Three Types of Telepathy

The following is excerpted from Spiritual Telepathy: Ancient Techniques to Access the Wisdom of Your Soul, published by Quest Books.

There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen. —Rumi

In experiments dating back to the nineteenth century, scientists have validated two types of telepathy: instinctual, or feeling-based, telepathy and mental, or mind-to-mind, telepathy. According to the Wisdom teachings, there is also another, higher type of telepathy called soul-to-soul, or spiritual, telepathy.

Our etheric bodies are part of an interactive sea of energy that connects us to everyone and everything in our world. It is through our etheric bodies that we both send and receive telepathic information. In this article, I will describe each type of telepathy in detail and show you just how universal these teachings are. I will also show you how our pioneering scientists are, once again, validating this ancient wisdom.

Instinctual Telepathy

Instinctual telepathy is the lowest type of telepathy. We share this type of telepathy with the animal kingdom, and it is still a common mode of communication in indigenous cultures. Instinctual telepathy utilizes the area around the solar plexus, the center of instinct and emotion. In this type of telepathy, one person registers the feelings or needs of another at a distance. As you will see below, this teaching can be found in a wide variety of cultures, both ancient and modern. In every culture, the area around the solar plexus is key.

The kahunas, the native priests of Hawaii, believe that telepathic messages are sent directly from one solar plexus to another. According to the kahunas, the aka, or etheric body, of one person sends out a “finger” or thread of aka substance to the solar plexus of another. This sticky substance connects the two like a “silver spider web.” Telepathic messages are sent out along these threads. After the instinctive, or “low,” self receives the message, it relays the information to the rational, or “middle,” self, where it “rises in the mind” like a memory. When repeated contact is made, these threads eventually become braided into an aka “cord,” which creates a strong telepathic bond between two people. Aka threads can be sent to strangers by means of a glance or a handshake.[1]

The African Bushmen communicate in a similar way. As anthropologist Bradford Keeney discovered, the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert believe that all living creatures are connected by a silver stream of energy that extends from one belly button to another. The Bushmen use these horizontal “lines” like telephone wires to send and receive telepathic messages.[2]

The Australian aboriginals believe it is their miwi that makes it possible for them to see or hear at a distance. Miwi, a Ngarrindjeri word that translates as “soul” or “instinct,” is located in the pit of the stomach. Passed from parent to child, the miwi is present in everyone; but it is particularly strong in their medicine men, who use it to cast out illness and visit the spirits of the dead. A strong miwi also makes it possible to see visions and predict future events.[3]

The Japanese also rely on the solar plexus area for instinctive, nonverbal information. A Japanese businessman will often use haragei, or “belly talk,” to size up a potential partner or business proposal. The word haragei derives from hara, translated as “belly” or “guts,” and gei, which translates as “the art of.” Many older Japanese take pride in depending on “the art of the belly” when making important business decisions. A business deal will often be called off if the haragei is not harmonious. In Japan, young businessmen are told that “in their twenties, they must improve their minds, but in their thirties they must develop their hara.”[4]

In our culture, the term gut feeling is the most common way to explain our instinctive feelings about a person or situation. We say, “I trusted my gut in making that decision” or, “My gut told me not to trust this or that person.” This term has long been used in the business and law-enforcement communities. Businessmen use the term gut hunch to describe their instinctive reactions to an idea or proposal, while police detectives refer to their “blue sense” as a way to describe their gut feelings about a crime.

In 2004, parapsychologists Dean Radin and Marilyn Schlitz conducted an experiment at the Institute of Noetic Sciences with twenty-six couples to determine if the gut response of one person could be felt by another. One person, designated as the sender, was shown a series of images designed to evoke “positive, negative, calming, or neutral emotions.” In another room, the reaction of the receiver was monitored by electrodes placed on the heart, skin, and stomach muscles. The experimenters found that the stronger emotions—both positive and negative—did produce measurable responses in the receiver and concluded that the gut has a “belly brain” with a “perception intelligence” of its own.[5]

The existence of a belly brain has also been backed up by medical research. It was first documented by the nineteenth-century German neurologist Leopold Auerbach and later rediscovered by Dr. Michael Gershon, a professor at Columbia University who wrote a book in the 1990s called The Second Brain. This second brain is made up of billions of nerve cells in the digestive tract. Some medical researchers now believe that the belly brain may be the source of the unconscious gut reactions that are later communicated to the main brain.[6]

Biologist Rupert Sheldrake, the author of two books on this subject, has done more than anyone to validate this type of telepathy scientifically. In The Sense of Being Stared At and Other Aspects of the Extended Mind, he summarizes his research on this subject. He also believes this type of telepathic communication to be instinctual, calling it part of our “evolutionary heritage, an aspect of our biological, animal nature.”[7]

Sheldrake and his associates have collected over five thousand case histories illustrating this type of telepathy. An additional twenty thousand people have participated in a variety of experimental tests— the most recent involving text and e-mail messages. While largely unconscious, this type of telepathic perception still plays an important role in modern life. Because it utilizes the center of emotion, instinctual telepathy depends on strong emotional bonds between two people. The most common examples are between parents and children, husbands and wives, lovers, and best friends. According to Sheldrake, the most striking examples of instinctive telepathy involve intense emotion—emergencies, death, or distress.[8]

In Ropes to God: Experiencing the Bushman Spiritual Universe, Keeney includes a Bushman’s description of this type of telepathy:

You cannot send a thought to another person without first being filled with heightened emotion. . . . In this state you mix your thought, message or directive with your intensified feeling and make the thought a pure feeling. It is concentrated in your belly where the intensity of your feeling escalates to a point where it can no longer be held. Then it is released along the line coming out of your belly and directed to another person’s belly. They immediately respond when you communicate in this way. It may seem like we send our thoughts, but we are actually sending our feelings. Not weak, arbitrary feelings, but intense, almost overwhelming feelings. . . . A thought, message or request is changed into a feeling. . . . The feeling is the carrier.[9]

In the late 1960s, Marcia Emery was driving in downtown Washington, DC, when her brakes suddenly failed. According to Marcia,

When I put my foot on the brake, it went right to the floor. The emergency brake didn’t work either. I had the choice of either crashing into the cars on the street or running into people on the sidewalk. I suddenly heard an inner voice say, “Make a quick right.” I turned into an alley and smashed into a wall between two men’s clothing stores, narrowly missing a pedestrian.

I survived with only scratches on my elbows and knees. My car was completely totaled—it crumpled like an accordion. On my way home, I decided not to tell my mother about the accident. I was planning to drive to Philadelphia to visit her in a few weeks and I didn’t want her to worry.

I was still shaking when I got home. As I walked through the door, the telephone rang. It was my mother and her first words were “How’s your car?” When I asked her how she knew, she said, “I don’t know; the words just came out of my mouth.”[10]

Sheldrake also collected stories of people who instantly knew that a loved one had died. While researching this chapter, I discovered that several of my friends have had this experience. One friend shared this story with me:

My mother died from endometrial cancer. When I got the call that the end was near, I flew from California to Wisconsin to say goodbye. I took a “red-eye” flight and fell asleep on the plane. When I woke up, tears were running down my cheeks and I knew, in that moment, that my mother had just died. When I got to Chicago to change planes, my brother was waiting at the airport. Before he could speak, I said, “I already know mom died.” I later saw that her death certificate recorded the exact time I woke up on that plane.

This kind of telepathy also operates in a more benign way with the people we are closest to. I had a birthday while working on this chapter. A few days before, while driving home from the library I was thinking about my interest in esoteric Christianity when the thought suddenly popped into my mind that I’d like to have a cross necklace. I thought of my one-year baby picture and the tiny gold cross I wore around my neck, a gift from my favorite uncle. A few days later, a cross necklace arrived in the mail—a birthday present from my sister. When I called to thank her, she said, “I don’t know why, but as soon as I saw that necklace, I just had to get it for you.”

Animal Telepathy

Instinctive telepathy is easy to spot in animals. Mass telepathy, the lowest form of instinctual telepathy, is seen in the mysterious migration patterns of birds, fish, insects, and other animals. Sheldrake points out that the English swallow travels six thousand miles to its winter feeding grounds in Africa in the fall. After spending the winter in its breeding grounds in Baja California, Mexico, the grey whale swims four thousand miles to the Bering Sea. Monarch butterflies, born near the Great Lakes, fly two thousand miles to the Mexican highlands for the winter. Scientists have theories but no clear answers as to how animals manage to navigate these vast distances year after year.

Instinctive telepathy between animals and humans is also apparent. Once again, this contact is dependent upon close relationships. Sheldrake explored this type of telepathy in his book Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home and Other Unexplained Powers of Animals. In this book, Sheldrake provides the results of his research on the perceptiveness of dogs, cats, parrots, horses, and other animals. His research included random surveys of more than a thousand pet owners and interviews with hundreds of people who work with animals, such as dog handlers, veterinarians, kennel and stable proprietors, horse trainers and riders. He discovered that dogs and other animals often anticipate their owners’ arrival, even when the owners return home at random times or in unfamiliar vehicles.

Sheldrake carried out an extensive videotaped experiment with Jaytee, a mixed-breed terrier owned by Pamela Smart, his research assistant. When Pam went out, she often left Jaytee with her parents, who lived in the flat next door. The experiment started with both Pam and her parents keeping a log of her travels and Jaytee’s reaction to her return. According to Sheldrake, Jaytee anticipated her return by waiting at the window ten or more minutes in eighty-five of one hundred occasions, even when she returned at different times and by unusual means—a bicycle, train, or taxi.[11]

Sheldrake also recorded many other examples of human-to-animal telepathy, including dogs who knew when their owners were thinking about going for a walk, and cats who knew in advance when they were to be taken to the vet. He also recorded stories of cats, dogs, and even horses who found their way back home from a great distance.

As a child, I was fascinated by my father’s tales of his childhood pet, a fox terrier named Whitey. Whitey spent his days lying in the sun on the back porch of my grandparents’ home in Yreka, a small town in Northern California. At a certain time each weekday afternoon, Whitey would scratch at the back door until my grandmother let him out. He would then trot through the streets until he arrived at my father’s elementary school, a mile away. Whitey was always waiting, wagging his tail in greeting, when my father walked out of school at 3:00 pm. How did he know what time to leave?, I wondered. How did he find his way?

Perhaps like Jaytee, Whitey was responding to my father’s anticipation of the final school bell. His ability to find his way to the school each day may have been a function of the “morphic field” that links owners with their beloved pets.

Mental Telepathy

Mental telepathy, or thought transference, is mind-to-mind telepathy. This type of telepathy utilizes the throat center and the lower levels of the mental plane. The practice of true mental telepathy requires a concentrated, one-pointed focus of attention. Unlike trance channeling—a type of mediumship in which a disembodied entity uses a channel’s body to communicate a message—telepathic contact is made between two fully conscious, focused minds. Three examples of this type of telepathic communication can be found in the work of Helena Blavatsky, Helena Roerich, and Alice Bailey.

In the past two centuries, the books of Blavatsky, Roerich, and Bailey have introduced the Ageless Wisdom teachings to the general public. Each of these women was said to have functioned as an amanuensis, or “one who takes dictation,” for a group of Tibetan masters living in the Himalayas. Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, was thought to have been an advanced initiate of the mystery teachings. Her books include Isis Unveiled, published in 1877, and The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, published in 1888. The Secret Doctrine, a two-volume set on the evolution of man and the cosmos, influenced both esotericists and scientists. One admirer was Albert Einstein, who reportedly kept a copy of The Secret Doctrine on his desk.[12]

Helena Roerich, cofounder of the Agni Yoga Society, began her work with the masters in 1920. Her telepathic contact with the Tibetan master Morya produced a series of sixteen books on a spiritual philosophy she called “living ethics.”[13]

Alice Bailey’s work with the Tibetan master Djwal Khul began in 1919. At fifteen, she received a surprise visit from a turbaned man who told her he would have work for her to do in the future. Twenty-four years later, then a mother of three, she suddenly heard a “voice” within asking for her cooperation in the writing of a series of books. After some reluctance, she agreed. According to Bailey, in the beginning she simply listened and wrote down the dictated words as they were “dropped into my brain, one by one.”[14] Over time, as their minds became attuned, she was able to directly register and write down the thoughts and ideas of the Tibetan master. Over a thirty-year period, they produced a total of nineteen books on consciousness and evolution. It was Bailey who introduced the term new age into the popular culture.

Another example of mind-to-mind telepathy is the direct transmission practiced by the Buddhist teacher Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhist practices from India to Tibet in the eighth century. Padmasambhava was said to have concealed teachings, texts, and religious objects to be discovered by later generations. The teachings, called termas, or “spiritual treasures,” are transmitted mentally to masters called tertons, or “treasure finders,” in two ways.

The earth termas are symbolic texts written on yellow scrolls. These scrolls are concealed in rocks, lakes, and temples. Once found, these symbols would reawaken the terton’s conscious mind to the guru’s teachings. Mind termas are direct mind-to-mind transmissions from guru to terton. These teachings are concealed within the terton’s mind in the form of letters or sounds. At the appropriate time, the terton becomes consciously aware of the transmitted information. These forms of direct transmission have allowed the teachings to be passed down from one generation to the next in an unbroken lineage.[15]

True mental telepathy is still fairly rare. According to Bailey, mind-to-mind telepathy will be the preferred mode of communication in about four hundred years. More common today is the type of mental telepathy that occurs on the astral levels, as described in chapter 1. Scientific experiments on this type of mental telepathy date back to the 1880s. According to Dean Radin, the first study of mental telepathy was done by a British physicist named Sir William Barrett in 1883. In his first book, The Conscious Universe, Radin traced the history of telepathic research and described the best-known experiments: Upton Sinclair’s experiments with his wife, Mary Craig Kimbrough; the ESP card tests carried out at Duke University; the dream telepathy experiments conducted at Maimonides Institute in Brooklyn, New York; and the ganzfeld telepathy experiments conducted in the mid-1970s. I’ve included a brief overview of these experiments below.

Mental Radio

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Upton Sinclair was best known for his novel The Jungle, a book that exposed the unsanitary conditions in the meatpacking industry and led to the passage of the Meat Inspection Act in 1906.

In the late 1920s, Sinclair conducted a series of three hundred telepathy experiments with his wife, Mary Craig Kimbrough. Sinclair would create an image and place it in a sealed envelope. In another room, Mary Craig would “tune in” to the image and attempt to draw a duplicate copy. In 1930, Sinclair published a book called Mental Radio, which described these experiments. Mary Craig’s accuracy rate was impressive enough to attract the attention of several high-profile friends. One such friend was Albert Einstein, who wrote the preface to the book, praising Sinclair for his conscientious reporting. The book also attracted the attention of William McDougall, a former psychology professor at Oxford and Harvard, who was then considered the “dean of American psychology.” McDougall was so impressed with Mary Craig’s abilities that he created a parapsychology department at Duke University to study paranormal activity.

ESP Card Tests

While at Duke University, J. B. Rhine, McDougall’s assistant and eventual successor, devised telepathy experiments with a series of cards. The cards, designed by Karl Zerner, a colleague of Rhine’s, were called the Zerner ESP cards. The cards consisted of five symbols: a circle, a cross, a square, a star, and an image consisting of three wavy, vertical lines. A deck consisted of five cards of each symbol. In this experiment, the sender would shuffle the cards, and as each card was turned over, he or she would attempt to send the image mentally to the receiver in another room.

Dream Telepathy Experiments

The first dream telepathy experiments were done by the Italian researcher G. B. Ermacora in the 1880s. More controlled experiments were done in the 1960s and early 1970s by a team of parapsychologists at the Maimonides Institute in Brooklyn, New York. These experiments included a receiver and a sender. The receiver would spend the night in a soundproof, electronically shielded dream lab. Once the receiver fell asleep, she would be monitored for the rapid eye movements that indicate the dream state. The sender would then try to mentally transmit a randomly chosen image to the dreamer. Once this was done, the receiver was awakened and asked to describe her dream. This process would be repeated several times during the night. The information from the dreamer was recorded, transcribed, and later compared with the sender’s image.

Ganzfeld Telepathy Experiments

Ganzfeld, German for “whole field,” is a type of experiment that attempts to mimic the state of deep meditation when our physical senses are stilled and no longer relaying information about the physical world to our brains. In this experiment, the receiver and sender are placed in separate, insulated cubicles. The receiver’s eyes are covered with halves of Ping-Pong balls and his ears are covered with headphones playing white noise. Once the receiver is relaxed, the sender is shown still photos or film clips. The sender then attempts to telepathically send these images to the receiver. The receiver’s impressions are recorded and compared with the original image.

According to Radin, the results from each of the experiments discussed above—ESP, dream telepathy, and ganzfeld—were “statistically significant” and provided clear scientific evidence that this type of mental telepathy does exist.[16]

Spiritual Telepathy

Spiritual, or soul-to-soul, telepathy is the highest type of telepathy. This type of telepathy utilizes the higher levels of the mental plane. Spiritual telepathy becomes possible only when we’ve created a link between the brain, mind, and soul.

When we align the brain, mind, and soul, we have the ability to serve as intermediaries between the physical and the spiritual worlds. The Masters who guide the evolution of our planet cannot directly affect life on earth. Instead, they look for those with a direct line of communication between the soul and the brain. Information and ideas can then be stepped down via the soul and “impressed” upon our brains. Once the information is anchored on earth, it is dispersed into thought currents that register on the general public. The flood of intuition books in the 1990s and the current interest in the higher functions of the mind are good examples of many minds registering the same impulse at the same time.

At times, ideas are also given to specific individuals. According to Bailey, thoughts about a project or action can be “thrown down into our brains.”[17] She uses the birth of the League of Nations, the forerunner of the United Nations, as an example. According to Bailey, the idea of an international organization devoted to world peace was stepped down from the higher planes until it registered in the brain of Colonel Edward House, an advisor and confidant to Woodrow Wilson. House and President Wilson were so close that Wilson once declared, “Mr. House is my second personality. . . . His thoughts and mine are one.” Wilson, who is often mistakenly credited with the idea, asked House to draft the constitution for the League in 1918.[18]

The story I described in the introduction, in which I suddenly registered a thought I knew was not my own, is another example of this experience. Sim Simran, the publisher of 11:11 Magazine, had a similar one. Sim explained:

In 2007, my life was falling apart and I was deeply depressed. I was going through a painful separation and had just ended a thirty-year career in my family’s business. I had lost everything—my identity, my marriage, the support of my family. During this time, I started seeing the numbers 11:11 everywhere—on clocks, license plates, and mailboxes—it happened so frequently I was starting to think I was losing my mind.

One night, during the darkest period of my depression, I woke up, looked at the clock—which amazingly, had just turned 11:11— and immediately saw a series of images as they flashed through my mind. I saw the numbers 11:11 on a series of magazine covers, an internet radio show banner and as a television logo. In that moment, I mentally “heard” the words, “Do this now. You will heal; others will heal.”

I had always known that 11:11 was a “master number” associated with the soul and, through additional research, I discovered more of its symbolism. I followed the direction I received and now, 11:11: A Magazine Devoted to the Journey of the Soul is distributed around the world. 11:11 Talk Radio reaches almost 300,000 people each week and my TV program will launch soon. My goal is to help others move through their pain and discover their soul’s true purpose.[19]

When we learn to access higher levels of information, we become as “the arms and legs” of God. We have the ability to bring to earth the divine ideas and enlightened solutions we need to solve the most pressing problems of our time. We can use the information we receive to help humanity in many ways—as educators, humanitarians, healers, writers, artists, and entrepreneurs.

Our most celebrated creative thinkers—those people we call geniuses or visionaries—have all had the ability to access the subtle world of the soul. We see the fruits of this experience all around us, from our most beautiful works of art to the scientific breakthroughs and inventions that have revolutionized our world. Many of our most renowned artists, writers, scientists, and business leaders have left a record of this experience.

In the late 1800s, Arthur Abell, an American violinist living in Europe, interviewed Puccini, Brahms, Strauss, Wagner, and other well-known composers about the source of their creative genius. As you’ll see below, their experiences are remarkably consistent. Each spoke of the soul as the portal to a universal source of inspiration. Once they were connected to this source, ideas and images simply flowed into their brains.

As Puccini explained to Abell, “The great secret of all creative geniuses is that they possess the power to appropriate the beauty, the wealth, the grandeur, and the sublimity within their own souls, which are a part of the Omnipotence, and to communicate those riches to others. The conscious, purposeful appropriation of one’s own soul force is the supreme secret.” Puccini experienced inspiration as a divine force, a “vibration [that passes] from the soul-center, into my consciousness, where the inspired ideas are born.”[20]

German composer Richard Wagner, best known for his set of four operas called the Ring, also spoke of inspiration as the ability to become one with the “universal currents of Divine thought [that are] vibrating everywhere.” According to Wagner, “This universal vibrating energy binds the soul of man . . . to the Supreme Force of the universe, of which we are all a part.” Wagner, who also spoke of “appropriating” this force when composing his famous operas, described his creative process to Abell: “I see in my mind’s eye definite visions of the heroes and heroines of my music dramas. I have clear mental pictures of them before they take form in my scores, and while I am holding fast to those mental images, the music . . . the whole musical structure, occurs to me.”[21]

Richard Strauss also spoke of inspiration as coming from a higher self: “In my most inspired moods, I have definite compelling visions, involving a higher selfhood. I feel at such moments that I am tapping the source of infinite and eternal energy from which you and I and all things proceed.” Strauss, who called his ability to register inspired ideas a “divine gift,” described a similar experience while writing one of his operas: “The ideas were flowing in upon me—the motives, themes, structure, melodies . . . in fact the entire musical measure by measure. . . . I was definitely conscious of being aided by a more than earthly power.”[22]

Johannes Brahms called his method of composing music “communicating with the infinite.” Composing, Brahms said, “cannot be done by will power working through the conscious mind. . . . It can only be accomplished by the soul-powers within.” He described inspiration as “a condition where the conscious mind is in temporary abeyance and the superconscious is in control, for it is through the superconscious mind, which is part of Omnipotence, that the inspiration comes.”[23] As Brahms explained:

I . . . feel vibrations which thrill my whole being. . . . In this exalted state I see clearly what is obscure in my ordinary moods; I then feel capable of drawing inspiration from above as Beethoven did. . . . Those vibrations assume the form of distinct mental images. . . . The ideas flow in upon me, directly from God, and not only do I see distinct themes in my mind’s eye, but they are clothed in the right forms, harmonies and orchestration. Measure by measure the finished project is revealed to me.”[24]

Writers and visual artists have also reported this experience. As Ralph Waldo Emerson explained in his 1844 essay The Poet, “It is a secret which every intellectual man quickly learns, that beyond the energy of his possessed and conscious intellect, he is capable of a new energy . . . a great public power on which he can draw . . . by unlocking his human doors . . . he is caught up in the life of the Universe.”[25]

Beat poet Allen Ginsberg had this experience while reading the mystical poetry of William Blake. As Ginsberg told one biographer,

I had the impression of the entire universe . . . filled with light and intelligence and communication. . . . Kind of like the top of my head coming off, letting the rest of the universe into my own brain. . . . There was a sense of an Eternal Father completely conscious . . . in whom I had just awakened. I had just awakened into his brain, or into his consciousness, a larger consciousness than my own. . . . [It was] the consciousness of the entire universe.”[26]

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, two of our most renowned artists, also spoke of this experience. As da Vinci put it, “The painter’s mind is a copy of the Divine Mind,” and “the painter has the Universe in his mind and hands. . . . Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.” [27] Michelangelo also believed his creative inspiration came from a higher source. As he wrote, “Every beauty which is seen here below . . . resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all come.” He was said to have embedded this message on one of the panels he painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In this image—later titled The Creation of Adam—God extends his hand to a reclining man. The vehicle carrying God to Adam is an exact replica of the human brain with a spinal cord, brain stem, and pituitary gland—the brain being key to our conscious awareness of the subtle worlds.

Akiane Kramarik is one modern-day example. Raised in a non-religious home in the Midwest, Akiane was only four when she surprised her mother by describing a series of intense spiritual experiences. According to Akiane, God had shown her a vision of heaven, a place of unearthly beauty where flowers were the color and transparency of precious stones and plants could think, move, and sing.

Soon after, she developed an intense urge to draw. She began with pencil drawings at four, moved on to pastels at six, and began painting with oils soon after. Her paintings, which now range in price from fifty thousand to one million dollars, include images of Jesus, angels, and other spiritual themes. Before she begins a new painting, Akiane goes out into nature to pray and ask for ideas. The words and images then appear inside her head. Akiane, who donates a significant portion of each sale to charity, believes God works through her as she paints. The purpose of her art, she says, is to transmit spiritual messages to the world and to bring people closer to God.[29]

I also found an example of this experience in the business world. Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of consumer electronic products, believed his extraordinary success was due to his ability to access kongen, a Japanese term meaning the “the root or origin of universal energy.” Matsushita, whose company brand names include National and Panasonic, encouraged his top executives to tune into the wisdom of the universal mind by making meditation part of their daily work routine.[30]

Science and Religion

Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, two of our greatest scientists, also left records of this experience. Isaac Newton, author of the Principia, one of the most important scientific books ever written, invented calculus and formulated the three laws of motion that form the basis of classical mechanics.

The man many call “the father of modern science” was also a serious occultist who studied alchemy, numerology, astrology, and biblical prophecy. Many believe his study of alchemy was key to his scientific breakthroughs. Newton’s method of discovery was to hold a problem in his mind “for hours, days, or weeks” until the answer was revealed. As Newton himself put it, “I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, little by little, into a full and clear light.”[31]

Einstein’s theory of relativity transformed theoretical physics. His famous equation E = mc2 came in a moment of inspiration when, in his words, “a storm broke loose in my mind and with it came the answers.” Einstein, a friend later said, had “tapped into God’s thoughts and tuned into the master plan for the universe.” After his death, pathologists dissected and probed Einstein’s brain, looking for anomalies that would explain the source of his genius. But Einstein—who wrote, “There comes a time when the mind takes a higher plane of knowledge. . . . All great discoveries have involved such a leap” and “The mystical . . . is the source of all true art and science”—made it clear that his inspiration came from a higher source.[32]

The experience of spiritual telepathy has also changed the course of history. Joan of Arc was a peasant girl who lived in the village of Domremy, in the Champagne district of northeastern France. In 1426, at the age of fourteen, she heard divine “voices” telling her that it was her mission to save her homeland from English domination. Five years later, she persuaded a local baron to send her to the castle of Charles of Ponthieu, heir to the French throne, where she announced, “I am sent here by God, the King of Heaven.”[33] After gaining the approval of the Church council, she was allowed to lead Charles’s army. After several swift victories, the English were driven to the north of France and Charles was crowned King in the cathedral of Reims.

Illumination, a state of pure intuitive perception, is the highest type of spiritual telepathy. It was this experience that produced our religious scriptures. According to Hindu tradition, the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India, are apaurueya, or “not human compositions.” The Hindus believe these scriptures were given by God to their ancient seers through direct intuitive revelation. These seers were called the mantra-drashta, or “seers of thought.” The texts are collectively called Shruti, a Sanskrit word meaning “heard” or “revealed.”

In a Buddhist text on the four noble truths, the Buddha declared that this teaching was “not among doctrines handed down” but that “there arose within him the eye to perceive them, the knowledge of their nature and the understanding of their cause.”[34]

Moses received a divine revelation to lead the enslaved Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land. According to Jewish tradition, the content of the Torah was later revealed to him by God on Mount Sinai. As Moses came down from the mount, tablets in hand, “the skin of his face shone and all the sons of Israel were afraid to come near him” (Ex. 34:30).

The Muslims consider Mohammed to be the final prophet and messenger of God. While meditating in the cave of Hira near Mecca in the year 610, Mohammed reportedly received his first revelation from God, through the angel Gabriel. The revelations continued, and, over the next twenty-three years, Mohammed’s followers recorded the text of what later became Islam’s holy book, the Koran.

Accessing the Soul

As you’ll see in the coming chapters, it’s not just the “special” people— our famous artists, scientists, business and religious leaders—who have the ability to contact the subtle worlds. It is possible for each of us to build our bridge to the soul and tap that universal flow of wisdom and knowledge. Accessing the subtle worlds is a step-by-step process that begins with the refinement of our physical, emotional, and mental bodies. When we purify the physical body and learn to calm our minds and emotions, we create an unimpeded channel for the free flow of information from the soul to the brain. Physical ailments, fatigue, and mental or emotional static will deflect the subtle currents of thought emanating from the higher planes, making it hard for our brains to register higher wisdom and ideas. In the next chapter, I will introduce you to refinement practices from a variety of spiritual traditions. I will share my own experiences and introduce you to other people who have also used these practices.

Notes

Epigraph: www.quotezine.com/rumi-quotes-25-sayings-change-life.

1. Long, Secret Science at Work, 1–71.
2. Keeney, Ropes to God, 42.
3. Elkin, Aboriginal Men of High Degree, 57. See also Berndt, A World That Was, 133, 246.
4. De Mente, Business Guide to Japan, 25–27; Matsumoto, Unspoken Way, 37.
5. Radin and Schlitz, “Gut Feelings, Intuition, and Emotions,” Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 85–91. See also “Go With Your Gut,” What Is Enlightenment?
6. healthypages.com/community/threads/second-brain.19840. See also Gershon, Second Brain.
7. Sheldrake, Sense of Being Stared At, ix.
8. , 20, 73.
9. Keeney, Ropes to God, 56.
10. Marcia Emery, correspondence with author, May 2010.
11. Sheldrake, Dogs that Know, 56–63.
12. See Cranston, P. B.: The Extraordinary Life, xx, 153–56, 349–60.
13. See Drayer, Nicholas and Helena Roerich.
14. Balyoz, Three Remarkable Women, 192–93, 211. See also Bailey, 
Unfinished Biography.
15. Thondup, Hidden Teachings of Tibet, 61.
16. Radin, Conscious Universe, 87.
17. Bailey, From Intellect to Intuition, 164.
18. Bailey, Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle, 5. See also Hodgson, Woodrow 
Wilson’s Right Hand, epigraph.
19. Sim Simran, interview with the author. See www.simran-singh.com.
20. Abell, Talks with Great Composers, 116–17.
21. , 137–39.
22. , 86–107.
23. , 5–7.
25. Huttner, Mystical Delights, 8.
26. , 12.
27. leonardodavinci.net/quotes.jsp. See also www.britannica .com/EBchecked/topic/336408/Leonardo-da-Vinci/59786 /Mechanics-and-cosmology.
28. Schuman, “Michelangelo’s Hidden Messages,” www.michelangelomethod .com.
29. Kramarik and Foreli, Akiane, 7–11, 15, 38. See also Stahura, “Visions of God,” Pure Inspiration Magazine, 6–15.
30. De Mente, Business Guide to Japan, 32–33.
31. White, Isaac Newton, 5, 85. See also Richard Heinberg, “The Hidden 
History of Creativity,” Intuition Magazine, no. 8, 23–24.
32. quotes.net/authors/Albert+Einstein.
33. Joan of Arc, Joan of Arc: In Her Own Words, 29.
34. Bucke, Cosmic Consciousness, 84.

This material was reproduced by permission of Quest Books, the imprint of The Theosophical Publishing House (www.questbooks.com) from Spiritual Telepathy: Ancient Techniques to Access the Wisdom of Your Soul by Colleen Mauro, © 2015 by Colleen Mauro.