats of clairvoyance performed by Alexis Didier, typically in a hypnotic trance and with a blindfold  over his eyes (usually with cotton balls between his eyes and the blindfold).  It is futile to speculate about some idea of some tricky blindfold that Alexis could see through, because very many of the accounts involve Alexis successfully describing details that were distant in time or space. Below is an example from page 485:

"Another lady then said, 'Alexis, will you travel with me ?' 'Yes ; give me your hand.' She did. He then just passed his own over it, slightly clasping it, but let it go immediately. - 'Well, I am ready ; which way do you go ?' 'Towards Fontainbleau, (forty miles from Paris) ; are you there ?' 'Yes.' ' Pray describe my house near there.' Alexis then rapidly described the approach, the appearance, the number of stories, and the windows, very minutely, and, as the lady allowed, very correctly. She then proposed to him to go indoors, to tell her the plan of the house, &c., and then her room, and the windows, &c., and furniture, and how arranged. This he did as perfectly !" 

On page 492 we read the following:

"Seven of us encircled the devoted youth. 'Tell us,' we cried, ' the exact time each of our watches now in our pockets is.' He did : one after another, as he spoke the time, took out his watch, and as he spake so it was, to the minute, and sometimes to the second ! Before I took out mine, I said, 'What is there about my watch ?' 'The glass is broken,' he said, 'and you have lost the little hand that goes tic tac, tic tac, in a little circle.' I knew it was so. I drew it out, and the time was right to a minute : the glass was broken, and the second-hand gone."

Below is another example from page 494. A soldier who had been wounded visted Alexis Didier, and encounters him with a blindfold  around his eyes (which he often used in attempts to demonstrate clairvoyance):

"Years past away, when a few months since a neighbour of his a military man, called upon him, and proposed to take a run up to Paris, to see Alexis Didier. ' I think,' said the soldier, ' he will be puzzled to find out where I have been wounded.' It was agreed to. They arrive, and find Alexis sitting in due, blind bandaged state. ' I have a question to put to you, Alexis.' ' Give me your hand, Sir.' He felt it a moment. 'l am a military man.' ' I know that.' ' Have I been ever wounded? ' 'You have.' ' How often ?' ' Three times.' ' Where ?' ' There, there, and there' touching the three wounds. ' Were they made by ball or by sword ? ' 'This was by sword, those two by musket balls,' fixing his fingers on them ! ' Pardieu, Mons. Alexis,' cried the astonished soldier ; ' you are quite right. It is as you say !' "

On page 497 we have this astonishing account of clairvoyance by a blindfolded Alexis Didier:

"He frequently told his adversary what cards he had in his hand, as on one occasion that he had three tens, on another that he had four trumps...Once or twice he made mistakes, as saying the nine of hearts instead of the seven, but in the great majority of instances was right. Another person then took the cards, and the same wonders were repeated. He then moved away from the table, and played at a distance of about four yards from his adversary, but he still told the cards as before, and played his own frequently without looking at their faces....Alexis was then asked to read, and a volume of Le Moyen, Aye Pittoresque, was placed before him. The wool and bandages were still unmoved, but he read off from the page wherever he was told by any of the visitors, and by myself amongst the rest. On one occasion he continued to do so, although two hands were placed before his face and the type. He seemed, however, to find this somewhat more difficult. He was very animated, and talked rapidly as he turned over the pages, as if pleased with his own exploits."

On page 500 we have this account of Alexis Didier reading while heavily blindfolded by an inch of cotton and three handkerchiefs:

"Alexis' eyes were bandaged. Lord L. took up a card, and Alexis told it after thinking a few seconds. He then extracted one from the pack ; and after one mistake Alexis told it correctly. Lord Adare then gave him Villemain's Cours de Literature to read, (opening a page ;) he held it nearly on a level with his eyes ; -so that it was impossible for ordinary vision to act ; there being an inch thick of cotton and three handkerchiefs between his eyes and the object. He began by spelling the first word : and then read more easily, reading a line or two. He then turned to another page, and read quite rapidly, the book being about twenty degrees below the level of his eyes. Lord Adare asked him to read through several pages ; and turned to another place and pointed to the right side, in which he had seen nothing : he told three words. The party looked over the pages, but could not find the words. The same happened again. We tried again : he said, ' I see two lines — on one Francois, and below Albigeois. ' This was right, four leaves off, and near the inside of the page. We turned to another place, and he read, ' descendants les anti- quitis mysterieux :' which was right."

On pages 502-503 we have another of many examples of Alexis Didier correctly describing a distant location he had never seen:

"Another gentleman now put himself en rapport with Alexis. He wished him to follow him in mind into Lincolnshire, and describe the house he lived in there. Alexis said, ' I am with you : but this house is too large for me to describe. Let us fix on some of its rooms.' He then described a library — a small room in which there was a bust — not marble, but plaster on a pedestal ; and lastly, a very large room, lighted by a dome raised from the centre of the ceiling ; he said there were two fire-places with white marble chimney- pieces, and spoke in terms of admiration of the varied colours of the light admitted into this noble apartment. All these points were assented to as correct."

On page 508 we have this account of an ability by Alexis Didier to read while blindfolded, with a hand in front of his face:

"Alexis was bandaged most carefully : cotton-wool and handkerchiefs were not merely placed over and below the eyes, but over and below the nose : and, in this state, he read six or seven lines, out of a French book, opened at random, with an ease and a rapidity of utterance that I could scarcely imitate in my own language. He repeated the experiment with another passage, when the hand of a gentleman was interposed between the face and the volume, and he succeeded completely. He read a few words, through five or six thick pages of the same volume ; and this he did two or three times, not failing once."

On page 508-509 we read that Alexis Didier was able to  describe an object in a thick closed case, an object he had never seen:

"An officer, of long standing in the army, who was severely wounded at Waterloo, and is well known in the highest military circles, was one of the company present. He was an unbeliever, and knew nothing of mesmerism, and had never seen or scarcely heard of Alexis, — but having been accidentally invited to join the party, and been told that the young man had the power of reading through opaque objects, he determined to bring his talent rigidly to the test.
He produced a morocco case, eight inches long, and an inch and a half thick, looking like a surgical instrument case, or a small jewel-case. It was placed in the hands of Alexis, who held it for a short time in silence, and then gradually and slowly gave the following description :

 'The object within the case is a hard substance.'
' It is folded in an envelope.'
' The envelope is whiter than the thing itself.' (The envelope was a piece of silver-paper.)
' It is a kind of ivory.'
'It has a point (pique) at one end' (which is the case).
' It is a bone.'
' Taken from a body'—
' From a human body' —
' From your body.'
' The bone has been separated and cut, so as to leave a flat side.'

This was true : the bone, which was a piece of the colonel's leg, and sawed off after the wound, is flat towards the part that enclosed the marrow.

Here, Alexis removed the piece of bone from the case, and placed his finger on a part, and said, ' The ball struck here.' (True.)

' It was an extraordinary ball, as to its effect.'

'You received three separate injuries at the same moment.' (Which was the case, for the ball broke or burst into three pieces, and injured the colonel in three places in the same leg.)

' You were wounded in the early part of the day, whilst charging the enemy.' (Which was the fact.)"

On pages 512-513 we have this astonishing account of blindfolded reading by a hypnotized Alexis Didier:

"Alexis, having been put in a state of somnambulism, had a large piece of cotton wool placed over each eye, after which three handkerchiefs were closely bound on; he then rose from his chair, and placing himself at the table, proceeded to open a new pack of cards, which he shuffled and arranged with greater rapidity than his antagonist ; he played two or three games of ecarte, winning each time, and telling, not only his own cards, but those of the other person. One of the guests took from the shelf the first book that presented itself; Alexis, then, with his eyes bandaged and his outspread hand placed on the page, read the passage which the hand covered."

On page 513 we have another one of countless accounts of apparent clairvoyance by Didier that cannot be explained through any hypothesis of blindfold trickery, because distant objects are being described:

"Another person then took his hand, and pointing to a gentleman, (whose name Alexis did not know,) asked him to describe a certain picture in his apartment. He said he saw a very large picture without a frame ; at one side was a great building, from the windows of which men were firing; in the centre was a man on horseback — an dese de I'ecole Polytecnique, and round him were a number of men. The building was the Louvre, and the scene represented the French Revolution of 1830. All these particulars were correct to the letter, and he described some others, which I do not at this moment recollect, but which were equally true. He was then asked by the same person to describe another picture. He said it was large, but not so large as the preceding one : it was a portrait representing a man in a very singular costume, — full length. He could not exactly describe the costume, but it was dark, with a great deal of white in front, and a white stiff ruff round the neck : the wearer was fair, with the hair thrown back from the temples, and with large whiskers : — this was equally correct."

On page 517 we have the following astonishing account, which uses the term "mesmeric trance" to refer to a state of being hypnotized:

"Alexis was in a very few minutes placed in the mesmeric trance, and having had his eyes carefully bandaged, played at ecarte, read from a book, &c. &c., with great success and facility. I then sat down by him, and asked to have some conversation with him. He took my hand. I asked him if he could tell me where I lived. After a good deal of hesitation he said, ' North-east of London ;' and gave the distance very correctly in leagues. He then said, ' There is a railroad which leads to your part of the country. There are two branches to this railroad, and your house is situated on the left branch ; and on the right side of that branch — ' He then called for a sheet of paper, and began to draw a map of the part of the country he was describing. He delineated the railway with great correctness, marking the branch which turns off eastward at Stratford, and continuing the other to a point where he said there was a station. He gave a very minute account of the position of this station, answering in all points to that of Roydon ; the river running nearly parallel to it, and the bridge immediately in front : and he also described with much truth the general character and appearance of the surrounding country, and said that the railroad extended only three or four leagues from this point, which is the fact. He then marked on his chart another station, a few miles farther on, and gave exactly the relative distant and position of my house with these two stations. . He then said, ' Now let us go to your house,' and proceeded to give a sketch of the road with its various turnings. As he approached the house he was more minute, and described with singular correctness the sudden descent ; the brook about half as wide as the room, the steep ascent on the other side, and the gateway on the right hand of the road. He gave the distance of the house from the gateway very exactly, mentioned a piece of water on the right with ducks upon it, (I keep a few wild-ducks,) and described the position of the stables, &c. The perfect accuracy of the whole of this minute description was truly astonishing. I then asked him if there was any one living in the house during my absence from home. He said, ' Yes ; there was only one person — a gentleman, ' (which was the fact); and he then proceeded to state his age and describe his character and appearance, as correctly as if he had been well and personally known to him."

At the link here you can read an account of about 50 pages describing these and very many other observations as impressive as the ones I have quoted above, all of them involving reports of clairvoyance by Alexis Didier. No one who has read my previous post  on hypnotic clairvoyance ("The Academic Committee That Found in Favor of Clairvoyance") should be enormously surprised by any of these accounts. In that post I had described how a committee of the Royal Academy of Medicine in France had spent years investigating phenomena such as hypnotism and clairvoyance, and had issued an 1831 report stating that clairvoyance in a hypnotic state was a fact established by the committee's careful observations.   The observations involving Didier reported by the Zoist in 1844 (quoted above) were just further reports of the phenomena (clairvoyance under hypnosis) that had been thoroughly attested by the official academic report of 1831. 

Although the study of enhanced psychic abilities under hypnotism was greatly neglected in the twentienth century, the US government funded for many years experiments involving something similar, involving an anomalous mental ability to discover details about distant locations.  There were many remarkable successes (some discussed here and here), but they were called "remote viewing" rather than clairvoyance. 

Postscript: In the nineteenth century book Natural and Mesmeric Clairvoyance we have on page 27 another remarkable account of ESP. The patient described was one suffering from mental and  physical problems so very severe that any type of clever swindle on her part would have been impossible. Here is the account:

"It sufficed to call her attention to any object placed in her room or in the next room, or in the street, or out of the town, or even at enormous distances, to have it described by her as perfectly as if she saw it with her eyes. The following are some experiments sufficient to prove this assertion. In presence of a celebrated Professor of the University, it was agreed to ask her to describe a convent in the town, into which neither herself nor any of her interrogators had ever entered. Next to describe a cellar in a country house, equally unknown to the questioners. According to the description she gave, plans were designed ; and, on the places being visited, they were found to correspond perfectly with the designs made by her dictation. She even pointed out the number and position of some barrels in the cellar. Odorous substances were discovered by the patient with the same promptitude and precision."

Below is a quote from Alfred Russel Wallace, on page 245 of the December 22, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist:

" Dr. Edwin Lee, a well-known physician, in his book on  Animal Magnetism, has given, from personal observation, a minute account of the clairvoyance, of Alexis [Didier] at Brighton, which occupies twenty-five pages. Among a great variety of most remarkable tests, he frequently read passages in books brought at random a number of pages in advance of the page opened, but at the level of a line indicated. Numbers of these tests are recorded, the words read always being found at the level indicated, but not always at the exact number of pages in advance asked for. The evidence for this, as well as for many other forms of clairvoyance, is overwhelming, and the tests applied of the most varied and stringent character."

Early Twentieth Century Evidence for ESP

The evidence for ESP is overwhelming, and consists of a great abundance of convincing experimental evidence, and a huge mountain of observational reports from daily life.  You can study such evidence by reading the 24 posts here. Let us look at some additional examples of evidence for ESP.  My sources will date from the early twentienth century, although in one or two cases the incident mentioned may have occurred in the nineteenth century. 

On page 152 of Death and Its Mystery: Before Death by Camille Flammarion, we have an account by David Harris of a strange vision he had while relaxing in an easy chair of a hotel:

"I was in a state of passive tranquillity, when all at once I lost the sense of where I was. Instead of the wall and the pictures that were hung on it, I saw before me the front of my house in London; my wife was standing on the door-step and speaking to a workman who held a big broom in his hands. My wife seemed much distressed, and I felt an instant certainty that the man was in a wretched condition of poverty. I did not hear their conversation, but something told me that the unfortunate man was asking my wife to help him. At this moment the servant brought the tea and the vision vanished."

The man later found out that at this time his wife had talked on her doorstep to a very poor man begging for assistance.  Harris states on page 153 that "a few days later I saw the man myself; he was exactly the one I had seen in my vision."

On pages 130-131 of Volume 13 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we have the case of a man who tried a mind-reading test with a woman:

"After some time she announced that she got absolutely nothing, and said that with some she never had any success. I remarked that perhaps it was because I was not thinking of anything persistently or deeply. She replied by telling me to think of some occurrence of recent date—say some man I had met—his name and features. I thought of a gentleman I had met the morning before on the platform at Bakersfield as the train was changing engines. He stepped up to me, accosting me by name and said : 'You don't remember me, do you?' I confessed that I did not. He said, 'My name is Harris,' ....Well, I thought of this man. Presently Mrs. A. said, 'His name is of two syllables—accented on the first'—and then she asked me to signify assent if it was true— as it seemed to help her. I therefore said 'Yes.' After perhaps ten seconds she said, 'It is a name that sounds like  "Parish," ' but, she added quickly, 'That's not it'—a slight pause—'It is Harris.' I, much astonished, said it was."

On page 158 of Death and Its Mystery: Before Death by Camille Flammarion, we have an account by Dr. G. de Messimy of a patient who was put under hypnosis:

"My subject's lucidity went so far as even to read the thoughts of those present. . . . Having placed twelve members of the society before the subject ... we asked each one of them to think freely of a chosen flower, without telling its name to any one. . . . Then turning toward the subject, we asked him to name out loud the flower each of these persons had thought about, and he named them all, without the least hesitation and without making a single mistake, as if he were reading from a book of human thought."

On pages 160-161 of Death and Its Mystery: Before Death by Camille Flammarion, we have an account by a Dr. Jean of a boy who had a vision of his father's drowning death:

"The frightened mother told me that the child had had a sudden paroxysm of delirium. He had awakened, as usual, and all seemed to be going well, when at about ten o'clock he rose up in his bed, terrified by a sudden hallucination. He saw water everywhere and began to cry for help, for his father was drowning, he said. His father was away from home. He had gone to Nice, where his brother lived, and was to spend several days there. When I arrived the child was calm, but insisted that he had seen his father drown. A telegram from the brother soon urgently called the widow (for such she really was) to Nice, where she learned that her husband had been drowned at about ten in the morning, in trying to save his brother, who had been seized with a cramp while swimming in the ocean. His last words had been, 'our poor children.' " 

On page 139 of Volume 19 of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, we have the following account of what seems like telepathy in a dream. 

"At 8.30 a.m. this morning at breakfast at the above address. Miss Ethel Thomas, a visitor, related what she said at the time was a dream, just on the point of waking up, as follows : 'I was counting the number of men and women going on board ship at Southampton, and the number was fifteen. I could almost tell who they were.' I mentioned that I thought that this was a case of 'telepathy without conscious effort,' and related that at 8.15 a.m. I was shaving in an adjoining room, and counting up in my mind the number of people going on board ship on Thursday, and on a ship at Southampton, the same time. The total number was 15."

On page 143 of Death and Its Mystery: Before Death by the astronomer Camille Flammarion, we have an account by Valarie Dobelmann, who claimed to have had a dream of her son being injured by boards, at about the same time that her son suffered such an injury far away:

 "One night, especially, I was overcome with sharp distress and dreamed that I saw my youngest son caught between two rows of planks which had fallen on him, unable to free himself and calling me, 'Mama!' I spoke of it to my sister, while I was still very much oppressed by this nightmare....On my son's return we questioned him, and he told me that he had had an accident, for a pile of boards had fallen on him; but it had been nothing serious, and it would have been useless to frighten us. 'But I knew it,' I said. 'I dreamed about it all one night and the curious thing is that the place did not at all resemble your wood-yard. You were in the midst of planks, unable to get up, in a great unfamiliar yard, and the sun was shining brightly.' — 'That 's correct,' replied my son ; 'the sun was shining on that day and it did not happen in my place but in a neighbor's yard, which is just as you have described it without having ever seen it.' "

On page 127 of Volume V of the the Annals of Psychical Science (1907), we read an account of a person (Leo Primavesi) who suddenly "had the impression of being in a friend's house in the suburbs of this city (Antwerp), and of seeing a strong light, as of an unshaded lamp, to my right." Leo said that "on coming to myself I found that it was 11:47 p.m." Upon visiting the friend, and before saying anything about this experience, Leo was told "I saw you last night!" The friend reported that Leo "disappeared like the melting away of a cloud."  The friend looked at the clock and saw that it was "just after a quarter to twelve," which matches the time of 11:47 PM. 

On pages 278-279 of the 1906 book Enigmas of Psychical Research by the distinguished researcher James Hyslop, we read the following account of clairvoyance, told by a Professor Gregory, who recalls speaking to a hypnotized female who he asked to do some "remote viewing" of a distant location:

" I now asked her to go to Greenock, forty or fifty miles from where we were (Edinburgh was nearly thirty miles distant), and to visit my son, who resides there with a friend. She soon found him, and described him accurately, being much interested in the boy, whom she had never seen nor heard of. She saw him, she said, playing in a field outside of a small garden in which stood the cottage, at some distance from the town, on a rising ground. He was playing with a dog. I knew there was a dog, but had no idea of what kind, so I asked her. She said it was large, but young Newfoundland, black, with one or two white spots. It was very fond of the boy and played with him. 'Oh,' she cried, suddenly, ' it has jumped up and knocked off his cap.' She saw in the garden a gentleman reading a book and looking on. He was not old, but had white hair, while his eyebrows and whiskers were black. She took him for a clergyman, but said he was not of the Established Church, nor Episcopalian, but a Presbyterian dissenter. (He is, in fact, a clergyman of the highly respectable Cameronian body, who, as is well known, are Presbyterians, and adhere to the covenant.) Being asked to enter the cottage, she did so, and described the sitting-room. In the kitchen she saw a young maid servant preparing dinner, for which meal a leg of mutton was roasting at the fire, but not quite ready. She also saw another elderly female. On looking again for the boy, she saw him playing with the dog in front of the door, while the gentleman stood in the porch and looked on. Then she saw the boy run upstairs to the kitchen, which she observed with surprise was on the upper floor of the cottage (which it is), and receive something to eat from the servant, she thought a potato. I immediately wrote all these details down and sent them to the gentleman, whose answer assured me that all, down to the minutest, were exact, save that the boy did not get a potato, but a small biscuit from the cook. The dog was what she described; it did knock off the boy's cap at the time and in the place mentioned; he was himself in the garden with a book looking on; there was a leg of mutton roasting and not quite ready; there was an elderly female in the kitchen at that time, although not of the household. Every one of which facts was entirely unknown to me, and could not, therefore, have been perceived by thought-reading, although, had they been so, as I have already stated, this would not have been less wonderful, but only a different phenomenon." 

What we have in this narrative is very strong evidence not for telepathy or mind-reading, but instead what is called clairvoyance, a kind of paranormal "second sight." The US government spent much money and quite a few years investigating such a thing, calling it "remote viewing."  Many spectacular successes were achieved. Even better results might well have been achieved if the experiments had involved subjects who were hypnotized or placed in a trance, as was the female in this account.