N'kisi would often describe what Aimee was thinking about, reading, or looking at in situations where there were no possible ordinary clues. When Aimee saw Rupert Sheldrake's book Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home she contacted him, and they collaborated in designing an experiment to try to replicate and document this phenomenon under controlled conditions. Based on a pre-specified list of key words, a selection of photographs depicting items from N'kisi's unedited vocabulary was prepared, sealed in opaque envelopes, then randomized and numbered by an independent party. No one knew what image was in any of the envelopes, which is known as a "double blind" test. In a series of timed two minute sessions, Aimee was videotaped as she looked at these images, while another synchronized camera filmed N'kisi in his cage. Aimee was in an enclosed room on a different floor, with no possible line of sight for any 'cueing'. Their locations were approximately 55 feet apart, and separated by several solid walls. In responding to the tests, N'kisi generally put target keywords and descriptions in related sentences, and he often described a detail at the exact moment that Aimee noticed it. N'kisi appears to telepathically "surf" the leading edge of Aimee's consciousness, responding to the spontaneous moment of discovery rather than to any consciously projected thoughts.
Nkisi Project at sheldrake.org{At a moment when religious delusions are directing foreign policy in the US, when the most powerful Christian church in the world is buying its way out of child molestation charges, when the vast majority of American citizens attest to belief in heaven and hell, Rupert Sheldrake's work is still viciously attacked.
Telepathy is a term of convenience.
Dogs and parrots, and cats in a less direct way, have, in my presence, demonstrated mental connection, non-verbal, non-visual, real as day, in ways I couldn't ignore without deluding myself.
Think of what's threatened by the concept.
The sanctity of that dark place in the mind where all the forbidden appetites are stored. The one safe thing so many people have, that interior world where no one else can go.
And Sheldrake says no, it's not like that. And it isn't. Some of us are more open, some less. Like eyesight. Like intelligence. Like beauty.
It used to matter so much to me, it seemed to have so much bearing on my own predicament.
I don't care what anyone believes anymore.
I honor Sheldrake for what he's done, how hard it must have been, all that scorn and the rejection of what was after all his community, the company of scientists. And being embraced by new-age credulists has its own handicaps.}
