Marnie Merrilees, Psychologist.

17/01/2026

Fascinating research out of the University of Washington successfully replicates a direct brain-to-brain connection between multiple pairs of people in a scientific study, following-up on the teams initial demonstration.

The study involved six people who were engaged with each other in pairs from different areas of campus. Researchers sent signals from one person’s brain over the internet to another person in an attempt to control the other’s hand motions with thought.

Study Method
In order to properly conduct the study researchers needed to separate the subjects and close off certain perceptions of the study method. Each sender of thought was placed in front of a computer game where he or she had to defend a city by firing a cannon and intercepting rockets launched by a pirate ship. But, the senders were not able to interact with the game physically. The only way they could properly defend their city was through thought. When a rocket was coming or when they wanted to fire a cannon, they had to think about doing that intentionally.

Across campus, each receiver sat in a dark room with headphones on and no ability to see the computer game. Their right hand was positioned overtop the touchpad that would fire the cannon when tapped. If brain-to-brain connection was successful between the two pairs, the send would effectively be able to get the receiver to tap the touchpad and fire the cannon.

From a technology standpoint, researchers used two types of noninvasive instruments that can connect with human brains in real-time. One participant was hooked up to a electroencephalography machine that reads brain activity and sends electrical pulses via the web to the receiver. The receiver is wearing a swim cap with a transcranial magnetic stimulation coil placed near the area of the brain that controls hand movements.

This setup effectively allows one person to send a command that would in theory move the hand of another person simply through thought.

“The new study brings our brain-to-brain interfacing paradigm from an initial demonstration to something that is closer to a deliverable technology,” said co-author Andrea Stocco, a research assistant professor of psychology and a researcher at UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. “Now we have replicated our methods and know that they can work reliably with walk-in participants.”

The Results
It was found that accuracy varied depending on each pairing. The accuracy range was from 25 to 83 percent. Misses were mostly found to be caused by the sender failing to accurately execute the thought to send the “fire” command. The researchers also were able to quantify the exact amount of information that was transferred between the two brains.

Interestingly the degree of accuracy being low in subjects who couldn’t properly extend intention to the receiver also indicates that it isn’y simply just thoughts that affect our reality but actually the intention. Therefore during study of the phenomenon accuracy in whether or not subjects are truly intending vs just thinking is crucial.

For me personally, this brings interesting insight to my theory that thoughts don’t create reality, but that there needs to be a power behind that thought. A strong intention, emotion, feeling, etc. Further to that, it takes deep practice and a level of mastery to truly train yourself to impact physical reality with thought and intention.

This isn’t the first time brain-to-brain communication has been demonstrated scientifically. Another research team from the company Starlab in Barcelona, Spain, recently published a study with very similar results to the one above. Direct communication between two human brains was demonstrated but this one only featured two subjects.

Also, a study was done that demonstrated telepathy between humans during dreams.

The research team from the University of Washington has been granted a new $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation so they can take their work to the next level. This clearly illustrates the validity and impressive potential implications of their work.

“Imagine someone who’s a brilliant scientist but not a brilliant teacher. Complex knowledge is hard to explain – we’re limited by language,” said co-author Chantel Prat, a faculty member at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences and a UW assistant professor of psychology.

Keeping An Open Mind
It feels like we are living in a time where new discoveries are truly making us question what it means to e human. Who are we? What are our capabilities? If the story of who we truly are changes, would that change how we choose to create our society and life?

Thankfully there are many brilliant people out there not only doing this work to bring forth cutting edge science. Of course this new science does come with opposition and controversy as paradigms are challenged by these ideas. It’s my feeling that there is little value in simply calling this work “pseudoscience” as it often is called, as it only seeks to cast off this work without truly looking into it and remembering to stay curious and playful.

“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.” – Nikola Tesla

16/01/2026

15/01/2026

EXCLUSIVE: An alleged victim of abuse has denounced the Government's plan to safeguard women and girls.

14/01/2026

A Montane Spine Race event took an unusual turn this week when a competitor had to withdraw due to security concerns. Here's what you need to know...

06/01/2026

Highl level rowing performance is not determined by physical capacity alone.
Psychological readiness plays a critical role in competitive ex*****on.

High Performance Psychology works with rowers to:
• Regulate pre-competition anxiety and emotional arousal
• Reframe competitive stressors to enhance confidence and motivation
• Strengthen attentional focus and mental composure under race pressure
• Reduce negative self-talk and develop adaptive performance beliefs
• Build psychological resilience across training cycles and competition phases

Targeted mental skills training enables rowers to approach competition with clarity, confidence, and control translating preparation into consistent race day performance.

If you are committed to optimising your performance on the water and in competition, I invite you to get in touch.

📩 Direct message to enquire

06/01/2026

Long before the term “post-traumatic stress” entered modern medicine, many African communities had an intuitive understanding of the invisible wounds of war. A returning warrior was not immediately welcomed back into daily life. Instead, he entered a sacred period of transition—often lasting three lunar cycles—under the guidance of a spiritual healer or shaman. This was not punishment or exile; it was a ritual of healing, an acknowledgment that violence fractures more than the body—it disrupts the spirit.

The belief was that the warrior carried a chaotic energy, a spiritual imbalance that could harm both himself and his community if left unaddressed. One of the oldest healing practices involved placing animal horns on the skin to draw out “stagnant blood”—a technique later misnamed “African cupping” by colonizers. It was more than medicine: it was ceremony. It released not just physical toxins, but the unspoken pain, the emotional residue of violence.

Today, we call it trauma. They called it spiritual imbalance. In our clinical, pill-driven world, we often treat only symptoms. But these ancestral practices remind us that true healing restores harmony—within the self, and between the self and the world. Perhaps in our rush to advance, we’ve overlooked the power of ritual, of community, of soul-level care. Perhaps it’s time to remember.

04/01/2026

The liberty cap mushroom gets its name from ancient Rome, where freed slaves wore conical hats called pileus.

After Caesar's assassination, revolutionaries stamped it on coins as a freedom symbol.

Centuries later, poets compared British mushrooms to "Freedom's cap," and the name stuck to our native magic mushroom.

In 1962, poet Robert Graves gave an Oxford lecture calling the mushroom "divine ambrosia" after trying psilocybin.

He described experiencing "profound wisdom" in "blue-green grottoes of the sea."

His blessing sparked a cultural explosion. Suddenly Britain's youth were foraging fields for their own homegrown sacrament each autumn.

The liberty cap transformed British counterculture.

You can hear its influence in Pink Floyd, the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's, and the Incredible String Band. Psychedelic art flooded London's underground scene.

What made it unique was accessibility. Anyone could find them in September fields, democratising consciousness expansion beyond elite circles.

By the 1970s, psilocybin was illegal, but the influence never died.

It went underground, resurfacing in rave culture and today's psychedelic therapy renaissance.

The mushroom named after freedom could get you arrested, yet every autumn it still carpets British pastures, impossible to control.

Now mainstream medicine is catching up.

Over 20 clinical trials since 2022 show promise for depression, PTSD, and addiction. The UK government is (slowly) easing restrictions for research.

The liberty cap's story feels less like an ending and more like the beginning. An ancient symbol of freedom still delivering on its promise.