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Telepathy
Telepathy
(from the Greek, tele, "distant"; and , 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.
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
When the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) was founded
in 1885, after the SPR in 1884, telepathy became the first psychic
phenomenon to be studied scientifically. The first testing was
simple. A sender in one room would try to transmit a two-digit
number, a taste, or a visual image to a receiver in another room.
The French physiologist Charles Richet introduced mathematical
chance to the tests, and also discovered that telepathy occurred
independent of hypnotism.
Telepathy seems to be related to the individual's emotional state.
This is true of both the sender and receiver. Most women were
receivers, as case findings showed, and one possible explanation
is that women are more in touch with their emotions and rely on
intuition more than men. Geriatric telepathy is fairly common,
this may be due, it is speculated, to the impairment of the senses
with age. Telepathy can be induced in the dream state. It appears
to be related to some biological factors: blood volume changes
during telepathic sending, and electroencephalogram monitoring
show that the brain waves of the recipient change to match those
of the sender. Dissociative drugs adversely affect telepathy,
but caffeine has a positive effect on it.
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