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Revision as of 23:07, 19 April 2006 by Coren (talk | contribs) (→Telepathy in history: More POV weeding)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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.
While there have been numerous scientific experiments into telepathy over the years, no positive result has ever resisted scrutiny. Positive results have always been demonstrated to be the result of flawed methodology, statistically erroneous conclusions, or could simply not be replicated by independant researchers.
At this time, there is no scientific evidence of the existence of telepathy.
Telepathy in history
Unlike many other supernatural occurrences, mention of telepathy is quite rare in historical texts. In the Bible for example, some prophets are described as having the ability to see into the future (precognition), and this seems to be a common claim among ancient people. But the sending and receiving of messages from individual to individual by mind alone seems to be a relatively modern idea.
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.
Perhaps the most well-known 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 experimental protocols than those from the 19th century, used what were assumed to be 'average' participants rather than those who claimed exceptional ability, and used new developments in the field of statistics to evaluate results. Results of these and other experiments were published by Rhine in his popular book Extra Sensory Perception, which popularized the term "ESP".
Another influential book about telepathy in its day was Mental Radio, published in 1930 by the Pulitzer prize-winning author Upton Sinclair (with foreword by Albert Einstein). In it Sinclair describes the apparent ability of his wife at times to reproduce sketches made by himself and others, even when separated by several miles, in apparently informal experiments that are reminiscent of some of those to be used by remote viewing researchers in later times. They note in their book that the results could also be explained by more general clairvoyance, and they did some experiments whose results suggested that in fact no sender was necessary, and some drawings could be reproduced precognitively.
By the 1960s, many parapsychologists had become dissatisfied with the forced-choice experiments of J. B. Rhine, partly because of boredom on the part of test participants after many repetitions of monotonous card-guessing, and partly because of the observed "decline effect" where the accuracy of card guessing would decrease over time for a given participant, which some parapsychologists attributed to this boredom.
Some parapsychologists turned to free response experimental formats where the target was not limited to a small finite predetermined set of responses (e.g., Zener cards), but rather could be any sort of picture, drawing, photograph, movie clip, piece of music etc.
As a result of surveys of spontaneous psi experiences which reported that more than half of these occurred in the dreaming state, researchers Montaque Ullman and Stanley Krippner at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, undertook a series of experiments to test for telepathy in the dream state. A "receiver" participant in a soundproof, electronically shielded room would be monitored while sleeping for EEG patterns and rapid eye movements (REMs) indicating dream state. A "sender" in another room would then attempt to send an image, randomly selected from a pool of images, to the receiver by focusing on the image during the detected dream states. Near the end of each REM period, the receiver would be awakened and asked to describe their dream during that period. The researchers claim that the data gathered suggest that sometimes the sent image was incorporated in some way into the content of the receiver's dreams.
Recent experiments
Ganzfeld experiments have received widespread attention in recent times, and some believe they provide some experimental evidence of telepathy.
Other experiments have been conducted by the biologist Rupert Sheldrake, who claims strong results. These include experiments into:
- The 'sense of being stared at', in which the subject guesses whether he/she is being stared at by another person
- Whether a subject can tell who is phoning them before picking up the receiver
- Whether dogs can tell when their owners are about to return home.
Non-classical science
In seeking a scientific basis for telepathy, some psi proponents have looked to aspects of quantum theory as a possible explanation of telepathy. In general, psi theorists have made both general and specific analogies between the "unaccepted unknowns" of religion and parapsychology, and the "accepted unknowns" in the quantum sciences. The clear examples are the uncertainty principle and quantum entanglement (connections that allow apparently instantaneous interaction) in quantum mechanics. These scientifically validated theories appear to draw into question such elements of classical physics as cause and effect and the impossibility of true action at a distance--the same elements of science that telepathy would seem to violate.
However, physicists state that quantum mechanical effects apply only to objects at sub-nanometer scales, and since the physical components of the mind are all much larger than this, these quantum effects must be negligible. Still, the true definition of what is "negligible" is perhaps unclear. Some physicists, such as Nick Herbert , have pondered whether quantum mechanical effects would permit forms of communication, perhaps including telepathy, that aren't dependent on "classical" mechanisms such as electromagnetic radiation. Experiments have been conducted (by scientists such as Gao Shen at the Institute of Quantum Physics in Beijing, China) to study whether quantum entanglements can be verified between human minds. Such experiments usually include monitoring for synchronous EEG patterns between two hypothetically "entangled" minds. Thus far, no conclusive evidence has been revealed.
Technologically-assisted telepathy
Some, for example the science-fiction writer Spider Robinson in the book Deathkiller, have envisioned neurological research leading to technologically-assisted telepathy, also called techlepathy. As of 2004, scientists have demonstrated that neuroimaging can be successfully used to recognise distinct thought patterns, and tell, for example, whether experimental monkeys thought about juice or water (California Institute of Technology, 2004), and whether a human participant thought about a rotating cube or moving his paralyzed arm (European Commission's Joint Research Centre, 2001). Both implanted electrodes recording neurons' activity and outside electrodes recording electromagnetic activity of the brain can be used.
External links
- Evolving Towards Telepathy – an article on the potential for technologically endowed telepathy, or "techlepathy"
- California Institute of Technology study using implanted electrodes in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vPF), yielding findings on predicting the intentions of subjects to make movements
- PDF article in Nature Neuroscience on "Spatial selectivity in human ventrolateral prefrontal cortex"
- Quantum Physicist Nick Herbert Ponders Instantaneous Communication
- Primary Quantum Model of Telepathy
- Stella C - Girl with Telepathic Abilities
See also
- Parapsychology
- Psychokinesis
- Willing game (a Victorian parlour game supposedly involving telepathy)
- Clever Hans
- Body Language