THOUGHT-READING EXPERIMENT

Temuka Leader, Issue 1374, 4 August 1885, Page 3

THOUGHT-READING EXPERIMENT

Miss Laura Lancaster, after astonishing society in Brussels by her remarkable experiments in thought reading, gave a private Bto.net at the Continental Hotel in Paris the other night, before a distinguished company. Miss Lancaster is a prepossessing young brunette, of graceful figure and modest deportment, and was dressed in perfect good taste. In what her method differs from those of Messrs Cumberland, Capper, Irving, Bishop, and other predecessors in thought-reading, we are not competent to say, unless it be that her experiments were throughout successful. When there was any hesitation or difficulty, it arose from obstructiveness or want of sympathy on the part of the medium,* as in the case of a gentleman, whose hand Miss Lancaster took in hers, with a view of placing it on apart of his body where he had received a hurt, and on her failing at first to discover it, he vi as forced to admit, in reply to a question from the gentleman who conducted the experiment, that his hand could not reach the place. When, however, a link was formed by another spectator, and the lady was able to stoop to the ground, she at once discovered the spot near his foot. Perhaps the most remarkable experiment of the day was that in which the subject divined and executed the wishes of the two mediums absolutely without contact with them. Two spectators agreed together in tlio absence of the lady—who, by the way, performed aU these experiments blindfolded—that she should take a certain object from one stranger in the roam and place it in the hand of another. _ The re-, mainder of the audience were ignorant of what the parties designed. The two mediums then joined their four hands around her, and with no otlur guide than the circle in the midst of which she was placed, without touching she passed along the Hue of chairs around the room, stopped before one spectator, took his umbrella and carried it to another person at a distance. The experiment terminated with a little dramatic scene, acted in the absence of the lady between three of the spectators, who represented n murderer, his accomplice, and bis victim. The first named was supposed to gill a young man ; his accomplice rifled the pockets of the victim and hid the plunder. The lady was then re admitted and taking the hand of the murderer, repeated exactly by the impression he involuntarily transmitted from his mind to her’s the entire performance, selecting die knife from among several, and inflicting the same kind of wound and discovering the body and the booty. Several gentlemen among the notable guests exercised a surveillance over the proceedings te satisfy the audience that there was no fraud or collusion. Miss Lancaster will probably give some public performances before leaving Paris.