Autistic telepathy and visits to heaven to talk to God? - First Fruits of Zion endorses The Telepathy Tapes

 

Until today I have never heard of the Telepathy Tapes, given that I don't listen to podcasts that aren't on ESPN, and certainly not to Joe Rogen, that isn't surprising.  How did I learn about The Telepathy Tapes?  First Fruits of Zion's Messiah Podcast in Februrary of 2025 hosted by Daniel Lancaster endorsed them and a concerned former Torah Club member shared the link with me.

The Telepathy Tapes A popular podcast reveals the existence of divine revelation through non-verbal autistic people. Author BY: D. Thomas Lancaster 18 February 2025

What are The Telepathy Tapes?  This review was the best one I could find: The Dangerous Charm of The Telepathy Tapes January 27, 2025 by Chloe Walker.  In short, The Telepathy Tapes claim that autistic children, with the help of a parent 'facilitating' "demonstrated his ability to read thoughts, and reported spiritual insights and messages from God." (to quote Daniel Lancaster).

Wait a minute, why is a pro-Torah keeping organization endorsing the idea that autistic children all have miraculous spiritual powers?  The answer, it turns out, is simple: They believe this idea will support Jewish mysticism / Kabbalah.  Given that FFOZ leans heavily into mystical interpretations of scripture, anything that seems to support that idea is good news.  "If the claims presented in The Telepathy Tapes (TTT) are true, they have major implications for science, philosophy, education, psychology, neurology, anthropology, theology, religion, and faith.  They also have compelling parallels to both Jewish mysticism and apocalyptic Jewish texts like the New Testament." - Daniel Lancaster (emphasis mine).

In his article, it is clear that Daniel Lancaster buys into The Telepathy Tapes premise all the way: "the existence of telepathy is only the beginning.  The listener is quickly catapulted into a world of spiritual revelations reported by the non-speakers.  We hear about the pre-incarnate existence of the soul, spiritual beings like angels and demons, revelations from heaven, revelations about heaven, trips to heaven, conversations with God, conversations with Jesus, conversations with departed souls in heaven, visions of the future, precognitive declarations, clairvoyance, divine healings, and many of the spiritual elements typical of reports from those who suffer the classic Near Death Experience." - Daniel Lancaster

As someone who has met Don Piper (Author of 90 Minutes in Heaven), and who hosted him at my church to share his Gospel message, the key issue at hand here is not the possibility of spiritual insights, but that the particular insights Lancaster is so excited about are ones that confirm his pre-existing belief in Jewish mysticism {See: Beginning of Wisdom (Torah Club) lesson #37: More Gnostic Dualism, pre-existence of the soul, and extra-biblical reliance} and is doing so by using vulnerable non-verbal children and their parents as props.

A brief explanation as to why this particular false teaching from FFOZ bothers me so much.  When I was in middle school an autistic two-year-old first came to my house after school.  My mother ran a daycare and this boy was displaying the signs of severe autism.  In the beginning, he was non-verbal and prone to violent fits.  Until he graduated high school (the school workers who helped him over the years were amazing), he was at my parents' house five days a week.  I taught him how to swim in our pool, holding him through his initial terror at the water, and celebrating when he quickly learned to love swimming.  He and his older brother were ushers at my wedding.  I'm a better person for having known him, and I love this man who now is in his late 30's.

Children with disabilities, and their often desperate parents just trying to find hope and comfort, are NOT to be used to further economic, political, or religious agendas.  These are children of God, and they deserve better.  What The Telepathy Tapes is doing is morally unacceptable, and First Fruits of Zion piggybacking off of its popularity is grotesque. 

I'll end with another couple of quotes from Lancaster that highlight just how dangerous it is to follow the First Fruits of Zion down their unorthodox path, "Christians will also find the content of TTT troubling, albeit for different reasons.  Some non-speakers openly discuss spooky and off-limits subjects like reincarnation, communication with the deceased, and other ideas that invoke New Age mysticism." - Daniel Lancaster.  

Yep, we have a problem with elevating the supposed authority of these "spiritual communications" when they are just as likely to promote Eastern Religious beliefs like reincarnation (which apparently doesn't bother Daniel?  No idea what he's thinking there by mocking those who find it to be "spooky and off-limits").  That's what set Don Piper apart, whether or not you or I believe that his vision was genuine, his words about it were 100% orthodox in support of the Gospel.  By their fruit you will know them.  Daniel doesn't appear to be much concerned that some of the fruit of supposed autistic "telepathy" is rotten.

"In view of the sharp as-yet unexplained rise in autism rates, we should be asking, what is God doing in these last days?" - Daniel Lancaster

Well, at least he isn't blaming autism on vaccines.  Instead, Daniel offers up the explanation that autism is a sign of the End Times.  {And Boaz Michael wonders why I don't just drop my work exposing their teachings.  Answer: This!  This right here.}

"The Telepathy Tapes...get to the core of what is means to be a spiritual being here on earth, existing in a physical body while in relationship with God and one another." - Daniel Lancaster

Beware of the guy who tells you that a hoax that takes advantage of autistic kids and their parents is at the core of understanding life here on earth.

Beginning of Wisdom (Torah Club) lesson #8: Leaning into the mysticism of Kabbalah

Note the terms: World of Concealment and World of Truth

Note Lancaster's description of demons and angels contending over the souls of the dead

One of the things that jumps out if you read The Beginning of Wisdom Torah Club series one after another (as I've done in order to point out the concrete examples of extra-biblical and unorthodox teachings they contain) is how much Daniel Lancaster relies upon the Wisdom of Solomon.  The Wisdom of Solomon was likely written by someone in the Alexandrian Jewish community in the generations leading up to the birth of Jesus, and it was subsequently included in the Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures known as the Septuagint (or LXX).  As a text, it contains ideas derived both from Jewish thought and Greek Platonic philosophy, which isn't surprising given that Alexandria was a renowned center of Greek philosophical thought for centuries.  In addition to this influence, which is something the Early Church would have been very familiar with, for it both embraced Greek philosophy on some matters, and contended against it in others {Gnostic Dualism being the most famous antagonist}, Lancaster also weaves into the Torah Club materials medieval Jewish mysticism in the form of Kabbalah.

Now, I'll be the first to tell you that Jewish medieval mysticism is not a topic that has ever been on my list of things that I need to study as a disciple of Jesus, then again, neither has Islamic Sufism or the various forms of mysticism that have operated under the guise of Christianity.  The idea that the path to divine knowledge is through mystical experience is foreign to those of us who embrace the Reformation's proclamation of Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone).  Why?  Because it cannot be replicated, it cannot be evaluated, and it cannot be questioned.  If someone tells you they had a mystical experience where God told them that the human soul is protected from demons trying to take it to hell after death by an angelic force {as Lancaster does in this Torah Club lesson}, what is the rebuttal?  Mystical knowledge is, by definition, only available to those who experience it, and at the same time due to its dream-like nature, open to broad interpretation.

In this case Daniel Lancaster is teaching that the "insights" of Jewish mysticism are in fact true, more than that, that these ideas can be used as the rubric that explains holy scripture.  Therein lies the growing danger, "because the Jewish mystics say so" is not any safer a path to follow for a disciple of Jesus than, "because the Christian mystics say so."  In the end, God's Word has never required mystical experience to be understood.  Whenever people, well meaning or otherwise, have tried to impose upon it allegorical interpretation or mystical knowledge, the results have been to take those who listen to them away from the plain meaning of the text.  If the plain meaning of the text, that available to the educated and uneducated alike, to the novice as well as to the veteran, was what this path desired, there would be no need for arbitrary allegorical or mystical insights.  Where does it stop?  If the "sages" that Lancaster likes to cite (but never seems to actually quote) deny the resurrection of Jesus, is that out-of-bounds?  Is that a bride-too-far, or are these supposed wise men to be followed wherever they lead?  We've already seen a willingness from Lancaster and FFOZ to abandon the Trinity because it doesn't fit their new "gospel," is there reason to believe that any of the truths that our ancestors in the faith were willing to die for aren't also up for grabs?

In case you are wondering, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, someone who has been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and given the new birth of the Holy Spirit, NOTHING can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8), so there is a zero percent chance that demonic forces would need to be thwarted by angels to allow your soul to ascend to heaven.  That's utter nonsense because Jesus has already conquered sin and death, therefore the spiritual forces of evil do not contend with Jesus, they flee from him.

Note: This entire premise of Lancaster is once again built upon the assumption of a pre-existent human soul, an idea repeated as if it were fact in this Torah Club lesson as well, and an idea that was condemned as heresy at the Second Council of Constantinople AD 553.