Mrs. Sinclair, on pages 116–128 of _Mental Radio_, outlines on the basis
of her own experience the method which she thinks best calculated to
develop an ability to attain at will a mental state which will enable
some of her readers to receive and record telepathic impressions to an
evidential degree. I propose, at the same time recommending that
prospective experimenters shall obtain the book and read the full
directions, to attempt a condensation of them. To some extent I shall
interpret them; that is, state them in other terms, which it is hoped
will not be the less lucid. As a matter of psychological fact, you
cannot “make your mind a blank,” though you can more or less acquire the
art of doing at will what you sometimes involuntarily do—you can
practice narrowing the field of consciousness, so that instead of being
aware of many things external and of various bodily sensations, your
attention is fixed almost exclusively for a time on one mental object.
Some persons at times become so absorbed in a train of thought that with
eyes open and with conversation around them they are hardly conscious of
anything seen or heard. But it is best to assist the attainment of such
a state as Mrs. Sinclair does, by closing the eyes, and it is best that
silence should prevail. When one remembers how in revery he has become
oblivious to all around him, or how when witnessing an entrancing
passage in a play everything in the theatre except the actors and their
immediate environment has faded out of consciousness, he will have no
difficulty in understanding what Mrs. Sinclair really means by saying
that “it is possible to be unconscious and conscious at the same time,”
although taken literally that is not a correct statement.
But, according to her, in order to be in the state best fitted for
telepathic reception, it is not enough to narrow the field of
consciousness until, approximately, only one train of thought on a
mentally conceived subject occupies it. There must be cultivated also,
in as high a degree as possible, an ability to shut out memories and
imaginations, and to wait for and to receive impressions, particularly
those of mental imagery, which seem to come of themselves, and to expend
the mental energy upon watching, selecting from and determining these.
We are told that it is important to relax—“to ‘let go’ of every tense
muscle, every tense spot, in the body,” and that auto-suggestion,
mentally telling oneself to relax, will help. Along with this there
should be a letting-go, or progressive quietening, of consciousness.
* * * * *
She wisely says that if in spite of you the selected mentally-visualized
rose or violet rouses memories by suggesting a lost sweetheart, a
vanished happy garden, or what not, you should substitute thinking of
another flower which has no personal connotations for you. It must be
some “peace-inspiring object,” even a spoon might suggest medicine. The
reader will understand that we are now discussing the means for
cultivating ability to fall at will into the state for telepathic
reception; we are not talking about experiments with that end in view.
After considerable practice of this kind one will tend to fall asleep.
It seems that it is right to nearly come to that point, but one must
stop a little this side of the sleeping stage.
When one feels that some success has attended the practice described
above, he may proceed to actual experiments. The amateur experimenter is
advised at first to experiment in the dark, or at least in a dimly-lit
room, as light stimulates the eyes.
* * * * *
She goes on to say what means that you should induce mental relaxation
and passivity, narrow the field of consciousness. But at this point I
must depart from Mrs. Sinclair’s precepts and recommend her own best
practice. Her very first seven formal experiments were with her
brother-in-law making his drawings some thirty miles away. The results
were so remarkable that they deserve to arrest the attention of every
psychologist. The next seven experiments were made with agent and
percipient in different rooms, shut off from each other by solid walls;
and their results also were very impressive. Therefore I see no reason
why amateurs experimenting according to the light that they get from
Mrs. Sinclair should not make their very first attempts in another room
from the agent. Let the latter do as we find in the book was done; make
his drawing, call out “All right” when he is done, and gaze steadfastly
at the drawing until the percipient has made hers and signalized the
fact by calling out “All right,” then proceed to make another and repeat
the process. At least part of the time, let there be another person with
the agent keeping watch upon his lips and throat muscles, lest the
desperate theory should be advanced that at the distance of, say, thirty
feet and through solid walls “involuntary whispering” on the part of the
agent reached the ears of the percipient.
But how shall the percipient further conduct herself (we are here
supposing the percipient is a woman) as the means of getting telepathic
impressions? Adapting the directions given in the book, we should say
that, lying on the couch with eyes dosed, and having sunk into that
state of mental abstraction which she is supposed now to be capable of
attaining, she is to order her subconscious mind, very calmly but
positively, to bring the agent’s drawing to her mind.
And now we quote literally from the book, even to the expressions about
making the mind a blank. Although not technically correct, it may be
that to many not versed in psychology the expressions will be actually
the best to suggest to them what they are to do.
* * * * *
Mrs. Sinclair warns that “the details of this technique are not to be
taken as trifles,” and that to develop and make it serviceable “takes
time, and patience, and training in the art of concentration.” There are
special difficulties, at least in her case. In undertaking a new
experiment what she last saw before closing her eyes again, particularly
the electric light bulb which she lighted in order to make her drawing
or drawings, appeared in her mind, and also the memory of the last
picture. “It often takes quite a while to banish these memory ghosts.
And sometimes it is a mistake to banish them,” a fact which we have
noted several times in the account of her work. Another difficulty is to
restrain one’s tendency when a part or what may be a part of the
original appears, to guess what the rest may be, and to keep the
imagination bridled.
* * * * *
It is quite probable—and this Mrs. Sinclair recognizes—that the
procedure, now fairly clearly outlined, may not in all its details be
suited to all minds capable of telepathic reception. Mr. Rawson, as we
shall see in Part II, when successful, was nearly always so almost
instantly. On the other hand, the percipients in the Schmoll and Mabire
series were often as long as fifteen minutes making their choice. But it
would be wise to begin along the lines of the instructions, and make
modifications of method, if any, in the light of what personal
experience suggests.
It is hoped that there will be readers of this Bulletin disposed to
school themselves and to experiment in conformity with the above
instructions, patiently and persistently, and that, successful or not,
they will make careful records and report to the Research Officer.