thought transference

English

Noun

thought transference (uncountable)

  1. (pseudoscience) The supposed ability to transmit thoughts, images, or mental states directly from one mind to another without any known sensory channel.
    • 1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 39:
      This time they got into print, all right. But the much-handled stories, written up with that blend of cautiously defensive frivolity which the press habitually employed to cover themselves in matters regarding sea-serpents, elementals, thought-transference, and other irregular phenomena, prevented anyone from realizing that these accomplished plants at all resembled the quiet, respectable weed beside our rubbish heap.
    • 1954, Ian Fleming, “Allumeuse”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 108:
      How can one explain to someone who hasn't lived close to the secret heart of the tropics, at the mercy of their anger and stealth and poison; who hasn't experienced the mystery of the drums, seen the quick workings of magic and the mortal dread it inspires? What can he know of catalepsy, and thought-transference and the sixth sense of fish, of birds, of negroes; the deadly meaning of a white chicken's feather, a crossed stick in the road, a little leather bag of bones and herbs?
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