The suggestion was fulfilled to the letter. It was only afterward that I learned that this young lady had a very decided aversion to cats, and always avoided them if possible.
Suggestions for post-hypnotic fulfilment are sometimes carried out after a considerable time has elapsed, and upon the precise day suggested.
Bernheim, in August, 1883, suggested to S., an old soldier, while in the hypnotic sleep, that upon the 3d of October following, sixty-three days after the suggestion, he should go to Dr. Liébeault’s house; that he would there see the President of the Republic, who would give to him a medal.
Promptly on the day designated he went. Dr. Liébeault states that S. came at 12:50 o’clock; he greeted M. F., who met him at the door as he came in, and then went to the left side of the office without paying any attention to any one. Dr. Liébeault continues:—
“I saw him bow respectfully and heard him speak the word ‘Excellence.’ Just then he held out his right hand, and said, ‘Thank your Excellence.’ Then I asked him to whom he was speaking. ‘Why, to the President of the Republic.’ He then bowed, and a few minutes later took his departure.”
A patient of my own, a young man with whom I occasionally experiment, exhibits some of the different phases and phenomena of hypnotism in a remarkable manner. He goes quickly into the stage of profound lethargy; after allowing him to sleep a few moments, I say to him: “Now you can open your eyes and you can see and talk with me, but you are still asleep, and you will remember nothing.”
He opens his eyes at once, smiles, gets up and walks, and chats in a lively manner. If I say: “Now you are in the deep sleep again,” and pass my hand downward before his eyes, immediately his eyes close and he is in a profound slumber. If five seconds later I again say, “Now you can open your eyes,” he is again immediately in the alert stage.
For experiment I then take half a dozen plain blank cards, exactly alike, and in one corner of one of the cards I put a minute dot, so that upon close inspection it can be recognized. Holding these in my hand, I say to him:
“Here are six cards; five of them are blank, but this one (the one I have marked, he only seeing the plain side) has a picture of myself upon it. It is a particularly good picture, and I have had it prepared specially for this occasion. Do you see the picture?”
“Of course I do,” he replies. “What do you think of it?” I ask him. He looks at me carefully and compares my face with the suggested picture on the card and replies, “It is excellent.”