A Keio University student demonstrates how to control an avatar in the virtual world of “Second Life” by just using their own imagination.

If you still have a dot of a doubt on the power of the human mind to create things, all the things we desire, then read this news just in from Tokyo, Japan:

Japanese researchers say they have found a way to let people stroll through the virtual world of “Second Life” — using just their own imagination, or by just looking at the computer screen.

Previous studies have shown people can move computer cursors through brain waves, but the Japanese team says it is the first to apply the technology to an Internet virtual world.

The technology “would enable people suffering paralysis to communicate with others or do business through chatting and shopping in a virtual world,” said Junichi Ushiba, associate professor at Keio Univesity’s rehabilitation centre.

“Second Life” is an increasingly popular virtual world in which people — and animals — are represented by animated avatars and can do everything from social activities to shopping.

Ushiba said “Second Life” could motivate patients with severe paralysis, who are often too depressed to undergo rehabilitation.

“If they can see with their own eyes their characters moving around, it could reinvigorate their brain activity and restore some functions,” he said.

Under the technology, a person wearing head gear embedded with electrodes, which analyze brain waves in the cerebral motor cortex, would be able to move a “Second Life” character forward by just thinking he or she is walking.

Imagining movement with the right or left hand would make the character turn accordingly in the same direction.

Researchers have previously put similar technology to work to scan brain waves to control objects such as computer cursors and electrical gears.

In the Keio University laboratory, the team has designed artificial arms that operate by reading brain waves, although none is known to be commercially available yet.

Ushiba said the technology could help people undergoing neuro-rehabilitation by stimulating brain activity.

This story shows the limitless power of the human mind in two ways: the way the Japanese researchers were able to come up with a revolutionary technology to make human minds move things literally, and, of course, the way the human mind can do such a “wireless” thing!

Indeed, we humans are forms of energy just waiting to tap into the limitless possibilities that the Universe offers.

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