Movie Review - The Horse Boy

I just saw a preview of the movie, "The Horse Boy." As the parent of a 16-year old child with Autism, I was pleased to see Autism getting more public attention and that a family was willing to let the world see their son's stuggles and healing, their parenting, and their challenges with accepting and dealing with Autism on a daily basis.

There are so many things about this movie I can identify with. The period of grieving the loss of the child you might have had, the period of learning to accept the child you do have, and the period where you stretch and learn and grow into someone you never thought you could be while searching for answers to a puzzle no one has quite figured out. I understand the great love and desperation that drives a parent to try everything in their power to try to help their child -- even non-mainstream things that you would never have considered otherwise.

This journey took me all kinds of places I never would have been and developed my risk-taking skills, and I learned so much about so many things. And sometimes you just have to surrender to what is, and learn to just be with instead of force a child to change. This surrender is much like a spiritual process, and so the parents in the film have reached out to spiritual healers in Mongolia through their son's connection to animals, and the families' connection to horses.

Our son did horseback riding as part of his therapy. We couldn't afford the more formal "Hippotherapy" which involves having a specifically trained therapist, a person who also specially trains the horses, and, of course, specially trained horses. This is expensive, and might be partially unnecessary to the process, since mainly having trained people is for safety reasons, and for liability and insurance purposes. The father in the film says that he had trained horses, and taught horseback riding, and so was very familiar with horses already.

http://www.americanequestrian.com/hippotherapy.htm

We had a therapist already working for us doing ABA therapy (Lovaas type) who had rescued a police horse from being put down because of a stroke. He offered to help our son ride his huge disabled horse, and they helped each other to heal.

http://www.lovaas.com/

In some ways, I think Autism resembles a stroke in the brain, because there seems to be some type of brain injury that occurs that happens in genetically susceptible individuals. There are some behaviors that all the coaching, training and discipline in the world are intractable at any given moment, and they seem more like a brain adaptation to abnormal sensory processing than anything like a discipline issue, or a lack of information (education). This makes any Autism therapy more like rehabilitation than like education, although these two modalities resemble each other.

Autistic people use their senses differently, probably not by choice, but because they have to. And this can lead them to be more like animals, who sense the world differently than we do, and don't use a formal (structured) language to communicate. When the five senses are hypersensitive, and social/language brain activity is less sensitive, then it seems like other human abilities can come into play that we were never aware that we had. Autism uncovers unusual abilities side-by-side with very limiting dis-abilities.

I read a lot about Shamanism before and since having my son, (I am a practicing Christian by choice) and I understand how a Shamanistic method might be attractive to the parents in this film as a healing modality. When nothing else works, and your child has been given a diagnosis that is just as intense as a cancer diagnosis, you often pray first...and often. And the compelling change in the child after being with the Shaman's is proof that ancient and folk ways do have a place in healing.

"Shaman, Healer, Sage: How to Heal Yourself and Others with the Energy Medicine of the Americas" by Alberto Villoldo Ph.D.

I am concerned, however, that people don't stereotype Autism as only some kind of demon possession, although it might be characterised that way, and spiritually it might seem like that. We had a superstitious church in our city that took a 6 year old Autistic boy and tried to expel the demon from him by holding him down for hours at a time, and the child died. This is what I am afraid of...a fundamental approach toward a spiritual answer that takes Autism itself too literally and the illness is not literally demon possession.

Autistic boy dies at faith healing service
Police: Pastor's brother held on suspicion of child abuse

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/08/24/autistic.boy.death/

Trying to peg Autism into an already-existing category does a disservice to the child, and inhibits what you might learn from the child's illness and/or genetic differences by observing how this disease/illness is unique, and how each individual Autistic child is unique. A child might have a deep spiritual side that is relatively unaffected by his disability, or might even be enhanced by the Autism.

But it could go the other way and the Autistic might be affected by a spiritual challenge that is overshadowed by his or her manifestations of Autism symptoms. However, it is not just a spiritual problem. And even if Autism has a spiritual origin (perhaps everything in this world is of spiritual origin) it does have very real physical components that can be dealt with, and very real symptoms that must be dealt with.

The Mongolian people accepted the child and the parents and didn't seem to judge them. Acceptance is the cornerstone of a treatment modality that I am very drawn to and used this approach a lot over the last ten years with my son, which is called the Sonrise Method, by Barry Kaufman. We didn't go to the treatment center because of the expense, but I got a lot out of reading his books and following the spirit of the methods the center employs.

http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/

Before you can change anything, you must first accept what is. To put it another way, (as per Dr. Phil) You can't change what you don't acknowledge.

As I have learned, you can't change Autism by simply fighting with it. Increased disciplinary measures don't work (in the way we traditionally discipline), but it takes great discipline on the part of the adults in the child's life to do what does work, with enough clarity, understanding, persisitence, consistency, and with enough accuracy. What you resist, persists. And focusing on the "bad" might only enhance the unwanted aspects you are trying to modify. Forcing the child to hide the symptoms of his illness, and not to express his discomfort except in certain very specific ways, seems almost abusive, if you were to view it as if it were diabetes, or any other injury or illness.

There was a child in our state that had diabetes, and the fundamentalist religious parents chose to only use prayer as a healing method, and the girl died at age 11 from a very treatable disease. She had been displaying serious symptoms for a long time.

Parents charged in diabetes death
They didn't get medical help for sick daughter

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/29556929.html

There were several symptoms that my son had that were considered socially odd, and we had a very difficult time changing them. We then realised that some things, like hand-flapping, were self-regulatory mechanisms that he was using to manage his energy and emotions. When we tried to completely eradicate hand-flapping at a young age, he only became more agitated and had a more difficult time focusing on what we were trying to teach him. After a few years, the hand-flapping was something more amenable to change, and he learned to bite his fingernails instead. His fingernails would be almost completely bitten off, but this was more "socially acceptable-looking" behavior and so it was tolerated for a while until we could find some other way to help him self-regulate. He went through several phases like this, with each adaptation becoming more sociably acceptable, until now he is very close to being normal. I can still spot the self-regulatory things he does, but most people wouldn't see it as any kind of problem.

At age 4, the parents in the movie were already saying that no other healing methods were working. Of the many methods we tried, most of them required some time, and quite a bit of skill and ingenuity to implement with an Autistic child. I am concerned, for instance, that many parents who try the GF/CF diet for Autism don't do it thoroughly enough and for not enough time to affect any lasting change. When we first tried it, other family members undermined the effort, and the school and extended family were totally unfamiliar with it, and not interested enough in this method to really be on-board with it. Then, several years later, on trying it again, with more resources, and more products available, and a different strategy, it worked.

The strategy that finally worked best for us with the GF/CF diet was to put the entire family on it. Paradoxially it seemed to be easier than just putting the Autistic child on it. And also, other family members' health improved as a bonus.

Karyn Seroussi wrote about this diet's use for Autism years ago, and here is a link to an article that I first read before trying this healing method:

http://www.autisminfo.com/seroussi.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EJUsyypI4Y

http://www.amazon.com/Unraveling-Mystery-Pervasive-Developmental-Disorder/dp/0767907981

I will post again with what these differences were.

I was not expecting to like this movie. I was sure that I would be disappointed by any parent's approach that claimed that only horseback riding, and only Shammanism worked for their son's Autism. I am tempted to think that removing the child from his home environment for an extended period of time, to an un-industrial area where the ambient toxin levels were lower, and the foods were less processed and locally grown, all contributed, in part to their son's improvements. Plus, the extended, loving focus of the parents and all the surrounding people's concern and non-judgemental attitudes probably helped the boy tremendously. The little boy who accompanied the group was very tolerant of the child's differences.

We found that having a peer who was recruited to play with our son helped him a lot. This helped him learn in a more age-appropriate way (i.e., not all coming from adults, in an adult sort of way.) A lot of Autistic children grow up to be like "mini-professors," acting more like miniature adults, because they mimic the authoritarian, information-based, and lecture-type communication given them by adults. This style, of course, doesn't often go over well with other children, who would often much rather just play. And play is a form of learning among higher-intelligence animals (as well as with humans.)


But I did like the movie. I loved seeing it with my son, and asking him if he remembered being like this or that. There were a lot of memories that came flooding back, about the difficulties, and the joys. I loved seeing the beautiful Mongolian landscapes and people. I loved seeing the great love and concern between the parents and their child. The horses were beautiful, and the suspense of what the outcome of the risks this family was taking was intriguing.

I wish everyone who thinks that parents of Autistic children are somehow "refrigerator parents" would see this movie. I hope that everyone who thinks Autism is just something that requires more discipline would see this movie. I think that people who think that Autism sometimes resembles a tantruming, colicy, child can see that it is more than that.

These children are in real distress. I think that you can see in the movie that the child does suffer and is not enjoying any benefit of a "power struggle." I think that the child's suffering should spur us to find better treatments for Autistic children and to provide more help for their overwhelmed parents. And to not look only at traditional healing modalities as the only possible alternative for treatment. This is a baffling illness and we might be limiting ourselves too much if we only look in the tired, worn paths for the answers.

It is unfortunate that insurance doesn't cover Autism treatments of any kind (until only very recently) and even if it did, it would never cover about two thirds of the things that have really helped our son.

I think that in some ways, insurance stifles innovation in healing. And by its institutional nature it can minimize and even denigrate traditional healing modalities. So I hope that all those who are concerned about the best interest of the child with Autism and their caregivers will still look in a broad spectrum of healing alternatives for the possible answers. And not every child will respond in a cookie-cutter fashion to a certain treatment. And so unless (until!) we can find a cure or better yet, a prevention, we will have to have a lot of tricks up our sleeves to try.

We have inherited a very large tool kit of healing methods, and we are only using a small portion of it. I hope we can find a more balanced approach in the future.

Cold Almonds Snack

Cold Almonds

Ingredients:
Raw Almonds
Water

Instructions:
Get a bowl big enough to hold the amount of almonds you will be using in about three days. Put in raw, unsalted almonds. Fill bowl with water to cover the almonds plus a little extra. Soak overnight. Drain water. Snack!

Keep stored in the refrigerator.

Soaking almonds changes their taste and texture. They are easier to chew and have more flavour, while preserving their nutritional value. This is a raw food snack..

I use organic almonds for this recipe.

Almonds are a healthy snack which are high in calcium and vitamin E. Some naturopathic medical advisors say that three almonds a day will help to prevent cancer because of their nutrient profile.

20-25 almonds (approximately one ounce) contain as much calcium as 1/4 cup of milk, and also contain magnesuim and phosphorus.

Almonds are the best whole food source of vitamin E, in the form of alpha-tocopherol, which may help prevent cancer.

One ounce of almonds contains 12 percent of your daily allowance of protein,
are cholesterol free,
are monounsaturated -- contain unsaturated fats.

A Loma Linda School of Public Health study showed those who consumed nuts five times a week had a 50% reduction in risk of heart attack.

In a clinical study, Dr. Gene Spiller, Director of the Health Research and Studies Center, Inc., showed that almonds added to the diet had a favorable effect on blood cholesterol levels and that none of the study groups experienced weight gain in the study.

Great Website

Anger Management Website for Adults and Children

http://www.angriesout.com/

This site has a free inspirational newsletter that I absolutely love written by the website's author, Lynne Namka.

There are free downloads, and lots of good articles for teachers, parents, and children.

Talk, Trust And Feel Catalog
More on Talk, Trust and Feel Therapeutics and Lynne Namka, Licensed Psychologist

Common Mistake

"One of the tragedies of modern times is that people have come to believe that something said by someone in the past, perhaps for illustrative or provocation purposes, actually represents that person's beliefs at the time.”

~Idries Shah

“Few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive or even to hope, by a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within.”

~Stephen Jay Gould

Two Great Non-Fiction Books About Autism

Several good fiction books about Autism:

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" (Doubleday, 2003)
by Mark Haddon
This award-winning novel's main character is a 15-year-old autistic boy. It's a good mystery as well as a good character description.

ISBN: 1400032717 (paperback, 240 pages, Vintage, 2004); ISBN: 0385512104 (hardcover, 226 pages, Doubleday, 2003); ISBN: 0385509456 (hardcover, 240 pages); ISBN: 0385659792 (hardcover, 240 pages, Doubleday Canada Ltd, 2003); ISBN: 1402555989 (audio cassette, Recorded Books, 2003); ISBN: 1402568851 (audio CD, Recorded Books, 2003). [autism,fiction]

"Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's "
by John Elder Robison

The brother of Augusten Burroughs (author of the bestselling memoir "Running with Scissors") has created an entertaining and often surprising memoir about growing up with Asperger's Syndrome.

I bought these books for my sons' school library and recommended them as part of a reading list for his high school, since they describe life as an Autistic and also are current best-sellers which are a great read.

It helps to understand the inner workings of a mind that is very different from one's own. It helps to "get" someone on the Autism spectrum better than some dry diagnostic description.

Warning about High Fructose Corn Syrup

Warning:

High Fructose Corn Syrup has been found to be contaminated with mercury.

Another reason to avoid this food additive....

"many foods sweetened with HFCS contain mercury, left as a residue in the production of caustic soda, a key ingredient in HFCS. The FDA and the industry have known about this potential toxin and has continued serving it up since at least 2005.

The HFCS industry has been shrouded in mystery since it began in the 1970s, essentially the result of “get big or get out” record corn harvests and subsequent plummeting commodity prices for farmers. What to do with all that excess corn? The answer was not to decrease yields, but to find a way to get that corn into our stomachs. This has led to the proliferation of HFCS in nearly all processed foods you find in the grocery store. The industry has lacked transparency, and our government has refused to mediate our current health crisis — an upswing in diabetes and obesity resulting from cheap calories like HFCS — with regulation. So its not surprising that it took so long for the news to reach the public eye.

The initial study led by Renee Dufault, a now-retired Environmental Health Officer-cum-whistleblower, was published yesterday in Environmental Health, and found that nearly half the samples of HFCS tested contained mercury residue. The impetus for the study was to find approximately 58 tons of mercury that was reported missing in 2000 (and it is assumed yearly) from the chlor-alkali plants (makers of chlorine and caustic soda) in operation in the U.S.

Where has it gone? apparently some of it has gone into our veins and tissues.

Before now, our greatest threat for mercury exposure was through fish, followed by mercury amalgam in dentistry and through vaccines, as it is sometimes used as a preservative. But Dufault’s study estimates that exposure via HFCS could be up to 50 times that of mercury amalgam exposure in children age 3-19, as this age group is the largest consumers of HFCS.

Of course we know that mercury is a cumulative toxin, especially dangerous to pregnant women and children, and that those with high exposure (Jeremy Piven among them, from eating too much sushi) show signs of sensory impairment, sensation loss and lack of coordination. This disorder was formerly referred to as Mad Hatter’s Syndrome, because haberdashers who produced felt hats in the 18th and 19th centuries used a mercury compound in their process.

We too have had a potential day to day exposure to the heavy metal, just by choosing our food from the boxes and bottles in the center aisles of the grocery store. Aside from the case against us for improper nutrition, we could be slowly poisoning ourselves.

A second study, by David Wallinga, M.D. and his co-authors entitled “Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup,” tested products directly from the supermarket. One in three tested positive for mercury residue. These included products like Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly, Hunt’s Tomato Ketchup, Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, Nutra Grain Strawberry Cereal Bars, Pop-Tarts Frosted Blueberry and Coca-Cola Classic.

The reason Wallinga cited for his extension of the original study was that:Many of these products are specifically marketed to groups vulnerable to mercury. Soft drinks, fruit juices, and other junk food are successfully marketed to children not only through Internet and television advertising, but also in school vending machine and cafeteria options. People who rely on food stamps or who live in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods are also a special target for junk food manufacturers, because they offer the most accessible and often least expensive calories in the grocery store.

He went on to criticize the FDA for not doing its job, and urged for mercury, which is not required to produce HFCS, to be taken out of the process. I agree, but I would like to see our government push the corn refining industry further: They should be shouldering responsibility for our declining health in this country, and as such, should be more adequately regulated. If it were up to food justice advocates, the substance would be banned outright. But corn refiners should at least be held accountable for misleading advertising, and consumers should be aware of what they are buying, through better transparency on labels.

So the question is, what will the FDA do with this new found information? Dufault urges the creation of a mercury surveillance program, that monitors foods besides fish, along with additional public health evaluation of the exposure to mercury through HFCS. But can we really keep avoiding the deeper problem, that HFCS, as a product of the human imagination, could possibly be a failed experiment? For the sake of our health, it might be time for the government to finally intervene."

~Paula Crossfield is the managing editor of Civil Eats.

Original source:

http://civileats.com/2009/01/27/is-high-fructose-corn-syrup-turning-us-into-mad-hatters/

There is no safe level of mercury in our bodies.

Mercury poisoning has been implicated in the high incidence of cases of Autism.

Resolutions

Seth's suggested new year resolutions



One:


I will approve of myself, my characteristics, my abilities, my likes and my dislikes, my inclinations and disinclinations, realizing that these form my unique individuality. They are given me for a reason.



Two:


I will approve of and rejoice in my accomplishments, and I will be as vigorous in listing these as RIGOROUS in remembering them as I have ever been in remembering and enumerating my failures or lacks of accomplishment.



Three:


I will remember the creative framework of existence, in which I have my being. Therefore the possibilities, potentials, seeming miracles, and joyful spontaneity of Framework 2 will be in my mind, so that the doors to creative living are open.



Four:


I will realize that the future is a probability. In terms of ordinary experience, nothing exists there yet. It is virgin territory, planted by my feelings and thoughts in the present...





Therefore, I will plant accomplishments and successes, and I will do this by remembering that nothing can exist in the future THAT I DO NOT WANT TO BE THERE.



~ Seth/Jane Roberts


--"Dreams, Evolution & Value Fulfillment",Vol. 1, Session 891, Notes.2005 Copyright Robert F. Butts.

The Universe As Idea Construction

Excerpts from Physical Universe as Idea Construction

~ by Jane Roberts in an altered state of consciousness ultimately leading to the Seth material.




Energy is the basis of the universe.

Ideas are mental transformations of energy by an entity into physical reality.

Idea constructions are transformations of ideas into physicalreality.

Space is where our own idea constructions do not exist in the physical universe.




The physical body is the material construction of the entity's idea of itself under the properties of matter.

The individual is the part of the entity or whole self of which we are conscious in daily life.

It is that part of the whole self which we are able to express or make "real" through our idea constructions on a physical level.

The subconscious is the threshold of an idea's emergence into the individual conscious mind. It connects the entity and the individual.

Personality is the individual's overall responses to ideas received and constructed.

It represents the emotional coloration of the individual's ideas and constructions at any given "time".




Emotions are the driving force that propel ideas into constructions.

Instinct is the minimum ability for idea constructions necessary for physical survival.

Learning is the potential for constructing new idea complexes from existing ideas.

Idea complexes are groups of ideas formed together like building blocks to form more complicated constructions in physical reality.

Communication is the interchange of ideas by entities on the energy nonphysical level.




Action is idea in motion.

The senses are channels of projection by which ideas are projected outward to create the world of appearances.

Environment is the overall idea constructions with which an individual surrounds himself.

Physical time is the apparent lapse between the emergence of an idea in the physical universe (as a construction) and its replacement by another.

The past is the memory of ideas that were but are no longer physical constructions.

The present is the apparent point of any idea's emergence into physical reality.

The future is the apparent lapse between the disappearance of one idea construction and its replacement by another in physicalreality.

Psychological time is the apparent lapse between the conception of ideas.



Aging is the effect upon an idea construction of the properties of matter of which the construction is composed.

Growth is the formation of an idea construction toward its fullest possible materialization following the properties of matter.

Sleep is the entity's relative rest from idea construction except the minimum necessary for physical survival.




The physical universe is the sum of individual idea constructions.

Memory is the ghost image of "past" idea constructions.

Each evolutionary change is preceded and caused by a new idea.

As the idea is in the process of being constructed onto the physical plane, it prepares the material world for its own actuality and creates the prerequisite conditions.



Evolution is energy's movement toward conscious expression in the physical universe, but it is basically nonphysical.

A species at any given time is the materialization of the inner images or ideas of its individual members, each of whom forms his own idea constructions.

At no point can we actually say that one construction vanishes and another takes its place, but artificially we adopt certain points as past, present and future, for convenience.

At some point, we agree that the physical construction ceases to be elements of the "past" construction and is already becoming the"next" one.

Though the construction of an idea seems to disappear physically, the idea which it represents still exists.

Sleep is the entity's rest from physical idea construction.

Only enough energy is used to keep the personal image construction in existence.

The entity withdraws into basic energy realms and is comparatively free from time since idea construction is at a minimum level.

The entity is in contact with other entities at a subconscious area.

After death, the entity will have its ghost images (memories) at its command, though their apparent sequence will no longer apply.

Memories are properties of the subconscious energy entity and,as such, are indestructible (though they may be unavailable to the individual under various circumstances).

The next plane of existence will involve further training in energy use and manipulation, since the energy of which the entity is composed is self-generating and always seeking more complicated form and awareness.

Each material particle is an idea construction formed by the individualized bits of energy that compose it.

*Each entity perceives only his own construction on a physical level.

* Because all constructions are more or less faithful reproductions in matter of the same basic ideas (since all individuals are, generally speaking, on the same level in this plane), then they agree sufficiently in space, time and degree so that the world of appearances has coherence and relative predictability.

The Fabric of Physical Matter:

All physical matter is idea construction.

We only see our own constructions.

So-called empty space is full of constructions not our own that we cannot perceive.

Our skin connects us to other physical constructions, and through it we are involved in the complicated fabric of continuous matter.

The action of each one of the most minute of these particles affects each other one.



The slight motion of one grain of sand causes a corresponding alteration in the distribution of the stars and in all matter's fabric, from an atom in a man's skull down to the slightest variation in a microbe's action.

All matter is idea construction, woven together; each construction is individual and yet cohesive to the whole.

The smallest particle is necessary to the whole, forming part of matter's design.

The Universe as a Physical Body:

The matter of the universe can be conceived of as a physical body, an organism of individual cells (objects) held together by connective tissue (the chemicals and elements of air).

This connective tissue is also alive and carries electrical impulses.

Within it, as within the connective tissues of the human body, there is a certain elasticity, a certain amount of regeneration and a constant replacement of the atoms and molecules that compose it.

While the whole retains its shape, the material itself is being constantly born and replaced.

This rough diagram (diagram omitted in this text file) "came" with the above material.
It was supposed to represent the energy of the entity as it flowed outward through the subconscious to the conscious, in order to construct the physical image and environment in response to the self's idea of what it was.
I was involved with the "pure" experience behind the diagram and words
with which I was left.
The revelation was that there were no real boundaries to the self; skin did not separate us from others but connected us in a webwork of energy; what we thought
of as Self and Not-Self were interrelated; and that, in this life at least, ideas were constantly being transformed into matter.

The ability of the entity to transform energy into an idea and then to construct it physically determines the entity's place on the physical evolutionary plane.
Simple organisms are capable of "picking up" fewer communications.
Their range is less, but the vitality and validity of their constructions is excellent.
In simple organisms such as the paramecium and amoeba, the few sharp ideas received are constructed almost simultaneously, without reflection.
The organism needs no other mechanism to translate ideas.
What it has is sufficient.
More complicated organisms - mammals, for example - have need of further mechanisms to construct ideas because they are able to perceive more of them.
Here memory is an element.
Now the organism has a built-in ghost image of past constructions by which to perfect and test new ones.
Reflection of some sort enters into the picture, and with it the organism is given more to do.
Slowly, within its range of receptivity, it is given some choice in the actual construction of ideas into physical reality.
The reflection is brief, but for a moment the animal partakes of a new dimension.
The shadow of time glimmers in his eyes as the still imperfected memory of past constructions lingers in his consciousness.
As yet, memory storage is small, but now the instantaneous construction is no longer instantaneous, in our terms.
There is a pause: the organism - dog or tiger - can choose to attack or not to attack.
The amoeba must construct its small world without reflection and without time as we know it.
Entities with still broader range need more complicated structure.
The scope of their receptivity is so large that the simple autonomic nervous system is not enough.
The amoeba constructs each idea it receives, because it is able to receive so few.
All must be constructed to ensure survival.
With man, the opposite becomes true.
He has such a range of receptivity that it is impossible for him to construct all of his ideas physically.
As his scope is widened, a mechanism was necessary that would allow him to choose.
Self-consciousness and reason were the answers.
Suddenly, time blossomed like a strange flower in his skull.
Before this he was transfixed in the present.
But memory produced another dimension in the animal and man carried it
further.
No longer did memory flicker briefly and disappear, enclosing him in darkness again.
Now it stretched brightly behind him and also stretched out ahead - a road on which he always saw his own changing image.
He learned continuity.
And with his focused memory at his command, man's ego was born, which could follow its own identity through the maze of blazing impulses that beset him, could recognize itself through the pattern of continuing constructions and could separate itself from its action in the physical world.
Here you have the birth of subject and object, the I AM who is the doer and constructor, and the construction itself.
This new dimension enabled the species to manipulate and recognize its own constructions and freed it to focus greater energy in projecting some ideas over others.
In other words, conscious purpose became possible, physically.
Somewhere along the line, however, man began to divorce himself almost completely and artificially from his own constructions.
Hence his groping, his sense of alienation from nature, his search for a Cause or Creator of a creation he no longer recognized as his own."

~ Seth/Jane Roberts

--"Dreams, Evolution & Value Fulfillment",Vol. 1, Session 891, Notes.2005 Copyright Robert F. Butts.

Dealing with suffering

“To be free of pain, we must go to the very end of it.

We must neither resist or resent it....

The suffering becomes a great revelation.

It enables us to see the false supports we have been leaning on.

By dropping them, the truth comes to support us completely.

Everything depends on whether we use our pains wisely.”

~Vernon Howard, The Power of Your Supermind

“And then there is the sense that, in spite of Everything
--I suppose this is the ultimate mystical conviction--
in spite of Pain,
in spite of Death,
in spite of Horror,
the universe is in some way All Right,
capital A, capital R.”

~Aldous Huxley

Love

"For one human being to love another:
that is perhaps the most difficult task of all ...,
the work for which all other work is but preparation.

It is a high inducement to the individual to ripen ...
a great exacting claim upon us, something that chooses us out
and calls us to vast things."

--Rainer Maria Rilke

Communication Bill of Rights

All persons, regardless of the extent or severity of their disabilities, have a basic right to affect, through communication, the conditions of their own existence.

Beyond this general right, a number of specific communication rights should beensured in all daily interactions and interventions involving persons who havesevere disabilities.

These basic communication rights are as follows:

1. The right to request desired objects, actions, events, and persons, and to express personal preferences, or feelings.

2. The right to be offered choices and alternatives.

3. The right to reject or refuse undesired objects, events, or actions, including the right to decline or reject all proffered choices.

4. The right to request, and be given, attention from and interaction with another person.

5. The right to request feedback or information about a state, an object, a person, or an event of interest.

6. The right to active treatment and intervention efforts to enable people with severe disabilities to communicate messages in whatever modes and as effectively and efficiently as their specific abilities will allow.

7. The right to have communicative acts acknowledged and responded to, even when the intent of these acts cannot be fulfilled by the responder.

8. The right to have access at all times to any needed augmentative and alternative communication devices and other assistive devices,

--to have those devices in good working order.

9. The right to environmental contexts, interactions, and opportunities that expect and encourage persons with disabilities to participate as full communicative partners with other people, including peers.

10. The right to be informed about the people, things, and events in one's immediate environment.

11. The right to be communicated with in a manner that recognizes and acknowledges the inherent dignity of the person being addressed, including the right to be part of communication exchanges about individuals that are conducted in his or her presence.

12. The right to be communicated with in ways that are meaningful, understandable, and culturally and linguistically appropriate."

~National Joint Committee for the Communicative Needs of Persons with Severe Disabilities

Flowers for Algernon

Algernon's Story

Or, Why care about what animals feel, or think or communicate.

Here's the story of a real rat. His name was Algernon. He was my lab rat in college. I was majoring in Psychology, and at my particular University, Behaviorism was the norm. Behaviorism says that it doesn't matter what is "inside the box" of people's heads (or animals) because we can't really know that, we can only study behavior. Which is the evidence of "something" inside the box, but we don't have to know what it is to study it.

Algernon was a white lab rat bred to be practically identical to all the other white lab rats my class was using, so any differences in behavior we noted would be supposedly entirely due to how we treated them and experimented on them. The rats were in little wire cages stacked on top of each other with numbers on the front, a water bottle and a small amount of food pellets for them to eat. They could see and smell each other but not touch each other. We were to reduce the food until they all were hungry based on a formula that was called a starvation diet, then they went without food for a day so we could experiment with hungry rats. The hunger was the motivator for them to do what we wanted to train them to do.

We were rewarding them with a single food pellet for pressing a bar in another cage while we took notes. There was a specific process called "shaping" that we were all supposed to be learning. So us students were being "shaped" too.

I felt sorry for my rat. I wasn't supposed to name him because we weren't supposed to think of them that way so we could be objective when we called them by the numbers we had given them. Of course, I thought the number was a name, too. But I had just read the book "Flowers for Algernon" and thought I'd be cute and name him that to be a bit rebellious. I started feeding him in between other classes. I brought him real food, like lettuce. He seemed to really love the real food--but that was "inside the black box" so I couldn't be sure except that I knew he was very hungry, and I saw him eating it very fast.

Anyway, my rat should have been the slowest to press the bar in the group of rats. The days we all got our rats, most students put on these heavy gloves to pick up their rats so they wouldn't be bitten. Algernon let me pet him when I fed him, so he let me pick him up easily, and then I would pet him and talk to him. My classmates made fun of me talking to a rat. Other classmates picked their rats up by their tails like we were taught to (to avoid the "friendliness" part.) I made fun of them because of their squeeling and even screaming a bit when they reached in to get their rats and the rats struggled.

So I cuddled Algernon a bit, watching all this. My professor frowned at me and said my rat would do poorly because we didn't have as much time to do the "shaping." So, Algernon goes into the testing cage. He looks around curiously exploring everything, touches the bar, sniffs the food pellet, takes his time eating it. Then goes and looks around some more and then looks at ME. I cheer him on. I get teased. (MY shaping isn't going so well.)

This goes on for a few minutes, and pretty soon he's eating about 5 pellets and grooming himself. So I look at how the other rats are doing, thinking I can learn something from all the other behaviorist experts who are doing it "the right way." Next to me, a student's rat is in a corner, fur all ruffled up, head down. I ask, "So how many pellets has he eaten?" She says he hasn't eaten any because he had stayed in the corner the whole time so far.

On the other side, the rat is going in circles, around and around, looking nervous or angry about something (although, I am not supposed to presume such a feeling inside its "black box".) I ask the student how many pellets his rat has eaten and he says something like, "I don't give a shit, he's just bit me when I put him in there. This rat is F***** crazy, he just keeps going in circles." This is the guy who put him in by lifting it by the tail like we were told to.

The next day, I give Algernon a special treat of seeds and fruit. He's not hungry at all when he goes into the cage. We talk a bit, he goes into the cage, looks around, gets comfortable, and saunters over to the bar and then LOOKS AT ME. I cheer him on, I get teased again. He proceeds to push the bar about ten times. The other rats still haven't found the bar yet. Some are just starting to get "closer" to the bar, though. This is the shaping part--we were supposed to give them a pellet for just looking at the bar at first, then for getting "closer."

The next time, I do the same thing. He goes right over to the bar, looks at me, and proceeds to push the bar about 20 times. I cheer him on. I get teased. But everyone comes over to watch. He pushes the bar another 20 times. I have only rewarded him with a few pellets. He looks at me. I think he is enjoying this, but I am probably only "projecting" my feelings onto him. I know I certainly am enjoying this. He proceeds to push the bar another 30 times before cleaning his fur. I take him out of the cage, and give him a bit of bananna. I talk to him.

My professor is furious. He says I have "ruined" the experiment. The next day, nobody is watching anyone else's rat. Algernon is the star. He is pushing the bar as fast as he can, to cheers and whoops. He pushes the bar 100 times, and I have to stop him and give him a rest. The experiment is over. He only had to do 100 times to get one pellet to "prove" how shaping works. He didn't need that one pellet. I had given him an entire apple that morning.

I was reprimanded by my professor, and my grade was docked for feeding my rat and not keeping him on the standard starvation diet during the experiment. I complained that my rat completed the experiment, did the shaping, and I had learned how to do the shaping even though he wasn't "motivated" by hunger. The professor said I had disrupted the class (just because everone was watching my rat, not because I was acting disruptive during class) and was a bad example to the other students, and my grade was reduced.

I asked to keep Algernon when the experiment was over. The professor said it was against the rules because the students tended to loose track of them and they got into the University's sewers. I was going to sneak in and steal him (the professor told me I would be accused of stealing University property if I did) but because I had spoken to my professor about it, he had expedited the process of killing all the rats used in the experiment by the standard method of putting them all into a black plastic bag and gassing them.

There were lots of tears for Algernon. He did a very good job of being a lab rat for me.

So my experience with Behaviorism, was that I got really good at shaping animal behavior. I got on the Dean's list that year. I used that to get a scholarship, and I used the scholarship to buy a motorcycle.

Thank you for the motorcycle, Algernon. It drove me really nice to my Physics class, where there are few parking spots.

One Year Update on Doing the GF/CF Diet

Earlier I posted a personal experience with putting an Autistic boy on the GF/CF diet. Here is an update one year later (the posting was written a year ago for another Forum, but I didn't put it on this blog right away.)

My son is 15 and was a non-verbal, moderately Autistic child when diagnosed. He had a lot of behavior issues and minimal responsiveness to the world outside our own home, and tons of feeding issues. He had GI studies which showed unusual lesions in his stomach nobody could explain or treat. Some Doctors think that this is actually a result of measles from the MMR and an incomplete immune reaction to the immunization.

The first month was all about getting ready. I cleared out the entire house of anything with Gluten and Casein in it and gave away what was still good to friends and a food pantry. I printed up the diet guidelines, and gave them to the school and family members who would be eating with him. I printed up cards with the restrictions on it to give to staff at restaraunts. I started following two publications: The "Gluten-Free Girl" blog, and "Living Without Magazine."

Reading the Gluten-Free Girl's book by the same name (its in our local library) led me to recognize some of her same symptoms in myself, too. So I put the entire family on the diet. Its SO MUCH EASIER this way. No worry about what to eat, what is OK to eat. I put the pantry together with enough stuff over a week or two so that I had enough snacks to tide us over until I could make more of the meals on my own. My autistic son was already pretty much eating things we could keep. The only thing he ended up missing was pizza. I tried to make a GF/CF pizza, but he didn't like the version I made at the time. Later, I found a brand of frozen pizza that is made GF/CF which he is starting to get used to. I think after a year, he's forgotten the taste of the other kind of pizza, so the difference isn't so obvious.

Anyway, the results are in. After a few "misses" where his Dad had trouble with buying into it, his behavior improved so much that even he is more convinced that the diet is worth the trouble of being careful even away from home. The school is very, very convinced. Enough to have taken an interest in how the diet works, and providing a separate place for him to prepare his own food, and to provide staff support during lunchtime. The caffeteria staff has agreed to provide one item he really likes at the school during lunches for him.

He is on the honor roll now. His behavior issues have dwindled to almost none, from several times a week. He has learned to cook his own lunch at school, knows what is on his own diet (with a little mock moaning about it, but he follows it anyway.) He even makes extra food for friends. He eats with everyone else in the caffeteria. He has several new friends (non-special ed.) and has been to two dances, and has some girlfriends (nothing serious.) He has made a movie, posted it to UTube, and has about 50 friends on Facebook. He is doing advanced work in computers and even finished his exam ahead of time, so he could take that day off and made plans with friends instead. He can go independently to a restaraunt with friends.

He's grown several inches and is now taller than his father. He looks very healthy and is height/weight proportionate.

He doesn't think he's all that different, but everyone else is noticing how much better he is doing. He even sleeps better at night.

It wasn't a dramatic, overnight change. But mine was. Within a week of following this diet strictly myself, I lost all symptoms of health problems I had been having for over 20 years. I was able to go off all prescription medications I was on, and so was my son. He only takes some supplements now. There really is something to this diet. But it is something you can't cheat on (no, nobody is going to have an allergic reaction like some kids have to peanuts) but if you cheat, it does make a difference. Even if you have some food that seems GF/CF, but has tiny amounts in the form of additives or cross-contamination you can have a difference.

I think that for my son, he might be able to cheat a bit as time goes on, but for me, I can tell right away because I have pain and all my old symptoms return for at least 5 hours to 3 days.

Autistics have an unusual tolerance for pain (and an equally unusual intolerance for light touch and bright lights and loud sounds.) So perhaps my son doesn't notice pain that might have been similar to mine. Either that, or his symptoms hadn't had the chance to progress to the level mine had over the last 20 years.

I hope that someday this diet is researched better. But it is unlikely that drug manufacturers will fund it because it isn't a drug treatment. Parents, the government, and charity funders will have to do it.

I hope that every parent of an Autistic child at least hears about the potential for this diet to help their child. It might not help every child, but I have a feeling that some families have a hard time keeping the strictness required, like we had the first time we tried it. It really helped to have the blogs, the magazine, the family support and the school support. This time around, it really helped to have more choices of prepared foods. There is a bakery in a nearby town that makes some really delicious fresh baked goods that are Celiac-friendly, and that has helped a lot.

My extended family has all seen such improvement in us that my sister, mother and a neice have all gone on versions of this diet. The neice's rhumatism has gone into remission. My sister lost the last 5 pounds she has been battling to get to a size 6. I lost 25 lbs without trying to. I never thought to even suggest they try an autism diet for these things (except the rhumatism.)

I have so much more energy that I have started learning swing dancing, joined the local gym and work out every day now. I feel like a whole new person.

The diet isn't a weight loss diet. You can loose weight if you want to. Nor is it for treating Fibromyalgia (I had been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, IBS, Chronic Fatigue, low thyroid and headaches.) However, for anyone with chronic pain, I suggest at least trying it for two weeks. I could tell after only one week.

The high point of the year was when my family produced an entire Christmas feast that was GF/CF for us, and I got my very first GF/CF birthday cake for my 50th. I wish I had known to do this 30 years ago.

I sometimes wonder now, that if I had avoided these two allergens back then, if I might have prevented at least some aspects of my son being born with Autism.

Personally, I think my son inherited certain genes, and my immune system was compromised by stress from the loss of my first child to cancer. My imbalanced immunity was passed to him through the neonatal period and from nursing. After which, the many, many immunizations he was given made his immune system become unbalanced in a way that has neurological implications.

Value Decisions

"One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others,
by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion."

~ Simone de Beauvoir

Did You Know?

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Taking 0.4 mgs of Folic Acid each day can help reduce the risk of Spina Bifida up to 75%!

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Let's All Wabi Sabi

Wabi-sabi

"The Japanese view of life embraced a simple aesthetic that grew stronger as inessentials were eliminated and trimmed away."

-architect Tadao Ando



A comprehensive Japanese world view, aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience, of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete." The Japanese word for rust is pronounced sabi. A wabi-sabi aesthetic values asymmetry, asperity, simplicity, modesty, intimacy, and the suggestion of a natural process.


A good example of this is in certain styles of Japanese pottery. In Japanese tea ceremony, cups used are often rustic and simple-looking, e.g. Hagi ware, with shapes that are not quite symmetrical, and colors or textures that appear to emphasize an unrefined or simple style. In reality, the cups can be quite expensive and in fact, it is up to the knowledge and observational ability of the participant to notice and discern the hidden signs of a truly excellent design or glaze (akin to the appearance of a diamond in the rough.) The glaze is known to change in color with time as tea is repeatedly poured into them (sabi) and the fact that the cups are deliberately chipped or nicked at the bottom (wabi), which serves as a kind of signature of the Hagi-yaki style.



Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. Wabi originally referred to the loneliness of living in nature, remote from society; Sabi meant "chill", "lean" or "withered."

More positive connotations of Wabi now indicate rustic simplicity, freshness or quietness.

Japanese arts over the past thousand years have been influenced by Zen and Mahayana philosophy of acceptance, and contemplation of the imperfection, constant flux, and impermanence of all things.

These can be of both natural and human-made objects, or understated elegance. It refers to quirks and anomalies arising from the process of construction, which add uniqueness and elegance to an object. Sabi is beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impermanence are evidenced in its patina and wear, or in any visible repairs.

Wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty. It occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West. If an object or expression can bring about within us a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi.

Wabi and sabi both suggest sentiments of desolation and solitude.

From an engineering or design point of view, "wabi" is the imperfect quality of any object, due to the inevitable limitations in design and construction/manufacture, especially with respect to unpredictable or changing usage conditions.

Sabi is then the aspect of imperfect reliability, or limited mortality of any object; to rust.

In the Mahayana Buddhist view of the universe, these may be viewed as positive characteristics, representing liberation from a material world and transcendence to a simpler life. Mahayana philosophy itself, however, warns that genuine understanding cannot be achieved through words or language, so accepting wabi-sabi on nonverbal terms may be the most appropriate approach. (Through the effects of objects, art, or observation of the world.)

The wabi and sabi concepts are religious in origin, but actual usage of the words in Japanese is often quite casual. Japanese belief systems are syncretic in nature.

Honkyoku (traditional shakuhachi music of wandering Zen monks,)

ikebana (flower arrangement,)

Japanese gardens,

Zen gardens,

and bonsai (tray gardens,)

Japanese poetry, particularly haiku,

Japanese pottery, notably Hagi-ware,

Japanese tea ceremony, and

Bonsai, the Japanese art of miniature trees, all have wabi sabi aesthetic.

--Leonard Koren in his book Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers
Summary of Wikipedia description

Great article on Wabi Sabi: http://nobleharbor.com/tea/chado/WhatIsWabi-Sabi.htm


This post is in memory of Allison Sullivan, an other-worldly sprite who I was honored to have met, who I think, exemplified the distilled nature of human existence in all its beauty, through the wabi sabi patina of her earthly teacup of great value to her family and friends.

Dance Like There is No Tomorrow

"Live not as though there were a thousand years ahead of you.

Fate is at your elbow; make yourself good while life and power are still yours."

--Marcus Aurelius

The Way the Wind Blows

"If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees. "

~Kahlil Gibran

I can't live without my melior.

This is something I would take with me if I only had one trunk to put everything in.

I have used my melior pot for 6 years, and the one before that for over 18 years. A melior pot is a way to make coffee. Really good coffee. Without using up one of the scarce electrical outlets on my kitchen counter. My kitchen counter is premium real estate. Whatever is there has to really earn its priviledged place in my life. I use one made by Bodum, called the Chambord. There are other manufacturers that make this kind of coffee press, too. They are also called a French Press coffee maker. Mine makes 8 cups (34 oz) and you can get them in other sizes. The first one I got made about two cups (depending on how large your coffee mug is. These days one cup in a mug is the same size as three regular cups used to be!)

I think that this is the best way to make coffee, because you don't actually boil the coffee itself. You add boiling water to the press with coarse ground coffee, but then let it steep for about 4 minutes, instead of continuing to boil it like my Mother's and Grandmother's coffee makers used to do.

The Bodum people say they are Dishwasher safe, but I handwash mine, because I love it so much.

Here's the advantages to using a melior pot, from someone who loves coffee, and has used one for over 20 years:

They are quick and easy to use.
With the time I save, I have begun to grind my own coffee with a small spice/coffee grinder.

No filter needed.

You don't need to buy coffee filters, since the melior comes with its own permanent filter. So to save money and time, I often forgoe adding a paper filter. I also can taste the paper and got tired of that added paper taste.

Years ago, I switched to chlorine-free coffee filters when a family member died of cancer. So these were sometimes hard to find. But you can buy filters for meliors. You only need a small circle of filter paper the size of the diameter of the pot, and I can find these at my local grocery. This is if you want to remove certain oils that are in coffee that tend to make it bitter, and less healthy. Research has found that the paper coffee filter does make a difference. I can't seem to find the chlorine-free version of these, but I suppose if I was a fanatic, I could simply cut the circles out of the larger size chlorine-free filters.

No plastic.

I like that they are not made of plastic. They use some kind of temperature resistant resin to make the handles, but no plastic touches the water/coffee. I can taste the plastic when drinking coffee, (particularly the styrofoam cups) and when you pay a premium price for the coffee, you want to taste the coffee, and all the nuances of really good coffee. I also am very concerned about the additives in some plastics, particularly the very hard plastics like Nalgene, which have had a cancer-causing agent added to them that leaches into what is contained by them.

When I was working, I was remarking on how much garbage our lunchroom created, and began re-using my styrofoam cups a few times by rinsing them out. When a few months later I took it a step further (which at the time seemed radical,) and tried to reduce my impact on the environment by bringing my own ceramic mug, it seemed to change how I saw drinking coffee. As something with more to it than just gulping it down like a soda. This was before Starbucks.

No cord.
No plug, no electrical outlet needed.

I just use a tea kettle to boil water, but you can also use the microwave for heating the water.
You can take it camping.

Fewer working parts = fewer things to break and go wrong.

They last a VERY long time. My sister has replaced her coffee maker several times in the years since I have owned and loved my melior pot.

They look good in my kitchen.

They are made well, of pyrex-type glass and polished steel, and, I think, are beautiful. You can leave them on your counter and they look good. Better than the plastic electric kind. They look like an instrument or expensive tool, rather than a standard appliance.

Interestingly, the Bodum, which is the most popular brand of melior, is made by an old clarinet factory in Normandy. (I just read a review posting that says the quality has changed, since the original craftsmen might not still be there anymore, so it might pay to look for a used one or antique one. Mine is 6 years old now, and is still made very well.)

The melior can be used to make tea from bulk.

Bulk tea is often cheaper than packaged tea, or in the case of organic teas, it is the only way to purchase it. Sometimes I even empty out the teabags into the melior because I want to avoid that "wet paper" taste.

I put a kitchen towel around my pot to keep the coffee warm, but there is a type of melior that is double-walled stainless steel that can keep coffee warm all morning like a thermos, and another type that is double-walled glass. The stainless steel one has a very graceful design.

I saw my first melior at the Coffee Trader on Milwaukee's East Side. Does anyone remember The Coffee Trader? The Coffee Trader was way ahead of its time. They served all their coffee this way, and each time the waiters had to explain how to use them (its very simple, wait a few minutes, then push the plunger with the filter on it down, then pour.) The Coffee Trader had absolutely adorable "cozys" that were quilted and "stood up" over the melior pot. They each were made of a different fabric. I have always wanted one, but somehow never got or made one.

I just looked around for one on the web, but none of them look like the ones the Coffee Trader used to have. The Coffee Trader one was larger than the melior, stood on its own (even without the melior in it) was made of four pieces of quilted fabric which were sewn together and had four finished edges, and curved at the top to a point which had some kind of fabric knob type finish on it. To pick it up, you just grabbed the top knot and lifted it up to pour some coffee. It would also work to store the melior, like a melior cover. Remember the quilted covers people used to use to cover their toasters? My Grandmother had one. If anyone wants to make one like this, I would buy it. I would line the inside with a heat-reflecting fabric, and use a kind of fiber felt inside the quilting that is like the water repellant fabrics mountain climbers wear. And I liked the floral prints they had, which reminded me of the antique floral prints my grandmother used to wear in the 40's.