The New Student's Reference Work/Telepathy

Telep′athy, a term used to cover all cases of impression received at a distance without the normal operation of the recognized sense-organs. It is based on the theory that two minds can communicate independently of the physical body. The subject has been so entangled with clairvoyancy and “fake” forms of hypnotism, that much so-called telepathy is unscientific. But it has been scientifically studied since 1882. The mind initiating the process is the agent, and the other mind the percipient. A common form of the experiment is for the agent to draw a geometrical figure on a card and the percipient, who can neither see, hear, taste, touch nor smell what is being done, reproduces the figure. Prof. Crookes suggests that the process may be one of transference of intense thought by inconceivably minute and rapid ether-waves. Other popular manifestations are the performances of test-mediums and apparitions of a person to some distant friend at the time of the person's death. The verdict of science, however, still is: “Not proven.”