Mental telepathy skill can involve misleadingly broad talents. While the most accepted definition of mental telepathy may mean the direct communication of thoughts between people without using any of the five senses, some forms are questionable. Having a creepy feeling that you are being watched is much different in meaning than being able to pick the plans from a scientist's mind for a secret assignment. Huge ranges of abilities from the very basic to the more complex have been defined as mental telepathy. We will delve into mental telepathy and some of the varying levels.

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.

Many refuse to accept this kind of non verbal communication as mental telepathy because they feel that the subjects use expressions and other senses sans the sound to communicate. Truly speaking they are right. However, we cannot completely disregard the role of mental telepathy here since the very reason that non verbal communication is so effective between people who are familiar to each other is due to the fact that their minds are more in synch with each other than with strangers. Though this kind of an argument can be contested with an argument that the reason why non verbal communication is so effective between two people who know each other is because they understand each others subtle gestures and can interpret the slightest body language.

EMPATHY

We all know about empathy. When you can feel the other person's pain, elation or other emotions and understand them, then it's known as empathy. There are some people who can really empathize with the other person and think and feel like them. The ability to empathize can be enhanced with regular practice and training. This ability is evident in actors who can actually feel the characters pain and elation to the extent that they can cry and laugh as per the character.

Sympathetic pain is another aspect of mental telepathy where the person physically experiences the pain and trauma of the loved one. Many a times when we witness a loved one getting injured, we tend to have the same kind of pain or ache at the same point in our body though in reality there is nothing wrong with us. Likewise, when someone close to us experiences some emotional upheaval like a lot of joy or grief or even depression, then your mood corresponds to that emotion. There is also something known as long distance empathy where a person we love gets hurt and we get inkling on it even where there are miles separating us.

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

This level of mental telepathy transcends the senses and moves beyond the physical realms. This is essentially a mind play where thoughts are used to transfer symbols and objects between two people. Needless to say here training, concentration and practice between the sender and receiver are paramount to make this a success.

A color or shape is easier to convey through thought than something more complex like an animal or a deceased persons name from the beyond.

Zener cards are often used in tests of mental telepathy at this level. They consist of a circle, square, star, plus sign, and three wavy lines, so a random selection or guess is possible according to some critics. Odds are good that several random guesses can select the correct symbol because of the limited number of choices. But when over half of the time the correct symbol is chosen, this is certainly higher success than a random guess would result in and some telepaths have proven these statistics.

ABSTRACT CONCEPTS

More abstract concepts like ideas or names of relatives of unknown persons are harder to communicate through thought than simple symbols or colors. For telepaths to achieve this level of mental telepathy, there is a lower success rate and the experiments are too hard for the average telepath to master.

Science cannot explain how some animals seem to communicate using mental telepathy. Animals would be using abstract concepts, albeit very basic ones, to communicate with each other. Such ideas would probably not go beyond simplistic impulses like 'hungry' or 'danger!' because animal brains lack the prefrontal lobe, but could still be considered a form of mental telepathy.

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 is another school of thought which feels that telepathy and ESP abilities are a thing of the future. Many people are of the opinion that in future all humans will be telepathic.