Researching Psi - Part 1, Telepathy

Before beginning, there are a few things that I must say. First of all let me say that I do not regularly practice telepathy, but being a perceptive person, I have had my moments. This is not an article on how to do telepathy, or any new methods or approach. I am writing this article in order to clear up a few things. Firstly, it has become common knowledge that "psionic skills are unproven", and that "science" hates psionics. Both of these statements are untrue at best, and quite insulting at worst.

This is the first of a series of articles that are to be going under the category of "Research" on www.PsiPog.net. I regularly read books on the subject of researching psionic ideas, and thought that I may be able to shed some light onto the subject for those of you who do not regularly go to the library for such a purpose.

The idea that psionics is unproven is true (read next paragraph for elaboration). If you refuse to believe that many psionic feats happen daily in the chat room and elsewhere, which is fine. However, many psionic feats happen in careful lab-controlled circumstances. Telepathy is a proven phenomenon. The idea that "science" is either a "right" or "wrong" concept instead of an ongoing study of natural and unnatural phenomenon (things that cannot yet be explained) is also wrong. Some people devote their lives to studying the aspects of psionics, and to see such people disregarded is insulting.

Firstly, I must concede a point. "Psionics" as in "all things that are psychic" is unproven. There is no evidence that everything psychic exists. However, parapsychologists study aspects of psionics in order to prove that aspect. So far, telepathy, telekinesis (especially micro-PK) and remote viewing have been extensively studied (with results). However, this article is not on those subjects (although they may well be for future articles).

Finally, I in NO WAY state that my references are the best or final in any way. I wholeheartedly encourage you to do your own research. You sometimes find new approaches to things when they are explained by those more knowledgeable than yourself, and having a strong background in research is rarely a bad thing.

Now that that has been said, let us begin.

Telepathy, although practiced by various groups of people throughout history, did not meet with scientific researchers until around the turn of the century. 1882 saw one of the first true bursts of psychical research (as it was called then). Not until then was it called telepathy, and telepathy was then defined as "all bases of impression received at a distance". Since then, it has been necessary to subdivide it further into instances of pre-cognition, remote viewing and so forth. It has now become known as any communication between two minds.

It was not until the end of the first wave that telepathy became a branch of psychology (and parapsychology shortly after). Up until that point, nearly all research into psionics was known as "psychical study". In the 1920's psychic research made another jump by founding the National laboratory of Psychical Research, the Boston Society of Psychic Research, and a number of other branches for research to be done.

In 1921, three cases were closely examined in order to determine whether telepathy was a coincidental occurrence, or whether there was a true statistical probability behind those occurrences. It was found in these three tests by Flammarion, Ricket, and Gurny-Myers-Podmore that the odds of it being chance were 804,662,222 to 1 (Flammarion, Phantasms of the Living) and all of these results were published. A closer examination was clearly required.

Rene Warcollier looked closer (1938 to keep us on track) in order to determine the cause of the sending. In this effort, Warcollier analyzed the results that he was finding, and found them to increasing in the number of hits that her subjects were scoring, which he claims as evidence that telepathy, although inherent, as a trainable phenomenon. Most often (14 of 35 cases), with successful hits, was the idea of the object (the form or use) was transmitted. Warcollier described this as "transmission of form, part of form, with sub-conscious understanding, and consequent of the idea or of a part of an idea". Properly speaking there was not as much a "transmission of thought" but a transmission of concept.

Warcollier concluded that telepathy required more study, but would likely not evolve to a method that most used regularly, because of the fact that each sending is tainted with emotion and often unreliable. However, it was noted that powerful telepathic bursts are often present in a lifetime, but exceedingly difficult to reproduce in the lab (being that the most powerful revolve around intense emotions such as at the instance death).

After the phenomenon of telepathy had been proven, parapsychologists moved to analyzing the methods of which it occurred. Among those theories were:

* Staudenmaier - "if I send my thoughts to another person by means of vibrations in the airwaves, it is not fundamentally different from the theory of telepathy operating through vibrations of ether"* (which could be for miles). This theory was later changed as his views on "ether" changed, and was moved to a more physical theory.

* Forel theorized that telepathy was and instance of the physical brain receiving electrons being sent from another brain. He suggested several ways to test his theories, but to my knowledge, none were carried out.

* Hopp and Wasielewski put several physical theories forth, but they were disproved in their experiments due to the fact that even if a message in a card (or broadcast) is flipped or sideways, the telepath or clairvoyant will see the image right side up (suggesting a sub-conscious interpretation or non-physical theory).

* About this time a parapsychologist by the name of Bergson theorized a psychical theory. He was investigating the idea of memory, when he came to the conclusion that memories were not physically located in the brain but instead as elements of the "mind". His idea was that "we are thus led to by a series of exact experiments to assume, at least in principle, the possibility of the action of the mind outside the body, e.g. from one person to another, and that directly, as in the transference of thought". He came up with the idea of the "super-individual mind"**

* E. von Hartmann, and Kohnstamm (neurologists) seem to agree with this theory of the mind. However, it still requires attention and greater testing.

So, where do we stand? We know that telepathy is a proven phenomenon, and has to be ruled out in other experiments (such as the cards given to remote viewers, the tester cannot have any foreknowledge of the event). We know that nearly everyone can potentially learn telepathy. We know that it improves over the course of a year of experimentation. We do not know what causes telepathy or how it operates, other than that telepathy sends concepts more than thoughts, but we know that it happens.