St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-01

combined will powers without any
physical contact whatever.
Accordingly lie was blindfolded again
and led forth from the room, and whsn
we had hidden the object again he was
| brought back TO the room aud turned
! around three or four times, until he did
| not know in what direction the door or
window lay, and then we sat around on
| chairS-there were only three OF us
and just willed him as hard as we could
to go to the hidden object.
| lile did it almost as eXpeditiouSly as
when we had our hands upon his waist.
| But he thought that might be the re-
! suit Of mere coincidence or accident,
| ana SO the experiment was repeated
again, and yet a third time, with equal
| success. Then he acknowledged that,
although the muscular pressure theory
might fit i'll some cases, it didn't fit his
own. | haven't yet heard that he has
| solved the mystery.
A SPIRITUALIST'S THEORY.
don't pretend to offer any eXplana-
ton of it myself. Ii | did. it is more
than likely that some professor or some
thing or other. with long string tagged
onto his name, would at once proceed
| to demonstrate that was all unmiti-
| gated ass. A Splritualist to whom |
related the above incident smiled be-
Eignly, and said that it was all as plain
as daylight to him. Thought itself, he
| had discovered, was a subtle force.
And as the magnet sought the pole, so
| did the emanations of one or more
minds seek 10 impinge themselves on
the mind to which they were directed
| whether spoken or not. And when that
individuals mind was in passive or
! receptive state. and not throwing bat
| counter currents of thought, they could
! be actually telt.
''It worked just like this" he contin-
| ued. wv hen you SAT around the sub
| ]ect OF your experiment and wllled him
to do something actual magnetic cur
/ rents which, had your vision been re-
| fined enough, wolld have been visible
! to you, leaped from you 10 him and beat
upon his mental battery. so to speak,
| which, being iii negative or receptive
state, recorded the message in the shape
of an impulse to do the thing that he
| was desired to do.
| IMPORTANT IF TRUE.
You don't know it," he added, but
| you have stumbled OH the key which
| uniocks the mysteries of spiritualism.
You have seen evidence that nina can
influence mind without the aid of
| speech, or signs or physical contact.
| Why should not disembodied mind,
! llidG pdl vi IL ilIdH NnlCu survives dlLCE
death, with all its attributes qulckened
and strengthened, influence an embod-
led mind in the same way? As mat
ter of fact, such Influence is exercised
continually to an extent that hardly
| anybody dreams of. There lives no
man who cherlshes aspirations for a
better life who Will not admit, if he be
honest with himself, that he has at
times experienced thoughts and i'm
! pulses which did not originate with
! him-Which came from some other
| source.
"The trouble is that persons seldom
| put themselves in state which renders
| them susceptible to these spiritual ill
| tluenceS. Often anG often they seek ad
| mission and find the gates barred
against them. If, when people are be-
set with doubts and difficulties, and the
| path before them seems dark and
| gloomy, they would queil the bitter and
rebelliouS thoughts that surge up within
! them. and with au aspiration for guild
ance in their hearts fold their hands
| and passively await the message of
comfort and help, it would be borne in
| upon them like great awakening light.
And the cares that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs
And as silently steal away.
| MAGNIFICENT CURRENTS AND CON-
DUCTORS.
There is no denying that all that
sounds very pretty" L said, "but to get
| back to things plain to the ordinary
understanding, why is it that in the
! great majority OF these mind-reading
| experiments it is necessary that the
| hands of the operators should touch the
| person on whom they are exercising
| their will power?"
The reason is self-evident," he re-
| piled. ''lt is to supply a conductor. or
| rather conductors, for the magnetic cur
| rents. When the currents are strong,
and the subject is peculiarly sensitive
| to such influences, no conductors are
| necessary"
why is it necessary that the subjects
| should be blindfolded?"
Simply that they may better shut
out external influences and reduce
| themselves to passive state
| These theories | give for what thew
are worth, and don't care how much
the professors may demonstrate that
| my SpiritualiSt friend is an ass. He is
used to it and can stand it.
| HARD TO EXPLAIN THIS.
| The unconsciouSly exercised muscu-
lar pressure theory will not account for
all the results achieved, even where
there is actual physical contact between
the subject and the operators. This
was strlkinglY illustrated in one case
which came under my observation. In
! order to convince a very Skeptical old
sea captain that there was something
in it," his own daughter, a girl of about
| eighteen. was chosen for the test. She
| proved such an excellent subject that it
was agreed i'll order to ascertain how far
she might be made responsive to our un-
spoken thoughts that we would will her,
i'll the usual way, to go to photograph
which we had hidden in the corner of
the room-it happened to be that of her
mother, who was dead-plck it up and
kiss it. Although our hands were upon
her, it was obviously impossible to con-
vey such ideas by mere unconscIously
exercised muscular pressure.
With her eyes bilndfolded she went to
the photograph almost in bee line.
| After a pause she stretched forth her
hand and picked 1t up. OF course to her
touch it Was mere piece of card board.
| Then came another pause, while we
| were. of course, all mentally ordering
her to raise it to her lips and kiss it.
oBEYED THE IMPULSE.
ITS really SO absurd" she said, with
a smile ripping across her face.
You promised to obey whatever i'm
pulse you felt" she was told.
well" she replied, Il felt an impulse
to kiss this thing, and I'll do it,
And she did. Then other experiments
were tried with her-such as willing
her TO go TO the piano and play certain
tune with which she was familial-and
they were all equally successful.
l have little doubt that the influence
| exercised is somewhat similar to that
which the mesmerist exercises over his
subjects, although in these experiments
the subject is not red uced to condition
of Inconsistencies to all impressions
except those which are conveyed by the
mesmerist. In one instance, though,
the girl with whom we were expert
meuting did lapse into a mesmeric or
hypnotic state, and a deuce of a time
we had getting her out of it. for she in
agined that she was holding converse
ton with her dead mother and didn't
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