Don't we need to expand and extend our sensory apparatuses to truly see the world? What other senses might there be? What might we 'see'? How would this change us? Could this lead to an enlightenment singularity?

yet what happens when we cut off the senses? What's left? The unpolluted self in its infinite possibilities.

Interesting thoughts, both HH & ld.

Yes, enhancing existing senses or inventing new ones sounds exciting. But isn't finding a way to get a "straight shot" into what's out(?) there, rather than just merely "sensing" it, the ultimate goal? (Don't ask me how, though.)

In any event, it seems that our five senses are quite limited because they evolved on a strictly need-to-survive basis. The natural flow of evolution means that our abilities are fine-tuned to keep us alive for successful procreation. This leaves little room for anything extraordinary in terms of transcendence or enlightenment--although one might argue that that the pursuit of these somehow must also be essential for human survival. (It does almost seem as if we have "too much" in terms of brain power--more than necessary for mere survival. I wonder why we wonder why so much? But I digress...)

I can imagine a future with far better ways to absorb knowledge and ultimate truths about the universe--beyond our five senses as we currently know them. I wish so much that I could get a glimpse into the future to see when mankind invents or discovers how to do this.

Intuition, telepathy, clairvoyance ... extrasensory perception, super sensitive faculties, enhanced and expanded awareness ...the capacity to know something directly, without an analytic process, the psychic faculties that can transcend the known limits and physical factors of space, time, matter, and energy...
Because they work in ways which are mysterious to our analytic minds they are often ignored or discounted. Intuition is the key to successful decision-making. It is not based on formal education or years of experience. It has to do with insight and awareness. Intuitively we can know what to do before we know why we are doing it. It is following-up on hunches and gut feelings; it is learning to wait for the right time to act, allowing key factors to emerge...
In the premotor cortex mirror telepathic neurons have been discovered which can detect super sensitive information.
Which are the spectrums of awareness that go along with extrasensory perception ?
Do we have an extraordinary innate potential that remains largely untapped ? Has science missed half the brain ?
Is unimpeded, unblocked awareness possible ?
Does our Consciousness possess super sensitivity capabilities ?
Do awareness and intelligence go hand in hand ?
Do we have organic micro-senses, apart from the traditional macro-five, which can detect kinds of information that macro-five cannot ?

I've heard of mirror neurons but not telepathic neurons. Who discovered these telepathic neurons and why classify them as telepathic?

Hi, cerebral !
See -- Superpowers of the Human Biomind -- Section 1: Telepathy
http://www.biomindsuperpowers.com/Pages/Superpowers.html

From your reference:



How do you get from "empathic mirror neurons" to telepathic neurons? That's quite a leap. One definition for telepathy is:
Telepathy is the transfer of thoughts, feelings, or images directly from the mind of one person to another without using physical means.

Whereas a definition for empathy is:
Empathy is the imaginative projection into another's feelings,

If we agree that empathy involves the imaginative projecting based on sensory inputs, then it is not telepathy.

Empathy is one´s ability to recognize and understand the emotions of another, to effectively divine the thoughts and mood of another.
Empathy is often defined as the ability "to put oneself into another´s shoes", or to experience the thoughts and emotions of another within oneself -- a kind of emotional resonance.
Detecting/recognizing/perceiving intentions, thoughts, emotions of another, attuning oneself to another, is telepathy -- which is a direct transfer or perception of thoughts, states of mind, etc.
The first and the second paragraphs of Your post, cerebral, make it very clear that emphatic mirror neurons possess telepathic capacity, hence they are also called telepathic mirror neurons.

the difference between empathy and telepathy is that the latter postulates supranormal mechanisms whereas the former does not. Ask a psychologist is they think empathy is the same as telepathy, because that's what this discussion amounts to. In my opinion, empathy does not imply telepathy. They are completely different things.

You see, cerebral, it's the emphatic mirror neurons, not the empathic ones, that are telepathic. I guess those are the neurons with particularly excitable electrical impulses. Vibes must just flood the air whenever they're fired.

"Ask a psychologist if s/he thinks empathy is the same as telepathy"...
Is a psychologist telepathic ? Are You denying, cerebral, what You have quoted above ?
Because empathy sounds more familiar than telepathy !?

but the article refers to mirror neurons that are not emphatic, but empathic, so the question is, is empathic the same as telepathic? I have always understood telepathy to involve supernatural mechanisms and channels of communication, but there is nothing supernatural about empathy, which is why I have a problem accepting the presence of telepathic mirror neurons when the evidence only suggests the presence of empathic mirror neurons. If you look at the original articles, there is no mention of telepathic mirror neurons. Why do you suppose that is?

I was joking.

No, empathic is not the same as telepathic, nor is it the same as emphatic, for that matter.

Telepathy is defined as communication by means other than the senses (by the exercise of an occult power). If we can ditch the "occult" from the definition, maybe we could see telepathy as an avenue of perception beyond the five known senses.

A thought: Maybe what we currently describe as telepathy might actually be the seed of a genetic mutation, another "sense" if you will (or won't) that some people really do possess. Perhaps a variation or overgrowth of these "empathic mirror neurons" in the premotor cortex of the brain would be where telepathic sensitivity might possibly reside. But this is all conjecture, of course.

Cerebral,
I have to quote, again, from Your post for more clarity:
"...because of the recent discovery of empathic mirror neurons in the premotor cortex of the brain via which the motives and intentions of others can be detected.
Detecting the motives and intentions of others is also one of the formal definitions of that super sensitivity categorized as telepathy, and the discovery of the mirror neurons implies that empathic telepathy does exist..."
From this statement it is clear that empathic mirror neurons have a telepathic faculty or capacity.
In fact, empathy and telepathy require an enhanced awareness or super sensitivity; in a way, they belong to the same spectrum of awareness -- of a sharper, higher, or increased awareness.
The whole process of developing extrasensory perception consists in enhancing and expanding our spectrum of awareness beyond the normal five senses.

Birds and reptiles see four color frequencies, not three as do humans and old world primates, nor two as do all other mamals. These four color frequencies give birds and reptiles a three-dimensional color space. What it must be like to be a bird! See the July 2006 Scientific American article on this subject:

http://sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&...7CE83414B7F0000

Even mice show empathy for each other
06 July 2006
From New Scientist Print Edition.

PRIMATES aren't unique in their ability to register a companion's pain after all. Mice apparently feel pain more keenly if another mouse is going through the same experience, but only if the co-sufferer is a cage-mate.

"We found that if they know each other and can see each other, both mice are in more pain, and the pain behaviours seem to be synchronised," says Jeffrey Mogil, who led the research at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Mogil's team fed mice with vinegar, which caused mild stomach ache for 30 minutes or so and made the mice wriggle in discomfort. When two mice that were strangers were given the vinegar, they did not wriggle very much, perhaps to avoid revealing vulnerability to a potential rival. However, cage-mates that had previously spent time together wriggled more, and seemed to synchronise their wriggles. The same happened in another test in which a chemical was used to cause mild inflammation in a paw (Science, vol 312, p 1967).

The researchers say that the mice had to see each other suffer for the effect to kick in, but that pheromones that enable recognition play a role too.

He stresses that the reactions shouldn't be mistaken for sympathy, which requires consciousness of another's suffering. "I don't think consciousness is required at all for what we're seeing," says Mogil. Instead, the "empathy" is akin to collective yawning in humans. "It suggests that empathy goes further down the physiological tree than we thought."

maybe mice are telepathic as well

Fields of the Mind

"Morphic fields underlie our mental activity and perception. The morphic fields of social groups connect together members of the group even when they are many miles apart, and provide channels of communication through which organisms can stay in touch at a distance.
They help provide an explanation for telepathy. There is now good evidence that many species of animals are telepathic, and telepathy seems to be a normal means of animal communication, as discussed in my book "Dogs that know when their owners are coming home".
Telepathy is normal not paranormal, natural not supernatural, and is also common between people, especially people who know each other well.
In the modern world, the commonest kind of human telepathy occurs in connection with telephone calls. More than 80% of the population say they have thought of someone for no apparent reason, who then called; or that they have known who was calling before picking up the phone.
Controlled experiments on telephone telepathy have given repeatable positive results that are highly significant statistically, as summarized in "The Sense of Being Stared at".
Telepathy also occurs in connection with emails.
The morphic fields of mental activity are not confined to the inside of our heads -- they extend far beyond our brain through intention and attention. We are already familiar with the idea of fields extending beyond the material objects: magnetic fields, the earth´s gravitational field, the fields of a cell phone, etc.
Likewise the fields of our minds extend far beyond our brain. When we look at the stars, our minds may literally reach to the stars. There may be almost no limit on how far this process can extend."

Rupert Sheldrake, Morphic Fields and Morphic Resonance

Also see: Rupert Sheldrake, Extended Mind, Power, & Prayer -- http://www.sheldrake.org/papers/Morphic/morphic3_paper.html

P.S. Nonlocal quantum-level correlations, or istantaneous action-at-a distance -- such synchrony is the basis of all quantum mechanical relationships; this is akin to Morphic Fields theory and to the pre-Socratic Greek notion of "the oneness of being".

Every well-controlled study has found telepathy to be nonexistent. From Wikipedia:

"While there have been numerous scientific experiments into telepathy over the years, no positive result has ever resisted scrutiny. Positive results have always been demonstrated to be the result of flawed methodology, statistically erroneous conclusions, or could simply not be replicated by independent researchers.

"The majority of the scientific community believes that claims of phenomena associated with telepathy constitute pseudoscience."

"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible."
Bertrand Russell

"The larger the crowd, the more probable that that which it praises is folly, and the more improbable that it is truth; and the more improbable of all that it is any eternal truth."
Soren Kierkegaard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepathy

Actually, it may be the case that a false belief in the existence of telepathy is more widespread than belief in the truth.

Rick,
Do You think that our science and scientists know and understand everything !? They have just begun unravelling subtler physical realities.

"The majority of scientific community believes that claims of phenomena associated with telepathy constitute pseudoscience."
Precisely... they just believe, they do not know.
There is a huge difference between believing and knowing.
Previously You stated that birds and reptiles see four color frequencies, not three as do humans... It means that birds and reptiles have a wider spectrum of perception.
Shamans say that the total world is made of 48 bands. Normally we perceive 2.

If ESP, telepathy, or precognition exsited, no gambling casino could stay in business.

Maybe those who have ESPs are not interested in casinos... Do You think a shaman, or an enlightened person would go to a casino ?

Telepathy debate hits London -- http://www.sheldrake.org/controversies/telepathy_debate.html

Agree with everything you say Rick. But since your last post I'm just hoping they do exist, that I have the gift, and I can get over to a casino before they catch on!

Okay, then let's assume the gifts are only used for the good of mankind rather than personal gain. Where were these shamans (shamen?) when, say, 9/11 happened? They could have told the FBI about the plot and plotters and saved a whole lot of people.

SIDDHIS: Supernormal Perceptual States -- http://www.angelfire.com/realm/bodhisattva/siddhi.html

Good point! And the rest. But the CIA supported remote viewing, so I'm told.

(I was taken to a casino once by a relative in Germany. Boring..........)