I find it interesting that, as public attention has been drawn to the rapidly increasing scourge of autism in our population, we are now asked to re-envision autism as a gift. I interacted with vast numbers of autistic kids throughout my 31 year career in education and had an autistic uncle a few years older than me and I find it difficult to see the blessings in the condition. As the mainstream media jumps on board with this messaging, broadcasting the myth that our technological saviors Elon Musk, Peter Thiell, and their cronies have amassed their wealth and status because of their "functional autism", I must contrast this pop culture initiative with the profound struggles among the autistic folks that I have known. And is it a coincidence that, as the general public are becoming receptive to the theory that excessive childhood vaccination may be linked to autism, we now have a widespread marketing push to normalize or even glamorize autism? Perhaps in the near future parents will request the maximum possible number of vaccines for their children so the child can benefit from the many wondrous talents that autism will convey upon them. And let us not forget that the new, more palatable "autistic savant" term is meant to replace the long standing prior reference - "idiot savant." Did clinicians in the past simply fail to recognize the awesomeness of autism?
Peter....I've been and OT working with autistic children for 40 years and I completely relate to what you are saying. My observation is that autism is not one thing and I wish we'd just do away with the term because it has been co-opted and doesn't mean the same thing to to everyone. The fact that there are children with an autism dx who are telepathic doesn't have much to do with the fact that there are also children we have harmed with our toxic world and interventions and who are suffering greatly. The neurodiversity movement has made it sound like all autism is a superpower to be celebrated. While I'm happy that autistics with less severe forms are finding ways to embrace their differences and thrive in the world, they don't speak for every autistic and there are plenty who are miserable and want help. Of course ALL people with a dx of autism, just like all people in general, deserve to be treated well, valued, loved and not force to conform to societal norms to make them look normal (via ABA - which I do believe to be harmful), we also need to stay diligent about recognizing the many ways in which we are harming children (vaccines are just the tip of the iceberg). I think there is a bigger force at play that is influencing the autism narratives to make us accept the fact that we are harming children. Do look here...don't look over there. Pretend it's all awesome. I've listened to some of the telepathic taps and think it is great to explore this phenomenon and expand our understanding of lost abilities, but we need to make sure we don't focus on the extraordinary abilities of some and ignore the suffering of many.
Thank you both. The fact that some autistic children have savant gifts does not exculpate the enormity of the neurological damage that the medical community has caused, in part with vaccines.
I wonder, though, do we need to re-imagine autism or have a contrasting perspective based on the fact that some kids with autism are telepathic? How many neurotypical kids are also telepathic? A main problem when talking about "autism" is that we are going off a dx based on a group of docs who vote on it...and who change the description every so often. It's a made-up construct and we are lumping a whole lot of kids into a made-up group. Calling it a spectrum doesn't help much. Humans in general exist on a spectrum. Many different strengths, weaknesses, interests, physical/mental/emotional differences, etc. I would bet if you were able to put autistic kids on a bell shaped curve, you would find about as many savants as in the general population. You'd find that their IQs follow along the same lines as the neurotypical population. They are humans first and foremost and may have physiological or traumatic differences added into their general humanness (which varies greatly).
You probably already know this or have written about it, but there's research going on and a lot of accounts about children remembering past lives, with the memories typically fading around the age of reason (age 5-6). Add to that accounts from therapeutic past life regressions and people who are brought back from death as possible evidence of other realities or 'The Hill.' Plus all the telekinetic and distance viewing research suggesting that our normal ways of experiencing the world are dramatically limited through socialization, as you mention, that we are taught to abandon our intuition, extra-sensory perception, and empathic capabilities.
Dear reader and author: Please, please, please read the comments here by people like Peter Petrosino, BarbaraC.
As gently as I can, I want to warn the people pointing to 'savants being connected to alternate realities' about the dangers of using such positives to dismiss or ignore the suffering of injured children. Excepting miracles and outliers, a lifetime of not being able to communicate because you are vaccine injured is hell for these children and their carers. They suffer daily. They love their carers and cannot express it, they get frustrated with the world around them and do not have any outlet to share or understand that frustration using the tools like books, writing, etc that undamaged children are able to. Every human is hard wired to be social. The mechanisms of destroying the cognitive ability to socialise using things like language and symbols are widely documented. See heavy metal causing inflammation of the brain, the gut, see all the CDC whistleblowers, see studies like Hooker, Miller, Thompson, or simply listen to the teachers and parents. For mathematicians see the causative correlations between vaccines and autism, delayed development, etc.
This is not an attack on those thoughtful enough to be here on this substack. It is great to celerate the variety of the human mind, and to consider those who might be more connected to alternate realities than oneself. However, 'neurodiversity' is a well-funded psychological operation to normalise vaccine injuries. Don't let it lead you to misclassify a problem as a cause of celebration. Don't let it distract you from solving an easily solvable problem.
The Telepathy Tapes have burst the world of autism wide open. It starts with the Spellers, and for those who don't know about this, that is the place to start. A foundational piece of the autism story is the body: it is a neurological disorder that affects the body, but often does not impair the brain or intelligence. The spellers, formerly non-speakers, have shown clearly that they have normal intelligence and have been learning, while seemingly in a disconnected world, separated from our norms. Because so many autists now can spell and communicate, they are telling us (who will listen) that they have strong links to the non-physical realms. Several of the autists on the Tapes inform us that they do not know where their hands and arms are; one was able to write that they did not even know they had these limbs. While their bodies are disconnected from our reality, their minds and souls are lively.
I certainly don't know - this is a whole field of inquiry we are only just discovering - but I think this could be a tragic case of putting out your eyes to improve your hearing. It's possible that autistic people develop their telepathic sense only because their body-based forms of communication are damaged. I know from experience that many people who are not at all autistic, both children and adults, have telepathic experiences and sometimes learn to control them. There are people who are convinced that anyone can develop these qualities if they find a way to learn, and there are those who claim to teach this art. I myself tried such a class, and was astonished at what myself and others, none of us exceptional people in any way, were able to do. I'm concerned that we could further isolate autistic people by identifying these skills as special gifts of their condition, and further limit them by believing that finding ways of alleviating their difficulties in dealing with the rest of us is somehow unenlightened. Many of them truly suffer.
Yes, of course. The fact that some autistic persons have extraordinary powers in no way lessens the crime of approving vaccines that are linked to neurologic damage and then covering up epidemiology.
I have that link with my grandson, who just turned a year old. I had that link to some people, like my grandparents and mother, when I was his age, which I remember, so we relate really well, and he brings back my feelings at his age.
My memories going back clearly to before a year of age include remembering precise, clearly stated sentences by my grandparents, speaking to me and in my presence, so that I would understand, which I did.
I remember very much disliking some people who treated me as basically an object.
I love this article. I love the hope and the celebration. The autism community and especially its parents have mostly been bombarded with doomsday stats and negative-heavy reports from day one. It’s great to finally see the recognition of the gifts and talents neuro-diverse people bring to our world. I am forever blessed to be a mother to my son and witnessing him develop his potential.
I find it interesting that, as public attention has been drawn to the rapidly increasing scourge of autism in our population, we are now asked to re-envision autism as a gift. I interacted with vast numbers of autistic kids throughout my 31 year career in education and had an autistic uncle a few years older than me and I find it difficult to see the blessings in the condition. As the mainstream media jumps on board with this messaging, broadcasting the myth that our technological saviors Elon Musk, Peter Thiell, and their cronies have amassed their wealth and status because of their "functional autism", I must contrast this pop culture initiative with the profound struggles among the autistic folks that I have known. And is it a coincidence that, as the general public are becoming receptive to the theory that excessive childhood vaccination may be linked to autism, we now have a widespread marketing push to normalize or even glamorize autism? Perhaps in the near future parents will request the maximum possible number of vaccines for their children so the child can benefit from the many wondrous talents that autism will convey upon them. And let us not forget that the new, more palatable "autistic savant" term is meant to replace the long standing prior reference - "idiot savant." Did clinicians in the past simply fail to recognize the awesomeness of autism?
Peter....I've been and OT working with autistic children for 40 years and I completely relate to what you are saying. My observation is that autism is not one thing and I wish we'd just do away with the term because it has been co-opted and doesn't mean the same thing to to everyone. The fact that there are children with an autism dx who are telepathic doesn't have much to do with the fact that there are also children we have harmed with our toxic world and interventions and who are suffering greatly. The neurodiversity movement has made it sound like all autism is a superpower to be celebrated. While I'm happy that autistics with less severe forms are finding ways to embrace their differences and thrive in the world, they don't speak for every autistic and there are plenty who are miserable and want help. Of course ALL people with a dx of autism, just like all people in general, deserve to be treated well, valued, loved and not force to conform to societal norms to make them look normal (via ABA - which I do believe to be harmful), we also need to stay diligent about recognizing the many ways in which we are harming children (vaccines are just the tip of the iceberg). I think there is a bigger force at play that is influencing the autism narratives to make us accept the fact that we are harming children. Do look here...don't look over there. Pretend it's all awesome. I've listened to some of the telepathic taps and think it is great to explore this phenomenon and expand our understanding of lost abilities, but we need to make sure we don't focus on the extraordinary abilities of some and ignore the suffering of many.
Thank you both. The fact that some autistic children have savant gifts does not exculpate the enormity of the neurological damage that the medical community has caused, in part with vaccines.
I wonder, though, do we need to re-imagine autism or have a contrasting perspective based on the fact that some kids with autism are telepathic? How many neurotypical kids are also telepathic? A main problem when talking about "autism" is that we are going off a dx based on a group of docs who vote on it...and who change the description every so often. It's a made-up construct and we are lumping a whole lot of kids into a made-up group. Calling it a spectrum doesn't help much. Humans in general exist on a spectrum. Many different strengths, weaknesses, interests, physical/mental/emotional differences, etc. I would bet if you were able to put autistic kids on a bell shaped curve, you would find about as many savants as in the general population. You'd find that their IQs follow along the same lines as the neurotypical population. They are humans first and foremost and may have physiological or traumatic differences added into their general humanness (which varies greatly).
You probably already know this or have written about it, but there's research going on and a lot of accounts about children remembering past lives, with the memories typically fading around the age of reason (age 5-6). Add to that accounts from therapeutic past life regressions and people who are brought back from death as possible evidence of other realities or 'The Hill.' Plus all the telekinetic and distance viewing research suggesting that our normal ways of experiencing the world are dramatically limited through socialization, as you mention, that we are taught to abandon our intuition, extra-sensory perception, and empathic capabilities.
Dear reader and author: Please, please, please read the comments here by people like Peter Petrosino, BarbaraC.
As gently as I can, I want to warn the people pointing to 'savants being connected to alternate realities' about the dangers of using such positives to dismiss or ignore the suffering of injured children. Excepting miracles and outliers, a lifetime of not being able to communicate because you are vaccine injured is hell for these children and their carers. They suffer daily. They love their carers and cannot express it, they get frustrated with the world around them and do not have any outlet to share or understand that frustration using the tools like books, writing, etc that undamaged children are able to. Every human is hard wired to be social. The mechanisms of destroying the cognitive ability to socialise using things like language and symbols are widely documented. See heavy metal causing inflammation of the brain, the gut, see all the CDC whistleblowers, see studies like Hooker, Miller, Thompson, or simply listen to the teachers and parents. For mathematicians see the causative correlations between vaccines and autism, delayed development, etc.
This is not an attack on those thoughtful enough to be here on this substack. It is great to celerate the variety of the human mind, and to consider those who might be more connected to alternate realities than oneself. However, 'neurodiversity' is a well-funded psychological operation to normalise vaccine injuries. Don't let it lead you to misclassify a problem as a cause of celebration. Don't let it distract you from solving an easily solvable problem.
Thank you.
The Telepathy Tapes have burst the world of autism wide open. It starts with the Spellers, and for those who don't know about this, that is the place to start. A foundational piece of the autism story is the body: it is a neurological disorder that affects the body, but often does not impair the brain or intelligence. The spellers, formerly non-speakers, have shown clearly that they have normal intelligence and have been learning, while seemingly in a disconnected world, separated from our norms. Because so many autists now can spell and communicate, they are telling us (who will listen) that they have strong links to the non-physical realms. Several of the autists on the Tapes inform us that they do not know where their hands and arms are; one was able to write that they did not even know they had these limbs. While their bodies are disconnected from our reality, their minds and souls are lively.
Very glad you wrote about these astonishing children
I certainly don't know - this is a whole field of inquiry we are only just discovering - but I think this could be a tragic case of putting out your eyes to improve your hearing. It's possible that autistic people develop their telepathic sense only because their body-based forms of communication are damaged. I know from experience that many people who are not at all autistic, both children and adults, have telepathic experiences and sometimes learn to control them. There are people who are convinced that anyone can develop these qualities if they find a way to learn, and there are those who claim to teach this art. I myself tried such a class, and was astonished at what myself and others, none of us exceptional people in any way, were able to do. I'm concerned that we could further isolate autistic people by identifying these skills as special gifts of their condition, and further limit them by believing that finding ways of alleviating their difficulties in dealing with the rest of us is somehow unenlightened. Many of them truly suffer.
> We are living in our left brains. The faithful servant of the soul has deposed his master.
I like that description. Good fodder for ponder 🤔
This is intriguing, and new to me, but let's stop causing autism, shall we?
https://kirschsubstack.com/p/new-peer-reviewed-study-again-confirms
Yes, of course. The fact that some autistic persons have extraordinary powers in no way lessens the crime of approving vaccines that are linked to neurologic damage and then covering up epidemiology.
When I adopted my first daughter in 1985, I was gifted with a connection to her 4-month-old soul.
I have long considered that early childhood telepathy might be instrumental in learning language.
That’s brilliant! If you have any further thoughts on this, or links, I would be interested.
I have that link with my grandson, who just turned a year old. I had that link to some people, like my grandparents and mother, when I was his age, which I remember, so we relate really well, and he brings back my feelings at his age.
My memories going back clearly to before a year of age include remembering precise, clearly stated sentences by my grandparents, speaking to me and in my presence, so that I would understand, which I did.
I remember very much disliking some people who treated me as basically an object.
I love this article. I love the hope and the celebration. The autism community and especially its parents have mostly been bombarded with doomsday stats and negative-heavy reports from day one. It’s great to finally see the recognition of the gifts and talents neuro-diverse people bring to our world. I am forever blessed to be a mother to my son and witnessing him develop his potential.
We need more autistics like Temple Grandin instead of savants like Rainman.
Please tell me more about Temple Grandin...
wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin
imdb.com/title/tt1278469/