Omaha daily bee., 1897-05-02
SpECULATM ON TELEPATHY
The Theory of Thought Trarsference and
What it Amounts To.
CLAsssD AMONG THE SCIENTIFIC fADs
The Wide Vista of Possibilities that
Lure Seekers After Psychic Phe-
nomenu-Absence of DEM
Onstrnted Facts.

The Scientific American for the 18th of
last March has an article headed Prof.
Crookes on Thought Transference," which
will be read by many with intense interest.
1t begins by remarking that no man of
science has contributed any thing to the re-
cent discussion of scientific subjects which
will appeal more plausibly and more enter
tainingly to the public imagination than has
Prof. William Crookes, F.. r. s., in his recent
presidential address delivered to the Society
for Psychical Research. Prof. Crookes, among
other services to science, has invented the
tube called by his name and which has re-
Gently attracted SO much attention in con-
nection with the wonderful discoveries of the
cathode and the X rays. He occupies so
distinguished a position in the scientific
world that a suggestion of his deserves re"
spectful consideration, though he has less
encd his authority by his unscientifc credul-
ity of fads. In the address referred TO the
learned professor said that the "psychical
science was the embryo of something that
might in time dominate the whole world of
thought" He has certainly raised great
expectations; we are all attention to the
novel views he may lay before US.
With the modesty becoming a true scientist
and which Is totally wanting in the usual
style of quacks and faddists--Prof. Crookes
did not pretend in his speech to have demon
strated the truth of his conjecture. He
simply suggested a theory to explain how
thoughts could perhaps be transferred di-
rectly from one mind to another, as is sup
posed to be done in telepathy. Was it not
conceivable, he simply asked (after making
an elaborate calculation as to the vibrations
which produce sound and lighO, that In
tense thought concentrated by one person
upon another with whom he was in close
-.rr,nofhA anIll in11pp A Inlpnnthip chain
along which brain waves should go straight
to their goal without loss of energy due to
distance? He does not here maintain the
reality of such thought transference, nor
even it's possibility or compatibility with the
properties of material substances such as
there are in this world OF ours, All he
claims is that we shall not deny its posi-
billty unless we can prove it to be incon-
sistent' with laws of matter certainly known
to exist.
is IT POSSIBLE?
Though a long experience acquired in the
study of scientific fafs and follles and fancies
has made me be slow and reluctant to accept
auy startling discoveries in such matters,
and. as a consequence, | freely confess that
| am incredulous tni the theory proposed by
even SO distinguished a professor, still l
must, and do, plainly acknowledge that !
cannot see the absolute impOssibility of his
hypothesis. 1t would be a vast, yet, as far
as | can see, not an absurd extension, of the
well known natural laws under which sound
Is conveyed by vibrations of the atmosphere,
and light by vibrations of the thinner ele-
ment either.
True it is that thought, in its proper mean
ing of Intellectual action, is spiritual, and, as
such. immaterial, The immaterial cannot
possibly be acted upon or transferred by any
substance; the idea, for instance, Of
virtue or vice, God or spirit, cannot be trans
mitted on wings or waves. But yet In man,
who consists of spirit and matter, sub
united into one being, thought
works in connection with phantasms, or brain
pictures; and these. for all We know, may
OF brain waves, or undulatior9. II
they are such, nothing shows the impossi-
bility, but, on the other hand, nothing proves
the slightest probability OF their being car
ried along a subtle substance-be II ether or
material more subtle still-till they
upon and afect another brain. on
the same principle as the waves OF air set in
motion by my friends lips produce CORE