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This book was inspired by the relationship between Tracy Perez and his son Connor. Connor was diagnosed at three years old with severe nonverbal autism. Connor began typing on an iPad to communicate 10 years ago in April 2016. His incredible perception and extrasensory abilities became evident right away. His intelligence, insights, wisdom, and way of looking at the world pushed me to reexamine not only my preconceptions of his intelligence but my own theology. 

For centuries, Christians understood the heart as the center of a person, formed by the images it beholds. The heart was created with the capacity to see and perceive spiritual reality, which shapes it and, therefore, forms the person. The Early Church Fathers taught that this seeing happens in the imagination. This is how mankind is formed for better or worse, and they emphasized the necessity of purifying the imagination. 

This was how believers encounter God, receive divine truth, and are transformed into the image of Christ. In The Old Way, Tracy Perez traces this forgotten path through Scripture, the writings of early Church Fathers, and personal experiences that challenge modern assumptions about consciousness, communication, and spiritual sensitivity. 

Inspired by his son Connor’s spiritual life and the global conversation sparked by The Telepathy Tapes Podcast, The Old Way explores questions that have captivated millions while pointing readers toward a much older and deeper understanding of the human heart and spiritual truths. Discover how community events and educational resources can illuminate how the Age of Enlightenment shifted Western Christianity from a relational and experiential understanding of faith to a predominantly systematic theology. What was once central to Christian thought was lost, leaving many believers disconnected from the spiritual inheritance that shaped the lives of the Apostles, the Church Fathers, and generations of Christians. Readers will gain insights into the world of nonverbal autism and how silence, along with being drawn into an inner world of the heart, has produced incredible spiritual acuity. Tracy and Connor’s experience becomes a gate into a theological exploration of how human beings were meant to perceive, communicate, and experience God. 

Inside, you’ll discover: 

- The biblical meaning of 'eyes of your heart.' 

- How Early Church Fathers understood the imagination and its role in spiritual formation. 

- How the Age of Enlightenment influenced modern Bible translators and changed these ancient understandings. 

- The relationship between the imagination, prayer, and transformation. 

- Insights from the nonverbal autism community that challenge conventional views of communication and consciousness. 

- The significance of The Telepathy Tapes Podcast phenomenon. 

- How the kingdom of God is experienced within the human heart. 

- Practical ways to recover the ancient path by applying the disciplines and understandings of the early Church through workshops. 

This book is an invitation to rediscover a forgotten way. A way known to the Prophets, taught by Jesus and the Apostles, brought forth by the early Church, and waiting to be recovered today. It is a call to see again with the eyes of the heart and to encounter God in the depths of the human person, the heart, where faith, imagination, and divine presence meet. 

It is THE OLD WAY: Imagination, The Ancient Path, and The Forgotten Way of the Heart.