WIRELESS "TELEPATHY" TEST FAILS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16705, 24 July 1928, Page 10

WIRELESS "TELEPATHY" TEST FAILS

The" recent so-called telepathy lest conducted by 3LO has proved a complete failure. C'tl June 26 a tesi was conducted bv a committee comprising Dr. Brook Niehoils, Mrs. Angela Booth and Row J. 11. Cain. The following objects ivove "concentrated" upon," in turn, by the committee: (1) An ash try; (2) a bull of twine: (3) a pair of scissors; (4) a paper clip; (5) an electric torch ; (6) a pair of wireless head phones. The assumption Was that the images of the objects, by some means, might- possibly 'be communicated- by thought waves from the concentrated minds of the committee to the thousands of wireless listeners, who were informed when .a certain object was receiving the 'committee's individual attention. A similar test was made by 31.0 a year ago. with I he same result. Nobody's mental reception was good enough, or perhaps the committee's power of transmission was faulty. Maybe some aggravating form of mental "atmospherics" due to too much public concentration on horse racing was the cause of these telepatbetic failures. The fact remains that out of the thousands of replies received by the committee only one man was a good enough guesser to record that the third object held up was a pair of scissors. True, no fewer than 160 persons said that one of the objects was a pair of scissors, but none of them placed this object in its correct place as the third article which was concentrated upon by the. committee. The fourth and sixth objects (a paper clip and a pair of headphones) were not mentioned by anyone, but a large number of people stated that they had received images 'if objects ranging from a yellow pumpkin to the President of the United States. There were some whose wishes were evidently fathers to their thoughts, as they visualised siwh articles as foaming pots of beer, bottles of perfume, money boxes and the winner of the Grand National Tlunlic Rate. In those days of widespread publicity il is comforting to think that we need not broadcast our thoughts or "listen in" to those of others.