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  PRACTICAL
  MIND-READING

  By WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON


  A COURSE OF LESSONS ON

  THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE,
  TELEPATHY, MENTAL-CURRENTS,
  MENTAL RAPPORT, &c.

  CONTAINING

  Practical Instruction, Exercises, Directions, etc., capable
  of being understood, mastered and demonstrated
  by any person of average intelligence


  PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY
  ADVANCED THOUGHT PUBLISHING CO.
  168 N. MICHIGAN AVE., CHICAGO, ILL.


  LONDON AGENTS:
  L.N. FOWLER & CO.,
  7 IMPERIAL ARCADE, LUDGATE CIRCUS, E.C.




  (Practical Mind Reading)


  Copyright 1907, by
  THE LYAL BOOK COMPANY


  Copyright 1908, by
  ADVANCED THOUGHT PUBLISHING CO.


  NOTICE--This book is protected by Copyright and simultaneous
  publication, in Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and other
  countries. All foreign rights reserved.




TABLE OF CONTENTS


  LESSON I--THE NATURE OF MIND READING      5

  A plain, practical, scientific explanation of this Vast, Mysterious
  Subject, explaining the action of Mind upon Mind, and the Mental
  Wireless Telegraphy, according to the latest and best authorities.

  LESSON II--THE PROOFS OF MIND READING      13

  The result of the latest scientific experiments and investigations
  regarding this subject; practical proof and indisputable facts.

  LESSON III--CONTACT MIND READING      24

  Full instruction regarding the "Nerve Currents" passing from the human
  Transmitter to the human Receiver; stated so plainly that any one may
  instantly grasp the theory and practice.

  LESSON IV--DEVELOPMENT EXERCISES      34

  How to develop yourself; how to grow proficient in practice; how to find
  Locations; how to find Objects; how to perform the necessary elementary
  feats, and thus prepare for Public Work.

  LESSON V--SIMPLE DEMONSTRATIONS      49

  Public or Parlor Demonstrations. Fourteen Practical Demonstrations are
  explained; full directions for performing them are given, so that the
  student may reproduce the experiments and demonstrations.

  LESSON VI--DIFFICULT DEMONSTRATIONS      66

  Explanations and instructions given for their performance. The Banknote
  Test; the Blackboard Feats; Drawing Pictures; Telepathic Chess and
  Checkers, etc., described, explained, and full instructions given for
  their reproduction.

  LESSON VII--SENSATIONAL FEATS      79

  The Driving Feat; the Combination Lock Feat; the Office Detective Feat;
  the Postoffice Box Feat, and many other sensational demonstrations
  explained, together with an exposure of "Fake Demonstrations."

  LESSON VIII--HIGHER PHENOMENA      85

  Demonstrations without contact. Development Directions. Long Distance
  Experiments. Automatic Writing. Valuable Suggestions and Advice.




LESSON I.

THE NATURE OF MIND READING.


Only a few years ago the general public was in almost total ignorance of
the great truth of Thought Transference, Thought Projection, Telepathy,
or Mind Reading. It is true that here and there were to be found a few
scientists earnestly investigating and eagerly uncovering the hidden
truths concerning the subjects. But the mass of the people were either
entirely ignorant of the subject, or else were intensely skeptical of
any thing concerning the matter, laughing to scorn the daring thinker
who ventured to express his interest or belief in this great scientific
phenomena.

But how different to-day. On all hands we hear of the wonders of Thought
Transference, or Telepathy, as it is called. Scientific men write and
teach of its fascinating manifestations, and even the general public has
heard much of the new science and believes more or less in it, according
to the degree of intelligence and knowledge concerning the subject
possessed by the individual. Listen to these words from the lips of some
of the greatest scientists of the day.

Prof. William James, the eminent instructor at Harvard University, says:
"When from our present advanced standpoint we look back upon the past
stages of human thought, whether it be scientific thought or theological
thought, we are amazed that a universe which appears to us of so vast
and mysterious a complication should ever have seemed to anyone so
little and plain a thing. Whether it be Descartes' world or Newton's;
whether it be that of the Materialists of the last century, or that of
the Bridgewater treatises of our own, it is always the same to
us--incredibly perspectiveless and short. Even Lyell's, Faraday's,
Mill's and Darwin's consciousness of their respective subjects are
already beginning to put on an infantile and innocent look." These
remarks are doubly significant by reason of their having been made by
Prof. James as the president of the "Society for Psychical Research."

The eminent English scientist, Sir William Crookes, in his address as
president of the Royal Society, at Bristol, England, a few years ago,
said: "Were I now introducing for the first time these inquiries to the
world of science, I should choose a starting point different from that
of old, where we formerly began. It would be well to begin with
telepathy; with the fundamental law, as I believe it to be, that
_thoughts and images may be transferred from one mind to another without
the agency of the recognized organs of sense_--that knowledge may enter
the human mind without being communicated in any hitherto known or
recognized ways. Although the inquiry has elicited important facts with
reference to the mind, it has not yet reached the scientific stage of
certainty which would enable it to be usefully brought before one of our
sections. I will therefore confine myself to pointing out the direction
in which scientific investigation can legitimately advance. If telepathy
take place, we have two physical facts--the physical change in the brain
of A. the suggestor, and the analogous physical change in the brain of
B. the recipient of the suggestion. Between these two physical events
there must exist a train of physical causes. Whenever the connecting
sequence of intermediate causes begins to be revealed, the inquiry will
then come within the range of one of the sections of the British
Association. Such a sequence can only occur through an intervening
medium. All the phenomena of the Universe are presumably in some way
continuous, and it is unscientific to call in the aid of mysterious
agencies when with every fresh advance in knowledge, it is shown that
ether vibrations have powers and attributes abundantly equal to any
demand--even the transmission of thought."

Prof. Crookes then went on to say: "It is supposed by some physiologists
that the essential cells of nerves do not actually touch, but are
separated by a narrow gap which widens in sleep while it narrows almost
to extinction during mental activity. This condition is so singularly
like that of a Branly or Lodge coherer (a device which has led Marconi
to the discovery of wireless telegraphy) as to suggest a further
analogy. The structure of brain and nerve being similar, it is
conceivable that there may be present masses of such nerve coherers in
the brain whose special function it may be to receive impulses brought
from without through the connecting sequence of ether waves of
appropriate order of magnitude. Roentgen has familiarized us with an
order of vibrations of extreme minuteness compared with the smallest
waves of which we have hitherto been acquainted, and of dimensions
comparable with the distances between the centers of the atoms of which
the material universe is built up; and there is no reason for believing
that we have here reached the limit of frequency. It is known that the
action of thought is accompanied by certain molecular movements in the
brain, and here we have physical vibrations capable from their extreme
minuteness of acting direct upon individual molecules, while their
rapidity approaches that of the internal and external movements of the
atoms themselves."

A formidable range of phenomena must be scientifically sifted before we
effectually grasp a faculty so strange, so bewildering, and for ages so
inscrutable, as the direct action of mind on mind. It has been said
that nothing worth the proving can be proved, nor yet disproved. True
this may have been in the past, it is true no longer. The science of our
century has forged weapons of observation and analysis by which the
veriest tyro may profit. Science has trained and fashioned the average
mind into habits of exactitude and disciplined perception, and in so
doing has fortified itself for tasks higher, wider and incomparably more
wonderful than even the wisest among our ancestors imagined. Like the
souls in Plato's myth that follow the chariot of Zeus, it has ascended
to a point of vision far above the earth. It is henceforth open to
science to transcend all we now think we know of matter, and to gain new
glimpses of a profounder scheme of Cosmic Law. In old Egyptian days a
well-known inscription was carved over the portal of the Temple of Isis:
'I am whatever has been, is, or ever will be; and my veil no man hath
yet lifted.' Not thus do modern seekers after truth confront Nature--the
word that stands for the baffling mysteries of the Universe. Steadily,
unflinchingly, we strive to pierce the inmost heart of Nature, from what
she is, to reconstruct what she has been, and to prophesy what she yet
shall be. Veil after veil we have lifted, and her face grows more
beautiful, august and wonderful with every barrier that is withdrawn.

Camille Flamarrion, the eminent French astronomer, is a believer in
Thought Transference and Mind Reading, and has written the following
expression of his convictions on this subject: "We sum up, therefore,
our preceding observations by the conclusion that _one mind can act at a
distance upon another, without the habitual medium of words, or any
other visible means of communication_. It appears to us altogether
unreasonable to reject this conclusion if we accept the facts. There is
nothing unscientific, nothing romantic, in admitting that an idea can
influence the brain from a distance. The action of one human being upon
another, from a distance is a scientific fact; it is as certain as the
existence of Paris, of Napoleon, of Oxygen, or of Sirius." The same
authority has also said "There can be no doubt that our psychical force
creates a movement of the ether, _which transmits itself afar like all
movements of ether and becomes perceptible to brains in harmony with our
own_. The transformation of a psychic action into an ethereal movement,
and the reverse, may be analogous to what takes place on a telephone,
where the receptive plate, which is identical with the plate at the
other end, reconstructs the sonorous movement transmitted, not by means
of sound, but by electricity."

We have quoted at length from this eminent authority to show once and
for all that this great science of MIND-READING is recognized, and
approved of by the highest authorities on Modern Science, and also to
give our students the benefit of the current scientific theories upon
the subject. In this work we have but very little to say about theory,
but shall confine ourselves to facts, and actual instruction.

Science knows and has proven that thoughts may be and have been
transmitted from one mind to another, in some cases over thousands of
miles of space, but it has not as yet solved the mystery of the "Why" of
the subject, and contents itself with explaining the "How." The nearest
approach to a correct theory seems to be the one which compares the mind
with the "wireless telegraph," and which supposes that the vibrations of
thought travel through the ether, just as do the waves of this high
order of electricity. The mind of one person acts like a "transmitter"
of the wireless telegraph, while the mind of the other acts as a
"receiver" of the same set of instruments.

There are undoubtedly vibrations set up in the brain when one thinks,
and there are undoubtedly waves of thought just as there are waves of
electricity. Science informs us that there is an increase of temperature
in the human brain during periods of thought-activity, and also that
there are constant chemical changes in the structure going on when the
brain cells are active. This is akin to the generation of electricity
in a battery, and undoubtedly acts in the same way in producing
vibrations, and transmitting them to the brain of another. Sir William
Crookes, in the address just quoted, points out the direction of the
scientific theories concerning the matter. But, this is all that we
shall have to say about the theory of Mind Reading. We shall now pass on
to the actual practical instruction. The student is asked, however, to
always carry in his mind the fact that Mind travels in waves from one
brain to another just as electricity travels from the Transmitter to the
Receiver. By holding this picture in your mind, you will have the whole
practical theory, in condensed form, right before you, so that you may
be able to act accordingly.




LESSON II.

THE PROOFS OF MIND READING.


As we have said in the previous chapter, the general public is gradually
awakening to the knowledge of the reality of Mental Transference, and it
is scarcely necessary to devote the time and space to a proof of the
reality of the phenomena in these days, although a few years ago a work
on the subject would have had to be composed principally of evidences
and proofs. But, nevertheless, it may be well for us to take a hasty
look at the nature of the proof in this work.

Nearly everyone has had evidences of Mind Reading or Thought
Transference in his or her own life. Nearly every one has had
experiences of being in a person's company when one of the two would
make a remark and the other, somewhat startled, would exclaim, "Why,
that's just what I was going to say," or words to that effect. Nearly
every one has had experiences of knowing what a second person was going
to say before the person spoke. And, likewise common is the experience
of thinking of a person a few moments before the person came into sight.
Many of us have suddenly found ourselves thinking of a person who had
been out of our minds for months, or years, when all of a sudden the
person himself would appear. These instances are so common as to be
generally recognized, without question. These occurrences have given
rise to the two common "sayings," viz., "Speak of the devil and his imps
appear," or "Speak of angels and you hear the rustle of their wings."

Mark Twain, in an article printed several years ago, spoke of a plan
that he had frequently practiced, i.e., that of writing a letter to a
person upon some subject, then addressing the envelope and inserting the
letter, and then tearing the whole thing into pieces instead of sending
it. He stated that in a large percentage of such cases he would receive
within a short time a letter from the person to whom the destroyed
letter had been addressed, answering the questions asked, or else
speaking along the same lines as those of the destroyed letter. We have
known of this experiment being tried on people thousands of miles away
from the writer, and also in cases in which the other person had not
been heard of for many years. There is a field open for experiment along
these lines which some of our students might investigate with profit and
satisfaction.

Perhaps the best available evidence of Mind Reading at the disposal of
the public to-day is that found in the records of the English Society
for Psychical Research. The experiments of the members of this Society
and other investigators have resulted in the piling up of a mass of
facts more than sufficient to fully establish the correctness of the
theory of Mind Reading. Series of carefully managed experiments have
been conducted, the results of which have conclusively proven that the
thought-waves set into motion by the mind of one person may be
consciously received by the mind of another. We shall quote here from
the reports of those investigators, in order to show you the important
results that have been obtained, and to set at rest forever any lurking
doubts as to the reality of the phenomena which may still find lodgment
in your mind. Remember, please, that these committees were composed of
some of the leading scientific authorities of England--men whose
standing and reliability, as well as whose judgment, was beyond
question. These cases form a part of the scientific records of the
English Society.


THE CREERY EXPERIMENTS.

One of the interesting series of experiments conducted by members of the
English Society was that of the family of the Rev. A.M. Creery, of
Derbyshire, England. This investigation was made upon hearing the report
of the Rev. Mr. Creery regarding a number of experiments he had
conducted with his four children. He reported that he had begun by
practicing a variation of what is generally known as the "willing game",
in which one of the party leaves the room, and the company selects some
object to be hidden, after which the person is recalled to the room when
the company concentrates its mind upon the hidden object, and the seeker
eventually finds it by means of Mind Reading. The reverend gentleman
said in his report to the Society:

"We began by selecting the simplest objects in the room; then chose
names of towns, people, dates, cards out of a pack, lines from different
poems, etc., any thing or series of ideas that those present could keep
before the mind steadily. The children seldom made a mistake. I have
seen seventeen cards chosen by myself, named right in succession without
any mistake. We soon found that a great deal depended upon the
steadiness with which the ideas were kept before the minds of the
thinkers, and upon the energy with which they willed the ideas to pass.
I may say that this faculty is not confined to the members of one
family; it is much more general than we imagine. To verify this
conclusion I invited two of a neighbor's children to join us in our
experiment, and very excellent results we secured from them."

The Society then began a series of careful investigations extending over
a period of one year. The utmost care was taken to obviate the chance
of fraud, collusion, mistakes, or outside influences. The experiments
were conducted partly in Mr. Creery's house and partly in rooms selected
by the members of the investigating committee. Having selected at random
one of the children, the child would be taken from the room and
accompanied by a member of the committee would wait out of sight or
hearing of the room. The remainder of the committee would then select a
card from a pack, or else write down a name or number which occurred to
them at the moment. The following verbatim report of what followed will
give you an idea of the results generally obtained. The report goes on
to say:

"On re-entering the room the little girl would usually stand with her
face to the wall, placed thus by us. But sometimes she would stand with
her eyes directed toward the ground for a period of silence varying from
a few seconds to a minute, till she called out to us some number, card
or what it might be." The report states that in the case of giving the
names of objects chosen, the child scored six cases out of fourteen. In
the case of naming of small objects held in the hands of members of the
committee, she scored _five out of six_. In the case of naming cards she
scored six out of thirteen. In the case of stating fictitious names
chosen by the committee she scored, at a first trial, five out of ten.

One of the experiments is reported as follows:

"One of the children was sent into an adjoining room, the door of which
was closed. The committee then thought of some object in the house and
wrote the name down on paper. The strictest silence was observed. We
then all silently thought of the name of the thing selected. In a few
seconds the door of the adjoining room opened, and the child would
appear _generally with the object selected_. No one was allowed to leave
the room after the object had been fixed upon; no communication with the
child was conceivable, as her place was often changed. Further, the only
instructions given to the child were to fetch some object in the house
that we would fix upon and would keep in mind to the exclusion of all
other ideas. In this way we wrote down, among other things, a
hairbrush--it was brought; an orange--it was brought; a wine-glass--it
was brought; an apple--it was brought," etc., etc.

The report to the Society sums up the following results: Three hundred
and eighty-two trials were made in the series. In the test of naming the
chosen letters of the alphabet, cards, and numbers of two figures, the
chances against the girl were 21 to 1, 51 to 1, and 89 to 1,
respectively. In the case of stating chosen surnames the odds against
her were very much in excess of the figures just named. In the cases of
the experiments of naming chosen cards it was calculated that a mere
"guesser," according to the law of probability, would be able to
correctly name _but seven and one-third_ out of a total of the three
hundred and eighty-two trials. The actual results obtained by the child
were as follows: On the first attempt, _one hundred and twenty-seven_;
on the second attempt, fifty-six additional; and on the third attempt,
_nineteen additional_--making a grand total of two hundred and two
successes _out of a possible three hundred and eighty-two_! On one
occasion _five cards straight running_ were successfully named on a
first trial. The mathematical chances of a mere "guess" doing this feat,
under the Law of Average, or Probabilities, are estimated at over _a
million to one against the chance_. And this was not merely an isolated,
exceptional case, for there were other "long runs"; for instance, there
were two cases in which runs of _eight straight consecutive successes_
were scored, once with names, and once with cards. In the case of the
eight consecutive cards it has been figured that the chances against the
girl would figure up at least 140,000,000 to 1, according to the Law of
Average and Probabilities. To understand just what this means it may
help you if you will think that the feat was like picking out one chosen
man in a population of one hundred and forty millions, nearly double
the population of the United States. And yet there are people who would
dismiss matters like this with the remark, "mere coincidence"!

The interest in the Creery children attracted the notice of Prof.
Balfour Stewart, LL.D., and Fellow of the Royal Society. This
distinguished gentleman testifies as follows:

"In the first instance, when I was present, the thought-reader was
outside a door. The object or thing thought of was written on paper and
silently handed to the company in the room. The thought-reader was then
called in, and in the course of perhaps a minute the answer was given.
Definite objects in the room, for instance, were first thought of, and
in the majority of cases the answers were correct. These numbers were
thought of and the answers were generally right, but, of course, there
were some cases of error. The names of towns were thought of, and a good
many of these were right. Then fancy names were thought of. I was asked
to think of certain fancy names and mark them down and hand them around
to the company. I then thought of, and wrote on paper, 'Bluebeard,' 'Tom
Thumb,' 'Cinderella,' and the answers were all correct."

Subsequent experiments with the Creery children, at the house of the
well known investigator, Mr. F.W.H. Myers, at Cambridge, England,
proved equally successful. The children