Abstract
As having a bearing upon the hypothesis that in “thought reading” the information is transmitted by unconscious muscular exertion, allow me to state a modified form of the experiment I tried in the presence of two or three others with Mr. J. R. Brown, who, a few years ago, attracted considerable attention in various parts of the United States by doing precisely what is related of Mr. Bishop in your issue of June 23 (p. 171). After witnessing experiments of the same kind as those stated by Mr. Romanes and performed under the same conditions, I thought to vary them by using a flexible copper wire as a connecting medium. Selecting one, two or three yards long, I held one end in my hand, while Mr. Brown, winding the other end once or twice around his fingers, held it against his forehead, the wire being all the time kept slack between us. Here evidently there could have been no indications received through muscular movements. Yet in this way Mr. Brown would find things concealed or go to certain points determined upon, though apparently with not quite the same readiness and confidence as when the subject's hand was placed against his forehead. Once he partially failed, selecting, instead of a particular spot on the wall I had fixed my mind upon, a small object near it. The experiment in this form was tried with another as his subject, and with equal, if not better, success.
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MERRIMAN, G. Thought-Reading. Nature 24, 284 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/024284c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/024284c0
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