Huge potential of telepathy and our darkest fears associated with it, as in a mirror, reflected in the novel by Alfred van Vogt "Clan".

Commi Cross, the main character of the novel - "clan", the representative of endangered race Superintelligent telepaths.

His parents were brutally murdered by a mob of ordinary people who fear and hate all the telepaths because of the enormous power that finds anyone who can get into their personal, most intimate thoughts. People ruthlessly hunt for slaname as for the animals. And to learn of Slana easy due to the characteristic unicam growing on the head. Throughout the novel, commi attempts to communicate with other slaname; it is believed that part of them, trying to get away from isolated people "witch hunt", fled into space.

The ability to read people's thoughts always occupied the minds of man and seemed so important that it is often attributed solely to the gods. One of the most important components of any power of God is able to read in the souls and therefore to respond to the most secret of our prayers. A real psychic, able to arbitrarily read people's thoughts, easily could become the richest and most powerful man on Earth. To him it would not be difficult to penetrate the secret thoughts of bankers from wall street, to blackmail opponents, or to pressure them. Such a person would be a threat to the security of governments. He easily could find out the most carefully guarded secrets of any country. It too was afraid; perhaps for him, as for slaname, would suit the hunt.

Huge opportunities true telepath are underlined and in a series of novels of Isaac Asimov's "Foundation", which is often called one of the greatest sci-Fi epics of all time. Galactic Empire, which ruled for thousands of years, is on the verge of disintegration and destruction. Secret society of scientists, known as the Second Foundation, predicts using complex calculations that the Empire eventually fall, but the civilization will plunge into darkness 30 000 years. In an attempt to prevent a complete collapse of civilization and bring a dark period only to several thousands of years the scientists, based on their formulas, develop a complex plan. But then a catastrophe happens. It turns out, all carefully laid equations are not able to predict a single chance - birthday mutant named Mule, able to control the minds of others at a great distance and seeking to seize power in the galactic Empire. If telepath not stopped, the galaxy is doomed to 30,000 years of chaos and anarchy.

Fiction is full of fabulous stories about telepaths, but reality is more prosaic. Thought is a personal thing and also invisible, so charlatans and frauds over the centuries enjoyed the naivety and gullibility some people. One of the simplest tricks used by magicians, is a "sitting duck", i.e., an assistant, who is sitting in the hall and thought which then reads visiting a telepath.

The reputation of some famous "telepaths" was based on[11] famous "hat trick". People in the hall wrote notes on pieces of paper and put them in a hat, and then the artist, hitting those present, said that written on each sheet. This clever trick is deceptively simple explanation (see notes).

One of the most famous cases of telepathy was connected not with the "stool pigeon", and this animal is a miracle-a horse named Clever Hans, amazes the European public in the 1890s, To the surprise and delight of the audience, Clever Hans was able to perform complex mathematical calculations. For example, if the horse were asked to divide 48 6, eight times he struck the earth hoof. Clever Hans was able to divide, multiply, add fractions, and write competently even read musical notes. Fans wonder horse said: either Clever Hans smarter than a lot of people, or he telepathically catches thoughts.

And with a Clever Hans was not a member of some "clever Scam"! On the contrary, the miraculous ability of the horse to arithmetic calculations baffled even his trainer. In 1904 to examine the Clever Hans was invited famous psychologist Professor Karl Strumpfe, which failed to find any evidence of fraud or secret signals that the trainer gave a horse. However, three years later a disciple of Strumpfe psychologist Oscar Pfungst spent much more thorough scan and finally revealed the secret of Clever Hans. In fact, the horse just watched as the person trainer! He beat the hoof, and as he noticed a slight change in facial expression, stopped. Clever Hans could neither read thoughts, neither are considered; he just happened to be careful observer.

In the history of the famous and other animals"psychic". In 1591, horse Morocco became famous throughout England and earned his master a fortune. She found among the spectators certain people, specified the required letters of the alphabet and put glasses, rolled on a pair of dice. The horse made in England such a sensation that Shakespeare brought her in his play "the Futile effort of love" as "a dancing horse" and those immortalized.

Players are also able, in a sense, to read people's thoughts[12]. When a person sees something pleasant, and the pupils of his eyes widen. When he sees something undesirable (or engaged in mathematical calculations), pupils are narrowed. Players can track emotions rivals for expansion or narrowing of a pupil, even if the expression on their faces did not change. That is why, in particular, many players are above the eyes colored canopy, which darkens the eyes and does not allow to consider them. You can also direct the pupil person laser beam, and reflected beam to determine exactly where to go look. Watching the movement of the laser "Bunny", you can determine the sequence in which man looking at a picture. The simultaneous use of both of these technologies allows to identify in detail the emotional reaction of a person on the picture, nor what it without asking.
Psychic research

The first scientific study of telepathy[13] and other paranormal phenomena belong to the Society for psychical research, founded in 1882 in London. (Just this year Frederick Myers and put into circulation the term "mental telepathy.") Among the presidents of the society in the XIX century had time to visit some very famous people. It still exists and managed to expose many scams, but society itself is often torn between the spiritualists who firmly believes in the paranormal, and scientists looking for a more serious scientific research.

Dr. Joseph banks Rhine worked[14] in the United States, but was supported by the Company close relationship. In 1927 he began the first systematic and thorough study of psychic phenomena and founded the Institute Raina (now known as the Research center Raina) at Duke University in North Carolina. A few dozen years, Dr. Ryan and his wife Louise held the first in the U.S. experiments under scientific control; they studied a wide range of phenomena parapsychology and published reports of their research in a variety of peer-reviewed publications. It is the Rhein in one of his first books coined the term "extrasensory perception (ESP).

We can say that the laboratory Raina has established a common standard for psychical research. One of the employees of the laboratory of Dr. Karl Sener developed a system of cards of five different characters for analysis telepathic abilities; now they are known as Zener cards. In the vast majority of the experiments could not find even the slightest signs of telepathy. However, the data of some experiments showed a small but remarkable relationship that cannot be attributed to coincidence. The problem is that other researchers, as a rule, are not able to repeat these experiments.

Ryan tried to earn the reputation of a serious and meticulous researcher, but she suffered when he encountered a horse named Miracle Lady. This konaga showed remarkable miracles telepathy; it could, for example, to knock down a hoof cubes with letters and be thus words, conceived someone from the audience. Apparently Ryan was not familiar with the effect of Clever Hans. In 1927, he carefully studied the Miracle Lady and concluded: "Thus, there remains only telepathic explanation, transfer mental impact unknown way. We have not found anything that would contradict this, and none of the suggested other hypotheses do not appear to be reliable in the light of the obtained results." Later Milburn Christopher managed to unravel the true source telepathic abilities Wonder Woman: it was the light movements of the whip in the hands of the owner. The miracle-Lady began to be a hoof and stopped only at a given signal of the host. (Ryan continued to believe that this horse is a real psychic, even after the true source abilities Miracle Lady was uncovered. He believed that the owner has resorted to fraud internally, as the horse somehow lost the ability to read minds.)

However, the last crushing blow to the reputation Raina had suffered before his resignation. He was looking for a successor, that the Institute would successfully continue. The applicant, of course, had to have a spotless reputation. Dr. WaltR. Levi, one of the most promising candidates, who worked with Ryan since 1973, was considered a rising star of parapsychology. Published sensational results showed that the mouse is able to telepathically influence of computer random number generator. However, the watchful eyes of the employees of the laboratory have found that at night the doctor levy secretly sneaking in a laboratory and... otpravlyaet test results. He was caught at the crime scene. Further research showed that the mouse does not have any telepathic abilities, and Dr. Levi had with shame to leave the Institute.
Telepathy and Star gate

At the peak of the cold war, which gave rise to numerous secret experiments in telepathy, mind control and foresight (foresight is receiving visual information about a remote location means only one consciousness, through penetration into the minds of others), interest in the paranormal also adopted a bellicose nature. Some secret projects on money of CIA, such as "sunstroke" (Sun Streak), "Fire under the grate" (Grill Flame) and Axial band" (Center Lane), received total code name "Stargate" (Star Gate). Work on the program started around 1970, when the CIA reported that the Soviet Union spends on "psychotronic" studies of up to 60 million roubles a year. The military was afraid: what if the Soviets will learn to detect using ESP location of military bases of the USA and the base of submarines, to recognize spy and read the secret of paper?

In 1972 studies CIA received funding; the work was coordinated by Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff from Stanford research Institute, Menlo Park. Originally the aim was to prepare a group of substances capable of conducting "psychological warfare". The program is operated for more than 20 years; during this time, the U.S. spent on "Stargate" 20 million, in the state it was more than 40 employees, 23 dalnobojshik and three medium.

Until 1995, the command of the CIA, with a budget of 500 thousand USD. a year has carried out hundreds of experiments intelligence with thousands sessions televideniya. In particular, dalnobojshik asked:

• to determine where Colonel Qaddafi, before the bombing of Libya in 1986;

• find the storage of plutonium in North Korea in 1994;

• to locate the hostages kidnapped by the red brigades in Italy, in 1981;

• find a Soviet Tu-95, crashed in Africa.

In 1995, the CIA asked the American research Institute (AII) to evaluate these programs. The Academy recommended to close them. "There is no documentary evidence that they have any value for the intelligence community," wrote the representative of the Academy David Goslin.

Supporters of the program "Star gate" say that over the years they have accumulated results for eight Martini" (i.e. so striking, that a man to recover after meeting with them, you need to drink at least eight servings Martini). Critics, however, argue that the vast majority of experiments on foresight gave useless, useless information that it is a waste of taxpayers ' money and that the few "hits", which seems to be registered are so uncertain that apply to almost any situation. In the report, the Academy said that the most impressive successes of the program "Star gate" is achieved with the participation of those dalnobojshik who already knew something about the situation and therefore could do it was a reasonable assumption.

In the end, the CIA concluded that the program "Star gate" never give information that is useful for the organization and conduct of rashodomernye; the program was closed. (It is rumored that during the Gulf war, the CIA tried, albeit unsuccessfully, using dalnobojshik to establish the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein.)
Brain scans

Simultaneously with the above-described scientists was beginning to understand the physical laws behind the brain. In the XIX century, scientists suspected that inside the brain are transmitted electrical signals. In 1875 Richard Caton found that weak electric signals emitted by the brain, can be captured with the help of electrodes placed on the surface of the head. This discovery eventually led to the creation of electroencephalograph (EEG).

In principle, the brain is really a transmitter on which our thoughts are posted by a very weak electrical signals and electromagnetic waves. But to use these signals to read your thoughts problematic. First, the signals are extremely weak, their strength is measured in milliwatts. Secondly, they are very confused and almost indistinguishable from "white noise". From the mess can only select toughest information about our thoughts. Third, our brain is not able to receive the signals from another brain; the person does not have to do this antenna. Finally, even if we have learned to accept these weak signals, we would not be able to decrypt them. Normal physics of Newton and Maxwell, apparently, does not allow telepathy on the radio.

Some believe that telepathy may be transmitted by the fifth force, known as the psi-power. But even supporters of parapsychology acknowledge that they have no specific reproducible evidence of the existence of psi-power.

Another question remains open: what are you talking quantum theory about telepathy?

In the last few years, new quantum instruments, which for the first time in history has allowed us a glimpse into a working brain. It is led by the quantum revolution method of positron emission (PET) and magnetic resonance (Mr) tomography scan of the brain. For PET in the blood is injected radioactive sugar, which is concentrated on those areas of your brain that is currently active: thinking process requires energy. Radioactive sugar emits positrons (antielectrons), which are not difficult to register the devices. Thus, tracking the distribution of antimatter in the living brain, we can draw conclusions about the direction of thoughts " of course, if you know exactly which parts of the brain than do.

Apparatus for MRI works about as well, but it is more accurate. The head of the patient is placed in a strong magnetic field in the shape of a donut. Field makes the nuclei of atoms in the brain to line up along the lines of force. Then in a patient's guide the radar pulse that makes these kernel to fluctuate. Changing the orientation, the kernel emits the weak radioecho that can be registered; thus, you can determine the presence of a substance. For example, it is known that the brain activity associated with the consumption of oxygen, so MRI can identify areas where there is a process of thinking, in the presence of oxygen-rich blood. The higher the concentration of such blood, the higher the level of activity of this part of the brain. (Today apparatus for functional MRI", or "fMRI", can in a fraction of a second to aim at a tiny part of the brain of a millimeter in diameter, making it the perfect tool to track the thoughts in the living brain.)
Lie detectors based on MRI

It is not excluded that some day scientists will be able with MRI machine to determine the General direction of thoughts in a working brain. The simplest test of "mind reading" - the right to determine whether somebody's lying or telling the truth.

According to legend, the first in the world lie detector invented centuries ago, an Indian priest. He seemed locked suspect in the room with the "magic donkey". The alleged offender had to pull his tail magic donkey. If this man is a liar, the donkey had to say about this in a human voice. It was assumed that if a donkey is silent, it means that the person is telling the truth. (Secret elder in advance rubbed tail donkey soot.)

After leaving the room after taking a donkey suspect is usually asserted his innocence because the donkey said nothing when he pulled the tail. But then the priest examined the hands of the suspect. If the hands were clean, it meant that the person is lying. (Sometimes the threat of use of the polygraph more effective than the detector itself.)

The first "magic donkey" modernity was born in 1913, when the psychologist William Marston suggested to check your blood pressure suspect; it was assumed that when a person is lying, the pressure he raises. (Actually this observation goes back to ancient times; then the investigator during the interrogation was holding the hand of a suspect in his.) The idea of Marston was picked up by other scientists, and soon even the Ministry of defence introduced the Institute of the polygraph.

Over time it became clear that the lie detector can be fooled; in particular, it can easily make the sociopaths because they did not repent of their actions and not feel guilty. The most famous case of this kind - double agent in the CIA Aldrich Ames; he received a lot of money from the Soviet Union for what he sent to death dozens of American agents and passed the secrets of the nuclear fleet of the USA. Not one dozen years Ames, was held in the CIA numerous tests on the lie detector. By the way, the same was able to do and serial killer Gary Ridgway, known as the Killer of green river; he killed no less than 50 women.

In 2003, the national Academy of Sciences of the USA has issued a devastating report on the question of the reliability and validity of lie detectors; the report contains a long list of methods of cheating the polygraph and situations in which an innocent man might look like a liar.

So, lie detectors measure only the level of anxiety, but what if to measure parameters of the brain? Thought to look in search lies in the brain was born 20 years ago on the basis of works by Peter Rosenfeld from northwestern University; he noticed that EEG hthe ne at the moment of pronouncing the lie is different from the EEG the same person at the moment of pronouncing the truth of the so-called wave R[15]. (As a rule, wave R excited when the brain is faced with something new or unusual.)

Be used to determine lie MRI results of the survey suggested that Daniel Langleben from the University of Pennsylvania. In1999, he stumbled on an article whose author claimed that children suffering from attention deficit, lie with difficulty; but from personal experience, he knew that it was wrong - the children lie better than the other. True, their difficulty is that they hardly hold in themselves the truth. "They don't keep secrets and loosen all", - recalled Langleben. Therefore, he concluded, if you want to lie, the brain must first not allow yourself to tell the truth, and then to come up with the deceit. Langleben says, "When you deliberately lie, you have to place in the minds and the truth. Hence, it is reasonable to assume that the brain should be more active". In other words, lie not easy.

Langleben started his experiments with participation of students-volunteers, whom he asked to lie; he soon discovered that the lie gives rise to an increased brain activity in several parts of the brain, including the front part (where the higher thought processes), temple and limbic system (where emotions are processed). In particular, he drew attention to unusual activity in front of the cingulate gyrus (which is linked with the resolution of conflict and suppression of the response).

He argues that in controlled experiments in order to determine whether the test the truth or lying (the experiment consisted in the fact that students correctly or incorrectly called a playing card), has achieved sustained success up to 99%.

The interest in this technology is so big that have been founded two commercial companies offering this service. In 2007, one of the companies under the name "MRI against lie" has started work on the first case was examined the man who sued the insurance company because she accused him of deliberate arson own shop. (Functional MRI scan showed that he is not an arsonist.)

Supporters techniques Langleben argue that it is much more effective than the old-fashioned lie detector, because man can not arbitrarily change the order of the work of his brain. You can teach people to manage in some degree heart rate and not to sweat, but you cannot control the brain. Moreover, proponents point that in an age when everyone is so afraid of terrorists, this technique could in time to detect the attack on the US in order to save countless lives.

Critics acknowledge the visible success of this method in the definition of a lie, but at the same time indicate that actually fMRI registers not a lie as such, and the increase in brain activity, as if associated with a lie. It is not excluded that when working with a person in a state of great nervous excitement phone will make mistakes, because it logs only the alarm object and always attributed her lies, and the alarm can be other reasons. "There is an incredible desire to get the tests that could reliably distinguish truth from deception, and on science cares", warns neuroscientist Steven Hyman from Harvard University.

Some critics also claim[16]that the real lie detector, as a real psychic, able to do normal people communicate virtually impossible, as a little lie is that the "social lubricant"public mechanism to work. For example, what will happen to our reputation if someone suddenly publicly announce that all our compliments bosses, bosses, spouses, lovers and colleagues is a pure lie? Furthermore, this working lie detector will get out of God all our family secrets, hidden emotions, repressed desires and secret intentions. According to the scientific reviewer David Jones, a real lie detector, "like an atom bomb, it is better to leave in the extreme case as a kind of final solution. If it will be widely used outside the building, social life will become completely impossible."

Universal translator

Some scholars have rightly pointed out that, although modern scanning techniques and give beautiful pictures of the working of the brain, they are too rough to register a separate isolated thoughts. Probably, when a man even the simplest tasks are activated at the same time millions of neutrons and MRI machines see all this frenzied activity is just a dot on the screen. One psychologist has compared the brain scans to try to listen to the neighbor during a fierce football match. The screams of thousands of spectators will choke small voice of one man, For example, the minimum volume element of a brain that is able to analyze the fMRI machine, called a "voxel"[17]. But every voxel corresponds to several millions of neurons, so that the sensitivity of the apparatus is clearly not enough to select a single thought.

In science fiction sometimes glimpsed "universal translator" - a device capable of reading the thoughts and send them directly into the consciousness of another being. In some novels alien telepaths transmit thoughts in the human brain, though not know our language. In a science fiction movie 1976 "the World of the future" dream woman is projected to the screen in real time. In the film Jim Carrey Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (2004) doctor can distinguish in the patient's brain unpleasant memories, and wash it.

"This kind of fantasy arise for everyone who works in this field, says neuroscientist John Haines from the Institute of max Plank Society in Leipzig (Germany). "But if you want to build such a device, I'm sure, you will need to remove the information from a single neuron".

Until the registration of signals from one neuron is strictly impossible, but some of psychologists trying to achieve a more modest results: to reduce noise and highlight the fMRI images created by individual objects. It is not excluded, for example, that you can identify fMRI images of the words; if possible, the researchers will make the individual words "dictionary of thoughts".

So, Marseille just from Carnegie-Mellon managed to identify an fMRI of the image corresponding to a small isolated group of objects (for example, carpenters ' tools). "We can accuracy 80-90% to determine what is of 12 subjects thinks each of the 12 subjects", the scholar maintains.

His colleague Tom Mitchell, an expert on computer science, attempts to use computer technology-type neural networks for identification of complex figures of the brain, produced using fMRI machine and related perform certain experiments. "I would really like to do an experiment and to find with it, the words that are most active and easily visible from the brain," he notes.

But even the compilation of a dictionary of thoughts still very far from creating a "universal translator". Unlike the universal translator, who shall communicate them directly from one brain to another, translator thoughts technology fMRI would have to do a lot of boring operations: first, to recognize certain images fMRI, to translate them into English words, and then send these words (probably say) to another person. In this sense, this device doesn't sound like "the merging of consciousnesses, which we see in Star trek (however, it would be very helpful to the victims of stroke).
Manual MRI scanners

Another serious obstacle to practical telepathy is the size of the device for fMRI. Today this monstrous unit cost several million dollars, it is an entire room and weighs several tons. The heart of the device is a large magnet doughnut shaped with a diameter of more than a meter, which creates a powerful magnetic field in a few Tesla. (This magnetic field is so powerful that accidental start of the machine several workers suffered serious injuries they sustained injuries from flying hammers and other iron tools!)

Recently physics Igor Samokov and Michael Romalis of Princeton University have proposed a new technology that may eventually become a base for creating a manual of the MRT; the cost will drop multiple - perhaps a hundred times. Scientists say that the huge magnets for MRI can be replaced sensitive atomic magnetometers, is capable of detecting the weak magnetic field.

First of all Samokov and Romalis created magnetic sensor of the suspension of hot vapour potassium in helium. When a laser beam, they lined the spins of electrons of the atoms of potassium. Then they made a weak magnetic field to a certain volume of water (simulating the human body). After that, the water was sent a radar pulse, which opened vibrations of water molecules. Caused by reflections from water molecules "echo" forced to fluctuate and the electrons in the atoms of potassium; these fluctuations, in turn, was recorded by a second laser. The key result of experiences: even a weak magnetic field can give "echo", which is the most modern and sensitive sensors able to register. In the future, it allows you to replace the monstrous standard magnetic field fMRI machine weak field; moreover, pictures this way almost instantly (while MRI machine to get one image can take up to 20 minutes).

Over time, scientists argue, to make MRI image is as easy as today to photograph the landscape using a digital camera. (However, and that there are obstacles. One of the problems consists in that the device and the object of the research must be reliably protected from external magnetic fields.)

If manual MRI machines will someday become a reality, they can be matched with a tiny computer, which, in turn, it is easy to provide a set of programs for recognition of certain key phrases, words or sentences. Such a device will not be able to do much of what is described in science fiction, but this is already a step forward.
The brain as a neural network

Whether in the future a MRI machine to read the mind - read literally, word for word, the image in a way that can make a true psychic? The answer to this question yet. Some argue that the MRI machine will be able to distinguish only the General direction of thoughts, because the brain is still not a computer. In a digital computer calculations always localized and are subject to very strict rules. Any digital computer obeys the laws of Turing machines, i.e. such a machine, which has a Central processing unit (CPU) and the channels of input and output. The CPU (for example, common today Pentium) produces the input data of a certain set of operations and outputs the result to the output. Thus, the process of "thinking" focuses exclusively to the CPU.

However, our brain is not a digital computer. There are no Pentium and in General any CPU, no operating system is Windows, and subroutines are not. If you remove from the computer, the CPU of a single transistor, computer, most likely, will stop working. At the same time, there are cases when the damage in humans half of the brain second half takes its functions.

Actually, the human brain is more like a self-learning machine, "neural network", which each time a job is switched again. Studies using MRI machine confirmed that the thoughts in the brain is not localized at one point, as in the Turing machine, and distributed the volume of the brain that is generally typical for neural networks. The Mr show that the process of thinking like playing ping-pong - looped different parts of the brain, and the electrical activity as if torn across its volume.

The fact that the thoughts are distributed nature and involves many parts of the brain, is troubling. Perhaps the most that can be done scientists, is to compile a dictionary of thoughts that is set to-one correspondence between certain thoughts and specific drawings on the EEG or MRI images. For example, the Austrian specialist in biomedical engineering Gert Pfurtscheller taught the computer to recognize the individual's thoughts by analyzing mu waves in EEG. Apparently, mu-waves are associated with intent to commit certain muscle movement. Pfurtscheller ask patient to lift a finger, to smile or frown, and computer records, which at that excited mu-wave. Each time the patient produces any mental effort, the computer carefully writes figure mu-waves. The data collection process is very complicated and tedious because you have thoroughly clean all foreign waves, but gradually Pfurtscheller managed to establish striking Parallels between the simple movements and certain figures EEG.

Over time, these efforts together with the results of MRI studies could really lead to the creation of a coherent "dictionary" thoughts. Perhaps the computer by analyzing EEG or MRI images can recognize certain drawings and determine what thinks the patient, at least in General terms. This method reads thoughts" would be set to-one correspondence between a specific figures mu-waves, MRI images and thoughts. But it is doubtful that it is possible to discern in the mind of the individual words.
Transfer of thoughts

But suppose that one day we will learn to read the General direction of the thoughts of the other person. How about the reverse process? Will we be able to project their own thoughts of the other person? It seems that this question can confidently answer: Yes, we can. If you send radio waves directly into the brain, you can bring its particular areas, which, as it is known, control of certain functions.

The beginning of this line of research was initiated in the 1950s, when the canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield began to conduct operations on the brain of patients with epilepsy. He found that in stimulation of specific areas of the temporal lobe of the brain by means of electrodes hearing voices, before him appear ghostly visions. Psychologists and knew before that epileptic brain damage can cause the patient begins to feel the action of supernatural powers, to see all the events surrounding the work of angels and demons. (Some psychologists even have assumed that it is the stimulation of these parts of the brain could be the cause of semi-mystical experience, at the core of many religions. For example, suggested that Jeanne d'Arc, who alone to lead the French army to victory over the British, perhaps suffered from similar brain damage in the result of a blow on the head.)

Based on these hypotheses neuroscientist Michael Persinger of Sudbury Ontario has developed a special helmet, the purpose of which is to radiate radio frequency energy to the brain, causing a certain thoughts and emotions, for example religious feeling. Neurobiologist that certain damage to the left temporal lobe can cause disorientation left half of the brain; in this case, the brain can interpret the activities of the right half as signals from the other "I". This wound a person may have an impression that the room is a ghostly spirit, because the brain doesn't know that this "spirit" is only a part of himself. Depending on the faith and understanding, the patient can see in that other "I" demon angel, alien or even God.

It is not excluded that in the future it will be possible to send electromagnetic signals in the right part of the brain responsible for specific functions. For example, to evoke certain emotions, you will need to route the signal in the cerebellar tonsils. To invoke visual images and thoughts is to stimulate a different part of the brain. But studies in this direction are still in their infancy.
Map of the brain

Some scientists suggested neural mapping similar to the well-known project "human Genome". As a result of realization of the project on neural mapping scientists would determine the exact position of each individual neuron in the human brain and made a three-dimensional map of all links in it. This would be a really monumental work, because the human brain is more than 100 billion neurons, each of which is associated with thousands of other neurons. If we imagine that such a project is implemented, and the map is created, probably, could be another map: shows how certain ideas excite certain neural connections. And together with the dictionary thoughts, obtained using MRI images and EEG waves, such a map would decrypt the neural structure of certain thoughts, so to determine which words or mental images correspond to the initiation of specific neurons. So you could set one mapping between a particular thought expressed through MRI picture and specific neurons, which should work to this idea arose in the brain.

A small step in this direction was made in 2006, scientists from Ulanovskaja brain Institute (created one of the founders of Microsoft Paul Allen). They announced the creation of three-dimensional map of gene expression in the mouse brain; map reflects the manifestation of 21 000 genes at the cellular level. Scientists hope to create in the same way Atlas of the human brain. "The completion Ulanovskaja Atlas of the brain is a giant leap forward on one of the key areas of medical science - the science of the brain," says mark teyssier-lavigne, Director of the Institute. This Atlas will become an indispensable tool for anyone who wants to study the neural connections of the human brain, although it should be noted that conceived the Atlas of the brain is still very far from the real project neural mapping.

In General, natural telepathy, which is often described in science fiction and fantasy, today is impossible. MRI images and EEG waves can be used only for reading the simplest of thoughts, because thoughts complex distributed throughout the volume of the brain. But who knows, what developments can get this technology in the coming decades and centuries? The ability of science to penetrate into the thought processes supposed to grow exponentially. With an increased sensitivity of MRI and other devices registration science is all rather be able to localize thoughts and determine how it develops in the brain sequential processing of thoughts and emotions. With the growing power of computers will be able to analyze the whole mass of data with greater accuracy. Dictionary thoughts, perhaps ustanowione the correspondence between the set of drawings thoughts on the screen MRI analyzer and real thoughts and feelings. Although you may find that one correspondence between the MRI images and thoughts cannot be installed dictionary thoughts will help to identify the approximate direction and theme thoughts. Figure thoughts obtained using MRI, in turn, can be applied to a neural map to show exactly which neurons fire when it occurs in the brain of a particular thought.

But the brain is not a computer, and neural network in which thoughts are distributed throughout the volume, so in the end we come across an obstacle, and this obstacle is the brain itself. Of course, science will penetrate deeper and deepin the working brain and sooner or later will be able to decipher some thought processes, but to read the thoughts with literal accuracy, as predicted by science fiction would still be impossible. With this in mind, I would consider the ability to read the General nature of feelings and thoughts to the impossibility of the first class. But the ability to more accurately read the mechanisms of consciousness will be referred already to the II class of impossibility.

But there is perhaps a more direct path to touch the incredible power of the brain. Is it possible instead of using the radio, whose signals are weak and easily dissipate, connect directly to the neurons of the brain? If so, then we may be able unleash even more powerful force: psychokinesis.