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Barret Baumgart's avatar

Excellent short essay. The pushback is pure reactive dogmatic Scientism, nothing to do with the scientific method itself. I'm endlessly fascinated by how threatened people are by the presence of any new or perceived anomaly and how necessary it is to annul its potency. May we all die in sterile rooms free of all enchantment!

Frequency Smashing's avatar

It's also fair to note that a lot of our advanced communication technologies that we rely on today (anything that involves signaling of the RF spectrum like wifi for example) were developed in parallel to a lot of groudnbreaking exploration into psychic phenomena and the concept of non-local consciousness.

The dogma of a materialistic reality might literally be dogma beucase it's original proponents were scientists and philosophers working the industrial revolution who believed in the metaphysical existence of God acting as a 'great watchmaker.' Whereas the non-local consciousness theories are more in-line with Eastern schools of esoteric thought.

Materialistic scientists are more profitable to the corporate interests than scientists who believe we are all connected.

Rebecca Garnett's avatar

Great article. I don't bother to read or listen to mainstream media anymore. Once you see the agenda you can't unsee it.

Christian Sawyer's avatar

If you want to “lift the veil” plop down the $10 on the telepathy tapes website to access the video recordings of the tests with these kids. It becomes incredibly apparent that these kids are being knowingly exploited in most if not all cases. I’m someone with an interest in both the spiritual and paranormal, believe that consciousness is transcendent, etc. And of course some are reacting to TTT from a place of “respectable mainstream” inclination. But that doesn’t change the fact that these kids should never, ever, be promoted as symbols of spiritual belief or exploration when doing so robs them of their humanity.

Katriena Emmanuel's avatar

Yes I agree! Although I’ve neither completed listening to the podcast itself or buy full access to the research and video recordings, but this guy did and wrote a very interesting article in exposing the holes in their testing modalities

https://open.substack.com/pub/jonogden/p/lets-talk-about-the-telepathy-tapes?r=2kef9y&utm_medium=ios

Christian Sawyer's avatar

Yea I don’t know how many episodes I made I through, maybe five, before I was frustrated by the lack of descriptive detail about how the tests were being carried out. Did some research online, found the videos, and quickly realized that they were leaving the details out for a reason. If they had been transparent, they would not be able to suck listeners into their narrative so easily. Quite dishonest on the part of the production team, imo.

Katriena Emmanuel's avatar

Yeah not surprised really! I think I barely got through the first episode. I think something like that has to be observed as well as listen to testimony. Hard to just hear dialogue about it without seeing how the experiments were conducted

Caitlyn Dare's avatar

I recommend you read Devon Price's article on the subject; he clearly presents the research showing how Facilitated Communication exploits autistic children.

Nate Kokernot's avatar

That wasn’t my experience. I thought they described their research methods with precision.

Christian Sawyer's avatar

I guess it depends on what you mean by “with precision”. They don’t explain how Akhil’s mother makes hand gestures. How facilitators move the spelling boards around after each letter. How Mia’s mother grabs her daughters head to point toward different objects. As I was listening, I kept wondering “ what’s actually happening in this room?” I’m sure many listeners will use their imagination to fill in those descriptive gaps, and have an artificial sense that they have a detailed picture.

Alan Scheurman's avatar

You said you only made it through five episodes so you’re missing half of where this podcast goes. I’d love to hear what you have to say after you listen to all ten episodes and the supplemental talk tracks episodes.

Christian Sawyer's avatar

If the tests themselves are unconvincing, why does it matter what theories are built upon them?

Even in the first five episodes, they posited some ideas about Consciousness which I agree with. But I don't need children to be exploited to feel confident in those beliefs.

If you haven't watched all the videos yet, I'd love to hear your thoughts after you do. I personally found them disappointing, disturbing and sad, in turn.

Nate Kokernot's avatar

Satisfied? It definitely seems like I’m hearing things. If you tried listening with an open mind instead of an “I already know everything mind” you could maybe hear them too

Nate Kokernot's avatar

Episode 2: 00:10:19 refers to candy hidden in the closet. You can listen for yourself so my thumbs don’t get too tired. That is, if you want to learn something you don’t already know.

Nate Kokernot's avatar

Episode 8: refers to a “he” finding hidden candy, the last one was a “she” must be two different individuals, huh? Timestamp: 00:20:30. I double checked this one but listening. Podscripts got the timestamp wrong. So if you didn’t hear the last one it’s probably because podscripts was slightly misinforming me.

Nate Kokernot's avatar

Episode 4: 00:10:40 is another reference to Libby and Jean Paul and her thinking about hidden candy

Nate Kokernot's avatar

I decided to go ahead and do your research for you. I found podscripts on the web. I’ll just share timestamps as I find them. First episode 00:21:41 “The conversation ensues and it’s fascinating. Is it hard to keep things hidden from her? Her mom, she hides things, not only secrets, but things, like objects. And Mia always finds them. This one girl, she likes potato chips. And when her parents would try to say, oh, we don’t have any chips left. She knew exactly how many chips were left”

Christian Sawyer's avatar

Watch the video of Mia with her mother and the popsicle sticks and then tell me if you think she’s a reliable source.

Nate Kokernot's avatar

Christian, I do want to apologize for misleading you with the word “gifts” I myself have a pretty bad memory when it comes to details. If I’d sent you on a word search for the word “candy” instead you probably would have found these yourself

Christian Sawyer's avatar

Just listened to episode 2 before and after your time stamp. Nothing about Candy or anything hidden. Episode 4 says JP would be upstairs and parents would hide something downstairs and he would know where it is (which doesn’t seem miraculous if you can hear people walking around downstairs). But nothing about “thinking about hidden candy”. Candy isn’t mentioned at all. Sorry man. I think you’re just messing with me at this point.

Nate Kokernot's avatar

I won’t mess with you anymore, Christian. Peace

Nate Kokernot's avatar

Does it ever make you curious that other people see the world so differently? It is because we only see the world through our own bias.

Christian Sawyer's avatar

Of course. It’s something I’ve been curious about since I was a child, because people so often disagree, and so often are unwilling to change their minds. Many people don’t have “cognitive empathy” nor intellectual humility, so it makes it hard for them to expand their perspective, rethink their beliefs, and understand others. My mom always told me I was like a “little old man” when I was a kid because I was always trying to explain to people how they’re jumping to conclusions and not considering other perspectives. And as someone who is a “free thinker” and rejects dogma, whether it’s religious dogma or materialism or whatever, of course I see all the time how other minds can be very biased. However, just because I’m a free thinker doesn’t mean I’m an uncritical thinker. Just because something might be true doesn’t mean it *is* true. So if you’re going to make a claim, but provide zero evidence, why would I take that seriously. On the other hand, I’ve pointed you to evidence of what I see as the terrible exploitation of innocent children, especially Mia and Akhil, you can go watch those videos at any time and see for yourself on the telepathy tapes website. If you’re not willing to do that, maybe you should consider that you have your own bias.

Nate Kokernot's avatar

It’s said again and again throughout the telepathy tapes. It’s why caregivers were starting to get curious. It’s what sparked Ky Dickens research.

Christian Sawyer's avatar

I just did a word search in some episode transcripts. So far the only mention of a “closet” is one episode where Akhil briefly hides in a closet. If you can tell me a specific timestamp, or even a specific episode, that mentions kids choosing closets that gifts were hidden in, I’ll check it out.

Nate Kokernot's avatar

Maybe you’re focusing too much on the word closet. search “gift” and “hide” and see how many examples come up of what I’m referencing. Like I said before, it’s the reason many caregivers began to be curious according to their own testimonies. I’m not going to do your research for you, Christian, but I will to invite you to pay attention to things that challenge your biases. It’s how we learn. Otherwise, we only see that which we already know (or believe we do anyways)

Christian Sawyer's avatar

Obviously I’m going to focus on the word closer if that’s what you’re saying happened. I have a pretty strong memory and I dont remember this being a part of why “caregivers began to be curious”. The stories I heard are “people have kids with autism, find out about FC in the autism community, start using it, suddenly find their kids spelling things”.

But of course I might have missed or forgotten something so I did some more searches through the transcript. Sorry bud but I think you’re misremembering or hallucinated or I don’t know what, because what you’re saying ain’t so. And if you’re gonna make claims, bring receipts. I’m not doing your research for you. And you might find that your own bias has distorted your memory. Good luck!

Nate Kokernot's avatar

Christian, what’s your impression of what’s happening when autistic people’s caregivers all report that their person runs right to the closet where they hid the gift they got but hadn’t been told about yet? Is that also some sort of Ouija board manipulation on the part of the caregivers?

Christian Sawyer's avatar

Which episode is that in? I'll have to give it a listen.

tru3's avatar

There’s so many more factors that need to be investigated that dogmatic scientific inquiry is unequipped to answer; I will list just three:

-Mirror neurons

-The heart/gut brain

-The parasympathetic nervous system

“Autistic” people have anomalies in all three of these areas, but no one seems to know why or how they impact lives.

What if these anomalies are not maladaptive, but essential to the phenomenon of exhibited results?

Thank you for speaking truth to ”power”.

Leah Welborn's avatar

Thank you for this. The Telepathy Tapes is revolutionary and the old guard never likes a revolution.

Caitlyn Dare's avatar

Facilitated Communication is incredibly exploitative and nothing short of adults using vulnerable children to push their own agenda. I seriously recommend you read Devon Price’s article on the subject for a more nuanced analysis of the history of disability and how problematic this practice is.

Glenn DeVore's avatar

Thank you for this thoughtful and well-researched piece. Regardless of where one lands on TTT, this is a powerful case study in how quickly dogma can replace curiosity. When inquiry is shut down before something is fully understood, we don’t just miss the facts. We miss the opportunity to evolve the conceptual frameworks that may not be as solid as we imagined. I wonder what kind of discoveries might unfold if we allowed genuine curiosity to lead.

Raven Robbins's avatar

I devoured TTT, came across the Gateway Tapes, keep stumbling across references to Transcendental Meditation, & then was lent a copy of Weaving Fate by Aidan Wachter that I am reading now - I’m noticing a BIG OLD theme…

Gnosis Infinita's avatar

@Gnosis Infinita We must keep the Flame Burning

Asabi Lee's avatar

Because it comes down to control. If humans realize how much power we each TRULY HOLD? they lose control over us. But we have always had this ability it has just been dulled and criticized and demonized for thousands of years. “Witches” burned when all they were doing was using their intuition

byebye's avatar

Materialists will always hide behind complexity.

Midlife Mystic's avatar

Great article.

I think the more powerful question to ask isn’t why is the coverup occurring but how can we help more people be more open minded.

Forest Monarch Tarot's avatar

Fascinating essay! “The Hill” is very intriguing

Leonie Ayana's avatar

Thank you for calling this out! Important work! ❤️

Dr. Nicole (Mandy) Celestine's avatar

Highly recommend the book Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism, and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind by Elizabeth Mayer for anyone interested in the long history of dismissal when it comes to research on psy abilities.