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.

KINESICS AS A FORM OF MENTAL TELEPATHY

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

Another form that some believe is a type of mental telepathy is Empathy. This is where a person has the ability to directly experience the emotions of others. Being able to mentally "put themselves in another's shoes" and understand how they must be feeling is something that certain people are better at than others. Empathic responses can be heightened with training and practice, like in the case of actors that can easily cry or laugh for example, when they are injecting themselves into a fictional story.

Sympathetic pain is an empathy feeling of another person's pain as if it were your pain. For example, after witnessing someone that is pregnant and close to you go into labor, you may experience an uncomfortable feeling in your stomach, even though you know its fine. Experiencing an overwhelming emotion, such as joy, grief, or depression can also cause an empathetic level of awareness where you may feel an echo of the same emotion inside you. The phenomena of long distance empathy is where a person suddenly feels that someone close to them has been hurt, or is in pain, even though they have not spoken to or heard anything from the person at the time.

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

Another branch or form of mental telepathy involves the communication of tangible symbols and items between two people. This definitely does not involve the five senses. Communicating at this telepathic level requires high awareness, practice and application. This kind of telepathy needs a defined sender and receiver as well.

It is easier to communicate a simpler concept through thought alone, such as a color or shape. It is harder to communicate, through thought transfer, concrete symbols that are more complex such as an animal or relatives name that is unknown.

This level of telepathy has seen many experiments. One of them is the Zener cards test which involve the use of simple symbols comprising of star, square, circle and wavy lines printed in black and white. However, there are many people who feel that with just five Zener cards, the percentage of guessing correctly is as high as 20%. However, this argument can be refuted by the fact that knowing the kind of cards used can increase the mental coordination between the sender and receiver. Also, though the 20% success rate can be attributed to the less number of cards, the 50% success rate which has been repeatedly seen in many trials cannot be explained by mere statistics.

ABSTRACT CONCEPTS

Shapes and sizes are easy to communicate, however in the abstract concepts level mental telepathy moves one level ahead. This level involves communicating ideas and concepts without using the five senses and is quite a tough thing to do. Telepaths seldom achieve this kind of an expertise and most trials do not have a high rate of success.

There are animals which can communicate simple abstract concepts like hunger, thirst and pain and our technology still cannot figure out how. Though the lack of prefrontal lobes makes these concepts exceedingly basic, it still seems to involve telepathy.

Some people feel that in the olden ages humans were great telepaths who lost their power with the development of language and evolution. IF this is so then it may be possible to recall those telepathic abilities by the right kind of stimulation.

There are some who believe that these telepathic powers, psychic abilities and other ESP qualities are a thing of the future. If these powers can be properly developed then in theory the entire race can be telepathic.