Can people with dementia or stroke still communicate — even after losing speech? Explore the science, stories, and spiritual insights behind silent connection.

Alzheimer’s and Stroke: Finding Connection After Speech Is Gone.

Telepathy and Nonverbal Alzheimer's and Stroke Patients

When a loved one can no longer speak — because of Alzheimer’s disease or another type of dementia, a stroke, or another neurological condition — the silence can feel devastating. Many caregivers are left asking: Is there still someone in there? Are they trying to tell me something? And more radically: What if they're still speaking… just not with words?

This isn’t a sentimental fantasy. It's an idea supported by personal experience, spiritual traditions, and a growing body of scientific research into human consciousness, parapsychology, and extrasensory perception. In this article, we explore the possibility that telepathic communication with nonverbal patients isn’t just wishful thinking — it is likely very real.

This article explores the growing body of human experience, emerging neuroscience, and spiritual reflection that support one central idea: that communication is still be possible — even when language is lost.

Revisiting the Telepathy Tapes

In a prior newsletter, we covered the Telepathy Tapes, a podcast and upcoming documentary movie delving into the fact that nonspeaking autistic children communicate telepathically. Now, episodes 5 and 6 of the Telepathy Tapes Talk Tracks series expand this idea to include people with Alzheimer's and stroke survivors who have lost the ability to speak.

In these podcast episodes, family members and caregivers describe experiences that defy clinical explanation — moments when patients who appear unresponsive seem to react to unspoken thoughts, complete sentences never said aloud; some also display awareness of decisions being made in another room. These aren't isolated anecdotes. They appear across diagnoses, ages, and settings — quietly suggesting that mind-to-mind communication is much more common than we imagine.

Dan Goerke’s Journey: Love, Loss, and “Felt Thought”

Dan Goerke, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned full-time caregiver, recounts his own encounters in the moving memoir Unbelievable, Unforgettable: A Journey of Telepathy and Compassion in Alzheimer's Care. As his wife declined into late-stage Alzheimer’s and lost her ability to speak, Goerke began experimenting with “felt thought” — a practice of focusing a message inwardly, emotionally, and silently. To his amazement, she often responded — in her sleep, with a tear, a touch, or a perfectly timed gesture. These weren’t just random reactions for Goerke; they felt like direct answers to his questions about how best to take care of his wife. And for Goerke, they redefined what it means to love — and to listen — when words no longer work.

He doesn’t claim proof. But what he offers is perhaps more powerful: a roadmap for connection, grounded in love and attention. He invites us to view care not just as a moral duty, but as a sacred, silent dialogue — one that may take place beyond the limits of language.

What Does the Research Say?

Contrary to popular belief, there is a robust body of scientific literature suggesting (many argue proving) that telepathy — or mind-to-mind communication — is real and measurable:

• Dr. Dean Radin’s work in Entangled Minds explores the intersection of quantum theory and psi phenomena, with peer-reviewed data showing above-chance results in telepathy and remote viewing.

• Rupert Sheldrake and others have demonstrated statistically replicable evidence of people (and animals) sensing when they are being stared at or when a loved one is coming home, receiving thoughts from loved ones before phones ring, and many other psi phenomena.

• Telepathy: Our Lost Sense by Dr. Dianne Cartwright examines brainwave synchronization, mirror neurons, and experimental neuroscience that could explain extrasensory communication.

• The CIA’s declassified Gateway Process Report from 1983 (approved for release in 2003) — authored by Lt. Col. Wayne M. McDonnell — described specific brainwave techniques that could facilitate nonlocal consciousness, telepathy, and remote viewing. Page 25 is for some reason missing from the CIA published report but can be for free here if you want to read the entire report. You can also find complete versions of the report on Amazon for a small fee. This report demonstrates that these abilities are real and trainable. The Gateway process was created by Robert Monroe, founder of the Virginia-based Monroe Insitute (he coined the term "out of body experience") that is still in operation after over 50 years and how has multiple locations throughout the US and internationally. I've read several of Mr. Monroe's books, all available on Amazon.

• The CIA had another project involving thought projection (aka "remote viewing") entitled Project Stargate that started in 1977. There's a good book I read years ago about this, written by the first remote viewer hired by this CIA program, Joseph McMoneagle. HIs book is called The Stargate Chronicles: Memoirs of a Psychic Spy. 

• Dr. Gary Schwartz’s Afterlife Experiments, conducted at the University of Arizona produced statistically significant results under controlled conditions, demonstrating information transfer between mediums and subjects that could not be explained by chance or fraud. 

Taken together, these sources suggest telepathy is not pseudoscience — it is emerging science, supported by decades of repeatable experiments, declassified intelligence programs, and respected academic voices. There are also, of course, die-hard skeptics who say all of this is nonsense because it doesn't fit into their (limited) materialistic view of the way the universe operates.

Research on Nonverbal Dementia, Stroke, and Communication

Scientific research into stroke and dementia also supports the idea that communication persists after speech is lost:

• Nonverbal cues such as eye contact, facial expression, posture, and touch remain critical in Alzheimer’s and dementia care. These signals become more important as verbal skills decline.
• Stroke and aphasia studies show that patients may understand speech even if they can’t produce it — especially in expressive aphasia. Brain scans confirm comprehension remains intact in many cases.
• AI and neuroscience are rapidly developing tools such as wearable throat sensors and brain-computer interfaces that restore communication for people with locked-in syndrome or degenerative speech disorders.
• Caregiver intuition — often dismissed — is increasingly recognized as a valid phenomenon. Nurses and family members frequently report “just knowing” what their loved one needs, even in total silence
• Other dementias — including Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and Parkinson’s disease dementia — often involve fluctuating communication abilities. Some individuals have “windows of clarity” where they suddenly engage meaningfully despite earlier silence. These moments remain poorly understood but widely reported.
• Spiritual care research supports the therapeutic value of belief and presence. A 2020 review in BMC Geriatrics found that spiritual engagement — including shared prayer, silence, and presence — can reduce agitation and improve connection in advanced dementia care settings.

Spirituality and the Soul

Beyond science lies the realm of spirit — and it, too, affirms what many caregivers instinctively feel. In all major spiritual traditions, communication beyond words is seen as real. Whether described as intuition, inner guidance, soul-to-soul resonance, morphic resonance, or multiple other terms, some religious and some simply spiritual, silent communion is ancient — and universal.

• In Christianity, this is known as the still small voice or the presence of the Holy Spirit. or simply prayer.
• In Buddhism, it may be described as tacit awareness — consciousness beyond ego and language.
• In modern spiritual psychology, it overlaps with what are called unity experiences — moments of oneness that dissolve the barrier between self and other.

These experiences — when a caregiver suddenly “hears” what their loved one needs, or feels a profound connection while simply sitting together — may not be imagination. They may be consciousness meeting consciousness.

The Caregiver’s Role: Listening Beyond Language

Whether you interpret these experiences as telepathy, spirit, intuition, or neurobiological resonance, the takeaway is the same: connection is still possible even without spoken words. Here’s how you can try to deepen this type of communication:

• Assume awareness. Even if your loved one can’t respond, treat them as fully present.
• Use intention. Think clearly and lovingly. Silent focus may speak louder than words.
• Slow down. Most breakthroughs happen in stillness, not during busy activity.
• Support with touch and music. These universal forms of communication activate deep memory and emotion.

Write down the moments. Tracking subtle interactions may reveal patterns over time.

The Silence May Not Be Empty

To many, the idea of telepathic communication with someone who has lost speech may seem far-fetched. But to those who’ve experienced it — who’ve seen a tear fall at the exact moment of a silent thought or prayer, or felt an answer rise inside them as they reached out in love — the question isn’t “Is this real?” It’s: How could it not be?

We’ve only just begun to understand the depth of human consciousness. And if love is a language of its own, then maybe — just maybe — we’ve been listening in the wrong place all along.

Is This the Next Frontier — or Have We Always Known?

Some will dismiss all of this as pseudoscience. Others will frame it as coincidence, or mere emotional projection. But the families and caregivers who live these stories every day often walk away with a different conclusion — that the line between mind and heart, thought and soul, silence and speech, may not be so rigid after all.

And if even one more moment of connection is possible — if we can comfort a loved one, sense their needs, or hear their goodbye without words — then surely, it’s worth listening.

Stay healthy. Stay proactive. Stay prepared.