362 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



nOW TO PRACTISE MIND-KEADING. 



To tlie Editor of the Popular Science Monthly. 



IT is interesting to contemplate that curi- 

 ous phase of credulity, closely allied to 

 superstition, which seems to be innate in 

 the human mind, predisposing many intel- 

 ligent people to attribute to supernatural 

 agencies certain phenomena which are pure- 

 ly subjective. This quality has, doubtless, 

 contributed to the growth of faith in spirit- 

 ualism, odylism, auras, psychic force, and 

 what not. 



One would suppose that the recent ex- 

 posure in the law-courts of the juggleries 

 of some of the more notorious mediums 

 would have served to convince the most ar- 

 dent believers that the so-called spirit-mani- 

 festations are wholly mundane. This good 

 result, however, does not appear to have 

 been accomplished as yet. 



When "Professor" Brown, the mind- 

 reader, performed his clever experiments a 

 few years since, many well-educated people 

 maintained that his discoveries could not 

 be explained by any of the known laws of 

 Nature; he was indorsed by several distin- 

 guished scientists, at least one of whom 

 stated that he was a firm believer in Brown, 

 and that he regarded "the theory of uncon- 

 scious muscular action as entirely opposed 

 to the facts observed." 



Since that time quite a number of arti- 

 cles have appeared in this and other scien- 

 tific journals upon the subject; they have 

 all been devoted to elaborating theories, 

 and 1 propose, therefore, to confine myself 

 to a few practical hints as to the precise 

 methods of observation, hoping thereby to 

 enable persons interested to perform all of 

 Mr. Brown's experiments successfully, as 

 well as others of a more complex and as- 

 tonishing character, and, at the same time, 

 to answer numerous queries that I have 

 from time to time received. 



The main difficulty that the novice in 

 the art of interpreting " ideo-motor move- 

 ments " encounters is, that he does not 

 know exactly what indications to look for, 

 and often mistakes an accidental or inten- 

 tional movement of the "subject" for an 

 involuntary one. He also imagines that the 

 indications are confined to muscular con- 

 tractions in the arm or hand of the subject. 

 This is a fatal mistake, as I have already 

 shown in a letter to Dr. Beard, which he 

 communicated to your journal in the July 

 number, 1877. In that letter I stated that 

 it is quite possible for the mind-reader to 



select objects hidden or thought of, walk 

 over any route desired, or to perform any 

 similar experiment, without any connection 

 between his subject and himself, even while 

 he is blindfolded. I also referred to several 

 other novelties, and shall now content my- 

 self with a simple explanation of the modus 

 operandi upon which the whole principle 

 depends ; leaving it to the ingenuity of ex- 

 perimenters to complicate the tests accord- 

 ing to their ability. 



Let us suppose that the mind-reader has 

 been escorted out of the parlor by a com- 

 mittee appointed by the guests to see that 

 all is fair. A " subject " is then selected 

 who will hide a small article, perhaps a pin, 

 under the carpet in the corner of the room. 

 The mind-reader is led in blindfolded, he 

 takes the left hand of the subject in his left 

 ( la Brown), grasping the subject's elbow 

 with his right ; he tells the subject to fix his 

 mind intently upon the object hidden and 

 the locality ; he then makes a feint to move 

 away, watching closely to see whether the 

 subject shows any reluctance to follow him ; 



j if so, he tries another direction ; presently 

 he will find one point toward which the 

 subject will show a disposition to accom- 

 pany him very readily. This, then, is the 

 first clew ; he follows it up, occasionally 



; feigning to diverge, in order to satisfy him- 

 self that he is on the right track. In this 



i way he will be guided (not led) past all ob- 

 structions to the locality; then he will no- 

 tice that the subject shows no partiality 

 toward any particular direction. The mind- 

 reader thus infers that he is, in juvenile 

 parlance, very hot, and he now, for the first 

 time, directs his attention exclusively to the 

 involuntary movements in the arm of the 

 subject, in order to obtain the indication as 

 to the exact locality of the object hidden. 

 This he accomplishes by moving the sub- 

 ject's arm about until he discovers the di- 

 rection in which the arm unconsciously pre- 

 fers to (jo. Should the subject suspect that 

 he may be involuntarily giving the indica- 

 tions, it is a capital ruse lor the performer, 

 first, to satisfy himself of the position of 

 the object, and, before producing it, to move 

 away from the spot, then suddenly pounce 

 upon it with great show of certainty. The 

 " bull-dozed " subject will at once become 

 the strongest opponent of the involuntary 

 muscular-movement theory ! 



Apart from the amusement which these 

 performances invariably afford at a social 

 gathering, the subject of the "ideo-motor 

 movements " is one of the highest physio- 



