Is there any relationship between psychic abilities and autism?  If so……how so?  Can an autistic person with extraordinary skills credit clairvoyance or enhanced ESP for their gift?

While most people who think about autism these days (those of us not personally affected, of course) probably consider the controversies in the news, or think about the media or movie representations of autism through movies like Rain Man, there IS an incredible amount of research being done into some of the jaw dropping and inexplicable intuitive “leaps” that many autistic children are able to make in ways that WILL make you scratch your head.

I’ve seen some of Dr Diane Powell’s work featured in numerous articles and interviews…and her much anticipated talk at the Parapsychological Conference on her studies of children, autism and psychic abilities like ESP was by all accounts, quite amazing…as captured a bit in the article below.  If you want to know what some of the super SMART scientists are doing in the wonderful and often wacky world of psychic and spiritually transformative experiences, check out the full article following the short excerpt below!  Enjoy 🙂

Powell presented her preliminary findings at the 57th Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association, held last weekend. The results were jaw-dropping, with ‘hits’ such as 100% accuracy on two random numbers, one eight digits and the other nine; 60 to 100% accuracy on three of the five-letter nonsense words; 100% accuracy on six out of twelve equations with 15 to 19 digits each; and between 81 to 100% accuracy on sentences of between 18 and 35 letters. The video surveillance showed no evidence of cueing or fraud.

Powell’s conclusion: “The data is highly suggestive of an alternative, latent and/or default communication mechanism that can be accessed by people born with severely impaired language abilities.

This new research comes on the back of news reports last year of a nine-year-old autistic girl in Sharjah who appears to have the ability to read her mother’s mind. Though the idea that autistic savants might have paranormal abilities goes back further than that. Pioneering researcher into Savant Syndrome, Darold Treffert, included a section on the possibility of extrasensory perception in savants in his 1989 book Extraordinary People: Understanding Savant Syndrome:

Dr. Bernard Rimland describes several instances of extrasensory perception in his autistic savants. In his sample of approximately 5400 autistic children, 561 cases, or approximately 10 percent, were reported to have special abilities. Four of the 561 cases were based on reports from parents who claimed that their child had consistently exhibited signs of extrasensory perception. In one case, the parent reported that “teachers have also noticed that George probably has ESP. He seems to be very psychic. We would decide to pick up George from school suddenly, if we were in the area (he usually rode the bus). He would tell the teacher we were coming, and he would come to open the door when we arrived. So he has many special abilities, but cannot write his name or write a sentence”.

http://dailygrail.com/Mind-Mysteries/2014/8/New-Research-Suggests-Autistic-Savants-May-Have-Enhanced-Telepathic-Abilities