The claim that "people with autism can communicate telepathically" is mostly false, but it is difficult to prove is completely true or false because of the unreliability of the data. . After a brief google search, it seems that the origin of this claim is from a video with Dr. Diane Powell, a John's Hopkins trained psychiatrist who states that children with autism could have telepathic powers or a form of Extrasensory Perception, better known as ESP (Oregon Public Broadcasting, 2025). Her claim is based on an experiment ran with participant Haley, a child on the autism spectrum. Haleys mother held a card to the camera, then had Haley write the word on the card without seeing it. She gets it correct. To Powell, this is basis for telepathic ability. The podcast, titled "The Telepathy Tapes" topped charts on Spotify and sparked much debate surrounding the topic.
Before I bring in a secondary source, it is important to note the political bias and leaning of the first source, Oregon Public Broadcasting. According to Allsides, OPB has a center bias, meaning that it does not particularly lean in either direction. When discussing a topic like autism, this means that it will not lean in either direction, right or left. Autism is a polarized topic in the current political climate, especially given RFK Jr's recent claims about Tylenol contributing to increased likelihood or a child developing autism.
A second source is Vice in 2025, also analyzing the same podcast, where they state that there are no reliable, replicable findings to support this claim. Despite Powell's insistence and situational findings, there is no hard evidence to either prove or disprove this claim. Vice, according to Allsides, has a political bias rating of farther left, meaning that is more likely to represent perspectives that paint the democrat or left leaning politics in a favorable light and discredit the right and republican perspectives. When analyzing media that is polarized, it is important to look at sources with differing perspectives. By cross analyzing, we can eliminate some of our own potential biases.
