The Telepathy Tapes

[tinkertailor]

i just feel like i gotta wear battle armor (aka come prepared to cite every reference i make) to participate here.

I hear you. I'm lazy about citations here, to be honest, and I should be using more. I've got a Google Doc full of annotations for every academic study I can find on FC, and I should be using it, but it's so long now that it crashes my browser when I attempt to open it. A lot of what I say on here is common knowledge for people in my field, so I don't cite it, even though I absolutely should be citing it because I'm talking with people who aren't as nerdy about communication as I am.

For what it's worth, I think it's totally valid to say 'hey, I want to know what you guys think but I don't have the bandwidth for citing every single thing' or even 'Yes, I will get a citation back to you when I can, please bear with me.' We can get a little overexcited on here and jump on every little statement, which is overwhelming for our audience. I think you have held your own pretty well; there's a lot of us and only one of you!

I'm really grateful that we're discussing something that isn't a boring old UFO, to be honest, so thank you!

 

[Charlie Wiser]

to be fair i watched that bit with Houston and the group of people in that weird dark room @Giddierone linked in #252. i would say Houston was spelling on his own. but by God we need to crowd source and buy him a computer keyboard because how annoying must it be to have to speak in such slo-motion!

seriously...what the hell.

That video isn't on the T-Tapes website and his performances shown there weren't specifically referenced in the podcast (that I recall) although his mom's voice, cut from that video, is used in the T-Tapes trailer.

The T-Tapes podcast lists some incredible feats of these kids in the later episodes but makes no attempt whatsoever to validate or test them. They are all pure anecdote, but it's the kind of stuff that leaves the credulous with a stunning impression. An example is "the Hill" which is some place on the psychic plane where these kids meet up and chat, then tell their moms about it later while Spelling. There are two different things happening here - some of the kids may well feel like they're communing with others (either anonymous people or online friends) and are accurately describing that to their facilitators; and there's also the high possibility that some are just being made to say whatever by their ideomotor-afflicted facilitators.

In either case it would be so easy to check with a simple test, but no one on T-Tapes even suggests the test, let alone performs it: Just have the kids exchange a secret phrase while on the Hill, then spell it out later with the facilitators not knowing the phrase.

Ky Dickens expressed amazement that (allegedly) independent parents were telling her about the Hill, and to her this was evidence it's real. But many of these non-verbal kids have active social lives online (such interactions are mentioned on T-Tapes) and it's likely the Hill is just a meme within that community. (Ky heard it called various names but the Hill seems to be the most common.)

One son of an Orthodox Jewish man visits with his friends on the Hill but it's a "different Hill" where only Jewish autistic people go. This boy's messages that he Spells to his dad are "consistent with strict Jewish laws and viewpoints"... naturally.

In episode 7 we hear from a facilitator who visited the Hill in a dream, and who believes this happened so she can "tune her heart to the kids with autism." This is evidence the Hill is real! - Ky's definitive conclusion: "So, some neurotypical people can access the Hill."

This whole thing is so far into woo and emotional gratification, it might be unsalvageable. I predict Dr Powell's failure to prove telepathy with these kids in the lab will be met with endless excuses and no recognition at all that there's something fundamentally wrong with FC.

 

[Giddierone]

In this clip about "The Hill" [from 1:04:05] Houston signs a spiritualist message to the camera. We can't see the letters on the board and while he appears to look at the board for the first few words his attention seems to drift to the point where by the time he's spelling the words "we have see the spiritual realm" he's not looking at the board at all. He also appears to be able to say some of the words aloud.

Source: https://youtu.be/WUcfNyWhH2w?si=sqBq7857awWjNNp5&t=3840

 

[Ann K]

Houston signs a spiritualist message to the camera.

I wish all those dabs on the letter board were strokes on a keypad instead, so that we could actually see for ourselves what he typed. If he can do one, he should be able to do the other, even if it required a larger-than-normal keypad. I suspect it would be gibberish, or at least not the complex sentences spoken by his mother.

I also wish his mother had not continually interrupted him and talked over him at the end of that typed message, when he seemed to want to talk or sing something. It's hard to square that deliberate attempt to hush him up with the oft-repeated trope, "give them a voice".

 

[jackfrostvc]

The Telepathy Tapes account has tweeted that they are beginning production of a documentary

www.x.com/TelepathyTapes/status/1888309545371639936

 

[jimmyslippin]

The Telepathy Tapes account has tweeted that they are beginning production of a documentary

www.x.com/TelepathyTapes/status/1888309545371639936

I wonder what Diane Hennecy Powell's involvement with the documentary will be.

She's been trying to fund a documentary on this project for over ten years.

Source: Indiegogo

 

[John J.]

Good grief.
No-one would deny that the parents of autistic children have a stronger bond with them than others.
But the idea that those children objectively have telepathic abilities, as some sort of compensation for, or side-effect of their disabilities, is at best wishful thinking.
I feel it would be wrong to directly criticise parents claiming such a link; equally it would be wrong to accept those claims, in themselves, as evidence of a real phenomenon.

I predict that, if relevant parents allowed their children to participate in a well-constructed study (in which the comfort and wellbeing of the subjects is of course prioritised) no evidence of telepathy would be found.
I further predict that if Diane Hennacy Powell is involved, she will not accede to a well-constructed study conducted by appropriate impartial researchers.

Despite claiming to have found a completely new model of neuroscience that might explain telepathy, precognition and other "psy" phenomena, I'm unaware of Diane publishing any papers on this revolutionary breakthrough.

Instead of ignoring anomalous phenomena such as precognition, telepathy, clairvoyance, and out of body experiences, I wondered if there is a model that could explain all of these. It turns out that there is. My proposed model will be the topic of my next book, which is tentatively titled: Misunderstood.

Diane Hennacy Powell, "Meet Dr. Diane", https://drdianehennacy.com/meet-dr-diane-hennacy/, where there are several other, um, interesting morsels of information:

...I met a woman who is considered a National Treasure by India, because she had spontaneously started speaking Sanskrit, without any exposure. She is reportedly very psychic, and had become a guru to many people. In one of our meetings, she told me that I was a Tulku, which didn't mean anything to me. She said that a Tulku was a Bodhisattva, and that one day I would meet someone connected with the Dalai Lama and find out that this is my path.

Had to check "Bodhisattva",

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva (English: /ˌboʊdiːˈsʌtvə/ BOH-dee-SUT-və; Sanskrit: बोधिसत्त्व, romanized: bodhisattva; Pali: बोधिसत्त, romanized: bodhisatta) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood.

Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva

Note Diane doesn't question the claim that someone is "very psychic".

...I met a Native American medicine man and paleontologist. He has been using the archives of interviews by J. P. Harrington with elders from over a century ago. Their voices and beliefs were meticulously recorded, and are enabling us to learn as much as possible about their religion as it was practiced then... ...We are working on a book about this knowledge which is tentatively titled: Signs from Heaven. I feel honored to have been initiated into this religion, and had my naming ceremony In April 2018.

Diane might be honoured, but she doesn't mention the name of the religion she claims to be a part of. Presumably everything about that Native American religion is completely compatible with her path to Buddhahood.

Could go on; there's a short item "The Big Eclipse" where she describes not seeing a total solar eclipse because she had to catch a flight. She receives a Native American name meaning "raven", and next day sees a raven.

Less fun, there's a lot of pseudoscientific crap where she links vaccines to autism.

To be honest, I have little faith in Hennacy Powell's "Telepathy Project"; maybe she means well but to me it's, well, grotesque.

 

[MyMatesBrainwashed]

Less fun, there's a lot of pseudoscientific crap where she links vaccines to autism.

Can we start a vaccines cause psionics movement?

 

[Giddierone]

She's been trying to fund a documentary on this project for over ten years.

Has anyone seen the production values of the Spellers film (linked up thread) which is advertised by Ky Dickens on TT? It's surplus to requirements, to say the least
If these kids were really telepathic all we'd need to get on board with funding further study, and wondering if the materialist paradigm really is obsolete, are some soundly devised, well executed scientific tests—which could be filmed using iPhones. No additional lighting / licensed music / tracking camera rigs & drone footage necessary.
Instead, I'm certain we'll just get another glossy emotive "documercial" for Spelling 2 Communicate with telepathy and various psi claims tagged on. I agree with:

The Telepathy Tapes is simply abusing another generation of non-speakers, and convincing another generation of listeners that FC is something other than the completely discredited pseudoscience that it is.

Source: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-telepathy-tapes-more-fc-pseudoscience/

 

[Ty Webb]

I honestly don't know what to make of the coincidence of the subject looking at what I assume are reflective surfaces immediately before every answer. It just seems so obvious that he can physically see the cards and is registering them.

I've been enjoying this thread - it led me to discover Metabunk and to register. In particular I thought it was really important to underscore tinkertailor's point. As long as FC is part of the process, reflections don't matter. The only photo that does matter is the one where the facilitator is looking right at the card. The info on the card flows through the facilitator and then to the board.

It's really important for people to keep their eyes on the FC ball with regard to what is going on with the Telepathy Tapes. That's all that matters, but it is a zombie pseudoscience that just keeps showing up over and over.

I do think the concept of joint attention is not particularly relevant here, but tinkertailor's description of the lack of visual attending to the board that is commonly seen in FC is spot on. At least, for the person with autism that is. The facilitator is very attentive. Which is ironic if the facilitator is truly supposed to be providing physical support without cuing. It should be that the facilitator could have their attention wandering all over but the person using the board should have to be focused on the board.

 

[Mendel]

It should be that the facilitator could have their attention wandering all over but the person using the board should have to be focused on the board.

The facilitator needs to watch the board to see what the autist is spelling.

 

[Giddierone]

As long as FC is part of the process, reflections don't matter.

I agree FC is the main problem. But, from this video and others linked up thread this particular autistic subject appears capable of looking at specific points on screens and speaking. For example he appears to speak the words "want to stop now" at the end of the UNO card clip.

 

[Ty Webb]

The facilitator needs to watch the board to see what the autist is spelling.

I had in mind the purported mechanism of FC - that physical support is all that is needed. And FC historically used boards that could record the content and electronically speak out the result. You're right however in regards to Rapid Prompting Method or other versions that just use a simple letter placard.

In reality of course the facilitator ALWAYS has to be looking at the board because they are the sole author of the message. With methods that the facilitator is also interpreting the target of the gesture, we have two different places where the facilitator can insinuate themselves into authorship.

As a side note, elsewhere in this thread someone asked why stencils were used. I think it was for this reason - the stylus would go through the letter board to make the selected character clear. But that's just an assumption on my part.

 

[Ty Webb]

I agree FC is the main problem. But, from this video and others linked up thread this particular autistic subject appears capable of looking at specific points on screens and speaking. For example he appears to speak the words "want to stop now" at the end of the UNO card clip.

You're completely right to attend to these other possible explanations for a given claim or case. And I've only seen the still photos of that specific persons claims and have read the descriptions given here, so I could be wrong. I am sorry to have come across as unfairly dismissive of your suspicions. FC is just such a pernicious and persistent problem that I needed to barge in and jump up and down about the rank ordering of the suspects here.

 

[Giddierone]

I am sorry to have come across as unfairly dismissive of your suspicions

Not at all! (waves hand in a circular fashion).

I've only seen the still photos of that specific persons claims

The UNO card test video is in this post: #232

 

[tinkertailor]

and speaking

Not defending FC, but many autistic people are minimally speaking, meaning that they can speak but it is very difficult. In these cases, best practice in the evidence-based field of speech pathology is to offer AAC. Just because someone can talk sometimes doesn't mean they don't need extra supports. I'm bringing this up because it's a major myth and I didn't want any parents, teachers, or SLPs reading this to think 'ahh, he can talk so he does not need help, I read it on that science website!'

(Of course, the evidence-based assistance we offer minimally speaking folks isn't FC, ever)

 

[JMartJr]

AAC.

Can you define term here?

 

[FatPhil]

Can you define term here?

AAC is "Augmentative and Alternative Communication", which is a bit of a blanket term covering both high-tech (computer/tablet/etc.) and low-tech (paper) tangible assistance (such as alphabetic or pictoral selection of concepts), but also intangible components such as gestures. Different things work better for different people. Annoyingly, FC can superficially look like some some AAC, which is perhaps why it got some traction.

 

[tinkertailor]

AAC is "Augmentative and Alternative Communication", which is a bit of a blanket term covering both high-tech (computer/tablet/etc.) and low-tech (paper) tangible assistance (such as alphabetic or pictoral selection of concepts), but also intangible components such as gestures. Different things work better for different people. Annoyingly, FC can superficially look like some some AAC, which is perhaps why it got some traction.

Congrats, this definition would get you an A on a college exam for speech pathology!

AAC often uses techniques to make it easier and faster to use. Several high tech systems (like apps on iPads) make it so that each word selected takes only a few taps to get there. So instead of spelling out "pancakes" they just hit food-->breakfast-->pancake. It makes it go a lot faster than spelling out each word. We also have supports for folks who can't directly select items on an AAC system. Stephen Hawking used AAC with indirect access methods (which changed as his disease progressed, if I remember correctly) to consider his motoric difficulties. People can select with eye gaze alone, or a single switch attached to the skin of their eyelid.

My point is that AAC is better in every way, works wonders when nonspeakers are consistently exposed to it, and is heavily supported by research. FC is none of these things.

 

[Giddierone]

So, now there's a Joe Rogan podcast episode with Ky Dickens. Among several misrepresentations of the evidence for telepathy that she'd seen, e.g. she implies there's a test where the mother (of Akhil) had not seen the stimulus, yet the non-speaker spelled the right answer...
She also really struggles to explain the problem with FC, and several times mentions the brand name "Spelling 2 Communicate".

Then there's the predictable discussion about skeptics holding back research into telepathy [from around 1:40:00].
[EDIT: having now listened to all of it there's basically nothing of interest said from the last time stamp until the last 5 mins. Where she's asked what her hopes are for where the project is going. She answers that a goal is to "get spelling validated and in schools" [this seems like it will require some good old fashioned nuts and bolts scientific research to prove genuine authorship].

Also, this recent article by Katherine Beals echos a point I made earlier that Powell and others believe FC works by Telepathy.

What's also clear from this interview is that she's believes that FC works by telepathy.

You can't have telepathy without FC and you can't have FC without telepathy.

Source: https://www.facilitatedcommunicatio...hy-tapesincluding-lies-about-autism-and-lying

 

[tinkertailor]

"get spelling validated and in schools"

This is an active and outwardly spoken goal of Spelling To Communicate. They have a whole advocacy page dedicated to their goals. Their website does not allow copying of text (isnt that interesting?) so I cannot quote it, but it can be found here: https://i-asc.org/advocacy/

Regarding it being used in schools, that would require speech pathologists to utilize it in treatment plans. Our governing body has spoken out about FC officially, and we use AAC for nonspeaking students. A year ago, I would have said FC will never be in schools, but things are unstable at present with the new administration so I don't know.

 

[deirdre]

(isnt that interesting?)

esp. with that headline!

I would have said FC will never be in schools

If it is the skills wont be able to be generalized amongst 'facilitators'. Or maybe they'll just decide the kids all have multiple personality disorders.

I bet its been used in some autism specific schools. I took over for one kid who had gone to two different schools (luckily he was a biter so got kicked out), and the techniques they were using were all archaic.

 

[FatPhil]

Their website does not allow copying of text (isnt that interesting?) so I cannot quote it, but it can be found here: https://i-asc.org/advocacy/

It's possible to do what you say, but they aren't canny enough to implement that properly - it looks they've simply got a stylesheet that makes selected text indistinguishable from normal text. You have actually selected what you drag the mouse over. (They may also have disabled mouse-button context menus, so the "copying" part might be impeded, but Ctrl-X should work around that in Windows (in X/Linux, once it's selected, it's grabbed: no need for a manual "copy" afterwards).) If you encounter such impediments again, try viewing the page with style sheets turned off (``View > Page Style > ( ) No Style'' in Firefox menus), as that ruins almost all non-psychotic attempts to defeat copying of text (yes, there are many psychotic techniques .)

 

[jarlrmai]

also, they JS block F12 opening developer mode but you can open it manually and find the div with the text.

 

[jarlrmai]

Blocking JS only gets you this

 

[Giddierone]

Their website does not allow copying of text

They say:

We will attain our goals by winning the hearts and minds of the general public and by convincing thought leaders, ally organisations, and policymakers to give us a seat at the table on all issues that affect us.

So, my understanding of this whole Telepathy Tapes project is that it's slick marketing for S2C. They have found an ideal conduit in Ky Dickens, a mellifluous sounding filmmaker with solid experience in advertising, but who also has a personal stake, having an autistic relative.
She creates a massively popular podcast which wins the hearts of the general public and influences "thought leaders" (Joe Rogan).

So, those first goals achieved.

What they don't say out loud is that telepathy or shared consciousness is the counter-argument to all those pesky critiques of FC that people like 'FCisnotscience' have made.
They won't allow for rigorous testing—in fact they claim it's "inappropriate"— and instead sell poorly devised "tests"—like those we see on the TT videos—then spike the ball claiming that the materialist paradigm is obsolete.

My question, as a layman, is why do they sincerely believe FC, and by extension telepathy, is real based on such weak evidence and where there's so much good evidence that it's bunk, and why don't they see the damage this will inevitably cause to autistic non-speakers and their parents—it seems like they're setting them up to fail, or if not, to feel inadequate with "if you don't experience some telepathic connection then you're not spelling correctly".

 

[yoshy]

Their website does not allow copying of text (isnt that interesting?) so I cannot quote it, but it can be found here: https://i-asc.org/advocacy/

This is so bizarre! There are ways to get around this of course. One option is to use view-source:https://i-asc.org/advocacy/. If you Ctrl (or Command) +F, you can search for the text you're trying to copy and copy it from there. Another option is to follow the directions here from reddit:

In Inspect element, go to event listeners, look for contextmenu and click the "remove" button there. Removing this listener allows the basic browser features of right click to work on the page.

EDIT: You'll want to select the html body element too.

Though I haven't figured out what to change to allow highlighting text. Someone with javascript experience like @Mick West probably knows. You can also run document.designMode = "on" in the developer console to activate more control. It allows you to highlight text but the highlight is transparent.

But why would they do this?!

 

[Giddierone]

Their website does not allow copying of text

If you use a screen reader, such as Read Aloud, it can see the text which you can then copy from the pop up window.
For example:

 

[FatPhil]

If you use a screen reader ...

The irony is beautiful.

 

[Giddierone]

A few more things about Akhil's videos. Note: these earlier ones are from several years ago when Deepak Chopra visited (along with Dr Powell). We don't know what the protocol for those tests was - i.e. who provided the flashcards (random words) and did Akhil have the chance to see them at some point? If he did see them, and (say) there's only one word starting with each letter, then he can guess (remember) the entire word after mom cues him with the first letter.

Word: RETIRE
Mom says "Ready?" and Akhil starts (Mom again is making jerky movements constantly as he types letter by letter on a laptop, independently)
Akhil: types R
Mom: R...eeh.
Akhil: types E
Akhil always the keyboard aggressively, and when he hits the wrong letter mom says "hit it" or "fix it" (over and over and over) which tells him to delete and try again.

Word: MARBLE
Mom says "Go ahead - mmm?"

In both tests above, mom gives him the last letter E by saying: "And then, ee."

This test proves, to me anyway, that Akhil is getting letter-by-letter information rather than "seeing" the entire word via telepathy and then typing it:

Word: JMRAQ
After a false start (with mom saying "hit it, hit it", telling him to delete and try again), Akhil types JM with one aggressive jab at the keyboard. (M is right below J on the keyboard.)
Note that the needed word happens to start with JM. But Akhil deletes the M, because he knows it was accidentally hit and therefore wrong. If he knew the entire word before he started, he'd have left the M even though it was accidentally typed. This tells me he's being fed each letter one at a time. Mom talks and moves so much (including tapping his shoulder) that I don't know if she's giving him the answers herself or if some other trickery is involved.

Recall that with CROCODILE he starts typing, then halfway through he realizes what the word is and starts to laugh. (That's my interpretation.) This would happen if he's being fed the letters one at a time, but we're supposed to believe he saw the image of a crocodile in his mother's mind.

This video from FC is not Science absolutely supports this idea of verbal cues from the facilitator. [It's only 8 mins, so worth watching in full]


Source: https://youtu.be/HS_k0Iws4YY?si=CJwMOl8zstSokWm0

 

[NorCal Dave]

It's possible to do what you say, but they aren't canny enough to implement that properly - it looks they've simply got a stylesheet that makes selected text indistinguishable from normal text. You have actually selected what you drag the mouse over. (They may also have disabled mouse-button context menus, so the "copying" part might be impeded, but Ctrl-X should work around that in Windows (in X/Linux, once it's selected, it's grabbed: no need for a manual "copy" afterwards).) If you encounter such impediments again, try viewing the page with style sheets turned off (``View > Page Style > ( ) No Style'' in Firefox menus), as that ruins almost all non-psychotic attempts to defeat copying of text (yes, there are many psychotic techniques .)

For us Luddites with limited computer skills, one can also just use a screen shot. Shift+S+Windows key for Windows or Shift+command+3 for the full screen or Shift+command+4 for selected parts of the screen on Mac. Quick and easy :

Among several misrepresentations of the evidence for telepathy that she'd seen, e.g. she implies there's a test where the mother (of Akhil) had not seen the stimulus, yet the non-speaker spelled the right answer...

Maybe I'm missing something. IF Akhil got the correct answer AND his mother did NOT see the answer, where exactly is the telepathy coming from? Who is in telepathic communication with Akhil, if not his mother? The proctor running the test? If so, are they double blinded? And if the test proctors are telepathically giving Akhil the answers, his mother need not be present at all right? Seems a bit confusing.

 

[Giddierone]

Maybe I'm missing something. IF Akhil got the correct answer AND his mother did NOT see the answer, where exactly is the telepathy coming from? Who is in telepathic communication with Akhil, if not his mother? The proctor running the test? If so, are they double blinded? And if the test proctors are telepathically giving Akhil the answers, his mother need not be present at all right? Seems a bit confusing.

She just mangles the story, and she repeatedly obfuscates the fact that Akhil's mother is constantly talking, and moving during all these tests.

 

[yoshy]

For us Luddites with limited computer skills, one can also just use a screen shot. Shift+S+Windows key for Windows or Shift+command+3 for the full screen or Shift+command+4 for selected parts of the screen on Mac.

The fact that you know these shortcuts means you're far past "Luddites with limited computer skills"!

 

[Giddierone]

I've not yet read the paper which the anecdote is based on:
Recordon, E. G., F. J. M. Stratton, and R. Peters. 1968. "Some trials in a case of alleged
telepathy." Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 44: 390-99.

See attached. This is the story that Ky Dickens refers to on Joe Rogan [19:26].

 

[NorCal Dave]

The fact that you know these shortcuts means you're far past "Luddites with limited computer skills"!

What I've learned is almost all for use here! How do I share various forms of evidence and stuff here on the forum.

 

[NorCal Dave]

She just mangles the story, and she repeatedly obfuscates the fact that Akhil's mother is constantly talking, and moving during all these tests.

I put an "Informative" like on your post, but I guess it's informative in that it shows how confusing the claim is. The mom thought the target was paint, then decided it was condiments, but Akhil picked up "paint" from her mind before she moved on to condiments? These people can never just give a coherent explanation of something. It always a convoluted retelling of a confusing anecdote that adds up to proof somehow.

 

[Charlie Wiser]

She just mangles the story, and she repeatedly obfuscates the fact that Akhil's mother is constantly talking, and moving during all these tests.

Dickens is being less and less precise in describing what she witnessed, which is itself an interesting psychological phenomenon when it comes to a witness with an ulterior motive. She is running stories and incidents together to obfuscate what we can see with our own eyes really happened.

In the Joe Rogan podcast, Dickens says "She [mom] thought it was a food fight." [Timestamped] This is untrue.

The podcast includes Dickens' voiceover narration saying she (Dickens) thought the image depicted a food fight. The raw video shows mom pulling a face because of the mess, but mom never says what she thought it was.

Telepathy Tapes ep 2 [31:38]:

Mom: Eh, what is this?

Ky Dickens, podcast narration: The picture that was generated was weird. You can tell by [Mom's] reaction that she isn't sure what it is. To me it looks like the remnants of a food fight, like mustard and relish and ketchup on the ground.

Dickens is interpreting Mom's reaction here. To me her reaction looks like disgust, and while she does say "What is this?" immediately after the image comes up, she then has several seconds to figure out the image before the test starts. It includes blue stuff - so, quite clearly not relish or food.

Akhil spells PAINT (which is correct). There's no reason to think mom didn't know it was paint. Additionally, by saying: "sometimes the mom wouldn't even know what the image was" Dickens implies this happened multiple times. We're only shown the one (dubious) example.

(Note: Dickens isn't claiming the mother never saw the stimulus, only that she didn't know what the picture was.)

This is the video from Telepathy Tapes website. This statement from Dickens [18:41] is also false on two counts: "her son who was sitting across the room would all a sudden start writing what the image was". He is sitting right next to her, and mom asks him to type and he does.

Because of Dickens' interpretation of this test, she concludes Akhil is taking the image from mom's mind, not the word (since mom would be thinking "food fight"). However, other tests with Akhil seem to show he is receiving the answer letter by letter, for example (I've written about them upthread in more detail):

• He types that Spanish word MARIPOSA (which he doesn't even understand) instead of the image (butterfly), because the word is on the flashcard along with the image.
• He starts laughing with delight halfway through typing CROCODILE when he realizes what the word will be.
• He accidentally types KM instead of K for a target that's a random string of letters, but deletes the M even though it's coincidentally correct, since he hasn't received the signal for it yet.

 

[Charlie Wiser]

I put an "Informative" like on your post, but I guess it's informative in that it shows how confusing the claim is. The mom thought the target was paint, then decided it was condiments, but Akhil picked up "paint" from her mind before she moved on to condiments? These people can never just give a coherent explanation of something. It always a convoluted retelling of a confusing anecdote that adds up to proof somehow.

See my response above. Your parsing here is wrong but you are right that Dickens is making things hard to understand, which ultimately results in her narration of events sounding far more impressive than what we actually see in the videos.

 

[Giddierone]

she repeatedly obfuscates the fact that Akhil's mother is constantly talking, and moving during all these tests.

Here I was thinking of the part in episode 2 of the podcast [from 19:00] where Dickens says that Akhil types, "Onion" and "Tiger" from the other side of a table. However there's no mention (or audio) of his mother speaking. However, given what we've seen in the videos I'd say Dickens has deliberately hidden the fact—by careful sound editing—that the mother is verbally guiding Akhil through each symbol choice. Instead they make a big show of the fact that Akhil can't see the stimulus, which is worthless because his mother can.

(Note: Dickens isn't claiming the mother never saw the stimulus, only that she didn't know what the picture was.)

Yes, good point. I misheard. The mother had seen the stimulus but hadn't decided what it was. I think Rogan saying "if the mother doesn't know what it is and the child does, that's strange" [19:20] confused things.

 

[Giddierone]

As if the Telepathy Tapes podcast weren't misleading enough already, here Joe Rogan gives a completely untrue outline to a barely interested Jacques Vallee. I imagine Rogan hasn't heard the podcast in full and is just going off rumours about dozens of children completely locked off and in separate rooms performing amazing feats of telepathy.

I