In recent years there has been a very noticeable increase in the number of births leading to autism - statistics suggest a prevalence of 91 in 10,000 Britons, other stats saying it affects about 80,000 in the UK with a ratio of about one autistic child in every 3,000 births, other figures quote an estimated 500,000 autistic people in Britain to some degree or other of the condition - although detractors of this statement insist that this is simply not the case, instead preferring the alternative explanation that today there are greater and more precise methods of detecting autistic children than ever before, and therefore no such actual increase. If indeed there is an unexplained increase, however, then why? **
To answer this we must return to our analogy of the human body with the actual terra firma Alma Mater cherishing and fostering earth body, obviously always recognised as female through her global designation by all ancient tribes and cultures across the face of the globe as Mother Earth, the fertility goddess of prehistoric times and of remote antiquity. An increase in autistic birthing levels are due to an evolutionary response to distress signals emanating all around the pained planet, all the aggregate pains of troubled individuals, societies woes and of stressed continents, a significant percentage of an entire six billion population.
These signals of worry, upset and disturbance are reflected as a collective pain, an actual signal in the earth mother body announcing that delivery (as spoken of in Christian terms) is approaching, like the final stages of a woman’s childbirth. These distress signals are picked up by autistic species and empathized within and then dissipated. Autistic persons are described as appearing to be cold, not having understanding so intimate that the feelings, thoughts and motives of one are readily comprehended by another, and yet the autist has the capability to saturate itself with other beings’ despondencies, miseries, sadness and to be able to disperse it. How? How are atoms dispersed? To try and comprehend it is to understand how atoms are dispersed.
Autists are “cold” because they are a symbiosis with polar precession (the analogous phenomenon in spinning tops and the like, a favourite of the autist) allied to the seasons of nature, a race experiencing disturbances because the four equal divisions of the year are now, unpredictably, turning around. These disturbances manifest as spontaneous outbursts in the autist, rather like a sunburst, some may even overload - it is noted that around about the age of twenty-one is a dangerous age for many a male autist - as the autistic species races toward an evolutionary change. It is known that autists are extremely hypersensitive and this hypersensitive ability is conducted in the same manner that we now know that some animals and plants can feel vibrations imperceptible to humans, also trees and plants that are extremely susceptible to vibrations caused by climatic changes - classic example being the fir cone opening in dry weather and closing when rain is impending.
** Latest statistics from the California Department of Education reveal that autism in the state has increased 273% over the last ten years, the same diagnostic criteria used as in previous years. Cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome and other developmental disorders have not increased in the same way.
I am cognisant and aware that some parents of autistic children may well recoil at the suggested implant that their child is a Buddha in the making, an enlightened being that does not require correction as such, only integration as best as can in perhaps the same way as a Far Eastern visitor suddenly and unexpectedly would find themself caught up in the hub-hub of Western civilisation, a sea of unfamiliar, possibly threatening foreign faces, and unable to speak the language. The experience can be frightening. The sight of a classic autist, sat rocking, constant back and forth uttering seemingly unintelligent sounds and affirmation from authorities that there is no cure, or likely to be, for what we are witnessing. At the mild end of autism there is the labelling of inappropriate behaviour, at the further reaches, challenging. So little knowledge is forthcoming - half a century after the announced inception of autism, what is known about it is breathtakingly scant.
There is no medical test for autism, as it is diagnosed simply by assessment in the realm of behaviour and personality coupled with a cursory delve into family history. Statistics, not particularly reliable at the best of times, say that one in five autistic people have an I.Q. of under 70, needing to be in constant care all of their life, the remainder possibly achieving some degree of an independance in society. Numerous different hopeful but none fully attestable treatments and therapies may work a modicum on some autists and certainly not on others. There is no overall panacea. Badly let down by the bemused and struggling authorities, success of any nature is only ever down to the singular power of the parental spirit, indestructible and enduring, a power withstanding hardship and stress, many parents - particularly the mother - heaping a blame upon themself for the plight of the situation. Who would line up to give birth to a child that might never speak, eat or sleep unaided, but could instead kick, bite, scratch, defecate, attack and scream through the day?
As outsiders we are looking into the autistic world, and I must, if nobody else will, take the wheel and steer the ship, and be brave enough to say to all concerned and of involvement -who exactly is it that has the real problem? Naturally, in our world of ‘who’s got the best is the best’ philosophies, ruled by status and a mad rush to accumulate wealth by any means, autism is viewed as undesirable. It is a great pity that it is only in such circumstances we decide to relinquish desire - a total detachment which in buddhism is advocated and allocated to all walks of life. The person with autism lives in a pure, mental existence experiencing meaning and mind with no self, a transcendental and mystical existence. Karma originates from false belief in an ego, an individual self, prompting a chain reaction defending that false sense of self, trying to maintain some security. There is no security anywhere, people can find no resting place. There is nothing substantial in the world of samsara, cyclic existence, a sphere under the control of ignorance.
People ignorant of their true nature allow themselves to suffer over and over through that ignorance. It is a mechanical process. The being we believe in is a fictional construct. We are discontent in this, our apparent own world. Is the autistic child, that will grow to adulthood, content in its own? Is it like a cold winter’s morning for us when we are snug, wrapped up, warm in our comfortable bed - the alarm clock rings its unwelcome clatter telling us it is time for us to crawl out of our preferred cocoon, a surrogate womb, but are we feeling more at ease with where we are? The question of the Buddhist philosophy does enter the equation. The saddened/shocked parent resists what they see in their child of autism. It is not ‘normal’. A flood of dread worries pour in, foremost the antiquated view of stigma. And yet, here is child borne of an alternative expression in this world. In its own world it most certainly is normal, we are the aliens. Let us not forget that on earth the vegetable, animal, mineral, insect and aquatic kingdoms were first hosts, Man is but a late arrival and guest.
It is there for us to change our viewpoint. Understanding and interpreting the message the autist is giving to this world is essential. There is nothing ‘wrong’ here. We must give way to learn from the autist, an alternative neurology, in the same way as the buddhist pupil learns from the Master. It is we who must abandon resistance to that which does not instigate immediate appeal. As much as I will express that an autist is a buddha in the making I will also add that resistance is a revealing of dark, repressed fears, a desire to get back to a more familiar territory where we can be territorial. There is no point in resisting change. Everything in life changes. It is neither my wish nor capability to offend anybody. We all offend ourselves.