John Randall Brown (October 28, 1851 – July 3, 1926) was an American
mentalist
Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Performances may appear to include hypnosis, telepathy, clairvoyance, divination, precogniti ...
of the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
, and was one of the first nationally popular mentalists of his age.
By some accounts, Brown was the first to publicly perform a mind-reading act in the United States, in 1873.
He was born in
Saint Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which ...
.
Life
As a young man, Brown worked in his family's machine shop. On August 5, 1873, Brown gave a demonstration of his ability to find objects hidden in a room to an informal audience in a saloon that so impressed the onlookers he shortly thereafter was giving public demonstration of his powers. Brown himself claimed he was reading his subjects' minds, though it's clear Brown was in actuality employed a groundbreaking
muscle reading
Muscle reading, also known as " Hellstromism", "Cumberlandism" or "contact mind reading", is a technique used by mentalists to determine the thoughts or knowledge of a subject, the effect of which tends to be perceived as a form of mind reading. ...
technique to get subjects to lead him to the objects.
His public demonstrations were so successful and remunerative that by January 1874, Brown had quit his job in the machine shop and launched a career as a performer.
Brown was quite famous in the 1870s, attracting national attention with his feats. He was described in one article as holding the American people "by the nape of the neck, controlling the press as absolutely as a Napoleon or a Czar". Among people living through the progress and wonders of the
Second Industrial Revolution
The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, was a phase of rapid scientific discovery, standardization, mass production and industrialization from the late 19th century into the early 20th century. The Firs ...
, Brown helped create the popular impression that
telepathy
Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...
was a real skill that mankind was on the cusp of developing.
Several scientific institutions were interested in Brown's abilities and he was investigated by a number of scientific authorities, including doctors at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
,
Rush Medical College
Rush Medical College is the medical school of Rush University, located in the Illinois Medical District, about 3 km (2 miles) west of the Loop in Chicago. Offering a full-time Doctor of Medicine program, the school was chartered in 1837, and ...
, and the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
. These doctors' findings supported Brown's claims that he was able to read minds, and Brown incorporated copy from their findings into his promotional posters.
Brown was the subject of some investigation and journalism by American neurologist
George M. Beard. In 1874, Beard - irritated that Brown's abilities enjoyed so much excitement and attention in the scientific community - tested and examined Brown's claims in a New Haven music hall and (correctly) deduced that Brown's abilities were in fact due to
muscle reading
Muscle reading, also known as " Hellstromism", "Cumberlandism" or "contact mind reading", is a technique used by mentalists to determine the thoughts or knowledge of a subject, the effect of which tends to be perceived as a form of mind reading. ...
and not "thought transference" as Brown himself claimed. Beard also wrote a series of journalistic articles to this effect, but these were largely ignored by popular audiences and by his scientific peers.
Brown continued performing until 1923, at which time he retired to Minneapolis, taking jobs around the area as a printer and photographer. He died three years later in 1926.
Several of Brown's stage assistants, such as
Washington Irving Bishop
Washington Irving Bishop, also known as Wellington (4 March 1855 – 13 May 1889) was an American stage mentalist. He started his career as an assistant under the muscle reader J. Randall Brown, but was most well known for his performance of t ...
, took the information they gleaned in Brown's employ and went on to profitable solo careers of their own in the art.
Act
Brown was an early proponent of
muscle reading
Muscle reading, also known as " Hellstromism", "Cumberlandism" or "contact mind reading", is a technique used by mentalists to determine the thoughts or knowledge of a subject, the effect of which tends to be perceived as a form of mind reading. ...
, sometimes called "contact mind reading" or "Cumberlandism" after
Stuart Cumberland
Stuart Cumberland (1857–1922) was an English mentalist known for his demonstrations of "thought reading".
Cumberland was famous for performing blindfolded feats such as identifying a hidden object in a room that a person had picked out or ...
, although Brown's act predated Cumberland's, and Brown himself is often credited with starting the vogue for the art.
The very term "muscle reading" was coined in a series of articles about Brown's abilities.
Brown's shows also combined elements of the
willing game and traditional
séance
A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spe ...
s. One of his trademark acts was the one in which he instructed the audience that while he was out of the room they were to select one of their own to be an imaginary murderer, one the victim, and something in the room to be the murder weapon. When they were done, Brown would return, take hold of one audience member by the wrist and physically lead that person to all three selections - "reading" the muscle resistance (or lack thereof) the audience member would give as he led them about the room. Much of his act consisted of variations on finding things he could not possibly know the location of.
While an expert muscle reader, Brown still described this trick to his audience as "
mind reading".
References
Further reading
*
George M. Beard. (1882)
''The Study of Trance, Muscle-Reading and Allied Phenomena in Europe and America'' New York.
*Barry H. Wiley. (2012). ''The Thought Reader Craze: Victorian Science at the Enchanted Boundary''. McFarland.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, J. Randall
1851 births
1926 deaths
19th-century American people
American magicians
Mentalists
People from St. Louis