In Mark Twain’s note to the Editor, about his article “Mental Telegraphy” he said, I once made a great discovery: the discovery that certain sorts of things which, from the beginning of the world, had always been regarded as merely “curious coincidences” – that is to say, accidents – were no more accidental than is the sending and receiving of a telegram an accident.(99). Twain’s position is logical. While many people say it is coincidental, I don't believe it is coincidental. It has been argued that, in regard to multiple discoveries, science and art are similar. When two scientists independently make the same discovery, their theories are not identical, but the core ideas in the papers are the same. Likewise, two novelists may independently write novels with the same themes, and coincedently conduct the same idea. The history of recombinant occurrences …show more content…
It seemed that the documents that would prove or disprove the story were only in Turkish, and some were in the Topkapi archives in Istanbul, not yet in digital format. I said out loud, “I need a Turk”. One minute later, I received an email from Izmir, from a Turkish woman doctor I had met a year before at a conference. I had had no subsequent contact with her, but now she wanted to know if I would accept her for one of my trainings. Sure, I told her – and by the way, can you locate and translate some documents for me? She did, and within three days I had the information I needed. It confirmed my suspicion that the story I was tracking was tall tail worthy of Mark Twain in his “astonisher” mode. I also had a fine and amazingly specific first-hand example of mental telegraphy, or mental texting. It