telepathy

adjective form: telepathic (tel-uh-PATH-ik)

: communication from one mind to another by extrasensory means

Examples:

“The next year, Schmeisser marched into a large conference room at Army Research Office headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, to pitch a research project to investigate synthetic telepathy for soldiers.” —Adam Piore, Discover Magazine, 1 Mar. 2012

“You need to tell me what you're thinking. I'm not telepathic.” (adjective form)

In neuroscience, what was once framed as purely extrasensory is now pursued through brain–computer interfaces that decode neural activity into communication or device control. Neuralink named its first product “Telepathy,” a brain implant intended to let a person operate a computer or phone by thought alone, and its VOICE study is an early-feasibility trial of an implanted BCI for “communication restoration.” In 2026, VOICE participant Kenneth Shock — an ALS patient who had lost the ability to speak — used the N1 implant to communicate through thought alone, his intended words voiced by a synthesized recreation of his own pre-ALS voice; Neuralink published video of the demonstration. Such work reframes telepathy as an emerging technological capability: communication that bypasses the body by reading from, and writing to, the brain.

Related terms: brain–computer interface, cursor control, Voice-to-skull, cognitive liberty, Diving

Sources: Neuralink trademark filing — MobiHealthNews; VOICE study — ClinicalTrials.gov; Translating Thought to Speech — Neuralink