Mental telepathy has different meanings that can be a broad spectrum. Direct thought transference between people without using the five senses of sight, sound, taste, touch and smell is the most widely accepted meaning. There can be enormous differences in how that thought transfer or communication takes place, whether it is a hunch that proves right or being able to predict a plane crash happening at the moment it happens someplace else. Mental telepathy can encompass large ranges of thought transference from the most basic to more complex. We will attempt to understand the different meanings of mental telepathy.

NON-VERBAL OR KINESICS LEVEL

A form of non-verbal communication known as Kinesics can be construed as mental telepathy. Kinesics is the ability to communicate using eyes or body behaviors instead. Entire conversations can be had without saying a word, but the other person knows what you mean or are thinking, like parents communicating without speaking when they don't want their children to hear. Kinesics or non-verbal communication more easily attained between people who have a close relationship, such as?spouses, brothers and sisters, parents and children and at times close friends.

There are some people who feel this kind of communication cannot qualify for mental telepathy due to the fact that here senses are being used and only the sound is excluded. In a way they are right. Nevertheless mental telepathy has a very significant part in this method of communication. The fact that their minds are so in synch with each other is the reason that non verbal communication is more effective in people who know each other well than strangers. Conversely people say that since the people in question know each other well or may be are used to the sign language between them, that's the reason why it is so effective.

EMPATHY

When you can step into someone else's shoes and completely understand their feelings, then you are said to have an ability called empathy. Not all people have the same kind of empathy. Many people excel in it and many don't. However, for people who do not possess this quality, it can be increased and inculcated with practice and training. A great example are the actors who can even feel the pain and the problems of the characters they play so much so that they can even imitate their emotions in the most lifelike manner.

Sympathetic pain is another aspect of telepathy where in the subject feels the physical pain of the person as his own. When loved ones are hurt, then there are times a mother or a close relative physically feels the pain in spite of the fact that there is nothing wrong with them. This sympathetic pain can be also experienced emotionally when some one you are close to is undergoing an emotional turmoil or even when he is deliriously happy. Long distance empathy is another telepathic connection that we have felt sometime or the other. When a person close to you is in pain or trouble and in cases close to death, you feel that there is something wrong with that person even though that person is far away. This kind of long distance empathy is quite common in parents and spouses.

Non believers may scoff at these happenings and call them as just gimmicks of a highly active imagination. Yes, there is some validity in the point since there are other senses in play as well. For example, the question that will we are able to feel the same hurt without knowing that the person is hurt is a valid one. Nevertheless long distance empathy and such related phenomena do not fall in the realms of these explanations.

CONCRETE CONCEPTS

A form of mental telepathy that goes beyond the five senses is thought transference of concrete symbols and objects between two minds. Many times this requires a designated sender and receiver, training, practice and super strong concentration.

In this kind of telepathy easier concepts are easily communicated by mere thought. For instance, it's easier to transmit a shape or color rather than a bird.

This aspect of telepathy is where a lot of experiments are conducted. One such experiment involves the Zener cards which comprise of simple black and white symbols like circle, star and lines. However non believers in this field feel that since there are merely five cards which are used, the probability of choosing the right card is as high as 20%. However this can also be argued against considering the fact that a set of limited cards can help the sender and receiver to attune their thoughts to each other and enhance the telepathic connection. Another point which can be looked at here is that though there is a probability of a success rate of 20%, but people have had 50% and higher success rates. This cannot be explained by the mere law of probability.

ABSTRACT IDEA LEVELS

Abstract concepts involve communicating more than just simple shapes and colors. In this level there are ideas and actions and values that are communicated. Hence it's increasingly difficult even for accomplished telepaths to master this level and it's quite normal to see a low rate of success here.

Scientists have a hard time figuring out how animals appear to communicate using abstract concepts, and mental telepathy should not be ruled out, even though some of the concepts may just be basic impulses and instincts. Animals lack prefrontal lobes where abstract ideas originate so they are only capable of communicating them on a level lower than expert human telepaths.

Some philosophers believe that there was time that humans could communicate via telepathy but as they evolved and language developed, this skill was lost. If this theory has some basis in fact then there are chances that this lost art can be revived with the right stimulus!

There are others still that theorize that having psychic powers such as ESP and mental telepathy are actually a "future" development in human evolution. If enough people develop these powers, humans in the future could become telepathic in communication as they evolve.