It is difficult to grasp how deeply discrimination affects us all and how far-reaching its consequences can be. At its core, discrimination is built upon a hierarchical and judgmental structure that shapes the way we perceive and interact with the world. It becomes an unconscious filter through which our minds are organized, creating boundaries that limit our understanding of one another. Discrimination impacts not just how we interact with others — the “us” and “them” — but how we perceive ideas that are different from what we have been taught.
One way to understand our present moment is to examine the discrimination against non-material research. We live in an over-materialized world, where everything has been objectified, leaving little room for non-transactional relationships. Even scientific research funding is primarily dictated by material and physical principles.
This bias was captured by Nikola Tesla when he said: “The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”
From an early age, we are conditioned to produce. Modern humans have become the ultimate machines of production—churning out goods, food, medicine, infrastructure, technology, knowledge, and even art at an accelerating pace. We flood our lives with objects, transactions, and innovations, always seeking to scale and speed up the process. Yet, we rarely pause to question where it is all leading. In this relentless pursuit, even human beings are objectified, often compared to artificial intelligence, as if our worth were measured solely by output.
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, upon seeing the Earth from the Moon, described a profound shift in perspective: “You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it.’”
The autism community provides another illuminating lens through which to examine our material biases. In 2017, an estimated 2.21% of U.S. adults aged 18–84—approximately 5.4 million people—were living with autism spectrum disorder. On a global scale, around 1% of the population is autistic, accounting for more than 75 million people, according to research conducted by the CDC.
While autism is increasingly recognized as a form of neurodiversity rather than a deficit, stigma and misconceptions continue to create barriers to inclusion. Many societies still view autism as something to be fixed or hidden, leading to social exclusion and discrimination. This stigma prevents many autistic individuals from accessing appropriate support, participating fully in their communities, forming relationships, securing employment, and receiving adequate healthcare.
The Telepathy Tapes podcast, created by documentary director Ky Dickens, explores the idea that non-speaking autistic children communicate telepathically. This challenges the conventional belief that communication is solely verbal or transactional. It invites us to consider that there are dimensions of connection beyond what we typically acknowledge—spaces we may all experience but struggle to articulate.
Imagine for a moment that your perspective on the world is transformed by truly listening to autistic individuals. What if we redirected our energy toward developing new channels of communication that do not rely on physical objects? What if the experiences of some of our autistic neighbors reveal that existence is not confined to the body, and that communication can transcend physical presence? These ideas point to the possibility of a global consciousness—one that we are all inherently connected to, even if we fail to recognize it.
Perhaps it is our discriminatory mindset, limited by the materialist filter, that holds us back. There is no “pill” against discrimination — only a deep motivation to see beyond its limits can open the door to exploring the vast, uncharted territories of human connection. A more inclusive world awaits us all. The autism community may indeed be showing us the way forward—if only we dare to listen.
