The Telepathy Tapes

To those familiar with pseudoscience debunking in general and ESP, paranormal, telepathy in particular there is nothing new here. It is the same old tricks, repackaged in a slick sounding podcast. Bottom line we live in the matrix and autistic children are Neo. However, it takes 9 episodes to reveal this. The host pretends to do rigorous experiments; however, the protocols wouldn't be good enough for a High School Science Fair Project. The "experiments" or more like magic trick shows. She even has her camera man test the blindfold to prove it works, just like a magician would. The host and the person guiding her use compelling narratives to convince while providing no real science. One woman interview says she only communicates with her autistic son telepathically in her dreams. Seriously?! Host waits until episode 8 to address any criticism of the techniques used and then quick dismissed them as "ableist" from people who don't know what they are taking about. She has seen it with her eyes and just knows it's real.

All of this would be funny if this were a mockumentary. However, this not only involves really people falling for this scam but disabled children who are unable to consent to any of this. This is sad and this podcast will do immense harm.

The first massive red flag is that Facilitated Communication techniques are heavily used here to demonstrate telepathy. Facilitated Communication has been utterly discredited by double blind tests overwhelmingly demonstrating the communication is actually coming from the facilitator (either wittingly or unwittingly) and not the person with a non-verbal disorder.

The second massive red flag is that the limited video clips that can be viewed are paywalled, and the content of them has been clearly misrepresented or important information has been omitted during the podcast. For example, the case involving Mia from episode 5 leaves out the fact that the mother has her hand placed on Mia's forehead for the entire duration of the test and where she can subtly manipulate Mia's responses.

The third massive red flag is the almost complete lack of scientific controls deployed during testing. In every case the mother knows the answer and is in some kind of position to manipulate the outcome, such as directly touching the person, holding the objects the person is interacting with or unnecessarily talking and moving during the test. The mother of Houston is holding the communication board in mid air and is clearly positioning it each time so that the required symbol is directly in front of the pencil in Houston's hand. Classic Facilitated Communication nonsense. No effort is made to eliminate this obvious method, such as having a third person holding the communication board that does not know the answer. To make matters worse, Houston actually can vocalise, so it is unclear as to why the communication board (which, again, is held and manipulated by the mother) is needed to prove telepathy in the first place.

Akhil is probably the most suspicious case presented here (in terms of deliberate deception taking place) and it is highly likely that mentalism (performance magic) techniques are being utilised. The podcasters mislead by saying Akhil's mother was standing out of sight directly behind him and the bench he is sitting on during testing, however the video clearly shows her behind the bench and to his right. His body is also angled toward her in a position that would put her inside his peripheral view. She keeps moving around and making gestures with her hand. These movements are most prominent immediately before Akhil selects a letter. At one point Akhil makes a mistake and the mother immediately presses her index finger into his back. Why does she need to be in that position, constantly moving around and poking Akhil if he can just read her mind? Again, there is no attempt at using the scientific method to eliminate the mother manipulating the outcome.

This entire series is nothing but pseudoscientific rubbish. The only thing that has been successfully demonstrated here is that people like Mia, Houston and Akhil have been trained to communicate exactly what their mothers/facilitators want them to say using scientifically discredited methods and techniques you'd see in a Penn & Teller magic show.

I'm not sure how I came across this podcast, or why but I'm here and it's changing everything for me. I don't have a non/low speaking autistic spellerkeyboard using child or students and yet I feel completely connected to what is being said, thought and felt. As the parent of a preemie daughter who needed a handful of early interventions including speech therapy, I am 100 percent certain that during her non verbal years where she never even babbled, she communicated without fail what her needs were with me. The minimal amount of sign language I taught her was not enough to explain the depth of understanding I had. Was it just a mom/child connection? And if so, what is that? I wonder that while she had no verbal output, were we put on the same bandwidth? I'm hoping that Season 2 goes beyond the realm of spellers and autism. And if not, I am certain to dig into this deeply. Thank you Ky, crew and all of the brave families and individuals that have spoken. You are gifts to those of us obsessed with wanting to understand the gifts of the collective consciousness.

The Telepathy Tapes is a thought-provoking and inspiring series that explores groundbreaking ideas with clarity and sincerity. It is evident that the creators are not motivated by financial incentives or personal gain, but rather by a genuine desire to spark meaningful discussions about human communication and consciousness.

While some may dismiss the concepts presented as pseudoscience, I urge those skeptics to pause and consider the potential implications before jumping to conclusions. Two outcomes, in particular, deserve attention. First, the use of spelling boards offers non-verbal individuals-especially non-speaking autistics-a transformative method of communication that could significantly improve their quality of life. This is not a claim to be lightly disputed but rather an avenue for further exploration in mainstream medical and therapeutic settings.

Second, the possibility of telepathic communication, though undoubtedly challenging to accept, is demonstrated by non-speaking individuals who stand to gain nothing by fabricating such claims. What if we're wrong? What if this truly is happening? The implications for our understanding of consciousness and human potential would be monumental.

Dismissal without exploration is not a constructive approach. This series encourages us to ask the big questions: What if? And wouldn't it be worth investigating further? In my opinion, The Telepathy Tapes raises ideas that deserve more study, conversation, and open-minded consideration.

Episodes 1-5 focus on interviews and tests done with autistic individuals' capabilities to learn and perceive differently than the average person does and their abilities to tap into their loved one's consciousness (telepathy) and an unknown sea, or realm rather, of information and energy. These episodes seem to be laying the groundwork for the following 4 episodes (the last one is not out yet but will be released before Christmas '24).

The following episodes dive deeply into the implications of these individual's abilities and calls into question our modern idea of consciousness and where we get it from. You hear from the autistic individuals, their loved ones, care givers, and teachers. You hear from professionals in scientific or medical fields that have switched from their previous profession to study these non-mainstream ideas.

This is a profound body of work that has been beautifully crafted as a podcast.

To the other commentator complaining about the "10$ paywall", anyone who pays to watch the tapes is actually donating to a feature documentary that is being produced with professionals at the University of Virginia who will conduct tightly controlled experiments with these individuals, among other things the creator has listed.

The creator is giving a voice and a platform to people who have never had one outside of those closest to them and it's work like this that is so far away from Ego and self gain, it is hard for me to imagine such a wide network of people colluding to bring a false perspective to life.

The implications of this work will be groundbreaking and I applaud the creator for the years of work it took to bring this first part to life.