Asd and psychic tendencies.

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Hi,

I am wondering if anyone here would like to share their views, opinions and/ or experiences with the astral plane and possibly any psychic and/ or empathic tendencies that you may have.

I wonder whether asd is related to these things.

I am an empath, in some ways psychic (to differentiate from not being so in all ways) and I feel that I am very connected with the subconscious realm of both myself and others.

I have also been diagnosed with asd and have read several articles that claim that the two are linked.
It would make sense to me too, what with the sensitivities and all.

Thanks.

VIEW: There exists no empirical evidence to support claims for the existence of psychic abilities, "planes" other than the material (a.k.a. "The Universe"), disembodied spirits, or any other allegedly paranormal phenomenon.

OPINION: That you believe you can feel other people's emotions may be explained by positing the idea that you are actually feeling your own emotions, but that you merely refuse to "own" them.

EXPERIENCE: My experiences have shown to me that (1) demonstrations of allegedly paranormal abilities and events are fake, and (2) a lot of people would rather believe in a simple fantasy than a complex truth.

You're Welcome.

Hi Fnord,

Thanks for your answer.

I respect your view and your experience.

This:

'OPINION: That you believe you can feel other people's emotions may be explained by positing the idea that you are actually feeling your own emotions, but that you merely refuse to "own" them.'

.. is a very interesting concept and one that I frequently touch upon for myself and for a possible explanation.

But having said that, the feelings that I believe to be those of others are very different to my own and, whilst I am experiencing them, I analyse them closely and am downright certain that they are not belonging to me; that they did not originate within me and that they are something I am 'receiving'.

Imagine a feeling inside you, a sudden sensation in your chest area that feels like a physical sensation and wondering what it is/ where it is coming from.

Of course, I will think more about your opinion, which sounds like a plausible theory.

I could go on though about the intricate details of the different sensations I have had, not only by myself, but with others on the other side of the world who have felt the same things at the same time; that have felt what I have.

A sensation of open portals that are connected with a flow of pure energy and emotion between people.

Also, I can see what are known by other psychics as 'auras', which are halos of different colours of light around people. Everyone has a unique aura. I also have a tendency to know about how people are generally feeling and what they are going to do next, especially in cases of people who are very close to me and their general communication and behavioural patterns.

For me, losing my faith in magical thinking came before recognising the diagnosis. I can still talk metaphysics but I no longer live in it.

Most of my slightly "psychic" experiences throughout my life I've pretty much discounted as un-reproducible memory "flukes", and nothing to attach any importance to.

But a few years ago at Christmas I received a small deck of (25) cards: 5 each with patterns of a star, a cross, a circle, a square, and a triangle. The idea is you try to guess the card someone is holding and thinking of.

The game went around the table with various people having more or less success, but no "psychics" were revealed. On my (the last) turn I began guessing as my daughter drew and thought of the card. I continually missed throughout the deck and then my daughter (who'd been writing down cards and responses) called my wife over to confirm, and found I'd been calling out the card, not "in hand" but instead the name of the card coming up "next" in the deck. According to my daughter's records I'd correctly guessed strings of 5 in-a-row, 4 in-a-row, and 3 in-a-row (and misc. others)! !! !! !

As a math major this was obviously astounding to me. I recognize the mathematical reality for what it is (or was...at the time) but haven't pursued it since. I think this experience was interesting, and perhaps a "pointer" to what you're discussing; would you agree?

They're called "Zener Cards". Have you been able to replicate the results? If so, did you make a video record of the experiment, and did you do it "Double-Blind", where neither you nor the person handling the deck knew what each card was?

This is accomplished by not turning the cards face up, but by stacking them in the order they were drawn face-down. Blindfolds are also a must. Only after the experiment is performed will the cards be examined and compared with the subject's answers.

Since there are 5 "suits" in each deck of 25 cards, there is only a 20% chance of getting a "hit" each time a card is drawn. Statistical variance spreads this out to about 16% to 25% as normal, random chance. The variance becomes tighter with more trials.

Now, if you can successfully call each card without error over 250 times in a row under controlled conditions while being recorded on video, then you may qualify to win James Randi's Million-Dollar Challenge.

Otherwise, we have only your word for it.

Keep in mind that James Randi is a professional stage magician, so he knows all of the tricks. Also keep in mind that one of the ways I got myself out of being homeless was as a professional "psychic", so I know all of the tricks, too.

You can't con a reformed con-man.

Wink? X-con man? And you think your biased view of my post is somehow accurate? You're just fooling yourself my friend. The way you've experienced life and the viewpoints you've unfortunately drawn does not make you an unattached observer, as you may well know. Your past colors everything you do and say and I'd imagine my past is as open to an observer as yours is to me and everyone else. I never set out to practice deception and find it upsetting you must try to paint everyone with "your particular" brush.

And you don't demonstrate much mathematical understanding of my example: The odds are many millions to one that my experience was "natural." I make no claims and have no plans to dupe people as you've admitted (it was courageous) and don't give a fig about your or anyone else's opinion, I merely left it for comment, not to open myself to attack on my honesty. Please attend to your own shortcomings and avoid making up stories about me in the future.

Anyone care to comment without attack?

Wow, such hostility. Mere disagreement is not an attack, nor is offering an experimental method to verify your claims. Although I suppose though that if you can not refute the facts, then it is only fair to attack the person who provided the facts. "Shooting the Messenger", as it were.

My time as a "Psychic" (aka, "Con Artist") gave me the knowledge and experience to spot flim-flam and expose it when I see it. I am also an Electrical Engineer, with an MSEE degree, so I am intimately familiar with statistical analysis. Both of these combined give me reason to not only debunk fraud, but to offer suggestions on how to prove one's claims.

But if you're not interested in the million-dollar prize, just say so.

Believing that you may have psychic powers is actually one of the signs that you might be autistic. It's one of the test questions.

People with autism are prone to most of the related conditions.

The belief in having personal magic powers might stem from autistic people being able to discern patterns that normal people do not. This is not the result of wizardry. It's A) because people with autism are different, so they notice different things B) i've seen some medical article jibber jabber that indicates that information is processed differently, so you might be the only one to notice something, not because of magic, but because of happenstance

I once guessed the age, ethicity, place of origin, sex, and place of birth and time of relocation of someone who made an informational poster.
It wasn't magic. There were grammar mistakes, but the sentence structure was sound. It was consistent with british english. The informational poster contained a figure of historical importance for the black community that is uncommonly referenced. This suggested that the person was black. It went on from there.

Some things just LOOK like psychic powers.

I used to have a tarot deck. I would twist the actual meanings of the cards (or just pick from one of the three different vague things that each card was supposed to represent) to suit the person i was talking to.

Example:
Random person: "Will i meet someone soon?"
Me: "Blaa blaa blaa, high priestess, blaa blaa blaa, the moon's gravity, blaa blaa blaa, you may have desires and yearning that are trying to break through into your conscious mind."
Random person: "That is SO TRUE, oh my gosh!"


I believe that it may be common for individuals with autism to believe that they have psychic powers. I think this comes about when their predictive-ness goes into overdrive. Feelings have a tendency to flow and produce faster than thoughts.

If someone with autism attempts to interpret the emotions of someone else, and focuses on them completely, like a special interest, i think you basically just get an information overload. This can lead to confusion and detachment from reality?

Who knows.

When i play blindfold chess, i have to continually refresh my memory since i can only visualize about 9 of the 64 squares at a time. After an hour or so of this, if i stop playing, and remove my blindfold, my mind stays like this for about 3-4 hours. During this time, i feel like i've done illicit narcotics, as my mind attempts to interpret everything my senses see and hear as a question needing a solution.

Granted, it's a cute trick for competitions, but for pretty much anything else, it's just too reality-detaching to be a good idea.

LOL! Good one!

What you described with the Tarot deck is called a "Cold Reading". It is a common method to use on suck ... er ... clients, and raise their trust in you. It relies on something called "Bias Confirmation", where your client will notice your "hits" and ignore your "misses", especially if you are merely reinforcing their own opinions by telling them things they want to hear.

He thinks he's hotstuff, i guess.


Yes, he has stated he is one of these!


I don't think we've established bias. It would be biased if he'd been had. He likely likes his post and thinks it's accurate. This seems to be devolving.


I think he was fooling other people, and by the way things are turning, i think the term 'my friend' is you fooling him.


The word 'unfortunately' contains emotional bias. It implies that a conclusion has been reached, and that the person you're referencing has 'unfortunately' come to the wrong one.


This is going all moral crusade against the injustice of lying.


I believe that you are honest. This does indicate in any way that magic exists.


What stories? If the story exists i want a link. I'm clearly bored.


It's a little over 3000 to one. It's only million to one if you exclude the errors you made between your 5 set 4 set and 3 set. In that case, i think it hits 9+ million to one. I'd have to use/make a freaky formula or something to give you the real stats on this.


But you wouldn't care about the comments? This is a contradiction?


My psychic powers are tingling! I'm... i'm... i'm getting something. It's... ah, gah, no, almost had it.

Wait! It's back. It's burning. A burning sensation. It's about the future.

That's how most tarot works. If you don't do something then you're relying on luck.

Oddly, i once predicted a death. It was bound to happen eventually. They died a week later.

Guy's mother passed away. He got death card in the mother position, loss card in the heart position, and rest and peace side by side, besides which the poppy is symbolic of poisoning which is how she died, in a manner of speaking.

My funkytastic math says that it was about a billion to one.

I'm breakin' out mah cards!

I'm breakin' em out!



I hope someone gets this.

Sorry for the triple post, but apparently the EDIT BUTTON can only be used for a short period of time. It's a new feature for me. I'll remember it for next time :/


As far as i can tell, tarot works because all of the Big Weird Words that describe the cards are vague, and confusing. The person receiving the words attempts to connect them with things that they might be connected to. This is mind opening, and seems to create a willing suspension of disbelief similar to when to reading a fiction novel. Once this is accomplished, the tarot reader enters the equation like a lighthouse beacon, and proposes feasible possibilities (usually related to traits in the person receiving the reading) until they narrow in on one that produces a reaction.

The supposed idea is to predict the future, usually within a week. The things that people remember will be things they expect will or might come about. They remember only certain ones, usually the ones they hope will occur, or the ones they fear will occur. Both turn into self-fulfilling prophecies. If the person WANTS something, they will inherently have more drive in achieving it than others. This concept works for fear as well, as people usually have fears based on things that happen to them frequently, hence the fear.

Your acclaim as a tarot reader is usually based on your perception of THE PAST. If you complete a reading about the future, well, it might come true, it might not. Nobody knows. The person you're reading for will simply end the reading with a shrug.

The things people have told me... honestly. I'll do it for a quiet, personal man and suddenly: "I got divorced recently, i haven't told anybody else."

Repeated example of this behavior while i've done readings suggests that people undergoing a reading are in an 'open state' which makes it easy to piece together about as much information about them as you could gather in a therapy session. In fact, it feels like a therapy session most of the time.
People are generally unaware that it's possible to gain that much knowledge about them in 5-10 minutes.

People focus on trying to disprove the things the cards are predicting.
They should probably be focusing on the reader if they're trying to prove their suspicions that tarot doesn't work.

My bland facial expressions and monotone voice seem to keep focus on the cards. Autism is awesome.

Yes, Autism is awesome!

And profitable, too ...

That's fair enough, peterd.

Magical thinking is nice. Why did you lose faith in that, is it something that used to mean a lot to you?

I am quite a scientific thinker, personally, so I tend to consider against as well as I do for in all my suppositions.

I find this very interesting and herein lies part of my explanation as to why I believe we are psychic.

Maths was always my strongest subject in high school; it is one of my natural abilities although I have never pursued it to further my knowledge so that is fundamental. I do, however, understand how the laws of probability work and I have seen very similar (and many other) things work out too many times and too often for them to have possibly been mere coincidence.