Thought-Reading
A term somewhat loosely applied to various forms of apparent thought-transference, even where the method employed is muscle-reading or actual fraud. It must not be confused with telepathy, for, though both terms are sometimes used synonymously, the latter implies the direct action of one mind on another, independent of the ordinary sense-channels, while no such restrictions are Tii contained in the term "thought-reading." In early times, when outbursts of ecstatic frenzy were ascribed to demoniac possession, we find the ecstatics credited with the power to read thoughts; witches were supposed to be endowed with the same faculty; Paracelsus and the early magnetists recognised its existence. The advent of spiritualism gave to thought-reading a new impetus. It was now the spirits who read the thoughts of the sitters and replied to them with raps and table-turnings. Until quite recently, however, thought-reading was attributed either to occultism or fraud. Not only was the "ethereal vibration" theory unthought of, but the phenomena of hyperæsthesia and "subconscious whispering were very imperfectly understood in their bearing on thought-reading. Yet it is probable that these last offered a satisfactory explanation in many cases, especially when the subject was entranced. Professional thought-readers who performed on public platforms indulged largely in fraud. (See Telepathy.) "