Or do we? The remarkable 'intuitive' Harold Sherman demonstrated "knowing" in a famous experiment with Sir Hubert Wilkins, documented in the 1930's book Thoughts Through Space:

"Thoughts Through Space had its origin in a daring plan conceived by two courageous men. It began in Autumn 1937 when a group of Russian flyers on a trans-polar flight crashed on a shelf of ice on the Alaskan side of the Pole. To find and rescue them--if they were still alive--the Russian government commissioned Arctic explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins to organize and lead an aerial search in those desolate regions.

While in New York, prior to his departure, Sir Hubert met Harold Sherman, a student of mental powers who had long been intrigued by telepathy, the phenomenon of mind-to-mind communication. Seeing an unusual opportunity to put telepathy to a scientific test, Sherman and Wilkins decided to collaborate on a six-month experiment. It was agreed between them that Wilkins, once his expedition was underway, would try to transmit thought messages at prearranged times directly to Sherman in New York. Both men would keep written records of each session, Wilkins noting down his thoughts as "sender," and Sherman recording his mental impressions in his role as "receiver."

This account re-creates all the absorbing drama and adventure of the experiment as the participants lived it. With Wilkins you fly in a small plane over the roof of the world, scanning the moonlit landscape for lost fliers, your mind filled with worried thoughts of weather conditions, radio contacts, fuel supplies, and countless other perils while straining to send your thoughts across space to the waiting mind of Harold Sherman. With Sherman, you will sit in a darkened room in New York with sights and sounds flooding into your awareness. And you will read of the remarkable successful results when the two men finally compared notes, proving that the thought--messages were indeed sent and received across 3,400 miles. Sherman's years of study convinced him that his telepathy is a common human ability, and that we can all learn to use it."

[www.amazon.com]

Erling:

If the above is true, then why couldn't a group use mental powers to control governments, or the stock market.

L

Erling,

You weren't kidding! A question (even if wasn't phrased that way, a concept, notion) came up, and it caused you to check into it.

I don't know what the book says in detail, but I do know that thoughts aren't as private as one would hope. My husband, Mike, and I regularly must be on the same "wavelength". For example, we love road trips (but this is not the only time it happens--it happens at home, too). We can be motoring along, listening to the radio (or not), one of us may be reading a book (not the driver), or practicing the bagpipes (again, not the driver: he has an electronic chanter, which I, thankfully, cannot hear). We haven't said a word in quite awhile, then we will both speak at the same time. Most often, it will be the same thought.

Is this just a case of "we see/hear the same things" and it triggers a response, or the energy that is thought has "jumped" from one to the other? Maybe a combo? It also happens at home when we are in separate areas, doing entirely different things.

I guess the hard part would be to prove any of my observations (feelings) are true.

lisa

Liz,

The above post notwithstanding, haven't you ever "felt" someone watching you, you look around, and sure enough, the people behind you are someone you know? They have been looking at you since you sat down in the restaurant.

I'm pretty sure that spies are trained to not look directly at whoever it is they are tailing. Even the atheistic Soviets (in their heyday) understood that there was something outside their ken ;-)

lisa

Thanks Lisa, that's a lovely account of "how it is".

The subject "consciousness" has been my great interest for most of my life. I took this good opportunity to get "into it" here. This has great relevance to health and well-being, and it should be developed fully. I chose this book on a whim, I think, although I never dismiss guidance. I have no reason to doubt that I was guided to a solution to my Afib 13 years ago.

Biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton is one of the many scientists at the center of advances in understanding genetics, one aspect being the realization that there are not nearly enough genes on our inherited DNA chromosomes to account for the vast number of different proteins in our bodies, hence the developing science of "epigenetics" to account for the rest. It is now proven fact that ones thoughts influence one's genetics. We took a brief look at this subject awhile ago:

<[www.afibbers.org];

Erling