TELEPATHY 71
our deepest prayers. A true telepath who could read minds at will
could easily become the wealthiest, most powerful person on Earth,
able to enter into the minds of Wall Street bankers or to blackmail and
coerce his rivals. He would pose a threat to the security of governments. He could effortlessly steal a nation's most sensitive secrets. Like
the slans, he would be feared and perhaps hunted down.
The enormous power of a true telepath was highlighted in the
landmark Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, often touted as one of
the greatest science fiction epics of all time. A Galactic Empire that has
ruled for thousands of years is on the verge of collapse and ruin. A secret society of scientists, called the Second Foundation, uses complex
equations to predict that the Empire will eventually fall and plunge
civilization into thirty thousand years of darkness. The scientists draft
an elaborate plan based on their equations in an effort to reduce this
collapse of civilization down to just a few thousand years. But then disaster strikes. Their elaborate equations fail to predict a single event,
the birth of a mutant called the Mule, who is capable of controlling
minds over great distances and hence able to seize control of the
Galactic Empire. The galaxy is doomed to thirty thousand years of
chaos and anarchy unless this telepath can be stopped.
Although science fiction is full of fantastic tales concerning telepaths, the reality is much more mundane. Because thoughts are private and invisible, for centuries charlatans and swindlers have taken
advantage of the naive and gullible among us. One simple parlor trick
used by magicians and mentalists is to use a shill-an accomplice
planted in the audience whose mind is then "read" by the mentalist.
The careers of several magicians and mentalists, in fact, have been
based on the famous "hat trick," in which people write private messages on strips of paper, which are then placed in a hat. The magician
then proceeds to tell the audience what is written on each strip of paper, amazing everyone. There is a deceptively simple explanation for
this ingenious trick (see the notes).
One of the most famous cases of telepathy did not involve a shill
but an animal, Clever Hans, a wonder horse that astonished European
audiences in the 1890s. Clever Hans, to the amazement of audiences,
our deepest prayers. A true telepath who could read minds at will
could easily become the wealthiest, most powerful person on Earth,
able to enter into the minds of Wall Street bankers or to blackmail and
coerce his rivals. He would pose a threat to the security of governments. He could effortlessly steal a nation's most sensitive secrets. Like
the slans, he would be feared and perhaps hunted down.
The enormous power of a true telepath was highlighted in the
landmark Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, often touted as one of
the greatest science fiction epics of all time. A Galactic Empire that has
ruled for thousands of years is on the verge of collapse and ruin. A secret society of scientists, called the Second Foundation, uses complex
equations to predict that the Empire will eventually fall and plunge
civilization into thirty thousand years of darkness. The scientists draft
an elaborate plan based on their equations in an effort to reduce this
collapse of civilization down to just a few thousand years. But then disaster strikes. Their elaborate equations fail to predict a single event,
the birth of a mutant called the Mule, who is capable of controlling
minds over great distances and hence able to seize control of the
Galactic Empire. The galaxy is doomed to thirty thousand years of
chaos and anarchy unless this telepath can be stopped.
Although science fiction is full of fantastic tales concerning telepaths, the reality is much more mundane. Because thoughts are private and invisible, for centuries charlatans and swindlers have taken
advantage of the naive and gullible among us. One simple parlor trick
used by magicians and mentalists is to use a shill-an accomplice
planted in the audience whose mind is then "read" by the mentalist.
The careers of several magicians and mentalists, in fact, have been
based on the famous "hat trick," in which people write private messages on strips of paper, which are then placed in a hat. The magician
then proceeds to tell the audience what is written on each strip of paper, amazing everyone. There is a deceptively simple explanation for
this ingenious trick (see the notes).
One of the most famous cases of telepathy did not involve a shill
but an animal, Clever Hans, a wonder horse that astonished European
audiences in the 1890s. Clever Hans, to the amazement of audiences,