A study from the University of Washington sheds an interesting light on the human ability to communicate, between two people, exclusively through thoughts, without words. This phenomenon is also known as telepathy.
Think about it: If emerging science begins to change our knowledge of who we really are, would this new understanding of what it means to be human change the way we live our lives? Fascinating research from the University of Washington successfully establishes a direct connection between the brain waves of several pairs of people, in a scientific study, following the initial demonstrations of the teams.
The study included six people who were engaged in pairs from different parts of the campus. Researchers sent signals from one person's brain, over the Internet, to another person in an attempt to mentally control hand movements.
Study method
In order to properly conduct the study, the researchers had to separate the subjects and not reveal certain perceptions about the method of study. Every sender of thought was placed in front of a computer game in which he had to defend the city by firing a cannon and intercepting rockets launched by a pirate ship. But the senders could not physically interact with the game. The only way they could properly defend their city was through thought. When a rocket came or when they wanted to fire a cannon, they had to have the thought of wanting to do so.
On campus, each recipient sat in a dark room with headphones on and unable to see a computer game. Their right hand was placed above the touchpad, which would fire from a cannon when touched. If the connection between the two pairs was successful, the sending would be efficient and the recipient would touch the touchpad and the cannon would fire.
From a technological standpoint, the researchers used two types of non-invasive instruments that can connect to the human brain in real time. One participant was connected to an electroencephalography machine that reads brain activity and sends electrical impulses over the network to the recipient. The recipient wears a swimming cap with a transcranial magnetic stimulation coil placed near the area of the brain that controls the movement of the arms.
This setting effectively allows one person to send a command that would theoretically move the other person’s hand just by thought.
“The new study brings our paradigm of connecting two people through thought from the initial demonstration to something closer to the technology that can be delivered,” said co-author Andrea Stocco, research psychology assistant and researcher at the Learning & UW Brain Sciences Institute. "Now we have repeated our methods and we know that they can work reliably with the participants."
Results
The accuracy was found to vary with each pairing. The accuracy range was 25 to 83 percent. It was determined that the omissions were mainly caused by the sender who did not exactly carry out the thought to send the "fire" command. The researchers were also able to quantify the exact amount of information transmitted between the two brains.
It is interesting that the low degree of accuracy in the subjects who could not properly extend the intention to the recipient, also indicates that it is not only the thoughts that affect our reality, but actually the intention. Therefore, during the study of the phenomenon, it is crucial that the accuracy depends on whether the subjects have a real intention or just think about it.
For me personally, this brings an interesting insight into my theory that thoughts do not create reality, but that there must be power behind that thought. Strong intentions, emotions, feelings, etc. In addition, it takes deep practice and a level of mastery to really be able to influence physical reality with your thoughts and intentions.
This is not the first time that communication through thought has been scientifically proven. Another research team from Starlab in Barcelona, Spain, recently published a study (you can see it here) with very similar results as we mentioned earlier. Direct communication between two human brains was shown, but this study contained only two subjects.
Also, a study was done that showed telepathy among people during dreams.
A research team from the University of Washington has been granted a new $ 1 million grant from W.M. Keck Foundation so they can take their work to the next level. This clearly illustrates the justification and impressive potential implications of their work.
"Imagine someone who is a brilliant scientist, but not a brilliant teacher. Complex knowledge is hard to explain - we are limited by speech, "said co-author Chantel Pratt, a professor at the Institute of Learning & Brain Sciences and an assistant professor of psychology at UW.
Have an open mind
It feels like we live in a time when new discoveries really make us wonder what it means to be human. Who are we? What are our options? If we are talking about who we really are, would that change the way we decide to create our society and life?
Fortunately, there are many brilliant people who do more than just do this work to bring out the latest scientific discoveries. Of course, this new science comes with opposition and controversy because the paradigms are challenged by these new ideas. I feel that it is not worth simply calling this work "pseudoscience" as it is often called, because in that way they just want to reject this study, without really looking at it and valuing it as a scientific work. They seem to have forgotten to stay curious, curious and playful.
"The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make greater progress in a decade than in all previous centuries of its existence." - Nikola Tesla