Plenty of time should be taken for all first attempts. Let the operator, for instance, keep his mind thoroughly fixed on the object. Should the reader be going away from it, let the agent strongly wish him to go back, touch it, lift it, etc., as previously decided upon by the company.
All sensitive persons are likely to make good thought-readers; the less sensitive, muscle-readers.
MUSCLE-READING ENTERTAINMENTS.
Thought-transference, like clairvoyance, is unequal in power and manifestation, even with good percipients, and cannot be turned on like, and with, the evening gas, to enlighten and entertain. Hence those enterprising entertainers, like Bishop and Cumberland, depended on “muscle-reading,” and “backed-up their show” with tricks, some of them so puerile and barefaced that a third-rate conjuror would be ashamed of them.
The general public, however, enjoyed these entertainments. They were something new, and, like “angel’s visits,” were few and far between. Not only so, but that wonderful combination, the general public, saw that these entertainments were patronised by men of science, such as Carpenter, Beard, Hammond, Baron Kelvin, and others deeply in love with strictly materialistic hypothesis. They were also patronised by “society.” These entertainers undertook to read thoughts and expose spiritualism; and as the dear public loves mystery, it went. But the dear public don’t like to be “taken in,” hence these performances are generally repeated—in the next town.
The following, reported from St. John’s, N.B., January 17, 1887, in the Herald, is a good illustration of the psychic and muscular indications involved in an experiment of this kind:—“In a ‘mind-reading’ performance on Saturday night, after several examples indoors, the ‘reader,’ a young man who belongs to this city, asked for an outdoor test. The party separated, one remaining with the reader, and hid a pin in the side of a little house used by the switchman of the New Brunswick Railway at Mill Street. In their travels they went over the new railway trestle, a most difficult journey. The reader was blindfolded, and one took his wrist, but at the trestle hesitated, fearing to venture, and was told by the reader to let go his wrist and place his hand on his head. The subject did so, and the reader went upon the trestle. Some of the party suggested that the bandage should be removed, but he told them not to mind, and, the subject again taking the wrist, he went over the ice and snow-covered sleepers. With a firm step he crossed to the long wharf, went over as far as the mill gates, then quickly turned, retraced his steps, and went back to the corner of Mill Street. Here he rested a minute, then again took the subject’s hand, and in less than five minutes afterwards found the pin. At the conclusion of the test, the reader inquired what the matter had been when they first reached the trestle. It was easily explained. The storm had covered the sleepers with snow, and it was thought dangerous, even for a man not blindfolded to cross them. The subject felt anxious for the reader’s safety, and hesitated about going across. The tests were most satisfactory.” Thought or mind-reading applied to these experiments is a misnomer. If this young gentleman could “read thoughts” by musculation, or contact, he would have known what the matter had been when they first reached the trestle. Muscle-reading is not thought-reading. Hence it is classified as spurious.
Any number of illustrations could be given of such entertainments. The foregoing is sufficiently adequate to give an idea of how these muscle (not thought) reading entertainments are given.
For drawing-room entertainments, first blindfold the reader, who is conducted out of the room while the experiments are decided upon. The blindfolding helps to mystify friends, who think the work is rendered more difficult. As a matter of fact, the reader’s work is rendered much more easy. It helps to isolate him, and leaves his mind much less entrammelled by sights and impressions which would otherwise prevent him receiving the impressions which it is desirable he should receive.
Suppose the reader is to locate the seat of an imaginary pain, the assistant or operator pro tem. will grasp[F] with his left hand the sensitive’s right wrist and hold it firmly. While the reader is endeavouring to locate the pain, the operator must give up his will, and think intently on the situation of the pain. The reader will then locate it.
There is less secret in this than appears at first sight. The sensitive, or reader, is simply guided or led by the operator, and the reader’s hand either stops partially over or is pressed upon the seat of the pain. He then declares he has found the seat of the pain, and points it out accordingly.