| What is mental telepathy? Telepathy is defined as | | | | normal. A coin flipped many times doesn't alternate |
| "communication through means other than the senses." | | | | systematically between heads and tails, but flip it |
| Add the "mental," and you have the concept of minds | | | | enough times, and it will average about 50% heads |
| sending and receiving information without the senses, | | | | and 50% tails. That is, it will if you tally all the flips. |
| using something akin to radio waves, "thought waves," | | | | Concentrate your mental powers on heads, and then |
| or whatever the various theories claim.Mental | | | | don't count 100 of the flips that came up tails, and you |
| Telepathy - A True StoryOne day, when we were | | | | have a test that "proves" you can affect the coin |
| children, my mother and father were in another city an | | | | using the power of your mind alone.Would scientists |
| hour or two away, with relatives. They were playing | | | | (or those that claim to be) do this? It happens all the |
| bingo at a church. Meanwhile, near home, my brother | | | | time, but it is usually more subtle. Consider the card |
| Andy was thrown to the ground by a bully. His collar | | | | experiments. If the researcher already believes |
| bone was broken. At about that same moment, my | | | | strongly in mental telepathy, he might unconsciously find |
| mother stood up in the middle of the game, and | | | | reason to exclude non-confirming trials (the subject |
| announced to my father, "Andy has been hurt!" They | | | | wasn't ready, the "sender" wasn't concentrating, etc.). |
| immediately left for home.Was this mental telepathy? It | | | | Only count trials with the results you want, and you |
| sure seemed like it at the time. Or is there another | | | | make it look like the subjects are indeed psychic.An |
| explanation? More on that in a moment.The | | | | Explanation Of Mental TelepathyA scenario: My |
| EvidenceLet's review the evidence for mental | | | | mother knew that Andy was having trouble with this |
| telepathy. That should take about a minute, because | | | | bully. Earlier in the day she had been nearby when |
| there is no good evidence for its existence. Now, if we | | | | Andy mentioned that he was worried, because he had |
| are to review what passes as evidence, we find a | | | | to deliver newspapers near the house where this bully |
| common pattern. Tests that "prove" this phenomenon | | | | lived. She wasn't listening, but the words registered in |
| are done in some way that is very flawed.The | | | | her subconscious mind. Finally relaxing at the bingo |
| "researchers" in ESP (extrasensory perception) and | | | | game, her mind finally processed the information, and |
| related areas have less of an interest in the truth than | | | | she "sensed" that her son was in danger. Mother's |
| in proving that these things are real (my opinion). This | | | | intuition we'll call it - but this wouldn't be mental |
| affects how they perform their experiments, often not | | | | telepathy, right?Is that the explanation? No. It is one |
| because of dishonest intentions, but due to | | | | explanation. A more scientific approach than the one |
| unconscious factors. The most common mistake | | | | used by true believers, is to leave questions open. |
| made in this type of research is that of "selecting" | | | | Hypothesize, perhaps, and test those hypothesis, but |
| results.For example, guessing what suit a playing card | | | | don't assume an answer before there is good |
| is, you would - by the odds - be right about 25% of the | | | | evidence. It better to leave things unexplained than to |
| time, because there are 4 suits to choose from. | | | | invent things and believe in them just because we |
| Suppose you try this with 10 trials of 20 cards each, | | | | want them to be true. We may never know what the |
| and then repeat it with 30 other subjects, for a total of | | | | explanation is for much of what is called "mental |
| 300 trials. The subjects will do better than the odds | | | | telepathy," but do we need to know right |
| dictate in some trials, and worse in others.This is | | | | now?Copyright Steve Gillman. |