Telepathy was known as “mental radio” during William Moulton Marston’s time. The term was popularized by Upton Sinclair’s book with the same title.1 Sinclair was not the one to coin the term. According to archives, Grant Wallace used “mental radio” earlier but this was never published during his lifetime. Matt Berger, Wallace’s grandson, thinks Sinclair must have heard of the term from Wallace2 since Sinclair and Wallace belonged to the same circle.
The 1909 article “The Literary Craftsmen of Carmel”3 provides circumstantial evidence to Berger's claim. The article talks about Grant Wallace and Upton Sinclair (with photos) along with other craftsmen of the time.
Mark Twain also talked about telepathy years earlier in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine on two occasions, but Twain used “mental telegraphy”4, 5 instead of mental radio.
In Wonder Woman comics, mental radio is first seen in Sensation Comics #3 (Mar. 1942)6 and appears in the eponymous Wonder Woman #1 (Summer 1942)7 six months later.
A number of superheroes in the golden age of comics had used telepathy before Wonder Woman ever did. However, Wonder Woman is the first to heavily feature a mental radio device to communicate over long distances, bridging the gap between fantasy (magic telepathy) and science fiction (telepathy device).
Marston discussed mental radio in Olive Richard’s article “Has This Ever Happened to You?” in The Family Circle magazine.8
“The results strongly indicate that communication by mental radio, or ‘extra-sensory perception,’ as it is called, is a fairly common phenomenon in everyday life… Just such occurrences as that encouraged us to begin experiments in telepathy more than twenty years ago at Harvard” (Marston qtd. in Richard 14).
Marston is the only superhero creator of the golden age of comics to incorporate real-world research into comic books. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman, had nothing to do with the X-ray technology commonly used today, even though Superman has X-ray vision.
Marston’s telepathy research was never published. How can he provide reproducible data like the systolic blood pressure measurements used in his lie detection research? No empirical proof.
Wonder Woman’s golden lasso is the only superhero device modeled from a psychological laboratory discovery – the lie detector.
Wonder Woman is called “psychology’s superhero” by the American Psychological Association9 because of Marston’s contributions to the field.
So, why did Marston include mental radio in Wonder Woman comics? Because of his fascination with mental processes as a psychologist, and to show that openness trumps violence, and to reinforce the notion of a united sisterhood.
Notes
1. Upton Sinclair. Mental Radio. Pasadena: Upton Sinclair, 1930.
2. Michael Bonesteel. “Grant Wallace and the Legacy of a Forgotten Genius.” Riot Material, 13 Apr. 2022, riotmaterial.com. Accessed 18 Aug. 2026.
<https://www.riotmaterial.com/grant-wallace-legacy-of-forgotten-genius/>.
3. The Literary Pilgrim [pseudonym]. “The Literary Craftsmen of Carmel.” San Francisco Call 17 Jan. 1909: p. 5.
4. Mark Twain. “Mental Telegraphy: A Manuscript with a History.” Harper's New Monthly Magazine Dec. 1891: 95-104.
5. Mark Twain. “Mental Telegraphy Again.” Harper's New Monthly Magazine Sept. 1895: 521-24.
6. Charles Moulton (w), Harry G. Peter (a). Sensation Comics #3 (Mar. 1942), J. R. Publishing Company [DC Comics]. p. 9.
7. Charles Moulton (w), Harry G. Peter (a). Wonder Woman #1 (Summer 1942), Wonder Woman Publishing Company, Inc. [DC Comics]. p. 1D.
8. Olive Richard (Olive Byrne). “Has This Ever Happened to You?” The Family Circle 7 Jan. 1938: 14-16.
9. Lea Winerman. “Psychology's Superhero.” Monitor on Psychology 47.9 (2016): 84. Rpt. in American Psychological Association. Web. 18 Aug. 2026. <https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/10/superhero>.
Reference
U.S. Copyright Office. Catalog of Copyright Entries (Periodicals). Part 2, new series. Vol. 37. Nos. 1-4. January-December 1942. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1943. pp. 111 and 407.
[This volume shows Sensation Comics #3 was published on January 3, 1942, while Wonder Woman #1 was published on July 18, 1942.]
