"One day," to quote Professor Janet ("Note sur quelques Phénomènes de Somnambulisme," Revue Philosophique, Feb. 1886), "M. Gibert was holding Madame B.'s hand to hypnotise her (pour l'endormir), but he was visibly preoccupied and thinking of other matters, and the trance did not supervene. This experiment, repeated by me in various forms, proved to us that in order to entrance Madame B. it was necessary to concentrate one's thought intensely on the suggestion to sleep which was given to her, and the more the operator's thought wandered the more difficult it became to induce the trance. This influence of the operator's thought, however extraordinary it may seem, predominates in this case to such an extent that it replaces all other causes. If one presses Madame B.'s hand without the thought of hypnotising her, the trance is not induced; but, on the other hand, one can succeed in sending her to sleep by thinking of it without pressing her hand."
Of course in experiments of this kind no precautions could exclude the chance that some suggestion of what was expected might reach the percipient's mind through the gestures, the attitude, or even the silence of the experimenter. But, acting on the clue thus given, MM. Gibert and Janet succeeded in impressing mentally on Madame B. commands which were punctually executed on the following day. During the same period Dr. Gibert made three attempts, all of which met with partial success, in inducing the hypnotic trance by mental suggestion given at a distance. Subsequently, during February and March 1886, and again during April and May of the same year, these trials were repeated with striking results. During one of the trials which took place in April Mr. F. W. H. Myers and Dr. A. T. Myers were present, and from their contemporary record the following account is taken. Throughout these trials, it should be stated, Madame B. was in the Pavillon, a house occupied by Dr. Gibert's sister, and distant about two-thirds of a mile from Dr. Gibert's own house. The distance intervening between agent and percipient in this series of experiments was in no case less than a quarter of a mile or more than one mile. In the first trial described by Mr. Myers (18 in the subjoined table) Madame B. actually went to sleep about twenty minutes after the effort at willing had been made; but as some of the party had in the interval entered the house where she was and found her awake, it seems possible that their coming had suggested the idea of sleep. In the second case (No. 19) an attempt to will Madame B. to leave her bed at 11.35 P.M. and come to Dr. Gibert's house had failed—the only result, possibly due to other causes, being an unusually prolonged sleep and a headache on waking. Subsequently, to quote Mr. Myers' account,
"(20) On the morning of the 22nd we again selected by lot an hour (11 A.M.) at which M. Gibert should will, from his dispensary (which is close to his house), that Madame B. should go to sleep in the Pavillon. It was agreed that a rather longer time should be allowed for the process to take effect; as it had been observed (see M. Janet's previous communication) that she sometimes struggled against the influence, and averted the effect for a time by putting her hands in cold water, etc. At 11.25 we entered the Pavillon quietly, and almost at once she descended from her room to the salon, profoundly asleep. Here, however, suggestion might again have been at work. We did not, of course, mention M. Gibert's attempt of the previous night. But she told us in her sleep that she had been very ill in the night, and repeatedly exclaimed: 'Pourquoi M. Gibert m'a-t-il fait souffrir? Mais j'ai lavé les mains continuellement.' This is what she does when she wishes to avoid being influenced.
"(21) In the evening (22nd) we all dined at M. Gibert's, and in the evening M. Gibert made another attempt to put her to sleep at a distance from his house in the Rue Séry,—she being at the Pavillon, Rue de la Ferme,—and to bring her to his house by an effort of will. At 8.55 he retired to his study; and MM. Ochorowicz, Marillier, Janet, and A. T. Myers went to the Pavillon, and waited outside in the street, out of sight of the house. At 9.22 Dr. Myers observed Madame B. coming half-way out of the garden-gate, and again retreating. Those who saw her more closely observed that she was plainly in the somnambulic state, and was wandering about and muttering. At 9.25 she came out (with eyes persistently closed, so far as could be seen), walked quickly past MM. Janet and Marillier without noticing them, and made for M. Gibert's house, though not by the usual or shortest route. (It appeared afterwards that the bonne had seen her go into the salon at 8.45, and issue thence asleep at 9.15: had not looked in between those times.) She avoided lamp-posts, vehicles, etc., but crossed and recrossed the street repeatedly. No one went in front of her or spoke to her. After eight or ten minutes she grew much more uncertain in gait, and paused as though she would fall. Dr. Myers noted the moment in the Rue Faure; it was 9.35. At about 9.40 she grew bolder, and at 9.45 reached the street in front of M. Gibert's house. There she met him, but did not notice him, and walked into his house, where she rushed hurriedly from room to room on the ground-floor. M. Gibert had to take her hand before she recognised him. She then grew calm.
"M. Gibert said that from 8.55 to 9.20 he thought intently about her; from 9.20 to 9.35 he thought more feebly; at 9.35 he gave the experiment up, and began to play billiards; but in a few minutes began to will her again. It appeared that his visit to the billiard-room had coincided with her hesitation and stumbling in the street. But this coincidence may of course have been accidental....
"(22) On the 23rd, M. Janet, who had woke her up and left her awake,[57] lunched in our company, and retired to his own house at 4.30 (a time chosen by lot) to try to put her to sleep from thence. At 5.5 we all entered the salon of the Pavillon, and found her asleep with shut eyes, but sewing vigorously (being in that stage in which movements once suggested are automatically continued). Passing into the talkative state, she said to M. Janet, 'C'est vous qui m'avez fait dormir à quatre heures et demi.' The impression as to the hour may have been a suggestion received from M. Janet's mind. We tried to make her believe that it was M. Gibert who had sent her to sleep, but she maintained that she had felt that it was M. Janet.
"(23) On April 24th the whole party chanced to meet at M. Janet's house at 3 P.M., and he then, at my suggestion, entered his study to will that Madame B. should sleep. We waited in his garden, and at 3.20 proceeded together to the Pavillon, which I entered first at 3.30, and found Madame B. profoundly sleeping over her sewing, having ceased to sew. Becoming talkative, she said to M. Janet, 'C'est vous qui m'avez commandé.' She said that she fell asleep at 3.5 P.M." (Proc. S.P.R., vol. iv. pp. 133-136.)
The subjoined table, taken, with a few verbal alterations, from Mr. Myers' article, gives a complete list of the experiments in the induction of trance at a distance (sommeil à distance) made by MM. Janet and Gibert up to the end of May 1886:—
| No. of Experi- ments. | Date. | Operator. | Hour when given. | Remarks. | Success or failure. |
| 1 | 1885. October 3 | Gibert | 11.30 A.M. | She washes hands and wards off trance. | ? |
| 2 | " 9 | do. | 11.40 A.M. | Found entranced 11.45. | 1 |
| 3 | " 14 | do. | 4.15 P.M. | Found entranced 4.30: had been asleep about 15 minutes. | 1 |
| 4 | 1886. Feb. 22 | Janet | .. | She washes hands and wards off trance. | ? |
| 5 | " 25 | do. | 5 P.M. | Asleep at once. | 1 |
| 6 | " 26 | do. | .. | Mere discomfort observed. | 0 |
| 7 | March 1 | do. | .. | do. do. | 0 |
| 8 | " 2 | do. | 3 P.M. | Found asleep at 4: has slept about an hour. | 1 |
| 9 | " 4 | do. | .. | Will interrupted: trance coincident but incomplete. | 1 |
| 10 | " 5 | do. | 5-5.10 P.M. | Found asleep a few minutes afterwards. | 1 |
| 11 | " 6 | Gibert | 8 P.M. | Found asleep 8.3. | 1 |
| 12 | " 10 | do. | .. | Success—no details. | 1 |
| 13 | " 14 | Janet | 3 P.M. | Success—no details. | 1 |
| 14 | " 16 | Gibert | 9 P.M. | Brings her to his house: she leaves her house a few minutes after 9. | 1 |
| 15 | April 18 | Janet | .. | Found asleep in 10 minutes. | 1 |
| 16 | " 19 | Gibert | 4 P.M. | Found asleep 4.15. | 1 |
| 17 | " 20 | do. | 8 P.M. | Made to come to his house. | 1 |
| 18 | " 21 | do. | 5.50 P.M. | Asleep about 6.10: trance too tardy. | ? |
| 19 | " 21 | do. | 11.35 P.M. | Attempt at trance during sleep. | 0 |
| 20 | " 22 | do. | 11 A.M. | Asleep 11.25: trance too tardy. | ? |
| 21 | " 22 | do. | 9 P.M. | Comes to his house: leaves her house 9.15. | 1 |
| 22 | " 23 | Janet | 4.30 P.M. | Found asleep 5.5, says she has slept since 4.30. | 1 |
| 23 | " 24 | do. | 3 P.M. | Found asleep 3.30, says she has slept since 3.5. | 1 |
| 24 | May 5 | do. | .. | Success—no details. | 1 |
| 25 | " 6 | do. | .. | Success—no details. | 1 |
| 18 |
We have then in 25 trials 18 complete and 4 partial or doubtful successes. In two of the latter Madame B. was found washing her hands to ward off the trance, and in two others the trance supervened only after an interval of twenty minutes or more, and under circumstances which rendered it doubtful whether telepathy were the cause. It is important to note that during these earlier visits of Madame B. to Havre, about two months in all, she only once fell into ordinary sleep during the daytime, and twice became spontaneously entranced; and that she never left the house in the evenings except on the three occasions (14, 17, 21), on which she did so in apparent response to a mental suggestion. There is little ground, therefore, for attributing the results above given to chance.
A further series of trials with the same percipient was conducted by Professor Janet during the autumn of 1886. The results, communicated by him to Professor Richet, were published by the latter in the Proceedings of the S.P.R., vol. v. pp. 43-45.[58] In order to facilitate comparison I have thrown these later results also into tabular form. In the later trials it will be observed that there is a tolerably constant retardation of the effect. The exact degree of the retardation it was not always possible to ascertain, as it was not practicable to keep Madame B. continually under observation, and to have let those at the Pavillon into the secret, and to have asked them to exercise special vigilance at the time of the experiments would have entailed the risk of vitiating the results. Moreover, in order to avoid giving any suggestion by the hour of his arrival, M. Janet made it a rule during a great part of this period to come to the house at the same hour—4 P.M. in most cases—for several days consecutively. When an early hour, therefore, had been chosen for the experiments, the exact degree of success could only be determined if Madame B.'s movements had chanced at the right time to come under the observation of those in the house. During the period of the trials Madame B. fell asleep in the daytime spontaneously only four times.
| No. of Experiments. | Date. | Hour when given. | Remarks. | Success or Failure. |
| 1886. | ||||
| 1 | 8th Sept. | 3 P.M. | Found asleep at 4 p.m. M. J. entered unseen and without knocking | ? |
| 2 | 9th Sept. | 3 P.M. | Madame B. complained of headache | F. |
| 3 | 11th Sept. | 9 (? A.M.) | Found at 10, "troublée et étourdie" | F. |
| 4 | 14th Sept. | 4 P.M. | M. J. enters at 4.15. Madame B. says she was asleep, but wakened by ringing of door-bell | ? |
| 5[59] | 18th Sept. | 3.30 P.M. | Found asleep at 4 P.M.; states she was put to sleep at 3.30 | S. |
| 6[59] | 19th Sept. | 3 P.M. | Went to sleep at about 3.15 | S. |
| 7 | 23rd Sept. | 2 P.M. | She was out walking | F. |
| 8 | 24th Sept. | 3.15 P.M. | Found asleep at 4. Had been seen awake at 3.15 | ? |
| 9 | 26th Sept. | 3 P.M. | Walking in garden | F. |
| 10 | 27th Sept. | 8.30 P.M. | Commanded by M. Gibert to come to his house. Left the Pavillon, entranced, at 9.5 P.M. [in the account in the Revue de l'Hypnotisme the latter hour is given at 9.15] | S. |
| 11 | 29th Sept. | 3.50 P.M. | Found asleep at 4.5 [given in Revue as 5.5] | S. |
| 12 | 30th Sept. | 3.30 P.M. | F. | |
| 13 | 1st Oct. | 2.40 P.M. | She was out walking | F. |
| 14 | 5th Oct. | 4 P.M. | Fell asleep suddenly at 4.5 whilst talking with nurse in garden | S. |
| 15 | 6th Oct. | 3 P.M. | F. | |
| 16 | 9th Oct. | 3.15 P.M. | F. | |
| 17 | 10th Oct. | 3.20 P.M. | Found asleep at 4.5 | ? |
| 18 | 12th Oct. | 3 P.M. | F. | |
| 19 | 13th Oct. | 5 P.M. | Found asleep. Executed a mental command given at a distance—viz., to rise at M. J.'s entrance | S. |
| 20 | 14th Oct. | 2.30 P.M. | Found asleep at 3.20 | ? |
| 21 | 16th Oct. | 3 P.M. | Found asleep at 3.30 | S. |
| 22 | 24th Nov. | 2.30 P.M. | F. | |
| 23 | 3rd Dec. | 4.10 P.M. | F. | |
| 24 | 5th Dec. | 4.10 P.M. | F. | |
| 25 | 6th Dec. | 4.10 P.M. | Found awake, washing her hands | ? |
| 26 | 7th Dec. | 2.30 P.M. | Found asleep at 3.5 | ? |
| 27 | 10th Dec. | 4.20 P.M. | She was out walking | F. |
| 28 | 11th Dec. | 3.15 P.M. | ? | |
| 29 | 13th Dec. | 4.5 P.M. | Found asleep at 4.25. Had been seen awake a few minutes after 4 P.M. | S. |
| 30 | 14th Dec. | 11.30 A.M. | F. | |
| 31 | 18th Dec. | F. | ||
| 32 | 21st Dec. | F. | ||
| 33 | 22nd Dec. | F. | ||
| 34 | 23rd Dec. | 3 P.M. | Found asleep at 3.40 | ? |
| 35 | 25th Dec. | 3.15 P.M. | She was out walking. Bad headache came on at 3.20. Returned hurriedly, and at once fell asleep in the salon. | S. |