Mr. Gerard Senehi [Mr. GS] (aged 46 years) is well known for his abilities to perform various paranormal tasks such as telekinesis, mind reading, and telepathy (http://www. experimentalist.com). Mr. JS, the comparison subject, is a 43 –year-old male, who was aware of various paranormal phenomena including telepathy, but did not have any paranormal abilities to the best of his knowledge. Both the subjects were right-handed[11] and possessed Master’s Degrees. Both the subjects were screened using the General Health Questionnaire[12] and a comprehensive mental status examination was done to rule out any psychiatric disorder. Neither of them had any history suggestive of substance abuse or dependence, medical or neurological disorders. Neither had any contraindication for MRI. The study procedures were explained to the subjects and written informed consent was obtained.
The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the institute’s ethics committee.

One of the investigators (PNJ) drew an image in the presence of other investigators [HRN, BNG, and GVS]. Figures 1A and 2A were the images drawn by PNJ for the “mentalist” and the control subject while both were seated in separate rooms. Neither the mentalist [GS] nor the control subject [JS] knew what the image was. The subject was then shifted to the MRI scanner and the investigator (PNJ) was seated in the MRI console room (about 15 feet away). Adequate precautions were taken to avoid sensory leakages by following the guidelines of Hyman and Honorton.[13] During the scan, the subject was instructed to perform the act of telepathy to think about and identify the probable image that would have been drawn by the investigator during the designated epochs of “activation” and not to engage in this task during the periods of “rest”. The subjects were visually cued (using a mirror attached to the head coil which reflected the cues projected on a screen) by green and red stars to indicate the respective onset of activation and rest epochs. The investigator (PNJ) was also given the same cues and was engaged in transmitting the image to the subject in the MRI scanner during the “activation” periods, stopping during the periods of rest. After the scanning, the subject was asked to draw the image that he was able to obtain by performing telepathy. Figure 1B was the image reproduced by the
“mentalist” and Figure 2B was the image reproduced by the control. Both the subjects were scanned on the 3rd day of the lunar cycle and at the same time of the day (1400 hours IST) separated by a three-month interval.

MRI was done with 1.5 Tesla Magnetom ‘vision’ scanner. First, a T1-weighted three-dimensional Magnetization Prepared Rapid Acquisition Gradient Echo sequence was performed (TR = 9.7 msec; TE = 4 msec; nutation angle = 12°; FOV = 250 mm; slice thickness 1 mm; NEX = 1; matrix = 200 x 256; 160 sagittal slices). After obtaining the anatomical MR images, echo-planar images (EPI) were obtained. They consisted of 112 functional acquisitions, with each acquisition consisting of 16 slices (slice thickness = 8 mm without any interslice gap) in the axial plane covering the entire brain. The parameters for a multishot EPI sequence using Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) contrast were as follows: repetition time = 4000 msec; echo time = 76 msec; flip angle = 90°; FOV = 250 mm; matrix 128 X 128. The acquisitions were grouped in blocks of eight, yielding 14 blocks. The condition for successive blocks alternated between “rest” and the “telepathic” task, starting with “rest”. This “rest-telepathy” paradigm yielded seven sets of “rest” and “telepathy”.

The fMRI analysis was performed using Statistical Parametric Mapping-2 (SPM2) (http://www.fil.ion. ucl.ac.uk/spm). The EPI images were realigned and
corrected for slice timing variations. The images were then normalized[14] to the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space.[15] Finally, the images were smoothened with a gaussian kernel of 6 mm full-width, half-maximum. SPM2 combines the General Linear Model and Gaussian field theory to draw statistical inferences from BOLD response data regarding deviations from the null hypothesis in three-dimensional brain space.[16] The images were analyzed using a block design paradigm with a canonical hemodynamic response function. The epochs of rest were subtracted from the epochs of the telepathic task performance. The voxel-wise analysis produced a statistical parametric map of brain activation associated with the telepathic task in the MNI space. Significance corrections for multiple comparisons were performed using a False Discovery Rate (FDR) correction[17] (P < 0.05). The coordinates of significant areas of activation were transformed from MNI space[15] into the stereotactic space of Talairach and Tournoux[18] using nonlinear transform.[19]
The brain regions were localized from the Talairach and Tournoux co-ordinates using automated software.