‘Mental telepathy‘ can be a broad term that encompasses numerous things. It typically means reading the thoughts between people without using normal senses. The difference is a huge between having an intuitive gut feeling and knowing information that could only be gathered by reading somebody’s mind. Very basic skills can be construed as mental telepathy but so can very complex. Different levels of mental telepathy can be summarized in this article.

NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION:

If you are a parent who has tried to tell your kid or spouse something non-verbally by using your body language, eyes and facial expressions, then you would know what Kinesics or non-verbal communication is. In this form of non verbal communication almost everything can be said without speaking by merely using the eyes and expressions and body language. For this kind of communication you need to know the other person well in order to communicate effectively. Its most effective between parents, children, lovers and intimate friends.

Most people do not regard this form of communication as mental telepathy since here communication is through senses and not just with sounds. Theoretically, this argument holds good. However, we cannot disregard the role of mental telepathy here. The very observation that this kind of non verbal communication is most effective in people who are intimate with each other or know each other well tells us that the minds of these people are more in synch with each other. However, skeptics may argue that this communication is merely effective because people who know each other well understand each other’s body language well or have previously developed a mode of non verbal communication.

EMOTIONAL TELEPATHY:

Empathy is the ability to recognize, perceive, or directly experience the emotions of others. Some people are very poor at this, and others are very good at this, being able to mentally ‘put themselves in another’s shoes’ and understand how they must be feeling. Empathy can be increased with training and practice. Actors, for example, are able to imitate the emotions of others, even to the point of being able to make themselves spontaneously laugh or cry.

‘Sympathetic pain’—feeling another person’s pain as if it were your own is something expectant fathers mention, some claiming they can feel the mother’s labor pains at the same time she is experiencing them. If someone close to you is experiencing an overwhelming emotion, you may feel an echo of the same emotion inside you, and mothers often describe this uneasy feeling when their child has been injured. The phenomena of long distance empathy, where a person suddenly feels that someone close to them is in danger, even though they are not near the person at the time is common in other relationships, as well.

There are some skeptics and psychologists who scoff at these kind of incidents and call them the work of an overactive brain. In certain cases they may have a point because we can see the injury and the hurt. However in cases of long distance empathy where a person doesn’t even know that his loved one is injured or hurt, then they don’t have an explanation about why a person who cannot even see the other person can feel the pain.

SYMBOL AND OBJECT PROJECTION:

There is another kind of telepathy which involves sending and receiving concrete symbols and objects between two people. Here advanced Mental telepathy is involved and it is a phenomena outside the five senses. This kind of mental telepathy involves a lot of training, concentration and practice. There is a receiver and a sender involved in this.

The simpler the concept, the easier it is to communicate through thought alone. For example, a color or shape may be easier to convey than an animal.

This level involves a lot of trials in telepathy. In these experiments Zener cards are used. These cards have simple symbols engraved on them like black and white patterns, squares, circles, waves etc. There are many cynics and doubters who may say that since there are merely five cards involved, there is a probability of a guess being right at least 20% of the time. However, on the other end, people feel that having known symbols can enhance the thought coordination between the sender and the receiver thus enhancing their telepathic technique. Moreover even if we assume that random guesses may succeed 20% of them time, there is no explanation of success rate of 50% or more.

ABSTRACT CONCEPTS

This level of mental telepathy involves more advanced abstract concepts than shapes and colors. Here people communicate ideas, values and actions, which is quite tough the success rate is quite low. Telepaths seldom achieve this level and the ones who do are pretty rare.

Some animals appear to communicate, and science is not able to explain how. Telepathy shouldn’t be ruled out. At this level, such animals would be using abstract concepts, albeit very basic concepts. Due to the nature of animal brains lacking prefrontal lobes, such ideas would probably not go beyond simplistic impulses like ‘hungry’, ‘thirsty’, ‘horny’, or ‘danger!’

While humans may have once been capable of telepathy, as the species evolved and developed language, it was no longer needed as a form of communication. With the right stimulation humans may be able to call upon this dormant ability that includes abstract communication of ideas. Mental telepathy could be used to communicate, without the need for the use of the five senses.

Other scientists believe however that telepathy and other esp and psychic powers are in fact the ‘future’ for mankind. And if enough people can develop these powers, theoretically all humans in the future could become telepathic.