Chinese Research Suggesting the Reality of Clairvoyance and Mind-Over-Matter

Around page 376 of the book here, you get a discussion of Chinese research into "Extraordinary Human Body Function" or EHBF, which was largely research into clairvoyance, telepathy and mind-over-matter. 

The CIA document you can read here (and also here) is a translation of a Chinese 1984 parapsychology publication, one entitled "Research in Human Paranormal Capabilities." There are some very fascinating parts. 

On page 4 we have a claim that a particular person could read Chinese characters with his ears. We read this:

"Today is a very important and very memorable date, it is the anniversary of the first publication in the 'Sichuan Daily' of Tang Yu's paranormal capability to distinguish Chinese characters with his ear. This is a very important event in modern China."

The parapsychology term used for this ability is "transposition of the senses." The history of psychical research has many well-documented examples, some of which are listed in my series of posts here.  On page 53 of the same document, we read about tests done on children to see whether they could recognize the color of cards (and symbols on cards) that were placed in their outer ear. This is a test of one type of transposition of the senses. We read this about the testing procedure:

" Propaganda cards printed in various colors with number four type were cut into cards of two to five characters each to form a sampling pool. They were then folded in half and rolled into cylinders. Then tweezers were used to place these deep in the student's left or right outer ear deep enough that the students could not dig them out with their little fingers. Since the cylinders were springy, they opened up to press themselves to the walls of the ear canal, making them difficult to remove."

I do not recommend that anyone ever try this at home as a test procedure.  As my mother would often tell me, "Never stick anything in your ear smaller than your elbow." The only exception is manufactured things specifically designed to be placed in ears, such as earplugs.

On page 53 we read this about the results from a subject:

"On the morning of the 18th of July, at 8:30, 31 minutes after the test began, eleven year old Han nationality student, XIXY X( )X( ) correctly answered the test card. It was verified that the characters, color, and color of the paper were all correct. After 40 minutes, thirteen year old Tibetan Student Xun Wen (X) also correctly recognized the characters and color of paper in his ear. This was the first occasion of psychic abilities being induced in children in Tibet. Results of the three day test show that among these subjects of the survey (nine to fifteen years old) the occurrence of ('recognizing characters by ear') was about 40%."

On page 13 of the same document we read this claim about clairvoyance in two children:

"He reported on the results of psychic testing of two psychic children during last summer vacation and this spring vacation by himself together with Comrades Chen Bao-Liang, Liu Yi-Cheng, Yang Jian-Hua with the cooperation of Comrades Luo Cheng-Lie and Liu Gui-Lin of the Qufu Normal College in Shandong. Contents of the test were the ability to see something on the other side of a wall or in another building and the ability to make out messages. The procedures of the testing were very strict, the results were positive and repeatable under specific conditions."

A claim like this is too vague to have much of any value as evidence, and I present it merely to contrast it with the next example, which gives us a very precise account of exactly what went on in a test of clairvoyance which seems to have been a stunning success. We read this on page 22:

"In the 'Joint Experiment Report on the Reality of Human Psychic Functions' there were records of tests carried out on 'Z's ability to do 'psychic writing.'  The author of this article took part in making up the samples. The test at that time was to take a blank sheet of paper which the tester would sign, roll it up into a tube around a ball point pen, and fold back both ends. This would be placed on the table in front of the person being tested with three people watching at the same time. 'Z' was only allowed to pick up the tube and smell it. Then he had to put it back on the desk. He was not allowed to open the tube. Then 'Z' was given a fountain pen and another blank sheet of paper. After 'Z' had written on the second sheet of paper and stated that he had written the same thing on the piece of paper rolled up around the ball point pen, the observers opened the rolled paper. It was discovered that what 'Z' had written on the second sheet of paper with a fountain pen was also written of the signed sheet of paper in ball point pen. The style of the characters was also very similar. To do further testing to determine if Z''s psychic writing could break through the barriers of space, this experiment used a sealed envelope. "

There then follows a more explicit discussion of what exactly went on, an account that lists the exact names of the observers, and lists the date and time as 4:30 in the afternoon of January 22, 1983. The test words written down in the rolled up sheet of paper were "How are you? Thank you teacher." The  words written by "Z" were exactly the same: "How are you? Thank you teacher."

After  this more detailed account of the successful test of clairvoyant abilities, on page 24 we read this:

"The entire experiment lasted less than one hour. None of the observers ever left the area. 'Z', the person being tested, remained seated in his original position while performing the psychic writing. The entire desk was within the observers' field of vision. None of the four observers noticed 'Z'  doing anything suspicious. This was the third time this experiment was carried out. The former two occasions had similar results." 

As evidence for clairvoyance, the reported results seem very good. The main deficiency is the failure to report the real name of the person identified as 'Z.'  The report has appeared about one year after the observation date. But the report has so many details written so precisely that we can be rather sure it is based on notes  of what occurred written at the time. 

On page 27 and the following pages we have a report claiming tests showed a "psychic ability" of someone to break into two a needle that had been put in a sealed matchbox.  Unfortunately, the account is not explicit enough to qualify as good evidence. We are told that the tested subject could touch the sealed matchbox, but we lack a description of whether there were precautions to prevent the subject from using both of his hands to break the needle. 

On page 54 of the document, we read about tests of mind-over-matter. We read this:

"Because of what happened with the above experiment, beginning on the 25th, we change to a 'psychic movement' test, where we placed knotted twine, an open lock, a small bolt with the nut off, or a watch in a cardboard box which we sealed with tape. The children were allowed to attempt to untie the knot on the string, lock the lock, put the nut on the bolt, and set the watch. This was successful. The 11 year old Tibetan girl, Tsering Jwolka, on her first attempt, set the watch ahead one hour and forty seven minutes. On her second attempt she set the watch ahead six hours and twenty minutes. This test was repeated many times and successful each time. This caused quite a stir in Zedang village, and rumors started spreading around."

On the next page of the document (page 55) we read this astonishing account of child subjects displaying mind-over-matter trying to make changes in objects in a sealed cardboard box, apparently through mind-over-matter, without breaking the seals:

"The first subject was Tsering Jwolka, a twelve year old Tibetan girl. On the first test she successfully set a watch ahead 30 minutes, then she set it backwards 37 minutes. On the second test she closed a lock in six minutes. On the third test she opened the lock in four minutes, on the the fourth test she closed the lock again in two minutes. 

The second subject was Nima, a 13 year old Tibetan girl. On the first test she threaded a nut on a bolt in 30 minutes. On the second test she unknotted a string in ten minutes. On the third test she opened a lock in four minutes. 

The third test subject was 11 year Han nationality girl, Liu... On the first test she opened a lock in 39 minutes. In the second test she unscrewed a nut from a bolt in 30 minutes, and in the third test she was unsuccessful in attempting to knot a string. 

The fourth subject was 10 year old Han nationality girl, Xu (X). In the first test she was unsuccessful in knotting a string after 30 minutes. In the second test she unknotted a string in three minutes. In the third test she unknotted a string in 27 minutes. In the third test she unknotted a string in 12 minutes. 

The fifth subject was ten year old Han nationality girl, Chen (X) (X). her first test she unknotted a string in 12 minutes. In the second test she opened a lock in 22 minutes. In the third test she was unsuccessful in threading a nut on a bolt after 30 minutes. In 

The sixth subject was nine year old Han nationality boy, Chen (X). In his first test he unknotted a string in 30 minutes. In his second test he threaded a nut on a bolt in seven minutes. His third test was to be unscrewing the nut from the bolt. This was not attempted. 

In all of these tests, the test object was in a cardboard box. The cardboard box was sealed with tape. A special symbol was marked along the edge of the tape."

On page 66 we have a first-hand report which sounds like one of many cases of medical clairvoyance, in which a clairvoyant is able to mysteriously see inside the human body.  The reported results are very impressive. The main deficiency from an evidence standpoint is that the narrator is not identified. We read this:

" 'X-ray vision' is one form of manifestation of the human psychic function. This kind of vision is not really 'X-ray' vision, but is where the psychic uses his eyes to inspect the inner structure of the human body, does a comparison of normal and abnormal, and thus comes up with a diagnosis. Therefore, in this article I will talk a little about what I have learned from experience through many years of diagnosing diseases through 'X-ray vision' into the human body so others may use it for reference. I am a nurse in a hospital. Thus it is very convenient for me to do diagnosis through 'X-ray vision'. "

The author provides the table below, which indicates a very high success rate. 

We read some case accounts by the author in which claims are made of successful diagnosis through clairvoyance.  No one who has carefully studied the 19th century reports of clairvoyance (often written by doctors) will be very surprised by this part of the Chinese document. In the 19th century it was very often reported that in a state of hypnosis some clairvoyants would be able to see into the human body, and make many a correct diagnosis about medical problems that the unaided human eye could not see. 

After hearing of such wonders, we should remember why we should not be surprised to hear of mysterious powers of the human mind. The reason is that a human mind is something utterly beyond the understanding of physical science.  The most basic powers of the human mind (such as learning, instant recall of relevant information, recognition, imagination, insight and the persistence of memories for decades) are powers utterly beyond any credible explanation by neuroscientists, who offer nothing but vacuous jargon-laden hand-waving when asked to explain such powers.  No learned information has ever been found in a brain through the microscopic examination of brain tissue. Nothing in a brain bears the slightest resemblance to any system for permanently storing or instantly retrieving learned information. We know the type of things that allow the permanent storage and instant retrieval of information in physical systems: things such as components for writing information, components for reading information,  stable and easily navigable writing surfaces,  sorting, addresses and indexes. The brain has no such things. No scientist has any credible theory of how any of the very many types of things that humans remember could be encoded as brain states or synapse states. Because we lack any credible neural explanation for the basic powers of human minds, there is no credibility in trying to exclude accounts of mysterious powers of minds by saying "a brain could not do that." Almost every human mind does every day many things that brains could never do. 

The latest result of an ESP test is the result reported on page 62 of the year 2025 document here. It is a test of 240 participants conducted at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland's largest university), by two professors. The researchers used the long-successful Ganzfeld protocol, which for many years has produced results of around 30% to 32%,  well above the result expected by chance (only 25%).  The tests were done in a "ganzfeld laboratory" in a "quiet and secure basement room of a university building," in the years 2023 and 2024. We read that "Seventy-two hits were obtained out of 240 sessions, a 30% hit-rate," a success well above the result expected by chance, only 25%.

When Hypnotized Minds Read Minds

It has long been reported that a hypnotized person may be more prone to telepathy or clairvoyance than a person in normal consciousness.  Such a result was definitely suggested by a series of experiments with hypnotized subjects conducted by a German group called the Society for Scientific Psychology. 

Mentioning the report of the group's leader (Albert von Schrenck-Notzing), a summary of the experiments mentions some good experimental methods:

"He states that in all experiments in mental suggestion and the transmission of ideas the witnesses were told to write down their wishes or mental commands immediately before the investigation and in another room or at a distance so far removed from the subject and behind her back that any sensory perception was absolutely excluded. Also, not a word was spoken either by Schrenck-Notzing or by any of the witnesses which might betray the purpose of the experiment."

As described here, the third and fourth experiment seemed to show a hypnotized person named Lina responding to pin pricks occurring on the body of the person who hypnotized her, unseen behind her. The fifth and sixth experiments seemed to show Lina responding to food or drink consumed by the person who hypnotized her, as if she had tasted the food or drink herself. The seventh and eighth and ninth experiments produced similar results, with Lina responding to things such as turpentine or pepper placed on the hypnotist's tongue, just as if she had tasted such things herself. 

In the thirteenth experiment, we read of a remarkable success in a telepathy experiment:

"In experiment thirteen, while behind the back of the subject and seated to one side of her, Baron Du Prel wrote down the mental order, 'Lina must get up, go up to Mr. Müller senior, pull the handkerchief out of his pocket and put it into the outer breast pocket of Mr. Müller junior. ' As soon as Schrenck-Notzing had read the order not a word was spoken, as was the case in most of these experiments. After he had seated himself at such a distance from Lina that all bodily contact was excluded and had concentrated his thoughts on this order, Lina stood up and like a blind person began groping through the studio with dragging steps. She went up to Mr. Müller senior, searching around in his coat until she found the pocket and then, slowly drawing the handkerchief out, she went to Mr. Müller junior, again looked for the pocket that she wanted, put her hand inside and reluctantly threw the objects she found inside it on the floor. Then she put the crumpled handkerchief inside the pocket, repeated as if automatically the same thing several times and again made sure that the handkerchief was securely in the pocket. As in this experiment every hint of what she was to do was carefully avoided, the witnesses considered that it gave evidence so convincing that any further similar experiments in the second sitting were unnecessary."

The fourteenth experiment was as successful as the thirteenth experiment. Schrenck-Notzing mentally commanded Lina to pull out a particular book from his bookcase, and put the book in a pocket of his coat in another room.  We are told Lina "took the suggested book and then went slowly with staggering steps up to the cloak and put it into the intended pocket." The fifteenth experiment was equally impressive, with Lina finding an exact book and an exact page number that had been suggested only mentally. 

There were then experiments that occurred "in the waking state," apparently with Lina not being hypnotized. Schrenck-Notzing made drawings which Lina could not see, and Lina was asked to reproduce. The result of the sixteenth experiment was not impressive, but the result of the seventeenth experiment was the exact match shown below:

The twentieth experiment occurred with Lina in a hypnotized state. On the third attempt to produce a drawing that Schrenck-Notzing had made which Lina could not see, Lina matched the drawing, as shown below.

The twenty-first experiment was equally successful. In a waking state, Lina tried to reproduce a drawing made by someone in another room. She successfully produced the drawing on the third try, as shown below. 

The thirty-third experiment was a very impressive result, demonstrating the strange effect called transposition of the senses, in which vision may seem to be transferred from the eyes to a different part of the body.  Such an effect has often been reported as something arising during hypnosis.  In the experiment Lina was hypnotized and blindfolded with a thick cloth, and observers "took care that no shifting of the cloth took place and that peering out of it was impossible." A book was then opened and placed on top of her head. Lina successfully read from the book. To rule out the extremely remote possibility that such a result could have been produced by a hyper-sensitivity allowing someone to feel ink impressions, a similar test was done using photographs of the text in a book. The blindfolded Lina was just as successful reading from such photographs placed on top of her head. 

The experiments above suggest a possibility about ESP that is also suggested by my own recent experience. The possibility is that someone trying to read someone's else mind may fail on the first attempt, but succeed very well on the second, third or fourth attempt. 

I will give some very recent examples seeming to suggest such a thing. About two weeks ago I said to one of my daughters, "You'll never guess what I saw down the street." I gave no clues, but asked her to guess. After a wrong guess of an orange cat, her second guess was "a raccoon," which is just what I saw. No one in our family has seen such a thing on our street before. Later in the day I asked her what I saw in a weird dream I recently had, mentioning only that it involved something odd in our front yard. After a wrong first guess of a snowman, she asked, "Was it a wild animal?" I said yes. Then she asked, "Was it an elephant?" I said yes. The dream I had was of two baby elephants in our front yard. These were the only two times that day she tried to guess what was in my mind. 

One or two times during the 13 days after this event I asked the same daughter to guess what I was thinking, without success. Then on the 13th day I asked her to guess what I had dreamed about, without giving any clues. I thought of a dream involving my father playing baseball catch with my sister. My daughter's first guess was wrong. Then she asked whether it was something that happened in my childhood. I said yes. Then she asked whether it was something happening in my back yard. I said yes. Then she asked whether it was some kind of sport. I said yes. Then she asked whether it was playing catch or some kind of baseball. I said yes. This was the same performance level noted above: one wrong guess, followed by all other guesses correct. On a test with my other daughter (the only telepathy test I can recall doing with her), I simply asked her to guess a thing I saw today, telling her only it was something that I hadn't seen in years. On her fourth guess, she got the correct answer: a grasshopper. 

The examples with my daughters suggest a possibility also suggested by the visuals shown above: that someone attempting ESP or reading someone's mind may tend to fail on the first attempt, but succeed very well (against all odds) on the second, third or fourth attempt. The examples given here suggest a kind of "warming up" effect. There is a failure to account for such a possibility in almost all laboratory testing of ESP.  No baseball team brings in a relief pitcher into a baseball game without letting the pitcher throw at least ten  "warm up" throws in the bullpen. So why is it that experimenters test ESP without accounting for the possibility of some "warm up" effect in which success may occur on the second, third or fourth try?

If I were given some grant money to test ESP, I would use the money to test ESP in a way that accounted for the possibility of such a "warm up" effect. Instead of only recording first guesses using Zener cards with five possible symbols, I would do tests in which subjects were given four chances to succeed in each trial in which ESP was tested, being tested with test targets that had a thousand possible appearances or a million possible appearances. Using a binomial probability calculator, there is a way to precisely calculate the odds of getting a certain degree of success, even if the person being tested is allowed four different tries for success. 

In a paper that can be read on the Cornell University physics paper server, the authors (Stuart Kauffman and Dean Radin) discuss  laboratory evidence for ESP gathered in recent decades, such as evidence from what is called the ganzfeld technique, a technique for testing ESP in subjects in a rather drowsy state of sensory deprivation. The evidence produced using this technique (which originated a few decades ago) is very good, but much better evidence was gathered in earlier decades by researchers such as Joseph Rhine of Duke University, and many doctors reporting dramatic clairvoyance in hypnotized subjects.   Kauffman and Radin give this summary of the telepathy evidence from the ganzfeld experiments, in which the success rate expected by chance is 25%:

"From 1974 to 2018, the combined ganzfeld database contained 117 studies. Of those, studies using targets sets with 4 possible targets included 3,885 test sessions, resulting in 1,188 hits, corresponding to a 30.6% hit rate. With chance at 25%, this excess hit rate is 8.1 sigma above chance expectation (p = 5.6 × 10^-16). Analysis of these studies showed that similar effect sizes were reported by independent labs, that the results were not affected by variations in experimental quality, and that selective reporting biases could not explain away the results. The Bayes Factors (BF) associated with the last 108 more recently published ganzfeld telepathy studies was 18.8 million in favor of H1 (i.e., evidence favoring telepathy). Given that BF > 100 is considered 'decisive' evidence, this outcome far exceeds the 'exceptional evidence' said to be required of exceptional claims.[48,49] By comparison, in particle physics experiments effects resulting in 5 or more sigma are considered experimental 'discoveries.' ”

The probability of 1 in 5.6 × 10^-16  cited is a likelihood of less than 1 in a quadrillion. So the ganzfeld experiments got results with a chance likelihood of less than 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000.  Given a 30% hit rate (5% above what was expected by chance), this very low probability should surprise no one familiar with what is called the law of large numbers.  This is the law that the more trials, the more unlikely it is that a result will differ from the result expected by chance. So given a deck of cards with four suits (clubs, hearts, spades, and diamonds), you might guess by chance the suit of a randomly selected card at a rate much higher than 25% if you make only a few guesses. But the more guesses you make, the closer your  hit rate will be to the rate expected by chance. For example, with 1000 guesses your success rate by chance would be something close to 25%, and it would be incredibly unlikely that by chance you would get as high as 30%. 

I already knew about the results of the ganzfeld experiments being in excess of 30%. But I learned something very interesting from the Kauffman and Radin paper I did not know, that a certain subgroup of subjects scored at a rate of 40% (in these experiments with an expected chance result of 25%).  We read the following, mentioning a probability (p) of less than 1 in a  10 billion:

"The modest 5% advantage over chance expectation in the ganzfeld telepathy studies suggests that rudimentary forms of telepathy are widely distributed among the general population. We know this because the majority of participants in these studies were unselected, often just college students participating in an experiment to gain credit for their psychology courses. By contrast, in a subset of these studies where participants were selected based on their prior reports of telepathic experiences, maintaining an active meditative practice, engaged in creative pursuits, and/or having strong belief in psi, the hit rate was a more robust 40.1%, some 6.2 sigma above chance expectation (p = 2.8 x 10^-10)."

Based on results in the nineteenth century and results discussed in this post, I strongly suspect a much higher rate of success in telepathy experiments would be achieved in the present if either subjects were tested in a hypnotized state, or subjects were tested using a protocol allowing for up to five guesses with targets having 1000 or more possible values.  

Mrs. Croad and Five Similar Clairvoyants

"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.

Evidence for clairvoyance is extremely abundant, and much of it consists of very long and detailed written reports presented by credible witnesses, quite of a few of whom were scientists, professors or doctors.  Some extremely strong cases are discussed here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.  Another very strong case I have not previously discussed is the report presented in an 1881 edition of The Journal of Psychological Medicine on page 37. The report (which you can read here) is entitled "Transference of Special Sense," and is authored by  J. G. Davey M.D. of Bristol, England.  Dr. Davey states right off the bat that the case is "one in which the phenomena of clairvoyance are plainly demonstrated." Although Dr. Davey describes himself as a materialist, he still reports observing paranomal phenomena. 

Dr. Davey describes Mrs. Croad's remarkable medical history as follows:

"Born in 1840, she is said to have passed through the greater part of childhood with fair health. On the occurrence of puberty she had attacks from time to time of syncope — very probably of the hysterical kind. At the early age of 19 she married. Five years afterwards she had a fall, when the spine was said to be injured. To this accident succeeded epilepsy, attacks of which occurred almost daily during four months. It was at this time, or near to it, that she lost a child — it was scalded to death. The shock then sustained by her appears to have been unusually severe and protracted. The lower extremities gave signs of great weakness, and became, at length, powerless or paralytic ; whilst, as a consequence or attendant on a chronic gastric affection, she is said to have lost 'all power to partake of or digest solid food.'  Her condition in 1866 is described as pitiable in the extreme. The frequent fits, the lost motive power, and the impairment of the general health led to her becoming  'bedridden.'  So she has remained to this time (1880), a period of fourteen years. In 1870, it is stated, ' she became totally blind ' ; in the following year deaf, and in 1874 speechless. The paralysis, which was limited to the lower extremities, involved, in 1879, the upper limbs ; but at this time the loss of sensation and motion is limited to the left arm, the fingers and thumb of the left hand being but partially affected. The right hand and arm have recovered their once-lost functions."

After noting that he spent months testing Mrs. Croad, Davey tells us that the blind Mrs. Croad was able to read by touching material with her fingers. This is the well-documented phenomenon of "transposition of the senses," which has been reported by very many witnesses in the West, in Russia and in China, over many years (as you can read about by reading my posts here, here, here, here, here and here).  Davey states this:

"The various tests referred to were witnessed by them in my presence, and with the effect of assuring us that she (Mrs. Croad) was and is enabled to perceive, through the aid only of touch, the various objects, both large and small, on any given card or photograph. After an experience extending over some nine or ten weeks, during which the ' tests ' were many times repeated, and, now and then, in the presence of several medical and non-medical (ladies and gentlemen) friends, there remained (I believe) not the least doubt of this ' transference of sense ' from the eyes of Mrs. Croad to her fingers and the palm of her right hand."

I can guess what skeptics of the paranormal are now thinking. They are thinking "they didn't make the blindfolds tight enough," or "the blindfolds were not thick enough" or "she looked through the bottom crack of a blindfold."  The statement below by Dr. Davey rules out such objections (which are pretty silly given the blindness of Mrs. Croad):

"It need not to be supposed that I and others were content to believe in Mrs. Croad's blindness and to take no specific precautions against any possible trick or deception — far from this. On solicitation, she very kindly assented to be blindfolded, after a very decided fashion ; and so blindfolded that neither deception on her part nor prejudice nor false judgment on ours were — either the one or the other — possible. The blindfolding was accomplished thus: a pad of cotton wool being placed on each orbit ; the face was then covered by a large and thickly-folded neckerchief; this was tied securely at the back part of the head, and — even more than this — more cotton wool was pushed up towards the eyes, on either side of the nose. Not content, however, the aid of two fingers of a bystander were called into requisition, and with these a continued pressure was kept up, during the 'testing' outside and over the neckerchief and wool and above the closed eyes. At this stage of the proceedings the room was, on two different occasions, very thoroughly darkened. Under such circumstances it was the testing commenced, and continued to the end ; the result being, as theretofore, in the highest degree, conclusive and satisfactory."

Dr. Davey then mentions an ability of Mrs. Croad to see inside letters:

"Further, Mrs. Croad is said to have the additional power to detect as it were by sympathy, or by a community of ideas and feeling, any letter written by a friend of hers and put into her hands by a third party. This I know, on receiving a letter some weeks since from Dr. Maclean, of Swindon, I took it forthwith to her. On receiving it from me she exclaimed, ' Oh, from my dear Doctor Maclean.' "

A paranormal ability to detect the contents of sealed envelopes or  enclosed boxes has been reported very many times by observers of clairvoyants.  Clairvoyants such as Alexis Didier demonstrated such an ability before a host of witnesses in public exhibitions.  There are many reports of such an ability occurring in China.  I asked only one person from China (not a student of the paranormal) whether she had ever heard of such an ability, and she promptly replied that a relative of hers had such an ability when young.

Dr. Davey then mentions a claim about Mrs. Croad that he had difficulty believing (although, as I will note later, it matches an ability well-demonstrated in another very similar clairvoyant). Davey states this:

"It is said also by those near and dear to her that such is Mrs. Croad's prevision that she has been known to have foretold my own visits to her ; what I mean is, that on my approach to the house she occupies and when at a distance from it, and unseen by anyone about her — in fact, not within sight— she has said, ' Dr. Davey is coming ; he will be here directly.' I confess to a difficulty in either believing or  comprehending this. If such prevision or prescience is really within the capacity of the human organism, we, of all others, have much to learn in respect to the nervous system in man and animals. However, I learn by letter from my friend Dr. Maclean, that in the early part of his medical career he had a patient of the hysterical type who displayed a like lucidity."

Mrs. Croad's daughter was often around during some of these tests, but Dr. Davey states that Mrs. Croad performed just as well when her daughter was absent. We read this statement by Dr. Davey:

"It has been suggested that Miss Croad did, in some strange way, convey to her mother during the testing a knowledge of the cards &c., the objects represented on them, their colours, &c. Well, the suggestion was acted on : the same testing, on being again and again repeated, and in the absence of Miss Croad from the room occupied by her mother, proved altogether and conclusively in favour of Mrs. Croad. The same evidence of the same ' transference of special sense ' from the eyes to the digits [fingers] was always forthcoming. We are bound, then, to conclude that the 'transference'  was, or is, altogether independent of any kind of influence imparted by Miss Croad to her mother, and that the existence of the same in Mrs. Croad is due to what is called ' clairvoyance.' "

Dr. Davey then describes an apparent case of mind reading performed by Mrs. Croad:

"As a further illustration of Mrs. Croad's peculiar and clairvoyant gifts, it should be stated that at my second interview with Mrs. Croad, and in the presence of Dr. Andrews and others, certain of my own personal and private convictions on a particular subject became, as it would seem, in a strange and exceptional manner, known to Mrs. Croad. She asked me if I would allow her to tell me a secret in my own life history, and would I be offended if she wrote it on her slate. I replied ' No.' That written on the slate was and is a fact, than which nothing could or can be more truthful and to the point. Dr. Andrews is prepared to verify this ; the others present on this occasion were but little known to me." 

The case of Mrs. Croad bears a strong resemblance to the even more astonishing case of Mollie Fancher, who lived in Brooklyn, New York about the same time as Mrs. Croad.  Like Mrs. Croad, Mollie Fancher had a very bad vision problem. Fancher was described at various times as either blind or very nearly blind.  Mollie had suffered terrible injuries even worse than Mrs. Croad's, including a fall from a streetcar. Both Mrs. Croad and Mollie Fancher were bedridden, and Mollie stayed bedridden for decades. Witnesses very often reported that Mollie Fancher would announce who had arrived at her door, before she could even see who had entered (something also reported of Mrs. Croad).  Both Mollie Fancher and Mrs. Croad passed with flying colors the most stringent tests of clairvoyance while securely blindfolded. Both Mollie Fancher and Mrs. Croad went in and out of trances.  Both Mollie Fancher and Mrs. Croad had long periods of time in which they seemed to neither eat nor drink, with such an abstinence occurring for much longer periods with Mollie Fancher.   

A newspaper called the Brooklyn Eagle published an account of Mollie Fancher which stated this: 

"When in the quiet condition of rigidity, the patient is in a trance. Her eyes closed, the ears are dead to sound, the muscles cease to act, respiration is hardly perceptible, and once or twice a state of ecsstacy indicative of mental unsteadiness has resulted. These seasons last for four days, or two hours each. When in this condition, she is powerfully clairvoyant in her faculties. She can tell the time by several watches variously set to deceive her, read unopened letters, decipher the contents of a slate, and repeat what 'Mrs. Grundy says,' by serving up the gossip of the neighborhood. She appears to possess the faculty of second sight to a remarkable degree."

The Mollie Fancher case is described in my post here, and in the long book here. 

Similar to the cases above is the case of Eliza Hamilton. A book gives these details:

"She had been in hospital for four months, on her return home frequently passed into the trance state, and on awakening described various people and places she had visited, and objects seen. These descriptions have been invariably verified subsequently....She often describes events which are about to happen, and these are always fulfilled exactly as she predicts. 'Her father' says Mr. Hudson Tuttle, 'read in her presence a letter he had received from a friend in Leeds, speaking of the loss of his daughter, about whose fate he was very unhappy, as she had disappeared nearly a month before, and left no trace. Eliza went into the trance state, and cried out, 'Rejoice! I have found the lost girl ! She is happy in the angel world.'  She said the girl had fallen into the dark water where dyers washed their cloths; that her friends could not have found her had they sought her there, but now the body had floated a few miles, and would be found in the River Aire. The body was found as described. Now, knowing that her eyes were closed, that she could not hear, that her bodily senses were in profound lethargy, how are we to account for the intensity and keenness of sight? Her mental powers were exceedingly exalted, and scarcely a question could be asked her but she correctly answered. ' "

In 1876 the president of a Psychological Society reported on a case in his own family reminding us of the claim above that Mrs. Croad could tell when Dr. Davey was about to arrive while he was still out of her sight.  He stated this: 

"Matilda C , aged fifteen, had fits of a cataleptic character, which attacked her at irregular intervals, and seized her at unexpected times. At such times she became insensible, and had to be carried to a couch : at first she was rigid, but the flexure of the limbs was afterwards partially restored ; her power of speech was lost, and she could express her feelings only by actions. While in this state she had a supersensuous power of perception. She was conscious of her father's approach before any of her senses had been affected in the ordinary way ; she could feel his influence when he was at least a quarter of a mile from the house. The insensible form upon the sofa gave notice of his approach with unfailing certainty a quarter of an hour or more before he arrived. If he (Mr. Cox) opened a book containing pictures, she could see those pictures, although she was in another part of the room, and would throw herself into the attitudes of the persons represented in any engraving at which he might be looking at the time. Even had her eyes been open she could not have seen those pictures in the ordinary way. This state lasted for more than a year, and experiments were tried many times during that period, so that the facts were proved conclusively, beyond all manner of doubt. It had been objected, that she perhaps knew the book and guessed at the pictures ; consequently he tried her with books and pictures borrowed from strangers ; moreover, in a volume containing thirty pictures, she never once made a mistake as to the particular picture at which he was looking. He found by experiment that she saw his mental impressions, and not the pictures themselves, for she could only see as much of any engraving as he saw himself. Sometimes she wished for something not in the room, and if her attendant, who went to fetch it, touched the wrong thing, she showed signs of displeasure and annoyance. This experiment was repeatedly tried. She did not see the object itself, but the impression on the mind of the attendant, for when the latter was blindfolded there was no perception on the part of the patient. While in this abnormal state the patient was graceful in all her actions, and more than commonly intelligent ; she could play games of cards with skill with her eyes closed, whilst in her normal state she could not play a game at cards at all." 

A similar account of a female being able to tell when an unseen visitor was about to arrive is told by Mary Dana Shindler in an 1889 book:

"An aunt of ours was very ill with fever, and her only brother, commanding a packet ship between Havana and Charleston, was daily expected; but we feared he would arrive too late to see his sister in earth-life. One morning while we were watching at her bedside, she suddenly sat up, clapped her hands, and exclaimed joyfully, ' Brother William has come!' We all thought her mind wandering; but in about ten minutes he arrived at her house, and from that moment she began to recover. She could not tell us how she discovered that he had arrived, but only said, 'I knew it; I heard, and felt him.' "

It is remarkable how similar are accounts like this, which show up in the accounts of quite a few different writers from different countries. Here is another example of an apparently clairvoyant detection of the arrival of an unseen visitor, one occurring in nineteenth century Brussels, Belgium, involving a hypnotized person named Marie:

"She very quickly fell into a somnambulistic state, and while in that condition suddenly exclaimed: 'Hallo, that’s funny, here are my two cousins coming to visit me; they are just now coming up to the front- door'. And indeed, Marie had hardly finished speaking when Lafontaine heard the front-door bell ringing. This fact of spontaneous clairvoyance (lucidité à distance is the term used by Lafontaine) had greatly perplexed him and in fact he was completely dumbfounded. After a while Marie requested him to awaken her. When she awoke from her somnambulistic condition she was greatly astonished to find her two cousins, who had come all the way from Nivelles (a little Belgian town 18 miles from Brussels) on a surprise visit."

On page 317 of the 1898 book Glimpses of the Unseen by B. J. Austin, we read a similar account involving another clairvoyant, a female in a land (Scotland) famous for sometimes yielding those with the second sight:

"On  another  occasion  she  informed  the  members  of  the  family  at breakfast that  I  was  on  my  way  from  Edinburgh  to  the  works  adjacent  to  her  home,  and that  I  had  on  a  gray  check  tweed  suit.  I  had  not  had  time  to  inform  her  father of  my  intended  visit  to  the  works,  but,  sure  enough,  within  three  hours  or  so  I arrived  in  a  dog-cart  at  the  works,  dressed  as  she  had  described."

On the same page we have a description that reminds me of the famous account of Swedenborg in the eighteenth century describing in accurate detail a fire that was happening three hundred miles away (Immanuel Kant's original account of this is contained here). We read this:

"Then  she  commenced  the  relation  of  a  fire  which  was  taking  place. It  was  in  Newcastle.  'Oh  !  there  are  two  men  killed ! '  she  cried.  Again,  she proceeded  to  recite  to  Mr.  S.  the  contents  of  some  letters  she  extracted  from his  pocket,  though  he  did  not  remove  the  envelopes....Now,  one  of  the  foregoing  is  the  fact  that  the  newspapers  of  the  following Monday  contains  an  account  of  a  fire  that  took  place  at  Newcastle  on  Saturday night,  and  detailed  the  fact  that  ' two  men  were  killed'  at  it. Again,  there  was  actually  no  apparent  connecting  link  between  the  personalities of  anyone  present  and  the  town  of  Newcastle."

An important point concerning hypnosis is that for about eighty years stubborn mainstream scientists told us incorrectly that there was nothing to it (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary). Between about 1780 and 1860 a host of mainstream scientists told us that hypnotism (previously called Mesmerism, artificial somnambulism or animal magnetism) was nothing but fraud and error. Then at some point in the nineteenth century (roughly about 1860) mainstream professors began to admit the reality and medical importance of hypnotism under a new name of "hypnotism." When pondering the evidence for clairvoyance, we should remember how an extremely important anomalous human reality (hypnotism) was denied for about eighty long years (roughly 1780 to 1860) by mainstream scientists despite abundant evidence for the reality of that phenomenon, and also suspect that something similar is happening impeding the mainstream's acceptance of the overwhelming evidence for clairvoyance.   

My recent science fiction story Planet of the Blind (which you can read here) imagines a planet (perhaps a future Earth) on which almost everyone is blind, except for a very small group of scorned misfits that can still see. On such a planet, those who claim to have vision are treated as people reporting the paranormal, and the schools deny that anyone can see, claiming that all reports of a vision ability are delusions.  The blind narrator of the story gets completely convincing evidence that vision is a real ability, but he refuses to accept it.  Maybe those who deny clairvoyance are like such a narrator. And maybe clairvoyance at its greatest can allow perception as superior to vision as vision is superior to hearing. 

Telepathic Knockouts and Other Eerie Effects Reported by Boirac

Emile Boirac was the leader of an academy in France who tried without much luck to get the scientific world interested in very interesting effects he carefully observed in many experiments. On page 221 of his long and very interesting scholarly work Psychic Science: An introduction and Contribution to the Experimental Study of Psychical Phenomena, he describes one of these effects like this:

"When experimenting with them, I have always taken the precaution of bandaging the eyes hermetically, without saying a word or permitting any of the sitters to break the silence throughout the duration of the experiments. Further, in the majority of cases, I have allowed them to remain awake, doing nothing to modify the condition of their brain. I have simply said to them when they came to me : 'Will you kindly allow me to put on this bandage ; sit there, and when you think you feel anything, will you please tell me.' In these conditions I have obtained the most varied and precise effects in all parts of their bodies corresponding with the position and movements of my own right hand or left, placed opposite the various parts."

On page 174 he discusses experiments with a patient:

"I contrived to distract the attention of the subject in order to place my right hand, unknown to him, in front of one or other of his elbows, knees, feet, etc., and always observed the same phenomenon: attraction of the limb thus covered which seemed to cease to belong to the subject and to fall under the dominion of my will, until the time when some sort of abrupt movement would inform the subject of these involuntary movements and he would withdraw himself from my influence."

On page 175 he describes a later experiment with the same patient, saying such results were replicated in ten different experiments:

"Then without saying anything to the subject as to the kind of experiments I was going to carry out, I ask him to let me put on this bandage and to remain perfectly motionless on his chair for a few moments. Then drawing close to him without any noise I placed my right hand about three or four inches away from his left hand, and presently, in less than half a minute, this was attracted. The same effect was produced on the other hand, the right and left elbows, the right and left knee, the right and left foot, etc. It goes without saying that I did not follow any order, but intermixed the actions in as many ways as possible, in order that the subject might not guess by any reasoning what part of the body I was covering. And yet there was always concordance between the direction of my hand and the movement obtained."

On page 187 Boirac noted that the same effect was noted by a more famous investigator, M. Pierre Janet ("the magnetiser" refers to the hypnotist):

In his ' Note on some Somnambulistic Phenomena,' M. Pierre Janet indicated in passing, and without appearing to attach any importance to it, the phenomenon of magnetic attraction, doubtless because in the conditions under which he observed it, he could only see in it the effect of hyperesthesia of touch. ' In order to provoke general contracture, it is sufficient for the magnetiser to place his open hand a short distance in front of the body. Certain tremblings are noticed first of all, then the body rises and follows the hand as though it were really attracted by it.' "

On page 190 Boirac dismisses this "hyperesthesia of touch" idea, noting that the subjects in which he observed the effect were usually not hypnotized, that they showed no other signs of being super-sensitive to touch, and that his hand was four inches from their skin,  too far to be explained by such an idea. 

Boirac tried to explain the strange effect by the idea that there is some unknown force which emanates from a person's body, a force that can have strange effects on other bodies.  The often-claimed idea that humans have a mysterious energy aura is consistent with such a claim. The force may involve an interaction between one person's aura (extending a few inches beyond his body) and some other person's aura. 

But without postulating such a force, we can postulate that most of the accounts Boirac gives us of the effect are mainly examples of extrasensory perception (ESP).  There is a massive wealth of evidence ESP, such as the experiments of Joseph Rhine and the very well replicated ESP results in what are called ganzfeld sensory deprivation experiments.  Boirac's results seem like some early evidence for ESP.  Rather than some force emanating from his hand, the effect may have involved a mind-to-mind interaction, beginning with an experimenter who has in mind which way his hand is moving.  The sensory deprivation usually involved when the effect was produced (with the subject being blindfolded) reminds me of the sensory deprivation going on in the very successful ganzfeld experiments, in which subjects have halves of ping pong balls taped over their eyes. 

On pages 233-234 of Boirac's book we have a description of remote hypnosis, in which a subject who cannot see a hypnotist is put it into a hypnotic trance by the hypnotist.  We read this:

"Dockmann was sitting in the garden with a friend who was reading a newspaper; his back was almost turned to me and he began to roll a cigarette. I do not know how, but the idea came to me to try the experiment here described. and with all the force of my will, I immediately put it into execution. Concentrating my mind entirely on this one thought, I looked stedfastly in Dockmann's direction, and commanded him to stop all movements and go to sleep. Dockmann did not appear to perceive that I was looking at him, but his actions quickly slackened, and his eyes became fixed. The unfinished cigarette remained in his hands, he suddenly dropped his eyelids, and became motionless as a statue. His friend raised his head, perceived his condition, questioned him, but obtained no response. A singer seated at a neighbouring table became frightened and screamed aloud. I hastened and went down, and in a few moments, by breathing quickly on his eyes, awoke my improvised subject, who did not even seem to know what had happened to him."

Boirac reports successfully repeating the same experiment:

"I reached the Casino about half -past one. On this occasion Dockmann was sitting on the terrace by himself at a table writing a letter, bent nearly double, his nose almost resting on the blotting-pad. My table was five or six yards away; between us was a party of four, playing cards. I again concentrated myself with a nervous tension, which caused me to vibrate from head to foot, and, while looking quietly at Dockmann, I commanded him with all my power to cease writing and go to sleep. The action was slower than the night before. It might be said that the subject struggled against my will. After one or two minutes he gave visible signs of a thrilling sensation ; his pen remained suspended, as if he sought in vain for words ; he made a gesture with his hand as if throwing off some obsessing influence ; then he tore up the letter he had commenced and began to write another but his pen soon remained fixed on the paper and he went to sleep in that position. I went close up to him, with several others who had stopped their games; his whole body was contracted and hard as a piece of wood; we tried unsuccessfully to bend one of his arms ; the stiffness was only removed by 'means of passes ; the waking was accomplished by blowing on his eyes. When he had recovered the use of his senses, he begged me not to repeat these experiments ; he complained of having been much fatigued by the former one. He stated, moreover, that he had gone to sleep on these two occasions without having had the slightest suspicion that the sleep had been caused by me or by any one else."

Such a claim might seem unbelievable except for the fact that numerous similar claims were made in the late twentienth century. 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."  Since electromagnetic waves diminish with distance, the test seemed to prove that ESP does not work by some transmission of electromagnetic waves.

On pages 234-235 of his book, Boirac states this:

"I had the opportunity of witnessing, as often as I wished and in very varied conditions, the phenomenon of sleep and awaking provoked at a distance by a simple mental action. This phenomenon became as familiar to me and almost as easy to produce as sleep by suggestion, gaze or passes; it is impossible for me to relate here all the cases in which I have produced it."

In the next twenty pages of the book, Boirac does describe in great detail producing such a "telepathic knockout" effect with many varied subjects, quite a few of whom could not see him. On page 262 the author gives an account of a strange phenomenon widely reported in the literature of the paranormal: an ability for a person to read even when securely double-blindfolded, by passing his fingers over text or placing the text to his forehead or stomach.  The term "transposition of the senses" is sometimes used to describe this type of effect. Boirac describes this event, using the term "put to sleep" to mean "put in a hypnotic trance.":

"First of all, the subject was put to sleep, preferably by prolonged gaze. We then brought some gummed paper of which bands were made, which we moistened and pasted over the eyes in such a way as to secure the eyelids. This done we placed over all a thick bandage firmly tied behind the head, and the spectators were asked to pass to the subject all the written and printed papers they desired her to read. At the beginning the subject asked preferably to be given large print to read such as the titles of newspapers. She then passed her fingers over the papers, sometimes brought them up to her forehead or placed them on the epigastrium, and generally read unhesitatingly, without mistake, and with very fair ease. Sometimes, however, the subject declared herself unable to see anything; she then asked to be awakened and put to sleep again, and nearly always on the resumption, the experiment succeeded. Once fairly started, Mm. . V. deciphered as though making light of it, not only visiting  cards and printed lines, but also letters, notes writ in ink or pencil, in very fine characters often almost imperceptible. She even saw and described photographs. Finally if we placed a watch in her hands, whatever the time indicated, she saw and divined by passing her fingers over the glass, but she took the precaution to envelop the  case in a handkerchief, because, she said, the gold would cause her to feel a burning sensation."

On page 273 Boirac discusses an experiment with another subject who had his eyes bandaged:

"I began by placing two seats, one in front of the other, in the same direction, in such a way that the person seated on the first had his back turned to the person seated on the other. Then the subject being sent to sleep, his eyes bandaged, was seated on the second seat, I myself on the first. Then bringing my right elbow backward, I said to S. : 'Extend your right arm. take my elbow, press it tightly.' That being done 1 took at haphazard a newspaper from the table, unfolded : my knees, and slowly passing my fingers over the title. I said to S. : 'Read!'  I felt the subject's fingers cling convulsively to my elbow, and as my fingers passed over a character, S. spelt it out loud.... I again passed my fingers over the paper, but more rapidly, and he read without difficulty : ' L Independent des Pyrenees-Orientales.' The phenomenon was so strange, so incredible, that in spite of myself, I suspected a transmission of thought. Suddenly turning over the newspaper and closing my eyes, I ran my fingers over the upper part of the fourth page. He then read : ' Mineral waters,' but I had had time to see this advertisement. At that moment I passed my fingers underneath and from the side. The subject read : ' Automobile carriages.'  I opened my eyes and found this was printed there, unknown to myself, and that my hand had passed over it. A third person having come in, I asked him to place and direct my fingers over various advertisements taken at random on the fourth page, whilst I kept my eyes closed. S. read correctly each time. Since then, I have several times renewed this experiment of reading through the elbow."

The ability of a securely blindfolded person to read by passing his fingers over text was very abundantly documented by the Soviets and the Chinese, as I discussed in my posts here and here.  The same phenomenon was reported decades earlier in France, by Jules Romains in his book Eyeless Sight (discussed here). A 19th-century work states this: " Although  blind,  this  girl  can  read  by  passing  her  fingers  over  the  printed or  written  page,  and  can  describe  persons  whose  pictures  were  handed  to  her." A long article in the June 12, 1964 Life magazine was entitled "Seeing Color With the Fingers." It reported a great number of observations very similar to those reported by Romains.  You can read the article here, by scrolling down to page 102.  In 1964 Life magazine was as mainstream and respectable as the New York Times, and had been a trusted mainstream source for decades

An edition of the EdgeScience magazine (#47) published by the Society for Scientific Exploration has an article "Seeing Without Eyes" (page 9) which discusses evidence for clairvoyance like that gathered by Romains. It mentions work by Carol Ann Liaros in the 1970's, saying, "Liaros discovered that blind people could see the images on black-and-white photos (and could see the photos when they were turned over, face-down, and even their reallife colors)."  We read about many other examples of ESP and clairvoyance similar to that reported by Romains, most occurring in recent decades. 

Yesterday the Science News site had an article entitled "Here are the top 10 times scientific imagination failed."  Some of the biggest historical failures of scientific imagination are omitted, such as the failure to conceive that the main cause of mental phenomena could be something other than the brain (despite very abundant evidence suggesting such a thing), and the failure to take seriously centuries of extremely abundant observational reports of paranormal phenomena discussed in these 100+ posts, often documented extremely carefully and at the greatest length and detail by very careful and competent scientific observers, and sometimes well-documented photographically (such as here and here).  The Science News article conveniently sticks to "back in the days" failures of scientific imagination that occurred long ago, rather than looking at the extremely severe ongoing failures of scientific imagination that continue in the present day. 

Some of the real top 10 were not discussed

Postscript: Another interesting book by Boirac is his book "Our Hidden Forces." In that book we have the following very interesting account of an effect witnessed by Boirac when experimenting on a sleeping person:

"I slowly raised my hand ; and to my entire stupefaction, I saw the feet of the sleeping man rise in the air by muscular contraction, and follow the ascensional movement of my hand. Three times I repeated the experiment ; three times it succeeded, with the precision and the regularity of an instrument of physics. Enthusiastic at this result, I called for a witness, in the person of Madame B., and asked her to be as quiet as possible. The experiments were repeated, and were followed by the identical results. At this juncture Madame B. suggested: 'Try to do it by thought projection.' I then fixed my attentive eyes upon the feet of the sleeping man ; and, raising my gaze slowly, what was our astonishment to see his feet follow the movement of my eyes, now ascending, now stopping and descending as the gaze from my eyes did."

 A phenomenon in which a hypnotist can induce a trance in an unseen person is reported here and here.  On the page here we are told, "In 18 of 25 trials Janet and his colleague Gilbert were able to induce a trance in their hysterical subject Leonie at distances varying from 1/4 to 1 mile." The page here tells us the experiments of L. Vasiliev at the University of Leningrad were overwhelmingly successful in producing trances at a distance in subjects, with a 90% success rate, with most of the people trying to produce the trances being in different rooms, and the trance almost always occurring within a few minutes of the remote attempt to make the person entranced. .