The sense of being stared at, telepathic phone calls and telepathy between mother and child are well-known phenomena.
Rupert Sheldrake, one of the world's most innovative, paradigm-busting scientists of today, explores ways in which these unexplained phenomena can be used to explain a new theoretical approach to the nature of the mind and of perception.
The sense of being stared at has been experienced by over 90% of the population, as several surveys have shown. Experiments on this sense carried out by Sheldrake provide overwhelming evidence that this is a real effect. Over 20,000 trials have been completed, and these trials confirm the reality of the sense of being stared at with odds against chance of trillions to one.
If this sense is real, it suggests that the mind is not confined to the brain. Somehow our intentions, and our attention, reach out to touch what we are looking at. Once the influence of the mind is admitted to extend beyond the head, many other puzzling phenomena begin to make sense and a new view of the mind becomes possible.
Drawing on his own experiments and extensive research Sheldrake puts the overwhelming evidence for these phenomena in the context of what he calls 'the extended mind', which he believes is fundamental to our perception.
The hypothesis of the extended mind makes sense of a wide range of well-known but seemingly mysterious phenomena, such as telepathy, phantom limbs and mind-over-matter effects. Above all, it provides a refreshingly new way of thinking about ourselves and our relationships with other people, with animals, and with the world around us.
