All Episodes

May 2, 2025 15 mins

Is there a relationship between autism and psychic experience?

A connection between autism and telepathy has been reported by the families of some nonverbal autistic people. As a late diagnosed autistic this interests me because intuition has been a guiding force in my life.

Like all many areas of parapsychology, more research is needed, but I think it’s a topic worth discussing.

In this episode I talk about my own person experience, what other people have to say, the idea of psychic ability as a spectrum trait and a bit about parapsychology (from what I have learned at the Rhine Institute).

This is my first time talking about this topic, I’m going to be talking about it more in the next couple of podcasts!

Resources for this episode include:

If you like my content, please follow the podcast!

Visit my blog at Writing On The Spectrum (https://barbaragraver.substack.com/)

Full transcript follows. If you need closed captioning, please listen via the podbean app or at AutisticPOV.com (https://www.autisticpov.com/).

EPISODE 10 TRANSCRIPT If your podcast provider cuts off the transcript, you can see the full transcript for this episode at AutisticPOV.com   Welcome to Autistic POV. My name is Barbara Graver and I started this podcast to share a bit of my journey as a late diagnosed autistic. everybody this is barbara graver thank you for joining me today on autistic pov today we're going to be talking about autism and psychic experience as most of you 0:30 know i tried to write an autism memoir and i talk about this in an episode i'll link to it telling our autism story but i tried to write this memoir And I realized that I kind of couldn't stay in the autism lane. I was talking about autism, but I was talking a lot about the paranormal, 0:51 my psychic experience, past spiritual experience, metaphysical topics, all this stuff that to my mind then, didn't have anything to do with autism. And I thought, I can't do this. This is supposed to be an autism memoir. And nobody's going to want to read all this if they're looking for autism memoir. 1:13 So I set it on the side, but it kind of kept pulling at me. So Not long ago, actually a few weeks ago, I decided, you know what, I'm just going to write it. I'm just going to do it. I mean, it's actually written. I thought I'm just going to edit it and finish it and do it. 1:32 And after I made that decision, I thought maybe I should do a little research on this topic, this topic. Is there any connection between autism and psychic ability? And I had never really thought that there was. To me, the metaphysical, actually parapsychological is the correct term, was always a special interest. It
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
welcome to Autistic POV My name is
Barbara Graver and I started this
podcast to share a bit of my journey as
a late diagnosed
autistic Everybody this is Barbara
Graver Thank you for joining me today on
Autistic POV Today we're going to be
talking about autism and psychic

(00:28):
experience As most of you know I tried
to write an autism memoir And I talk
about this in an episode I'll link to it
telling our autism story But I tried to
write this memoir And I realized that I
kind of couldn't stay in the autism lane
I was talking about autism but I was
talking a lot about the paranormal my

(00:51):
psychic experience um past spiritual
experience metaphysical topics all this
stuff that to my mind then didn't have
anything to do with autism And I thought
I can't do this This is supposed to be
autism memoir and nobody nobody's going
to want to read all this if if they're
looking for autism memoir So I set it on

(01:14):
the side but it kind of kept pulling at
me So not long ago actually a few weeks
ago I decided you know what i'm I'm just
going to write it I'm just going to do
it I mean it's actually written I I
thought I'm just going to edit it and
finish it and do it And after I made
that decision I thought maybe I should

(01:35):
do a little research on this topic this
I this this topic like is there any
connection between autism and psychic
ability and I had never really thought
that there was to me the metaphysical
actually parasychological is the correct
term was always a special interest it
was just a special interest it it didn't

(01:57):
really have anything to do with being
autistic and maybe it doesn't I don't
know that for sure but I do know that
when I started to research I found a
book by this guy named William Stillman
It's called Autism and the God
Connection And and this was an
interesting book to me Like there's some
pros and cons on it which I'll talk
about in another episode but it was a

(02:19):
really interesting book to me because it
addressed this idea that there is a
relationship between telepathy and
autism And in particular William
Stillman who is on the spectrum and is
does have psychic ability I think has
worked as a medium But William
Stillman worked primarily with nonverbal

(02:41):
autistic children who and and teenagers
maybe adults but non-verbal autistic
people and their mothers And a lot of
these moms were saying "My kid could
read my mind." And of course everyone's
like "That's ridiculous." People are
even saying really mean things like
horrible cruel things And and that's

(03:02):
like part of the culture of just just
dismissing what is essentially at its
core the inner experience of the
autistic which we'll talk about more But
William Stillman didn't dismiss it He
wrote a book about it and it's a really
interesting book and he's an interesting
guy and he talks a lot about he shares a
lot of anecdotes and he mentions in the

(03:25):
book this podcast called the telepathy
tapes which I listen to and that also is
about telepathy and non-verbal autistic
people and it's really compelling it's
super compelling and it is based um on
and around the work of this actually
she's a medical doctor neuroscientist
Diane Hennessy

(03:46):
and she got interested in autism and
telepathy and decided to research it And
she said that she knew when she made
that decision that it was the end of her
scientific reputation She knew it And
and so it was They even found a way to
take her medical license away from her
for a while And it's interesting because

(04:08):
this is the culture and it's almost like
there's a double prejudice when you talk
about this issue There's the prejudice
of dismissing the inner states the inner
reality the lived experience of autistic
people which is systemic And then in the
scientific community that there is the
prejudice against parasychology also

(04:30):
systemic And it it's really really
interesting because I've studied
parasychology I took courses at the Ryan
Institute which is um was started by JB
Ry who did the original experiments in
in ESP but I took courses there I think
I'm going to take some more actually and
it's interesting because that prejudice

(04:51):
towards parasychology is so ingrained in
the scientific community like even
Rupert Sheldre who's a I think Cambridge
educated biopysicist he would submit
papers when he was doing his research on
morphic fields He would submit
statistically valid well-designed
scientific studies and and write a paper
on it and submit it to these academic

(05:13):
journals and they would send it back
without even reading They would reading
it They would say "We know this can't be
true so we're not even going to read
your paper." Like that's the scientific
community at its worst And and
parasychology brings that out It just
brings it out so much And it's kind of
interesting because on Diane Hennessy's
website she has she actually quotes from

(05:36):
this paper and just give me a minute
here and I will find
it So this paper was written by
molecular biologist Jonathan Jerry in
critiquing Diane Hennessy's work with
autism and telepathy And what what
is interesting about it for the purpose
of our discussion is that he begins by

(05:59):
talking about parasychology And he says
and this is a quote "Parasychology is a
grabag of powers and experiences like
telepathy telekinesis and precognition
that involve some weird transfer of
energy or information that currently out
exist outside of our scientific
understanding if they exist at all." And

(06:20):
this is like kind of an interesting way
to characterize parasychology because
it's not a grabag of powers and
experiences It's it's an actual science
And and I'll just quote from the Ryan
Institute's website on parasychology
Like what is parasychology parasychology
is the scientific study of interactions

(06:41):
between living organisms and their
external environment that seem to
transcend the known physical laws of
nature Parasychology is a component of
the broader study of consciousness and
the mind Parasychologists study five
broad areas Telepathy clairvoyance
precognition PK psychokinesis and
survival studies So you could see the

(07:03):
difference here in perspective and you
could see the prejudice of the
scientific community towards
parasychology I'm not saying that the
telepathy types is is a scientifically
valid study Like I don't know that I
couldn't even really analyze that I
suspect it probably isn't but the point
is anecdotal evidence is still evidence

(07:25):
and it's kind of systemic of popular
culture as a whole to just it dismiss
out of hand the lived experience of
autistic people So it's not really
surprising that this telepathy and not
in non-verbal autistic people is just
going to be dismissed out of hand None
of that's surprising And and probably
when I mention all this you're thinking

(07:46):
"But wait that's been debunked." It it
hasn't been debunked It hasn't been
properly studied perhaps but that's the
most you could say about it You can't
say that it's been debunked So I I found
that really interesting And essentially
what Diane Hennessy and the telepathy
tapes and William Stillman are all
saying some people at least on the

(08:09):
autism spectrum have telepathic
abilities And this is like widely
reported by by mothers of of kids that
are non-verbal saying you know my kid
could read my mind And you think that's
ridiculous that can't happen It's a
normal reaction I'm a skeptical person
The only reason I believe the things I

(08:30):
believe is because of direct experience
I I don't really believe anything
metaphysical other than stuff I've had
direct experience of So so I'm kind of
like that too It's human nature but it's
problematic It's problematic when it
means you can't take a look at things
from a reasonable perspective And that's

(08:52):
essentially the problem That's a big
part of the problem And so on the
telepathy tapes they're non-verbal
autistic individuals who are
communicating They're spellers They call
it spellers They're communicating via
assistive devices which is is part of it
would definitely be a challenge in
setting up a study for various reasons

(09:14):
but they're communicating and some of
the examples like you really should
check it out I'll put a link Some of the
examples are really really compelling
And that's not saying again they're
scientifically valid It's saying they're
compelling And the way parasychology
works is that parasychology looks at
things that happen quote in the field

(09:36):
Spontaneous events apparently paranormal
apparently psi They just call it all
psi for ease of communication
Apparently psi events that happen in
the field They take those events and
then they do a study Where the
scientific comm community looks at those
events and just dismisses them out of
hand parasychologists look at them and
then they do a study They don't just

(09:58):
accept them Like that's not how it works
And their studies are actually and I
know this from my courses at Ry their
studies are actually more um rigorous
than your average scientific study Like
a regular scientific study might do a
double or triple blind parasychologists
will do quadruple blind like they really
because they know everybody's going to

(10:20):
do their best to discredit them I mean
it's ongoing thing So would be great if
we could get some parasychologists to
take a really good look at this But um
but people are looking at it and I just
don't know enough about the work of
Diane Hennessy really to comment on it
But uh it's very interesting and the
telepathy tapes are very interesting and

(10:42):
the idea that autistic people are are
receiving information via telepathy is
fascinating to me And and I'll tell you
why When I first got diagnosed with
autism the idea of the spectrum was
confusing to me because I thought first
of all I had people telling me well what
you have used to be asberers but now

(11:04):
they put it all together kind of so they
could bill for things That was the
explanation I sort of got
So it seemed to me like maybe it's just
all these different kind of neurobi
neurobiological things grouped together
and it's a spectrum but it's not
necessarily a linear spectrum like we're
going from point A to point Z on the

(11:27):
spectrum It's just kind of a hodge podge
I always sort of thought that and then
when I found out about the telepathy
tapes my opinion just suddenly changed
because I realized this is a little bit
like what I've been doing through my
whole life but intuitively always and
that is the way I get information even

(11:50):
an everyday way I've always been very
sensitive to what I call energy what the
weird energy that Jonathan Jerry
mentions But even when I was a little
kid like I used to have a sense of
people that
was it it was and is cuz I still get it
an actual palpable thing It felt like an

(12:12):
energy like almost like pins and needles
would feel like kind of like an energy
It felt like that And I remember as a
little kid like trying to explain that
to my friend and them looking at me like
I was insane And that's when I realized
other people don't do this Other people
aren't doing this Other people aren't
getting information this way And it's

(12:33):
like I'm not very good at conversation
Like I could do this podcast because I
edit it and because I'm not looking at
anyone I could do it But when it comes
to conversation and I'm still all over
the place but when it comes to
conversation like I'm horrible at
conversation And yet a lot of times when
I'm talking to people especially certain
people there's almost like a subtext

(12:56):
There's a conversation beneath the
conversation Like even if somebody's
saying something somebody could be
saying one thing and then there's the
subtext and that's intuition
So it's not the same as what the the
non-verbal autistic people are doing
where they're actually you have to watch
the podcast They're actually like it
seems like they're actually reading

(13:18):
minds I I'm not doing anything like that
but it's a similar kind of thing It's a
similar way of getting information And I
I'm thinking about this and all of a
sudden I'm thinking it really is a
spectrum It actually is a spectrum
because this is part of who I am And my
special interests that I always kind of

(13:39):
put out to the side like it's this
random thing that doesn't have anything
to do with me My special interests have
always been since the time I was a
little kid like the Ouija board ghost
stories gothic fiction tarot cards
astrology everything along that line
Witches dark shadows everything along
that line just spoke to me spoke to me
spoke to me And it's not really

(14:01):
something that's off to the side and
it's not a problem I don't think that I
put it in my memoir because it's kind of
central to who I am and and I'm like
seeing the spectrum for the first time
So I just wanted to share this I'm going
to do some more podcasts on this topic
because I think it's fascinating and I'm
going to write my weird hybrid kind of

(14:24):
memoir too But I'm going to do some more
podcasts on this I want to talk a little
more about William Stillman and the
telepathy tapes and my own personal
experience like with the paranormal and
and paranormal investigation and and
mediumship and all this kind of stuff
that I I explored and it's who I am So
why shouldn't the memoir be that too and

(14:45):
why shouldn't I talk about it here i
mean I hope I hope people consider it
relevant I I'm I don't know for sure but
I'm I'm going to come back to it I'm
definitely going to come back to it So
this the next episode is going to be on
this topic I I don't know specifically
what but it's going to be on this topic
and I'm going to keep talking about this
So it's if it's of interest to you

(15:06):
please consider following the show I'm
on most popular podcast apps I'm also I
have Substack which is
barbaraver.substack.com I call it
writing on the spectrum but you can find
it there I'll put links to that Um
please feel free to follow the show or
comment or share it All that helps more

(15:27):
than you could know And I will be back
on the third Friday of May and we will
be talking more about autism and psychic
experience So until then this is Barbara
Graver of Autistic POV and thank you
very much for listening
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Boysober

Boysober

Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.