1. Telepathy (from the Greek τηλε, tele meaning "distant" and πάθη, pathe meaning "affliction,
experience"),[3] is the 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 the Society for Psychical Research,[2] and
has remained more popular than the earlier expression thought-transference.[2][4] Many studies
seeking to detect, understand, and utilize telepathy have been done within this field. Claims of
telepathy as a real phenomenon are at odds with the scientific consensus. 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 many superheroes and
supervillains having telepathic abilities. In more recent times, neuroimaging has allowed
researchers to actually perform early forms of mind reading.
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, 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 with schizotypal personality disorder are
particularly likely to believe in telepathy.[8]

2. [edit] Scientific Theories
Various theories have been advanced to try and explain telepathy. A physical theory of telepathy
whether described as radiational or by 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 theories of telepathy, the spiritualist theory which
claimed telepathy was the result of external spirits and the subconscious mind theory which
claimed telepathy occurs due to contact between two or more subconsciouses.[12] The
subconscious mind theory 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 mean 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.
Price wrote:
“ There is no room for telepathy in a materialistic universe. Telepathy is something which
ought not to happen, if the materialistic theory were true. But it does happen. So there
must be something seriously wrong with the materialistic theory, however numerous and
imposing the normal facts which support it may be.[16] ”
[edit] 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.[17]
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

3. 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.[18][19]
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.[20] On the same night, Sherman recorded in his dairy "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."[21] Wilkins was very impressed by the
results and wrote that:
“ 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'.[22] ”
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.[23]
[edit] In parapsychology
Main articles: Parapsychology and Ganzfeld experiment
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.[24] 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.

4. Zener cards
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%.[25] If not conducted properly, this method can be vulnerable to sensory leakage and
card counting.[25]
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.[26]
Some parapsychologists still proposed that telepathy may have a physical explanation. The
Italian neurologist Ferdinando Cazzamali in the 1920s had claimed that telepathic
communication occured due to a type of electromagnetic radiation.[27] 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".[28]
In 1974 Michael Persinger proposed that extremely low-frequency (ELF) electromagnetic waves
may be able to carry telepathic and clairvoyant information.[29] Gerald Feinberg also suggested
that telepathy may exist due to as of yet undiscovered elementary particles which he called
'psychons' or 'mindons'.[30][31]
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.[32]
[edit] Types
Parapsychology describes several different forms of telepathy, including latent telepathy and
precognitive telepathy.[4]
Latent Telepathy, formerly known as "deferred telepathy",[33] 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]

5. Emotive Telepathy, also known as remote influence [34] or emotional transfer, is the process of
transferring kinesthetic sensations through altered states.
Superconscious Telepathy, involves tapping into the superconscious [35] to access the collective
wisdom of the human species for knowledge.
[edit] 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.[36][37] 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.[38]
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.[39][40][41] 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.[42] Skeptics also point to
historical cases in which flaws in experimental design and occasional cases of fraud were
uncovered.[42]
[edit] 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.[43] 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.

6. K. Rowling, telepathy is a magical skill known as Legilimency. In the John Wyndham novel 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 Space series 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,
See also a composite list of fictional characters with telepathy.
Technologically enabled telepathy:

7. Recent BCI 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 Magazines top 100 toys of all time.[44][45] 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.[46][47]
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”.[48]
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 recent cybernetics 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.[49][50]