Show Finds Thought Reading Easier Than f r- r 4 Addition Challenges Skeptics r Dunninger Denies Supernatural Aid Credits Telepathy w By ALBERT J. J Released by y Western Newspaper Union s Arithmetic tic was tough for Joe Dunninger So he found an easy way to get the answers He just read them from the minds of his teacher classmates This was fun so after school Joe tried reading others others' minds He soon found out says he that if a person would concentrate upon any simple question for a second he could tell exactly what that person was think think- I ing Today 35 years later Joseph Dunninger is still reading others others' thoughts on the radio over the tele- tele telephone telephone phone and previously on the thes s stages of America and most foreign countrIes I After relating how he discovered his thought reading ability Dunnin- Dunnin Dunninger Dunninger ger a tall solid solia man with receding hair and searching eyes emphasized emphasized sized There is nothing supernatural about my work and I am not a for for- fortune fortune tune teller tener I Those are the words with which i he be usually opens his weekly per per- performance performance before a visible and radio audience A few seconds later he calls from his desk on the stage Someone is thinking of Harriet I Will that person please rise A woman in the audience rises I I j Dunninger asks her Have we ever met before madame I No she answers Very well continues Dun Dun- You are thinking of a Har- Har Harriet Harriet riet Davis Her address is South Campbell street Is that cor- cor correct correct i Absolutely gasps the woman Dunninger calls out I seem to get a word that looks like Baylor It seems to be n a university I A military officer stands up Is that your thought sir The officer nods and Dunninger calls out with great emphasis Do you swear that I have prearranged nothing with you and that you have not revealed this information to any any- anyone anyone one in the audience I do sir answers the officer Very well says Dunninger You are thinking of Baylor Uni- Uni University in Waco Texas You stud stud- studied studied there and now you are thinking of the course you took Chemistry and pre Is that right It certainly is answers the of- of officer officer Judges Check Show Carefully watching these strange proceedings are three judges seated near Dunninger They are usually famo famous s persons such as U. U S. S Sen Hattie W. W Caraway Paul Whiteman Judge Edward R R. Koch of the New NewYork NewYork York Supreme court and John A. A Zellers president of the Advertising Club of New York all of whom have acted as observers on the program Recently Maj Lenox Riley Lohr president or orthe of the Museum of Science and Industry former general man man- manager manager ager of the National Broadcasting company acted as a judge and as- as assisted assisted Dunninger in what was de- de described described scribed as the greatest long dis- dis distance distance tance mental telepathy experiment ever attempted Major Lohr seated next to Dun Dun- Dunninger Dunfinger finger in Chicago Ill telephoned Congressman William A. A Rowan in m Washington D. D C. C He asked Rowan to select any volume of the Con Con- Congressional Congressional gressional Record and then select any three words on any page of that volume Tell Mr Rowan to put his finger out a word any word instructed D Dunninger Major Lohr relayed the message Dunninger quickly wrote something on a large white sheet of paper Now the second he con con- contin continued tin ed and immediately wrote again And the third he con con- Now announced Dunninger I ask the judges judges' to initial this paper YM o 1 r r lG J dy w V q y L 1 i ia E R a a t. t ye r rr r p ti K rh f i JOSEPH DUNNINGER who bills himself as the Master Mentalist sits at a desk before the studio audience during much of his program Sometimes he writes on a slate or draws symbols that come to him from his subjects subjects' minds The Blue on microphone refers to Blue network I have written on so they can identify iden- iden identify it and then to place it in an en- en envelope envelope and seal it Then Major Lohr asked Rowan by telephone to reveal the words unanimous unanimous They were Thanksgiving and consent The enve- enve envelope envelope lope was opened One of the judges read Dunninger's words They were Thanksgiving unanimous and consent The paradoxical Dunninger con con- constantly constantly insists that his work is not related to the supernatural and in inthe inthe the same breath relates that he has asked the United States navy to let him make our battleships invisible to the enemy Hes He's a magician too When he gets bored reading minds he might be found on a stage making an elephant or two disappear disappear pear sawing a woman into eight ight pieces or if the sawing makes her nervous hell he'll just let her float in midair But thought reading occupies most of his time these days According to Dunninger this is how its it's done The sender must concentrate upon his his' thought The receiver does not try to form a preconceived idea of what the thought will be but keeps his mind open and then ac- ac accepts accepts the first impression without question I usually vision a black slate and my impressions usually come comein comein in the form of white writing or images upon this slate Sometimes Dunninger uses real slates as he did in Chicago when entertaining a group of H 4 youths at their annual congress The Master Mentalist called a young farmer to the stage handed him a apiece apiece piece of chalk and a large slate then told the youth to leave the room and draw any symbol upon the slate This Time Its It's a Real Slate Dunninger picked up another slate Almost as soon as the youth had left the room the Master Men Men- Mentalist Mentalist drew a large dollar sign which he displayed to the audience The youth returned and held up his slate On it was a dollar sign Dunninger hopes to try a varia- varia variation tion of this feat with Walt Disney of Hollywood soon He will ask Dis- Dis Disney Disney ney to draw Mickey Mouse Donald Duck or any other famous animated animated ed c cartoon character Dunninger seated in another room or poss poss- possibly bly another city will try to read Disney's mind and reproduce the character I am not an artist but I believe I can reproduce a fairly clear like like- likeness likeness ness he ventures He probably will succeed For although he says 0 v J. J IF t t ed Thom Thom- Thomas whom Dunninger has mystified THREE FAMOUS personages Hutton Dutton the heiress and Maj as A. A Edison the great Inventor Barbara assisted In a startling ex- ex experiment experiment Lenox Lohr scientist and radio executive who on thought transmission by telephone he is not a musician he succeeded in reproducing a bar of music writ writ- written written ten by Paul Whiteman while the two men were separated by the thick walls of different broadcasting studios Of course explains Dunninger I go out on a limb when I r read a single minds Naturally the more minds concentrated on the same sub sub- subject subject the easier it is to receive that subject Therefore in practicing thought reading it is best to start out with a group of minds concen- concen concentrating concentrating on the same thought Some of the famous minds Dun Dun- Dunninger Dunninger has read are those of Theo Theo- Theodore Theodore dore Roosevelt Calvin Coolidge Franklin D. D Roosevelt Eleanor Roosevelt the duke of Windsor Thomas Edison and Pope Pius XII The Master Mentalist discusses his strange art quite freely He f be- be believes e. e it could be developed for use usein usein in such fields as criminology psychology psychology and psychiatry but he thinks the time is a long way off because so little is known as to the nature of thought reading He be be- believes the reception is in the sub sub- subconscious subconscious conscious mind and possibly m may y operate as a radio receiving set A Mental Radio His theory is that he figuratively twists dials until he hits wave wavelengths wavelengths lengths on which he receives mes- mes messages messages sages or images Before a broadcast he tunes up by walking through the audience as ashe ashe he distributes slips of paper on which they are to write their thoughts These slips stay in the possession of the writers and every every- everyone everyone one is urged not to show his slip to anyone in the studio Those slips are the explanation of your mind reading act wrote on one person to Dunninger Some Somehow Somehow how or other you manage to read them probably when you walk down downin in the audience Another skeptic wrote You take the slips away from the people read them and re- re return return turn them without the audience real real- realizing izing it L He disposed of the slip theories by reading several thoughts which had not been written down I ask people to write their thoughts ex- ex explains explains plains Dunninger because it usually usually ally makes those thoughts clearer in their minds As for walking in the audience Dunninger says he does that to become acquainted with my subjects It seems to make the impressions come clearer and fast fast- er Skeptics Amuse Him Dim Skeptics are constantly trying to explain Dunninger's work in terms other than telepathy Sometimes this is a source of amusement says he Twp Two or three men investigating my work apparently were passing notes to each other in the studio during one Sunday afternoon broad cast Dunninger relates I kept receiving impressions of these notes One note read Dunninger walks down in the audience Another was Im a criminologist I dont don't get this Some day Im I'm afraid Ill I'll em em- embarrass barrass one of these investigators by reading his note over a nation nation- nationwide nationwide wide hookup My work cannot be explained ex- ex except except DS as telepathy and my offer of to anyone who can prove that I use confederates employees or stooges still stands |