Classed under muscle-reading are those performances and games in which the sensitive reads not the mind, but some special desire (of those with whom he or she may be placed _in contact_), by a “careful study of the indications unconsciously given by the agent or operator to the percipient or reader.” In both abnormal and normal thought-reading, then, are presented innumerable instances of the possession of psychic faculties; in the muscle-reading phase there may be, and it is possible all successful “readers” have, more or less sensitiveness, to take impressions. To cultivate mind-reading in a sensitive, the operator should first cultivate in himself the habit of projecting mental pictures, and think of things as seen by the eye, rather than as described by words. This is best done by calling to mind a landscape or domestic scene, by conceiving and mentally building up the same, and, by degrees, getting each feature or detail well stamped in his mind. It is well in the beginning of these experiments to make the scene as simple, and yet as natural and as complete in detail, as possible. For instance, let the operator think of such a picture as this:--A bright little landscape, having a well-defined cottage on the left, just on the margin of a small lake; boat with two figures in the foreground; rising bank upon the right; and a little higher up a defined windmill, well thrown out by the perspective of blue-ridged and undulating mountains, and sky in the background. The agent, having satisfied himself of his sensitive’s whole or partial powers of psychic perception, might ask:--“Do you see anything now?” and quickly and deliberately go to work, meanwhile formulating definitely such a picture as the above; even allowing himself to get into ecstacies over the scene--peopling the cottage and the mill, and introducing imaginary conversation between the individual dwellers therein, and so on. The sensitive will describe the whole as the same is _felt_ or perceived. This experiment may appear to some to be impossible, but the word impossible belongs to the limitations of sense, and not to the range of the things possible to the human spirit. Some sensitives and mediums take impressions from their surroundings--their clairvoyant revelations are often nothing more than so much Mind-reading. _Nothing more_; but this nothing more is a great deal. Certainly, it may not prove the existence of spirit, apart from the sensitive’s own powers; but it does prove that man has other avenues of knowledge than those with which he is usually credited. The development of mind-reading in the psychic states may be encouraged by a little judicious assistance or direction. Invite the sensitive to pay attention to So-and-so; to visit places, to examine rooms, or describe people whom the sensitive has never seen. But the places, the rooms, and the persons must be _distinctly in the minds_ of those persons, or agents, with whom he or she is placed in _rapport_.