TELEPATHY—FACT OR FICTION?

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 167, 16 July 1924, Page 10

TELEPATHY—FACT OR FICTION?

(To the Editor.) Sir.—The progress of humanity can be traced to two sources —co-operation and the use of the resources of nature. Our I primitive ancestors, in their rock- ■ | shelters and cave-dwollin-s, for a very I long period did not have the assistance of lire. Their bones are found mingled ] witli those of animals, many long since 'extinct, primitive tools and weapons, j but in the lowest strata of earth no ashrs, charcoal or charred bones. Fire to them would be a terror, destroying ! their nut and fruit trees, their animal land bird sanctuaries. It would occur accidentally through a falling meteorite, vulcanic eruption, lightning flash, or the 'friction of rubbing branches during a I gale, it, to them, would be rarer than [thought reading is to us. Were one of j tlu.su savages to produce a charcoal frag(ment and say: "Our descendants will be I able to produce this awful thing, fire, n l will, and by its aid make weapons that i will kill the largest animal at the distance of a day's journey; transport | tribes across the land faster than the ! fleetest boasts cr.:i run, over the ocean j more swiftly than any fish can swim, ■through the air outspeeding the eagle,"' jhis bearers would regard him as pos- ! scsscd, and would probably enjoy him : for supper. But all this and much more [have come to pass through man getting control of one foree —heat. What about our loin guns, mail trains, ocean liners, living machines? I Two hundred years ago man know i little about electricity, by accumulat.'ng ! knowledge about its actions as a force jwe have the telegraph, telephone, wireless, the transmission of power, and i scores of other services. ■ | It was known to the ancients that a ! globular or lens-shaped piece of glass j would magnify objects, but it was only :i 11 the sixteenth century' that one lens j was placed before the other, and we had I the telescope and all it lias revealed to us about the universe; and of more I importance, or rather use, to us, the j microscope, which has given us the | secrets of disease and almost a godI like power over evils that, formerly were • such a scourge to mankind. | There are other forces in nature equally promising, and it is man's duty to exploit them. He .alone of all created animals has this power. Thought ! reading is one of such forces. Some day jan Argus or a Grossi will meet with a i discoverer with a brain like that of ! Pasteur or Faraday, and it is staggering 110 think of the results. Here are a few possibilities—one might .say probabilities:— 1. Communication between two' minds may be at will. In such cases two friends using some simple apparatus separated by great distances may be able to exchange thoughts and information by means of a system of tuning. The immense importance -of this can be seen at once. It would out-do wireless in private affairs. It would have disadvantages, of course. For example, it would assist spies, but let us hope that in the not distant future there will be no necessity for such persons. 2. In the detection of crime it would be of great utility. . It is already sufficiently developed for thfjs purpose if it were better understood generally. The extreme ease and accurafey with which Argus read all the details of the theft that took place 15 months before, and .2000 miles from the scene of the test, solely from the memory;of the priest, shows what could be done in this respect. If taken away from the not elevating atmosphere of the showroom and applied to reading the thoughts of offenders, startling results would follow. In test No. 4 he read what was in another's mind, six feet away and through a 15in wall. He need not therefore be in the same room or cell as the suspect, in order to get details of the crime from the offender's mind. Detection of crime in this way would have a deterrent effect on intending criminals, such as nothing else would have.

3. In learning facts, there has not been much progress. Shakespeare, without elaborate dictionaries, knew how to use 21,000 words; Milton, 7000; Defoe, 13,000. None of our modern writers approach the first two. Let us suppose that some means of connecting minds in Eeries like electric lamps were discovered, and the thoughts of the teacher were by this method passed on to the students. If he had a mind stored with important facts such as teachers have, the present laborious means of imparting facts would be superseded. Suppose the lesson were in constitutional history and about the bulwarks of our liberties, habeas corpus, the independence of judges, and control of the Army by Parliament. How much more rapidly these factß could be impressed on the minds of the class by thought transmission than is done at present. This may be the next great advance in education. If the teftcher had a rich vocabulary his pupils would lie sure to benefit by it—the. words as well as the thoughts would be impressed on their minds. 4. As the investigation woul3 certainly be extended to tbe sensitiveness of animals, we would soon have d6gs and ;horses bred for this quality. Krall, of Klberiield, found sensitive horses were not uncommon. In addition to the original Hans, he soon had others. He had five altogether. One, Berto, a. Norman horse, was, like Dnrkie, the Christchurch dog:, totally blind, but extremely sensitive. It would be a great advance to have our dogs and horses obedient to our unspoken thoughts. Indeed it would be a revolution in the relationship of man to the animal world.—l am, etc., J. W. POYNTON. July 11, 1024.