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You're listening to episode 370 of Jimmy Aiken's Mysterious World,

where we look at mysteries from the twin perspectives of faith and reason.

In this episode, we're talking about facilitated communication and spelling to communicate.

I'm Don Betanelli, and joining me today is Jimmy Akin.

Hey, Jimmy.

How do Dom?

Folks, be sure to stick around to the end of the episode.

We'll have your feedback on our recent episode on Christianity and NDE's.

But first, for thousands of years, there have been efforts to help people who have difficulty communicating find ways to do so.

Today, there are a vast array of what are known as augmentative and alternative communication

or AAC systems, and they've brought hope to many.

In the late 20th century, one form of AAC appeared

known as facilitated communication. More recently, a system known as the rapid prompting method

or spelling to communicate was developed. These techniques seemed miraculous, and they suddenly

let people who were previously thought to be severely mentally

handicapped to communicate. But these techniques proved controversial. So what are facilitated

communication and spelling to communicate? How do they work? And what's the truth about

the controversy surrounding them? That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of Jimmy

Aiken's mysterious world. So, Jimmy, what do we need to say to begin? Well, I originally

...