BB asks: “Is it okay for Catholics to listen to the podcast, The Telepathy Tapes?”Yes, it’s okay to listen to the podcast, but you should do so with the understanding that as remarkable as its presentation may be, its scientific basis is not nearly as impressive.
For those who never heard of it, The Telepathy Tapes is an enormously popular podcast hosted by a documentary filmmaker named Ky Dickens. In it, she explores the possibility of non-verbal autistic children being able to read minds.
Dickens works alongside a psychologist named Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell who conducts experiments such as giving parents certain numbers and words to think about which their child is asked to guess. A child in the first episode appeared to have passed 100% of these tests with her telepathic gifts.
As the Standard points out in this article, “Anecdotal evidence forms much of the basis for the argument in the podcast, from parents who believe their children have mind reading powers. The fairness of the tests which Dickens conducts has also been questioned. Critics have argued that the parents might be cueing up their children to select the right answer through body movements or physical touch – whether they are aware of it or not.”
In any case, real scientists say these episodes may be fascinating to watch, but they remain pseudoscientific.
As Yale neuroscientist Steven Novella writes, The Telepathy Tapes is promoting a rehashed version of what’s known as facilitated communication or FC, which is the theory that non-speakers with autism or other neurological conditions have a rich intellectual life and are simply unable to communicate their thoughts due to physical limitations.
“In FC a facilitator allegedly helps their client to communicate in one of two basic methods. They can hold the arm of the client to ‘help’ them either type or point to letters on a board,” Novella explains.
“For those clients who have the ability to raise an arm, the facilitator can also hold a letter board up in front of them so that they can point. In each case the facilitator is capable of influencing, and in fact completely controlling, the output. They are moving the client’s arm, or they are moving the letter board, to get to the ‘right’ answer.”
The Telepathy Tapes not only promotes FC, even though it was entirely disproven by the early 1990s, but it takes it a step further by asserting that these persons are also psychic.
“They can read minds, and even tap into a cosmic library of information, and spiritually communicate with other telepathic non-speakers,” Novella explains.
But this fantastical new twist on an old (and discredited) idea, shouldn’t surprise anyone, says Stuart Vyse of the Skeptical Inquirer, because “The ‘scientists’ and ‘experts’ on the show are all people with long histories of paranormal belief.”
For example, Dr. Powell authored the 2008 book, The ESP Enigma: The Scientific Case for Psychic Phenomena, and wrote a number of book reviews in the Journal of Parapsychology and other places. While she lists being a researcher, Vyse was unable to find any published empirical studies. In addition, her biography states that she served as Director of Research at the John E. Mack Institute (JEMI), which was named after a Harvard professor who was a believer in alien abduction and authored the 1994 book, Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens.
The Telepathy Tapes may have pushed Joe Rogan out of first place on Spotify, but the validity of the content is not nearly as extraordinary as its presentation.
Does this mean Catholics shouldn’t enjoy the show? No. The Church does not dismiss the idea of parapsychology, which includes telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis and other phenomena that are considered scientifically inexplicable, but this doesn’t mean we’re free to dabble in it.
As this warning, appearing on Catholic Exchange, explains: “When considering such psychic phenomena, a few things must be borne in mind. The first is that humans are spiritual creatures — we not only have a body, but we also have a soul. And we live in a universe that contains not only the natural, but the supernatural (for example, angels and demons). So the Church doesn’t simply write off occurrences of this kind — she acknowledges that they can and do happen.”
In other words, because the Church teaches that definite good and definite evil exist, the devil could be behind some of this phenomenon which is why we must evaluate each instance as it occurs.
“The most important consideration is the source: is the reported phenomenon Christ-centered? Particularly in the case of a vision or prophecy, does it in any way contradict what God has already revealed to His Church?”
Some forms of psychic phenomena are outright forbidden, such as any that involve divination and attempts to see the future (i.e., clairvoyance) and any that attempt to tame occult powers (sorcery.)
Catholics can certainly listen to The Telepathy Tapes podcast, but they should do so while taking care not to believe everything they hear, regardless of how impressively it’s presented.
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