THOUGHT READING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3804, 24 September 1883, Page 4

THOUGHT READING.

A correspondent Avrites to a contemporary :— You are sceptical on the subject of thought-reading. Permit mo to narrate a fact within my own experience. About 30 years ago a dozen persons, of Avhom I was one, met to test the process of " mental travelling," as it aviis then called. Apart from tho others, I wrote a .sentence on a piece of paper, enclosed it in an envelope, and sent it to the reader or "subject"—tho " Bishop" of the occasion—who was seated in a chair at the opposite side of a large drtiAving-room. He aviis unable to discern the writing while I remained at a distance, but as I approached and ultimately touched him the Avriting became clear to his mind, and he read it distinctly and correctly. I)r William Herapath, an analytical chemist of some celebrity in those days, astonished at this result, tested the "miracle" in Ids oavu fashion, by taking tho reader's hand, and asked him to utter Avhat Avas passing in his (Dr H.s) mind. The man at once described the furniture of a room, its arrangement and character. Dr Herapath said the description was that of his own sitting-room, around which lie had mentally travelled Avhile holding the man's hand. And so in the Labou-cherc-Bishop experiment, upon which you animadvert so sceptically. After touching' the holder of the note, Mr Bishop " Avrote its number correctly on a blackboard." In tho touch the electric circuit Avas completed—the "suggestion," as Dr Carpenter Avould call it, aviis conveyed. You say that this power of mental transmission, "if it existed at all, avc should have to regard as miraculous." But what is a miracle!' t Have avc thoroughly explored the phenomena of mind ? Would it not bo Aviso, as Dr Carpenter Avrites (p. 633, 4th cd., Principles of Mental Physiology), to maintain a reserve of possibility as to phenomena Avhicli are not altogether opposed to tho laws of physics or physiology, but rather transcend them 'i "Looking at nerve force as a special form of physical energy, it may be deemed not altogether incredible that it should exert itself from a distanco so as to bring the brain of ono person into direct dynamical communication Avith that of another, Avithout the intermediation either of verbal language or of movements of expression. A large amount of evidence, sifted with the utmost care, Avould be needed to establish even a probability of such communication. But would a man of science have a right to say it is impossible ? " Behind this position of Dr Carpenter I shelter myself against your imputation of credulousness.