Autism and Telepathy – Part II

By Kenneth Ring, Ph.D.

A couple of weeks ago, I offered a blog dealing with the Telepathy Tapes, which presented evidence that many autistic children develop telepathic and other paranormal abilities. One of my dear friends, a woman named Deborah King, who had an autistic child named Patrick (now an adult) told me about some of her own uncanny experiences with her son, and in that first blog she kindly recounted some of these extraordinary instances with Patrick.

So I invited her to prepare a blog in which she could describe more of her experiences with Patrick and write about autism generally. What follows is Deb’s account, which I believe you will find fascinating as well as indicative of the special gifts and sensitivities of autistic persons.

Back in the early 90s, when we first started tracking Patrick’s behaviors, including his paranormal and intuitive ones, autism had only recently made its debut in the DSM-III in 1980 as a distinct diagnostic entity. We had no choice but to track everything, as we were building the autism plane as we were flying it, so to speak. Not even the experts knew much at all. Every behavior was significant to us, including the “anomalous” and seemingly paranormal or telepathic ones, and we recorded all of them in an endless stack of journals and records. However, we were hesitant to share these with anyone other than other parents in our autism network. At that time, estimates from the CDC indicated that about 1 in 500 children were estimated to have autism, and currently the CDC reports that about 1 in 31 children has been identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Many factors have contributed to this dramatic increase in autism rates, including increased awareness and detection, changes in diagnostic criteria, and a complex interplay of genetic and environmental influences. 

Although we know much more now about this complex interplay of factors than we did decades ago, the telepathic and paranormal abilities of individuals with autism have just begun to be examined through the pioneering work of Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell and Ky Dickens, through the Telepathy Tapes podcast.

Patrick’s telepathic abilities soon became everyday occurrences. When I went shopping and would return with endless amounts of grocery bags for our four children, several dogs and cats, and my father who lived with us, while our other children would eagerly search through every bag for the items they were waiting for, Patrick would go straight to the bag that contained exactly what he wanted - every time. He would read my moods impeccably, no matter how hard I tried to put on a happy face. 

One day, I was sitting with a pile of bills, internally upset because I did not know how we were going to make ends meet that month. Patrick watched me intently, and of course, I said nothing to him. A few minutes later, he vanished up to his room, returned with a one-dollar bill, and handed it to me. He just looked at me with those big blue eyes and said nothing. I tried not to cry, but it was hard, and I managed a "thank you, Patrick" and gave him a big hug. If nobody else in my universe knew what challenges I was internally carrying, Patrick always did. 

On one occasion, I remember a teacher telling me that she was flustered because she could not find a stress ball that she used in the classroom for Patrick when he became frustrated. She said nothing to Patrick, but was taking her classroom apart, trying to find it. Patrick pulled her by the arm, down the hall, to the lost and found, and there it was. She was flabbergasted when telling me about it - as she could not understand how he knew what she was looking for, and how he knew where it was. By this time, this was behavior we had come to expect, and we were not surprised at all. During Easter egg hunts, Patrick would always find the most eggs, including the "prized golden egg" that contained the coveted cash prize.  This did not go over too well with our other children, but Patrick's glee at "winning" the hunt was always infectious and ultimately made all of us very happy.

Patrick's connection with animals was in a category by itself.  On one occasion, we took him to a local farm that raised emus. At the time we visited, these large birds were more aggressive than they could be on other occasions because they had chicks. "Please keep your distance," the owner cautioned. Of course, Patrick was on his own energetic wavelength, and for some reason unknown to us, bolted in a flash into the field towards the emus and their chicks. We became frantic, fearing that he would get kicked with their powerful legs and sharp talons as they instinctively protected their young. We ran after him, but before we could reach him, he managed to get right into the middle of the emus and their chicks, lie down on his back, and appeared totally happy and relaxed. Nothing, and I mean nothing, happened to him. 

We just stood and watched as the emus not only perceived him as non-threatening, but they seemed to react as if he actually belonged there. As we came closer to try and retrieve Patrick, they hissed at us, but not at him. The owner was astounded and assured us this was quite "unusual."  It was not until years later that we read about Temple Grandin's amazing ability to communicate with animals non-verbally, which, of course, is how animals communicate with us. Her book, "Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior" (2006), helped us to understand even more about Patrick's amazing, non-verbal communication with animals. 

I will close with something that happened very recently, as if on cue, after I was asked to share some of these experiences for this blog by my friend Ken. 

We walked out of the house on a Sunday morning on our way to church, and Patrick stopped dead in his tracks and said, "Loki is here." Loki, a neighborhood cat with an amputated left rear leg, does have a real home, but makes the rounds in our neighborhood searching for treats. Sometimes, we see him daily, but more often, we can go months without a Loki visit. We looked around, and there was no evidence of Loki anywhere. I told Patrick that we needed to get going, or we would be late for church. He insisted that we wait for Loki, as he and Loki have a special bond. Patrick, now much more verbal than he was as a young child, looked at me and said, "Loki is here. I will call him."  

I was becoming more and more impatient, but Patrick called for Loki, and again, no evidence of his feline friend.  Just as I was about to insist that we could not wait any longer, out of nowhere, Loki came running out of the woods behind our house, running faster as a tripod than any other animal with four legs could run, and went straight to Patrick. Their usual exchange of affection and silent communication ensued, in a conversation that only they understood (see the picture of Patrick and Loki below). 

We were very late for church as a result, but we didn't care. Patrick has taught us to stop our rushing about, make space for what is really important in life, and most importantly, to trust in the power of the unseen world - that he is more familiar with than most of us ever will be. He may have special needs, but to us, he has special gifts and has taught us so very much in a way that words never could. Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell and The Telepathy Tapes are teaching us more about the special gifts that individuals like Patrick have, and more importantly, what we can all learn from them.