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Telepathy
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Terminology
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Coined by
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Definition
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One subject said to gain information
from another that was shielded from their traditional senses by distance,
time, or physical barriers.
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See also
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Telepathy (from the Greek τηλε, tele meaning
"distant" and πάθη, pathe meaning
"affliction, experience")[3] is the supposed
transmission of information from one person to another without using any of our
known sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was coined in 1882 by
the classical scholar Frederic W. H. Myers,[1] a founder of theSociety for Psychical Research,[2] and has remained
more popular than the earlier expression thought-transference.[2][4]
Scientific
consensus does not view telepathy as a real phenomenon. Many studies seeking to
detect, understand, and utilize telepathy have been done, but according to the
prevailing view among scientists, telepathy lacks replicable results from
well-controlled experiments.[5][6]
Telepathy is a
common theme in modern fiction and science fiction, with manysuperheroes and supervillains having telepathic
abilities.
Contents
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9 Notes
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Origins of the concept
According to Roger
Luckhurst,[7] the origin of the
concept of telepathy (not telepathy itself) in the Western civilization can be
tracked to the late 19th century. In his view, science did not frequently
concern itself with "the mind" prior to this. As the physical
sciences made significant advances, scientific concepts were applied to mental
phenomena (e.g., animal magnetism),
with the hope that this would help understand paranormal phenomena. The
modern concept of telepathy emerged in this historical context.
The notion of
telepathy is not dissimilar to two psychological concepts: delusions of thought
insertion/removal and psychological symbiosis. This similarity might
explain how some people have come up with the idea of telepathy. Thought
insertion/removal is a symptom of psychosis,
particularly of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Psychiatric patients who
experience this symptom falsely believe that some of their thoughts are not
their own and that others (e.g., other people, aliens, demons or fallen angels,
or conspiring intelligence agencies) are putting thoughts into their minds
(thought insertion). Some patients feel as if thoughts are being taken out of
their minds or deleted (thought removal). Along with other symptoms of
psychosis, delusions of thought insertion may be reduced by antipsychotic medication.
Psychological
symbiosis, on the other hand, is a less well established concept. It is an idea
found in the writings of early psychoanalysts, such as Melanie Klein. It
entails the belief that in the early psychological experience of the child
(during earliest infancy), the child is unable to tell the difference between
his or her own mind, on one hand, and his or her experience of the
mother/parent, on the other hand. This state of mind is called psychological
symbiosis; with development, it ends, but, purportedly, aspects of it can still
be detected in the psychological functioning of the adult. Putatively, the
experience of either thought insertion/removal or unconscious memories of
psychological symbiosis may have led to the invention of "telepathy"
as a notion and the belief that telepathy exists. Psychiatrists and clinical
psychologists believe and empirical findings support the idea that people withschizotypal personality disorder are particularly
likely to believe in telepathy.[8]
Concepts of telepathy
A physical model
of telepathy, whether described as radiational or in other terms, assumes that
transference is effected by means of a vibratory current linking one brain to
another.[9] William Crookes proposed a
"brain wave" theory in which he claimed telepathy might occur due to
high frequency vibrations of the ether. Crookes had stated that there may be
parts of the human brain that may be capable of sending and receiving
electrical rays of wavelengths.[10] William Fletcher Barrett and Frederic William Henry Myers however pointed
out problems in a physical theory for telepathy and instead advocated psychical theories.[11]
In the early 20th
century there were two other prominent concepts of telepathy: the spiritualist position which
claimed telepathy was the result of external spirits, and a view claiming
interactions between two or more subconscious minds.[12] The subconscious
mind view was advocated by psychical researcher Thomson
Jay Hudson who
wrote that the mind is a duality and actually consists of two minds: the
objective mind (conscious) and the subjective mind (subconscious).[13]
The psychical
researcher John Arthur Hill wrote regarding
telepathy "No physical theory of telepathy has been worked out — there are
no "brain-waves" known, and no receiving stations yet discovered
inside our skulls."[14] George N. M. Tyrrell also claimed that
a physical basis for telepathy was untenable as ideas can not be transmitted
from one mind to another by any physical means without being first translated
into a code.[15] H. H. Price also suggested
that telepathy was incompatible with any material explanation, as a physical theory
of telepathy would reveal radiations detectable on physical instruments but
none have ever been detected.
Case studies
A famous
experiment in telepathy was recorded by the American author Upton Sinclair in his book Mental Radio which documents
Sinclair's test of psychic abilities of Mary Craig Kimbrough, his second wife.
She attempted to duplicate 290 pictures which were drawn by her husband.
Sinclair claimed Mary successfully duplicated 65 of them, with 155
"partial successes" and 70 failures. However, these experiments were
not conducted in a controlled scientific laboratory environment.[16]
Another example is
the experiments carried out by the author Harold Sherman with the explorer Hubert Wilkins who carried out
their own experiments in telepathy for five and a half months starting in
October 1937. This took place when Sherman was in New York and Wilkins was in
the Arctic. The experiment consisted of Sherman
and Wilkins at the end of each day to relax and visualise a mental image or
"thought impression" of the events or thoughts they had experienced
in the day and then to record those images and thoughts on paper in a diary.
The results at the end when comparing Sherman's diary to Wilkins was that
"Seventy-five per cent were found to be correct". A typical example
was on 21 February 1938. On that day, both Sherman and Wilkins had recorded
that cold weather had delayed their jobs, they both had witnessed that
someone's skin had peeled off their finger, they both recorded that they had
drunk alcohol with friends and witnessed boxes of cigars being brought and both
recorded that they had experienced a toothache.[17][18]
To rule out any
kind of fraud, each night Sherman had sent his impressions to Gardner Murphy, a psychologist at Columbia
University. Murphy had studied the Wilkins-Sherman results and
claimed that some could be explained by coincidence but that some
exceptions were unexplainable. One such example took place on Armistice Day, 1937.
Wilkins had attended a formal ball for the Army with the locals in Canada as
his plane was forced to land due to bad weather, Wilkins recorded that he was
worried about a dress-suit that he had to wear as the waistcoat was short in
size.[19] On the same night,
Sherman recorded in his diary "You in company with men in military
attire-some women-evening dress-important people present-much conversation-you
appear to be in evening dress yourself."[20]Wilkins
was very impressed by the results and wrote that:
“
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When we
finally were able to compare notes, what did we find? An amazing number of
impressions recorded by Sherman of expedition happenings, and personal
experiences, reactions and thoughts of mine. Too many of them were
approximately correct and synchronized with the very day of the occurences to
have been 'guesswork'.[21]
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”
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The full results
of the experiments were published in 1942 in a book by Sherman and Wilkins
titled Thoughts
Through Space in
the book both Sherman and Wilkins had written that they believed they had
demonstrated that it was possible to send and receive thought impressions from
the mind of one person to another.[22]
In parapsychology
Within the field
of parapsychology,
telepathy is considered to be a form of extra-sensory perception (ESP) or anomalous
cognition in
which information is transferred through Psi. It is often categorized similarly to precognition and clairvoyance.[23] Various
experiments have been used to test for telepathic abilities. Among the most
well known are the use of Zener cards and the Ganzfeld
experiment.
Zener cards are
cards marked with five distinctive symbols. When using them, one individual is
designated the "sender" and another the "receiver". The
sender must select a random card and visualize the symbol on it, while the
receiver must attempt to determine that symbol using Psi. Statistically, the
receiver has a 20% chance of randomly guessing the correct symbol, so in order
to demonstrate telepathy, they must repeatedly score a success rate that is
significantly higher than 20%.[24] If not conducted
properly, this method can be vulnerable to sensory leakageand card counting.[24]
When using the Ganzfeld
experiment to
test for telepathy, one individual is designated the receiver and is placed
inside a controlled environment where they are deprived
of sensory input, and another is designated the sender and is placed
in a separate location. The receiver is then required to receive information
from the sender. The exact nature of the information may vary between
experiments.[25]
Some
parapsychologists still proposed that telepathy may have a physical
explanation. The Italian neurologist Ferdinando
Cazzamali in the 1920s had claimed that telepathic communication occurred due
to a type of electromagnetic radiation.[26] However the
neurophysiologist William
Grey Walter in
his book The
Living Brain (1953)
wrote that electrical 'brain- waves' are too weak to explain telepathy. Hans Berger also held this
view but extended the theory by proposing that telepathy occurs when
"electrical energy in the agent's brain is transformed into 'psychic energy'
which can be diffused to any distance, passing through obstacles without
attenuation".[27]
In 1974 Michael Persinger proposed that
extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves may be able to
carry telepathic and clairvoyant
information.[28] Gerald Feinberg also suggested
that telepathy may exist due to as of yet undiscovered elementary
particleswhich he called 'psychons' or 'mindons'.[29][30]
In recent years
the parapsychologist Charles Tart has accepted the
existence of telepathy but claims that it is nonphysical in nature and can not
be fitted into any physical theory.[31]
Types
Parapsychology describes several
different forms of telepathy, including latent telepathy and precognitive
telepathy.[4]
Latent Telepathy,
formerly known as "deferred telepathy",[32] is described as
being the transfer of information, through Psi, with an observable time-lag
between transmission and receipt.[4]
Retrocognitive,
Precognitive, and Intuitive Telepathy is
described as being the transfer of information, through Psi, about the past,
future or present state of an individual's mind to another individual.[4]
Emotive Telepathy,
also known as remote influence [33] or emotional
transfer, is the process of transferring kinesthetic sensations through altered
states.
Superconscious
Telepathy, involves tapping into the superconscious [34] to access the
collective wisdom of the human species for knowledge.
Skepticism and controversy
Although not a
recognized scientific discipline, people who study certain types of paranormal phenomena such as
telepathy refer to the field as parapsychology.
Parapsychologists claim that some instances of telepathy are real.[35][36] Skeptics say that
instances of apparent telepathy are explained as the result of fraud,
self-delusion and/or self-deception and that telepathy
does not exist as a paranormal power.[37]
Parapsychologists
and skeptics agree that many of the instances of more popular psychic
phenomena, such as mediumism, can be
attributed to non-paranormal techniques such as cold reading.[38][39][40] Magicians such as Ian Rowland and Derren Brown have demonstrated
techniques and results similar to those of popular psychics, without paranormal
means. They have identified, described, and developed psychological techniques
of cold reading and hot reading.
A technique which
shows statistically significant evidence of telepathy on every occasion has yet
to be discovered. This lack of reliable reproducibility has led skeptics to
argue that there is no credible scientific evidence for the existence of
telepathy at all.[41] Skeptics also
point to historical cases in which flaws in experimental design and occasional
cases of fraud were uncovered.[41]
In popular culture
Telepathy is
commonly used in fiction, with a number of superheroes and supervillains, as
well as figures in many science fiction novels, etc., use telepathy. Notable
fictional telepaths include the Jedi in Star Wars.
The mechanics of telepathy in fiction vary widely. Some fictional telepaths are
limited to receiving only thoughts that are deliberately sent by other
telepaths, or even to receiving thoughts from a specific other person. For
example, in Robert
A. Heinlein's 1956 novel Time
for the Stars, certain pairs of
twins are able to send telepathic messages to each other. In A. E. van Vogt's
science fiction novel Slan, the mutant hero
Jommy Cross can read the minds of ordinary humans. Some telepaths can read the
thoughts only of those they touch, such as Vulcans in the Star Trek media franchise.
Star Trek science consultant and writer André Bormanis, has
revealed that telepathy within the Star Trek universe works via the
"psionic field." According to Bormanis, a psionic field is the
"medium" through which unspoken thoughts and feelings are
communicated through space.[42] Some humanoids can tap into this
field through a kind of sense organ located in the brain; in the same manner that human eyes can sense portions
of the electromagnetic field,
telepaths can sense portions of the psionic field. In the book
"Eragon", Eragon can communicate through his mind with almost anyone,
including his dragon Saphira, but it is possible to block people from one's
mind with a barrier. In the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling,
telepathy is a magical skill known as Legilimency. In the John Wyndhamnovel The Chrysalids, the
main character and narrator David Strorm is one of a group of nine telepaths.
In Anthony Horowitz's Power of Five series twins Jamie and Scott Tyler were born with
telepathic powers that enable them to read people's minds and, ultimately,
control them. They always know each other's thoughts, which earns them money
doing tricks at a circus in Reno, Nevada, USA.
Some writers view
telepathy as the evolutionary destiny of humanity. In Tony Vigorito's novel, Just a Couple of Days, telepathy emerges across the
entire human species as a result of the Pied Piper Virus, which inadvertently
eliminates humanity's symbolic capacity. In this instance, telepathy is seen as
a latent ability that emerges only when the distractions of language are
bypassed.
Some fictional
telepaths possess mind control abilities, which
can include "pushing" thoughts, feelings, or hallucinatory visions
into the mind of another person, causing pain, paralysis, or unconsciousness,
altering or erasing memories, or completely taking over another person's mind
and body (similar to spiritual
possession). Examples of this type of telepath include Professor Xavier, Psylocke, Jean Grey, Emma Frost, and
numerous other characters in the Marvel Universe,
along with Matt Parkman from the
television series Heroes.
The radio
crimefighter The Shadow had "the
power to cloud men's minds," which he used to mask his presence from
others.
The film Scanners concerns around
people born with this kind of telepathy as well as those with telekinetic abilities.
The Urdu novel
"Devta" is based
on the character of Farhad Ali Taimur, a telepath involved in the fight of good
and evil.
Technological
enabled mental connections (occasionally seen as a form of 'telepathy' as in
the following section, but not usually described using this word) are also
present in science fiction, often involving the usage of neural implants of
some description. For example, Robert Silverberg's
1971 story Tower of Glass features a
technology called a "shunt room" where participants wearing
"shunt helmets" are able to probe one another's thoughts, feelings
and memories. Another example is the Conjoiners in the Revelation Spaceseries
by Alastair Reynolds.
Conjoiners rely on their technological telepathy (referred to by them as
"Transenlightenment") to the extent that they no longer actually
speak. Certain Conjoiners are able to read, attack and control the minds of
other Conjoiners and machines (though not standard humans) using digital
attacks, often having similar effects to other telepaths in fiction. More
generally, the concept of technological mental connections quite often features
in science fiction stories featuring group minds,
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Converging Technologies,
a 2002 report exploring the potential for synergy among nano-, bio-,
informational and cognitive technologies (NBIC) for enhancing human
performance.
Recent BCI (brain-computer interface) toys like those developed
by NeuroSky have brought real
life telepathy to the general public. The MindFlex made by Mattel in
collaboration with NeuroSky was even ranked in Time Magazine's top 100 toys of
all time.[43][44] In this game the
player floats a ball by concentrating on it; an electroencephalogram is used to judge
the persons level of concentration through direct measurement of the electrical
activity in their brain, this headset then communicates with a platform
controlling the speed of a fan and thus the ball.[45][46]
In 2011 a Guinness
Book of World Records category was created for BCI based telepathy. The
NeuroSky MindWave was awarded it for
the, “Heaviest machine moved using a brain control interface”.[47]
Futurists think that brain-computer interfaces may make telepathy
possible. There has already been progress in connecting brains with machines,
and a man-machine-man bridge is considered very possible.[citation needed] And if
man-machine-man bridges can be made, then such a link can be achieved over
great distances using the Internet.
Technologically
enabled telepathy is also called "techlepathy," "synthetic
telepathy," or "psychotronics."
Some people,
occasionally referred to by themselves or others as "transhumanists",
believe that technologically enabled telepathy is a technology that humans
should pursue in order to improve themselves.
Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading, England is one of the
leading proponents of this view and has based all of his recentcybernetics research around
developing technology for directly connecting human nervous systems together
with computers and with each other. He believes techno-enabled telepathy will
in the future become the primary form of human communication.[48][49]
§ Abhijna, the
Buddhist "higher knowledges", the third of which is
"Mind-penetrating knowledge".
§ Extended mind, the
concept that things frequently used by the mind become part of it.
§ Ishin-denshin,
traditional Japanese concept of unspoken mutual understanding, sometimes
translated as "telepathy"
§ Lady Wonder, a horse
that appeared to answer questions.
§ Magnetoencephalography,
measuring the magnetic fields produced by electrical activity in the brain.
§ Mentalist, claims to
manipulate and change spiritual reality.
§ Neural
oscillation, a concept measured as brain waves.
§ Precognition, a form
of extra-sensory perception involving seeing future events.
§ Quantum pseudo-telepathy, apparent telepathy as a
result of quantum entanglement.
§ Velostat, a
purported insulator.
1.
^ a b Hamilton, Trevor (2009). Immortal
Longings: F.W.H. Myers and the Victorian search for life after death.
Imprint Academic. p. 121. ISBN 978-1-84540-248-8.
2.
^ a b c Carroll, Robert Todd
(2005). "The Skeptic's Dictionary; Telepathy".
SkepDic.com. Retrieved 2006-09-13.
4.
^ a b c d Glossary
of Parapsychological terms - Telepathy —Parapsychological
Association. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
5.
^ Jan
Dalkvist (1994). Telepathic group communication of emotions as a function
of belief in telepathy. Dept. of Psychology, Stockholm
University. Retrieved 5 October 2011. "Within the scientific community
however, the claim that psi anomalies exist or may exist is in general regarded
with skepticism. One reason for this difference between the scientist and the
non scientist is that the former relies on on his own experiences and anecdotal
reports of psi phenomena, whereas the scientist at least officially requires
replicable results from well controlled experiments to believe in such
phenomena - results which according to the prevailing view among scientists, do
not exist."
6.
^ Willem
B. Drees (28 November 1998). Religion, Science and Naturalism.
Cambridge University Press. pp. 242–. ISBN 978-0-521-64562-1.
Retrieved 5 October 2011. "Let me take the example of claims in
parapsychology regarding telepathy across spatial or temporal distances,
apparently without a mediating physical process. Such claims are at odds with
the scientific consensus."
8.
^ Pickup,
G. (2006). Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Volume 11, Number 2, Number 2/March 2006
, pp. 117-192
9.
^ The
Hibbert journal:a quarterly review of religion, theology, and philosophy,
Volume 43 George Allen & Unwin, 1944, p. 249
16.
^ Martin Gardner, Fads
& Fallacies in the Name of Science(Courier Dover
Publications, 1957) Chapter 25: ESP and PK,available online, accessed July 25, 2010
19.
^ Simon
Nasht The last explorer: Hubert Wilkins, hero of the great age of polar
exploration 2006, pp. 268–269
22.
^ Hubert
Wilkins, Harold Sherman Thoughts through Space: A Remarkable Adventure
in the Realm of Mind Hampton Roads Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1-57174-314-6
23.
^ Glossary
of Parapsychological terms - ESP,Parapsychological
Association. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
24.
^ a b Carroll, Robert
(2006-02-17). "Zener ESP Cards". The Skeptic's
Dictionary. Retrieved 2006-07-18.
25.
^ The
Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena by Dean
I. Radin Harper Edge, ISBN 0-06-251502-0
28.
^ Pamela
Rae Heath Mind-Matter Interaction: A Review of Historical Reports,
Theory and Research 2011, p. 156
30.
^ J.
S. Zaveri Theory of atom in the Jaina philosophy critical study of the
Jaina theory of paramanu pudgala in light of modern scientific theory 1975,
p. 123
35.
^ "What
is parapsychology?" From the FAQ of the website of the
Parapsychological Association. Retrieved February 3, 2007.
36.
^ "What
is the state-of-the-evidence for psi?" From the FAQ of the
website of the Parapsychological Association. Retrieved February 3, 2007.
38.
^ Eberhard
Bauer: Criticism and Controversy in Parapsychology - An Overview[dead link].
European Journal of Parapsychology (1984), 5, 141-166. Retrieved February 9,
2007.
39.
^ O',Keeffe,
Ciarán and Wiseman Richard: Testing alleged mediumship: Methods and results.
British Journal of Psychology (2005), 96, 165–17.
41.
^ a b See for examples, Randi,
James. Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions.
Prometheus Books (June 1982) ISBN 0-87975-198-3 or
Charpak, Georges and Henri Broch. Translated by Bart K. Holland. Debunked!: ESP, Telekinesis, and Other Pseudoscience. The Johns Hopkins University Press (March 25, 2004), ISBN 0-8018-7867-5
Charpak, Georges and Henri Broch. Translated by Bart K. Holland. Debunked!: ESP, Telekinesis, and Other Pseudoscience. The Johns Hopkins University Press (March 25, 2004), ISBN 0-8018-7867-5
44.
^ Townsend,
Allie (2011-02-16). "All-TIME 100 Greatest Toys".Time.com (Time
Magazine). Retrieved 2011-04-31.
45.
^ "Mattel and NeuroSky Ink Alliance for 'Next
Generation' Games and Toys". TradingMarkets.com.
2010-03-23. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
46.
^ Miller,
Ross (2009-01 05). "Mind-Mattel's Mindflex teaches kids fake
telekinesis". Engadget.com. Engadget. Retrieved
2010-07-31.
47.
^ "NeuroSky MindWave Sets Guinness World Record for
"Largest Object Moved Using a Brain-Computer Interface"".NeuroGadget.com.
NeuroGadget.
49.
^ TakeAway
Media (2000). "Leviathan: Back to the Future: An interview with
Kevin Warwick". BBC Two. Retrieved 2006-10-24.
§ Soal-Goldney Experiment - a critical
evaluation of the Soal-Goldney Experiment, which claimed to prove the existence
of telepathy
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