Researchers want to prove that autistic people have telepathic abilities… and even Joe Rogan is convinced

A new podcast that replaced “The Joe Rogan Experience” as the most popular audio show on Spotify last week tackles a highly controversial topic.

“The Telepathy Tapes”, co-hosted by journalist and filmmaker Ky Dickens and psychiatrist Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell, explores the “profound abilities” of people with autism who cannot speak.

According to Dickens and Dr. Powell telepathy, access to infinite knowledge and the power to visit heaven.

In the first episode, listeners meet a nonverbal autistic girl from Mexico named Mia, whose telepathic abilities are “100 percent accurate,” her family says.

Mia’s family explains that she can mentally communicate with her mother, and Dr. Powell leads Mia through a series of exercises to test her mind-reading skills.

She is asked to use a letter board to spell the number or word her mother comes up with and say the correct number or word each time.

According to Dickens, the fact that she was able to do this in a controlled environment suggests that she can read her mother’s mind. But not all experts are convinced.

Despite mixed reactions, the podcast has received a perfect five-star rating from more than 1,400 reviewers since its debut on September 3, 2024.

In the first episode, listeners meet a nonverbal autistic girl from Mexico named Mia, whose telepathic abilities are “100 percent accurate,” her family says

According to the CDC’s latest estimate, about one in 36 children in the United States has been diagnosed with autism.

A 2018 estimate found that only one in 44 children in the United States had been diagnosed with the disorder, suggesting that the prevalence of autism has increased in recent years.

Experts are yet to determine the exact reason for the increase in the rate. However, possible explanations include increased awareness, screening and diagnostic capabilities, and genetic and environmental factors.

Additionally, experts are still working to fully understand autism and its underlying causes.

On “The Telepathy Tapes,” Dickens shares that she has a brother with high-functioning autism, which partly sparked her curiosity about the extraordinary abilities of people with the disorder.

While listening to another podcast covering topics such as astrology, intuition and mediumship, Dickens met Dr. Know Powell and her work, which focuses on the alleged “telepathic” abilities of autistic children.

Dr. Powell, who received her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and is a former faculty member at Harvard Medical School, has staked her career on the claim that non-speaking autistic children are capable of an otherworldly form of communication.

Although there is currently no accepted scientific evidence to support this, both Dickens and Dr. Powell convinced that the phenomenon is real.

The girl is asked to use a letter board (pictured) to spell the number or word her mother comes up with and say the correct number or word each time

The podcast replaced “The Joe Rogan Experience” as the most listened to audio show on Spotify last week

They created The Telepathy Tapes to raise awareness and give a voice to the families of autistic children who are said to have these supernatural abilities.

“If I had a million dollars, I would like to open a healing and education center where non-speakers could work with the best minds in science and math and, you know, health care, so that they can care for the planet and people and relationships and “Animals could heal,” Dickens said in an episode of the podcast.

Dickens claims that all tests conducted as part of the research are designed to prevent any kind of cheating, and states that video clips of the experiment are available on the show’s website if listeners want to see for themselves.

All tests follow the same basic formula. In Mia’s case, her mother is given a thought to keep in her head, such as a number from a random number generator or a word she turned the pages of a book.

While she was 100% correct with her mother, Mia fails to do so imitating her skills in tests with her father.

This is because she wrote in her diary that she can read anyone’s mind, but you have to believe in her for her to succeed.

In another test, Mia spells the word “pirata” or “pirate” in Spanish, which is the correct answer to her mother’s thoughts.

But Jarry believes her mother could have influenced her reaction by controlling the movements of her face or guiding the girl with her fingers.

“Maternal influence cannot be ruled out,” writes science communicator Jonathan Jarry in an article for McGill University’s Office for Science and Society.

“The video clip posted on the website clearly shows the mother not only holding the letter board in front of Mia, but also Mia’s jaw while Mia points at the board,” he explains.

“In another test, Mia’s mother touches Mia’s forehead while spelling, where it would be easy to press down slightly when Mia’s finger hovers over the correct number,” he adds.

Even Dr. Powell acknowledges the limitations of these types of experiments and tells Dickens that none of the tests they conducted on Mia would be accepted by the scientific community.

On the website of Dr. Powell states: “Proving that the phenomenon I am observing is telepathy would require the elimination of all possibilities of subtle clues.”

“This means you can test the child and parent/doctor in separate rooms or with a larger partition between them.”

Since autistic children are extremely sensitive to changes and new people, an examination in this way was largely impossible, according to Dr. Powell.

“However, by using behavioral strategies, we can work toward the ideal protocol before filming the next series of experiments,” it says.

Despite clear weaknesses in the evidence supporting Dickens and Dr. In support of Powell, many listeners are convinced that non-speaking autistic children actually have supernatural powers, including Joe Rogan.

Despite the new competition for the nation’s top podcast, Rogan said he’s actually a fan of the Telepathy Tapes.

On a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” he said he listens to the show and believes “some degree of telepathy is real.”

“I’m only in the second episode, but it’s really a fascinating man,” he told American actor and stand-up comedian Duncan Trussell, who appeared as a guest on his show.

Other listeners took to social media to share their opinions on the show’s wild claims, with some saying they believed the evidence that Dickens and Dr. Powell submitted.

“I found out about the Telepathy Tapes two days ago and I just finished the last episode. “If we take them seriously, and if our species finds enough collective humility to listen, the implications of these studies will radically shift our paradigm and catapult us into a transcendent phase,” one X user wrote.

Another shared a more skeptical final opinion. “I listened to The Telepathy Tapes podcast and have now (paid for and) watched all the videos on the site, some multiple times,” they wrote.

“As someone who has long been interested in illusion and deception, I can tell you that some of the experiments look like pure parlor tricks. In one you can even see the subject’s mother showing him the answer.”

Whether you believe The Telepathy Tapes’ claims or not, there’s no denying that this podcast has caught the attention of Spotify users.

After reaching the top of the charts at the end of 2024, the presenters announced the broadcast of a second season, this time focusing on non-autistic “telepaths”.

If you ask Jarry, the show’s success underscores something fundamental in human nature: “We all want to believe.”