We will say that, when the test conditions have been imposed, the one who is to send the message will take a white card and hold it against a black background. Here he is projecting a mental image. It can scarcely be called thought. It is mental photography, as it were. But it is the plainest kind of an image to send. He is concentrated on the contour of this image and he is holding his thoughts faithfully on the image in question. The mind-reader - we are assuming that he is a mind-reader - will say, "I see a white square and everything is very dark about it." This is rather convincing but it might be caused by the tight bandages over the eyes. So they try another test. This time it is some article, such as a knife. He sees it and describes it. Then he goes on with numbers, names, etc. They are satisfied that he is right. But most investigators are so certain that the theories they are to investigate are wrong that they allow prejudice to creep in and prevent much that might be easily given if they were fair.

Now a word as to the manner in which these images are received. You will naturally want to know how a mind-reader can tell what he is getting. Can he hear it; can he see it, or how? All ways; I will explain: The most common form of receiving a telepathic message is through the agency of a mental image. That is to say, the mind-reader has before his closed and bandaged eyes a black surface usually. We will say that the figure 10 is the image projected. He will see many numbers likely but none distinct. Finally 10 comes and stays. He knows that is the one sent; or at least, he is pretty certain.

If he has spent a long time at the work it is probable that he receives his messages through what we would term "Clairaudience," or he hears them - as the girl I mentioned - spoken. It may be a name, yet it is repeated in his ear as plainly as though he had a confederate standing beside him telling him everything as it was selected.

The next is through intuition. That is when the message is sent, it mingles with the thoughts of the receiver and he learns to tell what are his and what are originated somewhere else.

In every-day life we receive telepathic images in the same way. They usually come as though they were originated by ourselves. We will think that we have formed that certain line of thought when we actually have received it from some other source. Occasionally, when we arc in the right condition, we hear it, but generally get it in the way just described.

But we will pass the phenomena of mind-reading here and look for the lessons it teaches us. As I have stated previously, psychology can be of use to us only as it teaches us lessons that we can apply to everyday life. I believe that we have a few lessons to learn from mind-reading. It teaches us how to become passive. The operator about to receive impressions, sits very still. He learns that he must relax his muscles and put his mind at rest. If we were to take up the methods he employs and apply them to our lives, we would find that the proposition of rest is not as hard a problem to solve as we at first thought. It also teaches us that, closely allied to this passive restful state, is the practice of mediation. It is safe to say that people do not generally see the power that lies in mediation. It is the absorbtion of what we have learned. In study we learn to use the faculties of observation and reflection. These are located in the forehead; they are necessarily objective, or conscious faculties. But it is seldom that one uses his meditation in the right direction. He exhausts too much nerve force in his process of thinking. The average student will study hours and hours to get his lesson. He crowds his brain and the result will finally be brain fag or nervous exhaustion, taking the form of a general break-down or nervous prostration. If he would study less and take more time for the absorbtion of those studies he would have his lessons better and he would be brighter for it.

In reading an interesting story, we can sit for hours at a time and not experience fatigue. When we are through with the book we can relate the story accurately. Why cannot the student do the same thing? In reading an interesting story, we are passive, calm and at ease in every respect. We like to draw our chairs up to the fire on a wintry or rainy day, lean back in the cushions and put our feet upon a stool. Then we are comfortable. We settle down and - Concentrate. Our concentration is passive and there is nothing in the process that should exhaust in the least.

Students of the occult do not appreciate this fact as fully as they should. They will try to accomplish with the subconscious what should be accomplished with the conscious. They learn to cast grave shadows of doubt on the conscious and believe that the subconscious is the all-powerful. Mediation is one of the greatest mental exercises and mediums of thinking out problems known to psychologists. But the mind and body must be at rest before we can receive the fullest benefits.

People who use mediation go about it in vastly different ways, according to the individual habits and modes of living. In the Orient, the adept will seclude himself from his fellows and remain in the depths of the jungle. He will practice mediation, but instead of thinking of outside objects he will apply this mental power to himself, "looking inwardly," as he might express it. He will concentrate on the tip of his nose for hours at a time. He will mediate upon the sense of taste and the result is he makes it very acute. He will mediate upon the powers of his soul and in the end he has acquired powers that you and I would scarcely believe existed. But we could not do the same thing here in the Occident. We have to pay rent, buy clothing and food and meet many other obligations that serve to keep these inner powers in abeyance.

The workman who has things over which he wishes to think will wait until after supper; then he will light his pipe and retire to the comfortable shade of a tree in his back yard. As he watches the smoke curl upward he will build up the fabric of his thoughts. He will dream of what might be and will try to solve the problem. The workman that does this is quite frequently the one who succeeds. The man who gives way to his temper will fail.