Telepathy ()Following the model of sympathy and empathy. 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 coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), and has remained more popular than the earlier expression thought-transference.Glossary of Parapsychological terms – Telepathy – Parapsychological Association. Retrieved December 19, 2006.
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.Felix Planer. (1980). Superstition. Cassell. p. 218. "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."Spencer Rathus. (2011). Psychology: Concepts and Connections. Cengage Learning. p. 143. "There is no adequate scientific evidence that people can read other people's minds. Research has not identified one single indisputable telepath or clairvoyant." Telepathy is a common theme in science fiction.
Origins of the concept According to historians such as Roger Luckhurst and Janet Oppenheim the origin of the concept of telepathy in Western civilization can be traced to the late 19th century and the formation of the Society for Psychical Research.Oppenheim, Janet. (1985). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914. Cambridge University Press. pp. 135–249. Luckhurst, Roger. (2002). The Invention of Telepathy, 1870–1901. Oxford University Press. pp. 9–51. As the physical sciences made significant advances, scientific concepts were applied to mental phenomena (e.g., animal magnetism), with the hope that this would help to understand paranormal phenomena. The modern concept of telepathy emerged in this context.
Psychical researcher Eric Dingwall criticized SPR founding members Frederic W. H. Myers and William F. Barrett for trying to "prove" telepathy rather than objectively analyze whether or not it existed.Dingwall, Eric. (1985). The Need for Responsibility in Parapsychology: My Sixty Years in Psychical Research. In A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology. Prometheus Books. pp. 161–174. "Let me give an example, such as thought-transference, which is as good as any. When the British SPR was founded, the public was led to believe that at least a scientific survey was to be made, and I have no doubt that even some of those closely associated with the early days thought so too. But Myers, among others, had no such intention and cherished no such illusion. He knew that the primary aim of the Society was not objective experimentation but the establishment of telepathy. (...) What was wanted was proof that mind could communicate with mind apart from the normal avenues, for if mental sharing was a fact when the persons concerned were incarnate it could plausibly be suggested that the same mechanism might operate when death had occurred. Thus the supernatural might be proved by science, and psychical research might become, in the words of Sir William Barrett, a handmaid to religion."
Thought reading In the late 19th century, the magician and mentalist Washington Irving Bishop would perform "thought reading" demonstrations. Bishop claimed no supernatural powers and ascribed his powers to muscular sensitivity (reading thoughts from unconscious bodily cues).Roger Luckhurst. (2002). The Invention of Telepathy: 18701901. Oxford University Press. p. 63. Bishop was investigated by a group of scientists including the editor of the British Medical Journal and the psychologist Francis Galton. Bishop performed several feats successfully, such as correctly identifying a selected spot on a table and locating a hidden object. During the experiment, Bishop required physical contact with a subject who knew the correct answer. He would hold the hand or wrist of the helper. The scientists concluded that Bishop was not a genuine telepath but was instead using a highly trained skill to detect ideomotor movements.Richard Wiseman. (2011). Paranormality: Why We See What Isn't There. Macmillan. pp. 140–142.
Another famous thought reader was the magician Stuart Cumberland. He was famous for performing blindfolded feats such as identifying a hidden object in a room that a person had picked out or asking someone to imagine a murder scene and then attempt to read the subject's thoughts and identify the victim and reenact the crime. Cumberland claimed to possess no genuine psychic ability and his thought-reading performances could only be demonstrated by holding the hand of his subject to read their muscular movements. He came into dispute with psychical researchers associated with the Society for Psychical Research who were searching for genuine cases of telepathy. Cumberland argued that both telepathy and communication with the dead were impossible and that the minds of people cannot be read through telepathy, but only by muscle reading.
Case studies
In the late 19th century the Creery Sisters (Mary, Alice, Maud, Kathleen, and Emily) were tested by the Society for Psychical Research and believed to have genuine psychic ability. However, during a later experiment they were caught utilizing signal codes and they confessed to fraud.Ray Hyman. (1989). The Elusive Quarry: A Scientific Appraisal of Psychical Research. Prometheus Books. pp. 99–106Gordon Stein. (1996). The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal. Prometheus Books. p. 688 George Albert Smith and Douglas Blackburn were claimed to be genuine psychics by the Society for Psychical Research but Blackburn confessed to fraud:
For nearly thirty years the telepathic experiments conducted by Mr. G. A. Smith and myself have been accepted and cited as the basic evidence of the truth of thought transference...
...the whole of those alleged experiments were bogus, and originated in the honest desire of two youths to show how easily men of scientific mind and training could be deceived when seeking for evidence in support of a theory they were wishful to establish.Neher, Andrew. (2011). Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination. Dover Publications. p. 220.
Between 1916 and 1924, Gilbert Murray conducted 236 experiments into telepathy and reported 36% as successful. However, it was suggested that the results could be explained by hyperaesthesia as he could hear what was being said by the sender.Payne, Kenneth Wilcox. (1928). Is Telepathy all Bunk? Popular Science Monthly. p. 119Couttie, Bob. (1988). Forbidden Knowledge: The Paranormal Paradox. Lutterworth Press. p. 129. "In the early 1900s Gilbert Murray, who died in 1957, carried out some experiments in ESP in which he was in one room and the sender in a hallway, often with an open door between them. These experiments were successful. Most of the time the target was spoken aloud. When it was not, there were negative results. This is suggestive of a hyperacuity of hearing, especially since on at least one occasion Murray complained about noise coming from a milk-cart in the street next to the one in which the experiments were being carried out."Mauskopf, Seymour H; McVaugh, Michael Rogers. (1980). The Elusive Science: Origins of Experimental Psychical Research. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 331. Zusne, Leonard; Jones, Warren H. (1989). Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. p. 155. Anderson, Rodger. (2006). Psychics, Sensitives and Somnambules: A Biographical Dictionary with Bibliographies. McFarland. p. 126. Psychologist Leonard T. Troland had carried out experiments in telepathy at Harvard University which were reported in 1917.Christopher, Milbourne. (1971). ESP, Seers & Psychics. Crowell. p. 19. Berger, Arthur S. (1988). Lives and Letters in American Parapsychology: A Biographical History, 1850–1897. McFarland. p. 66. Luckhurst, Roger. (2002). The Invention of Telepathy: 1870–1901. Oxford University Press. p. 269. Hannan, Caryn. (2008 edition). Connecticut Biographical Dictionary. State History Publications. p. 526. "On his return to Harvard in 1916, one of his first enterprises was an investigation of telepathy in the psychology laboratory, which gave negative results." The subjects produced below chance expectations.Asprem, Egil. (2014). The Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900–1939. Brill Academic Publishers. pp. 362–364.
Arthur Conan Doyle and W. T. Stead were duped into believing Julius and Agnes Zancig had genuine psychic powers. Both Doyle and Stead wrote that the Zancigs performed telepathy. In 1924, Julius and Agnes Zancig confessed that their mind reading act was a trick and published the secret code and all the details of the trick method they had used under the title of Our Secrets!! in a London newspaper.John Booth. (1986). Psychic Paradoxes. Prometheus Books. p. 8
In 1924, Robert H. Gault of Northwestern University with Gardner Murphy conducted the first American radio test for telepathy. The results were entirely negative. One of their experiments involved the attempted thought transmission of a chosen number between one and one-thousand. Out of 2,010 replies, none was correct. This is below the theoretical chance figure of two correct replies in such a situation.Gault, Robert H. (August, 1924). Telepathy Put to the Test. Popular Science. pp. 114–115
In February 1927, with the co-operation of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), V. J. Woolley, who was at the time the Research Officer for the SPR, arranged a telepathy experiment in which radio listeners were asked to take part. The experiment involved 'agents' thinking about five selected objects in an office at Tavistock Square, whilst listeners on the radio were asked to identify the objects from the BBC studio at Savoy Hill. 24,659 answers were received. The results revealed no evidence of telepathy.Mauskopf, Seymour H; McVaugh, Michael Rogers. (1980). The Elusive Science: Origins of Experimental Psychical Research. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 36–38. Edmunds, Simeon. (1965). Miracles of the Mind: An Introduction to Parapsychology. C. C. Thomas. pp. 26–28
A famous experiment in telepathy was recorded by the American author Upton Sinclair in his book Mental Radio which documents Sinclair's test of psychic abilities of Mary Craig Sinclair, his second wife. She attempted to duplicate 290 pictures which were drawn by her husband. Sinclair claimed Mary successfully duplicated 65 of them, with 155 "partial successes" and 70 failures. However, these experiments were not conducted in a controlled scientific laboratory environment.Martin Gardner, Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science (Courier Dover Publications, 1957) Chapter 25: ESP and PK, available online; accessed July 25, 2010. Science writer Martin Gardner suggested that the possibility of sensory leakage during the experiment had not been ruled out: