Living with autism for over thirty years has brought many different experiences into our lives, some dark and heavy and others, like the discovery of Spelling to Communicate (S2C), hold hope and light. Perhaps no twist has been as unexpected as my recent exposure to the podcast “The Telepathy Tapes”. Like learning about S2C, the tapes were mentioned to me more than once by people who did not know one another, but felt led to tell me that I should listen to the tapes by Ky Dickens. When a family member sent me the first episode to listen to, I finally said, sure why not at least listen. What I have been learning has been so surprising and life jolting that I hesitate to share much with you for fear you will think I have gone off the rails mentally! Please hear me out.
Ky Dickens creates documentaries. She became aware of and interested in the work of Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell who has been studying non-speaking individuals with autism who have exhibited telepathic abilities that cannot not be explained away. Dr. Powell has met with a number of non-speakers and their family members as well as with professionals who have also worked with non-speakers who confirmed that the non-speakers were able to read their minds. To date she has created 10 podcasts called The Telepathy Tapes. I decided to listen to all of the tapes with an open, albeit skeptical attitude, as I do think all of us have some telepathic connections, but have wondered how much is just coincidence. For example, I might start thinking of one of my siblings and they call me a short while later….that sort of odd connection that has happened to me many times. But the Telepathy tapes clearly focus on non-speakers demonstrating their ability to literally read the minds of those close to them.
After listening to all 10 of the Telepathy Tapes, I re-listened to the first two again. As Micah is open with Melody in S2C, I asked her to ask him if he can read minds. He told Melody that he can. So when no one was in the house with us I decided to ask Micah if he could read my mind. He spelled out yes. So I said I am thinking of a word, what is it? Micah, with no hesitation spelled out the word moose. I thought my head was going to explode as that was indeed the word. But I still did not believe it so I thought of another random word, median. Again, with no hesitation he spelled median. After those two words I just stopped as my little experiment was literally freaking me out. I am now convinced that Micah has this capability as I have since randomly asked him what word I have in mind and he has not missed one yet. Just this morning he nailed the word peppermint. I know this is super hard to believe as I would not believe it unless we were living it. The Telepathy Tapes go into extensive detail on how carefully they are documenting the abilities of the non-speakers. Of course the backlash has been fierce because these abilities are unbelievable and quite frankly a bit scary. I don’t always have such great thoughts, and the idea of Micah knowing what I am thinking is more than a bit unnerving. But I am open to learning more if it helps me to learn more about this complex son of mine.
In the meantime, take some time to listen to the podcasts and draw your own conclusions. The Telepathy Tapes are now the nation’s #1 podcast. This amazes me…think; these silent non-speakers are being heard around the world in ways we could not have imagined. There is much we have to learn from them.
Jan Lessard Peightell January 15, 2025
*Micah’s photo taken at the YMCA today for those who have asked to see how his beard looks!