Talk Tracks Ep 6: The Mind's Back Door: Azheimer's and Telepathy
32:23 Share

Business taxes. We're stressing about all the time and all the money you spent on your taxes. This is my bill? Now Business Taxes is a TurboTax small business expert who does your taxes for you and offers year-round advice at no additional cost so you can keep more money in your business. Now this is taxes. Intuit TurboTax. Get an expert now on TurboTax.com slash business. Only available with TurboTax Live Full Service.

Hi, this is Javon, your Blinds.com design consultant. Oh, wow. A real person. Yep. I'm here to help with everything from selecting the perfect window treatments to... Well, I've got a complicated project. No problem. I can even help schedule a professional measure and install. We can also send you samples fast and free. Hmm, I just might have to do more. Whatever you need. So the first room we're looking at is for... Shop Blinds.com now and get up to 40% off with minimum purchase. Blinds.com. Rules and restrictions may apply. A bet.

Hi everyone, I'm Kai Dickens and I'm thrilled to welcome you to the Talk Trax. In this series, we dive deeper into the revelations, challenges, and unexpected truths from the telepathy tapes. The goal is to explore all the threads that weave together our understanding of reality, science, spirituality,

spirituality, and yes, even unexplained things like psi abilities. If you haven't yet listened to season one of the Telepathy Tapes, I encourage you to start there. It lays the foundation for everything we'll be exploring in this journey. We'll feature conversations with groundbreaking researchers, thinkers, non-speakers, and experiencers who illuminate the extraordinary connections that may defy explanation today, but won't for long.

So I'm really excited about today's episode because it dives even deeper into our exploration of telepathy, specifically in people with Alzheimer's and dementia. In the last episode of the Talk Trax, we told the story of a woman in the late stages of cancer whose consciousness seemed to be traveling to her childhood home when she drift into a sleep state. And then something caught the eye of our telepathy tapes coordinator, Catherine Ellis, as she was going through some of our incoming emails.

So, Catherine, you started working for me in December and you have your eyes on our incoming emails and messages and you kind of flag something. What did you see? Well, what really caught my attention is that we're getting a surprising number of emails about Alzheimer's and dementia. People are saying that they're experiencing thought sharing or telepathy with someone who has dementia or late stage Alzheimer's. OK, and just for clarity.

We're talking about caregivers, family members, nurses, right? And they were all describing the same similar experience, which felt like genuine moments of telepathic connection with someone who had Alzheimer's or dementia.

So you said that to me, and I have to confess that I thought it was implausible. I had come to believe that yes, telepathy was legitimate and verifiable amongst non-speakers with autism, but how could it manifest elsewhere in such large numbers? But you said something that really hit me in my heart because it validated what parents of non-speakers had previously been saying. They were terrified to talk about it openly because they didn't think they'd be taken seriously.

Exactly. Some of the people who wrote in even said they were afraid they were going crazy, but that they were absolutely certain that something real was happening. That their loved one was somehow communicating with them, beyond words. And one name kept popping up as someone who had been through it and really put language to the experience. Dan Gerke. Okay, so tell me about Dan.

Dan wrote a book called Unforgettable Unbelievable about his wife, Denise, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at just 56 years old. As her disease progressed and she lost the ability to speak, Dan says he began communicating with her telepathically. And now he's become a kind of sounding board for others who are going through similar things and don't know where to turn. So Catherine asked if it would be okay to do an interview with Dan herself to check this all out.

And it ended up being so fascinating and so important that we're featuring this interview today so others out there going through the same thing won't feel so alone. So here we go. Okay, I'd love to hear a little bit about the moment that you and your wife Denise found out she had Alzheimer's disease. So Denise was diagnosed when she was just 56 years old. That was in 2012.

And it was a challenge to get the diagnosis. It took about a year and a half before we got an affirmative diagnosis of what was going on. I was shocked that somebody 56 years old could have Alzheimer's. I had no idea she could have that or anyone could have that at that young of an age. Denise's reaction was somewhat muted. I was a little surprised. She didn't show any emotion.

She just sat there. We talked a little bit about the disease and kind of next steps, which for him, for the doctor, wasn't much. He just wanted us to come back in a few months and do a follow-up checkup.

So on the way out of his office, there is a rack of flyers and brochures. And Denise comes storming out of the office and she is grabbing every flyer and every brochure about Alzheimer's, this treatment, that treatment, this therapy, that therapy. And we had a stack of papers. And that was really no different than how she handled life in general. It was this just tangential.

take charge attitude and we're going to find out more. We're going to do something about this. And I know her attitude and thought was, I'm just going to keep living my life as much and as well as I can. That was the day of the diagnosis. So then as Denise's disease progressed, she gradually lost her ability to speak. But what happened next was something Dan never expected. So Catherine, tell us what happened in the silence that followed.

As Denise's disease progressed, she gradually lost her ability to speak. But what happened next was something Dan never expected. A new kind of communication began to emerge, one that didn't rely on words at all. Dan reports that once Denise became nonverbal, he began to read her mind and communicate with her telepathically. At first, he was shocked. So we were about two and a half years into the diagnosis and into the disease process.

She was still at home and I was her full-time caregiver. And at the same time, I was still working full-time and leaving the house in the morning and coming back, worrying about her. But yet that's the way it had to be. So I had had a particularly hard day getting her up and around and getting her places. One of the biggest issues we were having at the time was her toileting.

And that was everything from getting her in the bathroom. And I just could not get her to sit down. And that transferred out to getting her in the car and all kinds of different things. I was just exhausted. I had had a particularly really hard day at work, very stressed out from the day. And we get home and the questions from...

The Alzheimer's patients just tend to go in circles. It's that same question coming up every minute or two minutes. This behavior is incredibly common in Alzheimer's patients and is linked to the breakdown of short-term memory. The hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for forming new memories, is one of the first regions affected by the disease. This can be incredibly disorienting and emotionally draining for caregivers. You just have to take a deep breath and breathe.

give the same answer over and over again. So she decided, you know, it's about time for bed. So she goes back to bed and I said, I'll be back in a little while. I just had to decompress. I had to just be away from her, be away from the Alzheimer's for a little bit. So after a bit of decompressing, Dan goes to bed.

I was exhausted. I was laying there next to her. And I remember hearing myself, I said to myself, you know, if I could only talk to you and you could communicate back, that would help this situation. In somewhat thing of a frustration, I said that. And in my mind, I heard her voice say,

The intonation of her voice say, well, talk to me. I'm personally thrilled to be gearing up for vacation season, planning for spring break trips and summer trips, and most importantly, travel for the Telepathy Tapes documentary. And this year, I'm leveling up. I'm treating myself to some luxe travel upgrades. Quince sells high-quality travel essentials at fair prices.

For example, Quince has lightweight European linen styles from $30 and washable silk tops and comfy lounge sets, and I love their premium luggage options. The best part? All Quince items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to us. And Quince only works with factories that use safe...

ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices, and premium fabrics and finishes. I love that. I'm personally obsessed with their Italian leather triple compartment weekender bag for long flights.

For your next trip, treat yourself to the luxe upgrades you deserve from Quince. Go to quince.com slash tapes for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order. That's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash tapes to get free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com slash tapes.

Go further with the American Express Business Gold Card. Earn three times membership rewards points on flights and prepaid hotels when you book through amxtravel.com. Whether your destination is a business conference or a client meeting, your purchases will help you earn more points for future trips. Experience more on your travels with Amex Business Gold. Terms apply. Learn more at americanexpress.com slash business dash gold. Amex Business Gold Card. Built for business by American Express.

Wow. Okay. So what was your reaction? I was somewhat taken back. Yet, I said, all in my head, I said, okay, all right, how do I get you on the toilet so that it's easier for both of us? She starts explaining. And again, I'm hearing her voice and I'm looking down next to me, right? She's fast asleep, not moving a muscle.

not saying anything. It's all what I hear in my head. She explains, well, okay, so you got to position me, grab my hips and turn me this way. And at the same time,

I now know she was showing me pictures, right? Images in my mind of what to do. Turn me this way, push me down, do this, do that, right? That is so cool. I'm like, okay, thank you. I get up the next morning. I'm excited. I'm like, okay, I have a new method to get her in. So we go into the bathroom and within 30 seconds,

I've got her sitting down and I am like raising my hands, whooping it up. It's like the NFL player scoring the touchdown. So the next night comes around that same night. Then I go back and I thought, okay, okay, let's see if this works again. I thought, Denise, I need help getting you in the car. How do we do that? So it's easier.

For both of us, same thing. She tells me what to do telepathically in my mind, shows me the images of how to maneuver her to get in the car.

And guess what? Same thing the next day in the car in 20 seconds. And I'm doing the victory dance around the car as I go toward my door. So that's how it started. So how do you reconcile with that? What do you think is going on in the brain?

That, you know, if she can't speak and if she's unable to remember things and communicate with you, like, why is she still able to communicate with you telepathically in a coherent way? I've come to believe that who I am communicating with is Denise's higher self. Her soul said another way, right? That is who I'm communicating with.

And that higher self and soul is all-seeing, all-knowing, all-loving. And so I also think that with Denise and with other Alzheimer's patients, that they become withdrawn in the physical world and actually become more connected with their higher selves and

Whatever it is on the other side, just because they lose all the sensations and the physicality of being in the bodies that we're in and their minds go and stay in this place and the higher self kind of kicks in and says, yeah, we're here. And that was the communication, the process.

Yeah, I've heard from some other people in emails a similar theory that they feel like their loved one is slowly almost slipping into the next realm or the other side and that their physical body is still just kind of here, but that that's not really happening.

true representation of them anymore. Yeah, very much so. And I've heard plenty of stories and experiences somewhat with Denise. It was probably a year and a half or so before she passed away. I walked into her room and she is just staring off into the corner of the room

And I had this immediate, because I had this connection with her, immediate sensation that, oh, she's talking to her parents. I would feel her mom or her dad come and be with her from time to time. And she was most connected to her dad in this physical lifetime. So that connection was not surprising to me. And I thought that was something that was going on, just a sense I had. Okay. So Catherine, at this point in the story, what were you thinking?

Well, I really couldn't stop thinking about why Dan was able to communicate with Denise telepathically. I mean, there are so many people with Alzheimer's out there. Right, because it's like, why does this one guy get to telepathically communicate with his spouse with Alzheimer's when there's so many people who probably can't? So Catherine did some fact checking. And Catherine, how many Americans are living with Alzheimer's? In 2023, an estimated 6.7 million Americans were living with the disease. And the number is expected to more than double by 2060.

So huge numbers of people are impacted by Alzheimer's. And how was that reflected in our inbox? Like, did we get five to 10 emails from people saying they experienced nonverbal telepathic communication with their loved ones with dementia or Alzheimer's? Or was it like way more than that? If I had to guess, it would probably be a little bit more than 20. Okay, so this phenomenon really does seem like a bit of a key maybe to the question of whether telepathic communication is available to anyone.

Right. Like, are we getting a glimpse of higher consciousness with this population? And is there some part of ourselves that remains even if memory and language fade away? Or are we all just ignoring something that's always been open and available to us? So, Catherine, let's go back to your interview with Dan. Dan, why do you think you were able to do this with Denise?

I think part of the reason the communication with Denise continued was because I was open to it. And I remember saying to her, tell me more. I'm open to hearing more. I think also because of that thought, mentality, and what I was putting out to the universe, other Alzheimer's people started coming to me. It was as if I had literally opened the door and these people saw that I could hear them and talk to them.

Wait, what? You gain the ability to telepathically communicate with other people with Alzheimer's? So, see if I can describe this. So, the Alzheimer's person loses their ability to talk quite regularly, okay? So, a lot of the people that were in Denise's memory care facility lost

could not speak. Dan describes how individuals in Denise's memory care facility seemed to know that Dan was able to telepathically engage with them. People he had never met started coming up to him, somehow recognizing he was able to receive what they were thinking. Their higher selves would recognize that, hey, this guy, Dan, he can hear you. The physical Alzheimer's person would stand there next to me and look at me. And I knew immediately, oh, oh, this guy wants to communicate with me.

And so I would start that conversation. It was so cool, but it was again, this door opening conversation.

And to this day, I see people, I know they're Alzheimer's people out there in the universe that want to talk to me and they're coming because they recognize, hey, hey, this guy is listening. He can hear us, whereas no one else hears us. That's so amazing. Wow. So this is wild. So nowadays you'll just randomly be somewhere and hear someone with Alzheimer's coming in. How does that work? Do you ever think like, who the heck is this?

Shortly after I started communicating with Denise, I wanted to talk to other people. A lot of times there is somebody, you know, I could be in a restaurant, I could be out driving in the car and I just hear people starting to talk to me. And a lot of times what I'll say, okay, tell your loved one, tell your loved one that you want to connect with me.

And so sometimes I get a call, sometimes I don't, yet I encourage that person's higher self to somehow let's foster that connection. I still am very active in the senior world. I go into memory care communities.

And again, the people in the community come walking up to me and they know I can talk to them. So a lot of times I'll go to the memory care director, give them my card and say, hey, I know this is sounding a little weird, yet Mary over there wants to communicate telepathically with me. Can you pass this along to her caregiver or her loved one, whoever that is, daughter, whoever. And sometimes it resonates with that caregiver. Sometimes it doesn't.

So just breaking in here, Catherine, what's so wild about this to me is it reminds me of the teachers who said that they were able to start hearing multiple non-speaking students telepathically. I know. It really seems like once the floodgate is open, it's totally accessible. Was there a moment of telepathy you experienced with Denise that you found to be like extraordinarily profound? Oh, yes. So this was so cool.

We were about two, three months after I started communicating telepathically with her. My dad started coming in. So almost 20 years after he passed away, never had any communication with him before. He starts popping in and saying, telling me what's going on, how beautiful it is. He loves sports cars. And I would see these images of him

Being in a sports car, driving down the road. And it was just so, so heartwarming to see my dad again after all these years. And Denise and him start showing up together. My dad passed away 10 years before I even met Denise. They never knew each other. Okay.

Denise also was an adventurous person, loved fast things, including, guess what, fast sports cars. So I see the image of the two of them. Denise is in the car with my dad as a passenger. He is flying down the highway. Her blonde hair is flying in the wind. And they've just got the biggest smiles on their faces and just loving it. And I'm just like smiling blankly.

beaming to see both of them having fun. And especially for Denise, because she wasn't having fun in life at that point. She's three or four years into the diagnosis. It was not a fun time with her. So to see her have fun was so heartwarming. So one night I'm putting Denise to bed. She's got her eyes closed.

And I'm tucking her in. She always loved to be tucked in. She opens her eyes and she says to me, I am so looking forward to getting to know your dad. And I was speechless. I'm like, I did not need validation that I was speaking to Denise or speaking and seeing my dad. But here it was right in my face.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.

So I'm a parent and I'm constantly researching about our environment and how it's impacting kids. And I was shocked to discover that there are more than 1,000 hormone disruptors living rent-free in our environment right now. These are chemicals that just mess with our hormones and they're in our food and water and the air we breathe and the clothes we wear and our skincare. And that, of course, just seems like a double whammy.

Because there's the actual normal hormonal changes that our bodies go through, especially as women, like perimenopause and menopause. And that can be disruptive and tricky enough on its own. And while it's a natural process, the good news is we don't have to suffer through it. There's actually a product called Hormone Harmony.

and it's a formula made only with herbal ingredients that are shown to reduce hormonal symptoms in women of all ages. Hormone Harmony contains science-backed herbal extracts called adaptogens.

Now here's the beauty about adaptogens. They help the body adapt to any stressors, like chaotic hormonal changes that happen naturally throughout a woman's life. And that's why Hormone Harmony is perfect for women of all ages who are struggling with life-disrupting symptoms, such as PMS symptoms, like irritability and moodiness and discomfort or uncontrollable cravings, menopause symptoms, such as hot flashes and night sweats, racing thoughts and low moods or poor sleep and feeling tired all the time, occasional bloating and gas,

or no desire to be in bed next to someone, if you know what I mean. Hormone Harmony can help with all of those things. Happy Mammoth, the company that created Hormone Harmony, is dedicated to making women's lives easier. And that means using only science-backed ingredients that have been proven to work for women. They make no compromise when it comes to quality, and it shows. There's actually over 30,000 online reviews

And the biggest benefit to women, judging by what they say over and over again in their reviews, is I'm feeling like myself again. So for a limited time, you can get 15% off your entire first order at HappyMammoth.com. Just use the code TAPES at checkout. That's HappyMammoth.com and use the code TAPES for 15% off today. Well, I love that story so much, Dan.

I want to ask you, what is your advice for someone who's looking to tap into the side of themselves that would be open to this kind of communication? I think so much of it starts with meditation. Just taking a little bit of time every day, minute, two minutes, and just sit in a quiet place.

A lot of people think, oh, meditate. You got to sit there for an hour to two hours and say, ohm, a hundred thousand times. No, no, no. It starts with a minute or two, build that up to three to five, build it to 10, 15, if you want to. But yet it's more about quieting your mind, opening your mind and your heart to what is out there in the universe and what messages you get back. The universe,

I believe wants to help us. And it gives us these messages either through telepathy, through meditation, through intuition. And they want to help. And that's where these messages come from. Yeah. Do you ever experience other people coming into your head who are not Alzheimer's? It's like people who are nonverbal in other ways. I have come across a lot of people that have passed along. Some are Alzheimer's people that have passed away.

And they want to come back and, you know, please tell my wife I'm okay. And a lot of times I hear,

please tell her she was unbelievable in her caregiving and thank her from me. Because it's a doubt that a lot of caregivers have. We doubt sometimes what we're doing. Is this the right thing? And there's so many decisions you got to make during a day. You begin doubting yourself. So it's really heartwarming to hear that from the person saying, God, you did a great job. Thank you. That's important. I'm glad we're bringing up the role of the caregiver because I think it's

Unless you've sort of experienced this, it's a little bit overlooked on how emotionally, mentally, physically draining it can be. What would be a big piece of advice that you have for someone who maybe has a recent diagnosis and, you know, you're maybe tasked as being the caregiver? One of the first things I heard after I diagnosed this was, this is a disease about the caregiver.

And my first reaction was, no, it's not. It's a disease about Denise. She's got the disease. It's about her feelings, her emotions, her well-being.

And all that. And six months later, I did a 180. After experiencing just a little bit of the disease, I realized, oh my gosh, this is a disease about the caregiver and how important it is for the caregiver to take care of themselves. And what I mean by that is that for caregivers not to go stick their head in the sand, so to speak, don't isolate yourself, get out there,

and join a support group. That was one of the first things we did. Actually, from one of the flyers that Denise grabbed after the diagnosis, I found out about this class, which also had a support group. And it is so heartwarming and validating to hear other caregivers talk about their journey

Because a lot of caregivers go to themselves thinking, oh, I got this. I can do this. I'm big and brave. And I said, until death do us part. And it's like, you know, this is not like any other disease. You are going to get worn out. You're going to get frustrated beyond measure. There

There's a lot of statistics out there that the caregiver passes away before the person with the disease because of the stress and strain of being the caregiver. So don't isolate yourself and accept help. I really love that approach. I think so many of us have become isolated and afraid to ask for help, but more often than not, people will surprise you by showing up. It seems like despite the incredible hardship of Denise's illness, you

You came out of it with some truly beautiful insights about life and connection. Oh, Catherine, this disease changed my outlook and consideration of life. I was very much, you know, you live life one day at a time. Through that whole disease, I learned to live one moment at a time and to be in this present moment because all the Alzheimer's person has is this exact moment. They don't have anything else.

And that's what I tell people today is that live life fully because you don't know what your diagnosis is tomorrow and what life has to do for you later on today. So live life fully, have fun, laugh, be with friends as much as you can, family and friends, and go see the world. Well, thank you so much, Dan. This has been incredible.

And Catherine, I want to thank you for following these leads coming into our inbox. There is so much incoming and I want people to know that between myself and Catherine and Jill, we are reading what you're sending us and we'll continue to unpack and feature more of your experiences and questions and stories because we're really starting to find that we can't dismiss or ignore anything. Catherine, any closing thoughts from you?

I wanted to end the episode by mentioning that if you're caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's or dementia, please remember you don't have to go through it alone. Support groups can be life-changing. They offer a space to share, connect, and feel understood by people who truly get it. Whether you're looking for emotional support, practical advice, or simply a reminder that you're not alone, help is out there.

You can visit the Alzheimer's Association at alz.org to find local and virtual support groups, as well as resources for caregivers. The National Institute on Aging also has excellent information and tools at nia.nih.gov. I'll be sure to link both in the show notes. That's it for this episode of The Talk Tracks, but new episodes will now be released every other Sunday, so stay tuned as we work to unravel all the threads, even the veiled ones, that knit together our reality.

Please remember to stay kind, stay curious, and that being a true skeptic requires an open mind. Thank you to my amazing collaborators. Original music was created by Elizabeth PW. Original logo and cover art by Ben Kandor Design. The audio mix and finishing by Ben Campofrida. Our amazing podcast coordinator, Jill Pachesnik. My amazing assistant, Catherine Ellis. And I'm Kai Dickens, your writer, creator, and host. Thank you again for joining us.

This episode is brought to you by Universal Pictures. Today's the day. From Universal Pictures and Blumhouse come a storm of terror from the director of The Shallows, the woman in the yard. Don't let in. Where does she come from? What does she want? When will she leave? The woman in the yard in theaters today.