What People Get Wrong This Week: “Telepathy Tapes”
The most downloaded podcast on Spotify is no longer The Joe Rogan Experience . Rogan’s long-running show has given way to “Tapes of Telepathy,” a new 10-part documentary series that aims to explore the supernatural abilities of non-verbal people with autism, a topic that many people completely misunderstand.
Created and hosted by mainstream documentarian Ty Dickens, The Telepathy Tapes is a professionally produced, no-nonsense podcast that argues that nonverbal people with autism are telepaths, can see the future, and talk to the dead. They all also meet each other in a “telepathic chat” called The Hill. Essentially, if the Telepathy Record is true, then everything we know about the mind and reality itself is wrong.
I’m convinced on the contrary. Despite the gripping production, candid interviews and experts with advanced degrees, everything presented in The Telepathy Tapes has a non-supernatural explanation. There is nothing new here: these are all slightly distorted versions of claims that were debunked over 100 years ago.
An Explanation of the Unusual Claims of the Telepathy Tapes
The structure of The Telepathy Records is eloquent. It begins with the relatively “humble” claim that people with autism, who do not speak in public, can tell what people are thinking, even if they cannot convey it in traditional ways. The podcast seems to acknowledge listeners’ skepticism by acknowledging how “true” its claims are, and saves the more esoteric claims – “telepathic chat” where non-speakers gather, communication through lucid dreams, etc. – for later episodes when listeners presumably have a basic level of belief.
Much of the first episode, “Uncovering the Hidden World of Telepathic Communication in the Silent Community,” consists of descriptions and recordings of seemingly scientific tests in which non-speakers appear to read the minds of others, and the podcast’s more radical claims build on these foundations. .
It seems designed to persuade: the podcast team has a skeptical team member whose opinion has changed, and there’s even video evidence on the podcast website (behind a paywall) so you can judge for yourself. But “Telepathic Tapes” leaves out an important piece of information from its first episode establishing trust: all communication between non-speaking people is facilitated, usually by a person whose mind is supposedly being read.
A Brief History of Facilitated Communication
Facilitated communication (FC), also known as supported typing, is a technique that claims to allow nonverbal people to communicate. The theory is that non-verbal people lack the fine motor skills to speak, write or point, but if they are supported by another person who supports their arms or elbows, they can point or type the letters they need and thus communicate. Proponents compare the technique to a person with wobbly ankles using a cane to help them walk.
Something like facilitated communication emerged in Europe in the 1960s and in Australia in the 1970s , but it was not until 1989 that educator Douglas Biklen brought FC to the United States. Biklen and other early FC researchers tried the technique on people with cerebral palsy, head injuries, Down syndrome, and autism and reported remarkable results: People previously thought unable to communicate at all were able to talk to their parents for the first time. . Some have written poetry , attended college, and given TedX Talks . The scientific community doubted, but not the media, which broadcast such materials:
But along with these empowering stories have come numerous allegations of sexual assault and, therefore, the need to prove the veracity of facilitated communications in court.
The first such case was considered in 1990 in Australia and concerned a 28-year-old woman who had a severe disability. State authorities removed “Carla” from her home after reports received through FC indicated she had been sexually assaulted. Carla’s parents’ defense team conducted double-blind testing which demonstrated that the only meaningful responses received through FC were when the presenter knew the questions Carla was being asked, ending the case. The remaining FC abuse cases were resolved in much the same way. The scientific community completely refuted the claims of the proponents of FC , and FC disappeared from view. Before The Telepathy Records .
Videos provided by The Telepathy Tapes demonstrate the disadvantages of simplified communication. Below is an image of a non-speaking person and a guide using Spelling to Communicate, also known as the Quick Cue Method or Spelling, a later variation of FC where the presenters stay off topic. Many of the subjects in The Telepathy Record are spellers.
RPM involves pointing to letters “to form words on the board, on a printing device, and/or by handwriting.” One of the main rules is that the presenter does not touch a non-verbal person. But as you can see in the image above, the communicator holds a board with letters on it, which allows the facilitator to move to the board to provide “communication”, but this is only one way that facilitators can direct their partners’ responses.
To be fair, in episode eight of The Telepathy Record, Dickens discusses the controversy surrounding FC, but frames it in terms of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association suppressing spelling due to “outdated research, stigmas, and the long-held belief that non-speakers are simply incompetent”, overlooking the fact that no scientific study of spelling (or any other FC method) has ever been double-blind, the bar you need to overcome. long before you start talking about telepathy. According to ASHA: “There is no research showing that RPM is effective in promoting independent communication. Moreover, proponents of RPM actively resist research using this methodology.”
Ideomotor reflex and facilitated communication.
Most claims of paranormal or psychic abilities are made by scammers or magicians, but this does not seem to be the case with facilitated communications and spelling. I have no doubt that the proponents of spelling believe in its reality. I don’t think the presenters are consciously guiding their subjects, and I don’t think the parents are trying to deceive anyone. But there is an explanation for all this that is not related to the supernatural: the ideomotor reflex.
The ideomotor reflex describes involuntary physical movements in response to ideas, thoughts, or expectations. Thinking about something can unconsciously trigger a physical action. This is why Ouija boards reproduce conversations with ghosts and how dowsers can find underground springs. In facilitated communication, the facilitator guides the subject toward a specific response, even if he is not aware that he is doing so.
The ideomotor effect can fool anyone – intelligence and training do not make a person invulnerable – and the realization that you have made a mistake can be devastating. Watch this 60 Minutes interview with a couple of smart and friendly hosts to see what I mean:
The type of unconscious “signals” that FC seems to explain can work even if the presenter does not direct or touch the subject’s hands at all. People can pick up on subtle movements and give the desired response. Horses too.
The Strange Case of Clever Hans, the Horse Who Did Math
At the beginning of the twentieth century, mathematics teacher and amateur horse trainer Wilhelm von Osten announced that his horse Hans could count. To demonstrate this, von Osten asked questions such as : “If the eighth day of the month falls on Tuesday, what date will be next Friday?” and Hans responded by tapping his hoof eleven times.
Clever Hans, the clever horse, attracted a crowd but also skepticism, so a group of professionals was convened to test it, consisting of a veterinarian, a circus manager, a cavalry officer, several school teachers and the director of the Berlin Zoological Garden. claims.
The panel separated Hans from the trainer to ensure he was not giving signals to the animal. They did the tests without spectators to make sure no one else was helping the horse cheat. They wrote the questions themselves and made sure that Hans did not see the answers, but even under these conditions, Hans was still able to answer the math questions correctly.
The commission initially concluded that there was no deception involved, but turned the investigation over to psychologist Oskar Pfungst , who looked deeper. Pfungst’s more stringent tests showed that Hans could only give correct answers when the questioner knew the answer and the horse could see the questioner. Clever Hans was a smart horse, but his apparent ability to solve math problems was actually the result of reading the ideomotor movements of the questioner, whose body language unconsciously changed when the correct answer was given. (Unrelated note: After the death of Wilhelm von Osten, Hans was drafted into World War I as a war horse and was ” killed in action in 1916 or eaten by starving soldiers .”)
I’m not comparing non-verbal people with autism to horses, but Clever Hans’s simplified communication and math skills fall apart at the same point: if the subject can’t see, hear, or touch the host, or the host doesn’t know the “right answer” doesn’t provide a meaningful answer. result.
In many cases in Recordings of Telepathy, the presenter is the parent of the non-speaking child, and unspoken communication between them – subtle hand control, slight change in posture, change in breathing, etc. – seems more likely. explanation than mind reading.
The problem of testing for telepathy
“Traditional” facilitated communication can be rebutted relatively easily by showing the non-speaker an image and then showing the speaker another image, as you can see here:
But telepathy, as presented in The Telepathy Record , is “protected” from this kind of scrutiny. Since the thoughts that are supposedly being read belong to the presenter, there is no way to present information that the presenter does not know, and there is no way to separate the non-speaker from the presenter.
The podcast even turns things on their head in a segment related to Uno cards. In this test, only the host knows which Uno card was chosen, but the test taker guesses the correct answer over and over again. Instead of being taken as evidence that the message must have come from the presenter because the subject has not seen the card, it is presented as evidence that the nonverbal subject is a telepath.
Later episodes of the podcast claim that some test subjects can read everyone’s mind. This should make it easier to test telepathic abilities – have a third person write down the number without showing it to anyone, then have someone who doesn’t speak read their mind and make it easier to get the result – but these types of tests are not done in Telepathy Records. . There are also no tests involving subjects who have more than one leader. I suspect this is because these tests will fail.
The Telepathy Record offers a proactive explanation for ineffective telepathy tests. This is a well-known argument for why supernatural effects cannot be demonstrated in the laboratory: psychic abilities are inherently resistant to scientific experimentation. The atmosphere of skepticism disturbs the mental balance, or the experimenters’ disbelief upsets the psychic too much, so the power can only be demonstrated to people who believe in it.
And no one can prove that this is not true, but it highlights the difference between an invisible force that is supported by research, such as electricity, and a force that is not supported, such as telepathy: Electricity doesn’t care if you don’t believe. in it: flip the switch and the light comes on whether you think about it or not.
Problem with telepathy recordings
Part of the argument of The Telepathy Record is that scientific skepticism silences the voices of nonverbal people. “Why should anyone deny the life experiences of parents who have found a connection with their children?” the podcast seems to ask.
“These claims carry a serious risk of undermining more empirically based ways of communicating,” explains Dr. Sham Singh, a psychiatrist at WINIT . “There are scientifically proven tools and techniques that allow non-verbal people to express their thoughts and emotions. These include complementary and alternative communication devices and interventions based on behavioral science. Abandoning them in favor of unproven methods of telepathic communication risks undermining the progress that many people have made. and their families earned money using generally accepted methods.”
This isn’t the only problem with the podcast. Mainstream society denying or devaluing the abilities of people with disabilities is nothing new, and some autistic people do demonstrate remarkable talents in various fields , but the idea that nonverbal people have mystical abilities also distorts their life experiences.
“The deeper question that statements like this raise concerns how society perceives neurodiversity,” explains Dr. Singh. “This fascination with telepathy may reflect a desire to attribute unique, even mystical abilities to people with autism, which, while well-intentioned, may diminish their experience. Instead of superpowers, we should focus on supporting non-speaking people with accessible evidence.” based on resources that help them interact with the world on their own terms .”