[nerdfiles]

Yes.

At the same time, I'm only recently discovered some of them. For instance, the speech imitation ability can be spontaneously triggered. Sometimes I find myself running from a social situation because once I think about the ability, I become hyperaware of my opportunity to do it.

Bear in mind that I am not loony. I realize I am saying "WAT"-able stuff here. Some of the things I am currently able to do, I simply do not want others to know. It's frightening, and I'm not quite sure what the proper channels are for some of these things. It's almost comic book-esque; and it's wacky, even when I reflect in my own mind, that I am able to do some of these things. Developing the words to express it to others is challenging. What's more, for some of these things, I'm not even sure what to call it, so that I might do my own research.

Considering the threat level of all of this as well (see OP), I obviously don't want to run off tattling to my local state representative. (I was living in Texas, so that probably would've been Rick Perry or something. Most of the people of the South U.S. would probably pull a gun on me if I showed them some of these abilities, talents, whatever you want to call them.)

All of that aside: Imagine trying to live a normal life with this kind of thing going on. I'm nearly at wits end just trying to fit in on a daily basis. It's not all "cool! get prize money!" These are difficult emotional problems as well that I have lived with since childhood.

Might I ask you, if you were in such a position, how would you prioritize your life? (Kids who grow up upper class and probably with parents who taught them lots of science likely will shout "Cool! let's test!" But low income kids who have been beaten and ridiculed on account of such varied dispositions likely would want to conceal themselves. Is this not obvious? And is this not a trope of comic books and TV drama? Oh how quickly we forget the X-men.)

[Cushman]

I'd recommend hitting the JREF forums.[0] For best results, approach them with a single thing you can do that others cannot, rather than a list of things. Minor is actually better, as long as it's something with a causal impact that shouldn't be possible in conventional neurology. They'll help you whittle your ability down to a falsifiable claim, and then design a repeatable, properly-blinded protocol to definitively test whether the phenomenon is real, or has a mundane explanation.

As long as you approach it in good faith, with an earnest desire to discover the truth and the willingness to be proven wrong if the facts go that way, I think you will find they are generally intelligent, respectful people; they do this stuff all the time. Remember that skeptics want to see paranormal phenomena validated more than anyone does; the proper skeptical response to an unlikely claim is, "Well, my impulse is to doubt that, since it goes against every experience I've had so far. But it would be really cool if true-- Show me!"

I'd only also ask, just for me, that you make an agreement with yourself that if the experiment returns a mundane result, you won't discard it but will seek medical help. It may indicate a life-threatening condition.

[0] http://forums.randi.org/forumdisplay.php?f=7

[dhimes]

Hrmm. I thought you were kidding. So I ask: what do you mean by "speech imitation?" I can do that too, but it involves my mouth and vocal cords.

[nerdfiles]

I can highly accurately imitate a person in real-time as they speak.

It's "empathic"; as I understand it, it really is just reading body movements and reading the person. However, I can also maintain focus on a multitude of sound stimuli such that when doing this, I can specifically focus on the person. If I focus, my mind wanders or becomes more autonomous. It's like parallel processing. As I said, I don't really even have the language for this particular ability. It becomes "mind reading" once I realize that I am maintaining the conversation while tracking their words spoken and future words. It's like a thief leaving _too much_ evidence at the scene of the crime; in this case, it is emotional and non-verbal evidence. Parroting the person, then, becomes something that I do incidentally on top of being able to hypermentalize about that person, or really any number of other things.

[nerdfiles]

I'm not saying I have paranormal abilities. I'm saying I have empathic abilities, and these can be explained by science. Speech Imitation is a matter of one's frontal lobe processing too much information, and that information becomes immediately actionable (in my case).

This is a matter of neuroscience, not the paranormal; a matter of hypercognition. At the same time, I've been using magnets and nootropics to cognitively enhance and bootstrap various physiological deficiencies I have. I am saying that, for instance, anyone can perform speech imitation. Hu-mans are already highly predictable. I'm not claiming mind-reading or any of this. I am claiming: http://www.ted.com/talks/juan_enriquez_will_our_kids_be_a_di...

[Cushman]

Paranormal is a lazy word for me to use, since a scientific worldview doesn't have any unexplainable phenomena, only unexplained phenomena. Leave that word and its implications aside, and take this away: I feel comfortable saying (and you seem to agree) that what you're describing is far enough outside the practice of mainstream neuroscience that the same recommendation applies as if you were able to read minds.

1) Scientifically verify, carefully, for yourself, that you aren't simply delusional, and 2) Bring that scientific verification to the attention of researchers in the field, because they have been working their entire lives to find this sort of thing.