F.A.S. Ph.D. James Coates

James Coates, credited on his books as James Coates, Ph.D., F.A.S., wrote popular guides on mesmerism, hypnotism, thought-reading, and related psychic subjects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Surviving catalog records link him to books such as How to Mesmerise (1890), How to Thought-read (1893), and Photographing the Invisible (1911).

In How to Thought-read, he describes himself as a "Lecturer on Mental Science and Hygiene" and presents his work as practical, accessible instruction rather than dense theory. That plainspoken approach helped make his books part of a broader wave of public interest in mesmerism, clairvoyance, telepathy, and spiritualism.

Very little reliable biographical detail about his personal life was easy to confirm from the sources I found, so most of what is preserved today comes through his publications. Even so, his titles offer a vivid snapshot of an era when psychology, performance, and occult curiosity often overlapped.