How do you tell if someone can transmit thoughts to another person? And do any of us have extrasensory perception? Scientists at the University of Manchester have devised a unique experiment which they believe will test if telepathic ability really exists between individuals. Approximately 100 participants are taking part in the test which immerses them into a virtual computer world. The project will also look at how telepathic abilities may vary depending on the relationships between participants. The experiment
 | | Virtual world: choosing a trumpet |
The test is carried out using two volunteers who could be friends, work colleagues or family. They are placed in separate rooms on different floors of the same building to eliminate any possibility of communication. Participants enter the virtual environment by donning a head-mounted 3D display and an electronic glove which they use to navigate their way through the computer generated world. Once inside participants view a random selection of computer-generated objects eg. a telephone, a trumpet, a football and an umbrella. The person in the first room sees one object at a time, which they are asked to concentrate on and interact with. The person in the other room is simultaneously presented with the same object plus three decoy objects. They are then asked to select the object they believe the other participant is trying to transmit to them. Sensory leakage It's the result of a joint project between The University's School of Computer Science and School of Psychological Sciences. Project researcher David Wilde says it's not the first investigation of its kind - but he says it will prove more accurate than anything done previously: "A lot of the experiments in telepathy were criticised because of what we called 'sensory leakage'," he says. "And that just simply means is that if you are in a room and trying to guess an object which someone is trying to send to you, you could be influenced by any objects in that room eg a cup or a clock. "By entering a virtual world, we control everything that everyone sees in that experiment from the moment they start until they finish. So we can be very sure that if they choose an object that they haven't been influenced by anything other than what we've presented to them." The results of the experiment are expected to be published early in 2007. | 
