The Extended Mind: Recent Experimental Evidence

Google Tech Talks
September 2, 2008

ABSTRACT

We have been brought up to believe that the mind is located inside the head. But there are good reasons for thinking that this view is too limited. Recent experimental results show that people can influence others at a distance just by looking at them, even if they look from behind and if all sensory clues are eliminated. And people's intentions can be detected by animals from miles away. The commonest kind of non-local interaction mental influence occurs in connection with telephone calls, where most people have had the experience of thinking of someone shortly before they ring. Controlled, randomized tests on telephone telepathy have given highly significant positive results. Research techniques have now been automated and experiments on telepathy are now being conducted through the internet and cell phones, enabling widespread participation.

Speaker: Rupert Sheldrake
Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D. is a biologist and author of more than 75 technical papers and ten books, the most recent being The Sense of Being Stared At. He studied at Cambridge and Harvard Universities, was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge and a Research Fellow of the Royal Society. He is currently Director of the Perrott-Warrick project, funded from Trinity College Cambridge.

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Science & Technology

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[CousinAfro]

@Zenith88 You're right, science is not a democracy, but if a large part of the population experiences something then it is a scientific phenomena (literally, it can be observed) and bears looking into. Sheldrake's argument is not "people believe this so it's true," it's "people believe this, so why? Here's some ideas. Here's some data." The role of the scientist is not to dismiss but to examine. If 80% of the population believe something, I think that bears some examination, don't you?

[robosextoid]

Consciousness is a central mystery of the cosmos and the current science is wholly inadequate. What a relief that some scientists are continuing to advance scientific inquiry, independent of ideological obstruction.

[WINDTALKER300]

and whats more the voices in my head refferd too as schizophrenia r the voices and persnalities of past live that ive accessed unintentionaly all talking at once

[WINDTALKER300]

this man is bang on ive just been made aware that the our thoughts r not in our brains . the mind is in our souls

[delia123abc1]

interesting

[Aluminata]

Time/Space being subject to warping must there fore be subject to bipolar ocillation....Consciousness, being completely reliant on the illusions of a non existent past and future must therefore be hypersensitive to the subtle bipolar ocillations between past and future.... I firmly believe all beliefs are illusions and any attempts to portray truth with words is similar to fixing a car engine with a sharp stick.

[Aluminata]

Consciousness is a "SINGULARITY" with in the SPACE-TIME FIELD. It is existentially of infinitely short duration and there fore has no existence In SPACE-TIME. To experience awareness Consciousness must "sandwich"it self between a measurable unit of time as memory (at least a micro-millisecond :) of a past no longer in existence - and an equally small measure of imagination for future time not yet in existence. What is the duration of the unit of time between the non existent past and future?

[Aluminata]

Being immersed in GRAVITY from preconcieved atoms, to single cells to human beings, we take it for granted in our every day experience. However we now know beyond doubt - this GRAVITY stuff is as wierd as any thing imaginable. GRAVITY influences, interacts and warps TIME and SPACE. We inhabit a field of SPACE-TIME under light tension as it is warped in toward the Earth's GRAVITY. As vibrations will traverse a spring - our vibrations are conducted to the SPACE TIME CONTINIUM. around us.

[Aluminata]

yOU ARE OUT OF YOUR MIND!

[freediver57]

I paid attention on telepathy and tried to watch people while being myself behind a toned windows in a car. Women are very sensitive and normally they turn back to look who is watching them. About dogs, I believe it can be so as it is described in a lecture and there is a telepathic connection between mammals. I can feel when our dog is coming to a door without seeing it and in very noisy environment of my workshop. It produces no noise but I just get feeling that somebody else is present nearby

[MariaBlatnick]

I would be interested in more studies about social interaction and social entanglement (morphic studies) with regard to Autism. I have a daughter on the spectrum and even though people think autistic people don't connect with others, I believe the problem is that they are too connected. My daughter often experiences sensory overload because she is processing multiple conversations and sensing multiple people's emotions simultaneously. She is unable to filter. She is too 'entangled'.

[UrbanSands]

Dualists V materialist