Myers actually coined the word “telepathy” (“pathos-at-a-distance”) in December 1882 and theorized it extensively through literally thousands of case studies, linking it in the process to strong emotional connection between loved ones or a strong erotic attraction toward a beloved—“erotic” here understood in the sense of Plato’s Symposium—that is, as a metaphysically oriented eros that can be “held in,” sublimated (Freud was thinking of the Symposium too), and directed ecstatically toward the divine world of Forms. Indeed, telepathy was probably the signature idea of Myers, along with his
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