Phone telepathy: You knew it was true

[Bustem' Down]

NORWICH, England (Reuters) -- Many people have experienced the phenomenon of receiving a telephone call from someone shortly after thinking about them -- now a scientist says he has proof of what he calls telephone telepathy.

Rupert Sheldrake, whose research is funded by the respected Trinity College, Cambridge, said on Tuesday he had conducted experiments that proved that such precognition existed for telephone calls and even e-mails.

Each person in the trials was asked to give researchers names and phone numbers of four relatives or friends. These were then called at random and told to ring the subject who had to identify the caller before answering the phone.

"The hit rate was 45 percent, well above the 25 percent you would have expected," he told the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

"The odds against this being a chance effect are 1,000 billion to one."

He said he found the same result with people being asked to name one of four people sending them an e-mail before it had landed.

However, his sample was small on both trials -- just 63 people for the controlled telephone experiment and 50 for the email -- and only four subjects were actually filmed in the phone study and five in the email, prompting some skepticism.

Undeterred, Sheldrake -- who believes in the interconnectedness of all minds within a social grouping -- said that he was extending his experiments to see if the phenomenon also worked for mobile phone text messages.

Copyright 2006 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Mira Sorvino still hasn't called me.


and

"The hit rate was 45 percent, well above the 25 percent you would have expected,"

Where did they get 25 percent? My guess would have been zero.

 

[buddy999]

Mira Sorvino still hasn't called me.


and

Where did they get 25 percent? My guess would have been zero.

I guess it's the same odds of my winning the lottery.

 

[kom526]

:vidaguerravidaguerravidaguerra:













:shrug:

 

[Vince]

Still waiting for Marg Helgenberger to call. Guess she forgot about me. :shrug:

 

[SamSpade]

I'd really like to see the conditions of this survey. I'm sure a lot of it would totally fail any kind of scientific credibility.

I mean, how many times have you correctly guessed the phone call just as it rang, without seeing the ID? Does it ever have anything to do with the fact that it's 9:30 at night, and only your mom calls that late? Or that it's Sunday night, and your brother just got home from his church meeting and that's when he calls? I'm almost never surprised by my wife's calls, even at work, because within about ten minutes either way, her timing is fairly regular. I know that sometime next week, around Thursday, my dad will call on my cell (because he can't remember my work phone) to confirm our regular Friday lunch appointment.

I seriously doubt that phone telepathy has anything scientifically sound about it. I'd bet anything that most of it is fairly intuitive.

 

[PelyKat]

Then there is that special ring tone for each of the four....

 

[Dixie]

I wonder if this is telepathy sometimes. I was thinking about someone on the way back from Waldorf yesterday, happened to be close to where he lives, and the words to that song from Top Gun came to mind - "take my breath away" yada yada whatever. The radio was most definately off. I turned it on about the same time and sure enough that song was playing. If it was a new song odds are good it might be on, but old songs, that ups the ante and happens to me frequently. Maybe I should explore my psycho side a little closer huh? (or possibly seek help for it)

 

[SamSpade]

I wonder if this is telepathy sometimes. I was thinking about someone on the way back from Waldorf yesterday, happened to be close to where he lives, and the words to that song from Top Gun came to mind - "take my breath away" yada yada whatever. The radio was most definately off. I turned it on about the same time and sure enough that song was playing. If it was a new song odds are good it might be on, but old songs, that ups the ante and happens to me frequently. Maybe I should explore my psycho side a little closer huh? (or possibly seek help for it)

I've had this same experience, but it pales compared to the ten million times nothing happened - and I can't be sure I didn't actually faintly hear it playing off in the distance and happened to hit the same station. That is, it came INTO my head because at some level, I was already hearing it.

I also was once having a chat with someone online, discussing the song "Dude Looks Like a Lady", when it came on just as I started the car to go home that day. There was a disconnect of about an HOUR between the events - and I would NEVER have remembered it if it had been ANY other song. That's why they're coincidences. They're noteworthy when they occur, but we forget the millions of chances they had and failed otherwise.

 

[vraiblonde]

They're noteworthy when they occur, but we forget the millions of chances they had and failed otherwise.

See, that's the thing - something cool that happens seldom is more memorable than something routine that happens more frequently. Who ever turned on the radio and said, "Gee! I wasn't thinking about that song at all and now it's playing!"?

"Gosh! I wasn't thinking about my Mom at all, and here she is calling me!"

:shrug:

 

[Dixie]

I've had this same experience, but it pales compared to the ten million times nothing happened - and I can't be sure I didn't actually faintly hear it playing off in the distance and happened to hit the same station. That is, it came INTO my head because at some level, I was already hearing it.

I also was once having a chat with someone online, discussing the song "Dude Looks Like a Lady", when it came on just as I started the car to go home that day. There was a disconnect of about an HOUR between the events - and I would NEVER have remembered it if it had been ANY other song. That's why they're coincidences. They're noteworthy when they occur, but we forget the millions of chances they had and failed otherwise.

Weird - heard that song on the way to work this morning.

 

[vraiblonde]

Weird - heard that song on the way to work this morning.

Must be telepathy

And, speaking of which, this morning I checked my email before I jumped on the forums. One of the pieces of mail was a newsletter from a marketing company called....Digital Telepathy.

Coincidence?

 

[Dixie]

do do do do do (Sung to the tune of the Twilight Zone)