Dictionary:

telesthesia

  (tĕl'ĭs-thē'zhə)

Response to or perception of distant stimuli by extrasensory means.

Perception from a distance through psychic rapport with the place or environment. It is less than clairvoyance since it is restricted to the perception of material things or conditions. The word was coined by psychical researcher F. W. H. Myers in 1882 to express sensation at a distance after it was found that the communication between distant persons is not a transference of thought alone, but also of emotion, of motor impulses, and of many impressions not easy to define.

Frequent instances were described during World War I. The experience of a Mrs. Fussey of Wimbledon on November 4, 1914, was typical. At home she suddenly felt in her arm the sharp sting of a wound. She jumped up and cried. There was no trace of an injury. Fussey continued to suffer pain and exclaimed: "Tab [her soldier son] is wounded in the arm. I know it." On the following Monday, confirmation arrived.