[Merged] 5 Year Old Telepathic Genius

[Paranormalcy]

Ramses Sanguino started reading when he was 12 months old, and can understand and speak parts of Greek, Hebrew, Arabic and Japanese, according to his mom. He can also solve rudimentary algebra problems and draw the entire periodic table.

But despite the 5-year-old’s prodigious intelligence, it was his “telepathy” that attracted neuroscientist Diane Powell.

http://nypost.com/2015/11/05/my-5-year-old-son-is-a-telepathic-genius/

The Neuroscientist's website: http://dianehennacypowell.com/press-kit/formal-bio/

Does this seem a little iffy to anyone else? Her credentials seem to be quite impressive, though I'm not sure how being a neuroscientist helps with correlating existing gender differences to highlight women's contributions. Isn't that statistics?

But to the story, the boy has telepathy - with his mother. Who asks him the questions. I seem to remember the horses in the Eberfield follies doing math problems, as well as other instances like this.

I'm interested in psi/psychic abilities, and I hope she is already getting numerous other scientists to start peer reviewing all of her findings and research on this. I'm not seeing anyone but her own take on it so far, which I don't see as a good start.

[bubblykiss]

Not even gonna give it the benefit of the doubt................

[Kenemet]

Her credentials look a little iffy in more recent times and I'm not impressed with her being associated with Dr. Phil. All sorts of iffy scientists have been affiliated with him.

To me, the article smacks of a lot of conclusion-jumping. Looking at the videos, he might be a savant -- he has some interesting physical gestures in spelling out things. But the identification of this child as a genius comes from his mother (who wants to find something spectacular in her autistic child.) We see him doing something that LOOKS like algebra but we don't see him solving a differential equation from "ground zero." And we see the kid giving the "telepathic answer" but we don't see how mom conducted the experiment or what went on before and after.

So... what is genius?

I don't know that I'd be quick to call him a genius... or quick to deny it. But a mother's labeling her child a genius is not that convincing to me nor is the announcement of an MD studying telepathy (MD's and science degrees are not necessarily labels of infalibilty. Just look at Ben Carson's statement about pyramids being used as grain warehouses.)

Edited November 6, 2015 by Kenemet

[ChrLzs]

A quick Google shows many sites (almost all ad-supported and selling stuff), and LOTS of anecdotally 'impressive' stories about alleged abilities, but not ONE single properly documented case study.

I think she's full of it... namely the desire to make money. Combine that with the fact that she just laps up any story given to her, and has a lousy (deliberately?) grasp of how to properly evidence claims, and you have someone preying on those who desire their autistic kids to be much more than special.. (and they sometimes are quite gifted with mathematical skills, photographic memory, etc).. She claims they are capable of esp/telepathy.

I challenge Dr Dianne Hennacy Powell, or anyone convinced by her claims, to please bring here (or link to) a properly documented example. No more stories and exciting anecdotes about how some child couldn't possibly have known a few german words or seen / memorised the Periodic Table.. Seriously???

I simply ask for properly controlled, documented, studied and analysed evidence.

In fact, let's get VERY specific.

Dr Powell has made some extreme claims here in an abstract of a presentation to our old friends the Parapsychology Association.

http://www.parapsych...nted_papers.pdf

It's not a published paper.. the abstract includes such rather hilariously ambivalent claims as this one:

Data from the first session with Therapist A includes 100% accuracy on three out of twenty

image descriptions containing up to nine letters each,

.. is that clear to everyone? Just 3 out of twenty, and notice the "UP TO.." bit? But yeah.. 100% accurate!!!!!! :D

But it also includes the admission that:

The therapist and child could not be tested in separate rooms, because even subtle changes to the environment are very distracting and disturbing for a child with severe autism.

Say what? So why put the therapist in the room in the first place? And what other concessions were made, I wonder..

It also says that high definition video was taken from many viewpoints - I'd just love to see that footage.

But more importantly, I'd like to see all the actual test documents, cards, images and the results data and analysis that was done...

Surely, if this was a properly done study and the results were truly that extraordinary, there would be no reason to hide any of the supporting documents, right Dr Powell? (feel free to blur out the faces in the videos..)

I don't buy any of this, I'm sorry, and having several members of my own extended family with autism/aspergers, it makes me angry to see these claims and a refusal to properly document any of them. Yes, this time I *am* angry. These people (kids and parents) are vulnerable.

[Paranormalcy]

I agree, although I don't personally know anyone directly, officially diagnosed with autism, I think there is WAY too much potential for harm here, even if it is accidental (and that's being pretty generous).

This mainly comes from all the tragic nonsense dealing with the "facilitated communiction" and the "agents" and their clients, that wound up claiming their parents were abusing them and such - all of which was documented to be legally false and a junk "science".

That's why this stuff is suspect to the extreme - research that even LOOKS like it's exploiting kids is about the worst avenue you could possibly go.

[ChrLzs]

BTW, much as I hate to use youtube, but

for those who would like to see NONSENSE oops I mean NON-science at work. It's a perfect example of Dr Powell's 'approach'. I'll give you the executive summary:

1. Mum has child she obviously believes has telepathy.

2. We see some examples of him guessing one card and then a few numbers.

3. We do not see what led up to these 'tests', so they are pretty meaningless.

4. Then, along comes Dr Dianne Hennacy Powell, trumpeting that this must be scientifically tested... But the ONLY thing she says is important is that the cards chosen must be random..

5. So she goes to great pains to use an online random number generator to help with the selection of 5 cards.

6. We don't see enough to verify the process (and frankly I'd rather have seen her simply fan the cards out to show it was a full deck, then simply shuffle them and randomly select them herself..) Minor quibble, but there you go...

7. Dr Powell then takes the cards into the room, and UN-FREAKIN-BELIEVABLY hands them to the mother...

8. The mother holds up(down) the cards one by one and asks the child, using some rather odd hand positions and varying postures...

9. He gets 3 correct out of 5 - sorta.

Needless to say we don't see the test from his viewpoint - I'd like to see the positions of Mum's hands and fingers, etc... Also, is there a mirror or glass-door or painting back behind the scene?

Seriously, this alleged Dr with alleged scientific knowledge doesn't realise how trivially easy it would be to cheat, given the ridiculously flawed 'scientific' test she undertook? The mother may not even realise that her postures or hand/finger signals or verbal clues or whatever is giving cues to the kid.. and for Powell to rely on the mother to present the cards and give him those cues?

NO thinking scientist would do something that moronic.

It's all about her upcoming new book, and thank deity the gullible will buy into it and keep her in money so she can continue with more of the same...

The only question in my mind is whether she is really that gullible herself, or whether it is ALL deliberate scamming.

Go on, ask me what I really think... Grrr.

Added - BTW, Paranormalcy - I appreciate you bringing this one here so it can be fully explored!

Edited November 6, 2015 by ChrLzs

[SHaYap]

This reminds me of something I was asked many years ago ~

I'm not sure if any of you here has the experience of having someone close of familiar that on occasions it seems that you are 'telepathically' connected ~ my personal experience occurs mainly on the football pitch ~ I play central midfield during offense and I fall back as the last man when defending, the goalie and the striker usually sandwiches myself when I'm with possession of the ball ~ that is the crux of my team back then ... our best record was an unbeaten run ~ 12 wins and 6 draws

The key to our success then was our almost telepathic connection ~ the keeper and myself will almost know where the striker is and where he will be with just a glance ... and our striker will just be waiting at the right place and right time even when we made no initial strategies in the first place ~ and each of us can convey it all , the next move and where we plan to initiate a move without as much as a shout as just a run ~ after each game we'll be wondering how and what went on ~

What I was asked was 'how do we know that the thoughts that occurs in our minds were not a singular thought shared among us or how do we know that it was individual but same thoughts occurring at the same precise moment unconnected to our own thoughts ?

~ I know long married couples has this connection ... and I love watching them ... how the wife pass something to the hubby or the hubby doing something for the wife without so much as a glance or a nod much less a spoken word ~

Is it same thoughts on two minds or two minds with same thoughts ?

~

[Paranormalcy]

I think that is an interesting question and I'm in favor of research on things that seem to still present some questions, and I was a big fan of scientific (well... relativelyl...) psi research, like that conducted by JB Rhine at Duke University. But it should be with willing participants that understand how to be good subjects - honestly, neither the kid (through no fault of his own) but especially his mother (a little more suspect) and this doctor, all are... well I'd just say there would be an awful lot of changes to be made to re-examine this in anything like a reliable fashion.

You can't have the mom leave the room because the telepathy doesn't work then? Uh... huh.

[John from Lowell]

Hi,

Here is another telepathic study with a 5 year old girl.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1892550-five-year-old-savant-being-studied-for-telepathic-abilities/

It would be nice if we could validate a few facts.

John

[ChrLzs]

How about starting a new thread, John, and tell us why we should visit that link - after all, you just damned it with your comments that nothing is validated...

Why do you think it is so difficult to validate? I know why I think it.........

[seeder]

Telepathic Five-Year-Old Gets Tested by Scientists

Five-year-old Ramses Sanguino is no ordinary child. The boy is being hailed as telepathic after his mother recently posted a video of him apparently reading her mind and reciting numbers that she wrote down without his knowledge. The footage caught the attention of scientists who are now studying his abilities.

Ramses, who has a ‘high functioning’ form of autism, is apparently able to recite up to 38 numbers written out of sight. His mother, Nyx Sanguino, said there was no trickery involved in any of the home videos she made, adding that Ramses was special from the moment he was born.

http://sorendreier.com/telepathic-five-year-old-gets-tested-by-scientists/

[Mikko-kun]

How does he do it?

[Lucas Cooper Merrin]

I hope this kid turns out to be genuine.

[pallidin]

Huh. Wonder when the research studies will be released, assuming this story is real in the first place.

[Ashotep]

Maybe he could let us know what is really on politicians minds. Then we might know if what they are saying matches what they are thinking. Bet he would be in a undisclosed location pretty fast.

I believe the mind has powers we will never understand fully.

[supervike]

Is she the same scientist that was starting a Kickstarter to investigate such claims?

[Uncle Sam]

How does he do it?

The kid is a math magician. He can calculate the odd of which number she picks. Probably find out later on when he is older, can understand how to explain it to people.

[HeisenbergC10H15N]

With quantum mechanics showing that everything is connected and entanglement it would certainly make sense that the connection between mother n child would be a lot stronger and on very rare occasions this could be amplified.

All supernatural events will be explained to be real by science eventually, i have always said this, life after death, poltergeist activity, other dimensions etc, all very real and too much evidence but, the human mind invents religion to explain such events but now science will explain it.

[Eldorado]

I'm hoping at least one babysitter has said to the child, "I betcha don't know what time I'm sending you to your bed at, smarty-pants".

[Merc14]

With quantum mechanics showing that everything is connected and entanglement it would certainly make sense that the connection between mother n child would be a lot stronger and on very rare occasions this could be amplified.

All supernatural events will be explained to be real by science eventually, i have always said this, life after death, poltergeist activity, other dimensions etc, all very real and too much evidence but, the human mind invents religion to explain such events but now science will explain it.

Superstring theory requires 10 dimensions (not that any of us can visualize it) but that isn't supernatural so not sure why it is included. Poltergeist activity needs to be shown to exist before it can be investigated and life after death is more a philosophical question, I guess, than a scientific one at this point in time.

[acute]

I believe in telepathy, but I'm not sure what it is.

I am psychic, so I know things I shouldn't, but I don't know where telepathy ends and psychicness begins...

(Hey, I think I've just invented a word!)

...or are they the same thing?

Edited November 17, 2015 by acute

[stevemagegod]

I noticed the mom giving him some sort of hand signals im guessing fake.

[Redefining Success]

Get the kid and his mum in 2 separate rooms and retest them.

[acute]

It could be hand signals or verbal signals (asking the question in a certain way).

It is not the most scientific of tests.

Edited November 18, 2015 by acute

[Falael]

Incredible to see how gullible are the people who buy this BS story... 7 langages at 5 yo? Seriously...