Podcast Summary: Mayim Bialik's Breakdown

Episode: Ky Dickens on Universal Consciousness, Mediums, Remote Viewing & What Science Still Can't Explain (Inside The Telepathy Tapes S2)
Date: October 24, 2025
Host: Mayim Bialik
Guest: Ky Dickens (Host, The Telepathy Tapes), with Jonathan Cohen (co-host)

Overview

This episode explores the fundamental nature of consciousness beyond the materialist worldview. With guest Ky Dickens, creator of the influential "The Telepathy Tapes" podcast, Mayim and Jonathan discuss the mounting anecdotal and increasingly scientific evidence for phenomena like telepathy, mediumship, remote viewing, and consciousness beyond physical life—including among non-speaking individuals and those with neurological conditions. They delve into cultural, historical, scientific, and personal experiences that challenge the materialist paradigm, examining both skepticism and open-minded inquiry.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Telepathy Tapes and the State of Consciousness Science

• Telepathy Tapes Success and Controversy

  • Ky Dickens reflects on the unexpected controversy and skepticism arising from the success of the first season and its focus on extraordinary communication abilities among non-speakers.
  • Season one opened the conversation around consciousness existing independently of the physical body, particularly among neurodiverse individuals.
  • Dickens hopes Season 2 will demonstrate "consciousness is fundamental" and survives physical death, engaging with us whether or not we have bodies. (07:14, 11:51)

• Challenging Materialism

  • Ky: "Science and institutions have hand waved away the inconvenience of a non physical world. This isn't about religion or spirituality. It's just about the fact that we're connected to something bigger." (00:12)

  • Mayim notes that skepticism often arises from materialist presumptions, with a prevailing belief that anything beyond the physical is “silly” or “unscientific,” rather than just as scientific a possibility as materialist models.

2. Defining Consciousness: Fundamental, Universal, and Creative

• Consciousness as Baseline Reality

  • Ky: "Consciousness is fundamental. The most basic part of our universe. It came before all physical things. Consciousness survives the physical body and is engaging with us all the time, whether we have a body or not." (07:14, reiterated from introduction)

• Individual and Collective Aspects

  • Discussion about Donald Hoffman and Thomas Campbell’s models: consciousness as both individual and collective (like "droplets in an ocean"), each with agency but contributing to a larger "consciousness system". (27:45–28:36)
    • Jonathan: "Each droplet has an intention and agency, but they're operating as a collective." (28:17)

• Creation as an Aspect of Consciousness

  • Ky points out that the universe is always creating and destroying, that humans receive ideas from consciousness itself, and if you don’t "grab an idea," it moves on.
    • “If I don’t grab an idea, it will go on to someone else. An idea will come, but if you aren’t ready for it or giving it the time, it will leave you.” (09:00)

3. Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and Mediumship

• NDEs: Consistent Cross-Cultural Reports

  • Ky outlines Season 2's exploration of NDEs over 5,000 years and across cultures, noting the patterns: leaving the body, 360-degree vision, life reviews, meeting guides, and being told to return.
    • Notable veridical (verifiable) perception accounts, like blind individuals describing previously unseen events and details while “out of body.” (33:46)
    • Mayim: “The only way to explain that is... existing in whatever plane of consciousness allows you to have access to all of the information.” (34:48)

• Mediums, Non-Speakers, and Communication With the Dead

  • Example: an 11-year-old non-speaker receives accurate, specific information from a deceased acquaintance, relaying messages that are then verified. (15:03–15:40)

    • Ky: “She starts typing, says, I have a message for Hunter Chastain... it was from his mother who had passed... she calls this man, and he's like, yeah, my mom passed and her thing was the derby. And I just recently started teaching my daughter to ride horses.” (15:03)

  • Discussion of how these experiences break down conventional boundaries between life and death, and the skepticism and stigma around mediumship—especially for women and children. (21:00)

4. Expanded Communication: Plants, Animals, and “Non-Speaking” Humans

• Animal and Plant Telepathy

  • Dickens shares accounts of non-speaking children and adults (with apraxia, dementia, brain injury, etc.) manifesting telepathic abilities—communicating with animals and even with plants.
    • Example: An individual diagnosed through “telepathic” communication with plants, offering verified herbal remedies, often rooted in traditional wisdom. (41:44–43:44)
    • Ky: “Plants communicate. It's more like a smoke around you... but she's like, I'll know who lit the fire, like, where the message is coming from, what plant... they're so loving. They're so unconditionally caring for us.” (43:44)

• Non-Speakers, Apraxia, and Survival Communication

  • Ky shares a mother’s description that her non-speaking son’s telepathic skills emerged “to survive”—as his only means of social connection. (50:03)
  • The phenomenon isn’t restricted to autism but spans other neurological conditions (Rett, DDX3X, Down syndrome, dementia, etc.).

• Mechanisms: Tuning and “Turning On” Abilities

  • Mayim and Jonathan liken psychic/telepathic skill to tuning into specific radio frequencies—when you ‘tune’ to a channel, you open up to new forms of connection. (25:17–25:49)

5. Science, Skepticism, and Methodology

• Materialist Critique and Scientific Reaction

  • Discussion about the backlash—articles, skeptical “hit pieces,” and personal attacks aimed at Ky and her colleagues. Ky notes the irony of being considered “bonkers” for simply documenting what she observes and reports. (61:33–64:05)
    • Ky: “If you believe that, you’re not gullible or silly or... ill-informed. You can be extraordinarily smart, intelligent and see that there’s a non-physical. And that might be the more scientific thing to do than to just ignore it altogether.” (29:14)

• Evolving the Scientific Approach

  • Ky and Mayim emphasize that true science is about remaining open and investigating any replicable anomaly, even if it disrupts current models.
    • Mayim: “If there’s one person... experiencing this, that’s significant for us as a human species. And it deserves attention, respect, and further research. That’s what it means to be a scientist.” (61:10)

• Testing Telepathy and Mediumship

  • Discussion of rigorous experimental designs in Season 2 (tests with non-speakers, independent scientists, cross-state experiments).
    • Noteworthy experiment: a non-speaking boy described and correctly spelled a word visible only to a scientist several states away on Zoom—“the most impossible telepathy test to do. And it was done.” (64:46–65:33)
  • Gansfeld studies and statistical significance in psi research; the challenge is not lack of data, but the inability of current science to explain the mechanisms. (69:52–71:33)

6. Remote Viewing and Psi Abilities

• Remote Viewing’s Accessibility

  • Ky describes plans for a whole remote viewing season, noting it's a psi ability governments invested in and that children seem able to learn quickly.
    • “Governments have poured a lot of money into it... It happens with psychedelics, it happens with non speakers, with meditation. That, to me, is like—that’s a slam dunk.” (83:45–86:03)

• Altered States: Psychedelics, Lucid Dreaming, Energy Healing

  • Ky shares personal experiences with mushrooms; despite high doses, she was "not allowed to experience" altered states—suggests a kind of psychic "bubble" preserving her objectivity as a documentarian. (88:42–94:07)
    • Mayim theorizes that, for the sake of the work, she is being “protected” from losing objectivity.

7. The Human Side: Meaning, Belief, and Re-enchantment

• Re-enchantment: Finding Connection Beyond Materialism

  • Jonathan: “As societies lose... meaning and purpose and sense that they’re connected to something greater, then we’re subject to all the ills of modern society: addiction, depression, loneliness...” (30:28)
  • The group reflects on the healing, community, and mental health implications of recognizing a larger consciousness.

• Bridging the Binary

  • Ky notes the binary between “woo” and “materialist” is false and advocates for a large “middle” of rigorous, open-minded inquiry—where most people truly are. (76:02)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Scientific Open-mindedness

  • Ky Dickens (00:12): “You can be extraordinarily smart, intelligent and see that there’s a non-physical. And that might be the more scientific thing to do than to just ignore it altogether.”

• On Creation and Ideas

  • Ky Dickens (09:00): “If I don’t grab an idea, it will go on to someone else. And sometimes an idea will come, but if you aren’t ready for it or giving it the time, it will leave you. If you come back to it, it might just be like a dead, limp part of itself.”

• On Mediums and Non-Speakers

  • Ky Dickens (15:16): "[Amelia] starts typing: I have a message for Hunter Chastain... [from] his mother who had passed. ... ‘The derby was her thing’ ... ‘I just started teaching my daughter to ride horses.’"
  • Mayim Bialik (14:32): “No, that freaks me out.”

• On Near Death Experiences

  • Mayim Bialik (33:09): “It's an isolated pie of information... not a generic piece... Like, ‘I saw that you had a tomato stain on your tie and you were in the cafeteria and you were hiding the tie under your lab coat.’”

• On Plant Telepathy

  • Ky Dickens (43:44): “Plants communicate. It’s more like a smoke around you. It’s so soft and so gentle... they’re so loving...they really work together... They move to give each other sun. They don't try to take the sun away like we do.”

• On Testifying to Mystery

  • Mayim Bialik (94:07): “It may not be everyone, but if there's one person, right, that is experiencing this, that's significant for us as a human species. And it deserves attention, respect, and further research."

• On Objectivity and Experience

  • Mayim Bialik (92:57): "If you dip into belief, it can adulterate the research you're doing...a part of you knows how important it is to preserve the sanctity of objectivity. It’s not your path now. One day it may be, but right now..."

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment / Topic | |-----------|----------------| | 00:00–02:18 | Introduction, Telepathy & consciousness outside the body | | 07:14 | Ky on goals for Season 2: consciousness as fundamental| | 11:51 | Non-speakers, consciousness after death; telepathy after passing| | 14:32–15:40 | Mediumship example—specific messages from non-speaker child| | 25:15–25:49 | Tuning into consciousness—analogy of “tuning the knob”| | 27:45–28:36 | Consciousness: Collective vs. individuated, Hoffman/Campbell models| | 33:46–34:31 | Blind person NDE—a case of veridical perception| | 41:44–43:44 | Plant telepathy—diagnosis and communication| | 50:03 | Non-speaker uses telepathy “to survive”—communication as necessity| | 64:46–65:33 | Scientific telepathy tests, multi-state, independent verification| | 69:52–71:33 | Gansfeld studies and statistical analysis of psi phenomena| | 83:45–86:03 | Remote viewing: training, government research, overlap with other states| | 88:42–94:07 | Ky’s personal experience with psychedelics—being “blocked” from altered states| | 76:02–77:56 | Bridging the “woo”/materialist binary; the comfort found in validation|

Tone and Style Highlights

• The conversation is intellectual, personal, humorous, and wonder-filled, with Mayim and Jonathan adding warmth and personal anecdotes.
• Ky Dickens balances skepticism with curiosity and open-mindedness, sharing both rigorous scientific approaches and the significance of lived experience.
• The episode encourages listeners to embrace uncertainty, awe, and thoughtful exploration over dogmatism—whether scientific or spiritual.

Conclusion

This episode offers a comprehensive, compassionate examination of consciousness that transcends traditional scientific boundaries. It challenges binary thinking, highlights the importance of inclusive and rigorous inquiry, and reaffirms the value—personal, clinical, and philosophical—of exploring phenomena at the edges of our current understanding. Ky Dickens and "The Telepathy Tapes" continue to open minds, generate important research, and foster a sense of wonder and hope about the nature of consciousness and our place in the universe.