The Science of the Paranormal
Telepathy and ESP
ESP
ESP is short for Extra Sensory Perception. The term covers several different abilities, of a so called "paranormal" nature, that are attributed to the "Powers of the Mind". Most common of these is "Telepathy" which is the apparent ability to send and receive "thoughts" and other mental data directly from one mind to another. Another ability is called "Precognition" which is the ability to be able to foretell future events. "Clairvoyance" is to be able to mentally "see" or "Know" things in the present, but not within the sensor range or environment of the individual. "Psychometery" is the ability to "sense" information about objects one has physical contact with. "Psychokenisis" is the ability to move or otherwise affect physical matter with the mind.
Most so called "Psychics" are alleged to have some of these abilities, especially Precognition, Psychometery and Clairvoyance.
The least reliable of these abilities is said to be Precognition, owing to the "mutability" of the future based upon our actions in the present. Precognition is one of the most "tested of these abilities however. More common and Most tested is Telepathy. Psychokenisis is one of the rarest of the ESP abilities.
Telepathy
Telepathy is the most common of the ESP abilities and deserves its own section. As stated above , it is the direct "transference" of thought and "mental imagery" from mind to mind.
A fun "test" of this ability can be done by two persons with notebooks and pencils. They simply take turns drawing an image or doodle and having the other attempt to copy it "telepathically". This process not only will work, but will give insights into the true nature of Telepathy.
In my direct experiments with telepathy, where I used such drawings, I have noticed that the information received is very consistent of what one would expect from a VERBAL communication of the image data, rather than if images were being transmitted and imperfectly received. This seems to hold true even if the participants are actually trying to transmit "images". This suggests that the "channel" that carries the message is of a SERIAL rather than "Parallel" in nature. Also there appears to be a subconscious "conversion" of image type data to verbal type "signals" prior to transmission and a subconscious "RE-conversion" of the "words", upon reception, into an "Image" based upon the receiver's interpretation of the verbal data.
At left are several examples of telepathically transmitted drawings. Note that the result (response) appears to be a what one would expect from a"verbal" description of the target object.--This despite the "transmitter" consciously transmitting images. Note also that the "words" received may only describe lines and their angular relationships and not "higher" concepts such as "square" , etc.
As an ARTIST(one of my skills), I can see a direct parallel between the simple "verbal commands" I give my hand, in order to reproduce a visual image on a canvas--one small line at a time---I actually have "names" for different kinds of lines and their orientations. The process is "semi-subconscious" by now and may be entirely subconscious in other artists, but the parallel between the image building process used by an artist and that apparently used in telepathy is amazing.
I have also found that only certain "verbal word/concepts" are involved in the telepathic process.--These seem to be of the "most basic" or "first order" of concepts and /or their word equivalents in the brain--such as "horizontal line", "Vertical line", "slanted line", "right", "left" , etc. Word concepts that are derivatives of these "basal" words such as square or triangle, do NOT come through. Often the result is a series of "L" shapes in various orientations--that are received when a "square", for example, is transmitted and "/" and "V" like marks in the case of triangles--- The occasional "reception" of an actual "square" or any other Image/word of a higher "heirachy" than the basal, might simply be a "lucky guess" derived from the transmitted informational "clues" Thus telepathy appears not only to use a "verbal" type signal, the words themselves are limited to what I call the "basal vocabulary".
A Theory of Telepathy
The most common assumption is that Telepathy depends upon a system similar to "radio", in that some sort of "wave carrier" emanates from the brain of the "transmitter" person and is thus "received" by virtue of some sort of "organ" in the brain of another person. But there are several problems with this theory, and those like it.
First of all, It would be assumed that such a "radio-like" wave would be of an electromagnetic nature. The problem with this is that any EM waves detected thus far that emanate from the brain are so weak as to have a range limited to mere inches. Another problem is that Telepathy has been observed to work with at least one of the participants enclosed in a "faraday cage", an enclosure that blocks ALL EM radiation. Indeed, that telepathy is transmitted by ANY kind of "Carrier wave" emanating from the brain or body is doubtful, as there is no apparent loss of signal strength with distance. It has even been said that the telepathic "signal" seems to be "instantaneous", regardless of distance--that is, it appears to travel faster than light (I do NOT know how THIS last claim was "backed up" however)
So we have a problem---We know telepathy exists, because we can demonstrate it and it has recognizable characteristics. At the same time, we cannot detect any medium or carrier of the information, Not only that, the strength of the signal does not decrease with distance, which is contrary to any characteristics of data transmitted across space.----There is, however, ONE example of a similar situation that is supported by CONVENTIONAL Science. It might give us at least a clue as to what may be going on.
In so called "Quantum Physics" there is a peculiarity called the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) Paradox. Quantum mechanics predicts that once two particles have been near each other, they continue to instantaiously affect each other no matter how far apart they become separated. (sound somewhat familiar?) No explanation is offered, however, why this is happens, but it might have something to do with the nature of the "Parallel worlds" described it the article about the same.
Here is where we get speculative---It has been suggested that perhaps, the MIND itself is independent of the brain. Such a Mind would exist as a "field of energy" in space and the brain functions by simply "tuning in" to this field--not unlike a Radio tuning into the energy signal from the station. This being the case, EACH mind has its own separate field---while existing in the same space, are effectively separated from other minds, by virtue of it having a different frequency--one unique to itself.
But such "mind fields" have not been detected. No problem--for reasons to be explained below, the fields may exist in what we call a "parallel universe". From such a parallel world ALL points in THIS world are accessible from one location in it and vice-versa. In effect, the mind field can be said to be "all pervasive" relative to this universe. The "connections" between particles as in the EPR Paradox, also probably use such a "parallel world" type link.
But what does this have to do with telepathy?---Easy, It explains how telepathy may be possible and how it may work. The reason that "transmission waves" for telepathy have not been detected, is because there ARE NONE---Telepathy could very well be a "Passive" rather than active ability--something other researchers have not thought of. To receive a telepathic message the "receiver" simply "re-tunes a PART of his brain to match the MIND frequency of that of another. Thus a person may be in "mental contact" with another, no matter their respective locations in the universe. Signal strength will be always the same and communication TRANS luminal.
Easy enough, in cases, such as tests, where both participants are knowingly passing telepathic messages to each other, but what about cases where it appears that a "distress signal" was SENT to a "receiver" who was NOT consciously "tuning in" to the sender?----If there is NO transmitted signal, then how can this most common manifestation of telepathy take place?
It is THIS ability that suggests how the telepathic "organ" works. Apparently we have a part of the brain that is tunable to all mind frequencies. This PART also has a "memory" for "mind frequencies" of certain people who we have close interactions with. The mysterious "bond" between friends and relatives may simply be represented by the fact that we have stored their mind frequency in this Brain component. We will call this component "the Scanner".
This "Scanner" is thus ALWAYS "tuned in" to the "scanner" of all brains that have their frequency stored in the scanner memory. No thought processes take place in the Scanner region of the brain, so the minds thus "linked" do not interfere with each other. An "alert signal" however is sent to a person's own scanner when he is under some forms of extreme emotional duress. Any other scanners TUNED to this scanner will pick up on this and the rest of the brain will tune itself to the "activated frequency"---thus the appearance of a transmitted telepathic distress call--when really the receivers scanner had been always tuned into the "transmitter's' scanner all along--and only picked up the "alert" sent to the brain of the scanner it was tuned in to.
The Idea of a "frequency memory scanner" is what makes telepathy practical and possible. Sure, there could be an "open frequency tuner" set to receive the "alert signal" of ALL brains--but it would not be practical---someone, somewhere would always be having a crisis and the system always would be "triggered"--and even then there is no way to find the correct "mind frequency " to tune into. A memory based frequency storage system, on the other hand will limit the number of "monitored minds" to a manageable number.
This system perhaps, could have evolved during a "pre-vocal" stage of evolution, where it was important for "the pack" or "heard" to know when a member of it was in distress. Being "tuned in" only to pack members would prevent "interference" from distress signals from other packs.
Thus we have an explanation why telepathy exists, why no carrier waves have been detected, why signal strength remains constant with distance and why "friends" and relatives seem to have the best "telepathic links".
----to be continued later--