Podcast About 'Telepathic' Autistic Children popular

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A new podcast about autistic children allegedly having telepathic powers has soared on the Spotify charts in the new year, overtaking the powerhouse "Joe Rogan Experience" to briefly become the nation’s No. 1 podcast despite controversy and criticism the show has "contempt for science."

"The Telepathy Tapes," which released the first of its 10 episodes in September, knocked Rogan out of the No. 1 spot on Spotify's podcast chart briefly on Thursday and has remained in the No. 2 spot ever since, overtaking popular titles like "The Mel Robbins Podcast" and "Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce."

The series is hosted and made by documentary filmmaker Ky Dickens and psychiatrist Diane Hennacy Powell, who claim nonverbal autistic children have telepathic powers, and claim to prove this through a series of experiments in which the children correctly guess numbers and words their parents are thinking.

Parents on the podcast also share anecdotal evidence of their autistic children reading their minds, with Dickens claiming, "If what the families were saying was true, this research could completely shift our paradigm, how humanity sees itself and consciousness” (to date, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that autistic children are telepathic).

“The Telepathy Tapes” has published videos (behind a paywall) claiming to show telepathy in action, where children are able to spell out words and numbers their parent is thinking by pointing at a board held by the mother but critics, including McGill University scientist Jonathan Jarry, have pointed out that the results "can easily be explained by the mother knowing what the answer is and either consciously or subconsciously cueing her child.”

A second season of “The Telepathy Tapes” focusing on non-autistic telepaths has been announced, and Dickens is raising money to create a documentary from her findings.

Crucial Quote
"If I had a million dollars, I’d want to open a healing and education center where nonspeakers could work with the best minds in science and math and, you know, healthcare, so they could heal the planet and people and relationships and animals,” Dickens said in one episode of the podcast.

Chief Critics
The show has been lambasted as having a "contempt for science" and relying on the "wishful thinking" of those who want to believe their autistic children have supernatural powers. “They were told that their child might never speak or have a normal life. Then came along a narrative that flipped the script: their child was actually profoundly special,” Jarry, a misinformation and pseudoscience expert, wrote in an article on “The Telepathy Tapes.” “Wouldn’t you want to believe that as well?” On social media, listeners are split between calling the series "mind blowing" and claiming it's an example of the "powerful tools of manipulation at our disposal." Rogan addressed the show on an episode of his own podcast, where he called "The Telepathy Tapes" "really fascinating" and said "if it's real, shouldn't scientists study it like it's real?"

Key Background
Powell claims the brain's electromagnetic properties make telepathy (mind-to-mind communication) possible, and predicted non-verbal autistic children with savant skills would be the most motivated to find alternative means of communication. Also called extrasensory perception, or ESP, telepathy has never been scientifically proven, though studies have demonstrated that people can "read the minds" of others through neurons that allow them to quickly grasp the intentions and emotions of other people automatically. Studies into telepathy have been done using techniques like card guessing, and some have produced favorable results, but subjects scoring above a baseline level of chance are rare and not usually replicable.

Is this phenomenon just non-verbal autistic children being more perceptive than people expect?