THE RELIGIOUS RAMIFICATIONS OF FACILITATED COMMUNICATION

By Yechiel Menachem Sitzman

Facilitated Communication is a revolutionary method for communicating with people who are autistic, retarded, or afflicted with cerebral palsy (It also has been found to be effective sometimes with people who are in a coma) This method was discovered by accident by Rosemary Crossley in Australia about 20 years ago.

Facilitated Communication, henceforth referred to in this article as FC, enables individuals who were previously thought to have very limited intellectual capabilities and often to be illiterate, to engage in dialogue and compose prose far above their previously assumed level of intelligence. The method consists of another person (hereafter referred to as the facilitator) holding the hand of the handicapped in a certain position in front of board or paper containing the alphabet (This can be done using keyboard of a computer, typewriter, etc.), which enables the handicapped (the facilitated) to point to letters which spell words and sentences containing appropriate meaning.

Recently, Rabbi Yehudah Serebnick published a book entitled “Venafshi Yodaat Meod” which reports a little known aspect of the messages received by FC, that sometimes the handicapped compose very spiritual messages: messages which include descriptions of past lives, judgments which they were subject to in the court of Heaven after these lives, very strong criticisms of the behavior of individuals and groups of people from a very high spiritual vantage point, knowledge of events in the future, messages from people who had passed away, additional messages of a spiritual nature.

In this article I attempt to discuss various opportunities and obligations which the above mentioned discoveries create for us.

The most obvious obligation is to inform any people whom we know who have a family member with such a condition of the existence of this method of communication. Being able to know the desires, emotions, and opinions of such a relative and the ability to engage in a conversation with him can transform the lives of both the person himself and his family. Frequently the general behavior and the rate of general progress of such people improve dramatically when they begin using FC.

A disabled boy living in America described how he felt and his reactions to being introduced to FC.

A second important obligation is that of trying to remove such Jews from institutions which are run by non-Jews or non-religious Jews. A few years ago a Yeshiva was established in Israel for such people where they study Torah using FC. Most of these students are probably really not obligated to keep any of the commandments of the Torah since they are in the category of a shoteh. Nevertheless, they suffer greatly when in the non-Torah environments.

 One of the students wrote, "I want to tell you first hand what it is like to be in a (non-frum) institution. It is hell. It is misery. My soul broke every day. G-d left me in the hands of non-believers. Do you know what that is like? Would you allow your healthy children to be controlled by such people? I can only thank Hashem for finally having pity on myself and my family.

Another one wrote,

 Rabbi C.P. Sheinberg, Rabbi Eliyahu Svei, Rabbi Nosson Wachtfogel (the mashgiach ruchani of Lakewood Yeshiva) and others, have written about the importance of removing the mentally handicapped from non-religious institutions to place them in Torah environments.

 The phenomenon of FC itself and the spiritual messages, which the handicapped are giving us, present a tremendous opportunity for bettering ourselves and for bettering the whole world, as I will explain further on in this article. If we do use the message of the handicapped for spiritual improvement, doing so can be of tremendous importance to them, as the authors of these messages. To quote one such message:

Not only Jewish mentally handicapped individuals have been writing spiritual messages using FC. Recently, two books were published in the United States, which contain the experiences of two non- Jewish girls with FC. One book is "Memoirs of an Autistic Child" by John Chambers, the other is, "A Child of Eternity" by Kristine Horde and her daughter Adriana.

In both of these books the girls wrote that they had lived previous lives. The books also contain many instances of telepathy, mind reading and additional supernatural phenomena. In the book "A Child of Eternity" the autistic girl, Adriana, wrote that one of her purposes in this life of hers is to open people's hearts for G-d (to love him). She also stressed the importance of loving other people, that hatred is liable to destroy the world and that through love the world could be saved. She also emphasized the importance of people being truthful with themselves.

In the book, "Michtav Meliyahu", (Refer.1) Rabbi Dessler deduced from a passage in Isaiah (Refer. 2) that, if the Jews will not manage to bring the Moshiach by their own repentance, the non-Jews will bring him in the merit of their repentance. For it is easier for non-Jews to repent in as much as that which is demanded of non-Jews is less than what is demanded of the Jews. It is possible that there presently exists a race between the Jews and non-Jews, who will repent and thus bring Moshiach first, and the revelation of FC is Divine assistance to the Jews and to the non -Jews each one in his own way.

The spiritual messages in the book "Child of Eternity" conform to the obligations of non-Jews as they were described in the forward of Rav Nissim Gaon in the preface of his commentary to the Talmud. There he wrote that all people are obligated to fulfill those commandments, which can be deduced from logic and understanding. Inasmuch as non-Jews are not expected to convert to Judaism, it is understandable that there is no mention in the book of the truth of Judaism. However there are favorable comments made by Adriana about various religions. An autistic young man using FC gave the explanation for this to us. He said that if all the messages obtained by FC from all types of people would be full of the truth of the Torah, free choice would disappear from the world. He added that if they would speak in favor of one specific religion, that religion would be strengthened too much. Because of this, they speak favorably about various religions even though actually these religions contradict one another.

The sum total of the messages given by Adriana, which do not cancel each other out, are: G-d exists. There is a spiritual world, which includes life after death. People are held responsible for their deeds and are judged regarding them after they die. People are expected to aspire to spiritual goals. That these messages are essential to the world at large to help extricate it from the atheistic and materialistic state, which presently prevails.

All of the above is predicated on the assumption that FC is a valid form of communication in which the messages which are received emanate from the facilitated subject. Actually there is a heated controversy within the academic community as to whether this is so.

There have been many scientifically controlled tests of FC, the results of which showed that the facilitated did not know information which was not known by the facilitator and often the messages obtained through FC contained information which was known to the facilitator and not to the facilitated. On the basis of these results, the bulk of the establishment discredit FC and have concluded that the messages received through FC originate in reality from the facilitator who unconsciously cues to the facilitated the messages to which the facilitated then points.

I will quote from both sides of this argument to show that both sides are wrong and why they are avoiding the true explanation. The true explanation is of revolutionary importance regarding the subject of this article.

In 1994, Professor Howard Shane published the book, "Facilitated Communication: The Clinical and Social Phenomenon" which contains articles which support the establishment view that "FC appears to be an illogical and unfounded practice (page 29)." Prof. Ann Donnellan, a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin, who disagrees with this view, published a review of Prof. Shane's book in the January 1996 issue of "The American Journal of Mental Retardation."

In the July 1996 issue of this journal, Dr. Herman Spitz, who supports the position of Prof. Shane, published a critical reply to Prof. Donnellans review and in the same issue she published her response to his reply. I will quote from these three articles and add my own comments on them.

In her review, Prof. Donnellan suggests that Prof. Shane and the authors of the articles in his book provide a good example of Murphy's Law. Murphy's law reads: “Woe to that science whose methods are developed in advance of its problems, so that the experimenter can see only those phases of a problem for which a method is already at hand”. Prof. Donnellan wrote:

In her review Prof. Donnellan quoted a number of documented sources which she claimed provide good evidence for the validity of FC. In his reply to her review, Dr. Spitz, after attempting to take issue with the significance of the sources which she cited, attempted to cast aspersions on her qualifications to discuss anything of a scientific nature by quoting from another paper which she published. He wrote:

Prof. Donnellan replied:

At the end of her reply to Dr. Spitz, Prof. Donnellan quoted a new research paper, which was then still in press (Refer.3) authored by the researchers Weiss, Wagner, and Bauman whom she describes as being two respected behavioral psychologists and a renowned neurologist. In this paper they wrote:

The two above mentioned books "A Child of Eternity" and "Memoirs of an Autistic Child" broke the deafening silence regarding the many types of paranormal phenomena, which frequently accompany the FC, experience. The author of "A Child of Eternity", Kristie Jorde, established the "Adriana Foundation," named after her autistic daughter which taught the method of FC to thousands of people. She wrote:

A French speech therapist, Anne- Marguerite Vexiau, went to Australia to learn the method of FC and returned to France where she became the leading facilitator and teacher of the method of FC in France. Recently, she published a book called, "I Choose Your Hand to Talk", in which she reported her experiences in using FC. In this book she reported instances of telepathy and paranormal phenomena. She has begun to participate in the research of the physicist Emanuell Ransford, who is attempting to develop a theory in physics which includes a spiritual dimension and thus to solve various problems which have been puzzling researchers in various branches of conventional science, including also certain aspects of quantum mechanics. He has already pa number of papers on the subject.

In her review in the January issue of "The American Journal of Mental Retardation" Prof. Donnellan' suggests a possible motive for the unscientific behavior of part of the establishment in their antagonism toward FC. She wrote:

This type of opposition within the scientific community has occurred many times in the past against people who claim to have discovered evidence pointing to revolutionary concepts. So it was for Copernicus, Pasteur, Jenner, Lister, and many others. It seems to me that those who reject the validity of FC are afraid not only of the revolution which acceptance of FC would mean for the conventional methods of treating the mentally handicapped but are also afraid of something much more basic.

When evidence was discovered to support the big bang theory of the beginning of the universe, there was also much opposition to it in the scientific community. Professor Robert Jastrow, who was the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, wrote regarding this opposition that there is a kind of religion in science. He suggested that this opposition stemmed from the fact that the evidence that the universe had a beginning conflicted with the articles of faith of the profession of the scientists (see quote in note 4). It seems that a similar fear of things which conflict with articles of faith of many scientists, as Prof. Jastrow put it, influences those who deal with the technique of FC. Anne Marguerite Vexiau wrote in her book,

Not only those who reject FC but also those who accept it are affected by this fear and their efforts to defend their position are crippled by this fear. The argument has been whether or not any messages received using FC can be proved to be authored by the handicapped. Both sides agree that at least some of the messages come from the facilitator through cues, which they transmit without their conscious awareness. Those who support FC don't deny this. They just maintain that an important part of the communications does originate from the handicapped. The subject whom both sides have been ignoring is how their involuntary messages are transmitted. The proper answer to this question is that it occurs not through cues but by means of telepathic powers, which the mentally handicapped possess. This is clear for a number of reasons and this is what they themselves tell us.

Kristie Jorde, in her book "A Child of Eternity ", also criticized the academic world for not having investigated the role of telepathic forces in the phenomena of FC and instead of doing this taking a position against it (see quote in note 5). Both sides of the debate are afraid to admit to this answer of telepathy.

We have quoted from many sources, that wherever FC is practiced, telepathic phenomena come to the fore. However the leaders among the proponents of FC shy away from the explanation of telepathy.

Rosemary Crossley, the woman from Australia who discovered the technique of FC, wrote an article in April 1993 entitled "Flying High on Paper Wings". (Refer.6) In this article she mentioned that both in Australia and in America facilitators believe that communicators using FC are reading their thoughts and even mentioned that sometimes facilitators stop facilitating because they object to their privacy being invaded. Nevertheless, Mrs. Crossley discounts these reports and states that "It should be recognized that the most likely explanation for any incident of 'telepathy' is cueing, whether conscious or unconscious, sought or unsought."

 Also Dr. Biklen, who is the leader of the group which supports FC in America, doesn't want to admit to the role which telepathy plays in FC. In its place, in his article in the American Journal of Speech and Language Pathology in 1992, he accepted the idea that the explanation for facilitator influence is that the facilitators are giving cues from their own subconscious to the facilitated and that this is the explanation for the facilitator's influence. After this, it is not hard for the detractors of FC to build upon this admission and attribute the whole phenomenon to this method of transference of information. Though this idea is ludicrous and illogical, the detractors of FC don't feel obligated to explain in detail how it works as long as their opponents also accept their explanation.

The avoidance of the telepathic explanation confirms the silent consensus, which Anne Marguerite Vexiau reported. Among the academics in the field of F.C, Ann Donnellan and Paul Haskew have been exceptions to this silent consensus. In 1992 Ann Donnellan suggested that possibly the facilitated is learning to”read “the facilitator in some subliminal way, as some of the present learners have begun to suggest and learners and parents have reported in the past (Rimland 1978). (Refer.7) ”

In their book, Psychological Lessons of Facilitated Communication (Refer.8), Haskew and Donnellan advanced a theory explaining why there are so many reports of telepathy among those who suffer mental disabilities in contrast to normal people whose telepathic powers are usually very elusive. They wrote

In 1994, Shaare Zedek Medical Center brought one of the leading investigators of FC, Prof. Stephan Calculator, to Jerusalem to give a series of lectures regarding FC. Dr. Calculator belongs to the group, which doesn't accept FC since he conducted studies, which produced results of no FC validation. He told his audience that whereas as a scientist he was of the opinion that FC is not a valid form of communication, were he a parent of a mentally handicapped child, he would not abandon FC for he had witnessed dramatic improvements in the overall behavior of some of the mentally disturbed patients who used FC and that their behavior regressed to its original state once communication by FC was stopped. Though he did not say so, this amazing contrast between his scientific and his practical assessment implies an admission that the methods of science, which he and his colleagues are using to assess FC, are out of touch with reality.

Dr. Calculator related once visiting a very mentally handicapped person who seemed unusually happy. The patient's guardian explained that this patient was happy because he had just received a gift of a new watch. Using FC, Dr. Calculator asked the patient the name of the brand of the watch and in which store the watch had been purchased. The patient replied to both questions but the guardian said that both answers were incorrect. Dr. Calculator remembered that a few dearlier he had entered a store with the name the patient mentioned, to purchase a watch of the brand that the patient mentioned. Dr. Calculator explained this event by saying that he must have subconsciously sent cues to the patient to produce the answers, which the patient wrote. The illogical and absurd nature of this explanation should be obvious to anyone hearing it. How could a retarded person receive and decipher hints which were unconsciously transmitted to him by the facilitator, without the patient ever having been taught how to do this? Also, why would Dr. Calculator's unconscious mind have wanted to cue to the patient the wrong answer to the question? 

The real explanation seems to be that these handicapped people have the ability to scan the memory banks of the facilitator to search for the answers for the questions, which they are asked. Since the above mentioned patient didn't know the brand name of the watch or the store where it was purchased he searched for answers in the mind of Dr. Calculator who was his facilitator. This explanation is also confirmed by the phenomenon that frequently when researchers asked the patient one question and asked his facilitator a different question, the patient pointed to the answer to the question, which the facilitator had been asked.

This explanation solves another enigma of FC. How do these individuals, who were thought to be very retarded, know how to read, spell, and compose legible sentences? Dr. Biklen and his associates suggest that they are really not retarded but that they have only motoric problems, which prevent them from communicating using normal methods of communication. Since they are supposed to really have normal intellectual abilities and their physical problems prevented them from using their abilities in normal ways, they are supposed to have taught themselves to read, spell and compose while watching TV. This answer is far fetched to begin with and provides the opponents of FC with ammunition to prove that FC is a fake. In addition we have seen FC done successfully with many children who never watched TV. When Dr. Biklen was in Australia he facilitated with a patient who used the American spelling for words which are spelled differently in the two countries. The opponents of FC point to this as a proof that the FC is being done actually by the facilitator. Dr. Biklen doesn't have any satisfactory reply to this proof.

Many FC users have described this process. Ben Golden a 25-year-old, who is autistic and nonverbal, explained in a facilitated message that it is the physical contact with the facilitator which enables him and other FC users to be instantly literate in any language known by the facilitator as well as to access the deepest memories of the facilitator. Nevertheless the interaction is, as was described by a 9 year old girl who wrote using FC, “You are my keyboard but I arrange the words in a specific order.”

The opponents of FC cite much evidence that the various patients under discussion are actually retarded and that their ailment is not merely the result of a lack of ability to communicate, as is claimed by the proponents of FC. Our answer to these problems is that these people have two centers of personality. One personality is in charge of most of the movements of the patient and it is this personality which is impaired and actually retarded. There is a second personality, which on the one hand feels itself in prison because of its inability to communicate to normal people and on the other hand has telepathic abilities and sometimes memories of past lives and other types of unusual knowledge.

The method of FC enables this personality to communicate and it obtains its knowledge of literacy either through utilization of the memory banks of the facilitator or through the memory of its own past lives. This explains why the Australian patient spelled like in America for he received his knowledge of spelling from Dr. Biklen. These unusual explanations are not wild conjecture but are what the patients themselves report using FC.

In her book, “A Passion to Believe”, Diane Twachtman-Cullen discusses at length the phenomenon that when doing FC with clients who are also able to speak, what they say frequently contradicts what they communicate using FC. On page 39 she reports a description of a facilitated session in which a client was angry and his facilitator asked him what was going on. Via facilitation he replied, “I hate Jeff.” and, “Kill Jeff”. By questioning him further she came to the conclusion that Jeff was really himself “as many autistic people use a name to describe their behaviors that they can’t help”.

In his book, “Paid for the Privilege: Hearing the Voices of Autism”, Dan Reed reported the unusual communication which he had with “Randy” the first time he used FC with him. Randy was described as a dangerous person who doesn’t like people and is likely to slug you if you touch him.

A 14-year-old retarded boy who was studying Torah using FC was asked whether he wanted to join his brothers who were playing in the courtyard. He replied verbally, “Yes” but on the communication board he banged with all his strength, “ No”. He was asked to explain this contradiction and he replied, “ Because the Soul wants to learn Torah ”. The word “Soul” is a translation from the Hebrew word “Neshama” which he used. Neshama denotes the spiritual component of the soul whereas the term “nefesh ” refers to that part of the personality which the eminent kabbalist Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzato described as being in the category of the physical (Refer8.). It was presumably the Nefesh, which wanted to go outside and play.

Our contention that the FC phenomenon is based upon spiritual interactions is substantiated by an additional strange aspect of the FC experience. When communicating with FC one notices that the facilitated usually makes no effort to look at the alphabet board but nevertheless succeeds in pointing to letters which when joined together form meaningful words and sentences. The official explanation, which the practitioners try to give, is that their not attempting to look at the board is caused by their disturbed mental state and that their success in pointing is enabled by peripheral vision. However we have received reports of successful FC done with subjects who were blind and also with subjects who were in a state of coma. In both of these situations the explanation of peripheral vision could not apply and the messages which were received from these individuals included information which was not known to the facilitator. When the subjects were asked how they we able to point successfully without looking at the board theyreplied that within their mind they had a picture of the board.

 We must however, admit that if one does accept that FC operates through telepathic powers it may be difficult sometimes to be certain who is the author of specific messages. However, there are thousands who use FC for personal messages which are verifiable as coming from the facilitated individual. For example, if he has been showing signs of stress and using FC, communicates that his problem is hunger, thirst, or any other source of his agitation, when one sees that upon removing the stated source of the problem he becomes calm, this proves that this particular message came from the patient himself.

In September 1995, John Jawson, James Mulick, and Allen Schwartz published a paper called "A History of FC" in the "American Psychologist"(Refer.10). These authors belong to the group who rejects FC. In their article they ignore the above mentioned questions of how thousands of patients express their personal needs through FC and what is the exact technique through which facilitators unconsciously transmit cues to the patients which the patients succeed in interpreting. They do however express various criticisms of the proponents of FC, quote the responses of the proponents to their criticisms and give their comments to these responses. One of the questions which they raise is why is it that on the one hand some of these patients are accredited with communicating through FC and possessing extensive knowledge but this is only when they are not in a controlled situation. When the same patients are subjected to scientifically controlled testing they respond either with no intelligent response or with only what the facilitator who is facilitating with them knows. Those who believe in FC are quoted as attributing this transformation in the ability of the patient to communicate with FC to three factors. A. They say that the negative attitude of the testers affects the patients emotionally in such a way that they are not able to communicate with FC. B. Difficulties connected to their ailments which the patients have in finding the specific words which the test expects them to find and C. a basic lack of consent on the part of the patient to the testing. Jacobson, Mulick, and Schwartz find fault with each of the three suggested factors and give an additional convincing reason for rejecting these explanations of the proponents. They point out that several hundred people have been tested with no affirmative results and these individuals suffer from various different ailments and were of different ages, behavioral abilities with different developmental and educational histories. The authors of this paper find it odd that in spite of the many differences, the one thing they all share is an ability to communicate with FC that disappears when an attempt is made to test this under scientific controls.

These authors suggest that it is more logical that there is one common factor producing this common result and that this common factor is that the phenomena of FC simply don’t exist. We have a different answer to this question. Our answer was given to us by four different people using FC in four different locations and times, and with three different facilitators. Before reporting their answer it is necessary to discuss the ramifications of accepting FC as a valid phenomenon. Though it is really impossible to separate the implications of accepting the phenomenon itself from the implications of accepting the spiritual messages, which are being sent by the patients, we find it easier to discuss these two aspects of FC separately.

 Various groups have expressed themselves very strongly against each of these aspects. What are they afraid of? We will deal first with the phenomenon itself.

At the time of the French revolution there was a transformation of the attitude of the scientific community and of the people who were instrumental in shaping the weltanschaung of the masses. They accepted materialistic and deterministic axioms, which denied the existence of spiritual entities including that of G-d who is active in our world. Whole branches of so called science were constructed to explain things according to these axioms. During this century there have been a succession of discoveries in physics and cosmology which have eroded the above mentioned materialistic and deterministic principles. However, the social sciences and society in general, mainly continued to explain things and operate on the basis of those axioms.

The phenomena of FC, which can only be adequately explained by postulating that it operates through complex telepathic activity, is another example of the type of evidence which the famous physicist Max Plank referred to when he wrote: (Refer11.)

FC also provides scientific proof to that which the famous astrophysicist, Sir Arthur Eddington, postulated in the book, "New Pathways of Science", that there is a reality of spirit and consciousness and that there is, "a spiritual domain underlying the physical world". (Refer12.)

Regarding human behavior noted scientists have already published their opinion that one can’t explain human behavior fully without postulating the existence of spiritual entities.

The famous neurosurgeon W. Penfield conducted extensive experiments which brought him to the conclusion that the mind is a basic element in itself, which cannot be accounted for by any neuronal mechanism (Refer.13). In the book "The Self and Its Brain" by Karl. R. Popper and J.C. Eccles, Penfield Is quoted as writing, "The physiological basis of the mind is the brain action in each individual; it accompanies the action of the spirit, but the spirit is free; it is capable of some degree of initiative. The spirit is the man one knows." Neuroscientist and Nobel Laureate Sir John Eccles Wrote, "It is my thesis that we have to recognize that the unique selfhood Is the result of a supernatural creation of what in the religious sense is called a soul". (Refer.14)

However, these views have encountered opposition in segments of society. Acceptance of the validity of FC and the above outlined explanation for it would be a powerful factor in countering this opposition, as it demonstrates the existence of a spiritual realm.

That FC can have implications far beyond its own area has already been mentioned by Ann Donnellan who suggested that one would eventually discover that FC “ Isn’t an autism or even a disability issue. Rather.... That it is a human issue and that the world of the mind is indeed one world (Refer.15)”

Once the existence of a spiritual realm with the ability to influence the material world would be accepted, there would have to be reassessment of the philosophical framework of contemporary society. This would have to take into consideration the probability of the existence of G-d, free will, and an absolute standard of right and wrong as opposed to the relativistic approach that right and wrong are determined by the norms of society. These are the implications of the acceptance of the phenomena of FC even without relating to the contents of the messages. If we relate to the contents of their messages, the implications become much stronger and demanding for they emphasize the importance of believing in G-d and following His will, life after death, the existence of reward and punishment and that there is a great danger looming ahead soon if we don't assimilate these truths.

However, we have seen that the contents of their messages can be influenced by the attitude of the facilitator. And in addition, as the patients use telepathy, we can't be of the truth of their messages. Not only could these messages in theory come from other people through telepathy but both Jewish patients and Audrey in her book, "Child of Eternity" have mentioned the existof evil spiritual entities which could also possibly be sources for false messages.

 But even if some of those messages are unreliable, their existence should shake the complacency of people who are unthinkingly following the accepted norms of society. These messages should motivate them to carefully search for the truth, using possibly other more reliable proofs, and to implement their conclusions in their lives. In addition, the fact that many messages with similar themes have been received in different parts of the world, through patients both from observant and non observant families, with different types of facilitators, makes it likely that these messages are true and most certainly puts the burden of proof upon those who would want to discredit them.

If we accept that these messages are coming from G-d, we should on the one hand feel grateful to Him for having given us an important tool to better ourselves and assist us in raising the standard of others, by revealing the method of FC and transmitting strong messages to motivate us to better ourselves. On the other hand, there are many people who are not interested in changing their lives and will remain in the same rut even if proven definitely wrong. For example, there are many doctors who know that cigarette smoking increases the risk of cancer and heart disease and still continue to smoke.

 For such people, the revelation of FC has a negative value. It adds to the burden of their guilt when they remain oblivious to these implications and persist in their immoral and irresponsible ways.

Now to return to the question of why scientifically controlled tests usually fail to verify FC for individuals who use FC successfully when it is not being tested? The four above-mentioned patients explained that G-d has revealed FC and its messages to help people find the right way of living. If this would be a procedure that was so clear that no one could attempt to deny it, the guilt of those who wouldn't heed the messages would be much greater. According to the procedure of justice with which G-d runs the world, these people would be liable to immediate severe punishment. In order to obviate this, G-d purposely doesn't allow FC to be validated so as to minimize the guilt of these people [Even though Prof. Donnellan and Kristie Jorde have reported that some people were validated and I personally have met such a person (who was validated by the New York Board of Education. Because of this validation, they pay for a facilitator to accompany him in his lessons in a regular prestigious high school which he attends, achieving superb marks on his courses.), apparently as long, as there are enough unsuccessful instances of validation to muffle the impact of FC, G-d ’s aim is fulfilled.]

This answer is likely to meet with violent opposition from the scientific community, for it undermines the foundation of much of their research in many fields. If G-d actively intervenes in their scientific tests, the significance of their tests is much diminished. It is an established principle in Judaism that the laws of nature, which operate under observation, are different from those, which operate without observation.

The Shulchan Oruch (Orach Chaim chapter 230), advises people, who are about to measure the amount of grain in their store house, to make a prayer that G-d should send bounty into his store of grain. As he begins to measure it, he should send thanks to G-d who is sending his blessings in this store, but if he said the prayer asking for blessing in the grain, after he had already measured it, the prayer is considered worthless, for G-d’s blessing only takes affect on items whose quantity is not yet known. (Refer.16)

There is no proof against this principle. In fact, experiments in physics have shown that on subatomic level particles are affected by human consciousness. (Refer.17) Who is to say that this cannot also occur in our daily lives?

Within the community of people who are committed to the fulfillment of the Torah there are three groups of distinguished people who oppose the utilization of FC for outreach activities or strengthening the fulfillment of the Torah of those already committed to it. The first group feels that the Torah approach calls on us to accept the prevailing scientific view and inasmuch as this view presently denies the existence of FC, we should do likewise. The second group accepts the validity of FC but denies that any of the spiritual messages which have been received come from higher sources and claim that the facilitated have heard these concepts in their homes and are making up these messages in attempt to get special attention using them. The third group states that since these messages are not 100% reliable they should not be used for the above mentioned purposes.

Regarding the first group, Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch was one of the religious leaders of the last century, who approved of absorbing ideas and science into Torah life, even when they were first espoused by non -Jews. But even he didn't advocate indiscriminate acceptance. For example, he wrote: (Refer.18)

What is the Jewish viewpoint regarding the type of science, which has declared FC non-existent? Within Judaism, telepathy is a recognized phenomenon. Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz, the mashgiach of Mirrer Yeshiva, quoted two sources which mention telepathy. (Refer.19) The attitude of the scientific community with which we are dealing is so opposed to telepathy and similar phenomena that Prof. Donnellan may have been afraid, and rightly so, to mention telepathy in her article in the "American Journal of Mental Retardation." Also, when Dr. Spitz quoted her mentioning it in another article, she felt it necessary to defend herself by pointing out that she hadn't published acceptance of telepathy but was merely reporting experiences which others had claimed had happened to them and was not voicing her own opinion. She knew that associating herself with such reports could be used to discredit her, as was actually done by Dr. Spitz. This is a type of science whose exponents follow in footsteps of Aristotle. The Ramban described them and took issue with them in his commentary on the Bible (Refer.20) where he wrote:

This is a so called science which is actually based on articles of faith, as Dr. Jastrow called them, and not on objective judgment. This is not the type of science, which the Torah Jew is called upon to respect. Conversely, here we have the opportunity to show the world the wisdom of our heritage, which enables us to understand phenomena that baffle non-Jewish scholars. (Refer.21)

We have quoted above views of some scientists who are not blinded by anti -spiritual prejudice and have suggested explanations, which resemble concepts that have been part of our tradition for thousands of years. Ann Donnellan suggested that “the world of the mind is indeed one world” (Refer.15) and that, “A sixth sense is present when in all of us at birth, but as speech and locomotion develop (Refer.22), the need for it fades. ”

The Talmud (Refer.23) tells us that the Jewish fetus gazes from one end of the world to the other and that during its development it is taught the entire Torah. However, “When it is born a angel strikes him on the and he forgets all the Torah which he learned in mothers womb.”

Rabbi E.E. Dessler explained this passage of the Talmud by describing the difference between the acquisition of knowledge before birth and after birth. Regarding our present state he wrote:

Rabbi Dessler explained the description of “ the angel hitting the baby on his mouth ” as referring to the sudden encounter with forces of nature and the external world hitting him.

The explanation of Rav Dessler provides a deeper understanding of the phenomena, which Professor Donnellan attempted to explain.

 The second group, who think that the facilitated concoct spiritual messages in order to get more attention, obviously have not really investigated the contents of these messages. Were they to do so, they would be forced to realize that their explanation is inadequate. First of all, frequently the level of knowledge included in these messages is far above what they could hear in their homes. Dayan G. Krausz, in Manchester England, has published a pamphlet in which he quotes various messages received via FC and brings Rabbinic sources, which correspond, to the contents of these messages.

 In addition to this, many times these messages contain information, which could only come from higher sources. I will give two examples from among many.

 A few months after a teacher's father passed away, a student of hers, who frequently acted as a facilitator to her mentally impaired sister, called to the teacher's home to relate that using FC her sister had requested to be taken to the home of her teacher, as she had an urgent message to deliver. The two sisters came to the home of the teacher and wrote,

"I request from you to light a light for the merit of P (She gave the name of the deceased father of the teacher.) at his grave because this is very important to him. If it is difficult for you to light a candle it is good enough to light it using electricity. He will be very thankful to you if you do this."

The teacher was amazed to read this message of the girl. It turned out that after her father passed away, she began visiting his grave every week and lit a candle, which burned for a whole week. However, when people told her that it is not good for women, especially pregnant women (which she was), to visit graveyards so frequently, she decided to stop going. It was only a relatively a short time after she had stopped her visits to the grave that this girl came with the message. Neither of the sisters had been previously told about the situation.

 The second story: On the 15th of April 1994 a facilitator was asked to facilitate with a 3 month old baby girl who was born mentally impaired and had not left the hospital since her birth. Two sisters had been born before her, also with severe mental and physical problems, and had both died a few months after they were born. The facilitator held the hand of the baby and the parents asked the following questions receiving answers through the baby's pointing to the appropriate letters.  

Q. Why does this family have so much suffering?
A. I have returned here for the third time but my parents don't change their behavior.
Q. What behavior are we supposed to change?
A. You should repent.
Q. But we are following the way of the Torah. (They were really not properly observant but they deluded themselves into thinking that they were OK.)
A. If you go to Rabbi so and so, he will advise you as to the correct way to observe the Torah. 

The parents looked for a Rabbi with that name in their neighborhood and found only one, but with a different first name. They asked him whether he would agree to instruct them. He replied that he was too old and too busy to assist them properly but advised them to ask his grandson. It turned out that the first name of the grandson was the name, which the baby had pointed out.

 The parents asked their daughter more questions:

 Q. Why did we merit such revelations from heaven when there are so many families that could also benefit from similar treatment?
 A. You have the merit of coming from saintly forebears. (The parents were surprised to hear this for they hadn't known that they were descended from special ancestors. After hearing this they checked into their lineage and discovered that both sides had saintly forebears.).
 Q. Whose soul are you?
 A. I am your great grandmother.
Q. From which side?
A. My mother
Q. What was your name?
A. She replied with a name, which her mother didn't recognize but when the mother asked her father, the father said that it was the name of his grandmother.

 Regarding the third group, we shall attempt to bring evidence that it is allowed and important to use the messages, which are received by FC for the purpose of supporting Emunah.

 There are two types of mitzvoth of Emunah. The Torah commands (Refer.26) "You should know today and you should impress upon your heart that G-d is in control in the Heavens above and in the earth below there is nothing other than Him." "Knowing" refers to becoming intellectually convinced. "Impressing" refers to strengthening ones emotional commitment to those principles, which one has already accepted intellectually.

Experience has shown that many people who were exposed to the messages of FC were strongly affected, either by becoming committed to the Torah way of life, which is an example of fulfillment of the command to know, or those who were already committed became strengthened in their observance of various aspects of Torah life. This can be described as a result of using the experience of FC to fulfill the command to impress upon ones heart.

 The question is whether it is permitted or advisable to try to accomplish either of the above mentioned goals using methods which; A) are not fully proven or B) if the same type of experience could potentially be used to support a false ideology.

The Rambam wrote (Refer.27):

In spite of the fact that miracles do not provide irrefutable proofs, as we have seen from the above quoted word of the Rambam, in Pesochim, page 118, the Jewish nation is severely criticized for having reached the level of commitment of "and they believed in G-d and in Moshe his servant" (Refer.28) only after they saw the bodies of the dead Egyptians and not before. The Talmud states that until they saw the dead bodies they were not convinced that the Egyptians had not escaped alive from the water on the other side of the Red Sea. This lack of proper belief is, according to the Talmud, described in Tehillim as (Refer.29) "They rebelled when they were next to the sea in reference to the sea." According to what the Rambam wrote, if belief is supposed to require incontestable evidence why were the Jews criticized? The Rambam wrote that they could not be certain that the miracles at the Red Sea were not the result of magic or sorcery. If this was so, how were they to know that the Egyptians, who were experts in magic and sorcery, didn't use this knowledge to escape? We see from this, that the Jews were expected to believe in G-d and Moshe even when it was not proven to them with 100% certainty. 

Also, when the prophet Eliyahu performed the miracle to bring a fire from heaven to burn his sacrifice on Mount Carmel, he prayed a special prayer that G-d would cause the Jews who witnessed it to forget about the possibility that he had performed the miracle using sorcery. (Refer.30) In spite of the fact that this miracle was not a complete proof, Eliyahu performed it. In spite of that which the Rambam wrote that this kind of emunah is not fully convincing and is something which some other person could repeat in the future as a proof to worship idols, it was still worth while to Eliyahu, even to bring a sacrifice outside the temple, in order to influence the Jewish people to abandon the worship of the idol, Baal.

The current situation, in which the bulk of the Jewish nation does not attempt to fulfill the Torah, is mainly the result of two factors. One is the materialistic perspective, which pervades society, and the second is the complacency and lethargy, which inhibit people from making major changes in their mode of living. I have already shown above that the phenomenon of FC itself, without having to use the spiritual messages received through it, can be used to prove the existence of a spiritual realm. The messages can be used to jolt people out of their lethargy and complacency to bring them back to the Torah way of life. True, it would not be proper for people to build their commitment to Torah on these messages. However, these messages can motivate people to accept more reliable foundations of their belief such as the event of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai in accordance with the above quoted Rambam. We need not fear the possibility that there will be messages communicated by FC favorable to other religions. Eliyahu also did not desist from performing his miracle because of the possibility that some future false prophet would do similar things. The Torah itself contains the decisive refutation of all religions that don't base themselves upon the Torah.

(Refer.31) "Please inquire from history, from the time that G-d created man on the earth, from one end of the heaven to the other, has there ever occurred or has it ever been claimed that an entire nation heard the voice of G-d speaking from the midst of a fire as you did and continued to survive?" The force of these verses remains intact after 3000 years for any one who accepts the existence of a spiritual world. We also need not fear messages favorable to Christianity, which doesn't deny the events at Mount Sinai, because in their books it is written that people's souls are not reborn and the authors of the spiritual messages write that they lived previous lives.

 The above deals with using FC to fulfill the commandment of "knowing", in particular for the millions of Jews who are uninformed of the traditions of their forefathers.

 What about us? Is it proper for us to use a phenomenon whose validity has not been proven entirely, in order to strengthen ourselves in conforming to the commandment to impress upon our heart?

In the book "Daas Chochma Umussar" (Refer.32) which, contains lectures that were given in the Mirrer Yeshiva by Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz, he discussed an explanation given by Rabeinu Yonah. The rabbis said that the person who makes a blessing on the new moon can be compared to a person receiving the shechina (presence of G-d), Rabeinu Yonah explained that the spiritual value of blessing the new moon is a result of seeing the hand of G-d which is evident in the reappearance of the moon after it had been gone for a period of time. Rabbi Levovitz explained that this benefit of viewing the new moon results from a very superficial look at the moon. If a person thinks about the reappearance of the moon he will realize that this reappearance is the result of normal laws of nature similar to those which cause the rising of the sun every morning, which is not described as an event that can help a person become more aware of G-d’s involvement in our lives. As this is so, Rabbi Levovitz deduced that the value ascribed to reciting this blessing is actually a result of falsehood. Rabbi Levovitz continued and said, "even if this is so that through a mistake a person has come to greater recognition of G-d, what do we care if this is based upon a mistake, inasmuch as the lesson which he learned from it is a true one. We find therefore, that there is no reason to criticize a person who has attained a valid understanding by means of a mistake. The criticism which is appropriate is conversely, why did he arrive at this awareness only now and till now he was living in error."

He concluded, "Inasmuch as the result of this mistake is true and this was the only way that the individual could have arrived at this deepened awareness, we find that this mistake is the only means by which he can attain a goal of a greater awareness of the truth. If this is so it is actually the proper way of attempting to attain this greater awareness of the truth and we cannot label this "falsehood" because the distinction between falsehood and truth is measured in accordance with the result that arises from it and if the result is truth the means by which this truth was arrived at are also considered true".

There is conclusive evidence that at least some of the messages, which are received through FC, came from true higher sources. Even if some of the spiritual messages which are under discussion do not come from such sources, something which has not been proven, according to the words of Rabbi Levovitz, we are supposed to evaluate the possibility of using them on the basis of the results of their influence. Those messages which can help us fulfill the Torah better, should be used for this purpose.

If FC is a phenomenon which G-d has sent us to arouse ourselves, and publicizing the message helps the souls of the mentally handicapped attain their spiritual correction (and the handicapped two things), what will we answer on the Day of Judgment if we didn't take advantage of them to the utmost?

Anyone who is interested in more information on this topic can contact

Yechiel Sitzman,

Rechov Panim Meirot 13, Jerusalem

Tel: 5371656 FAX: 5372148 Attention Yechiel Sitzman.

E-mail address: dvar@netvision.net.il Attention: Yechiel Sitzman

NOTES

1. Vol. 4 page 300.

2. Chapter 62 verses 11.

 3. Since published in Mental Retardation, August 1996, A Validated Case Study of Facilitated Communication, vol. 34, no. 4, pages 220-230.

 4. Quote from the New York Times Magazine June 25, 1978.

6. Published in Interchange - The journal of IEER (International Exchange of Experts and Information in Rehabilitation) at the University of New Hampshire.

 7. Facilitated Communication: Beyond the Quandary to the Questions in Topics in Language Disorders, August 1992, pg. 76

8. Page 9.

9. The way of G-D, part 1, chapter 5, sections 1.

 10. Vol. 50, no. 9, pp. 750-765.

 11. Main Comments on Western Thought by Franklin Levan Baumer, page 602.

12. Page 322

 13. The Mystery of the Mind: A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain.

 14. Mind and Brain p.97.

 15. Facilitated Communication: Beyond the Quandary to the Questions in Topics in Language Disorders, August 1992, pg. 80.

16. The source of this law is in the Talmud tractate Baba Metziah page 42 where it is derived from the Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 8.

 17. G-d and the New Physics by Prof. Paul Davies, New York, Simon and Schuster page 105-107.

18. Vol. 8 of his collected letters (page 9 of the English edition)

19. Mentioned in the second volume of his book "Daas Chochma Umussar" in the first article.

The two sources are Baba Batra page 16 and Bereishit Rabba chapter 13 paragraph 67.

20. Leviticus ch. 16 verse 8

21. See Tal.Shab. Pg.75 in ref. Deuteronomy Ch.4 V.6

 22. Psychological Lessons of Facilitated Communication, pg.9.

 23. Niddah pg.30 b.

 24. Michtav Me-Eliyahu Vol. 4 Pg.163

 25. Bava Batra pg.12b

 26. Deuteronomy ch. 4 verse 39

 27. Mishneh Torah Laws of Yesodei Hatorah ch. 8

 28. Exodus ch. 14 verse 31

 29. Psalms ch. 106 verse 7

 30. Brochot page 9

 31. Deuteronomy ch. 4 verse 32,33

 32. Vol. 1 page 113.

  Glossary

Avairos - sins

Beis Din Shel Mala - Court in Heaven

Bochur - (in this context) student

Chagim - the holidays

Chessed shel emet –true altruistic kindness

Chilul - desecration of

Chinuch - education

Davening - praying

Eliyahu - Elijah

Emunah - faith (or belief)

Frum - religious

Gan - Garden of

Gehenom - hell

Goyish - non-Jewish

Hachnassas Orchim - hospitality to guests

Hashem - G-d

Klal - community

Mashgiach - supervisor

Mitzvoth - (fulfillment of) commandments

Moshe Rabeinu - Our teacher Moses

Moshiach - the Messiah

Rambam - Maimonides

Ramban – Nachmanides

Ruchani - spiritual

Shabbos - the Sabbath

Shoteh - imbecile

Shul - synagogue

Tzadekes - woman saint

Tzadik - saint

Yeshiva - school of Jewish religious subjects

Yidden – Jews