The Telepathy Tapes have recently been a popular podcast. They investigate the possibility that some non-verbal autistics have extraordinary psychic abilities, particularly telepathy. William Stillman wrote three books on autistics having similar abilities a few years ago. Hearing about this podcast, I feel obliged to warn people about Stillman’s problematic interpretation of psychic abilities among autistics. If you search autism and prayer or God online, you are likely to come across his three books.
I suspect that The Telepathy Tapes podcast will make people investigate these topics further. In fact, I have had more messages asking me about these boks in the past year. This led me to post this. I want to warn people ot not read Stillman.
I am not here to analyze whether the telepathy, etc. in The Telepathy Tapes is real. Jimmy Akin provided a good analysis of this on his Mysterious World podcast. I have not listened closely enough to analyze the truth or falsity of the claimed telepathy, and Jimmy is more expert in determining if psychic phenomena are real.
Stillman is Overly New Age
This is a warning about the preponderance of error, especially New Age thinking, in Stillman, a popular interpreter of psychic phenomena in autistics. This is not in any way a support or critique of such phenomena.
In my book, God Loves the Autistic Mind, I included a chapter on what autistic prayer is not. An analysis of Stillman is on pages 61-65. I will have excerpts here, but more is in the book. Sitllman is not devoid of value: I note some positive things about him in my book for those who want to read him with a critical eye. I just want to avoid someone reading him uncritically. He interprets things through problematic lenses.
The problem is that Stillman will constantly mix these [positive points mentioned in the prior paragraphs] into a syncretistic or New Age formulation that is both inaccurate in describing most autistic experience and contrary to Christian faith… He explains his own experience: “It was necessary for me to create my own divine byway to attain authenticity and harvest the spiritual reserve to which I was entitled.”[i] Creating his own path to God is quite problematic for the Christian who knows Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)
Reincarnation and Reiki in Stillman
These two aspects are some of the bigger issues in Sitllman.
Two particularly problematic parts are about reincarnation, and Reiki. He quotes a 47-year-old autistic about his memory of past lives, “Before this incarnation I chose to be born with a disability. I wanted/needed to experience being dependent on others to live. In my other lifetimes I have ruled, led, and taught others.”[ii] Past lives do not exist. We have one life in this world and God creates our soul at our incarnation.
He quotes a mother named Tricia about the family’s experience of Reiki which he sees as completely positive.[iii] Getting specific in his final book, Stillman endorses A Course in Miracles, directly endorsing one of its heresies that the physical world is an illusion.[iv]
Stillman’s explanation does not match reality. He tries, inadequately to respond to his critics, arguing that they don’t take into account the following: “I do not presume to be writing about—or representing—all persons on the autism spectrum; this is why I have always been careful to use the words many, most, and some, not every or all.”[v] However, when he starts talking about pre-birth memories, telepathic communication, Reiki, etc. I really wonder if that can be applied to most. I am pretty connected to autistics online and those making such claims are a miniscule minority.
As I noted above, this is about Stillman’s interpretation. There is a decent chance a person like Jimmy Akin could go to the sources and provide a better explanation for what is interpreted as reincarnation or Reiki. I may even be able to do it if I were to read it now rather than in 2020. The issue with William Stillman is he interprets these experinces in a New Age manner.
The Church Condemns Ideas Stillman Supports
Reiki specifically and the mishmash of other New Age beliefs in Stillman are condemned by the Church:
His emphasis on Reiki is contradicted by the US Bishops who state, “Neither the Scriptures nor the Christian tradition as a whole speak of the natural world as based on ‘universal life energy’ [like Reiki claims] that is subject to manipulation by the natural human power of thought and will.”[vi] A line from the 2003 Vatican document on the New Age grasps the cornucopia of different ideas Stillman mentions throughout his books: “An adequate Christian discernment ofNew Age thought and practice cannot fail to recognize that… it represents something of a compendium of positions that the Church has identified as heterodox.”[vii] The same Vatican document also points out the underlying problem with Stillman: “The fundamental difficulty of all New Age thought is that this transcendence is strictly a self-transcendence to be achieved within a closed universe.”[vii]
When I prepared my book, I read all three of Stillman’s books cover to cover. I don’t have time to go into how he gives a mishmash of New Age beliefs as his interpretation, but that is definitely what appears upon reading his books. Further analysis of him and a much better expalantioan of autism and God is in my own book, God Loves the Autistic Mind. I hope these excerpts will be enough to warn people away from him. The topic of possible exceptional abilites is worth exploring, but I agree with Jimmy Akin that this needs rigorous science, not anecdotes.
Note: I just refer to Stillman in general above as his three books are all together in my memory. They are: Autismand the God Connection, The Soul of Autism: Looking Beyond Labels to Unveil Spiritual Secrets of the Heart Savants, and The Autism Prophecies: How an Evolution of Healers and Intuitives Is Influencing Our Spiritual.
[i] Stillman, The Soul of Autism: Looking Beyond Labels to Unveil Spiritual Secrets of the Heart Savants, Kindle (Franklin Lakes, NJ: New Page Books, 2008), chap. Chapter eight: Pathways to Spiritual Wellness.
[ii] Stillman, The Autism Prophecies: How an Evolution of Healers and Intuitives Is Influencing Our Spiritual Future, Kindle (Franklin Lakes, NJ: New Page Books, 2010), chap. Chapter 7: Casting the Net.
[iii] Cf. Stillman, chap. Chapter 2: The Art of Healing.
[iv] Cf. Stillman, chap. Chapter 1: The Mechanics of Miracles.
[v] Stillman, chap. Chapter 6: A Remarkable Revelation. (Italics in original.)
[vi] Committee on Doctrine of the USCCB, “Guidelines for Evaluating Reiki as an Alternative Therapy” (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, March 25, 2009), para. 9, http://www.usccb.org/_cs_upload/8092_1.pdf.
[vii] Pontifical Council for Culture and Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, “Jesus Christ The Bearer Of The Water Of Life: A Christian Reflection on the New Age” (Vatican, February 2, 2003), sec. 1.4, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_interelg_doc_20030203_new-age_en.html.
[viii] Pontifical Council for Culture and Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, sec. 6.2.
