Minor Telepathy: Mental Connections You Didn't Know Existed!

Looking into small mental connections between well acquainted individuals

Introduction

Telepathy, one of the most sought after superpowers. The ability to read the mind, beneficial in all its aspects. Many have attempted to attain the power of telepathy, through means of magic or manipulation. However, there is actually a simpler example of such mind-reading and most don’t know that it’s there.

Have you ever played a game of rock paper scissors with your friend and found that you can predict what your friend is going to choose? This is a sign that you know your friend so well that you can predict his thoughts and choices. This small, while strong, connection is an example of what I call minor telepathy.

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What is this connection?

To understand what this mind-reading concept actually is, we have to understand the concept of reading people. Reading people is straightforward, psychologists and psychiatrists do it all the time. I myself, as a psychiatry enthusiast, find it quite easy to read people.

Reading people is essentially mentally assessing a person based on what you observe about them. One such individual who is quite extraordinary at this is the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Reading people is an extremely useful skill and is applied for all purposes, psychiatric counselling, scamming, interviewing, deductive reasoning, etc.

However, I wouldn’t consider the standard level of reading people to be telepathy. The real telepathy happens when you know someone really well and have read them for a long time, you can predict their moves before they even think of them. My favourite example is from The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon introduces a variant of Rock, Paper, Scissors to the group: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock.

“Scissors cut paper, paper covers rock. Rock crushes lizard, lizard poisons Spock. Spock smashes scissors, scissors decapitates lizard. Lizard eats paper, paper disproves Spock. Spock vaporises rock and as always, rock crushes scissors.”

Sheldon Cooper, The Big Bang Theory

Sheldon’s reasoning for this complex, obscure game is that 75–80% of the time, players familiar with each other will tie due to a limited number of outcomes. Sheldon’s explanation perfectly illustrates the concept of reading people to such a knowledgeable level. By knowing the other person so well, you can accurately predict whether they would pick rock, paper or scissors.

While the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors is incredibly simple and easy to read, it is a clear example of people knowing each other so well that they can predict each other’s moves.

To make things even better, Sheldon, in that very same scene, also demonstrates this concept in a much funnier way. When Sheldon and his friends first play out his variant, they hit the obstacle that every single player has chosen Spock, as it was by far the most interesting choice, being named after a Star Trek character. When they rematch, they all pick Spock again.

With this level of knowing each other and knowing how much each of them enjoys Star Trek and Spock, they all know that every one of their opponents can’t help themselves but pick Spock. To the viewer, we can obviously figure out how to beat them: just pick lizard or paper, easy. However, the gang’s desire to pick Spock overpowers the desire to win the game and they all pick it again and again, despite them knowing that everyone else will also pick Spock.

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Where is this connection found?

There are two answers to the question above.

Scientifically, the answer is in the hippocampus of the brain. It memorises and processes the observations and information you input and stores it in the cortex afterwards. However, you could also answer that question literally.

You mostly see these connections happen among close friends that hang out a lot. Perhaps someone you grew up with or meet on a consistent basis. Maybe even someone with similar interests as you that you spend time exploring them.

Essentially, when two (or more) people share a mental connection (whether that’s from a similar interest or from being really great friends, etc.) for a long amount of time, they start to think more alike and can often predict what the other person is thinking.

More examples of this include identical twins and finishing sentences. Identical twins, having grown up together and being sort of forced into the mind-reading archetype, naturally can predict, with some degree of success, each other’s thoughts. That is also how people are able to finish each other’s sentences.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Food fight!”

We’ve all heard that before.

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How can this connection be made?

All of the above explains what the connection is and where it’s found but nothing has been said about how to make said connection. I haven't given any evidence as to if this connection is even real or not. Now I shall explain how this connection is formed.

The connection isn’t psychic or supernatural (excuse the somewhat misleading title), it can actually be trained. It’s a physical attempt at connecting with someone to the point where you can feel what they’re feeling.

When you interact with someone, you slowly get to know them by the way they act and react. The more you interact with that someone, the easier it is to read them. You slowly gather more and more information until you feel like you know them like the back of your hand.

This is why couples are so good at this connection. They spend heaps of time together, they share close memorable moments and they’re constantly reading each other subconsciously. As a result, they can often read what the other person is feeling and thinking. The connection isn’t built with big memorable gestures, it’s actually built with the small subconscious gestures.

Humans aren’t the only ones that can form this connection, many species of monkeys and other primates also connect with one another for purposes of communication, flirtation and sometimes aggression.

In rare cases, connections can be established between humans and other primates too. After all, we are their closest relatives evolution wise. When some say they can talk to animals, they aren’t just pretending to be Doctor Dolittle, some people can actually form mental connections with fellow monkeys!

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Conclusion

When we started this journey of discovering our secret mental power, I doubt that you had any idea that it could go this far. Telepathy, in some forms, isn’t a superpower; it genuinely can be reality. These connections often go unnoticed or disregarded, but they’re there. Ever so subtly, they aid our brains with interacting with those we know well and those we’d like to get to know better.

Next time you’re with a friend, try and see if you can guess what they’re thinking, even if it’s as small as their next move in Rock, Paper, Scissors.