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Telepathy (from the Greek τηλε, tele, "distant"; and πάθεια, patheia, "feeling") is the claimed ability of humans and other creatures to communicate information from one mind to another, without the use of extra tools such as speech or body language. Considered a form of extra-sensory perception or anomalous cognition, telepathy is often connected to various paranormal phenomena such as precognition, clairvoyance and empathy.

There have been numerous scientific experiments into telepathy over the years, and contrary to what dogmatic "skeptics" insist, positive results has in fact resisted scrutiny. Contrary to what many skeptics will say, positive results have never been demonstrated to be the result of flawed methodology, or statistically erroneous conclusions. Results have been replicated many times by independent researchers .

It is also a myth that the majority of the scientific community believes that claims of phenomena associated with telepathy constitute pseudoscience. Two surveys of over 500 scientists in one case and over 1,000 in another were made in the 1970’s. Both surveys found that the majority of respondents considered ESP “an established fact” or “a likely possibility”: 56% in one and 67% in the other.

Early investigations

Western scientific investigation of telepathy is generally recognized as having begun with the initial program or research of the Society for Psychical Research. The apex of their early investigations was the report published in 1886 as the two-volume work Phantasms of the Living. It was with this work that the term "telepathy" was introduced, replacing the earlier term "thought transference". Although much of the initial investigations consisted largely of gathering anecdotal accounts with follow-up investigations, they also conducted experiments with some of those who claimed telepathic abilities. However, their experimental protocols were not very strict by today's standards.

In 1917, psychologist John E. Coover from Stanford University conducted a series of telepathy tests involving transmitting/guessing playing cards. His participants were able to guess the identity of cards with overall odds against chance of 160 to 1; however, Coover did not consider the results to be significant enough to report this as a positive result.

The best-known early telepathy experiments were those of J. B. Rhine and his associates at Duke University, beginning in the 1927 using the distinctive ESP Cards of Karl Zener (see also Zener Cards). These involved more rigorous and systematic expe