I'm diagnosed schizotypal, I don't take meds, I have my ups and my downs, but I maintain generally.
And I can relate to the things you're saying;
i think they are all mind reading, but I raationalize and say it's nothing supernatural. There is a difference between me and the "normal", non-sz people. I call them the "worldly minded camarilla", a small group of creatures (but most of the humans) who are unreasonably concerned with the actions and intentions of others, and study facial recognition, facial muscle reading, and general intuitiveness and just plain nosiness, for the purpose, they think, of having some "control" over those around them, and therefor, they think, to increase their own power. Your father, for example, head of the household, is almost in charge of having some idea of what your'e thinking, and it is easier for him to comprehend when making physical or eye contact, of course.
They say people like us are just sensitive. Hyper sensistive, they say. We just have to get used to it.
The worldly minded camarilla doesn't have the sensitivity. They know we do. They feel frightened, so they try to exersize their own form of "power", the one where they're superior. They know, for instance, that i'm lying if I break eye contact and look down to the right. I hate that. But i'm not going to stoop to their level and think about that kind of stuff. Maybe I can't, i'm the other type, the sensitive type;
so maybe they are superior, but superior on an inferior field.
And here's my reaction to the "touching wood" thing:
i'm not surprised it works, what surprises me is that even though you've discovered the power, you use it so infrequently. Maybe you don't understand.
I have studied with shamans from around the world. The only difference between sz and shamanism, as far as I can tell, is the line: "the dreamer must control the dream, not the dream the dreamer".
They taught me about the tree's power. But your connection with the wood seems so "stacatto", only used in the most intense moments when the power is needed, and then only briefly, and then it may not even be a living tree.
Go deep into the woods, pick a tree, hug the tree, commune with the tree, invite the tree into your mental life, have a smooth, full, continuous relationship. Welcome to your power.
-onderdonk