Telepathy

For other uses, see Telepathy (disambiguation).
"Telepath" redirects here. For the American musician, see Telepath (musician).
The Ganzfeld experiments that aimed to demonstrate telepathy have been criticized for lack of replication and poor controls.[1][2]
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Telepathy (from Ancient Greek τῆλε (têle) 'distant' and πάθος/-πάθεια (páthos/-pátheia) 'feeling, perception, passion, affliction, experience')[3][4] is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W. H. Myers,[5] a founder of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR),[6] and has remained more popular than the earlier expression thought-transference.[6][7]

Telepathy experiments have historically been criticized for a lack of proper controls and repeatability. There is no good evidence that telepathy exists, and the topic is generally considered by the scientific community to be pseudoscience.[8][9][10][11] Telepathy is a common theme in science fiction.

  1. ^ Marks, David; Kammann, Richard. (2000). The Psychology of the Psychic. Prometheus Books. pp. 97–106. ISBN 1573927988
  2. ^ Hyman, Ray. Evaluating Parapsychological Claims. In Robert J. Sternberg, Henry L. Roediger, Diane F. Halpern. (2007). Critical Thinking in Psychology. Cambridge University Press. pp. 216–231. ISBN 978-0521608343
  3. ^ "telepathy". CollinsDictionary.com. HarperCollins.
  4. ^ Following the model of sympathy and empathy.
  5. ^ Hamilton, Trevor (2009). Immortal Longings: F.W.H. Myers and the Victorian search for life after death. Imprint Academic. p. 121. ISBN 978-1845402488.
  6. ^ a b Carroll, Robert Todd (2005). "The Skeptic's Dictionary; Telepathy". Skepdic.com. Retrieved 2006-09-13.
  7. ^ Glossary of Parapsychological terms – Telepathy Archived 2006-09-27 at the Wayback Machine – Parapsychological Association. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
  8. ^ Felix Planer. (1980). Superstition. Cassell. p. 218. ISBN 0304306916 "Many experiments have attempted to bring scientific methods to bear on the investigation of the subject. Their results based on literally millions of tests, have made it abundantly clear that there exists no such phenomenon as telepathy, and that the seemingly successful scores have relied either on illusion, or on deception."
  9. ^ Jan Dalkvist (1994). Telepathic Group Communication of Emotions as a Function of Belief in Telepathy. Dept. of Psychology, Stockholm University. Retrieved 5 October 2011. Within the scientific community however, the claim that psi anomalies exist or may exist is in general regarded with skepticism. One reason for this difference between the scientist and the non scientist is that the former relies on his own experiences and anecdotal reports of psi phenomena, whereas the scientist at least officially requires replicable results from well controlled experiments to believe in such phenomena—results which according to the prevailing view among scientists, do not exist.
  10. ^ Willem B. Drees (28 November 1998). Religion, Science and Naturalism. Cambridge University Press. pp. 242–. ISBN 978-0521645621. Retrieved 5 October 2011. Let me take the example of claims in parapsychology regarding telepathy across spatial or temporal distances, apparently without a mediating physical process. Such claims are at odds with the scientific consensus.
  11. ^ Spencer Rathus. (2011). Psychology: Concepts and Connections. Cengage Learning. p. 143. ISBN 978-1111344856 "There is no adequate scientific evidence that people can read other people's minds. Research has not identified one single indisputable telepath or clairvoyant."