S2E10: Cognitive Decline and Higher Consciousness

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Dec 22, 2025

Dr. Neil Theis, a physician and consciousness researcher from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, dives into the fascinating intersection of cognitive decline and higher consciousness. He shares compelling insights from hospice care, revealing that deathbed visions are more common than we think. The discussion shifts to the potential for telepathy in connecting with those suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia, challenging traditional views on consciousness. Theis emphasizes that rather than losing awareness, individuals may be transitioning to a different state of being.

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ANECDOTE

Missing Person Found Via Remote Guidance

Elodie helped locate a missing family member with early-onset dementia by describing nearby landmarks like a culvert.
Search teams found the relative near that feature with matching injuries, illustrating successful remote guidance.

ANECDOTE

Specific Messages With Real-World Impact

Dan relayed personal, specific messages from Rebecca's father including regret, encouragement, and a car warning.
The car warning led Rebecca to find a serious fuel leak, validating a practical prediction from the session.

ANECDOTE

Spontaneous Facility Connections

After Rebecca's visit, Dan spontaneously connected with multiple other patients in the facility who flagged him down.
Those patients displayed unusual engagement and nonverbal cues when Dan interacted with them.

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When memory fades and language falls silent, we assume connection is lost. But what if it isn’t?

In this episode, we explore whether telepathy might offer a bridge to those living with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The journey begins with Rebecca, a close friend from Season 1, whose father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis collides unexpectedly with the earliest telepathy experiments that launched The Telepathy Tapes.

As caregivers and families reach out with similar stories, we follow Rebecca into a deeply personal experience with Dan Goerke, a man who communicates with people’s “higher self” of people who can no longer speak. What unfolds raises unsettling and tender questions about awareness, regret, forgiveness, and the possibility that something essential remains intact even as cognition declines.

We then widen the lens, turning to physicians and researchers studying end-of-life consciousness, including hospice data showing that visions, communication beyond language, and profound peace are not rare—but incredibly common. These accounts challenge a core assumption: that a failing brain means diminished consciousness, rather than a thinning of our mind’s filter.

Across these stories, an idea emerges. That dementia may not represent disappearance, but transition. That those we fear we are losing may still be present—listening, understanding, and connecting in ways we don’t yet know how to measure.

This episode asks us to reconsider what it means to be “gone,” and whether communication—like love—might persist even when words do not.

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