Robin Pringle, age 14, of Dubuque, Iowa, for her question:

IS THERE SUCH A THING AS TELEPATHY?

Telepathy is the communication of thoughts, feelings or knowledge from one person to another without the use of the sense of hearing, sight, smell, taste or touch. It is sometimes called mind reading or thought transference.

Telepathy is considered a major form of extrasensory perception, an awareness of something without the use of the known senses. There is no absolute proof available of the existence of telepathy. However, the subject is definitely under scientific investigation at the present time, and whether it exists or not is still an open question.

Some scientists say that there is no such thing as telepathy and that neither distance nor time affects it.

Others say that some people do indeed know in advance the thoughts, feelings or knowledge that another person will have at a later time.