by Arjun Walia: Dream telepathy suggests that human beings have the ability to communicate telepathically with another person while they are dreaming…
This isn’t a new concept, scientific interest in telepathy dates back to the fathers of the psychoanalytic movement. Freud, for example, considered telepathy and the implications of it with regards to psychoanalytic thought. He also considered dream telepathy, or the telepathic influence of thought on dreaming on multiple occasions. Carl Jung believed in the telepathic hypothesis without question, and even developed a theoretical system to explain “paranormal” events of this nature. (2)
All great minds seem to encourage the study of various types of non-physical phenomena.
“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.” – Nikola Tesla
“A wealth of anecdotal and clinical material exist which supports the possibility of telepathic effects occurring in dreams (Krippner, 1974). However, an experimental approach to the topic did not become possible until psycho-physiological laboratory technology became available. It was discovered that sleeping research participants awakened from periods of rapid eye movement (REM) activity were frequently able to recall dream episodes. As a result, it was possible to request a “telepathic receiver” to attempt dreaming about a target stimulus that was being focused on in a distant location from a telepathic sender.” (source)
Experiments and Results
In the mid 1960’s, Montague Ullman, MD, began a number of experiments at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York to test the hypothesis that sleeping people could dream about randomly selected material that they were targeting to dream about. In other words, they could choose what they wanted to dream about, some examples include artwork, movies, photographs and more. Shortly after these experiments began, she was joined by Stanley Krippner. Krippner is a PhD., and professor of psychology at Saybrook University, he has a very impressive background when it comes to the scientific study of dreams, psychology and parapsychology.
The experiments they conducted lasted a span of more than 10 years, and “yielded statistically significant results.”
During the experiments, there was usually a “telepathic sender” and a “telepathic receiver.” They met in the laboratory for a short period of time before being placed in completely separate rooms just before they went to sleep. The “telepathic” sender had an envelope waiting for them in the room in which they’d sleep. The envelope would contain something like a picture or a drawing. The “receivers” were then purposely awakened shortly after Rapid Eye Movement sleep (REM) and the researchers took a dream report.
A Very Significant Session
One very memorable and significant session of dream telepathy experimentation took place where the selected art print was “School of Dance” by Degas, which depicted a dance class of several young women. According to Krippner, the “receivers” dream reports included such phrases as “I was in a class made up of maybe half a dozen people, it felt like a school,” and “There was one little girl that was trying to dance with me.” These results are extremely fascinating, the idea that one can influence another’s dream is quite remarkable. Although we might not understand the process behind the transfer of information, and we can’t see this transfer take place from mind to mind, the phenomenon was well documented and real, yet void of any scientific understanding or explanation. This is quite common when we examine scientific studies that have evaluated parapsychological phenomena. It’s real, observed, yet we don’t quite understand ‘how.’
Another significant session conducted by Krippner and Ullman took place on March 15th 1970. In this session, a large group of people at a Holy Modal Rounders rock concert were selected as the “telepathic senders.” A local media artist by the name of Jean Millay took responsibility to ready the “telepathic senders” for “target preparation.” She did this with help from the Lidd Light Company, a group of artists that were responsible for the light show at the concert. Millay gave the audience a brief verbal set of directions before the image was flashed on the large screen that the “telepathic” senders were looking at. Six slide projectors were used to project a color film about eagles and their nesting habits as well as information about various birds from around the world, including information about the mythological Phoenix. This all happened at the same time Holy Modal Rounders were playing their song, “If you want to be a bird.”
There were five volunteer “telepathic receivers” for this experiment, and they were all located within a one hundred mile radius from the “telepathic senders.” All of the receivers were aware of the concert location and were told to record their images at midnight because that was when the material to be sent by the senders would be exposed to them.
“One “telepathic receiver,” Helen Andrews, had the impression of “something mythological, like a griffin or a phoenix.” The second, third and fourth research participants reported images of “a snake,” “grapes,” and “an embryo in flames.” The fifth participant was Richie Havens, the celebrated American singer and recording artist, who reported closing his eyes at midnight and visualizing “a number of seagulls flying over water.” Both Mr. Havens and Ms. Andrews reports represented direct correspondences with the target material.”(source)
More remarkable results were seen when the rock group “Grateful Dead” also volunteered to participate in a dream telepathy session over a span of six nights. You can read more about that (and other results) here. These results were actually published by the American Psychological Association (1)
These are usually the instructions given to the subjects that participate in these experiments.
1. You are about to participate in an ESP experiment.
2. In a few seconds you will see a picture.
3. Try using your ESP to “send” this picture to the receiver.
4. The receiver will try to dream about this picture. Try to “Send” it to them.
5. Then, receivers will be made aware of the senders location
Possible Explanations?
Quantum physics has shed light on the vast interconnectedness of everything in the universe. One possible explanation is quantum entanglement. For example, two electrons that are created together, if you send one to the other side of the universe, the other will respond instantly, distance doesn’t matter. This is one way of interpreting how everything is really connected in some way. Einstein called it “spooky actions at a distance.” For a great visual demonstration of this, click here.
The truth of the matter is that there is no explanation and scientists are unable to give an explanation. They were only able to observe what was taking place, which again, is very common for parapsychological phenomenon.
At the same time, these experiments involve dreams, a completely different and altered state of “reality” that we really don’t know much about. It’s a world separate (or at least we think) from the world in which we are “awake.” Although the world we perceive when we are awake could just be a dream. We could go on and on with these questions, and continue contemplating forever.
