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fully conducted during contact through slack ■wire, fern-leaf, <fec., 

 and even without any physical contact ■whatever. An exalted state 

 of the nervous system may mean merely that the characteristic 

 property of nerve tissue is especially active, or it may imply that 

 some rarely exercised power is called into operation, wherehy some- 

 thing is detected more ethereal and suhtle than is ordinarily 

 perceptible. Finally, when we reflect upon the vast importance of 

 those discoveries that have successively been attributed to demoni- 

 acal instigation, the subject of this paper, seems hardly worthy of 

 that significant distinction. 



Thought-Reading is not concerned solely with outside action 

 or dependent on mere dexterity. It is best displaj'ed between 

 persons of similar temperaments, preferably the nervous sympathetic. 

 The mind of the reader must be passive and receptive, that of 

 the so-called medium, concentrated and determined. Ordinarily, 

 feelings of various kinds, and wishes, intentions, reflections, and 

 other ideas, pass unchecked through our minds, and, with the 

 uncultivated, this stream of consciousness does duty for the exercise 

 of thought. True thinking implies the power of marshalling ideas 

 in order, giving them form and direction, and exercising '>\< i them 

 complete control. It is necessary in these tests for th(;' m. lium to 

 analyse those actions which are usually automatically performed, 

 and to bring the supreme consciousness to bear upon every detail. 

 By way of example may be mentioned such a test as the following : 

 A particular passage is chosen from a certain book which is then 

 placed with a number of others. This is done in the absence of 

 the operator who now enters blindfolded, and, in contact with a 

 sensitive medium, has no difficulty in immediately discovering the 

 book, opening it at the right page, and placing his finger on the 

 passage. It is not sufficient for the medium in this case to think 

 exclusively of the words read ; every movement that will have to 

 be made in approaching the books, selecting tlie one used and 

 finding the place, must be clearly and systematicallj- thought out. 

 When this is accurately done the medium is often the most 

 astonished at the rapidity of the performance, many of the move- 

 ments being apparently ahead of the train of ideas passing through 

 his mind. It is not necessary that the operator should have any 



