Telepathy: an ability that can be developed?

Intuition, telepathy, foresight … They are considered to be a paranormal part of our biological nature, which we have lost in the course of evolution. Someday science will be able to explain these mysterious phenomena of our consciousness. And we will discover new ways of thinking and look at ourselves differently. The researcher of parapsychology, biologist Rupert Sheldrake is sure of this.

Sixth and seventh senses, telepathy, precognition… Your exploration of the “enhanced powers” of consciousness is a direct challenge to orthodox science. Do you run the risk of overstepping the boundary and ending up in the realm of science fiction and parapsychology?

My research method is absolutely scientific. After twenty years of experimentation and study, I think I have been able to demonstrate that it is quite possible to come face to face with the “mysteries of everyday life”, that is, those that each of us has met at least once along the way, and interpret them from all angles. rigor and inexorable logic of science.

Many of us have anticipated the phone call of a person whom we have not heard for many months, everyone felt as if someone was watching him, or saw a dog run up to the front door a few seconds before the owner arrived. It is something that belongs to our collective experience. And yet I believe that I am the first person to subject these phenomena to scientific experiments.

How?

The only possible, that is, direct experimentation and subsequent calculation of statistics. Consider a situation where we think that someone is watching us. It suggests a kind of “mental” field that extends beyond our brains.

Unfortunately, at the moment there are no adequate physical tools to detect this “field”. But we can test under controlled conditions, putting the best samples to the test. I have done this in a variety of places: from the laboratory to schools, different groups of people and even the Internet, conducting experiments online.

So, the result of one answer in the framework of “yes / no”, according to scientific statistics, is 50%. We achieved an average score of 60% and a peak score of 70% correct, which is a high score on a scientific level.

What does this result mean for a biologist?

I am convinced that the mind goes far beyond our brains. And by that I don’t mean anything supernatural or spiritualistic, by definition alien to science. I’m talking about the natural, biological capabilities of the brain, common to humans and animals. The existence in nature of the so-called “sixth sense” is fully documented. This is the susceptibility of bats to ultrasonic oxen, many snakes to thermal radiation, and whales and elephants to infrasound.

The telepathy, foresight, and empathy that can suddenly arise between two complete strangers are perceived by us as something related to the seventh sense, which makes our consciousness part of a wider perceptual field than we think. However, ecology teaches that we live in a world of natural cycles and relationships that go far beyond the biosphere to the whole planet, to the entire Universe.

What might be its nature?

I became fascinated with similar questions when I studied plants. What causes a single seed to organize its development and the production of the proteins needed for the various stages of growth in the form of a flower or a tree? Nobody knows this yet. I proposed the idea that around every living organism there is a “morphic” or “morphogenetic” field, which contains the collective memory of the corresponding biological species and with which the representative of this species echoes.

If this statement holds true for plants, it opens up incredible prospects for evolutionary biology and for our kind of relationship with the environment. We are not isolated monads, we are part of the universe. And the most extraordinary thing is that in our life and with our behavior, entering into connection with the morphic field, we will undergo changes, but we will also contribute to the modification of this very field, which grows, opens and evolves.

That is, it is the prerogative of the human mind, our self-consciousness?

I believe it is a biological characteristic that is functional for the conservation of the species. Returning to the abilities of the mind, as has already been shown in the experiments and studies of other psychologists and scientists, these capabilities are more developed in children under 10 years old, not yet blocked by the understanding of culture.

For them, as perhaps for animals and most of the “primitive” tribal peoples, it is quite natural to think that the mind goes beyond the brain and our body, in a game of action and reaction, stretched in space and maybe even in time. And do not think about some kind of magic and something unusual like telepathy or telekinesis.

Even sight, the most common sense by which we enter into relations with the outside world, is a challenge to scientific knowledge. When we look at something from a distance, we have the feeling that a tentacle is detached from our brain, like an amoeba, which explores what is beyond the water drop.

Where are the objects that we see actually located? Inside our brain tissue, in an even more extended holographic reconstruction? Or is our perception of reality something that creates this very reality? No scientist is yet able to answer these questions.

The idea that it is possible to enter into resonance with the invisible mental or morphogenetic field that surrounds us has been common to many philosophies and cultures in the past. Does it have support from modern science?

From the side of the most modern science, namely quantum physics, which has turned our perception of reality upside down, although not everyone understands it yet. The idea that observing an object changes its characteristics, dimensions of reality, first expanded by Einstein to four and then to eleven, already leads us to think about science fiction themes like teleportation and time travel.

Another puzzling phenomenon has been demonstrated more recently, the so-called “entanglement” or “engagement, retraction / attraction.” Two particles, for example two photons, are broken into two identical twins with the same characteristics. They remain forever “connected” in a completely incomprehensible way. If the characteristics of one photon change, they will instantly change for the other, regardless of the distances separating them. This once again shows how little we know about these “fields” that bind the objects of visible reality.

It seems that some of your experiments, for example on precognition, turn our knowledge about linear time, consisting of past, present and future. How is this possible?

If the mind interacts with the outside world, it does so not only in space but also in time. For example, in the morphogenetic field there is a collective memory of the species, all of our past.

There is also a family field, a social field belonging to a certain group. There is plenty of evidence that it is possible to resonate with these fields in a more or less conscious way. In the realm of the mind, through desire, especially if it is driven by strong emotions, it is projected into a dimension that is already in the future. And no one said that it was impossible to influence him, at least partially.

It turns out that the expanded abilities of consciousness are a gift available to very few?

That there are more and less sensitive people is obvious. However, I believe that everyone is capable of attuning to an image of a reality that is wider and more voluminous than the one we know. The current materialistic culture or technology can hardly help with this. We have lost a lot of things, and we still have a lot to learn: about the animal world, about nature, about cultures and philosophies that are different from ours, and the most important thing at the same time is to feel part of this world and not close in our selfishness and limitations.