PHYSIOLOGY OF MIND-READING. 463 



a few trials, get hold of the precise object hidden, or locality thought 

 of. When the operator and subject are connected by the methods 

 practised by Brown, it is possible to detect also the relaxation when 

 the locality is reached, and, guided by this, the master in the art 

 knows just when and where to stop, and, in very many cases, feels 

 absolutely sure that he is right, and with a good subject is no more 

 liable to error than he would be to hear wrongly or imperfectly if 

 directed by word of mouth. 



The special methods of muscle-reading here described may be va- 

 ried almost indefinitely, the only essential condition being, that the 

 connection between the subject or subjects is of such a nature as to 

 easily allow the sense of muscular tension or relaxation to be commu- 

 nicated. Instead of two subjects, there may be three, four, or half a 

 dozen, or but one. With a number of subjects the chances of success 

 are greater than with one, for the twofold reason that the united mus- 

 cular tension of all will be more readily felt than that of but one, and 

 because any single subject may be a bad one that is one who is capa- 

 ble of muscular control while among a number there will be very 

 likely one or more good ones. For these two reasons, amateurs suc- 

 ceed in this latter method when they fail or succeed but imperfectly 

 after the method of Brown. 



A method frequently used, although it is not very artistic, consists 

 in simply taking the hand of the subject and leading him directly, or, 

 as is more likely to be the case, indirectly to the locality on which his 

 mind is concentrated. 



J. Stanley Grimes 1 thus describes the performance of a mind-reader 

 in Chicago: "I repeatedly witnessed similar performances with differ- 

 ent experts in this branch and under circumstances where every ele- 

 ment of error from intentional or unintentional collusion was rigidly 

 excluded. At the request of the company the same young lady was 

 again sent from the room and blindfolded, as on previous occasions. 

 The gentleman requested the company to suggest anything they de- 

 sired the subject should be willed to do, thus removing any possibility 

 of a secret agreement to deceive between the parties. It was suggested 

 that the young lady should be brought into the room and placed in a 

 position with her face toward the north ; that the gentleman should 

 then place his fingers upon her shoulder, as before ; that she should 

 turn immediately to the right, facing the south, and proceed to a cer- 

 tain figure in the parlor-carpet ; then turning to the west, she was to 

 approach a sofa in a remote corner of the room, from which she should 

 remove a small tidy, which she should take to the opposite side of the 

 room, and place it upon the head of a certain young gentleman in the 

 company ; she was then to proceed to the extreme end of the parlor, 

 and take a coin from the right vest-pocket of a gentleman, and return 

 to the opposite side of the room, and place the coin in the left vest- 

 1 " Mysteries of the Head and Heart," p. 29Y. 



