Autism is not a handicap or a disability; it is a sign of the awakening of very powerful intellectual abilities, and it is a gift that needs intense stimuli and encouragement. When that awakening starts, the physical abilities the child has already developed get sidelined as the brain moves into extreme overdrive, and intense fascination with what is going on inside itself captures the child’s attention. The basic skills that the child was building are no longer interesting; they are boring and they get ditched as the infinitely creative inner world expands exponentially for the child. The child is not shutting down but growing intellectually at an incredible pace that allows no time for basic motor and social skills to continue normal development. If this is realized and the child is enthusiastically allowed to freely develop this inner world, then s/he will pick up the basics later, and possibly rather slowly because the inner world is so much more interesting and exciting than the humdrum activities that most small children are engaged in. Remember, the world you experience is illusory, and Reality lies within!
As the child becomes aware, as s/he will, that certain basic skills – reading, writing, talking, and socializing – are necessary for communication with the world outside themselves, they will focus enough attention there to enable them to pick these up quite quickly because they want to communicate with others about the things within that they find so fascinating. The vast inner world that an autistic child is discovering is a world of connections without limit. It is the collective mind to which every human has access and which everyone influences constantly. It is just that most are unaware of their connection to it and of the influence that they have on it and that it has on them.
Humanity has been evolving over the eons, as is generally understood and accepted, but that evolution is generally thought of as something that happens unconsciously, by chance, as circumstances change and new skills become necessary for survival. And evolution will continue to occur unconsciously over the eons as it has been doing, indefinitely, if you choose to remain unaware, but each one of you has the ability to evolve consciously, and autistic children are showing the way.
You were created in Love, free to experience constant joy, and, as most of you realize, when you are in joy everything flows far more freely and easily. Over the eons during which your various cultures have developed they have established codes of behavior and beliefs about those behaviors, leading to rules and limitations to which people are expected to conform, thus limiting or stifling the freedom and joy that were meant to encourage and expand your amazing creative abilities.
As you can see all over the world, these unhelpful and sometimes very damaging limitations are being discarded because the collective has made the choice to be free once more. For those who have grown up unquestioningly accepting the limits, restrictions, and laws that your cultures, religions, societies, and various other organizations have imposed, this is very unsettling, threatening, and even terrifying. It is another reason why you need to go daily to your quiet inner space and ask for help to release all the limiting beliefs and attitudes that no longer serve you or humanity generally. It is in releasing those “shoulds and musts”, or “shouldn’ts and mustn’ts” that you start to allow yourselves the freedom to be yourselves instead of attempting to be some sort of cardboard cutout figure that it seems society expects you to be. You are, each and every one of you, unique beings with your own individual, creative talents that you have every right to own and develop. Trying to fit into a mold set by others for you is detrimental to your health and well-being.
Your human potential is limitless, and this is becoming apparent as new mental and physical skills continue to be uncovered, developed, practiced, and demonstrated daily. You are beings of Love, beings of pure energy that is completely boundless, who chose to experience limitation and restriction. Well, the time for those experiences has finished, and many among you have now discarded those attitudes and that sense of limitation in favor of allowing yourselves to use and enjoy the unique potential that is embodied within you. Seeing others allow their potential to flourish allows and encourages those who felt that they were not quite ready to start doing likewise. The New Age that has established itself firmly and powerfully on Earth is like an enhanced atmosphere that has intensified the vitality of the energy field in which you are enveloped, drawing you out and encouraging you to look with new eyes at the world around you, so that you can see the marvelous creative possibilities that were always present but unseen, and which can bring you untold happiness just by playing with them. You have examples of this as young people everywhere expand their horizons and express new ideas that benefit everyone.
Autism is a wake-up call – a call to awareness to any who would diagnose those who do not conform or develop in the prescribed or expected manner as ill, damaged, or in need of treatment. Every human is unique and has unique needs and talents that must be honored. It does not honor anyone to impose ill-considered restrictions upon them or to decide for them what their path of growth should be. Adults need to respond positively to the wants and interests of the young ones in their care by providing a safe and loving environment in which they can grow in the direction that their talents suggest to them, and which will bring them joy.
Joy is your right. When you are experiencing joy you are on your path; when you are bored, dull, or depressed then you have taken an inappropriate direction and may need to retrace your steps to the point at which joy weakened or ceased, and then take the necessary steps to rekindle it. Frequently, it is quite easy to see what changes you need to make; it is just that it often seems that you “shouldn’t.” Question that restriction, and if it appears invalid for you, then discard it, and reclaim your freedom and the joy that goes with it. Joy will lead you home to Reality and to all that that has to offer.
Your loving brother, Jesus.
Bravo! We must be what we can be.
Reblogged this on Blue Dragon Journal and commented:
These children and adults are very intelligent and very, very sensitive. It takes adjustment for them to focus here and lots of love and compassion from family and friends.
This message is for you, medical industry; expect more enlightenment!
I was just asked about this very topic a week ago by one of my FB friends. I am pleased to see that what I stated is almost exactly what this blog is talking about. YAY!! I truly believe that what society had dubbed “developmental challenges, (not their terminology!) is in fact human consciousness on a MUCH higher frequency. I hope that more and more people will begin to understand this.
Now that the DSM has ditched the very useful diagnostic term of Asperger Syndrome, “autism” refers to self-actualizing individuals like the ones in this discussion and to people like my nonverbal adult son who cries and howls in frustration and sometimes pain because he cannot tell the rest of us what is going on and we don’t always figure it out correctly. There are times when he is smiling and sunny one minute, only to begin gouging his own face, banging his head against walls and hitting and kicking objects hard enough to injure himself the very next minute. I believe he is experiencing a biomedical event that causes him so much pain that banging his head against a wall is his attempt to distract himself from it. I assure you that I do accept him when I hope the medical community will learn more about what is happening to him in those terrible moments when the switch flips. As a whole, he is not experiencing gifts. I also do not accept that his inability to care for his own safety is a gift.
Please do not generalize autism as *always* being a gift. The fact that you wrote this post suggests that you do not care for other people characterizing your experiences for you. It is an insulting experience, to say the least. My son cannot describe his experiences for himself, but those of us who know him can do our best. We feel insulted on his behalf when his daily reality is brushed aside as something that cannot exist.
Advocates always step into the shoes of the “other,” so each of us needs to guard against generalizing our individual experiences to people we do not know. Recently, I read a Google+ post from a thirty-something year old woman who identified herself as having Asperger’s. She wanted people to know what women with Asperger’s were like. So, she listed several attributes, including a love of furry pets and a dislike of math and science. In short, she described herself and presented the description in a way that implied all other women with Asperger’s were the same. I wonder how women with Asperger’s who happened to be scientists or mathematicians felt about that post?
In short, I ask that individuals with autism who are able to self-advocate avoid generalizing their experiences to my son without even knowing him. The fact that “Alice” has autism does not automatically make her a better spokesperson for “Mitch,” a person with nonverbal, severe autism. If Alice knows Mitch personally, that may make Alice a good advocate and her autism may enhance her insight into Mitch. Similarly, I am not automatically a good representative for my son because I am his mother. I am suited to the job because of what I know about him as individual. My being his mother may enhance my insight because it entails spending a great deal of time with him.
What if my son were briefly able to speak? We might ask him, “What do people with autism need?” His response, based on his own experience, might be, “Quilts and alphabet blocks!” Would it not be galling if the education system, the medical system, the social service system and every single NT parent, NT neighbor and other NT person in our society were then to present a quilt and a set of alphabet blocks to the people in this discussion, and assume all their needs and preferences were thereby fulfilled?
You may respond that my son must have something going on besides autism. That only highlights the error– in my opinion– of eliminating the term “Asperger” from the DSM. In the meantime, that leaves all us struggling to communicate the “flavor” of autism about which we speak. I do not think it is asking too much of you or of me to express ourselves clearly. We can do this by describing the individual of whom we speak with particularity. We can also achieve this by modifying the term “autism.” Consider, high-functioning autism, low-functioning autism, nonverbal autism, etc.
I make no apologies for having tried to help my son compensate for certain developmental challenges. As things are, he does not understand that it is dangerous to step out into moving traffic and I wish we could teach him traffic safety. Where his health and safety are not concerned, it’s important to consider whether learning a new skill makes him happy or not. Mother Nature is not going to allow us to change the person my son is– we just want the person that he is to be safe, healthy and happy. (And isn’t that what every parent should want for her child?)
So, please, please understand that when people like me grow upset over autism is characterized as a gift, it’s not because autism is never a gift! It is because we do not want our children’s needs to be based on your needs, any more than you want your needs to be based on mine. It is because we don’t want our realities and our children’s realities conflated with yours, any more than you want yours confused with ours.
Respectfully,
S.W. Atwell
I want to know more.