THOUGHT READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6811, 15 September 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

THOUGHT READING.

A correspondent writes to a contemporary : —You are. sceptical on the subject of thoughtreading. Permffc. me to narrate a fact within my own experience. About 40 years ago a dozen persons, of whom. I was one,, met to teat the process of " mental travelling," aa it was then called.. Apart from the others, I wrote a sentence on a piece of paper, enclosed it in an envelope, and. sent it to the reader or "subject"— the ''Bishop" qf the occasion— who was seated in a chair at the opposite side, of a large drawing-room. He was Unable to discern the writing whila I remaind at a distance,, but as I approached and ultimately touched him the writing became clear to his mind, and he read it distinctly and correctly. Dr. William Herapath, an analytical chemist of some Celebrity in those days, astonished at this result, tested the " miracle" in his own fashion, by taking the reader's hand, and asking him to utter what was passing .in his (Dr. H.'s) mind. The man at oice described the furniture of a room, its arrangement and character,. Pr. Herapath said tho description was that of his own sitting- ortm, around which be had. mentally travelled while holding the man's hand. And so in the Lsbouchere-Bishop experiment, upon which you animadvert so sceptically,. After touching the. holder of the not«, Sir. Bishop '•'wrote its number correctly on a blackboard." In the touch the electric circuit was completed—the "suggestion, "as Dr. Carpenter would call it, was conveyed. You. say that thin power of mental transmission, "if it existed at all, we should have to regard ai miraculous." But what iB a miracle? Have we thoroughly explored the phenomena of mind? Would it not b& wise, as Dr. Carpenter writes (p. 633, 4th ed., Principles of Mental Physiology), to maintain a reserve of possibility as to phenomena which are not altogether opposed to the laws of physics or : physiology,, but rattier transcend them ? ; "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 distance,, so as to bring the brain of one person into direct dynamical : communication with that of another, without the intermediation either of verbal language or of' movements of expression, A large amount of evidence, sifted with the utmost | care, would be needed to establish even, a I probability of such communication. But would any man of science have a right to say that it is impossible ?" Behind this I position of Dr. Carpenter I shelter; myself I against, your imputation of credulousaess,.