Mark Twain spent years debunking fake mediums and mesmerists — then couldn't explain his own precognitive dream of his brother's death, or the cross-continental letters that seemed to prove mental telegraphy was real. Jimmy Akin traces Twain's strange turn toward telepathy, his membership in the Society for Psychical Research, and what the Catholic tradition says about psychic phenomena.

Learn more: https://mysterious.fm/426
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Further Resources:
• Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography: https://amzn.to/44xDq8D
• Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (Univ. of California Press, 2010): https://amzn.to/4fDKR4k
• Clara Clemens, My Father, Mark Twain: https://archive.org/details/myfathermarktwai0000clem
• Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: https://amzn.to/3TiC27q
• Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Univ. of California Press, 1969): https://amzn.to/4hggD8N
• Upton Sinclair, Mental Radio: https://amzn.to/3RCykFe
• Psi Encyclopedia, “Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)”: https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/mark-twain-samuel-langhorne-clemens/
• Mark Twain, “Mental Telegraphy: A Manuscript with a History,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, December 1891: https://harpers.org/archive/1891/12/mental-telegraphy-a-manuscript-with-a-history/
• Mark Twain, “Mental Telegraphy Again,” Harper’s Monthly Magazine, September 1895: https://harpers.org/archive/1895/09/mental-telegraphy-again/
• Mark Twain, “My Platonic Sweetheart,” Harper’s Monthly Magazine, December 1912: https://harpers.org/archive/1912/12/my-platonic-sweetheart/
• Chantel Tattoli, “Mark Twain’s Mind Waves,” Paris Review, August 25, 2020: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/08/25/mark-twains-mind-waves/
• Troy Taylor, “Mark Twain and the Supernatural,” American Hauntings: https://www.americanhauntingsink.com/twain

Chapters:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:32 - Twain's Early Life, the Civil War, and His Journalism Career
• 6:01 - Fame, Marriage, and the Move Into Fiction
• 9:30 - The Moral Climax of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• 16:27 - Later Novels, Bankruptcy, and Family Tragedy
• 17:55 - Twain's Formative Skeptical Experiences (Mesmerism, Phrenology, Spiritualism)
• 22:37 - Coining "Mental Telegraphy"
• 25:35 - The Harper's Essays and Joining the SPR and ASPR
• 28:09 - The 1858 Precognitive Dream of Brother Henry's Death
• 33:54 - Recurring Dreams and "My Platonic Sweetheart"
• 37:29 - Ghost Reports at the Hartford House
• 38:08 - The William Wright "Nevada Silver Bonanza" Letter Case
• 42:33 - Thank you to Patrons
• 43:05 - Sponsor: The Grady Group
• 44:27 - More Mental Telegraphy Cases: Frank Millet, Henry Morton Stanley, and the Lotos Club
• 48:37 - The Simultaneous Invention Argument
• 54:51 - An Apparition of a Living Friend in Montreal
• 57:34 - Livy's Turn to Spiritualism and Twain's Felt Presence After Jean's Death
• 59:33 - The George Bernard Shaw Mental Telegraphy Case
• 1:00:28 - The Halley's Comet Coincidence
• 1:02:34 - Reason Perspective
• 1:04:51 - Faith Perspective
• 1:06:37 - Bottom Line
• 1:07:36 - Further Resources
• 1:08:21 - Mysterious Feedback: #415 The Mattress Store Conspiracy
• 1:14:37 - Your mysterious feedback
• 1:15:15 - Thank you to Oasis Studio 7
• 1:15:22 - Jimmy's YouTube channel
• 1:16:03 - Next Time: The Butterfly People of Joplin
• 1:16:17 - ★ - Get your Mysterious merch
• 1:16:33 - ★ - Show notes
• 1:16:41 - ★ - Become a Patron
• 1:16:49 - ★ - Sponsor: Rosary Army and School of Mary
• 1:17:15 - ★ - Outro

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