Click here to support the Daily Grail for as little as $US1 per month on Patreon

The Evolution of Telepathy

By Gregon

Last month Dr. Rupert Sheldrake delivered the Perrott-Warrick Lecture at Trinity College, Cambridge, discussing “The Evolution of Telepathy”. Here’s the abstract of his talk:

Field observations have suggested that wolves and other wild animals may communicate telepathically over many miles, and surveys have shown that about 50% of dog owners and about 30% of cat owners believe that their pets may respond to their thoughts or silent commands. Among humans, apparent telepathy is most commonly reported between members of families and between close friends and colleagues. Experimental investigations of telepathy in animals and people suggest that telepathy may be a natural means of communication between members of animal and human groups. Human telepathy is still evolving in the context of modern technologies, including the internet, emails, SMS messages and telephones. The speaker will show how anyone can explore their own abilities in automated telepathy tests using mobile phones.

And here’s the audio and slides:

Anbody out there have personal observations of animal or human telepathy? Or do you think it’s all bunkum? Chime in with a comment.

Greg
Editor
Greg is the owner-editor of The Daily Grail, as well as the author of a number of books including Stop Worrying, There Probably is an Afterlife.
Related

15 Comments

  1. The other day me and my wife
    The other day me and my wife were chatting about something like this and I told her about the time I read my friends mind and got it right. She challenged me (a perfectly reasonable expectation in my opinion) and said she would think of something I I had to guess (though I think you may have guessed that it sent down like that).

    Anyway, she thought of something and I guessed it right. It was a little girl. Telepathy? Or just a good guess? Who knows, though I hadn’t arrived at the right answer by the same thought trail as she did.

    Animal telepathy? I don’t know, I’d want to see more people doing it and more convinced of it. Either that or do it myself I suppose.

    As for pets knowing when owners were coming home then for sure they do when there is a pattern, and yes, I know he is testing when there isn’t, but when high numbers of people see animal behaviours they find odd then most of it is probably just animals being clever than people give them credit for (could they recognise that the word market/work/ or sister mean coming home at 6:30 and not 5:30?) or just being very good at smelling the chemicals you release when in different moods. Often we must force ourselves to remember that animals often have much better normal senses than us.

    Its going to be an interesting road for all of us though. Skeptics might have to adjust to the idea of telepathy being real, though to be honest I don’t think that will be a problem. Skeptics usually just battle up to a point and then something becomes accepted and it is no longer ‘outside’ or ‘boundary’ knowledge. I sometimes wonder whether it will be far harder for romantics to come to terms with a universe where another thing is explained.

  2. Telepathy is No Big Deal
    Telepathy only seems strange (cue Twilight Zone music) because it is a form of unofficial communication operating in accordance with unknown laws and in defiance of a starkly materialist modern scientific worldview.

    It’s not amenable to anything beyond statistical research using the scientific method but the problem has to do with the hidden assumptions and limitations of that excellent method, not with telepathy itself.

    I’ve been recording personal instances for many years and accepted the reality of telepathy long ago. In my own experience, however, it’s quirky — not at all reliable — unpredictable, spontaneous, etc., etc.

    Sometimes I forget how others refuse to accept this reality, being either highly sceptical or, in some hard cases, very resistant even to just the possibility, as though they are frightened at such a possibility — maybe they are afraid that sensitive secrets might be revealed.

    This may be a situation where believing telepathy is impossible leads someone to either never experience it or to suppress any such experience, pass it off as coincidence, etc., etc.

    I was in my late teens when a girlfriend was undergoing old fashioned Freudian analysis with its extensive dream analysis. She sent letters to me describing dream visits from me in which I updated her on events in my life — the information was accurate and hadn’t been conveyed to her by physical means.

    Later, I recorded any number of more direct — and frequently quite blatant — examples. In my experience, there’s nothing quite like an intimate relationship when it comes to creating those conditions in which telepathy flourishes.

    We don’t understand why it is so quirky as this deals with areas of knowledge, practice, and experience that are still quite foreign to societies that have adopted certain biases with a ready acceptance of worldviews consistent with practical science (QM is very practical if you manufacture semiconductor chips but its more unusual aspects have never contributed to the ego-bound materialist or physicalist perspective shared by so many and adhered to so rigidly by extreme sceptics.)

    Are cats telepathic? Of course they are, but I have yet to find a single cat willing to explain the details of this to me.

    Bill I.

  3. dogs
    My experience with dogs is that they don’t understand very much that is explained to them. In fact, they don’t seem to understand any of it.

    They react to what they observe, and then behave in a way they think will get them what they want. This has little to do with communicating your thoughts to them, telepathically or otherwise.

    1. A tad off topic…
      I believe animals in general are more in tune with the energies that surround every living thing including humans. It is this that they sense and react to, just as they may sense an earthquake and react to that sometimes days in advance.

      As for dogs, they function on a reward/punishment mind set. In a pack, if one wolf is misbehaving, the others will discipline it, so that it knows how to function properly in the pack. When we reward our dogs for sitting on command by giving them a treat, we are reinforcing that form a discipline. A dog recognizes that if it doesn’t do the command well, it will not get a reward. The problem is caused when the human does not discipline the dog properly and gives the animals human food or lets it sit at the table, for example. Then it thinks it is higher rank in the “pack” and will take more liberties. Dogs do not understand human speech, but scientists believe they can learn to react to human facial expressions and body language just as they would in a pack structure.

      Back on topic, slightly, a dog may be able to sense energy waves given by its owner just as scent would. Waves of “aura” are given off by every living thing, of which when we are in contact with either a person or an animal for most of our lives or a long time, the animal or person becomes linked to that energy and is able to unconsciously sink to it. For example, people who seem to have premonitions about a loved one dying. What we call telepathy may be a lost or forgotten and little understood instinct that senses when the energy of a loved one is fading.

      (I sensed my dad’s heart attack and my uncle’s death. It is not a joke, and it wasn’t fun nor easy to understand. And NO I didn’t have a dream or some weird experience, I just can sense when someones energy is dropping. My dad is still alive.)

      Because the animals are more sensitive to the energy, they sense it when it changes dramatically. I believe this is how dogs can tell if a person is going to have a seizure, along with a scent change. I have heard of cats saving lives as well, including when a woman went into diabetic shock, so it’s not just canines.

  4. The Trifecta
    I couldn’t finish that lecture once he started talking about the phone and email trials, not because of the material, just didn’t *feel* like I was gaining anything from it and I wasn’t really paying attention. However, if I’m digging up old reading material correctly this would be a great place to mention Carl Jung’s consiousnesses: one being consioussness itself, two being the unconscious, and three the collective unconscious; all three very prominent in human life. But what about animals? Could the lack of substantial self awareness empower the other consiouses? Not all that dissimilar to heightened senses in blind or deaf humans? That itself shows some sort of unseen balancing act, much like the unseen act of a photon; the effects are there, the “being” is there, but the understanding isn’t. I blame vibration/radiation, also, common sense; having a brain on top of DNA as well as the brain being highly programmable to it’s environment, but that would take me right back to consciousness. To be quite honest I find plant intelligence much more tantalizing. Having a brain kind of ruins the fun 😀 unless you’re that one communal brain tree. Oh yeah, the termite example was great, I would call them “Collective OCD” or “Well Aged OCD”.

    I was going to go over some more on the collective unconscious but I trailed off a bit, but I have a reference… The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche from The Collected Works of Carl Jung, Volume 8 pages 283-342.

  5. Again with the anecdotes
    I have a truckload of anecdotes involving a dog and a cat that leaves me with no doubts whatsoever that they sense more than scientists give them credit for.

    For example, this cat can predict her owner’s epileptic fits. That’s not psychic, but it is evidence of senses we have very little understanding of.

    A few years ago, I kept dreaming I was at the beach with my dad and his golden retriever Macy. I taught her how to dig a big hole so she could sit in it and keep cool. A week later, my dad’s fishing on Australia’s beautiful coastline, and Macy dug a giant hole and sat in it. She’d never done that before. Everytime a stranger or their dog came near Macy, she would growl at them. My dady actually rang me on the day to tell me about it, as she was acting a bit odd about the hole. One dog got too close and Macy nipped him — the owner got angry, but my dad replied, “well it’s her hole, she dug it”. Heheh.

    Plenty of anecdotes with my cat I’ll share when I get the time.

  6. Animal Communication
    I have been a silent animal communicator most of my life. At first I wasn’t sure what I was getting, if they were my own thoughts or coming from somewhere else. After participating in a seminar dealing directly with animal communication I am now more able to distinguish which is which. We were given photos of different animals belonging to others at the seminar. We were to ask the animal a verifiable question, one only the owner could know. I found that my answers came in vivid pictures and feelings. I had never met the person before the day of the seminar, and had no way of knowing the answer ahead of time. I found that I got accurate answers from EVERY animal I “spoke” with. Surprisingly, I received the clearest communication from an iguana, who showed me his living quarters in great detail, including what he sees above his head every day ( a rather unusual item). This may not be able to be proven scientifically, but I know in my heart this is a gift I have been given, we have all been given, if we learn how to recognize it. Yes, my own pets respond to my directed thoughts, and will send me pictures in return. If my pets need or want something, they send a picture of it to me. I am not a veterinarian, but I have also helped diagnose illnesses in pets where the human companion had no idea the pet was ill at all. I personally don’t need science to prove anything to me, it’s just part of my life now. I am also able to communicate with people this way, but seldom do so and only with permission. A violation of spiritual privacy (human mind reading) is not without consequences. I have also practiced bringing a “veil” around myself, to prevent others from violating my privacy. I am currently a student of Humane Religious Studies, and my gift will be crucial in my ministry both for the animals and their human companions.

    1. aniimal communication
      that is very interesting Ratsocatso. I have been communicating with animals for a few years. Not always with success but most of the time. Wild birds are my favorite.

      I use mind pictures and send to the animals and watch their reactions.

      Unfortunately I don’t seem to receive as well as I send. May need to practice more as I have only really played with it and not got too serious about it.

  7. Animal Communication
    We used to test our cat by parking several blocks away and approaching our apartment from various directions keeping quiet.

    Invariably she’d bounce up on the window ledge staring at us and meowing at about a 1/2 block away.

    I think people would observe more of the synchronicities if they weren’t so self absorbed most of the time.

    Loved the story about the dog and the hole!

    Thanks,
    Gwyllm

    1. Talking to animals
      LOL I talked to a raven more than once. Ever since I was a child I could imitate animal calls so I started squawking to a raven one day. I ended up getting into quite the conversation, even though I have no clue what I’m saying. Another time I was at the beach looking for shells and two ravens were searching for food, so I cawed to them and they came over to search near me. By mimicking there speech, I was able to “talk” to them, but I doubt I was saying anything sensible 🙂

  8. An anomaly in evolution
    I think the human species is under-evolved in the discourse of telepathy.
    My explorations with psychedelics and guitar playing landed me in the path of a telepathic musical transmission over 15 years ago, like wearing headphones, except there were none. The effect of having a song stuck in your head could be a step towards opening up telepathic pathways that I feel are collectivley aching to be discovered. Perhaps humans are lacking in a purpose of evolving to a fuller conscious state of telepathy, due to the pace of the hegemony and plutocracy that undermine everything.
    At any rate, I must be an anomaly in life, for traveling to search out the source of my aetheric chatter and musical mentality, I found guidance in sub-cultural America, where studies and applications of alternate time-reckoning devices such as Central American Mayan Indian calendar counts are being used to encourage the evolution of telepathy. If the industrial-nuclear age’s collective purpose was something worth striving for, there may be a more rapid evolution of our human capacity for traits such as telepathy, however the dominating force of war culture in this age is not about to submit to the awakening of a telepathic consciousness that depends on truth and freewill. To me, the reality of telepathy is divided into selfish “comfort zones” of consciousness, for the human species’ assimilation of time and space(on earth) is so alienated from a true conquest of dimensionality that could harbor the evolution of a telepathic humanity.

  9. my cat is telepathic
    4 years ago I went on a roadtrip to see a friend in north Queensland. A 17 hour drive, I was away from my home for 3 weeks. My sister fed my cat while I was gone. I did not have an exact date of return planned. I lived on a large property with an old Homestead as the main house. I was caretaker manager and lived in a small cottage close to the main house. My sister worked there dueing the day tending gardens. As my absence grew longer my cat apparently let himself go somewhat and as he has a very fluffy coat it became all tangled and notted.

    The day of my return my sister noted that my cat spent all day in a chair in the courtyard desprately trying to clean himself up.

    As my sister had seen him everyday she thought this to be strange.
    I arrived home that night at 7 pm, much to the delight of my cat.

    It took me a week to slowly cut off the tangles and get him back to his old self.

    How did he know I was comming home that day?

  10. Dog talk
    I had a friend who lived some 15 minutes by car away from my house. My dog would get up from where she was asleep and come to me wagging her tail and yipping at me until I said “Okay” and went to put the coffee machine on.

    Sure enough, 15 minutes later my friend would turn into the drive. Knowing I was psychically deaf as a post, he always sent the dog a message before leaving home – “Tell your mother to put the coffee on, I’m coming over to visit.”

    Worked evry time!

    Regards, Kathrinn.

  11. Most people I know fall short
    Most people I know fall short of psychic development because as soon as they experience an event they immediately begin censoring it. That is no way to learn something. The barrier to development is often emotional. That is why children tend to have more elaborate psychic skill. They haven’t yet learned strategies for “saving face.” If you can’t stay in the mood that brought you the insight then it is going to be a more ephemeral event and skill. Emotional barriers are the biggest barriers to achieving anything.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Mobile menu - fractal