Telepathy

Telepathy means an immediate mental exchange between living beings, without language, facial expression or technical aids. At the Kyborg Institute we call it a “transmission of feeling”: mostly unconsciously, the feelings or moods of another are perceived, sometimes also a single clear thought or image – between people and, in our view, with animals too. This is expressly a personal, worldview-based view, not a scientifically proven finding.

What does the Kyborg Institute mean by telepathy?

The word combines the Greek tēle (“far”) and páthos (“feeling”); it was coined in England in 1882, in the early days of psychical research. In D. Harald Alke’s works the German paraphrase is Empfindungs-Übertragung – transmission of feeling – and the emphasis lies on feeling: what is meant is not deliberate “mind-reading”, but the fine, mostly unnoticed resonating with the mood of others.

We describe this as resonance: in our experience, connections arise most readily between people who are “on the same wavelength” – with similar attitudes and ways of thinking. In his work on the early development of the child, Tobias Alke described this idea as a “possibility of communication that has hardly been captured so far” – deliberately cautious, as a possibility.

How does telepathy show itself in everyday life?

Much of it we experience without calling it by that name:

• In a team: In our experience, everyone in a department is – at least unconsciously – aware of the others’ mood and senses what others think of them. Mental Basics puts it simply: “We ‘sense’, after all, where we stand with other people.” If the leadership is unclear, the team often becomes unclear too; if it knows what it wants, a clear line emerges.
• In the family: Even at a distance, say on holiday, close people remain connected in our view – “only our attention is temporarily directed at other things”.
• An anecdote from the memoirs: In the summer of 1978 D. Harald Alke suddenly saw an image of his little son, “presumably transmitted telepathically” – and did indeed find him at the top of a ladder four and a half metres high, which, after crawling some 150 metres through tall grass, he had climbed up to the third rung from the top. He was grinning and squealing with delight; his father less so. The little one tried it three more times afterwards. The end of the story is as dry as it is instructive: “In the end I laid the ladder flat.”

From this comes a sentence often quoted at the Institute: “Mind the company you keep, for with it you share breath and thoughts!”

How did the Kyborg Institute come to this subject?

From 1975, by his own account, D. Harald Alke increasingly experienced things that could not be explained with school knowledge – visions, lucid dreams, telepathic experiences. When he began Kundalini Yoga in January 1976, it was “the first phenomenon” he encountered: “Telepathy, or rather empathy, the perception of other people’s feelings.” His intuition grew, and he often knew at the first word what others wanted to tell him – “and I really had a lot to laugh about!”

How does telepathy differ from empathy, intuition and channelling?

• Empathy is feeling one’s way into another person, usually through facial expression, voice and situation. We think it possible that empathy is a preliminary stage of telepathy – and say honestly that this is “(not yet)” understood.
• Intuition is immediate inner knowing. In lived experience, intuition and telepathy merged into one another.
• Channelling is the broader term: it includes inner images, heard messages and automatic writing – telepathically received messages are one channel among several.
• As a conceptual model for an exchange that is not held up by space and matter, we use the term Akasha – as our own worldview, not as a physical explanation.

Can telepathy be practised – and should one want to?

Finer perception can arise with the regular practice of meditation, breathwork and mental training. We attach importance to the order of things: such experiences are a side effect, not the goal. Die Ethik des Neuen Menschen says: “Whoever is able to master their everyday life can also explore their inner world without derailing or losing themselves in some visions or other.” The task behind it fits into a few words: “Be here and be aware!”

The limit is just as clear: deliberately influencing another person’s inner life we consider impermissible. Fine perception is a tool of understanding, not of control.

An exercise from Mental Basics – the shared breathing pause:

1. Before working together, everyone involved sits down quietly.
2. For a few minutes everyone breathes together and in the same rhythm – a synchronous breathing pause from pranayama: calmly in, calmly out, without effort.
3. Then a short shared concentration exercise, for instance one minute of silence with attention on the common task.
4. Only then does the conversation begin.

Those who wish can add regular autogenic training. The exercise serves to attune to one another – people who try it often notice how much calmer and clearer a meeting becomes.

What does science say about telepathy?

Honesty in both directions belongs here:

• There were serious series of experiments. In the 1930s J. B. Rhine at Duke University had card symbols guessed over a distance; C. G. Jung discussed these experiments at length and considered them significant. Tobias Alke takes this up in his work on the emotional foundation of the child – as a possibility, not as proof.
• The results are disputed. Critics faulted the experimental design and evaluation, and the findings could not be reliably repeated. A US government programme on “remote viewing” (“Stargate”) was independently assessed in 1995: the statistician Jessica Utts saw statistical effects, the psychologist Ray Hyman considered them insufficiently established – no operational use was found, and the programme was discontinued.
• As things stand today: there is no repeatable, generally accepted proof of telepathy.

Our attitude to this is calm: we share the experience of many people across cultures that there is a wordless understanding, and we hold this as our view. We do not present it as a proven fact – and we do not disparage those who see it differently.

What does this mean in practice?

• Pay attention to the fine, unspoken signals in being together.
• Train your own perception through calm, breath and collectedness – without making a goal of it.
• Check impressions openly but unobtrusively, rather than interpreting them hastily.
• In the company you keep, remember: moods are transmitted – your own too.

Note: This entry sets out a personal, worldview-based view. It makes no scientific claims of fact and is no substitute for psychological or medical advice.

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By D. Harald Alke, Tobias O. R. Alke