The Telepathy Tapes and the Deep Potential of Lucid Dreaming

Reflections on the mysterious intersection of dreams, telepathy, and consciousness

Note: if you enjoy this article (or any article!) please hit the “like” button - it helps my work get more exposure on this platform, and also feels good to know you like it :)

---

The Telepathy Tapes podcast recently exploded in popularity, and I’ve been wanting to write about it since first listening late last year. It is simply wild, with stories of non-speaking autistic individuals that exhibit seemingly supernatural abilities like telepathy, ESP, precognition, and more. I find the story captivating, and also challenging to take at times without skepticism creeping in.

Episode 8, in particular, focuses on Kyle, a 38-year-old non-speaker, and his mother Caroline, who live in Cornwall, England. The episode explores a powerful lucid dream that is fascinating and also deeply challenging to the modern, materialist worldview. It raises massive questions about communication, consciousness, and the potential of the mind.

As someone who has practiced lucid dreaming for decades and deeply explored sleep & dream states in the context of contemplative traditions, I feel both excited and challenged by some of the ideas the podcast presents. It taps into a world of non-verbal communication and intuitive connections that can feel totally bonkers to the waking, rational mind, and yet there’s also something deeply resonant about it.

Personally, I’m mostly okay with the show’s implications because I’ve developed what Dream Researcher & Teacher Ryan Hurd might call a high "boggle-threshold" through my own dream and contemplative practice. This is to say, I’m willing to entertain ideas that might seem extraordinary or far outside the norm, especially when they touch on realms that lucid dreaming already hints at.

My goal here is not to prove or disprove the telepathic experiences described in the podcast—a job that is significantly above my pay grade—but rather to explore the connections between lucid dreaming, telepathic communication, and other Psi phenomena. It’s a way for me to reflect on how my own practice of lucid dreaming has helped me navigate inner worlds, and hope to shed light on the larger, deeper potential that lucid dreaming can offer. The more I reflect on these themes, the more I realize that lucid dreaming, already a practice rich with potential, has even deeper layers to explore.

Dream Signs & Dream Bridging

One key moment the series describes is the "dream sign" Kyle’s mother Caroline experienced during a dream interaction with her son. In the language of lucid dreaming, a dream sign is a unique element in a dream that serves as a trigger to remind us we’re dreaming¹. These signs stand out as improbable or bizarre occurrences that are unlikely to occur in the waking state, and are personal to the individual dreamer.

In a dream one night, Caroline saw her son Kyle holding a card—specifically an ace of spades—against his eye in a particularly strange manner that clued her into the fact that she was dreaming. This signal led her to become lucid in the dream; she became aware that what she was experiencing is actually a dream, while the dream continued to unfold around her. Lucidly aware in the dream and sitting across the table from Kyle, she could now speak with him, and interact with this dream version of her son on a level not possible in the waking state. I can only imagine what a powerful experience this would be for the parent of a non-verbal child.

This particular dream sign could happen to anybody; it’s common for us to dream about family members, and even for one of these dream characters to provide hints about the nature of a dream in order to “wake up” the dreamer into lucidity. I’ve dreamed of friends and family that attempted to tell me I was in a dream—sometimes successfully and sometimes failing spectacularly.

Where things get truly strange in this story is that in the morning, upon awakening, Kyle repeated the exact same action from the dream—holding the ace of spades up to his eye—to show his mother that it was actually him and not only a dreamed-up version created by Caroline’s dreaming mind. He demonstrated that he knew what his mom had dreamed the night before, and that he possessed the ability to bridge the dream world with the waking world.

The episode calls this process dream bridging, and it touches on some deep themes that lucid dreaming begins to open the door toward.

Dreaming as Shamanic Technology & Altered State of Consciousness

Despite being a relatively “new” phenomenon in the scientific world, lucid dreaming has been around for ages in various cultures across the world. Anthropologists have collected evidence of deep dream practice and lucid dreaming experiences of shamans across different indigenous cultures.

Ryan Hurd wrote a brilliant article, Lucid Dreaming as Shamanic Technology on his Dream Studies blog back in 2010, and the article is as relevant today as it was 15 years ago, and well-worth a read to explore the topics on a deeper level.

With so much interest in lucid dreaming, psychedelics, and telepathy there are a ton of great insights to be drawn from his research and writing. It dives into the overlap between lucid dreaming and psychedelics / Shamanic plant medicine:

Frank Echenhofer, a professor of clinical psychologist at the California Institute of Integral Studies, recently collaborated with noted ayahuasca researcher Luis Eduardo Luna to research the electrical output of the brain while under the influence of an ayahuasca brew. They discovered a pretty amazing effect: a strong synchrony in the frontal lobe over multiple frequency bands, specifically the high BETA and GAMMA range.

This same effect has been found recently by dream researcher Ursula Voss in lucid dreaming: a strong blip around the 40hz (GAMMA) wavelength that is not present in ordinary dreams. Other researchers have found a correlation between GAMMA and high levels of meditation.

In fact, just recently a group of dream researchers confirmed that Lucid Dreaming is in fact it’s own unique (altered) state of consciousness, distinct from REM Sleep and Wakefulness, and shares similarities to the brain on psychedelics, notably this blend of Beta and Gamma brain waves.²

The brain state of this unique altered state of consciousness brings with it a distinct experience that, according to these indigenous traditions allows them to communicate with spirits or guides in dreams:

One such extant lucid dreaming culture area is located within peninsular Malaysia, a grouping of indigenous cultures known as the Orang Asli. Anthropologist Diane Riboli suggests that shaman in these cultures use their dreams and vision states to shape-shift and retrieve information that they interpret as coming from outside their bodies. They transform into animals in order to gain power, protect individuals and villages, and communicate with the forest directly.

Hurd continues on to offer a powerful suggestion about the deep potential of these altered states of consciousness:

Perhaps ayahuasca and lucid dreams are leading visionaries towards the same meeting grounds: where mind, body and spirit tether together in a bounded information exchange for the benefit of the community, and perhaps the ecosystem, as a whole.

The Special Dream Body & Astral Travel

Aside from indigenous cultures, there is a large body of practices that comes from Tibetan Buddhist Dream Yoga, a tradition that I have studied and practiced in some depth. One practice in particular is that of the “Special Dream Body.” In this practice, while lucid in a dream you create a special dream body made out of prana mind, and project it to different places. This is apparently what the Buddha did as he slept—traveling to a place called Tushita in order to teach his mother. In the words of His Holiness The Dalai Lama:

There is such a thing as a special dream state. In that state the special dream body is created from the mind and from vital energies known in Sanskrit as Prana within the body. This special dream body is able to dissociate from the gross physical body and travel elsewhere Ellipsis this is not just imagination; The subtle self actually departs from the gross body.³

Andrew Holecek, in his book Dream Yoga, Illuminating Your Life Through Lucid Dreaming and the Tibetan Yogas of Sleep,⁴ refers to this process as a way to “Fed-Ex your consciousness, your special dream body, to virtually any place you can imagine. You quite literally ‘overnight’ it.” This practice is used by dream yogis to receive teachings from masters across time and space, with the crucial ingredient that it is done with the intention to be of benefit to others.

Astral travel, which I am less personally acquainted with, is another practice for sending your consciousness to a physically distant location using the platform of the lucid dream. The key difference with Astral Travel is that there is not any requirement to have positive, noble intentions; the practice can, and has been explored and used for nefarious purposes like spying on foreign countries.⁵

Lucid Dreaming & Telepathy as Spiritual Gifts

This all sounds incredibly similar to the idea of dream bridging presented in The Telepathy Tapes. In Caroline’s case, she’s bridging not just her own subconscious but also connecting to her son in a way that transcends words—a form of telepathic communication that goes beyond the limitations of language.

In the podcast, it is suggested that telepathy is a spiritual gift that exists independent of the spelling or communication method that Kyle uses. Telepathy is presented as a pure, unfiltered form of communication—free from the distortions of ego, sarcasm, or social conditioning. It’s a way of connecting with others at a deeper level, where the experience itself is transmitted without the barriers of words or intentions shaped by the ego.

I found this idea deeply compelling. It mirrors something Andrew Holocek often says about dreams: that they’re "truth tellers." Dreams reveal truths that our waking mind might deny or repress, showing us where we need work or healing in our lives. In this way, dreams—and perhaps telepathy too—might function as inner mirrors, revealing what’s hidden beneath the surface of everyday awareness

And this connects beautifully with the notion that telepathy is a “purer” form of communication. Similar to dreams, telepathy offers us a direct, unmediated experience of someone’s true feelings and intentions. There’s no room for deception or ego-driven interference—just raw, unfiltered communication that transcends language. In many ways, this kind of communication—whether through dreams or telepathy—feels like it comes from a deeper level of our being, one that isn’t clouded by the usual mental filters or judgments that often shape our waking lives.

Lucid dreaming is a powerful practice that at first glance might seem like nothing more than a fun playground to explore things you can’t do in normal civilized society, but once you dive below the surface you begin to see just how much potential exists for psychological and spiritual development.

The Power of Love in Lucid Shadow Work

One of the most profound practices I’ve used lucid dreaming for is in shadow work. There are many definitions of the Shadow across cultures and philosophies, but one I gravitate toward comes from Charlie Morley, who defines it as “anything within us that we are unwilling to either accept or extend our love to.” He adds,

The shadow is a creative powerhouse of untapped energy, so becoming aware of its contents and transmuting its power are hugely beneficial to our psycho-spiritual growth. Although different traditions refer to it in different terms, any spiritual path that aspires to psychological wholeness will incorporate shadow integration to some degree, simply because unless the shadow is integrated, the mind remains divided.⁶

How this shows up in my own dream experience is that I might find myself being chased by a monster. The normal or default reaction to this would be to run away or fight. In a non-lucid dream, I am pulled by these habitual reactions and have no choice or agency to direct my actions or response to the situation.

With lucid awareness, however, I am presented with a choice. Lucidity is a code word for awareness. A lucid dream could be called a mindful dream - you are mindful of the fact you’re dreaming, aware of the present state within the dream. In the same way that a mindfulness practice allows one to respond instead of react to situations encountered in waking life, lucidity injects dreams with the awareness to respond instead of reacting to the situations presented in the dream state.

In the example of being chased by a monster, once I am aware I am dreaming I could keep running away, avoiding the very thing I fear, or I could stop and face it. The monster, after all, is actually a part of my own mind and therefore nothing to be feared. Over time, thanks to great teachers, I’ve learned that offering love—unconditional love—to that part of myself is the most powerful thing I can do.

Something very similar to this process plays out in a scene from Everything Everywhere All at Once. In the movie, Evelyn is instructed to tell Jamie Lee Curtis’s character, Ms. Deirdre, “I love you” in order to escape her attack and jump to another world. Ms. Deidre does not seem like a particularly nice or lovable person, in fact in this scene she is a bit of a monster herself leading this attack on Evelyn.

Evelyn is like a dreamer being chased by a monster.

At first, Evelyn meekly says “I love you” without feeling, and the jump doesn’t work. But when she truly feels the love and believes it to be true, that’s when the jump works. To me, that’s exactly how it feels in a lucid dream when I send love to a shadow part of myself. The love must be real, felt deeply, and without reservation, in order to create change.

The way it has played out is that I may find myself being threatened by some dark element, a dream monster, and though I know I should send love and acceptance to this element of my dream in order to integrate its energy, it is still a scary monster snarling in my face! I may be aware that what I’m experiencing is a dream, but it still looks hyper real and requires deep courage to stand face to face with a monster and hug it and send it pure, unconditional love. Maybe the first try doesn’t quite work, but if I am able to persist and truly feel the love and send it to this rejected aspect of myself, the result is an incredible transformation. I feel a sense of peace, integration, wholeness and bliss that can only come from a true embrace of something I once feared or rejected.

Perhaps it is this courage and the ability to summon this felt-sense of love and acceptance that triggers the deep transformation that results from the practice. Regardless of the mechanism, or why it happens, the results speak for themselves and the potential for this sort of work for folks suffering deeply from nightmares cannot be overstated.⁷

The Power of Set & Setting in Lucid Dreaming

Lucid Dreaming is exciting. Someone recently said to me it is “trendy.” Which, sure, I guess it may be. Experiencing a world with unlimited possibilities and seemingly no consequences can open up the door to endless opportunities for wish fulfillment and ego-aggrandizement. Fly! Have sex with your celebrity crush! Use it like an immersive video game to go around causing havoc on the dream characters!

I don’t want to discount the fun that can be had—I’ve had more than my fair share and will continue to have fun in lucid dreams! And I also went through my own phase of sexy lucid dream experiences as a college-aged boy just first discovering this state of mind. But I also spent a longer time than necessary spinning my wheels before I finally learned that lucid dreaming offers so much deeper potential beyond the hype of fun and wish fulfillment.

Neurologically, what has been learned from the study of the brain in lucid dreaming is that because certain regions of the brain come online that aren’t normally engaged in REM Sleep, the things we do in a lucid dream strengthen those same neural pathways for the waking state because neuroplasticity is engaged.

So on the one end if you do shadow work, integrate a trauma, or practice a skill like meditation or playing the piano, you are strengthening those neural pathways that will allow you to benefit in the waking state. On the other end, if you go around abusing dream characters in the dream, attempting to exert your egoic control over every aspect of the dream and do the sorts of things that generally aren’t accepted in the waking world, you are strengthening those neural pathways too. Although there are no immediately visible consequences of lucid dream actions, we are reinforcing habits that will ultimately spill over into the waking state, to our detriment.

So it is recommended that we avoid becoming “Conquistadors of Consciousness.” The sooner a lucid dreamer can learn that “dream control” is actually an illusion—that there is a deeper aspects of our selves co-creating the dream alongside our rational egoic self— the sooner a lucid dreamer can evolve in this practice and use it for the greatest benefit to themselves and others.

Which brings me back to love. Lucid dreaming is an incredible doorway into love and compassion for ourselves and others. When you understand that everything appearing before you is actually part of you, and potentially also interconnected to others on a deeper, more fundamental level, it can provide a fast-track to harnessing this incredible power of unconditional love for self and other and make the world a better place.

And this is where the message of The Telepathy Tapes hits home for me, regardless of whether the stories contained in it are true or not. It’s core message is that Love and Compassion are the most powerful forces in the universe is beautiful, and deeply in tune with all the greatest spiritual and mystical traditions of the world. It’s something that if we can all touch into, then the world will be a better place. We can use this practice to shift our inner world and subsequently shift our outer world to the benefit of ourselves and to the benefit of others. So that’s pretty neat.

1. One of the most common examples of a dream sign that I experience in my own dreams is seeing or being involved in a plane crash. It is highly improbably that this happen in waking life - in fact I have never seen or been in a plane crash. And yet this occurs to me in dreams somewhat regularly, and because I have trained in this lucid dreaming practice I have learned to turn what was previously a distressing experience into a trigger for lucidity. Instead of a fiery crash into the ground, I can land safely or soar off into the sky and explore the dream space. The more we become familiar with our dream environment by building dream recall and documenting / journaling our dreams, the more we can become familiar with our own unique dream signs.

2. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a64563688/lucid-dreaming-consciousness/

3. From Dream Yoga, by Andrew Holocek (see below)

4. My desert-island book 🏝📚

5. I won’t go into more detail, but check out the linked article from Ryan Hurd and discussion around the US Government’s Project Stargate.

6. From: Dreaming Through Darkness, by Charlie Morley

7. There is growing evidence for lucid dreaming as a wonderful treatment for nightmares that result from PTSD. For the most recent study in this see here.