Research source

Nichols, in his fascinating work, “Forty Years of American Life,” writes:--“I knew a Methodist sailor in New…

Date of account: Published 1893
Source: How to thought-read: A manual of instruction in the strange and mystic in daily life, psychic phenomena, including hypnotic, mesmeric, and psychic states, mind and muscle reading, thought transference, psychometry, clairvoyance, and phenomenal spiritualism
Reference: How to thought-read: A manual of instruction in the strange and mystic in daily life, psychic phenomena, including hypnotic, mesmeric, and psychic states, mind and muscle reading, thought transference, psychometry, clairvoyance, and phenomenal spiritualism · selected passage 100
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Nichols, in his fascinating work, “Forty Years of American Life,” writes:--“I knew a Methodist sailor in New York, a simple, illiterate, earnest man, who became what is called a test medium

Published source text

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Source passage

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Dr. Nichols, in his fascinating work, “Forty Years of American Life,” writes:--“I knew a Methodist sailor in New York, a simple, illiterate, earnest man, who became what is called a test medium. He came to see me in Cincinnati, and one evening we had also as visitors two distinguished lawyers: one of them a brother of Major Anderson, “the hero of Fort Sumter;” the other, a gentleman from Michigan, and one of the ablest lawyers practising in the Supreme Court of the United States. I had brought into the drawing-room a heavy walnut table, and placed it in the centre of the room. The medium sat down on one side of it, and the sharp Michigan lawyer, who was a stranger to us and the medium, on the other. The medium placed his fingers lightly upon the table. It tilted up under them, the two legs nearest him rising several inches. The lawyer examined the table, and tried to give it a similar movement, but without success. There was a force and a consequent movement he could not account for.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

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