Telegnosia is a term referring to the ability to know things, places, or events at a distance without using known senses or technical tools. It is a type of so-called extrasensory perception (ESP).
Telegnosia is often identified with clairvoyance or telepathic perception skills, where a person can “see” or receive information about events or objects that are beyond their physical reach.
Known examples of telegnosia
Below are examples of people or situations that have demonstrated telegnosia:
Edgar Cayce (1877–1945): He was known as the “Sleeping Prophet”. He had clairvoyant abilities and could diagnose illnesses and predict future events during trance states. Examples of his telegnosia include describing places and events that he could not physically know.
Ingo Swann and the Stargate Project: Ingo was one of the participants in the remote viewing research conducted by the CIA and the US military as part of the Stargate Project in the 1970s and 1980s. He could “see” distant places or objects, such as details of the lunar surface before official space missions.
Uri Geller: A renowned illusionist and parapsychologist with telegnostic abilities. In public performances and experiments (e.g., in the Stanford Research Institute studies), he was said to have demonstrated the ability to describe objects hidden in sealed containers or locate hidden objects.
Stefan Ossowiecki (1877–1944): Stefan was a Polish engineer and clairvoyant who could perceive events and places from the past and from a distance. His abilities were studied by the scientific community in the interwar period. One of his most famous abilities was helping to find missing people.
Helena Bławatska (1831–1891): Helena was a co-founder of the Theosophical Society, and demonstrated remote viewing abilities. She was able to describe places or events in various parts of the world that she had never been to.
“Remote viewing” experiments: In the 1970s, scientists such as Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff at the Stanford Research Institute conducted experiments in which subjects were able to remotely describe details of remote locations, such as buildings or geographical features.
Why telegnosia is fascinating
Telegnosia refers to the ability to learn about things, events or places that are beyond the physical range of human perception and are not accessible through the classical senses. It is classified within phenomena such as clairvoyance, telepathy and precognition. It is the ability to gain knowledge about things that are physically inaccessible, e.g. concerning places, events or people located at a distance.
The philosophical consequences of phenomena such as telegnosia are intriguing, e.g. the possibility of an “information field” that connects all beings in the universe and from which man could draw knowledge beyond traditional sensory channels. Telegnosia is present in various spiritual and religious traditions, where it is described as a visionary gift, clairvoyance or the ability to prophesy.