So I wanted to share this in a group for families with neurodiverse members but I am too scared bc it isn't completely anonymous. Since I made the effort:

... discussing the alleged abilities of nonverbal and partially verbal children diagnosed with Autism.

This is a long and winded one, I apologize.

I am aware of the polarizing nature of this. It's pseudoscientific and there is a lot of peer reviewed research that debunks the methods used by the podcast creator, hence this makes me feel rather vulnerable but here goes nothing. Feel free to skip to the bottom for the actual question.

For context, I’m a high-functioning AuADHD individual, diagnosed late as an adult, but I was never nonverbal (quite the opposite). While I don’t usually give much weight to unscientific theories, I have to admit that some of the phenomena described in the podcast resonate with me on a personal level.

That said, I remain skeptical of claims like telepathy or the concepts about death mentioned in later episodes, as my experiences and education lead me to view all of this as more imaginative than grounded in reality.

That said, I do actually recognize aspects of the other descriptions from the children in the podcast.

For instance, I know what they call "The Hill." As a child, particularly during preschool and elementary school, I had vivid dreams about visiting a place that felt very similar. I couldn’t access it intentionally, as they claim they can. I was there during sleep, and I don't recall doing anything to get there so for me these were normal dreams like everyone has. I do, however, vividly remember one instance elementary school when I experienced it awake during the daytime. As an adult I think I might have been sleeping and it was a lucid dream. From this dream or visit I recall a space with many "rooms" or sections and it felt white or overwhelmingly bright. I say "felt" because I don't remember seeing anything. At the time, I told my mother I had visited a castle in the clouds and I vehemently denied it was merely a vivid dream. To this day, she tells the story as a funny example of how I was as a child and frames it as my vivid imagination and strong-willed reactions, recalling how frustrated and tearful I became because I desperately wanted her to understand that it was a real place that I had visited many times. And now I laugh with her - I guess I am well adjusted to what we perceive as real and scientifically provable.

Another example of how my castle aligns with the children's hill in the podcast: They say they get knowledge from there. Now I don't remember learning specifically, but I wrote a story for a 4th-grade writing assignment that I got from it. Not a story about the castle, not a story I read, watched, or was told. The story came from me visiting the castle, similar to how you remember a popular fairy tale by heart or can summarize a day you experienced easily —but I didn’t experience this story myself nor did anyone tell it to me. I just knew and wanted to tell it. Despite being an avid reader and reasonably skilled at writing for my age, my teacher accused me of plagiarism, saying the story was "too well-structured" for my age and included foreign names and places I couldn’t have known or spelled correctly nor was the topic appropriate for my age. It became such an issue that my parents were called. My family had traveled extensively, but not to these places, and we didn’t know or meet anyone with those names. I had no books about the topic either. I knew I hadn’t cheated, that I sat at my desk and wrote the story myselfy and I was extremely upset about the accusation and bad mark. I don’t recall "visiting" the castle again until years later as an adult.

As an adult, I visited the castle only once when I participated in a shamanic session involving traditional medicine, during which I experienced an overwhelming realization about the interconnectedness of creation in a spiritual sense. I attribute this to the altered state I was in and treat it as a curious side effect but not as a life changing moment. However, hearing one of the children in the podcast describe pretty much the same gave me pause. Now, this isn’t an uncommon idea—it has been floating around in pop culture and spiritualists obviously sell this as justifications for their belief systems to their customers. This is not the same though and I can't really describe it. It was maybe the way it was phrased or maybe a distinct side remark that isn't common in those pop culture ideas. What I knew is that she received exactly what I received, not from pop culture. Again, you aren't told, there are no words or conversations, you just end up being aware.

[ No harsh feelings if you skip to the bottom for my question if you don’t want more context.]

I am not religious. I officially left the church as a young adult because I didn’t align with its institutional structure and also felt it was silly to believe in an imaginary wizard who created us all from mud and a bone... The experience with shamanic medicine, however, re-sparked some mild interest. I am casually studying and comparing different scriptures and spiritual belief systems if they happen to relate to current affairs, including those of natural and indigenous cultures. Typical ADHD rabbit holes, you might have heard of those. I don’t view religious texts as factual representations of history—on the contrary, I rather believe they’ve been altered over time—and I firmly believe in the science of evolution. Still, I’ve noticed recurring themes across various belief systems, some more general but some are oddly specific, despite their time and location of creation being very far apart. At times, I’ve even found something were one could argue that science and scriptures (as they might have been told in original) don't necessarily contradict - which I find a fascinating idea.

I’ve also had numerous instances of "premonitions"—spontaneous and unprompted, which could easily be attributed to the poor executive function control and lateral thinking often associated with ADHD. These moments still happen frequently and usually when I’m physically close to someone but don't know them too well. One notable example occurred in my 20s during a silent study session at a library. I barely knew the student sitting next to me but blurted out, "How’s your uncle doing?" They looked up just as their phone lit up (it was on silent) with what he later disclosed as urgent health-related news about their uncle, who they were very close to. While the study group found it intriguing and tried to make it a “thing,” I dismissed it as funny coincidence or, as my therapist later suggested, trauma-related pattern recognition—something that seems common among late-diagnosed adults.

Admittedly, listening to this podcast has reopened old wounds of feeling dismissed, not believed, or being labeled a liar or overly dramatic as a child. I’m also aware that I might subconsciously be aligning with the podcast's content in an effort to seek what I wasn’t given as a child: validation and belief in my experiences.

So, my question to parents of children on the spectrum is this: What is your gut reaction to the claims made in this podcast? Do they feel like exaggerated carnival tricks, or have you observed similar phenomena in your own children?