Autism: A Renaissance
Changes
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In one of our earliest sections on this website entitled ‘So Who’s Normal?’, we suggested that ‘it may be a good idea to look closer to home (than the neurologist/geneticist/psychologist) and give floor space to accommodating autists themselves’(capable of explaining autism). It is pleasing to note that the biggest change in the academic world of autism is that people are starting to listen to the people who have autism for some of the answers. - a message that was conveyed loud and clear at the Glasgow 2000 Autism Europe Conference in May.
Consciousness is changing, it cannot be any other way. The autistic Renaissance which we announced in April, is underway.
The Same But Different
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Although autism is, intrinsically, the same in every autistic person, it is different in as much as every autist is also an individual in the physical sense, therefore it is difficult to always offer help to any parent with an autistic child simply because each child’s genetics are different. You cannot give exactly the same help to any two parents.
The paradox is that autists are all the same, but different. Why? Why do atoms choose to stick together to assemble a chair and be separate from the atoms that stick together to make the table by its side, and different yet again from the atoms that cling together to provide the floor that the chair and table stand upon?
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Autism: The New Perspective
Some abilities demonstrated by autistic persons are tempting to put into the popular category of what is commonly described as ‘psychic phenomenon’ - a knowing through a so-called 6th sense. This may relegate savants into the realm of novelty value, such as the twin brothers researched by Oliver Sacks in 1985 who, whilst living in a hospital, had been on TV many times because of their ability to say immediately on what day of the week a date in the far past or future had fallen or would fall. The numerous levels of consciousness categorised by the ancient Buddhists of the Tibetan Schools listed 49. Psychic phenomenon is a mild release of information by various possible channels of the brain at a level far below the 49 rungs of an ascending and hierarchal ladder whereby the occasional release and quirky access of information from what we may call autism is stationed. The consciousness level of autism is home to a realm above and beyond the approximation of an imagined ‘spirit world’.
We are told there is no cure for autism. Why should there be a cure if the autists are not suffering from their autism as we are constantly being told they are. They only suffer our inability to meet their very specific needs and understanding, as other strains of beings. This consequence is a ‘strain’ on us. We cannot find what is the cause for autism. It is a timely evolution. Already in this first ‘generation’ or ‘batch’ there are acknowledged savants. Who is to say that in two or three generations time these early ‘models’ will not have adapted to their earlier difficulties and an entire race of perfected savants, that will serve as a blueprint to lead the human race beyond its limitations in time and space, will have stabilized ? If so, there is no cure to this condition or ailment - as sixty years of seeking has testified - for there is no ailment.
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Autism: Eastern Philosophy Or Brain Disorder ?
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Having had a prolonged personal experience of time spent at a Tibetan retreat, and, years later, a Residential Centre for adult autists and those with asperger Syndrome, I can say that the early morning ambience - before the first resident rises – is, peculiar to say, the same… that aura of anticipated oddness… that ‘feel’ of an impending alternative, the quietude of the encompassing building as the occupants sleep before wakening to release that curious energy. I am reminded of the silence of the Chinese or Japanese aspirant who will dance a ballet-type slow motion dance around a selected Chi energy giving tree at the crack of dawn, his strange dance, his strange postures and energy imbibe could so easily be mistaken in the West as the bizarre mannerisms of autism.
The fixed stare into nowhere of the autist, the near absence of epilepsy - to the Buddhist it is a deep meditation, the stillness of a rock, the eyes refusing to flicker. The search for the ‘reborn’ Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of the Tibetan Buddhist movement, begins approximately in the 3rd year after the absence of the prior incarnation. It is also in the 3rd year that diagnosis for autistic children is preferred. The autistic obsession with precision and geometry is matched by the Tibetan Buddhist as grains of coloured sand are painstakingly arranged by hand into a circular mandala some as wide as many metres radius on the ground. The rituals and routines of the autist, some quite mundane, some quite exotic - the Buddhist, the same, strange ritualised motions and concrete belief systems enacted into motion. We must recall that Buddhism was too abstract to survive in its actual home of India.
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Autism: An Invisible Nature
The Whirling Dervish, the Turk, the Persian, the Muslim who will perform a spinning dance as part of his religious ritual - he spins, it is acceptable, he is in ecstasy, it is okay. The autist is fascinated with spinning objects. Why, what is the correlation? Is Mind split, the Eastern and the Western, like the hemispheres of the brain, and exclusive functions contained within? The autist sits cross-legged rocking, he is in a state of distress we hear it said. The Buddhist sits at his ceremonial puja gently swaying to and fro to a mind-altering mantra and all is fine - it is cool. Both he and autist mumble incoherent. At that moment they are both looking the same. What do they enact? The Buddhist seeks to furrow inside of himself, there is a mystery contained within, the autist already resides there and won’t come out. What is occurring? The Buddhist is seeming to seek what the autist already has. What is it? It is freedom. It is Reality.
The tinkling of the wind chimes blowing across the plateau of Tibet. The autist is enthralled by the tintinnabulation of sound. He abides daily to a ritual, a routine. The Buddhist, also cloaked in an Asiatic symbolism indigenous to its culture. What then, the culture of the autist? It is the hidden side of Nature, the Mother, the Tara of the Tibetans, the geometry of Mind, the planes of geometry, the astral planes of Mind. Mind is untrammelled, it is free. We confine it only in fleshly bodies. The spirit of autism is the spirit of Buddhism, it knows no man-made rules. Man has tried to rule Nature. He has failed. Nature has chose to express Itself through a new species. It knows no man-made rules. It is autonomous. It is ‘autistic’.
Autism is referred to as in ‘invisible nature’ because autists may ‘look’ just like anybody without the condition. It is, indeed, Nature at work, invisibly.
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Autism Is An Energy
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For those who may be scientifically minded, we can turn to pure science to explain the pioneering indication that consciousness levels pursued by the Tibetan Buddhist adherent is a form of consciousness already innate in the naturally autistic born person. (The problem is it is not very well suited to adapting to the confines of a fleshly cage). In the work ‘Buddha And The Autist’ we have postulated that, similar to a baton race, in which a short stick is passed from one runner to another in a relay race, what has been conceptualised as Tibetan Buddhism - a search for cosmic expansion, and yet, unity - has now developed into the natural state of autism, assisted by evolution.
(A relay, in telecommunications, is a device fitted at regular intervals along TV broadcasting networks, underwater telecommunication cables etc to amplify weak signals and pass them on from one communication link to the next).
In science, our equation is as follows:
Energy is the capacity to do work. There are various forms of energy, including light, heat, sound, mechanical, electrical, kinetic and potentials but all are expressed in the same unit of measurement, called the Joule. In Tibetan Buddhism, this is called the Diamond Jewel Vehicle. Now, energy has the capacity to change from one form to another (energy transfer) - but the original input of energy - in this case Tibetan Buddhism - tends to be greater than the final output - autism - during energy transfers. As the Law of conservation of energy states that it is impossible to make or destroy energy, the difference in the input/output energy levels is a result of the conversion of some of the input energy - Tibetan Buddhism - into an ‘unwanted’ form - the contemporary and existing description of autism.
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Autism is Modest
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There is a current trend among commentators to recognise or declare that at least two of history’s highest achievers, thought of as genius, namely Isaac Newton and Einstein, were undiscovered autists. The avant-garde New York artist Andy Warhol, the British artist L.S. Lowry, and the much loved comic genius Peter Sellars are also suspected of having harboured ihe creative side of the autistic condition. Furthermore, people are enjoying whispering that Microsoft entrepreneur Bill Gates, until very recently the richest man in the world, is a candidate for hidden autism.
With the exception of the latter who is still alive and well, these diagnoses are rather strange, speculative post-mortems indeed. One thing they do all have in common, however, is that they are only mentioning the male species, reminding us of the statistical ratio that for every detected. four male autists, there is one female. Is this accurate, or, in a male dominated society and a ‘Man’s world’ where the male has always been afforded preference and advantage (throughout history), could it be that this statistic is yet another example of a bias? Readers may quickly point out that there is Temple Grandin, possibly the most famous of recognised autists and a female at that, but - as in the case of Bill Gates - is it only their accumulated wealth that we are recognising and highlighting, as Temple herself is a millionare business woman,via her autism.
As usual, society only has time for the wealthy, and the status it can bestow. How often have we heard how young artist and autistic savant Stephen Wiltshire’s prints, drawn from near photographic memory, are sold for over a thousand pounds each? Is autism only made respectable and acceptable if accompanied by wealth?
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