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Scientists have sent a ‘mental message’ from one person to another 4,000 miles away in what they claim is the world’s first successful telepathy experiment.
They connected one person in Mumbai, India, to a wireless headset linked to the internet, and another person to a similar device in Paris.
When the first person merely thought of a greeting such as ‘ciao’, Italian for ‘hello’, the recipient in France was aware of the thought occurring, according to a report in the journal PLOS One.
The subject receiving the message could not comprehend the word itself, but could report flashes of light in their brain that corresponded to the exact moment when the word ‘ciao’ was being thought.
The experiment was carried out by experts from Harvard University, who claim it shows technology can be used to transmit information from one person’s brain to another.
Giulio Ruffini, a theoretical physicist and co-author of the research, said: ‘It is kind of technological realization of the dream of telepathy, but it is definitely not magical.
‘We are using technology to interact electromagnetically with the brain.’
Harvard neurology professor and research co-author Alvaro Pascual-Leone said they wanted to see if they could use ‘existing pathways’ to find out if ‘one could communicate directly between two people by reading out the brain activity from one person and injecting brain activity into the second person’.
‘One such pathway is, of course, the internet, so our question became, “Could we develop an experiment that would bypass the talking or typing part of internet and establish direct brain-to-brain communication?”.’
Extra care was taken to make sure no sensory information got in the way that could have influenced the interpretation of the message, the researchers said.
Dr Ruffini added: ‘We hope that in the longer term this could radically change the way we communicate with each other.’
The concept is being developed to help create prosthetic limbs that can be controlled by the mind.
They connected one person in Mumbai, India, to a wireless headset linked to the internet, and another person to a similar device in Paris.
When the first person merely thought of a greeting such as ‘ciao’, Italian for ‘hello’, the recipient in France was aware of the thought occurring, according to a report in the journal PLOS One.
The subject receiving the message could not comprehend the word itself, but could report flashes of light in their brain that corresponded to the exact moment when the word ‘ciao’ was being thought.
The experiment was carried out by experts from Harvard University, who claim it shows technology can be used to transmit information from one person’s brain to another.
Giulio Ruffini, a theoretical physicist and co-author of the research, said: ‘It is kind of technological realization of the dream of telepathy, but it is definitely not magical.
‘We are using technology to interact electromagnetically with the brain.’
Harvard neurology professor and research co-author Alvaro Pascual-Leone said they wanted to see if they could use ‘existing pathways’ to find out if ‘one could communicate directly between two people by reading out the brain activity from one person and injecting brain activity into the second person’.
‘One such pathway is, of course, the internet, so our question became, “Could we develop an experiment that would bypass the talking or typing part of internet and establish direct brain-to-brain communication?”.’
Extra care was taken to make sure no sensory information got in the way that could have influenced the interpretation of the message, the researchers said.
Dr Ruffini added: ‘We hope that in the longer term this could radically change the way we communicate with each other.’
The concept is being developed to help create prosthetic limbs that can be controlled by the mind.
