Telepathy is a dream as old as human thought.
In a world that has become smaller than ever due to the digital revolution closing the gap between us, a new development has emerged that is straight out of a science fiction movie. But we can assure you, this landmark is a reality and has changed the way we may communicate in the near future.
How have two people successfully communicated through telepathy for the first time in history?
The evolution of the unspoken: Mapping the origins of mind-reading
The actual word telepathy comes from two Greek words, namely tele (distant) and pathe (feeling).
The term we now use to describe this otherworldly form of communication was coined in 1882 by Frederic Myers, one of the founders of the Society for Psychical Research. He was aiming to find a more scientific name for “thought transference.”
Long before that, ancient Egyptians would sleep in temples, which they hoped would allow them to receive messages from the gods.
The U.S. Military has even dabbled in the potential of telepathy. Between 1975 and 1995, the federal government funded a project known as Project Star Gate. They hoped to experiment with what they called “remote viewing” at the height of the Cold War.
Rewriting the limits: What our brains are truly capable of
Science has come an extremely long way in explaining some of the most confounding mysteries.
Twin telepathy has always been a factor in human science. Most of us have heard, or even met, a pair of twins who swear by the fact that they can “feel” each other’s pain, and in some cases, can communicate across vast distances.
Most of what has become our unique personal traits can be traced back to the evolutionary line as genetic mutations.
But being a character from X-Men with a remarkable mutation does not hold the same sort of scientific credibility as one recent development has. Telepathy has always been the stuff of fantasy, but we have come that much closer to making it a reality.
Science has taught us that our brains send out delicate electrical signals, and we now know that these signals may be able to sync with the Earth’s magnetic field.
A recent study, “BrainNet: A Multi-Person Brain-to-Brain Interface for Direct Collaboration Between Brains,” published in Nature, has made an astonishing, landmark achievement of the most profound importance to science.
Forget about group chats, a new social network of brains is upon us
Researchers from the University of Washington have proven that synthetic telepathy is possible with their latest demo of Brainnet, the world’s first multi-person social network of direct brain-to-brain communication.
We know that our brains can rewire themselves at any age, but this interconnected “Tetris” game took things to a whole other level.
The team set up two “senders” and one “receiver” for the demo. The senders were gazing at two LED lights at different frequencies, one for yes and another for no. A yes message sent to the receiver would physically rotate a block.
An EEG cap picked up the signals and delivered them across the internet to the receiver, roughly 50 miles away.
The first step towards a global collective consciousness
The receiver wore a TMS coil that would flash with light if the answer was a yes; no meant no flash whatsoever. The research team achieved an astonishing average accuracy of 81.25%, suggesting that one day we could simply “plug in” to a massive collective consciousness to send information.
Science has spent a large amount of time studying our DNA and how it affects us as humans, but this new interconnected brain highway is the first step in creating a future where computer-mediated brain communication is as common and simple as plugging a cable in.