S5 E14: How Does Telepathy Work?

Season 5 covers the supernatural and paranormal from a Spirit-led perspective. In this episode, Glenn discusses possible ways that telepathy "works." He looks at this from the perspectives of materialism, universal consciousness, and Christianity. This episode discusses spiritual gifts as a possible way that Christian non-speakers seem to know what others are thinking.

The Bible will be the source of truth for this season, even though extra-biblical books and podcasts will be discussed. As discussed in Episode 1, Glenn will be kind to the authors and podcast hosts discussed throughout the season.

This episode has a transcript. If your podcast player does not support transcripts, please go to the Transcripts section of https://spiritledhope.com/ These transcripts have been edited for accuracy and are typically of higher quality than those produced automatically by many podcast apps.

Transcript

S5 E14 TRANSCRIPT 

HOW DOES TELEPATHY WORK?

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone, and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are trying to answer the question,

     HOW DOES TELEPATHY WORK?

In the last episode, Episode 13, we discussed the first season of “The Telepathy Tapes Podcast” which makes the bold claim that many non-speaking autistic children can communicate telepathically. Some of these children can supposedly read minds and know what you are thinking.

We also discussed Pastor Joe Infranco who said similar things about the children and young adults he works with. Pastor Infranco wrote a book called “Decoding Cody” which shares some of his experiences with a young man named Cody. I recently purchased that book, and I am nearly done with it. The book gives many examples of how Cody knows things he should not know, encourages others in just the right way, and sees angels and demons.

In the last episode, we also looked at Bible verses which seem to indicate that reading someone’s thoughts is reserved for God alone. If that is true, then what is going on? There are too many stories of apparent telepathy to just sweep them under the rug. Something is happening. In this episode, we are going to discuss some possibilities on how telepathy works. And this has some ramifications for living a Spirit-led life.

Before we get onto the topic, there is something that I want to mention first. When I do a season, I do not begin with a master plan and an overarching script. The problem I am having this season is that a lot of information is unfolding as the season progresses. And that means that something I said in an earlier episode might disagree or not fit well with something in a later episode. Or, I may have recently learned something I did not know at the time I made a prior episode.

The point I am trying to make is that it is difficult for me this season to get everything right without the possibility of error or confusion. A lot of this is new to me and the topics themselves are full of multiple definitions and perspectives. If I say something that brings confusion or you think it is wrong, please send me an email or a one-way text with your comments. If I get your comments soon enough, I will try to answer them in this season. But hurry, because I do not know how many more episodes there will be.

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

So now, given the reports we have from multiple sources that a group of individuals can seemingly communicate mind to mind, how do we explain what is going on? Let us try to answer that from a few different perspectives.

From a materialistic perspective, there can be no such thing as telepathy. And this belief is reinforced by the lack of explicit scientific proof. There are organizations, like the Rhine Research Center in North Carolina, that say telepathy is not ruled out because of anomalies in the data. But most scientific sources say there is no hard scientific proof anywhere that telepathy exists. And yet, something is happening. Or is it?

To explain apparent telepathy, materialists will often point to the amazing ability of the human mind. Our brains are incredibly good at detecting small patterns and working through clues. And we see this especially in close relationships where you come to know someone deeply. 

Most of us have experienced moments where you just know what a family member or coworker is thinking by their posture, or facial expression, or the way their eyes are moving. This is not a case of reading someone’s mind, but of developing an internal predictive model because our brains are amazing. And our brains allow us to make educated and statistically sound guesses.

But what about those moments when you miss your loved one and you call or text them at just the same moment that they try to call or text you? They are not in the same room so there is no way you are picking up on any clues. What about those moments? Well, materialism says those are just coincidences based on thousands of thoughts. After all, how many times do you text messages to a loved one that is not at the same time they are texting you? We often remember those eerie moments and elevate them to have more significance.

When I look at the materialistic viewpoint, I admit that everything I just mentioned is true. There is no doubt that our brains are powerful and responsible for generating events which feel like telepathy or feel like a deeply spiritual moment. Sometimes I feel like Christians are not honest about this and chalk everything mysterious up to God or the demonic. 

Several weeks ago, I was praying in my attic office, and I really felt that I was experiencing spiritual warfare in my prayers. The room was quiet when suddenly there was a thump that was so loud, I jumped. I wanted to know what caused the sound, so I ran outside and looked at the roof, but nothing was there. I felt a little shiver go up my spine, because I had no physical explanation for what happened. I was forced to consider the possibility that the source of the sound was demonic. I can tell you that I prayed all the harder.

Well, two days ago I got a text from my neighbor saying that her son had seen a racoon climbing on our house. I went out to investigate and found that the racoon had pulled apart a vent and is currently living in my attic. In hindsight, I now think that the sound was caused by the racoon and the timing was just a coincidence. 

The point is that sometimes we are fooled into thinking that something remarkable has happened, when it really has not. And we have not even considered the additional possibility that someone is intentionally trying to trick or deceive us. Now, all that said, Christians, and believers in universal consciousness, do believe there is something beyond just what the brain or a deceptive human can do.

For a believer in universal consciousness, telepathy makes total sense. The telepathic person is getting information from the Universal Field that we are all a part of. Some will describe this process as tuning into the Universal Mind or getting information from the quantum information field. There are many ways this is described, but they all present some way of participating with the universal consciousness.

THE PERSPECTIVE OF CHRISTIANITY

When it comes to telepathy, the Christian perspective is very different from the view of universal consciousness. But the Christian perspective does accept the materialistic reality that some telepathic events, are not really telepathy at all.

So how does Christianity explain apparent telepathy? How does someone like Pastor Infranco explain the things he has witnessed with non-speakers? And the answer to that is “God-given gifts.” But this is where it gets tricky…because it took me awhile to realize that Pastor Infranco’s use of the word “gifts” is different than mine. 

If you have listened to Season 1, you know that I teach about spiritual gifts including gifts of the Spirit. So, whenever I read “gifts” in the book “Decoding Cody,” I was thinking about gifts of the Spirit. But the more I read the book, I noticed that Joe Infranco would talk about spiritual realities, and gifts, but he never used the expression “spiritual gifts.” That did not make sense to me.

So, I decided I should check out the church which Pastor Infranco attends. What I discovered is that Pastor Infranco’s church is non-charismatic. And once I saw that, I realized why he carefully avoids talking about spiritual gifts. It puts him in a position where he needs to explain the supernatural things he has witnessed, but he does not allow himself the use of charismatic language.

In just a moment, I will try to explain how I think gifts of the Spirit can look like telepathy, but I want to see first if I can present the Christian view as Joe Infranco would see it. I do not know about you, but this season is forcing me to exercise my gray matter!

Okay, Joe Infranco will say that the non-speakers he knows, like Cody, have a God-given gift. And this gift, from God, has given them an extra capacity and sensitivity for a greater intuition of others’ thoughts and emotions. It helps them more easily see spiritual beings (like angels and demons). And this is just the way they are created and wired. It is how God made them. And this includes non-local awareness. In other words, this is how they can visit the place they call “the hill” and meet other non-speakers without leaving their homes.

What is very interesting about this explanatory approach, is that it tries to keep on the boundary of evangelical Christianity, without crossing into psychic abilities, or extrasensory perception, or telepathy as some paranormal skill that you can develop. It is not Pentecostal or charismatic. And it is not paranormal. It is kind of like, I don’t know, a naturalized supernaturalism. In other words, it is something supernatural that God has created as part of the natural make-up of these non-speakers.

If you carefully watch your words and definitions, and I mean carefully, I do think that this approach keeps within the bounds of a Christian explanation. For sure, this approach highlights how these often-overlooked non-speakers are loved by God and have God-given dignity and value. I love that.

However, I do want to offer a much simpler mechanism of what I think is happening that allows Christian non-speakers, like Cody, to appear telepathic. When you read the stories of how Cody seems to know what people are feeling or thinking, and the encouraging words that he gives, a charismatic worldview automatically sees these as the operation of gifts of the Spirit. Cody may not know the thoughts of others, but the Holy Spirit in him does. The Holy Spirit knows what others need to hear and he conveys that through Cody. Words of knowledge, words of wisdom, personal prophetic words, and discerning of spirits, are all gifts of the Spirit that fit the description of what the Christian non-speakers are doing. We do not need to appeal to anything other than what is written in Scripture.

Pastor Infranco mentions how many of the non-speakers seem to be more sensitive and discerning of peoples’ emotions. That is what happens naturally when we grow in the fruit of the Spirit. When we grow in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we become more loving and better listeners. We can both sympathize and empathize. We pick up on things that we would have missed before.

I could be wrong, but here is what I think is happening. I think, that when non-speakers give their lives to Jesus, I think they are all in. What the world may see as a disadvantage, could very well be the thing that allows them intimacy with God in a way that is more difficult for us. If so, this intimacy helps them be more like Jesus because they spend more time with him. And this allows them to grow in the fruit of the Spirit and to function powerfully in the gifts of the Spirit. Who knows what else God may do in their lives because they are devoted to God? And wouldn’t that be just like God? God often works in a way that confounds the world. 

I just watched an interview with Cody on YouTube, and you could tell how hard it was for him to control his body to spell. But that young man exudes love for Jesus. His thoughts are turned steadily towards God. And now that Cody can spell, God will bring glory to himself through Cody…because that is what Cody wants. 

I do not know about you, but I see the lives of people like Cody as a reminder that our focus should never be on spiritual gifts and serving God. Our focus should be to have intimacy with Jesus. Jesus is the one who helps us know God. A Spirit-led life with spiritual gifts and service, those things all follow.

NON-CHRISTIAN TELEPATHY

You may have noticed that a few times I used the expression “Christian non-speakers.” And I proposed that these young men and women function in gifts of the Spirit that may give the appearance of telepathy. But what about non-speakers who are not Christians? How are they giving the appearance of telepathy?

This is where I want to be very careful in what I say. The last thing I want to do is make it sound like all non-Christian, non-speaking autistic people, especially children, are demonized or something like that.

And yet I also want us to be aware that evil beings do not play fair, and they do not avoid harming the innocent. We have not really talked yet about what demons or angels can or cannot do, but we do know that evil spirits can bring deception. Here is what we read in 1 Timothy:

Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared.

1 Timothy 4:1-2 CSB

What we see in Scripture is that spirits cannot read our minds, but they can interject thoughts. And these thoughts can deceive us. When you listen to “The Telepathy Tapes,” you will notice that many of the people interviewed are mediums who believe in talking to the dead. And, from a Christian perspective, this does subject them to lying spirits who may create the appearance of telepathy or speaking to dead loved ones.

I am sure that the families and facilitators working with the non-speaking children love the children and want what is best for them. At the same time, I am confident that lying spirits do not care about the children or their families. My hope is that the Holy Spirit keeps the children safe and points them to Jesus.

And, of course, I do not want to discount the possibility that some of the telepathy in “The Telepathy Tapes” is from things we discussed earlier like coincidence, or the brain figuring things out, or even human deception. All these things are possible. And one can hope that some of the children do know Jesus…wouldn’t that be an interesting twist?

CLOSING

As we wrap this up, my brain is a bit overwhelmed with everything I have read in the past few days trying to prepare for this episode. Normally, I have a good sense in which direction we are going to go in the following episode. But this time, my thoughts are all over the place.

In the next episode…I have no idea where we are headed.

As always, you can send me comments, suggestions, or questions, by email at glenn@spiritledhope.com. You can also send me a one-way text message by going to the episode show notes and clicking on the link with your smart phone. If you find these episodes useful, please spread the word and share them with your friends.

As you contend for intimacy with God…

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Until the next episode, take care.

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