Table of Contents
In The Autism Prophecies, William Stillman illuminates the soul
purpose of individuals with autism; that they are here to share their
spiritual gifts and talents, to help usher in a new age of truth and enlightenment,
and to remind us that we are all more alike than different.
Mary Riposo, PhD,
psychologist and author of
Using Reiki Techniques with Children:
A Guide for Parents and Professionals
Common minds judge and so fail to see what uncommon people so
clearly show us we have the ability to know and be. The Autism Prophecies
is wonderful! And for everyone who strives to become unlimited.
Nancy and Elena,
co-producers and radio hosts,
Beyondtheordinary.net
For Michael Hricko, Michael Logan, and Wally Wojtowicz, Jr., with all my love.
Acknowledgments
Thank you, Lord, for all the gifts and blessings and privileges that have been bestowed upon me in this lifetime. I am doing my best to honor my exceptional good fortune by being a bridge for others, with grace and humility.
Gratitude is due to my longtime literary agent, June Clark, for her personal and professional interest in me and all that I have to offer.
Appreciations go to the following individuals for illuminating the truth by sharing their experiences with me: John Quincy Adams, Ann Marie Akash, Gary Averill, Tara Bangham, Tricia Baum, Laurence Becker, L.J. Benzi, Ursula and Singen Bowler, Larry Brody, Rhonda and Jordan Brunett, William Carpenter, Renee Chastain, Carol Creel, Traci Cornette, Donna and Christopher Cully, Anne-Laure Davin, Ryland Davis, Nick Dubin, Erica Eames, Jeannie Lloyd Ginther, Matthew Gromis, Annette Harkness, Mary Ann Harrington, Richele Hemesath, Julia Howerin, Michael Hricko, Pamela Kline, Izzy and Deb Kranzel, Petra Kroger, Richie Leitner, Lucy Lewis, Michael Logan, George Machado, Dawn Melton, Michelle Miller, Michael Nagula, Reverend Ziek Paterniti, Roia Raefian, Mark Reeves, Jamie Shallenberger, Leesa Shusta, Kathryn Stonehouse, Melissa Stupak, Birgit and Fred Werth, James Wilson, Linda Yale, Teo Zagar, and Maria Zalucki.
Special thanks to Wally and Gay Wojtowicz, and Wally Wojtowicz, Jr., for ensuring that Wallys sage perspectives are documented and reproduced in this volume in their entirety.
Annette Becklund, William Gaventa, Lisa Martinelli, Dr. Mary Riposo, and Sandra Sedgbeer (Children of the New Earth online magazine) were gracious enough to circulate my survey to interested parties, and I am grateful to them for their interest and support.
Introduction
One day my young friend, Fred, was lying on his bed making the kind of repetitious vocalizing that has become accepted as a stereotypical mannerism of so many persons diagnosed with autism. Auauau he warbled with perseveration. But because Freds mother Birgit presumed his intelligence, she knew better than to believe that the vocalizations were merely gibberish. Instead, she asked him to type what it was he was attempting so diligently to articulate. He wrote, Autism, to which Birgit replied, What about it? Fred answered, Autism is not a disease. God made us this way. Birgit pressed him, What about vaccinations and environmental toxins? What role do they play? Freds answer conveyed comprehension light-years beyond his youthful chronology, God gave us these sensitivities to show how nature is in distress. He wants us people to slow down. We are like lighthouses. Autism is telling my world that it is not paying attention to the signs.
Not paying attention to the signs is a concept Ive espoused in two prior books, Autism and the God Connection and The Soul of Autism, which reveal a viable association between some individuals with autism and the aptitude for acute spiritual sensitivity. Wouldnt it be the most delicious of ironies, I speculate, if those persons our society deems most severely impaired are actually among the keepers of keen insight and aesthetic awareness. And yet according this enlightened reverence to people with autismor anyone with a perceived disabilityis far from the norm for an era in which I am routinely apprised of horror stories that speak of ignorance and intolerance against those very persons. (For recently reported citations of abuse, please see www.neurodiversity.com/ abuse.html or the Children Injured by Restraints and Aversives Website at http://users.1st.net/cibra/index.htm.)
Hannah Arendt, in her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, suggests that torturemistreatment and humiliation enacted from a self-righteous perpetrator to a victim condemnedis not only the linchpin of total domination, but results in the murder of the moral person. A component of the 2009 Obama administrations agenda was the promise to restore civility by renouncing enhanced interrogation techniques employed under the previous presidential administration. Obamas position was not only one of nobility, it was egregiously overdue.
Yet the mistreatment and humiliationincluding the unholy denouement of the moral personthat Obama sought to minimize, if not eradicate, is very much alive and well, and occurring in this precise moment. Whereas such unconscionable insults against prisoner detainees and other minorities are an embarrassing smear on our countrys conduct (and would be enforceable for felony prosecution under any other circumstances), similarif not identicaltactics are routinely applied to manage, control, and maintain our citizens with autism. I am aware of such school students being slapped, punched, pinched, bitten, strapped to chairs, and locked in closets, or students who have had their mouths muted by silvery duct-tape. Oftentimes the abuse perpetrated is defended, condoned, or concealed. An inequitable dichotomy is apparent when we seek to reconcile past transgressions in the name of grace and humanitarianism, but we persist in sanctioning parallel affronts that are both disgraceful and dehumanizing in the name of treatment.
Instead certain media celebritieswarrior mothershave emerged as spokespersons to proffer the resolve that led to the recovery of their children from autism. Most are very young parents of very young children, and whether those children will undoubtedly retain the autistic aspect of their personalities well into adulthood, it simply remains to be seen, in my opinion. I fully support respectful, reciprocal approaches to aid any individual with autism to tame and refine their experience in order to better appreciate their uniqueness. However, this all too often gets bastardized into a cure-at-any-cost mentality that fuels a culture of fear about autism which, in turn, feeds a multi-billion dollar industry of therapies, services, facilities, and methodologies. The darkest edge of that mix includes physical and mechanical-device restraints, and sedating anti-psychotic medication. The endeavor for normalcy permeates and persists in a society that idolizes perfection.
As I predicted in my 2008 book, The Soul of Autism, a prenatal test for autism, in the manner of detecting (and selecting to abort) fetuses with Down syndrome, is imminent. The (London) Sunday Times for January 18, 2009, in a piece by India Knight titled, Soon Well be on an Ugly Quest for Perfect Embryos, reports that the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University found that babies exposed to high levels of testosterone in the womb had a higher risk of developing autistic traits. High levels of testosterone were previously shown to be associated with less eye contact by a childs first birthday, slower language development by their second birthday, more peer difficulties by their fourth birthday, and more difficulties with empathy by their sixth birthday. The conclusion being that, to paraphrase, autism is an acute manifestation of the male brain. (Males are four times more likely to have autism than females.) Director of the Autism Research Centre, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, suggests that if ever a test to prevent autism indeed came to fruition (the implication being the option for termination of pregnancy), the potential to eradicate extraordinary talent would be considerable. What else would be lost? he asked. Would we also reduce the number of future great mathematicians, for example?
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