Beyond the Five Senses

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You are in ten foreword relaxing, sitting down to enjoy your hot cup of Earl Grey tea. Without warning an elaborately dressed woman, with an air of superiority, strolled into the room. Without opening her mouth, without making an sound, you can suddenly "hear" what sound like a very intimate remark in your head. This can be rather disturbing; but then again, depending on your personality, this can be rather comforting or arousing too!

This scenario is no doubt familiar to Captain Picard of the Star Ship Enterprise during his numerous encounter with the Betasoid, Lwaxana Troi. He, of course, being who he is, does not particularly like it.

Beings with telepathy power, that is able to communicate without sound or visual cues, are common in many science fictions. It creates an additional elements of fantasy to the show. Star Trek would be much duller without characters like Lwaxana, Deanna, Kes, and Spock. This exploration of the possibilities that an intelligent being may possess senses beyond the five sense of sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste, that we human are familiar with is most fascinating.

These area are loosely covered by the term "extrasensory perception" (ESP), psychic phenomenon, or, parapsychology. There are two related phenomenon:

1. Telepathy- The ability of one mind to interact with another mind over a distance. An example is the abilities of the Betasoid in Star Trek.

2. Telekinesis- The ability of one mind to interact or manipulate physical objects at a distance. This is a much rarely ability. It is most clearly demonstrated by the capabilities of Kes in Star Trek: Voyager; she apparently is able not only to manipulate objects around her with her thought, but to control the atoms, the quarks, and beyond, folding space-time. In the episode where she finally left Voyager, she demonstrated she immense power by hurling the Voyager hundreds of light-years towards the Alpha quadrant. Amazing!

Is this purely science fiction?

Some would think so.

Lawrence Krauss (1997), in Beyond Star Trek, is sceptical of ESP. He claimed that electromagnetic waves would be the most sensible carrier for telepathic messages, and the fact that no such waves have been associated with ESP do not help the argument that there is ESP. He further considered in a most enlightening discussion the possibilities of transmission through the weak force, neutrino, gravity, and possible "fifth forces". The conclusion is still a sceptical one. However, he did say:

"There is little doubt that undiscovered forces and undiscovered elementary particles exist at some level."

The argument make sense, after all, if telepathic power involves some form of transmission by a person’s mind the transmission should be detectable. In answer in Star Trek is fairly representative of our current understand. The current knowledge in Star Trek is that telepathic power involves principle that is as yet unknown; there is no way to detect it, or to block it.

Evidence?

Others, think otherwise; there are researchers that devote their time investigating such matter, and are convince of such things. So, keeping an open mind, what are the facts, or what do we know so far, concerning senses beyond the normal five senses.

[work in progress]

Related resources:

	Parapsychology research

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