He started his career as an assistant under the muscle reader J. Randall Brown, but was most well known for his performance of the blindfold drive.

In the early 1870s, Bishop was the manager of Anna Eva Fay's spiritualist acts, but in 1876, he exposed her trick methods in New York's Daily Graphic newspaper.

[3]: 205 He arrived in London in 1881 where he was tested by William Benjamin Carpenter who commented that his talent may be great use to the study of psychology.

[2] The magician John Nevil Maskelyne objected to Bishop's claims of supernatural abilities, which provoked defamatory statements in return.

[2] On May 12, 1889, Bishop became unconscious for the second time in one of his demonstrations while performing at the New York City theatrical society known as The Lambs Club.

[17] Bishop's mother Eleanor and his wife both claimed that he was not dead, but in a trance state whilst the physicians examined his body.

As a tribute to the son she believed was murdered, Eleanor Fletcher Bishop had the inscription "The Martyr" carved above his name on his headstone.