April is Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness Month. There are three things about autism that most people probably are not aware of.

First is its prevalence. The latest estimate is that 1 in 150 people in the USA have been diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which is also known as Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD).

If you're in the fields of engineering, computer science, physics or math, the chances are even higher that you, your children, your coworkers or their children could be diagnosed with this disorder. And you should check out http://firstsigns.org/, which is dedicated to the early identification and treatment of children with developmental delays and disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorders.

The second thing to be aware of is knowing what autism is. The diagnostic criteria for ASD in children concern development and ability in the areas of social interaction, communication and play. Please see "Diagnosis and Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders," by Lee Tidmarsh, MD, Fred R Volkmar, MD. The misconception is that all autistic children are non-verbal and catatonic. That may be true of children who are on the low end of the spectrum. But those with either "high-functioning autism" or Asperger Syndrome can be very verbal, especially when they're talking about their "special interest," such as locomotives. They are usually of average or above-average intelligence, and they sometimes come across as "little professors."

The third thing to be aware of regarding autism is that there are effective treatments. Early detection of an ASD is crucial because when interventions are tried at an early age (say at 3 to 5 years of age), they are even more effective than when tried later on.

I should point out that most of those who have an ASD and who can communicate say that they don't want to be cured; they just want to be accepted. Thus, it's not they who have the problem, it is society. Nevertheless, interventions can make things easier for children and the autistic adults they grow in to.

What kinds of interventions can reduce the symptoms of an ASD? A change in diet -- avoiding wheat and dairy products (the Gluten-Free Caisen-Free GFCF diet), for example, or avoiding chemical additives (the Feingold diet) -- can help. (The GFCF diet helps those with Leaky Gut Syndrome, which can manifest as symptoms of ASD.) Another effective, diet-related approach is supplementation with mega doses of vitamin B6, or its active co-enzyme, P5P. Play therapy or Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) has been proven to help. In some cases, mercury detoxification may help. There are many more interventions for a parent to choose from. Then there are interventions aimed at easing the secondary symptoms that accompany ASD such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Depression.

Scientists can spend entire careers looking for signs of intelligent life in the Universe. Meanwhile, medical researchers have overlooked signs of intelligence in people with autism. They assume that people who can't talk and who respond differently to stimuli must be lacking in intelligence.

If you don't believe me, consider the amazing website, Getting the Truth Out, which was originally written in response to an objectionable Autism Awareness fundraising campaign called "Getting the Word Out." Be sure to follow the presentation completely to the end -- it may take about 45 minutes to get through it all.

If you suspect that you or a loved one is struggling with an ASD, visit the Online Asperger Syndrome Information & Support (OASIS). (Asperger Syndrome is an ASD, and is sometimes referred to as High-Functioning Autism.) As its name suggests, you can get a great deal of information from the site. You can find most of the support by clicking on the Message Boards menu choice and registering for the "OASIS: Asperger Syndrome Forum".

When most people know the facts about autism, policymakers can no longer ignore the issue. Lawmakers can force health insurance providers to cover the costs of treatments. More money could be made available to schools to fund better special education programs and to keep up with "No Child Left Behind" mandates. And parents and caregivers can have children evaluated earlier.

Follow the links. Do the research. Spread the word.

High School Art Classes and Maturation of Seeing

I helped clean out my mother's house last Saturday and found my old art portfolios.

I took art in grades nine and ten. As a grade nine elective, art was one of three choices, the other two being shop (a noisy dirty class for jocks and bullies) and home economics (for girls). Being neither a jock, bully or girl, I chose art. Besides, I figured I'd really like drawing -- I used to enjoy it as a child.

My ninth grade art class was the last one of the day. It was a great way to wind down. I really became absorbed in the work and found solace and escape. (This was Junior High School, after all.) I focused a lot on detail -- bricks in the wall of a building, the bark on a tree, etc. I enjoyed the media of pencil and pen and ink best.

I managed to produce some impressive things and got consistently high grades. One piece won honorable Mention at a local art gallery in a student contest. It was a (partly abstract) pen and ink drawing of a train station.

I dropped art after tenth grade. One reason was that it was the first class of the day. I'm sorry, but art should not be done at 8:00am. Another was that I had classmates that were much better than me. (The classmates were in grades ten, eleven and twelve.) I remember one guy who could draw amazing fantasy creatures. And yet another reason was that this class was such drudgery. In looking through the work, I remember the assignment where I had to turn in four sketches of my hand in one week. There was also some art history that I was expected learn and write essays about! [shudder]

The main point of this post is that I realize now that I could not really see back then. It wasn't until I bought "Drawing on the Right Side of Brain" several years later that I learned how I should visually perceive my environment. Not that I actually could visually perceive my environment, mind you.

And now it's fifteen years later. I'm finally trying to look carefully at what's around me instead of walking about in a fog, ruminating on past conversations and events. I no longer arrive at work, not remembering the drive. I don't very often walk into a room forgetting what I it was I went in it for. I'm almost becoming lucid just like I used to in my dreams years ago.

Seeing seems so simple. But it's not, at least not for me. In fact, there are many things that seem so simple, and yet we don't do them well. Breathing, eating, hygiene -- these autonomous activities suffer from lack of concentration. We eat without paying much attention to the taste and texture of the food, let alone how the food can replenish us. Our breathing becomes more and more shallow as stress weighs upon us. We brush our teeth mindlessly, hoping to get it done quickly, utterly failing to imagine them clean, strong and healthy.

When you see, really look at the scene in front of you. Take in the detail of the tree branches, the iridescence of bird feathers, the diamond-like sparkle of dew on the morning lawn. Be present in the moment. Treat the present as the gift that it is. See it. Feel it. Be it.

April Fools Celebration

One of the most under-rated holidays is April Fools Day.

I fooled my daughter and my wife real good in the morning.

My wife had just left the kitchen to start her bathroom routine when my daughter walked in, a bit bleary and incoherent. The radio was on, so I said to her, "I just heard on the radio that school's canceled! Let's tell mommy!"

"But it's not snowing?"

"No, but the boiler broke!"

So we rush over to the bathroom. And you know the worst thing you can tell a mom in the morning before school is that the school is closed unexpectedly, and she has to babysit a child all day instead of cruising over to Starbucks and getting a seasonal latte before embarking on a massive grocery shopping trip.

"Hey, I just heard on the radio that school's closed! The boiler's broken!"

"Oh no!"

It was great because I had already convinced my daughter, and she helped me feed the line to my wife. Hehe. Otherwise, my daughter is a bad practical joker -- she has no poker face whatsoever. I think that's what made it so convincing.

So I was on high alert when I got back home after a day at work. And that's exactly why I like this day so much. It forces you to pay attention -- the ideal state for someone who studies meditation (or needs to).

If you've ever watched one of the Pink Panther movies that Peter Sellers starred in, you know what this is like. In the story line Inspect Clouseau has given his house boy, Cato Fong, instructions to attack him by surprise at any time. The inspector hopes this will keep him vigilant. (Here's an image from the scene in which Cato attacks the inspector from within the refrigerator.)

Usually when I get home, my wife and daughter are in the middle of supper, and stuff is on the stove, oven or in a plate to be warmed up for me. (Nice service, eh?) This April Fools Day was suspiciously no different.

Well, the plate was there, covered with wax paper, ready to go into the microwave oven. I cautiously lifted the paper to reveal.... food. Well, okay, a few years ago, there were hairy cat toys on the plate!

I decided to wash my hands before heating the plate. I went to dry them on the kitchen towel, and it was krinkly. There was tape on the inside of it!

So I brought the plate over to the microwave oven, opened it and -- uuuugh -- it was filled with stuffed animals!

There was soup in a pot on the stove, but when I lifted the lid I saw stuffed animals!

I found two banana slices in my green salad!

Before bedtime, I decided to use the bathroom. I lifted the toilet lid and saw a Sponge Bob Square Pants plushie taped underneath!

So it was a really fun day. I enjoyed the pranks. But I especially liked being forced to pay attention.

And if you want to try a really good meditation, do the Cato / Clouseau meditation. Get a house mate or coworker to surprise you frequently throughout the day!

Quiz: What Color is Your Soul?

What Color is Your Soul? {8 results + artistic pics}

Your Soul is Purple - Artist, dreamer, creative. You are lost in your thoughts, and have a dislike of reality (probably finding it boring). You have to remember that every idea is based off the reality you know. Magic is everywhere, you just have to see it. Thinking, and creating things, are your top priorities (not to mention what you are best at). Keep at it, a little imagination can take you far.
Take this quiz!



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Why Meditate? (Part 1)

In my previous post, "Who Am I?" I mentioned that I was meditating 20 years ago. Why did I start?

I was in my early twenties. I had just completed vocational school, and I was working full time.

One day, I was lying in bed and some strange woman kept asking me who the president was. At the time, Reagan was the President, but I answered Carter or Ford. I wasn't sure, and it was really hard for me to stay awake.

But then I woke up on my own. I was in a strange room. I asked the ceiling, "Where am I?" and I heard my mom tell me that I'm in the hospital. She explained that I had gotten into a car crash and had a concussion. "Don't you remember?"

I didn't remember any of it. After I got out, we drove back to the scene of the crash. I couldn't remember ever being there, but I did notice that the four-way intersection had only one stop sign.

Anyway, while recuperating, I wondered about my amnesia. Certainly I was awake and conscious when the crash occurred and before then. And witnesses said I was awake and conscious when I was removed from the car and had my head wound stitched. So where were my memories of all that? If a person is partly made up of memory and experience, was I really the same person who was in the crash?

I also considered my mortality. There was so much to learn before leaving Earth. I was especially interested in all those unexplained phenomena, such as telepathy, and psychokinesis.

So I embarked from our local library on a journey through the literature of such things. Being of a scientific mind, I followed the footnotes in the less speculative books. I don't remember exactly which books I read until I made my way to works on mysticism by Evelyn Underhill, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Merton, as well as The Cloud of Unknowing. I also read a bit about Taoism and Buddhism, including the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

The basis of all this diverse experience of religion appeared to be meditation. And it seemed that meditation would help me cut through the fog of my existence. I wasn't really paying attention to my surroundings, and I needed to change that. So that's when I came across Lawrence LaShan's "How To Meditate" and undertook a discipline of meditation.

Who Am I?

I read about the "Who Am I?" meditation more than twenty years ago in Lawrence LeShan's "How To Meditate." When I decided to try it, I had already been meditating for a few months, counting breaths¹ for 15 to 20 minutes each day, and doing contemplation² an additional 10 minutes per day.

In the twenty year span since I first read about it, I did "Who Am I?" a total of two times. That's because I actually got an Answer the second time.

"Who Am I?" is a more mentally challenging meditation, compared with breath counting or thought bubbles. Maybe that's why it appealed to me back then. The idea is that you ask yourself, "Who Am I?" Then you wait for an answer, which most likely will be superficial, like your name or occupation. You tell yourself that the answer isn't right, and ask again, "Who Am I?" Keep it up for five or ten minutes. Set a timer to be sure.

Here's how a meditation might go:

Who am I?
I am John Smith.
But that's just a name you've been given. Who is the I that the name belongs to?
I am an engineer.
But that's just your occupation. Who is the I that has this occupation?
I am some guy.
But that's really just a description of your gender. Who is the I that has this gender.

And so on. Pretty cool, right?

So why not take a break from reading this and try the meditation yourself. Go on, try it now!


The Answer I got came from within me and from the Universe around me. It was wordless and colorless, like what you see on the screen when the reel-to-reel movie ends and the tape runs out. I've also had this sensation at the ends of dreams in which I die. This sensation has stayed with me all these years.

---

1. There are many ways to count breaths. LeShan's suggestion is to count exhalations from one to four and then start over again at one. You keep doing this until your timer goes off. You do not try to alter the rhythm of your breath. Beginners are encouraged to fill in the space between exhalations by thinking "and" on the inhalations. Sounds easy, yes?

2. In contemplation, you look carefully at an object. Without touching it, you stroke it with your eyes and try to sense how it feels. The object I used was a piece of bark from an oak tree from my backyard.

When Enough is Enough

In her latest blog entry, Jenny Ryan describes how she finally came to accept that she has Enough.

Not that she reached a breaking point, like, "I've had enough poopy humor for today!" Rather, Enough, as in "I'm happy with what I've achieved, and I no longer need to strive for more money or power, or storage space to be fulfilled."

Yes, the major religions generally say we should rid ourselves of worldly desires. But they don't tell you what to do after that, do they? It's easy for them to pontificate, from within their temples / monasteries, about being satisfied with Nothing. No one expects much from them, do they?

For example, they don't have spouses whose favorite past-time is spending 10% more of your income. Nor do they have a robustly entrepreneurial uncle who keeps insisting that you start a real estate business on the side. Or colleagues whose monthly publications sport such titles as "Efficiency Improvements in Planetary Synthesis," "Differential Humanoid Outcomes From Dust, Silica, and Humus," and "Novel Techniques in the Enticement of Forbidden Fruit."

I guess our religion founders have figured that no one's ever gonna get to the point of having Enough.

I've not achieved what Ms. Ryan has achieved. I've gone beyond it. I've got Too Much. I hope I don't have to go out and buy a high definition TV at the end of the year just so that my wife can sit in front of it and complain about the news. I'm already dreading the next computer upgrade and wonder if there's a way I can post to my blog by sending the entry in a hand-written letter to Blogspot.

What should I do? Maybe I should start watching commercial television again. I bet that will ignite the fires of consumerism in me.