Does the telephone/email telepathy paradigm demonstrate anomalous information transfer?
Quick Summary
Rupert Sheldrake and Pamela Smart developed a simple, repeatable protocol to test whether people can identify callers before answering a phone: one of four known callers is chosen at random (by die throw), and the participant names the caller when the phone rings, without caller ID.
Across more than 850 trials with 65 participants (2003), the average hit rate was 42% vs. 25% chance (p = 1×10⁻²⁶).
Subsequent experiments extended the paradigm to email and web-based automated systems.
Skeptics argue that the effects reflect subtle methodological flaws (timing cues, insufficient randomization controls, lack of independent replication) rather than genuine anomalous communication.
Current Consensus
The telephone telepathy evidence base now includes a full 2025 quantitative synthesis: across 23 telepathy-condition experiments, performance was 8.7% above chance (standardized ES = 0.17), with moderator patterns favoring selected participants and emotionally bonded pairs; three precognition-condition datasets were near chance. This strengthens the aggregate pro-psi signal while preserving key skeptical concerns: substantial heterogeneity, a relatively small independent-replication subset, and inconsistent group-level performance in Freiburg (Schmidt et al., 2009). The main unresolved issue is whether preregistered multi-lab studies can reliably identify high-performing participants without post hoc selection. The foundational population surveys (Sheldrake 2000; Brown & Sheldrake 2001) establish that spontaneous telephone telepathy experiences are common in the general population (45-65% depending on question), providing ecological context for the laboratory experiments.
Evidence Breakdown
Based on 20 papersSupporting Evidence
Telepathic Telephone Calls: Two Surveys
Sheldrake (2000) -- Two random telephone surveys in UK (London N=387, Bury N=200) establishing baseline prevalence of telepathic telephone experiences in general population: 51% felt someone was go...
The Anticipation of Telephone Calls: A Survey in California
Brown & Sheldrake (2001) -- Telephone survey of 200 randomly selected California residents; 78% reported calling someone who said they were just thinking of calling them, 47% knew who was calling w...
Apparent Telepathy Between Babies and Nursing Mothers: A Survey
Sheldrake (2002) -- Survey of 100 nursing mothers; 16% reported milk let-down coinciding with baby's needs when separated; foundational evidence for spontaneous telepathy in close relationships; ch...
Videotaped Experiments on Telephone Telepathy
Sheldrake & Smart (2003) -- Videotaped telephone telepathy experiments with 4 participants across 271 valid trials using four progressively rigorous methods (final method: all callers filmed at sep...
A Filmed Experiment on Telephone Telepathy with the Nolan Sisters
Sheldrake, Godwin & Rockell (2004) -- Filmed TV replication with the Nolan Sisters; 12 trials, Colleen Nolan 1 km from callers, blind video evaluation; 50% hit rate, p=0.05
Testing for Telepathy in Connection with E-mails
Sheldrake & Smart (2005) -- Email telepathy extension (4-sender protocol, 702 trials across two series); Series 1 unfilmed: 43% vs. 25% chance (p=2×10⁻¹⁹, d=0.42); Series 2 with continuous video su...
An Automated Online Telepathy Test
Sheldrake & Lambert (2007) -- Automated online telepathy test with 195 receivers across 1,980 trials (4-sender protocol with real and virtual senders); overall 29.3% vs 25% chance (p = 0.000006, 95...
A Rapid Online Telepathy Test
Sheldrake & Beharee (2009) -- Rapid online telepathy test with 500 participants completing 6,000 trials; 30-sec trials, two actual and two virtual senders; overall 26.7% vs. 25% chance (p=0.002, d=...
Telepathy in Connection with Telephone Calls, Text Messages and Emails
Sheldrake (2014) -- Comprehensive overview synthesizing 15+ years of telephone/email/SMS telepathy research; telephone tests 40-45% vs 25% chance, email 43-47%, SMS 37.9-44.2%, automated phone 56% ...
An Automated Test for Telepathy in Connection with Emails
Sheldrake & Avraamides (2009) -- Fully automated, experimenter-free internet-based telepathy test (3-sender protocol); 419 trials; 41.8% vs. 33.3% chance (p=0.0001, d=0.20); effect size substantial...
Sensing the Sending of SMS Messages: An Automated Test
Sheldrake, Avraamides & Novák (2009) -- SMS telepathy extension with fully automated system; 886 trials, participants aged 11-72; 37.9% vs. 33.3% chance (p=.001, d=0.10); incomplete tests 38.4% (p=...
Automated Tests for Telephone Telepathy Using Mobile Phones
Sheldrake, Smart & Avraamides (2015) -- First automated mobile phone telepathy experiments; 2080 trials with three callers (41.8% vs 33.3%, p<10^-15, d=0.19) and 745 trials with two callers (55.2% ...
Can Morphic Fields Help Explain Telepathy and the Sense of Being Stared At?
Sheldrake (2019) -- Theoretical article proposing morphic fields as explanatory framework for telepathy; synthesizes evidence from telephone/email telepathy experiments and other paradigms; positio...
Experimental Tests for Telephone Telepathy
Sheldrake & Smart (2003a) -- Foundational 4-caller home-based protocol study; 63 participants and 571 trials yielded 40% hits vs. 25% chance (Stouffer combined p = 4x10⁻⁶); familiar callers 53% vs ...
Detecting Telepathy: A Meta-Analysis for Extrasensory Perception Experiments in Last 20 Years
Liu (2023) -- Student meta-analysis of 16 telepathy experiments (21,441 trials, 9 articles) from 2002-2015; overall weighted effect size 0.091; 75% of experiments showed significant above-chance hi...
Who's Calling at this Hour? Local Sidereal Time and Telephone Telepathy
Lobach & Bierman (2004) -- Prospective replication testing Spottiswoode's (1997) LST hypothesis: N=6 participants, 214 trials; overall 29.4% hit rate (p=0.05, one-tailed); peak-LST sessions 34.6% v...
Who's Calling? Evaluating the Accuracy of Guessing Who Is on the Phone
Wahbeh et al. (2024) -- Pre-registered automated telephone telepathy study (N=177, triads); telepathic/pre-selected trials 48.1% vs 33.3% chance (p < .001), precognitive/post-selected trials 32.5% ...
A Comparison of Four New Automated Telephone Telepathy Tests
Sheldrake & Stedall (2024) -- Four automated telephone telepathy experiments comparing conference-call and separated-trial formats; Exps 1–3 (conference call) showed no significant effects (51–52%,...
Telecommunication Telepathy: A Meta-Analysis
Sheldrake, Stedall & Tressoldi (2025) -- Meta-analysis of 26 experiments from 15 papers across telephone, email, SMS, and web-based paradigms; telepathy-condition effect 8.7% above chance (95% CI 5...