by Michio Kaku
Because thoughts are so diffuse and scattered throughout many parts of the brain, perhaps the best that scientists will be able to do is compile a dictionary of thoughts, that is, establish a one-to-one correspondence between certain thoughts and specific patterns of EEGs or MRI scans. Austrian biomedical engineer Gert Pfurtscheller, for example, has trained a computer to recognize specific brain patterns and thoughts by focusing his efforts on µ waves found in EEGs. Apparently, µ waves are associated with the intention to make certain muscle movements. He tells his patients to lift a finger, smile, or frown, and then the computer records which µ waves are activated. Each time the patient performs a mental activity, the computer carefully logs the µ wave pattern. This process is difficult and tedious, since you have to carefully process out spurious waves, but eventually Pfurtscheller has been able to find striking correspondences between simple movements and certain brain patterns.
Over time this effort, combined with MRI results, may lead to creating a comprehensive “dictionary” of thoughts. By analyzing certain patterns on an EEG or MRI scan, a computer might be able to identify such patterns and reveal what the patient is thinking, at least in general terms. Such “mind reading” would establish a one-to-one correspondence between particular µ waves and MRI scans, and specific thoughts. But it is doubtful that this dictionary will be capable of picking out specific words in your thoughts.
PROJECTING YOUR THOUGHTS
If one day we might be able to read the broad outlines of another’s thoughts, then would it be possible to perform the opposite, to project your thoughts into another person’s head? The answer seems to be a qualified yes. Radio waves can be beamed directly into the human brain to excite areas of the brain known to control certain functions.
This line of research began in the 1950s, when Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield was performing surgery on the brains of epileptic patients. He found that when he stimulated certain areas of the temporal lobe of the brain with electrodes, people began to hear voices and see ghostlike apparitions. Psychologists have known that epileptic lesions of the brain can cause the patient to feel that supernatural forces are at work, that demons and angels are controlling events around them. (Some psychologists have even theorized that the stimulation of these areas might have led to the semimystical experiences that are at the basis of many religions. Some have speculated that perhaps Joan of Arc, who single-handedly led French troops to victory in battles against the British, might have suffered from such a lesion caused by a blow to the head.)
On the basis of these conjectures, neuroscientist Michael Persinger of Sudbury, Ontario, has created a specially wired helmet designed to beam radio waves into the brain to elicit specific thoughts and emotions, such as religious feelings. Neuroscientists know that a certain injury to your left temporal lobe can cause your left brain to become disoriented, and the brain might interpret activity within the right hemisphere as coming from another “self.” This injury could create the impression that there is a ghostlike spirit in the room, because the brain is unaware that this presence is actually just another part of itself. Depending on his or her beliefs, the patient might interpret this “other self” as a demon, angel, extraterrestrial, or even God.
In the future it may be possible to beam electromagnetic signals at precise parts of the brain that are known to control specific functions. By firing such signals into the amygdala, one might be able to elicit certain emotions. By stimulating other areas of the brain, one might be able to evoke visual images and thoughts. But research in this direction is only at the earliest stages.
MAPPING THE BRAIN
Some scientists have advocated a “neuron-mapping project,” similar to the Human Genome Project, which mapped out all the genes in the human genome. A neuron-mapping project would locate every single neuron in the human brain and create a 3-D map showing all their connections. It would be a truly monumental project, since there are over 100 billion neurons in the brain, and each neuron is connected to thousands of other neurons. Assuming that such a project is accomplished, one could conceivably map out how certain thoughts stimulate certain neural pathways. Combined with the dictionary of thoughts obtained using MRI scans and EEG waves, one might conceivably be able to decipher the neural structure of certain thoughts, in such a way that one might be able to determine which specific words or mental images correspond to specific neurons being activated. Thus one would achieve a one-to-one correspondence between a specific thought, its MRI expression, and the specific neurons that fire to create that thought in the brain.
One small step in this direction was the announcement in 2006 by the Allen Institute for Brain Science (created by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen) that they have been able to create a 3-D map of gene expression within the mouse brain, detailing the expression of 21,000 genes at the cellular level. They hope to follow this with a similar atlas for the human brain. “The completion of the Allen Brain Atlas represents a huge leap forward in one of the great frontiers of medical science—the brain,” states Marc Tessier-Lavigne, chairman of the institute. This atlas will be indispensable for anyone wishing to analyze the neural connections within the human brain, although the Brain Atlas falls considerably short of a true neuron-mapping project.
In summary, natural telepathy, the kind often featured in science fiction and fantasy, is impossible today. MRI scans and EEG waves can be used to read only our simplest thoughts, because thoughts are spread out over the entire brain in complex ways. But how might this technology advance over the coming decades to centuries? Inevitably science’s ability to probe the thinking process is going to expand exponentially. As the sensitivity of our MRI and other sensing devices increases, science will be able to localize with greater precision the way in which the brain sequentially processes thoughts and emotions. With greater computer power, one should be able to analyze this mass of data with greater accuracy. A dictionary of thought may be able to categorize a large number of thought patterns where different thought patterns on an MRI screen correspond to different thoughts or feelings. Although a complete one-to-one correspondence between MRI patterns and thoughts may never be possible, a dictionary of thought could correctly identify general thoughts about certain subjects. MRI thought patterns, in turn, could be mapped onto a neuronal map showing precisely which neurons are firing to produce a specific thought in the brain.
But because the brain is not a computer but a neural network, in which thoughts are spread out throughout the brain, ultimately we hit a stumbling block: the brain itself. So although science will probe deeper and deeper into the thinking brain, making it possible to decipher some of our thinking processes, it will not be possible to “read your thoughts” with the pinpoint accuracy promised by science fiction. Given this, I would term the ability to read general feelings and thought patterns as a Class I impossibility. The ability to read more precisely the inner workings of the mind would have to be categorized as a Class II impossibility.
But there is perhaps a more direct way in which to tap into the enormous power of the brain. Rather than using radio, which is weak and easily dispersed, could one tap directly into the brain’s neurons? If so, we might be able to unleash an even greater power: psychokinesis.
6: PSYCHOKINESIS
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.
—MAX PLANCK
It is a fool’s prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak.
—SHAKESPEARE
One day the gods meet in the heavens and complain about the sorry state of humanity. They are disgusted by our vain, silly, and pointless follies. But one god takes pity on us and decides to conduct an experiment: to grant one very ordinary person unlimited power. How will a human react to becoming a god, they ask?
That dull, average person is George Fotheringay, a haberdasher who suddenly fin
ds himself with godly powers. He can make candles float, change the color of water, create splendid meals, and even conjure up diamonds. At first he uses his power for amusement and for doing good deeds. But eventually his vanity and lust for power overtake him and he becomes a power-thirsty tyrant, with palaces and riches beyond belief. Intoxicated with this unlimited power, he makes a fatal mistake. He arrogantly commands the Earth to stop rotating. Suddenly unimaginable chaos erupts as fierce winds hurl everything into the air at 1,000 miles per hour, the rotation rate of the Earth. All of humanity is swept away into outer space. In desperation, he makes his last and final wish: to return everything to the way it was.
This is the story line of the movie The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936), based on the 1911 short story by H. G. Wells. (It would later be readapted into the movie Bruce Almighty, starring Jim Carrey.) Of all the powers ascribed to ESP, psychokinesis—or mind over matter, or the ability to move objects by thinking about them—is by far the most powerful, essentially the power of a deity. The point made by Wells in his short story is that godlike powers also require godlike judgment and wisdom.
Psychokinesis figures prominently in literature, especially in the Shakespearean play The Tempest, where the sorcerer Prospero, his daughter Miranda, and the magical sprite Ariel are stranded for years on a deserted island due to the treachery of Prospero’s evil brother. When Prospero learns that his evil brother is sailing on a boat in his vicinity, in revenge Prospero summons his psychokinetic power and conjures up a monstrous storm, causing his evil brother’s ship to crash onto the island. Prospero then uses his psychokinetic powers to manipulate the fate of the hapless survivors, including Ferdinand, an innocent, handsome youth, whom Prospero engineers into a love match with Miranda.
(The Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov noted that The Tempest bears striking similarity to a science fiction tale. In fact, about 350 years after it was written, The Tempest was remade into a 1956 science fiction classic called Forbidden Planet, in which Prospero becomes the brooding scientist Morbius, the sprite becomes Robby the Robot, Miranda becomes Morbius’s beautiful daughter Altaira, and the island becomes the planet Altair-4. Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series, acknowledged that Forbidden Planet was one of the inspirations for his TV series.)
More recently psychokinesis was the central plot idea behind the novel Carrie (1974), by Stephen King, which propelled an unknown, poverty-stricken writer into the world’s number one writer of horror novels. Carrie is a painfully shy, pathetic high school girl who is despised as a social outcast and hounded by her mentally unstable mother. Her only consolation is her psychokinetic power, which apparently runs in her family. In the final scene, her tormentors deceive her into thinking she will be prom queen and then spill pig’s blood all over her new dress. In a final act of revenge, Carrie mentally locks all the doors, electrocutes her tormentors, burns down the schoolhouse, and unleashes a suicidal firestorm that consumes most of downtown, destroying herself in the process.
The theme of psychokinesis in the hands of an unstable individual was also the basis of a memorable Star Trek episode entitled “Charlie X,” about a young man from a distant colony in space who is criminally unstable. Instead of using his psychokinetic power for good, he uses it to control other people and bend their will to his own selfish desires. If he is able to take over the Enterprise and reach Earth, he could unleash planetary havoc and destroy the planet.
Psychokinesis is also the power of the Force, wielded by the mythical society of warriors called the Jedi Knights in the Star Wars saga.
PSYCHOKINESIS AND THE REAL WORLD
Perhaps the most celebrated confrontation over psychokinesis in real life took place on the Johnny Carson show in 1973. This epic confrontation involved Uri Geller—the Israeli psychic who claimed to be able to bend spoons with the force of his mind—and The Amazing Randi—a professional magician who made a second career out of exposing fakes who claimed to have psychic powers. (Oddly, all three of them shared a common heritage: all had started their careers as magicians, mastering the sleight-of-hand tricks that would amaze incredulous audiences.)
Before Geller’s appearance, Carson consulted with Randi, who suggested that Johnny furnish his own supply of spoons and have them inspected before showtime. On the air Carson surprised Geller by asking him to bend not his own spoons, but Carson’s spoons. Embarrassingly, each time he tried Geller failed to bend the spoons. (Later, Randi appeared on the Johnny Carson show and successfully performed the spoon-bending trick, but he was careful to say that his art was pure magic, not the result of psychic power.)
The Amazing Randi has offered $1 million to anyone who can successfully demonstrate psychic power. So far no psychic has been able to rise to his $1 million challenge.
PSYCHOKINESIS AND SCIENCE
One problem with analyzing psychokinesis scientifically is that scientists are easily fooled by those claiming to have psychic power. Scientists are trained to believe what they see in the lab. Magicians claiming psychic powers, however, are trained to deceive others by fooling their visual senses. As a result, scientists have been poor observers of psychic phenomena. For example, in 1982 parapsychologists were invited to analyze two young boys who were thought to have extraordinary gifts: Michael Edwards and Steve Shaw. These boys claimed to be able to bend metal, create images on photographic film via their thoughts, move objects via psychokinesis, and read minds. Parapsychologist Michael Thalbourne was so impressed he invented the term “psychokinete” to describe these boys. At the McDonnell Laboratory for Psychical Research in St. Louis, Missouri, the parapsychologists were dazzled by the boys’ abilities. The parapsychologists believed they had genuine proof of the boys’ psychic power and began preparing a scientific paper on them. The next year the boys announced that they were fakes and that their “power” originated from standard magic tricks, not supernatural power. (One of the youths, Steve Shaw, would go on to become a prominent magician, often appearing on national television and being “buried alive” for days at a time.)
Extensive experiments on psychokinesis have been conducted at the Rhine Institute at Duke University under controlled conditions, but with mixed results. One pioneer in the subject, Professor Gertrude Schmeidler, was a colleague of mine at the City University of New York. A former editor of Parapsychology Magazine and a past president of the Parapsychology Association, she was fascinated by ESP and conducted many studies on her own students at the college. She used to scour cocktail parties where famous psychics would perform psychic tricks in front of the dinner guests, in order to recruit more subjects for her experiments. But after analyzing hundreds of students and scores of mentalists and psychics, she once confided to me that she was unable to find a single person who could perform these psychokinetic feats on demand, under controlled conditions.
She once spread around a room tiny thermistors that could measure changes in temperature to fractions of a degree. One mentalist was able, after strenuous mental effort, to raise the temperature of a thermistor by a tenth of a degree. Schmeidler was proud that she could perform this experiment under rigorous conditions. But it was a far cry from being able to move large objects on demand by the force of one’s mind.
One of the most rigorous, but also controversial, studies on psychokinesis was done at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) Program at Princeton University, founded by Robert G. Jahn in 1979 when he was serving as dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The PEAR engineers were exploring whether or not the human mind by thought alone was capable of affecting the results of random events. For example, we know that when we flip a coin, there is a 50 percent probability of getting heads or tails. But the scientists at PEAR claimed that human thought alone was capable of affecting the results of these random events. Over a twenty-eight-year period, until the program was finally closed in 2007, engineers at PEAR conducted thousands of experiments, involving over 1.7 million trials and 340 million coin tosses. The resu
lts seemed to confirm that the effects of psychokinesis exist—but the effects are quite tiny, no more than a few parts per ten thousand, on average. And even these meager results have been disputed by other scientists who claim that the researchers had subtle, hidden biases in their data.
(In 1988 the U.S. Army asked the National Research Council to investigate claims of paranormal activity. The U.S. Army was anxious to explore any possible advantage it could offer its troops, including psychic power. The National Research Council’s report studied creating a hypothetical “First Earth battalion” made up of “warrior monks” who would master almost all the techniques under consideration by the committee, including the use of ESP, leaving their bodies at will, levitating, psychic healing, and walking through walls. In investigating the claims of PEAR, the National Research Council found that fully half of all successful trials originated from a single individual. Some critics believe that this person was the one who ran the experiments or wrote the computer program for PEAR. “For me it’s problematic if the one who runs the lab is the only one producing the results,” says Dr. Ray Hyman of the University of Oregon. The report concluded that there was “no scientific justification from research conducted over a period of 130 years for the existence of parapsychological phenomenon.”)
The problem with studying psychokinesis, even its advocates admit, is that it does not easily conform to the known laws of physics. Gravity, the weakest force in the universe, is only attractive and cannot be used to levitate or repel objects. The electromagnetic force obeys Maxwell’s equations, and it does not admit the possibility of pushing electrically neutral objects across a room. The nuclear forces work only at short ranges, such as the distance between nuclear particles.
