I thought you all be might interested in a wonderful radio show called Coast To Coast. Recently there was a talk of Autism and Spirituality. I just received this in my inbox so the show can still be heard for free. You only have to log in and listen.
This is part of the explanation of the show.
During the first half Sunday night's program, George Knapp spoke with [url]William Stillman[/url], author of a trilogy of books about the spiritual aspects of autism. In the latter half of the show, [url]Laura Hirsch[/url] discussed how she worked with a medium to discover the root cause of the condition.
Describing autistics as "inherently gentle and exquisitely sensitive," Stillman decried the "myth and fallacy" which suggests that autism results in lower intellect. Instead, his research suggests that the condition is a neurological disorder which traps "completely competent" people inside of their bodies. Therefore, he argued, the condition heightens the autistic's senses and forces them into a state of "perceiving things seen and unseen." For example, he referenced autistics who are incapable of speech and mused that "when you live in silence, it's a perpetual state of meditation." As such, he said that this particular condition is comparable to religious figures who "deliberately enter into similar states of solitude in order to obtain a spiritual plateau of enlightenment."
ravenstar
Ordinary reality goes upside-down, back to front a complete mash potato in spiritual awakening! Because our reality is based on the separate sense of self that we refer to as I, separate from the Whole. This 'separation' is illusory.
When this sense of separation departs the 'ordinary reality', the world, and the boundaries which appeared as a consequence of that 'I' sense disappear into the substratum that the Absolute is. The egoless state.
This awakening can seem dysfunctional from the society's point of view. but to the one it has happened the shift is so huge that there is no one left to experience the world or god; separation or union. Completele merging of drop into the ocean.
Austistic individuals are naturally tapped into this lack of personal self. All yogis seekers are aspiring to know that 'primal state of being' that is prior to conditioning of mind and the play of consciousness. Because we know so little about this state as a society, we are very likely to misundersatnd the gift of autism.
I am not sure if they are fully realized to understand the beyond and also cognize the dynamics of this ordinary reality(which is what enlightenment is), which is what enables sages to teach the world about what they have attained. Go beyond the mind and yet relate some of that experience for the benefit of others. So autism seems just a step short of true realization as it lacks the ability to relate back to the ordinary reality.
i have worked with childern and young people and believe that they are indeed very spiritually attuned and have so much to teach us. We do greatly misunderstand autism and fear individuals who are labelled with this so called disability. From my experience, people with autism can have an indepth understanding of what is needed to enable calm, what is no longer needed in the human psyche and how to love freely, without fear and unconditionally. People with autism certainly are not of lower intelligence, just learn in a different way to what society expects and I believe, learn only what is necessary. Yes I agree they appear to be able to connect with an inner peace that most of us strive hard for, and that peace gets broken when we try to pull them away from it; this is when they can become distressed, also when they feel energy changes from the earth, when the earth is calling for help, having experienced this feeling myself and seen children with autism upset or angry when there are energy changes, I believe they are more in tune with earth/universal energies and again could teach us so much about how we can help, sending healing out, for example and living in a state of love. Only my opinion, I mean no offence and can only hope that more people start to view autism as a gift, not a disability.