The San Francisco call. [volume], October 26, 1902, Image 11

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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days when -I was Introduced to him ni *
Chief Glass. We were accompanied by tha'
police surgeon, a number of detectives
and W. A. Spalding. an editorial writer
on the Los Angeles Times.
Fear of me, probably, caused Dawson's
mind to concentrate upon his crimes with
startling intensity, for the scenes of a
safe- robbery flashed before my mental
vision with panoramic rapidity.
"You have an accomplice named Georga
Wilson and you robbed the' Santa Monica
Postofflce," . I exclaimed with conviction.
Gradually, through the focalization of
thought, I discovered' the details of sev
eral burglaries and told the detectives
where, to find the stolen goods. ¦ He ¦ was
convicted and sentenced. Criminals gen
erally carry their crimes about with them
In thought.. Indeed, the thought comes,
is harbored and fostered for years some
times before it finally crystallizes in tha
¦crime itself. 3 ~.
But this same potency of thought. as a
force may be as clearly proven in tha
case of one who is in no wise guilty of a
real crime and who merely reproduces
the crime ln pantomime, .as was demon
strated in the, murder test with Mrs.
Cowan in the photograph studio.
Mrs. Cowan was told to concentrate her
thoughts on the deed itself. When blind
folded I grasped her hand, an<X, then tak
ing 'up a dagger, approached the victim,
seated, all unconscious of his danger, at
Photo by Stanford Studio.
"By no means, so far as health is con
cerned. On the contrary. It would be 3
rather dangerous and foolish thing to do.
If your natural teeth trouble you and a
dentist cannot give relief without remov
ing them, why, by all means, have them
out— but don't supply their placp with ar
tificial ones. There Is nothing which
causes a doctor more trouble among el
derly patients than this unnatural cus
tom.
"I see you will not be satisfied untn X
explain why," he continued, laughingly.
."Well, the reason in a nutshell is Just
this: False teeth ln old age are an of
fense asainst nature. Why. do our teeth
decay and become of little use to ua as
we grow old? It is a hygienic precaution
of - nature to prevent the eating of food
unsuitable for old age— animal food ln
particular. When, therefore, an old per
son denes this safeguard of natura and
procures an artificial set of teeth that
are ouite as good as the natural teeth
for masticatins purposes, and ln many
cases better, the temptation is strong to
continue eating the same food as ln one's
youth and crime. , As a result, the sys
tem becomes clogged with protein and
waste matter and serious digestive trou
bles set In."
Is there any one who will deny that
this physician's advice as regards the die
tary of old age is entirely reasonable and
sensible? Old age Is a return to child
hood in many ways, and in no way mor»
distinctly than in the matter of food and
drink. As some one has said, "The food
of the nursery is the best in old age." A.
second childhood in this respect ia emi-
the lady's surprise, therefore, when tha
physician replied, most decidedly:
HERE Is a new suggestion— that
false teeth in old people's mouths
are an offense against nature— set
forth ln an article contributed to
What To Eat:
"I suppose I ougjit to be getting me a
set oMalse teeth, doctor?" said an elder
ly lady to h'er family physician. Tha
question was asked with that tone and
accent which show* that tho questioner
takes the answer for granted. Great was
No False Teeth for Aged People.
It is a strange truth.' but a truth never
theless, that* a person sufficiently sensitive
to thought Influence can detect a criminal
by his thought aura, even though he be.
naturally enough, unwilling to have his
thought demonstrated. ,
A case in point is that of a man named
Dawson, with whom I came in contact
some years ago - in Los Angeles. Mr.
Glass, who was then Chief of Police of
Los Angeles, asked me to interview a
prisoner . in the County Jail. The man
gave his name as Dawson and was booked
for- larceny. There was no 'tangible evi
dence against him obtainable, however,
and he had already been detained five
out the intermediary, ihe concentrated
her mind on the word Pardee, the name
of the Republican candidate for Gover
nor. Almost Immediately, after I was
blindfolded the word came to me, but it
appeared . backward ' thus Eedrap, and
thus I wrote it. ; .
I believe that we are indeed on the •?•
of a new dispensation. The time Is not
so very distant when telepathy will be th»
universal langauge. There will be flashes
from mind to mind, an exact picture of
the thought to be conveyed. "Words, after
all, .written or spoken, fall to convey the
exact thought. They are but clumsy sym
bols.
Think kindness, sympathy, helpfulness,
charity and faith and you will not need
a creed- to tie to. You will be a living
demonstration of your thoughts.
No one, who will give the subject In
telligent investigation, can doubt the mar
velous powerflf thought. Think health,
energy, vltalfty, cheerfulness, strength
and success for a year and you will not
need medicine or money.
Moreover, some 1 of my most Interesting;
experiments have been mad© without phy
sical contact with my subject. But just
as wireless telegraphy is nosslble— yet for
practical purposes we still find the wires
the best— so in thought transference th«
more tangible .results are obtained by us
ing some immediate medium of trans
mission. It may be an insulated wire; or
Joined hands.
In the intricate and difficult experi
ments demanded of one who essays th«
public exercise of his power, the condi
tions are quite different. If the tests were
possible of accomplishment through any
muscular sense, it would be far more won
derful than by the comparatively slmpla
process of making oneself subjective to
the mental control of another.
This theory, it seems to me, Is very far
fetched and grants to the thought reader
a power far more remarkable than any
I claim for myself. There are cases, no
doubt, among friends and "just for fun,"
where the- pseudo thought reader is
guided to some point of concentrativeness
by the purely muscular action of his com
panion; but this I hold to bo possible
only in. cases where the guidance is vol
untary and wholly conscious.
I have heard thought-reading designated
as ."muscle . reading." That Is, the- .
thought reader is „ accredited with an.
acute perception and Interpretation of the*
motor nerves as they become affected by
the action of the brain cells.
Therefore if she, who ia a mere pas
sive subject of a test, could convey her
thoughts to me, through thought reading,
how- much more readily may one detect
a criminal whose innermost thoughts
cling most tenaciously to hi3 crimes.
trated upon and the scene was reproduced
In detail just as she was picturing It to
herself. .r*;;
O>,HAT only Is mysterious which wa
have not yet fathomed. The tele-
I phone, which N by dally use has be-
I % on \? to us c °mmonplace. Is a deep.
A dark mystery to the half civilized
E. a m % ?£ frOZen nortn - Each P™ b *
em of life, as it presents itself for sola
turn is a mystery until we have grasped
!»»».«? .i. e bassdrum of our nursery
Sv „» th « final Problem we are con
rl^v -,. Wi w h tne ""known and-until
te™ u made U kn <>wn-the mys-
wrTtSf * UrC an open book " " is
-I i n in an ""known tongue to him
who has not found the key. Few even
>et nave read more than trie first pages,
but we seem to at last have discovered
the key. -'.
It is thousht
*J^«"l ht l t a force - nner Perhaps than
. ««- but quIte as tangible. It is
a powet for good or evil.
Thought is universal.
The individual reflects only the quality
and quantity of^ihought he is capable
of expressing Like the trained musician,
sense of harmony is so keen that
tie can detect the slightest discord or the
laintest melody, the person who tries can
ieel the thought vibrations of those about
nj™. classifying with unerring accuracy
the thought-aura of every one he meets.
I have frequently— In years past-been
obliged to leave a room where some in
tense discussion had recently taken place
because the waves of discordant thought
would strike my brain with the force of
* material blow. I have since learned the
art of mental self-defense and thereby
"Vit m ** self from th e "early grave" to
which the physicians unitedly assigned
xne. . •
When I was Quite a small child my
-tutor took me on a trip through North
amptonshire. One night we stopped at"
an Inn in Naseby. During the night I
awoke suddenly to find myself sitting up
in bed watching what appeared to be the
elm outlines of a. man and woman quar
reling In the middle of the room. I saw
the man seize the woman by the throat
and hurl her from the window to the
ground bejow. He then jumped out after
." , lasted but a moment and was
3, ess - ll was ln fact as quick aud
as silent as thought.
?w e T la .. nd i Ord> when E P° ke n to, admitted
that I had exactly described the details
?„ f. murder *Mch had been committed
in that room some time before
Now my theory is that the Noughts of
that man and woman continued to live
and vibrate in that room, producing a
mental picture easily discernible to the
mind of a sensitive. Every object is but
the material embodiment of a thought.
The thought itself must therefore have
form and substance visible to the soul
vision.
Thoughts are material, tangible things
emanations from the mind-which Is
e ?f •,I hey "^expressions of the soul,
•* men is both material and spiritual Mind
and soul are not spirit This is the stum
bling block in the way of all students
of psychology. They confound spirit with
mind. There is the transference of
thought from mind to mind— which is
telepathy-and there is the exchange of
Knowledge and sympathy between souls—
which may be called Inspiration. When it
comes to spirit, we are one and indiv
isible.
Some twelve years ago. on my first
visit to this country. I aroused consid
erable discussion by asserting that
thought transference 'was the natural
means of communication and that the
day was not far distant when the entire
world would recognize the force of telep-_
athy. To-day the person who does not"
realize the importance of psychological
ctudy is Ignorant. Indeed.
And yet the honest, earnest student of
SOME ten years ago there appeared before* the American public
a man "whose peculiar psychic powers were looked upon, as most
. marvelous and fascinating'. This man was : Dr. »; Alexander J.
t Mclvor-Tyndall, a young English physician, the. son of an : eminent
London surgeon and a member of one of the most aristocratic and
influential families in England. Since that time his demonstrations
in psychic phenomena have won him an international reputation,
though nowhere, perhaps, did his experiments create a bigger sensa
tion than. in this city and Iios Angeles.
Prof essor Mclvor-Tyndall is n'ow in San Francisco again and
¦ has written an article over his own signature explaining the mys
teries of his strang* art. For purposes of illustration Mrs. Allen
Cowan became the subject of the experiment before the camera at
the Stanford studio. ,
S In the same way I said. that I believed
I .could read the thought of an active
brain passing along the "wires" formed
by placing a passive person {he
Intermediary being ';.. Ignorant ' of - the
thought transmitted. From this.Cnatur-,
ally enough, the next step was to put the
theory-into practlbe. The rector, who Is
a stout, phlegmatic man; agreed to act as
the intermediary, and Sir Arthur Brooke,
a young man of strong magnetic power,
was to act as the concentrator. •¦ -
I suggested .that in cases where :the
"circle" was held with unquestion
able honesty of purpose the unbroken
circle formed a telegraphic system, the
joined hands acting as^-wlres, connect
ing each Individual with the dynamo or
the medium. 1 ¦.•«:-• -• ¦.¦¦¦* . •
Mrs. Cowan concentrated her thoughts
upon her . j favorite - ; horse. Almost in-
_ # stantly; the picture was conveyed to my
mind; without the Intermediary, through
/whose mind the. thought had to pass, be
ing conscious of it. ( ' : ¦-..* '
gj The fact that 1 " we unconsciously receive
I and absorb the thoughts and feelings of
| others I have many times fully illustrated
;- by this experiment, "in which. the conccn-,
trated thought. of one person is conveyed
-to > tdb through the subconscious " mind of
t another. _ ¦¦¦.'¦;. . -' • ¦¦:. '..¦:'¦'•'. f-:ST ¦ '.
' 'The idea- of /accomplishing; - this came
about In this way: It was during my re
cent, visit to my home in England. My
father was entertaining some guests at
dinner, when the conversation turned to
psychic' subjects. The Rev. Robert Guin-i
ness,, rector of the parish, asked why it
is that in holding ; for psychic
development the persons composing tho
circle were' invariably ' asked ; to Join
hands. ' . * . ¦¦ ,
The test was feadliftr.' thought through
the ¦ unconscious \ mind of a third person,
showing how- we; receive : and absorb
thoughts around us. Both myself and the
third party [ to ! the test ', ¦ who knew abso
lutely nothing of .„ what Mrs. Cowan was
to concentrate her mind on any more than
I myself did, were blindfolded. .
THE STTSBAY CALIi.
Whr bother about pott Ins
your name down on tbe trait
inp list at (he libraries (or a
popular book of fiction when
jou can gv.t (he name novel
complete In two lusnes of Tbe
Sunday Calif Why do yon gro
to a book (tore and pay a dol
lar and a half for a book that
1« published fn two, or at moat
three, lunei of the Sunday
Call.' Yon runnt read a ne«v«
paper The Sunday Call give*
jou all the ncw» «f the day; It
Kiven yon all the up-to-date
features of any magazine; tt
srive* you a popular novel. The
Sunday Call offers more to Its
readfera than the combined ef
fort" of any other ten papers
published In the world. A» you
must have a newspaper, ffet the
best— The Sunday Call. -
a table reading, and stabbed him twice,
and, as he roired over on the ; floor,
stooped over him ; and felt ' of his heart
to see if It had stopped beating.
This was precisely the mental -picture
Mrs. Cowan bad her thoughts concen-
nently desirable.
Of 800 persons over 80 years of ago ex
amined by* an English physician 60 per
cent were found to be moderate eaters of
light foods. 30 per cent were very small
eaters of any food and 10 per cent wer»
large eaters of hearty foods.
Lady Henry Somerset—who Is npt an
average woman— possesses such strength
of intellect as to make possible the seem
ingly Impossible feat of reading long
sentences through the agency of her con
centrated thought. Calve, although . of
the emotional and artistic -temperament,
possesses the rare faculty of self-forget
fulness to such an extent as to make her
an excellent subject for experiment.
Many persons, 1 believe, possets; to a
greater or lesser degree the faculty of
i Women as a rule are not good subjects,
as they become nervous and self-con
scious. That of course Is not because
they arc women, but because the average
woman Is unaccustomed to steady con
centration of mind.
In demonstrating my faculty of read-
Ing the thoughts, of those about me I do,
not claim any supernatural power. Nor
do I claim to read abstract thought. I
depend, at least in public demonstrations,
where one must be, reasonably sure of In
stant success, on the strength of mind
of those about me. For this reason law
,yers. physicians, writers, artists and pro
fessional men generally are the best sub
jects for experiment, because they are
accustomed to concentration of thought.
world of spirit, or that In the realms of
thought "there may be found the solu-_
tlon of niany of fife's great problems. Is
even more foolish than he whose over
credulous mind engulfs him In the super
natural, '". .--¦-;¦
receivings thought vibrations.' The power
"lies, in \ the -ability to make one's ¦ mind-,
receptive. It Is to a certain extent de
pendable upon one's susceptibility to hyp-'
nosis. ; .:-*-. .-., ¦ .• ' •¦-;• ;.;-¦'••;¦',;-¦..:;,'• ¦. :,.%¦¦
\ The attacks of syncope and catalepsy,
to which I have frequently succumbed in >
making experiments are the' result of too^
complete absorption i in the; subconscious- ¦
ness.'. The animation or « ; the ii physical "
senses is. completely - suspended. This
condition . m^y also y attend*: the; subject/
who concentrates ; his mind : too intently. ¦'
In this connection" an incident: which oc
curred during my, first visit' to thlsr coun-~ :
try. Bome ten * years ago, will be : remem-"
bered by many -San .Franciscans. ¦'
During a course of v experiments ma-le
at Metropolitan . Hall Thomas P. • Burns; ; :
'then, as now, cashier of the sub-treasury,*^
acted as my subject -for concentration.-
I was to produce in a picture the Idea
that was In his mind.. I Go not remember
who were the other gentlemen present
but as I took Mr.- Burns* hand and began
to draw^llnes on a blank piece of paper
with a crayon 1 they crowded thickly ,
•around us. Almost as soon as the i picture'
' .'.-.¦¦ '.•' : ; ::".: ¦:. .¦¦¦¦.. a ... : .. '
was completed I felt myseir going and.I
became unconscious. ,?.$pS^§^^IS^S
r I awoke after : three days of catalepsy
to find thai Mr.; Burns had also lost phy
sical.; consciousness and- had, remained. in
/the subconscious state; for; several hours.'
His /concentrated will had* completely sub
jected not " only > mine, - but his < own 'phy
sical" senses. ;i .; : : ;'.'¦. •v.V,'.', :.-¦•'
• In carrying' out experiments I am blihd
: folded, as an aid ; In) making ;my, mind re
ceptive\.to i the ; thought -forces about me.
If I, hadmy -vision it would be difficult-^
even impossible-^-to do away with my .own'
'. impressions. I allow myself to : become,
for :< the. time ' being, ; a ¦ part . of . the per
sonality .; of ,the : one whose thought I am
to demonstrate.;; His or her^mind, so" far.
as it l is" focused , upon* any ; one thing."; bo- •
I comes j mine.' ."'Like I a flash! there | is j regls'-*
teredMn my mind the object.of his ot her
thought.-' /It - is, I i believe, i a : high > degree
; of sympathy between . soul . and soul and
proves • the actual : brotherhood of ¦ man
kind.' :;,,¦ '-•:.;/¦¦.; >.¦¦¦¦¦. •.- ; •... - .<¦.- - : ;;
> The,, greater the ¦- sympathetic \ under
standing 3 of. those ; about ime-itho- more
clearly : the ' Impression ? comes, to .- me. '¦% In
trying , to learn j a; dumber of ; which a per
son is thinking, for instance', ! I may- catch
an 'indistinct' jumble of.; figures -and then
as -his 'mind, becomes • fully 'concentrated
upon it'the figures ;stand' out before me
with vivid distinctness. - The- subject ot
an ' experiment \ need not be ¦ a '- believer in •
thought . transference, but. he, must possess .
sufficient thought force to produce a men-',
tal s picture. ; . ".•¦_•-• . . . : v
.'A good example of this fact was shown
in . my recent ; experiments with Mrs.-
Allen ; Cowan' to ' illustrate this article.
Mi'm&8 '¦ blindfolded : while the party went
to^my father's study, in a remote part
of the house, and, taking down a bound'
: quarto • of ' the . Lancet, selected the word
."atrophy" " as the subject . of concentra
tion. Returning, they ¦ blindfolded Mr.
Guinness (who had remained in the room ¦¦
.with me during their absence) and placed
' hi? right hand . in my ,' left, : his left hand •
clashing,- Sir Arthur's 'rightT;. *' >
'•¦¦¦(For a moment my mind was a confused'
-b.lank,' and then I felt an Impulse to move
v In. the: direction of the study. This caused
consternation, as -the rector's portly form'
:' r came into contact with-fne drawing-room"
I furniture." The ' location / of ". the thought
was at •; length. abandoned, and the mind'
; ; of:ray 'subject' centered on the word it
self. A pencil and blank paper wera
; brought and I ' wrote down each letter
;asit came to me, "Yhporta.". -. \ :
.\ For an Instant every one thought I was
•wrong, until 'Sir -Arthur remarked that I
had written the word backward. As for -
/myself, as " the letters began to shape
themselves before my mind's eye, I de
cided, that the! word chosen was from
some : unknown Uongue. , . .:
It is a singular fact that words, letters,
numbers and . even • pictures frequently
reach my ¦ mind . backward,- or: "up side
down," as ; thaugb reflected in a mirror. *
In the same way when called upon to de
scribe the various colors, the colors which
are- complementary, to those thought of
come to my mind.' _. v ; ¦
., In ; my ; experiments before the camera
with Mrs. Cowan,' in the second test with-
the unknown finds bis path beset with
difficulties. How to separate the falsa
from the true, the genuine phenomena
from the tricks of the prestldigitateur, be
comes a serious' question. He sees prac
tical, clear-headed men of finance, busi
ness and literature become the victims of
the most flagrant Imposture In the guise
ot "occultism," and be decides to aban
don further research, lest he, too, find
himself the dupe of his own credulity.
But he who denies the existence of the
IS THOUGHT A FORCE?