402 Thought Reading . [July, 
The subjection of the will to the influence of a ruling 
thought is the great feature in all these abnormal conditions : 
it is often attended by extreme sensitiveness towards every- 
thing in connection with the ruling thought. The will is 
suspended in the subject, and the operator vehemently im- 
presses a ruling thought on his helpless victim. All of us 
have seen the result a hundred times : I never can see it 
without a shudder. 
Permit me now, in conclusion, to apply these considera- 
tions to the phenomena of thought reading recently exhibited 
in Liverpool, speaking of the operator, Mr. Irving Bishop, 
as A, and his subject as B. A wishes to show that he can 
read the thought of B. As far as possible A changes place 
with B. A becomes the subject, and will have B for his 
operator. A first secures that B shall have, for the occa- 
sion, a ruling thought, e.g., the spot where he has hid the 
pin. B is to concentrate and maintain his thought on this 
one thing. As soon as A has made this provision, A 
throws off his own will by hypnotising himself. A becomes 
the helpless subject, and B with his ruling thought the 
strong operator. A knows that B has a ruling thought, but 
A has yet to find out what it is. A therefore puts himself 
in quasi electric communication with B, by means of the 
hand or the wire ; but not with B’s ruling thought, which is 
totally out of A’s reach, but with its physical counterpart in 
B’s brain. The two brains become like two electric clock 
dials. 
Considering the nerve energy due to a ruling thought 
in B, and the utter inability to resist in a hypnotised 
subject, such as A has become, it might be expected that 
A would not only act in accordance with B’s thought, 
but that, so soon as he knew it, A would be in very great 
hurry to do so, would be very much exhausted after it, and 
would probably, on returning to himself, be quite forgetful 
of it. 
Before bringing my remarks to a close I may refer to the 
thousands of experiments in thought reading, or, rather, 
brain reading, which are now from time to time occurring 
in private drawing-rooms throughout the country. Most of 
these experiments have been attended with partial success. 
Indeed, considering the very rough and deficient way in 
which these extremely delicate experiments have been con- 
ducted, the amount of success I have myself witnessed I 
regard as surprising. The nerve counterpart in the brain, 
the foundation of the whole process, can hardly have been 
sharply defined. A very slight approach to the sensitiveness 
