May 17, 2025 • 16 mins
Is there a relationship between autistic traits and psychic ability?
Join me for a discussion of how autistic traits like hyper-sensitivity, hyper-connectivity and pattern recognition might relate to psychic abilities.
The blog post and autism trait charts I mentioned in the video can be found on my blog at: https://barbaragraver.substack.com/p/charting-my-autistic-traits
If you like my content, please follow the podcast!
Visit my blog at Writing After Dark (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 11 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 Graber and I started this podcast to share a bit of my journey as a late diagnosed autistic. Hi everybody, this is Barbara Graver. 0:21 Welcome to Autistic POV. In this episode, we're going to be continuing to talk about autism and psychic abilities. In our last episode, we talked about autism and psychic abilities, particularly in the realm of some of the research and controversy around nonverbal autistic people and their telepathic abilities. 0:45 And one of the interesting things for me that came out of that was it kind of changed my thinking on the whole concept of the spectrum. And this happened actually as I was doing the podcast. I was thinking about how I have some intuitive abilities and here are these people who... 1:02 that have these strong, apparently strong, telepathic abilities. And I was thinking, you know, it really is a spectrum. But the more I thought about it after, that one trait is on a spectrum. So to me, you can't put one autistic person... at one end of the spectrum and another autistic person at the other. 1:25 And I know people say, oh, it's not that kind of a spectrum. But the definition of a spectrum really is something that goes from one extreme to another. Like even with color, you might say, oh, red's not in any way inferior to violet. But yet red is, if you look at the wavelength of red, 1:44 you will see it has a slower, larger pattern where violet has a very pattern so it is a rating system a spectrum is a rating system and I just don't like that because the more I learn about autism the more I realize there are specific quote autistic traits and people have a constellation of these traits we 2:08 may not have all of them we may not have all the same traits but but a lot of us have a gradient of traits. For example, and I'm going to share a link to this. After this podcast, I did actually a blog post on the traits in autism, and I listed 10 traits. 2:29 I kind of loosely adapted from the DSM-5, and I rated myself 1 to 10 on those traits. So some traits like repetitive motor, I was very low. Other traits like hyper fixation. I gave myself a 10. Maybe that was too much, but I'm very, very high on that. So that's, I think that's true of everyone. 2:50 And there's other things that complicate it, obviously, like apraxia and different intellectual capacities. But I just think that whole idea of low to high that's perpetuated by the DSM-5 is very misleading. So I'm not using that word spectrum anymore. I even changed my blog. It was writing on the spectrum. 3:09 I changed it back to writing after dark because I just don't buy into that spectrum idea, that ranking anymore. However, when it comes to individual traits, we certainly can rank people. And If being psychic is an autistic trait or not, I think is debatable. BuMark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[Music]
(00:04):
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 Hi everybody this is Barbara
Graver Welcome to Autistic POV In this
episode we're going to be continuing to
(00:27):
talk about autism and psychic abilities
In our last episode we talked about
autism and psychic abilities
particularly in the realm of some of the
research and controversy around
non-verbal autistic people and their
telepathic abilities
And one of the interesting things for me
(00:48):
that came out of that was it kind of
changed my thinking on the whole concept
of the spectrum And this happened
actually as I was doing the podcast I
was thinking about how I have some
intuitive abilities and here are these
people that have these strong apparently
strong telepathic abilities And I was
thinking you know it really is a
(01:10):
spectrum But the more I thought about it
after that one trait is on a spectrum So
it it to me you can't put one autistic
person at one end of the spectrum and
another autistic person at the other And
I know people say "Oh it's not that kind
of a spectrum." But but the definition
of a spectrum really is something that
(01:31):
goes from one extreme to another Like
even with color you might say "Oh red's
not in any way inferior to violet." But
yet red is if you look at the wavelength
of red you will see it has a slower
larger pattern where violet has a very
quick pattern So it is a rating system A
(01:54):
spectrum is a rating system And I I just
don't like that because the more I learn
about autism the more I realize there
are specific quote autistic traits and
people have a constellation of these
traits We may not have all of them We
may not have all the same traits but a
lot of us have a gradient of traits For
(02:16):
example and and I'm going to share a
link to this after this podcast I did
actually a blog post on the traits in
autism And I listed 10 traits I kind of
loosely adapted from the DSM5 And I
rated myself one to 10 on those traits
So some traits like repetitive motor I
(02:38):
was very low Other traits like
hyperfixation I I gave myself a 10 Maybe
that was too much but I'm very very high
on that So that's I think that's true of
everyone And there's other things that
complicate it obviously like araxia and
different intellectual capacities but I
I just think that whole idea of low to
(02:59):
high that's perpetuated by the DSM5 is
very misleading So I I'm not using that
word spectrum anymore I even changed my
blog It was writing on the spectrum I
changed it back to writing after dark
because I I just don't buy into that
spectrum idea that ranking
anymore However when it comes to
individual traits we certainly can rank
(03:21):
people And if being psychic is autistic
trait or not I think is debatable But it
is a human trait And I do think it can
come under the greater heading of
sensitivity And and the reason I think
that is because I had a lot of
experience a lot of different psychic
experiences I've had precognitive dreams
(03:43):
I've had visions I've had a lot of
experiences I do not consider myself
overtly psychic These are just things
that have happened to me in kind of
episodic way over the course of my life
And these things have informed my belief
system I believe in certain things like
the paranormal the supernatural because
of my psychic experiences and I use my
(04:07):
intuition all the time in understanding
things and understanding people It's a
huge help to me So to me it's a trait
that falls under the greater heading of
of hyper
sensitivity and possibly
hyperconnectivity too
And one of the things I was thinking
about over the last two weeks since I
(04:28):
did the podcast is the idea of the brain
as a receiver And that's an analogy the
biopysicist Rupert Sheldrake uses He
says "Imagine a radio." And if you if
you took a piece out of a radio you
would no longer hear music And you would
think that something broke and that the
radio could no longer produce music If
(04:50):
if you didn't understand a radio at all
you might think that this radio is
broken It can't produce music But that's
not actually how a radio works What's
happened is that the radio is is no
longer receiving the music So the brain
can I think be thought of also as a
receiver And the question is what are
(05:12):
different brains receiving and I think
in autism perhaps our ability our
hyperconnectivity coupled coupled with
our hyper sensitivity might make us
possibly make our brains a different
kind of receiver And there's been no
research done on this This isn't
scientific at all This is just kind of
(05:33):
what I think But I don't personally
believe that the physical brain
generates consciousness I I like Carl
Young I like the idea of the collective
unconscious I like I like the idea that
we're receiving information And the
reason I like it is because it's
happened to me I've gotten information
in dreams like finding out that people I
(05:56):
knew and lost touch with have died and
even h how they died And I've gotten
information through various psychic
quote psychic means And it was
interesting because I'm like well how
could hyperconnectivity possibly relate
to this i I just have this kind of
intuition that it might So I was reading
(06:17):
this article by I think it was by
Matthew
Belmont and I I'll post the link but in
it he talks about hyperconivity and
autism and it's a very dense it was very
hard for me to understand but the idea
is that the autistic brain might have
increased local connectivity but lower
(06:38):
than neurotypical distance connectivity
So the idea is that there's a lot of
information there but that it's not
necessarily being communicated through
the brain by the mechanism that
neuronormative people communicate
information in their brains However I
looked at the image of it and he has
(06:59):
like all the local places in one color
all the places where there's local
connectivity in one color kind of around
the periphery And then he has these
lines drawn across where one local area
is communicating with another area And
this is supposed to be the problem with
autism is in the connectivity The
decreased distance connectivity the
(07:20):
decrease in connecting one functional
area of the brain to another functional
area We might have a very intense local
connectivity but the actual
communication from one area to another
is supposed to be disrupted or impaired
And I I just thought that was so
interesting because and I'm looking at
the neurotypical brain and I'm thinking
(07:42):
this is like essentially a closed system
I mean obviously information is getting
in That's what the localized areas are
But it's communicating in a closed
system It's communicating from local
area A to say local area J where the
autistic brain is not doing that or it's
doing it less And it just made me think
that maybe we're making connections in
(08:04):
different ways and maybe our hypers
sensitivity is extends beyond the the
material to a degree and maybe we're
using a different kind of method of
connecting and I know in my own life I
use I've gotten a lot of information and
(08:26):
and understood a lot of things through
synchronicity And synchronicity part of
synchronicity is a pattern recognition
You could be going along in your life
and there could be a bunch of
synchronicities but if you don't have
that eye for detail and that capacity
for pattern recognition that a a lot of
autistic people have you you could
(08:48):
totally miss that You could totally miss
the synchronicities because you're not
it it's not like it's not going together
for you and pattern recognition is
connecting things So it's funny to think
that the model of autism is that
different areas of the brain aren't
connecting within that closed system and
yet we're still making connect
(09:09):
connections maybe through hyper
sensitivity maybe through pattern
recognition And I don't have any answers
on this at all I have no answers but I
do think it's really worth exploring And
I did because I started having what my
one friend called the dead boyfriend
dreams I started having these dreams
about people I had known and lost touch
(09:31):
with who had died And they were
evidential because I had no idea that
these people had died And they were
unusual dreams And this was just a a
short period in 2012 when this was
happening to me And so I decided to
study mediumship which was not the way I
really should have applied this but that
was how I felt at the time I felt
(09:52):
getting information I'm dreaming of the
dead I must be a medium And so I studied
with a spiritualist for a couple years
And I ultimately decided that I don't
personally want to be the person who is
like the ambassador for the afterlife to
the grieving I just don't want that
responsibility And it's fine for people
(10:14):
who do I I just don't So after a couple
years I'm like this really isn't for me
I moved on to something else But I sat
in on in a lot of spiritualist
development circles and I did a lot of
psychic development exercises And one
thing I noticed in almost all of those
groups is that we were all kind of
highly sensitive people And not that we
were all autistic Definitely we weren't
(10:37):
but we were all very sensitive And I I
just thought that was interesting And
people used to talk about the Claire's I
imagine they still do in the in these
development circles how you have
different different senses of the
material and you have different senses
of the immaterial So for example
clairvoyance is clear seeing So you
(11:00):
could see you could see the material
world but some people could see the
unseen realms say and they have clear
audience say clear sentience they they
cover all the senses So is this just a
hyper sensitivity a very refined way of
sensing and is the lack of
(11:21):
interconnection between different brain
regions in the autistic brain not really
a lack of connection but a different
kind of connection this is this is what
I'm curious about and I'll post a link
to this article so you could see the
image but I have always personally felt
that my mind is not really a closed
(11:43):
system and by that I don't mean
everybody's bringing information in
everyone's processing it but for me I
bring information in and a lot of times
something happens it's creative it's
intuitive it could be psychic it could
be a synchronicity something happens
outside of me that helps me make sense
of that information that helps me
(12:04):
connect things It's a different way of
processing and and I just wonder there's
so much about autism that's described
like what you could see from looking in
the window It's all based on behavior
The diagnostic criteria criteria is all
based on behavior and it was a model of
(12:25):
behavioral psychology essentially
initially and people are starting to
move away from that but it's still if
you look at the DSM5 that's all stuff
you could see from across the room has
nothing to do with anybody's inner
states and I just wonder how much that's
missing and so it's interesting to me
with the whole like I'm not sure about
(12:47):
the telepathy tape apes and the
non-verbal autistic telepathy I I read
about it and I was really excited about
it And then I thought there's just
there's just a lot here a lot here
that's very tough to research And I'm
not discounting it but I'm I'm not
basing I'm not basing what I think about
autism and psychic ability on that
(13:10):
either I mean I think with Savants
people always say "How are they doing
this how how is a three-year-old playing
Mozart?" To me it's not how it's where
did they get it where did it come from
like where are they just plucking it out
of the air it kind of seems that way So
I think Savans could make a case
possibly for some kind of non-local
(13:32):
transfer of information but I for me
it's just easier for me to base it on
myself and what I do and how my life
works And and I'm not sure I'm not sure
that I'm explaining this very coherently
and it's because it's a new idea to me
I'm just exploring it It's very I'm not
a science person It's very hard for me
to understand the science And the
(13:53):
science is important Just like if you're
trying to listen to music the radio is
important but that doesn't make the
radio the source And our brains are
important but that doesn't make our
brains the source And I think that it
could just be that with autism we have a
different way of processing It's more of
a non-local way of processing We have
(14:16):
very intensely packed areas of
connectivity in our brains We absolutely
do But the communication is different It
seems as if the communication is
different And all of this is evolving
Autism was looked at from a behavioral
standpoint for so long and the science
is far far from where it needs to be
(14:38):
obviously and I'm not even sure we can
ever understand it through the science
particularly if some of what we're doing
is is actually non-local How are we
going to understand it through the
science maybe I mean it occurs to me
sometimes that the differences in brains
and neurotransmitters and synapses maybe
that's not the ground zero Maybe it's
(15:01):
something that's happening outside of us
that's actually causing those things to
develop in a certain way We know there's
such a thing as neuroplasticity We know
these things are subject to change We
know neurotransmitters could be can be
altered by our experience our life
experience Like we know we know it's not
(15:22):
a closed system We know that But whether
or not the actual architecture of the
brain is somehow altered through
something outside of us or not I have no
idea but I think it's interesting idea
So I don't know if this was helpful or
not I mean this is just me kind of
trying to figure this stuff out And I'm
(15:43):
going to talk a little more about it I'm
going to try to put it in some kind of a
coherent presentation And I'm probably
not going to rely hugely on the science
Partially because that's really not my
thing and partially because it's not
there yet And and also I I always feel
that the materialistic paradigm is
looking at things backwards I've always
(16:05):
felt that I feel that the I I love Carl
Young I feel that there is something
that informs our physical reality You
don't have to believe in God necessarily
or religion to believe that I you could
believe in the collective unconscious
You could believe in whatever you want
really It's kind of all sematics But I
(16:27):
do think there is something beyond us
that is more relevant to our existence
than what we're kind of seeing at ground
level So and maybe that's true with
autism Maybe it's not But I'm going to
try to talk about it a little more in my
bumbling kind of not particularly
coherent way And just not because I have
(16:49):
all the answers Obviously I don't I'm
just kind of stumbling around in the
dark like everybody else but I think
it's nice to talk about these things
It's nice to think about these things
And I hope maybe something I said might
get you thinking And you might go in a
completely different direction and
that's fine But the point is we're
thinking about these things and I think
(17:11):
seeing autism as a spectrum of low to
high or a disorder or a dysfunction is
just does us such a disservice But the
neuronormative paradigm is is always
going to be there because just because
of the numbers just because there's more
neuronormative people than there are us
So it's kind of up to us I think to
reinterpret this stuff and to try to
(17:34):
look at it from a different
perspective And that's what I'm trying
to do right now And and I'm very
interested in the idea of autism as a
different way of processing not a
dysfunctional way a different way And
um and this is what I where I'm at with
it right now today So I'm going to do
more reading I'm going to do more
(17:55):
thinking I'm going to do kind of going
over my own experience more I'm trying
to write this memoir which I mentioned
before and that has a lot to do with
psychic stuff and that's how I kind of
got here because I couldn't tell that
story I couldn't just tell the story of
me as an autistic person without going
(18:16):
into all the psychic stuff and all the
paranormal things because to me uh to me
they're connected and that's how the
memoir is going to be and and I want to
kind of explore this in the podcast Hope
you'll bear with me I hope you'll take
it for what it is Somebody trying to
figure it out not somebody with all the
answers So that's it for today These are
my thoughts on autism and psychic
(18:38):
ability for today And I will be back
again in June I'm doing the podcast
trying to do the podcast the first and
third Friday Sometimes I'm a day or or
two late but I will be back again in
June and I'm going to continue on this
topic So I'm going to be sharing a
little bit of my own experience I may
come back to the telepathy tape stuff or
(19:00):
I may not I'm I'm not sure how relevant
that really is for me but I may And
Diane Powell like I I read her website
and I think she's really interesting I
listened to some of her lectures I
mentioned her in the last episode but
I'm not sure how relevant her research
really is for me So I but I'm I'm going
to be doing like some of my own research
to the best of my ability and I'm going
(19:21):
to be kind of trying to process my own
experience through that and share with
you guys what I come up with I hope it's
helpful So that's it for this week Um
next time we'll continue on this topic
and until then this is Barbara Graver of
Autistic POV and thank you very much for
(19:42):
listening
[Music]
[Music]
(00:04):
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 Hi everybody this is Barbara
Graver Welcome to Autistic POV In this
episode we're going to be continuing to
(00:27):
talk about autism and psychic abilities
In our last episode we talked about
autism and psychic abilities
particularly in the realm of some of the
research and controversy around
non-verbal autistic people and their
telepathic abilities
And one of the interesting things for me
(00:48):
that came out of that was it kind of
changed my thinking on the whole concept
of the spectrum And this happened
actually as I was doing the podcast I
was thinking about how I have some
intuitive abilities and here are these
people that have these strong apparently
strong telepathic abilities And I was
thinking you know it really is a
(01:10):
spectrum But the more I thought about it
after that one trait is on a spectrum So
it it to me you can't put one autistic
person at one end of the spectrum and
another autistic person at the other And
I know people say "Oh it's not that kind
of a spectrum." But but the definition
of a spectrum really is something that
(01:31):
goes from one extreme to another Like
even with color you might say "Oh red's
not in any way inferior to violet." But
yet red is if you look at the wavelength
of red you will see it has a slower
larger pattern where violet has a very
quick pattern So it is a rating system A
(01:54):
spectrum is a rating system And I I just
don't like that because the more I learn
about autism the more I realize there
are specific quote autistic traits and
people have a constellation of these
traits We may not have all of them We
may not have all the same traits but a
lot of us have a gradient of traits For
(02:16):
example and and I'm going to share a
link to this after this podcast I did
actually a blog post on the traits in
autism And I listed 10 traits I kind of
loosely adapted from the DSM5 And I
rated myself one to 10 on those traits
So some traits like repetitive motor I
(02:38):
was very low Other traits like
hyperfixation I I gave myself a 10 Maybe
that was too much but I'm very very high
on that So that's I think that's true of
everyone And there's other things that
complicate it obviously like araxia and
different intellectual capacities but I
I just think that whole idea of low to
(02:59):
high that's perpetuated by the DSM5 is
very misleading So I I'm not using that
word spectrum anymore I even changed my
blog It was writing on the spectrum I
changed it back to writing after dark
because I I just don't buy into that
spectrum idea that ranking
anymore However when it comes to
individual traits we certainly can rank
(03:21):
people And if being psychic is autistic
trait or not I think is debatable But it
is a human trait And I do think it can
come under the greater heading of
sensitivity And and the reason I think
that is because I had a lot of
experience a lot of different psychic
experiences I've had precognitive dreams
(03:43):
I've had visions I've had a lot of
experiences I do not consider myself
overtly psychic These are just things
that have happened to me in kind of
episodic way over the course of my life
And these things have informed my belief
system I believe in certain things like
the paranormal the supernatural because
of my psychic experiences and I use my
(04:07):
intuition all the time in understanding
things and understanding people It's a
huge help to me So to me it's a trait
that falls under the greater heading of
of hyper
sensitivity and possibly
hyperconnectivity too
And one of the things I was thinking
about over the last two weeks since I
(04:28):
did the podcast is the idea of the brain
as a receiver And that's an analogy the
biopysicist Rupert Sheldrake uses He
says "Imagine a radio." And if you if
you took a piece out of a radio you
would no longer hear music And you would
think that something broke and that the
radio could no longer produce music If
(04:50):
if you didn't understand a radio at all
you might think that this radio is
broken It can't produce music But that's
not actually how a radio works What's
happened is that the radio is is no
longer receiving the music So the brain
can I think be thought of also as a
receiver And the question is what are
(05:12):
different brains receiving and I think
in autism perhaps our ability our
hyperconnectivity coupled coupled with
our hyper sensitivity might make us
possibly make our brains a different
kind of receiver And there's been no
research done on this This isn't
scientific at all This is just kind of
(05:33):
what I think But I don't personally
believe that the physical brain
generates consciousness I I like Carl
Young I like the idea of the collective
unconscious I like I like the idea that
we're receiving information And the
reason I like it is because it's
happened to me I've gotten information
in dreams like finding out that people I
(05:56):
knew and lost touch with have died and
even h how they died And I've gotten
information through various psychic
quote psychic means And it was
interesting because I'm like well how
could hyperconnectivity possibly relate
to this i I just have this kind of
intuition that it might So I was reading
(06:17):
this article by I think it was by
Matthew
Belmont and I I'll post the link but in
it he talks about hyperconivity and
autism and it's a very dense it was very
hard for me to understand but the idea
is that the autistic brain might have
increased local connectivity but lower
(06:38):
than neurotypical distance connectivity
So the idea is that there's a lot of
information there but that it's not
necessarily being communicated through
the brain by the mechanism that
neuronormative people communicate
information in their brains However I
looked at the image of it and he has
(06:59):
like all the local places in one color
all the places where there's local
connectivity in one color kind of around
the periphery And then he has these
lines drawn across where one local area
is communicating with another area And
this is supposed to be the problem with
autism is in the connectivity The
decreased distance connectivity the
(07:20):
decrease in connecting one functional
area of the brain to another functional
area We might have a very intense local
connectivity but the actual
communication from one area to another
is supposed to be disrupted or impaired
And I I just thought that was so
interesting because and I'm looking at
the neurotypical brain and I'm thinking
(07:42):
this is like essentially a closed system
I mean obviously information is getting
in That's what the localized areas are
But it's communicating in a closed
system It's communicating from local
area A to say local area J where the
autistic brain is not doing that or it's
doing it less And it just made me think
that maybe we're making connections in
(08:04):
different ways and maybe our hypers
sensitivity is extends beyond the the
material to a degree and maybe we're
using a different kind of method of
connecting and I know in my own life I
use I've gotten a lot of information and
(08:26):
and understood a lot of things through
synchronicity And synchronicity part of
synchronicity is a pattern recognition
You could be going along in your life
and there could be a bunch of
synchronicities but if you don't have
that eye for detail and that capacity
for pattern recognition that a a lot of
autistic people have you you could
(08:48):
totally miss that You could totally miss
the synchronicities because you're not
it it's not like it's not going together
for you and pattern recognition is
connecting things So it's funny to think
that the model of autism is that
different areas of the brain aren't
connecting within that closed system and
yet we're still making connect
(09:09):
connections maybe through hyper
sensitivity maybe through pattern
recognition And I don't have any answers
on this at all I have no answers but I
do think it's really worth exploring And
I did because I started having what my
one friend called the dead boyfriend
dreams I started having these dreams
about people I had known and lost touch
(09:31):
with who had died And they were
evidential because I had no idea that
these people had died And they were
unusual dreams And this was just a a
short period in 2012 when this was
happening to me And so I decided to
study mediumship which was not the way I
really should have applied this but that
was how I felt at the time I felt
(09:52):
getting information I'm dreaming of the
dead I must be a medium And so I studied
with a spiritualist for a couple years
And I ultimately decided that I don't
personally want to be the person who is
like the ambassador for the afterlife to
the grieving I just don't want that
responsibility And it's fine for people
(10:14):
who do I I just don't So after a couple
years I'm like this really isn't for me
I moved on to something else But I sat
in on in a lot of spiritualist
development circles and I did a lot of
psychic development exercises And one
thing I noticed in almost all of those
groups is that we were all kind of
highly sensitive people And not that we
were all autistic Definitely we weren't
(10:37):
but we were all very sensitive And I I
just thought that was interesting And
people used to talk about the Claire's I
imagine they still do in the in these
development circles how you have
different different senses of the
material and you have different senses
of the immaterial So for example
clairvoyance is clear seeing So you
(11:00):
could see you could see the material
world but some people could see the
unseen realms say and they have clear
audience say clear sentience they they
cover all the senses So is this just a
hyper sensitivity a very refined way of
sensing and is the lack of
(11:21):
interconnection between different brain
regions in the autistic brain not really
a lack of connection but a different
kind of connection this is this is what
I'm curious about and I'll post a link
to this article so you could see the
image but I have always personally felt
that my mind is not really a closed
(11:43):
system and by that I don't mean
everybody's bringing information in
everyone's processing it but for me I
bring information in and a lot of times
something happens it's creative it's
intuitive it could be psychic it could
be a synchronicity something happens
outside of me that helps me make sense
of that information that helps me
(12:04):
connect things It's a different way of
processing and and I just wonder there's
so much about autism that's described
like what you could see from looking in
the window It's all based on behavior
The diagnostic criteria criteria is all
based on behavior and it was a model of
(12:25):
behavioral psychology essentially
initially and people are starting to
move away from that but it's still if
you look at the DSM5 that's all stuff
you could see from across the room has
nothing to do with anybody's inner
states and I just wonder how much that's
missing and so it's interesting to me
with the whole like I'm not sure about
(12:47):
the telepathy tape apes and the
non-verbal autistic telepathy I I read
about it and I was really excited about
it And then I thought there's just
there's just a lot here a lot here
that's very tough to research And I'm
not discounting it but I'm I'm not
basing I'm not basing what I think about
autism and psychic ability on that
(13:10):
either I mean I think with Savants
people always say "How are they doing
this how how is a three-year-old playing
Mozart?" To me it's not how it's where
did they get it where did it come from
like where are they just plucking it out
of the air it kind of seems that way So
I think Savans could make a case
possibly for some kind of non-local
(13:32):
transfer of information but I for me
it's just easier for me to base it on
myself and what I do and how my life
works And and I'm not sure I'm not sure
that I'm explaining this very coherently
and it's because it's a new idea to me
I'm just exploring it It's very I'm not
a science person It's very hard for me
to understand the science And the
(13:53):
science is important Just like if you're
trying to listen to music the radio is
important but that doesn't make the
radio the source And our brains are
important but that doesn't make our
brains the source And I think that it
could just be that with autism we have a
different way of processing It's more of
a non-local way of processing We have
(14:16):
very intensely packed areas of
connectivity in our brains We absolutely
do But the communication is different It
seems as if the communication is
different And all of this is evolving
Autism was looked at from a behavioral
standpoint for so long and the science
is far far from where it needs to be
(14:38):
obviously and I'm not even sure we can
ever understand it through the science
particularly if some of what we're doing
is is actually non-local How are we
going to understand it through the
science maybe I mean it occurs to me
sometimes that the differences in brains
and neurotransmitters and synapses maybe
that's not the ground zero Maybe it's
(15:01):
something that's happening outside of us
that's actually causing those things to
develop in a certain way We know there's
such a thing as neuroplasticity We know
these things are subject to change We
know neurotransmitters could be can be
altered by our experience our life
experience Like we know we know it's not
(15:22):
a closed system We know that But whether
or not the actual architecture of the
brain is somehow altered through
something outside of us or not I have no
idea but I think it's interesting idea
So I don't know if this was helpful or
not I mean this is just me kind of
trying to figure this stuff out And I'm
(15:43):
going to talk a little more about it I'm
going to try to put it in some kind of a
coherent presentation And I'm probably
not going to rely hugely on the science
Partially because that's really not my
thing and partially because it's not
there yet And and also I I always feel
that the materialistic paradigm is
looking at things backwards I've always
(16:05):
felt that I feel that the I I love Carl
Young I feel that there is something
that informs our physical reality You
don't have to believe in God necessarily
or religion to believe that I you could
believe in the collective unconscious
You could believe in whatever you want
really It's kind of all sematics But I
(16:27):
do think there is something beyond us
that is more relevant to our existence
than what we're kind of seeing at ground
level So and maybe that's true with
autism Maybe it's not But I'm going to
try to talk about it a little more in my
bumbling kind of not particularly
coherent way And just not because I have
(16:49):
all the answers Obviously I don't I'm
just kind of stumbling around in the
dark like everybody else but I think
it's nice to talk about these things
It's nice to think about these things
And I hope maybe something I said might
get you thinking And you might go in a
completely different direction and
that's fine But the point is we're
thinking about these things and I think
(17:11):
seeing autism as a spectrum of low to
high or a disorder or a dysfunction is
just does us such a disservice But the
neuronormative paradigm is is always
going to be there because just because
of the numbers just because there's more
neuronormative people than there are us
So it's kind of up to us I think to
reinterpret this stuff and to try to
(17:34):
look at it from a different
perspective And that's what I'm trying
to do right now And and I'm very
interested in the idea of autism as a
different way of processing not a
dysfunctional way a different way And
um and this is what I where I'm at with
it right now today So I'm going to do
more reading I'm going to do more
(17:55):
thinking I'm going to do kind of going
over my own experience more I'm trying
to write this memoir which I mentioned
before and that has a lot to do with
psychic stuff and that's how I kind of
got here because I couldn't tell that
story I couldn't just tell the story of
me as an autistic person without going
(18:16):
into all the psychic stuff and all the
paranormal things because to me uh to me
they're connected and that's how the
memoir is going to be and and I want to
kind of explore this in the podcast Hope
you'll bear with me I hope you'll take
it for what it is Somebody trying to
figure it out not somebody with all the
answers So that's it for today These are
my thoughts on autism and psychic
(18:38):
ability for today And I will be back
again in June I'm doing the podcast
trying to do the podcast the first and
third Friday Sometimes I'm a day or or
two late but I will be back again in
June and I'm going to continue on this
topic So I'm going to be sharing a
little bit of my own experience I may
come back to the telepathy tape stuff or
(19:00):
I may not I'm I'm not sure how relevant
that really is for me but I may And
Diane Powell like I I read her website
and I think she's really interesting I
listened to some of her lectures I
mentioned her in the last episode but
I'm not sure how relevant her research
really is for me So I but I'm I'm going
to be doing like some of my own research
to the best of my ability and I'm going
(19:21):
to be kind of trying to process my own
experience through that and share with
you guys what I come up with I hope it's
helpful So that's it for this week Um
next time we'll continue on this topic
and until then this is Barbara Graver of
Autistic POV and thank you very much for
(19:42):
listening
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