2. Table-Tilting—Muscle Reading.
In regard to Table-Tilting with contact, I have given Faraday’s conclusions on the subject,—unconscious muscular action on the part of the sitter or sitters. In the case of Automatic Writing (particularly with the planchette), unconscious muscular action is the proper explanation for the movements of the apparatus. “Professor Augusto Tamburini, of Italy, author of ‘Spiritismo e Telepatia’, a cautious investigator of psychical problems,” says a reviewer in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (Volume IX, p. 226), “accepts the verdict of all competent observers that imposture is inadmissible as a general explanation, and endorses the view that the muscular action which causes the movements of the table or the pencil is produced by the subliminal consciousness. He explains the definite and varying characters of the supposed authors of the messages as the result of self-suggestion. As by hypnotic or post-hypnotic suggestion a subject may be made to think he is Napoleon or a chimney sweep, so, by self-suggestion, the subliminal consciousness may be made to think that he is X and Y, and to tilt or wrap messages in the character of X and Y.”
Professor Tamburini’s explanation fails to account for the innumerable well authenticated cases where facts are obtained not within the conscious knowledge of the planchette writer or table-tilter. If telepathy does not enter into these cases, what does?
There are many exhibitions, of thought transference by public psychics, that are thought transference in name only. One must be on one’s guard against these pretenders to occult powers. I refer to men like our late compatriot, Washington Irving Bishop—“muscle-reader” par excellence whose fame extended throughout the civilized world.
Muscle-Reading is performed in the following manner: Let us take, for example, the reading of the figures on a bank-note. The subject gazes intently at the figures on a note, and fixes them in his mind. The muscle-reader, blindfolded or not, takes a crayon in his right hand, and lightly clasps the hand or wrist of the subject with his left. He then writes on a blackboard the correct figures on the note. This is one of the most difficult feats in the repertoire of the muscle-reader, and was excelled in by Bishop and Stuart Cumberland. Charles Gatchell, an authority on the subject, says that the above named men were the only muscle-readers who have ever accomplished the feat. Geometrical designs can also be reproduced on a blackboard. The finding of objects hidden in an adjoining room, or upon the person of a spectator in a public hall, or at a distance, are also accomplished by skillful muscle readers, either by clasping the hand of the subject, or one end of a short wire held by him. Says Gatchell, in the “Forum” for April, 1891: “Success in muscle-reading depends upon the powers of the principal and upon the susceptibility of the subject. The latter must be capable of mental concentration; he must exert no muscular self-control; he must obey his every impulse. Under these conditions, the phenomena are in accordance with known laws of physiology. On the part of the principal, muscle-reading consists of an acute perception of the slight action of another’s muscles. On the part of the subject, it involves a nervous impulse, accompanied by muscular action. The mind of the subject is in a state of tension or expectancy. A sudden release from this state excites, momentarily, an increased activity in the cells of the cerebral cortex. Since the ideational centres, as is usually held, correspond to the motor centres, the nervous action causes a motor impulse to be transmitted to the muscles. * * In making his way to the location of a hidden object, the subject usually does not lead the muscle-reader, but the muscle-reader leads the subject. That is to say, so long as the muscle-reader moves in the right direction, the subject gives no indication, but passively moves with him. The muscle-reader perceives nothing unusual. But, the subject’s mind being intently fixed on a certain course, the instant that the muscle-reader deviates from that course there is a slight, involuntary tremor, or muscular thrill, on the part of the subject, due to the sudden interruption of his previous state of mental tension. The muscle-reader, almost unconsciously, takes note of the delicate signal, and alters his course to the proper one, again leading his willing subject. In a word, he follows the line of the least resistance. In other cases the conditions are reversed; the subject unwittingly leads the principal.
“The discovery of a bank-note number requires a slightly different explanation. The conditions are these: The subject is intently thinking of a certain figure. His mind is in a state of expectant attention. He is waiting for but one thing in the world to happen—for another to give audible expression to the name of that which he has in mind. The instant that the conditions are fulfilled, the mind of the subject is released from its state of tension, and the accompanying nervous action causes a slight muscular tremor, which is perceived by the acute senses of the muscle-reader. This explanation applies, also, to the pointing out of one pin among many, or of a letter or a figure on a chart. The conditions involved in the tracing of a figure on a blackboard or other surface are of a like order, although this is a severer test of a muscle-reader’s powers. So long as the muscle-reader moves the crayon in the right direction, he is permitted to do so; but when he deviates from the proper course, the subject, whose hand or wrist he clasps, involuntarily indicates the fact by the usual slight muscular tremor. This, of course, is done involuntarily; but if he is fulfilling the conditions demanded of all subjects, absolute concentration of attention and absence of muscular control—he unconsciously obeys his impulse. A billiard player does the same when he follows the driven ball with his cue, as if by sheer force of will he could induce it to alter its course. The ivory is uninfluenced; the human ball obeys.”
III. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA.
1. Psychography, or Slate-Writing.