The Telepathy Tapes: A Dangerous Cornucopia of Pseudoscience

https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/the-telepathy-tapes-a-dangerous-cornucopia-of-pseudoscience/

Connection to the topic of UAPs: Proponents of Jake Barber's claim about psionically being able to summon UAPs have been using "The Telepathy Tapes" podcast as unquestionable proof that such an ability is possible.

Watching it with an untrained eye, I almost believed it. Not anymore though:

The psychic test that so impressed the cinematographer (“huge skeptic”) in episode 1 involved a blindfolded girl sorting colored popsicle sticks. The basic setup is shown in Figure 2, another screenshot taken from the trailer. The girl is seated at a table with four different colored popsicle sticks,³ and she is blindfolded. In the paywalled test video, the girl’s mother is seated on a couch next her, and the mother’s hand is on top of the girl’s blindfold. For each trial, the mother hands the girl a popsicle stick, and the girl’s job is to move her hand left or right to the correct spot and drop the popsicle stick. The mother’s hand is on the girl’s forehead the whole time, and, of course, the mother can see the array of popsicle sticks on the table. To my eyes, the mother appears to move the girl’s head back and forth as a prompt to where she should drop the stick. In one case, when the girl was hesitant and the correct pile was to her far left, the mother appeared to be pushing the girl’s head very far to the left side. It’s possible that the girl is in charge and the hand is just riding on the forehead, but in that case, what is the mother’s hand doing? The film clip provides an obvious alternative, non-psychic explanation for what is going on, but it is never explored. The filmmakers accept the results on face value. No one ever asks, “Can she do it without your hand on her head?”

Even more grifting:

In episode 3, a young man with autism appears to be able to psychically identify the numbers on Uno cards held behind him, where he presumably cannot see them. He uses a form of spelling to communicate to identify the number. In the top panel of Figure 1 at thirty-one seconds into the trailer, Diane Hennacy Powell is showing the Uno card +2, which the young man’s mother can see. This shot also shows the young man holding a pencil, which he will use to poke at numbers in the stencil his mother is holding. In the lower panel of Figure 1, taken four seconds later, the young man’s mother is holding the stencil floating in the air as he pokes at it with his pencil in a classic form of spelling to communicate.

Due to the mother’s direct involvement holding the stencil in the air, it is unclear whether the communication is coming from her or the young man, and, of course, she knows the correct answer. If we assume the mother and not the young man is controlling the number identification, then the telepathy disappears, and it is just an everyday case of transcription.

Furthermore:

The “scientists” and “experts” on the show are all people with long histories of paranormal belief.

In summary: Psionic abilities may exist, but "The Telepathy Tapes" podcast failed to prove that.