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Literary notes about Telepathy (AI summary)

Literature reflects a diverse and evolving usage of the term "telepathy," ranging from its exploration as a potentially genuine phenomenon to its critique as fanciful or symbolic. Early sociological and philosophical texts, for instance, raise the issue of genuine evidence for telepathy by comparing it to cases like that of Clever Hans, questioning whether such instances are misinterpretations of natural intelligence rather than true extrasensory communication [1]. This skepticism is echoed in discussions that deliberate if telepathy is fact or merely a fancy [2]. Meanwhile, in the realm of magical and symbolic thought, telepathy is often interwoven with broader mystical principles, as seen when it is likened to magical homeopathy and employed to explain both benevolent and malevolent forces [3, 4]. Furthermore, literary accounts sometimes use telepathy metaphorically to capture the fluid, weak-to-strong gradations of human belief, such as the comparison to a disjointed bundle rather than a coherent chain of evidence [5]. Intriguingly, its representation can even extend to social or gendered contexts, as when authors suggest a peculiar sex-linkage to telepathy [6], or portray it as a psychological quirk [7]. In more rhetorical treatments, telepathy is depicted as a mechanism of perfect communicative synergy, bridging the gap between speaker and audience [8].
  1. What is the significance of the case of Clever Hans for the interpretation of so-called telepathy?
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  2. Is 'telepathy' a 'fancy' or a 'fact'?
    — from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James
  3. Some of the rules are negative and some are positive, but all alike are based on the principles of magical homoeopathy and telepathy.
    — from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer
  4. I will now give some instances of this magical telepathy both in its positive and in its negative aspect.
    — from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer
  5. Now, the evidence for telepathy, weak and strong, taken just as it comes, forms a fagot and not a chain.
    — from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James
  6. There’s a certain sex-linkage to telepathy, as you probably know.”
    — from The Lani People by Jesse F. Bone
  7. “He has a pathological attitude toward telepathy.
    — from The Lani People by Jesse F. Bone
  8. There is an absolute telepathy between the audience and the speaker.
    — from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein

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