Scientists from the Harvard University claimed the world's first successful mental telepathy experiment when they were able to send simple telepathic messages between people 4,000 miles apart.

In an interview with the Today programme, co-author of the study and theoretical physicist Giulio Ruffini said that "You can actually transmit information directly from one brain to another brain without intervention of the senses."

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"It's a kind of technological realisation of the dream of telepathy but it is definitely not magical," explained Dr. Ruffini.

"We are using technology to interact electromagnetically with the brain," he added.

Using a sensitive headset connected to an internet-linked electroencephalogram or EEG, Ruffini and his team of scientists connected a person from India to three other participants in France, and asked the participant in India to "send a message."  

A computer then translated the word into binary codes and delivered it via email to France. The codes were subsequently converted back to electric pulses and sent to brain receivers connected to the French participants who reported seeing light flashes within their peripheral vision at the exact moment the message was sent.

The participants did not see or heard the word, but became aware of light flashes corresponding to the mental message sent.

The study, according to professor of neurology and co-author Alvaro Pascual-Leone, wanted to experiment on the possibility of communication between two brains across great distances via existing pathways, which in this experiment is the internet.

The research essentially bypassed the normal means of communication via the internet and directly linked brains to send mental signals. Pascual-Leone explained that extra measures were taken to prevent extraneous sensory messages from getting in the way of the experiment.

While the present experiment is rudimentary, Dr. Ruffini and colleagues were hopeful that this research on telepathic communication will eventually change the way people communicate.

The research was published online in the journal PLOS One on August 19.

TagsPLOS ONE, mental telepathy, giulio ruffini, Alvaro Pascual-Leone