Before entering upon the subject of "How to Thought Read"—or rather, range of interesting subjects grouped under this title—it is proposed to deal briefly with the key to the whole, which is to be found in the revelations of man's inner life, soul-life and character, presented by somnambulism and trance, whether natural or induced. The use of a few simple terms having a well-defined meaning will help the reader and prepare him for the more careful study of the psychic side of human life. The somnambulistic and trance states may be divided, for the convenience of examination, into the Hypnotic, or state of hypnosis; the Mesmeric, or somnambulistic; and the Psychic, or lucid somnambulistic—or briefly, the Hypnotic, Mesmeric, and Psychic states. The operator is the controlling agent, hypnotist, or mesmerist; in spiritualism, the guide or control. The sensitive is the subject, the percipient, psychic, patient, or person who passes into the hypnotic, mesmeric, or trance states, etc. Hypnosis is the term used for the hypnotic state artificially induced by the agent. Hypnosis is the lowest rung of the ladder; the psychic or soul state the highest. The intermediate phases, as indicated in conscious or sub-conscious conditions of life, are innumerable and not readily classified.