The Rise of The Autistic Mystic

What I'm reading to understand The Telepathy Tapes

I’m working on a video about The Telepathy Tapes, but I’ve been taking my time because there’s a lot to chew on. Apparently their forthcoming documentary has been picked up for distribution and is coming out next year, which means: this isn’t going away anytime soon!

If you’re unfamiliar, the Tapes is a very, very popular podcast that argues all non-speaking autistics¹ are actually psychic geniuses with a variety of spiritual gifts which include: astral projection, conversing with the dead, psychically diagnosing diseases, accessing ‘the Akashic records’, and seeing the future.

It’s a supercrip tale of autistic souls who have been sent to Earth to save humanity from itself. “It’s as if all of us need to be reintroduced again to who we really are!” gushes host and fervent believer Ky Dickens, suggesting that nonspeaking autistics might ‘hold the key’ to ‘unlocking a new paradigm’ for humanity.

One of the gurus featured in the show, Suzy Miller, claims that nonspeakers told her (telepathically) that they don’t have autism, they have Awesomism, and the reason that autism rates have been increasing in recent decades is because there was a ‘harmonic convergence’ in the late 80’s which signaled the end of ‘that old patriarchal’, ‘make it happen, get it done kind of energy’.

Autistic kids, according to Miller, are ‘a new kind of human being’ that could ‘show us a new way’ — a central belief in this metaphysical sect that has formed around the figure of the autistic mystic.

The supercrip is a media stereotype of which there are several versions, according to Sami Schalk. The Tapes is an example of what she calls ‘the superpowered supercrip narrative’:

a character who has abilities or “powers” that operate in direct relationship with or contrast to their disability.

The people and characters represented in this type of supercrip narrative in many ways exceed their own embodiment through their abilities, to the point where their status as disabled may be called into question.

This is quite literal in the Tapes, with autistic characters flying out of their bodies and hanging out on the astral plane together.

It’s worth noting that over a hundred years of research into psi phenomenon has not found any reliable evidence that this stuff is true, and even the show’s featured paranormal expert, Diane Hennacy Powell, told The Atlantic that she doesn’t think telepathy has been scientifically proven yet, distancing herself from the show’s confident assertions that it has.

Belief is powerful, though — you can’t really debunk it, but I feel a need to understand it. So, my questions are: what kind of religion is this? Where does it come from? And why does the idea of autistic mystics resonate with so many people right now?

The following round-up of info gleaned from my recent readings is going behind a paywall because I am still in the thinking-out-loud part of this project, and I like to include supporters of my slug arts in that process. If you’re interested, you have a few extra bucks, and you want think through it with me, subscribe!