QuestionDear Evelyn,
I was reading your wonderful advice to people and since I am also interested
and a student of anthroposophy I was happy to see someone discussing
health from that perspective.
I do not have a question at this time, but rather a desire to perhaps help
you in your research on autism and how to help your son. I am trained in
Heilkunst and with this approach (which incorporates anthroposophical
medicine among other things and is based on the use of homeopathic
remedies for treatment), with this approach we have had success in
reversing autistic behavior and symptoms.
There is a book written by the dean of the Heilkunst commege: "Autism -
The Journey back" which explains the whole approach as it is applied to
autism.
You can take a look at the book here:
http://www.heilkunst.com/autism/book_index.html
The HCH college is located in Ottawa, Canada, and I used to tutor the
students and work at the clinic. I am now in private practice
(www.NovalisIntegra.com) if you wish to take a look at what I do.
I think you will enjoy Rudi Verspoors book on autism and you may get many
interesting and useful insights. Perhaps you will decide to try this approach
and help your son.
I do wish you good luck and I hope I can help a kindred soul.
Warmly,
Ati Petrov (female name, in case you wonder)
Ottawa, Canada
AnswerDear Ati,
Thank you so very much for your response. I have taken a look at your suggested reading and methods of healing and found them most interesting, indeed. I would recommend people take a look at your webpages, because I definitely believe for parents who have to cope with Autism, that there ought to be as many different strokes as there are different folks. It all adds to a better conclusion to what Autism REALLY is all about.
For me it is especially interesting, since the information on the Heilkunst website underpins a few concerns I have about how we are missing an ESOTERIC viewpoint on Autism; plus, somewhat more disconcertingly to myself, how bits and pieces are being pulled out of Anthroposophy and applied in a fairly random manner to alternative practices. Sounding deceptively Anthroposophic, even with a picture of Steiner on the home page, I can however not find anything referring back to Steiner's work - which was developed independently from Hahnemann. However, I am far from proposing that Anthroposophy has come up with any better ideas, and indeed, I am in the process of writing an essay to highlight a fairly sorry state of affairs.
Without meaning to detract anything from your work, which must bring relief to many parents and educators, and probably improves the life of many a child, I need to remain a touch tentative towards the Heilkunst promises of curative therapy, while I am still struggling to understand what Autism precisely is. Also, there are a few details I miss, and a few I find questionable.
Sadly, I often have come across something missing in the alternative approaches which smack of over-simplification or a reticence to tread where modern science must. Be it a blunt refusal or a vague indifference, I see no incorporation of neuro-pscyhiatric symptoms (in accord with the Psychiatric Diagnostics and Statistics Manual IV), or the crucial emphasis of the innateness of the disorder. We must also not omit to address the growing evidence for genetic aspects. To merely equate innateness with pre-disposition is a crass over-simplification which will lead you down a blind alley in the long run. If I may, I shall try to explain how so (since I've been there).
The theory of Miasms is very interesting and not to be ignored, although, I cannot simply accept Autsim as a part of this Miasm without a scientific-spiritual explanation of the GENESIS of such a Miasm, in the first place. My information on Miasms needs updating, but by contrast, Anthroposophy merely finds two EARTH-BOUND pre-conditions for any single pathology in neurasthenia and hysteria (overemphasis of head pole or lower pole) triggered into a suceptibility to environmental influences by karmic conditions. When excessive energy from the lower, metabolic pole rises into the middle region (lung) we create a susceptibility to the viral infection of Tuberculosis. Other disorders and pathologies may develop instead of, or preceeding actual infectious disease. Likewise, Autism is considered in terms of an imbalance of the four-fold body (physical, ether, astral, Ego). With this, however I disagree, since I consider Autism (more like a Miasm, then) a STATE of SOUL (with the difference however:) not causing Autism, but caused by Autistic pre-conditions (Karma). Here enters the complexities of reincarnation, life in the Higher Worlds between life and death, and the theory of the very Battle of the Heavens itself. We enter the realm of light and darkness. I appreciate I will need to explain and justify myself here. My essay tries to do this, but it seems be taking forever to find exact, yet accessible wording, so I sympathise with anybody trying to work out a system based on a healthy hunch! However, if you allow me a little moment of your time, I can but try to paint you a picture of how I would like to describe Autism from a spiritual perspective; just to add another morsel of food for thought.
I have a lot of problems with the "list of shocks" and the notion of how there are "triggers" for the actual manifestation of Autism through physiological processes. Anthroposophy can steer dangerously close to such a proposition, for ill-developed etiologies along medical principles as set out by Steiner himself. Furthermore there is a great emphasis on healing, without first asking what the RIGHT WAY is. For this you need to properly know A and B before you can dot out a route. Again, Anthroposophy is guilty of shoddy travel advice here, at this moment in time, while ironically this was Steiner's single most important preoccupation. This is not to discourage making the most out of a bad situation and offering succor and hope. This is a lot more complicated than that. But perhaps, we need to allow for a few more complications: no breaks-through without clouds in front of the sun.
It becomes precarious when there is a call to stop labelling or diagnosing manifestations of a larger condition, leaving little but character and nurture to work with while dealing with very general concepts. Before you know it you have invited us to join Pavlov and friends or, dread of dreads, brought us right back, full circle, to the 1940's Refrigerator Mother. Especially the cases, where behaviour is either less problematic or specifically anti-social, or the special skills compensate attractively, or where the developmental quirks and learning difficulties are hard to "pin" into a tidy configuration, triggers can be seldom pointed to and the Autism falls between the devil and the deep blue sea - oh so literally.... I speak from multiple experiences (pre-dating vaccines, heavy metals, and refer to uninnocculated children born in the nineties, on dynami-organic diets with Waldorf education).
I am, actually very pro ever more detailed "hard-core psychiatric" labelling, because I believe it will ever more show up Autism as more than an misfortunate accident due to negligence, waiting to happen under the right circumstances. I, also, vote to set it in isolation above other related conditions and additional handicaps. There where the cerebreal abnormalites are more profound there will be more neurotic symptoms, but the Autism itself cannot be varied - it is like a strain or a DNA code, like a Miasm, which has its seeds in world-karma. It is pointless to hope or aim for eradication (by any means, even if not by genetic manipulation). Only redemption can cancel out this karma.
Psychiatric diagnostics (which need never be at odds with alternative medicine) is not a million miles away from this understanding, however unintentionally, with Autism as an umbrella term for a spectrum of RELATED conditions (such as Asperger's, ADD/ADHD, PDD-NOS, MCDD, etc). One can have Autism with the additional handicap of ADHD, etc. Even Kanner and Asperger have had their discrepancies entwined in describing this tap root of Autism. I am convinced that the most ideal, healing circumstances cannot ever heal the soul from Autism, because Autism is a bubble-like condition that makes it impossible for the spirit to reach out and touch or be touched in return. It is this uncanny intuition and a call to a different kind of healing I want to study.
If we remove the label of Autism too soon - tempting, especially, in light of the argument that it is hard to diagnose Autism accurately (with vague genetic markers, or unconvincing MIR scans, and a rather broad scope of psychological testing) - we are left with only disruptive behaviour and poor social and communication skills and have very little spiritual backdrop to work with. We might as well believe medication and therapy work because they change the body (and mind) and in doing so remold the soul. While the inverse is definitely true (an apathic soul makes a slumpy body), the realignment of our higher bodies cannot alter the course of Fate, which is a larger cosmic impulse than our own destiny. But not only fate, also pre-destination controls our potential. It is almost an autistic aim to want to control Autism.
Don't forget we are fallen, and have been falling ever deeper into matter as from the time Abel (yin) had to make way for Cain (yang); until the Baptist pointed to the Christ, when the time had come to resurrect ourselves from all this death (matter). Only through death can we attain eternal life (transsubstantiation). What role Autism has to play in this is, as yet, hard for me to coin, but every toadstool helps define the network of the micchorrizae; naming and defining is really the first step towards wisdom. Knowledge is power, and only such power can launch the self into a state of wisdom. There is a vast difference between the hoarding of facts and things and clamping onto fixed patterns (autistic!) and the acquisition of self-knowledge.
My great elipsis in reaching the origins of Autism lies here: surely the soul could see pre-natally that it would have a limited capacity for self-knowledge due to deformities in the cognitive realm? Just like a soul accepts the condition of Down's Syndrome as a welcome opportunity to soak its karma in a small hand-wash. There is such a boldness about this type of soul selecting a handicap, it borders on arrogance. No wonder a counter-reaction of mundane panic occurs! From the "shining" examples of how something larger than life (granted it is a touch "alien") can be carried by the Autistic incarnation (a very lob-sided one), I have to believe there is a great choice behind this incarnation - and then my suspicious mind must consider that it might be in a trade-off, or an admission of guilt, but my good faith then hopes, possibly, in heroic self-sacrifice. The picture becomes very blurry at a certain stage. And I am not one to push for focus where I feel a call to pace oneself, first. All I can do is pray for guidance from the Higher Worlds. I believe, to all of us, this enigma of Autism is a call to be much more open to such guidance.
I have seen how efforts to cure and treat Autism actually border on a violation of individual freedom. I know, from a spiritual perspective, there is but a fine line between harassing our neighbour and leaving them to rot in peace. Earth practice will reflect this ever more accurately as personal priviliges and duties become ever more emeshed. It is not always easy to know when to change and when to accept.There are great facilities (especially within Anthroposophy and other smaller, humane initiatives) for the mentally and physically handicapped which walks this fine line with much dignity and compassion. But we can never change others. All change must come from within. The crunch is, though, that I have never come across such an inner impulse for change in a soul with Autism. Hoping that Autism is removable only brings the risk of instilling a pseudo impulse - one adopted by the notorious inclination for reproductive thinking. All those who administer healing on a soul level would see the futility of that.
Perhaps, the following may sound somewhat askew, but may I remind ourselves that we do not try to CURE either Down's Syndrome or homosexuality. If this sounds a banal comparison, raking three entirely incomparable dispositions together, I wish to ensure you I am exactly trying to move away from over-simplifications and traditional categorisations. I bring them together here for a moment to show differences as much as similarities. Down's and Autism are both pscyhopathologies but Down's may not be considered a disposition or State of Soul, for the marked chromosomal abnormalities creating an a-priori biological configuration, nonetheless, suitable for a life experience. There are speculations on the type of soul which incarnates into this condition as less evolved than the collective human race. I have not come across any such speculations with Autism.
Another point of interest is how all three share a complete or strong indication of a genetic determiner, but embryonic development best shows us in how far this concerns an impulse from the individual incarnator or external factors (maternal/parental, environmental etc). Neuro-psychological disabilities or mental attitudes/sexual orientation seem much more subject to personal organisational influences than Down's. But this is not meant to become a medical analysis. It merely means to make those who know even less about genetics than the average physician to not exclude the significance of the DNA code to our understanding of the purpose of illness and tame our feverish pursuit of health.
In the afore-mentioned cases, we try to make life on earth possible for these souls in so far as they struggle to make it possible for themselves. We let them steer a course according to the dictates of their own map, however much the coastlines differ from ours or islands are missing as compared to our maps. Eventhough parents or society may remain defiant, healers and educators should never expect them to conform to our way of living or meet our expectations. We ACCEPT the biological deformity, or deviation (from the biological norm) and encourage or enable integration where possible. With Autism we are doing something different. We are forcing integration upon this condition, at times brushing it off as a wildly inappropriate, selfish, mind-set that can be loosend up and extirpated like a dead tooth. I tentatively suggest that we feel most uncomfortable about living with Autism, because it lies entirely beyond our control, unless we dare to work with it, not against it, slipping into the latex gloves of Ahriman, without the petrifying fear of becoming sucked into a hermetically sealed Ahrimanic body suit. This fear is warranted if we scrutinise ourselves for autistic TENDENCIES. These however should pose no threat but remind us of the spiritual work at hand. Just like we are not half gay when we lean towards any kind of bisexuality, and ADHD is not half Autism, and feeble-mindedness is not half Down's we come to whole States of Soul, that orientate us, and are called to stand in our ultimate State of Love.
Obstacles and influences along the way most certainly have a positive or negative impact upon our soul, taxing us further or enabling our potential to blosssom. But it is foolhardy to take on that dynamic as a circus act we can master, and to become like Middle-Aged barbers or summoners, who cannot truly bring about proper medical care or spiritual salvation for a simple lack in expertise. Not only do we need to know more about the workings of Autism, but we also need to work harder on our own initiation. Until we really know much about anything from personal revelation, I am committed to stride against the simplistic notion that Autism has been cooked up in a soup of living under certain earthly conditions, seasoned with karmic residues. Something much more pertinent to human evolution is going on.
In the mean time we can be getting on with making the "patient" as comfortable as possible. Enabling another's life is a massive responsibility, though, and a labour of Love, full of sacrifice. It is probably why mothers of individuals with Autism play such an enormous role in managing, guiding, protecting these souls. My essay spends a lot of time on how the vision of Love is the great inspirator for all of Steiner's indications on the art of healing.
Finally, I am reticent to treat Autistic souls with pity and pull out all the stops on a rescue operation because, despite their lamentable fearful isolation, despondency and apathy (the core state of the soul), we are dealing with a very headstrong and resilent group. I feel these are not so much lost souls, as stuck souls. Somehow they remind us all how we have fallen too fast, too far, too deep. A Luciferian pride seems to precede their new demarcation with the pylons of Ahrimanic conservatism and materialism, now.
There are always good souls and "bad" in any condition. There are at least 12 basic (astral) modalities which aspects the soul, outside personality (nurtured nature). Mark, though, how personality can be a great mask of Autism in cases where the brain is less impaired. As a pre-condition that affects the I-organisation it has less to do with faulty reflection and more with deceptive refraction. I am not so convinced there is so much a question of inadequacies in the transmission of the self as there is in the reception of the self. If we can connote a "maleness" to the disorder but also a lunar predominance, we get an internalised struggle of Cain and Abel. All this, again, warrants further investigation.
The partially dissatisfied comment from a lady on Amazon.com on the book, The Journey Back, typically reminded me how most of this esoteric work must be kept occult until people are ready to ask the right questions. We have become deluded into thinking we have a RIGHT to demand answers and extract healing from them. I can understand how some people cannot benefit from anything I have to tell them, but in turn become frustrated with Heilkunst or Hahnemann because such practical solutions are as yet very inconsistent and unpredictable. She deplored how esoteric it all was, and it made me want to write back, Dear Madam, you haven't heard anything yet!
We can only break the ultimate reality of the Higher Worlds down to a certain practical point, with the little enthusiasm there is for the lifting of any veils of Maya. Anthroposophy is far from a type of faith healing, yet a kind of initiation into a Knowledge of the Higher Worlds will simply be a basic necessity in the future, if we are to step up onto a different plateau of healing. Also I can only but stay out here, in the market place of opinion, for a short period, before I become too demoralised. I welcome all the support and help I am handed in my research as tokens of warmth and caring, they egg me ever on. I wish to encourage you, and people like you to keep on observing and working with Autism to the best of your abilities. When you work in humble loving kindness you cannot harm a soul.
In sum, my proposition as follows: I think the time has come for us to wash the feet of our brethern. Rather than to think in terms of retrieval or saving souls, I think it is time to gently sit down BESIDE our sick brother (not always in opposition with our good health) and find in this proximity, a bare "nextness", sufficient TOGETHERNESS, for the one to put a shoulder under the other's karmic burden. This is the optimum of "making Love". For in this Mood of Love, a New State, Autism is deposed. Why this amazing moment of healing is so hard to achieve is not so hard to understand. Just imagine placing yourselves in the arms of the stranger next to you on the bus. Letting oneself be carried is the pre-requisite training for carrying the Christ Consciousness. The Autistic Soul may be a lousy incarnator, but they and their Autism might, as yet, prove to be the greatest Wake-Up Call we have had, so far.
All we can do as assistants, carers, and healers, partners, family members - if not the Autistic soul herself - is sweep the path of life clean so that no more dirt attatches to the vulnerable soles of such a soul. We can help her spring clean her heart, ready for the mercy that will fill her with the light of Love, come her day of Judgement. Not everything can be attained in one life time, but death can open a new portal.
I am constantly reworking my intuitions, so please wait to hear more from me as an when I have finished my essay and research paper. I would love to send it your way, as a token of thanks and respect for your own commitment to helping souls with Autism. We are ultimately on the same team!
Love Evelyn.
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