The Many Layers of Telepathy: From Quiet Hunches to Clear Connections

Telepathy is the idea that minds can share information directly—sometimes as a whisper of feeling, sometimes as a vivid image or phrase. Rather than treating it as all-or-nothing, it helps to see layers and levels of experience. Many people know the lightest layer (you think of someone and they ring); with practice and good ethics, some notice clearer, more testable exchanges. Here’s a warm, practical tour of telepathy’s spectrum, examples of experiments, and a few favourite stories from film and TV.

A simple map of telepathic layers

1) Empathic resonance (everyday layer)

You sense a mood or atmosphere before anyone speaks: tension in a room, a friend’s “I’m not OK” beneath their smile. This isn’t mind-reading; it’s finely tuned social intuition—the ground on which stronger telepathy may grow.

2) Bonded telepathy (close ties)

Parents and children, long-time partners, and twins often report “pings”: sudden knowing, shared dreams, or simultaneous thoughts. The bond seems to act like a low-friction channel, especially during big life moments.

3) Informational telepathy (images/words)

Here the content is more specific: a colour, name, location, or image pops in that the other person recognises. It arrives quickly and feels slightly “not me”.

4) Crisis telepathy (spontaneous)

Unbidden impressions at moments of shock or change—waking with a jolt and later learning a loved one was in difficulty. These reports are common in oral histories and memoirs.

5) Dream telepathy (oneiric layer)

Impressions land most easily when the analytical mind is quiet. Many people report shared dream imagery with a specific person, or receiving a clear message overnight that later validates.

6) Group or “field” telepathy (coherence layer)

Teams, choirs, and seasoned meditation groups often describe moving “as one”—reacting at the same instant, or anticipating each other’s needs. Whether you frame it as mind-to-mind or finely honed attunement, the experience is unmistakably we-centred.

Telepathy examples from research

Ganzfeld telepathy (images under mild sensory reduction)

Since the 1970s, “sender” and “receiver” pairs have tried to transmit the gist of a picture or short clip while the receiver relaxes under red light with soft white noise. When well run, hit rates above chance have been reported in several labs. Results vary by protocol, but the method remains a friendly way to practise with feedback.

Dream telepathy at Maimonides

In classic studies, a “sender” focused on an art image while a sleeper in a nearby room was awakened during REM to report dream content. Judges later compared the reports to several images; some sessions matched strikingly well. Whatever your stance, it’s a lovely, low-pressure format to try at home with consent.

“Feeling of being stared at” & phone telepathy

Simple, playful designs—guessing who is calling before you look, or whether someone is watching you from behind a screen—have produced above-chance outcomes for some participants. They’re easy to replicate and great for building confidence and discernment.

A kind note: results in any experimental field can vary. The point here is to encourage open, ethical exploration rather than to “win” an argument.

Training telepathy with care (you can try these)

Set the container: agree roles (sender/receiver), time limits (10–20 minutes), and consent. Keep it curious, not competitive.

The postcard test (informational layer):

• The sender chooses one of four very different postcards or photos.

• The receiver relaxes for 8–10 minutes (breath, soft attention) and notes first images, colours, emotions—no editing.

• Compare against the set; score hits/misses honestly. Swap roles.

  
  

Dream pair practice (oneiric layer):

• Before bed, both set the intention: “We’ll meet at the red bridge” (or another clear but obscure target).

• In the morning, write first impressions before speaking. Compare symbols and themes.

• Repeat weekly; patterns often strengthen over time.

  
  

Bond ping log (close ties):

• Choose one person who agrees to be your “buddy”. When a sudden thought/emotion about them arrives, time-stamp it.

• Later, ask if anything was happening then. Over weeks, you’ll see if your link is unusually lively.

  
  

Group coherence drill (field layer):

• A small, regular circle spends 3–5 minutes “sitting in the power”, then silently chooses one of four shapes on a paper.

• On a signal, everyone reveals their choice. Discuss how the decision felt—image, pull, sound? Over time, alignment may improve.

  
  

Ethics that keep it kind

• Consent is everything. Practise with people who opt in.

• Privacy matters. Telepathy should never be used to pry.

• No medical/legal directives. Insight is not a diagnosis or instruction.

• Aftercare. Close properly: gratitude, a breath, water, and a quick reset before you drive or work.

  
  

Real-life telepathy in the media (reported examples)

• Viral “twin telepathy” interview (Australia, 2025).

  Identical twins Bridgette and Paula Powers spoke in near-perfect unison during TV interviews about their mother’s carjacking, sparking fresh debate about twin telepathy. Their synchrony and mirrored gestures were covered by ITV News and analysed by The Independent, which also discussed why some twins talk and think in sync.

  
  

• Telephone telepathy experiments (2000s–2020s).A series of studies explored whether people can correctly identify who is about to call, above chance, when the caller is randomly selected. Reports and summaries of these “telephone telepathy” tests—often using emotionally bonded callers—appear in parapsychology outlets and overviews, with recent write-ups noting small but positive effects and newer automated methods.

  
  

• Dream telepathy—classic lab work and cultural spinoffs.

  Sleep-lab studies at Maimonides Medical Center (1960s–70s) reported striking matches between a “sender’s” target image and a sleeper’s dream reports; the work has been widely discussed in psi-encyclopedias and popular science pieces, and even inspired later cultural experiments (e.g., a Grateful Dead-adjacent pilot highlighted by IONS).

  
  

• “Feeling of being stared at.”

  Simple school and community experiments testing whether people can tell when they’re being watched have been repeatedly covered in media and research summaries, keeping public interest alive in this everyday, telepathy-adjacent hunch.

  
  

• Twin telepathy in lifestyle news.

  Mainstream outlets regularly profile twins who claim spontaneous “pings” about each other—sometimes sceptically, sometimes supportively—showing how bonded knowing continues to surface in everyday reporting.

  
  

  Note: Coverage styles vary—from cautious science desks to human-interest features—but together they illustrate how telepathy-like reports keep recurring in public life, especially among closely bonded pairs, during dreams, and in simple “who’s calling?” designs.

A final word...

Telepathy doesn’t have to be dramatic to be meaningful. Start with the everyday layers of empathy and bonded knowing; practise simple, kind protocols; and keep good notes. Over time, many people find their signal gets cleaner, their ethics stronger, and their circle of trust deeper. Hold a friendly scepticism, but let wonder have a seat at the table too—because the best kind of telepathy feels a lot like care made audible.

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FURTHER READING

Peer-reviewed studies & meta-analyses

Bem, D. J. and C. Honorton, ‘Does psi exist? Replicable evidence for an anomalous process of information transfer’, Psychological Bulletin, 115/1 (1994), 4–18.

Cardeña, E., ‘The experimental evidence for parapsychological phenomena’, American Psychologist, 73/5 (2018), 663–677.

Milton, J. and R. Wiseman, ‘Does psi exist? Lack of replication of an anomalous process of information transfer’, Psychological Bulletin, 125/4 (1999), 387–391.

Sherwood, S. J. and C. A. Roe, ‘A review of dream ESP studies, 1966–1998’, Journal of Parapsychology, 67/3 (2003), 271–295.

Sheldrake, R. and P. Smart, ‘Videotaped experiments on telephone telepathy’, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 67 (2003), 184–199.

Sheldrake, R., ‘Experimental investigations on the sense of being stared at’, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 69 (2005), 156–167.

Storm, L., P. E. Tressoldi and L. Di Risio, ‘Meta-analysis of free-response studies, 1992–2008: Assessing the noise-reduction model in parapsychology’, Psychological Bulletin, 136/4 (2010), 471–485.

Classic laboratory programmes & overviews

Cardeña, E., J. Palmer and D. Marcusson-Clavertz (eds), Parapsychology: A Handbook for the 21st Century(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015).

Krippner, S. and M. Ullman (eds), Dream Telepathy: Experiments in Nocturnal ESP, rev. edn (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1977).

Radin, D., The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena (San Francisco: HarperEdge, 1997).

Radin, D., Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality (New York: Paraview/Pocket, 2006).

Ullman, M., S. Krippner and A. Vaughan, Dream Telepathy: Experiments in Nocturnal ESP (New York: Macmillan, 1973).

Watt, C. and H. J. Irwin, An Introduction to Parapsychology, 5th edn (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2021).