An instance of a quasi-experimental character, which closely resembles the cases above described, is recorded by Dr. A. Gibotteau:—[41]
No. 19.—By DR. GIBOTTEAU.
"Madame P. complained of headache. I placed my hand upon her forehead, and in a few minutes she was in a light hypnotic sleep. Without deepening the trance I endeavoured to give her a sensation of calm and well-being, and to procure this sensation for myself in the first place, I called up a picture of the sea, in which air and water were full of sunlight. 'I feel a little better,' she said; 'how fresh the air is!' I then proceeded to imagine myself walking along the Boulevard Saint Michel, in a slight rain. I saw the hurrying people and the umbrellas. 'How strange it is!' said Madame P.; 'I seem to be at the corner of the Boulevard Saint Michel and the Rue des Écoles, in front of the Café Vachette' (the exact spot I pictured); 'it is raining, there are a great many people, a hurrying crowd. They are all going up the street, and I with them. The air is very fresh. It gives me a pleasant, restful feeling.' With these words she opened her eyes and gave me further confirmation of her impressions.
"I should add that this scene took place in the provinces; I had not been in Paris for some months, nor Madame P. for several years.
"There had been no mention of the subject in the course of our conversation that day."
It will be seen that Dr. Gibotteau attempted to transfer to the percipient only the general sensation of calm and rest induced in himself by the imagined scene, and that the success obtained was therefore of a kind by no means anticipated.
Another experiment of the same nature is recorded by Dr. Blair Thaw in the article already referred to (p. 31). The percipient was Mrs. Thaw, Dr. Thaw and Mr. Wyatt were the agents. We are not told whether in this instance, as on some other occasions, the percipient was actually hypnotised, but judging from previous experiments it may perhaps be inferred that she was at least in a condition called by Dr. Thaw "a passive state," not easy to distinguish from the lighter stages of sleep-waking. The experiment took place on the 28th April 1892.
No. 20.—By DR. BLAIR THAW.
1st Scene. Locomotive running away without engineer tears up station.—Missed.
2nd Scene. The first real FLYING MACHINE going over Madison Square Tower, and the people watching.—Percipient: I see lots of people. Crowds are going to war. They are so excited. Are they throwing water? (Percipient said afterwards she thought it was a fire and that was the reason of the crowd.) Or sailors pulling at ropes. Agent said, "What are they doing?" Percipient: They are all looking up. It is a balloon or some one in trouble up there. Agent said, "Why balloon?" Percipient: They are all looking up. Agent said, "I thought of a possible scene in the future." Percipient: Oh, it's the first man flying. That's what he's doing up there. Agent: "Where is it?" Percipient: In the city.
An account of a similar instance of the transfer to a hypnotised percipient of an imagined scene has been recorded by Mr. E. M. Clissold and Mr. Auberon Herbert.[42]