Many people claimed such as this phenomenon that really has a mental disease such as schizophrenia and schizophrenia.
Or Alzheimer’s.
No, not Alzheimer’s. It would be extremely unusual to see an Alzheimer patient who thought they were telepathic, unless they thought they were telepathic before the dementia set in.
I’m thinking, I’m thinking. I don’t get it either, even though you forced me to go back and read what George was replying to (that to which George was replying). Especially since he said he was 31 and Alzheimer’s almost never hits before the late forties. I guess you’ll just have to explain it to Asanta and me, George.
majid said “schizophrenia and schizophrenia”, which means he forgot halfway through the sentence what two things he was trying to list and listed the same thing twice, which means he has Alzheimer’s.
majid said “schizophrenia and schizophrenia”, which means he forgot halfway through the sentence what two things he was trying to list and listed the same thing twice, which means he has Alzheimer’s.
I saw that, but dismissed it. George, your response makes sense now!
By that reasoning, radios and television sets couldn’t work because they would be loaded with all sorts of signals flowing in from every direction. I would guess that an effective telepath would have some sort of tuning mechanism in her brain. (More likely to be female because of superior empathy.)
Maybe, maybe not.
Since nobody has been able to verify that telepathy even exists, I can only speculate. In the spirit of going along with your line of reasoning, I would expect even an effective telepath would be in difficulty if s/he could not learn to filter out the chaotic thoughts of a person s/he is in tune with.
I would likewise expect that an ineffective telepath, unaware of what s/he has, without any sort of dicipline or training, and constantly being bombarded with the unshielded thoughts of millions, would be a twitchy quivering mess!
Equal Opportunity Curmudgeon - 18 October 2011 09:33 AM
By that reasoning, radios and television sets couldn’t work because they would be loaded with all sorts of signals flowing in from every direction. I would guess that an effective telepath would have some sort of tuning mechanism in her brain. (More likely to be female because of superior empathy.)
Maybe, maybe not.
Since nobody has been able to verify that telepathy even exists, I can only speculate. In the spirit of going along with your line of reasoning, I would expect even an effective telepath would be in difficulty if s/he could not learn to filter out the chaotic thoughts of a person s/he is in tune with.
I would likewise expect that an ineffective telepath, unaware of what s/he has, without any sort of dicipline or training, and constantly being bombarded with the unshielded thoughts of millions, would be a twitchy quivering mess!
Although like 99% of the folks here I reject telepathy, this is kind of an interesting twist to the discussion. Let’s play along for a moment, and assume that humanity is in the early stages of evolving a sense of telepathy. With regard to our more developed senses, particularly hearing and vision, our brains have developed very effective filters for dealing with all the data bombarding them. We have the capability to zone in on both auditory and visual stimulus that the brain deems important while ignoring the rest of the data to the point where our conscious minds are sometimes completely unaware of what’s being filtered out. I could see how the telepathic sense might work similarly.
Of course, the big difference here is that the mechanisms by which hearing and vision work, sound wave propagation through the air and electromagnetic energy in the form of light waves, are well known and we are able to detect both though means other than our senses. Even if we could not detect either, we would still know about them. (There are other ways of sensing the world that we don’t possess abilities for, such as detecting the earth’s magnetic field, as some animals are capable of doing.) I have yet to hear a plausible mechanism proposed for telepathy.
With regard to our more developed senses, particularly hearing and vision, our brains have developed very effective filters for dealing with all the data bombarding them. We have the capability to zone in on both auditory and visual stimulus that the brain deems important while ignoring the rest of the data to the point where our conscious minds are sometimes completely unaware of what’s being filtered out. I could see how the telepathic sense might work similarly.
I could see how it would work that way for the survivors.
Like anything else with evolution, whatever traits would be advantageous for an organism would be whatever tends to promote reproductive success. I can’t see anybody wanting to risk mixing their DNA with somebody who had been driven stark raving looney tunes by an avalanch of information they haven’t been able to filter out.
Actually, I can’t see how such a person wouldn’t ultimately be driven to simply self-destruct.
Of course, this is purely academic since there is not one single demonsterable example of a living telepath to be found anywhere past or present.
Speculations on the evolutionary advantages of telepathy aside ( ), I heard an interesting theory on the adaptation of schizophrenia. Some scientists suspect that shamans and other high priests from our past were most likely schizophrenics, with the ability to “hear voices” and interpret these as messages from the gods. According to anthropology studies, the shamans’ fitness had been on average much larger than that of the rest of the people within a given tribe.
An interesting side note here… If someone goes to a psychiatrist saying that they are hearing voices, the doctor will often recommend they see a dentist to make sure their fillings aren’t picking up a local station.
Certainly the brain gives off all sorts of waves. I’m open to telepathy. If there were only some actual reason to believe it exists, I’d be excited. But. There. Is. Not.
An interesting side note here… If someone goes to a psychiatrist saying that they are hearing voices, the doctor will often recommend they see a dentist to make sure their fillings aren’t picking up a local station.
An interesting side note here… If someone goes to a psychiatrist saying that they are hearing voices, the doctor will often recommend they see a dentist to make sure their fillings aren’t picking up a local station.
FYI, I think it’s a myth (mythbusters had an episode) but there is still a lot of speculation that it might just be possible.
Well, I am not exactly the technical type, but I imagine there is more to a radio receiver than a tiny piece of metal. It would be like installing an athena in your car (without the radio) and expecting to hear music. I am not sure if you’re being serious here, traveler,...
), I heard an interesting theory on the adaptation of schizophrenia. Some scientists suspect that shamans and other high priests from our past were most likely schizophrenics, with the ability to “hear voices” and interpret these as messages from the gods. According to anthropology studies, the shamans’ fitness had been on average much larger than that of the rest of the people within a given tribe.
