Interview with Reena Singh!

Dear friends,

I met Dr Reena Singh at a training program and we connected immediately!

I had heard about her many times before as the both of us worked in the field of special needs and therapy.

We decided to meet again and that meeting led to an interview cum conversation with Reena as part of her YouTube channel. It was great fun doing it as we were on the same page and could relate to each other.

Here are the links to the interview presented in parts on the YouTube Channel:

Anthroposophic approach to parenting
https://youtu.be/RTC68ZQATRA

Waldorf approach to schooling
https://youtu.be/dAyAUeO-b24

Life Rhythms and Children
https://youtu.be/09dxaqsG0nU

Hurried parenting vs Slow parenting
https://youtu.be/PCAi9vqRYKM

Sibling rivalry and how to deal with it.
https://youtu.be/RVtpoZPmFA8

Will keep adding as Reena adds more parts of the interview.

So please watch, like, share and subscribe 😄

Lots of love ,

Nirupama

ABOUT NIRUPAMA RAO

Dear friends,

My name is Nirupama Rao. I’m a psychologist with 24 years of experience in the field of Special Needs and Child Development. I am a mother of 2 girls, 22 and 12.

I have previously run my own Waldorf kindergarten/ Centre for children for special needs called Niraamayaa for five years. I have worked in various school, hospital and NGO settings.

Have authored and published two books:

Parenting- The Art and Science of Nurturing with Dr Shekhar Seshadri, NIMHANS

The Autism Story. A little illustrated fictional booklet.

I love writing and post articles on this blog whenever inspiration strikes on various topics.

I currently work with preschools and with parents of young children with autism, attention, emotional and behavioral issues.

I also conduct awareness workshops for parents, teachers and general public on Autism, Special Needs, Child Development, Waldorf Education, on Conscious, Simplicity and Slow Parenting Styles.

There are many factors that exacerbate attention, sensory and behavioural issues in sensitive children. I educate the parents about these factors and help them to understand how conducive diet, rhythms, lifestyle and environment (physical and emotional), will maximise the potential of their children.

I work with the mothers closely and help them with their anxiety. I handhold the parents and guide and support them through various stages of the child’s development by leading them to the right resources. I believe in long term support.

I help parents see the gifts in their children and together work out ways of strengthening them; to celebrate the uniqueness of the child; to respect and accept differences in the child; and to eventually become their advocates.

I work from my home office at Hiranandani Powai, Mumbai.

I consult by appointment.

Thanks and regards,

Nirupama Rao

Contact:

raonino@gmail.com,

blog: http://www.wordpress.niraamayaa.com

UNDERSTANDING AUTISM AND SPECIAL NEEDS FROM AN ANTHROPOSOPHIC PERSPECTIVE

(Written on request from a friend to create awareness about Anthroposophy and its importance in Autism from my perspective)

My name is Nirupama. I am a psychologist. I work with children with special needs and mostly autism. Currently my focus is on parent training, education and support. I started my career in 1994 when the incidence of autism was relatively low, that is six for every ten thousand children. Today it is one in every sixty. It is worth pondering over the rise in its incidence.

A decade into my career, the conventional therapies mainly focused on academics, speech and behavioral therapies which focused on correcting, educating or ‘fixing’ the children. And I was doing the same.

It was in 2008 that I attended my first annual conference on Anthroposophy. Anthroposophy is the philosophy founded by spiritual scientist Dr Rudolf Steiner in the beginning of the 20th century. It’s a philosophy that when applied to any walk of life or field of work our everyday tasks become more enlivened, conscious, and more humane.

That was where for the first time I heard someone talking about ‘connecting’ with the child. The concepts I heard in that conference shifted completely my paradigms, not only on autism but on life itself.
The branch of anthroposophy that works with Special Needs, is called Curative Education. Without going into the details of the spiritual-scientific principles, I would like to mention the concepts that I found useful for all children, but more so those with autism, ADHD, Learning disabilities, sensory processing and developmental disorders. These concepts are now more widely accepted in the mainstream society. The following is what became clear to me, personally, in the past nine years with Anthroposophy with regard to autism:

• A child’s behavior, emotional state and ability to learn depend on his well-being and his internal health. A healthy child is a happy child. No amount of therapies can yield complete benefit until the child is feeling well and balanced. For this, it is important to look into what he eats, when he eats, when and how much he sleeps, what he does during the day, his lifestyle, the environment at home and so on. This is much in line with the principles of Ayurveda.

• Autism is known as a neurological disorder. However, like Rudolf Steiner said about almost a hundred years ago, it has a lot to do with metabolism and gut health as it is being widely accepted these days and parents are seeing amazing results with special diets like wheat, milk, sugar free and other diets.

• A child with autism has an intact intellect (unless there’s comorbidity with other conditions). However, the body doesn’t cooperate with the mind. Therefore therapists need to focus more on the physical body with movement, balance, core muscle development, reflex integration, physical fitness, massages, sports, horse riding, walking, trekking, and most importantly, real, meaningful work with hands, etc., to help the child ground into his body, to become aware of his body, so that his body is able to access the intellect that is already present and use it to function more productively in this world. In other words, improve the mind body connect. This is the reason that Occupational therapy, when done effectively, yields positive results.

• Even if the child is non-speaking (lack of expressive language), it is incorrect to assume that the child is unable to comprehend, follow or grasp what is being said (intact receptive language). We need to assume intellect and address his actual age in teaching him academic concepts, exposing him to books, stories and life experiences, as their receptive language is much better than their expressive language. Children have proved this true with the help of the RPM method that is helping them learn and communicate age appropriately.

• Children with autism, because of their awareness not being completely grounded in their bodies, are less individualized and much more at one with the natural world as compared to typical persons. Hence, it is extremely beneficial to keep them close to nature, maintain eco friendly and natural living styles, food, rhythms and routines that are in harmony with the natural world.

• They do not have a sense of “I” or Ego and hence they are not capable of any negative thinking or actions and are pure hearted. Interestingly, many verbal children on the spectrum do not use the word ”I” to refer to themselves. Instead they use names in third person!

• Therapy is more effective when therapists connect deeply with the children, respect and accept them for who they are and gain their trust by working from the heart and soul as opposed to working mechanically.

No two children with autism are the same and it is important to observe them and allow ourselves to be guided by their needs and not be bound rigidly by schedules and agendas although it is important to have a structure to begin with.

Steiner strongly recommended that teachers and Curative Educators do ‘Innerwork’. That is, work on their own conscious growth and development. Get in touch with their inner core and find their internal balance. This would help them serve the children and adults alike in a deeper, compassionate and a more intuitive way.

• Children are more deeply and subtly connected with their parents’ and more so the mother’s well being than we are aware. The sensitive children often reflect the mother’s state of mind. Hence it is equally important to work with the mothers, help them deal with their anxiety, help them accept their children unconditionally, to help them identify their children’s strengths and build on them. In addition, most importantly, to find something that will fulfill the mother’s personal need for joy and happiness. A happy, fulfilled mother is able to better care for her family than a mother who is giving more than she is receiving.

• Although technology is proving to be a boon for children on the autism spectrum, we need to be careful not to expose these children to too much technology as they are sensitive to the EMF and radiation that comes from the wifi and signals. The TV and video programming ensures that the children are highly stimulated and hence hooked on to them.
Children are responding positively to methods like communication charts, PECS and RPM which do not involve the use of technology. In this time and age of excesses, it important not to expose children to over-stimulation of the senses (example: noisy videos, malls, arcades). Care has to be taken to keep the children in calm and peaceful environments as many of them are hypersensitive to loud noises and to reduce the occurrence of hyperactivity which is rather environmentally induced.

• Children on the autism spectrum and other special conditions need to be helped to live a life of dignity and productivity. This is the central guiding principle behind the Camphill Communities (residential communities for adults with mental and psychological challenges) based on principles of anthroposophy, located all over the world including India. It is important to keep the youngsters and adults productively engaged in order to help them become contributing members of the society in their own unique capacity.

These are just some of my takeaways from anthroposophy.
Hence, anthroposophy is not just a method of education or medicine, but it is a way of life. It is a holistic way of looking at the human being and serving humanity with a deeper understanding.
I sincerely believe that anthroposophy can improve the quality of life of everyone that is touched by it in one form or another. It has made my life and work so much more meaningful.

Nirupama Rao
Psychologist, Parent Consultant.
Author- The Autism Story
raonino@gmail.com

Curative Educational Institutes in India: http://www.anthroposophyindia.org/education.htm

ARISE, AWAKE AND QUESTION

(Especially written keeping in mind the young adults, people who are contemplating marriage and parenthood and parents of young children. This is not what we want to hear, but what we need to hear)

The world has changed a lot more in the last 5 years than it has in the last century.

Ola, Uber, flipkart, Amazon, Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Google maps and numerous other apps have significantly changed our lives. Life is going to become increasingly impossible to live without our ubiquitous cell phones that can, incidentally also be used to make calls.

Technology has definitely improved the quality of our lives. It has helped save a lot of money, energy and time. It’s like any other invention like the knife or the atom bomb. It all depends on how we use it.

Netflix has a series called Black Mirror (the ipad, laptop or tablet screen that’s turned off) which projects into the future where technology takes stranger turns and transforms humanity in unimaginable ways. Many works of science fiction have been prophetic and that thought is quite scary!

In fact, even infants have their eyes glued to their gadgets that are stuck to their prams, as mom is busy shopping. Six month old babies don’t eat anymore without watching their favourite cartoon/nursery rhymes on YouTube or listening to their favourite Bollywood number.

My now adult nephew’s friend is earning in Crores by making nursery rhyme animations of questionable quality.

Ten year olds want have their own Youtube channels. Children are not going down to play as much as they used to earlier.

Parents in restaurants are feeding their babies but not before handing them their smart phones to keep them distracted.

You go to any social get together and you find children and adults alike busy with their screens, even relatives who get together after a long, long time. Couples in restaurants are busy looking into their own smart phones instead of looking into each other’s eyes.

Parents are not able to set limits as they are themselves hooked on to it as the IDEA 4G AD says “Look look, India hua hook”

Social networking apps have several people employed only to make sure people are always hooked.

I wonder if there’s an app to measure the number of hours people spend with their phones….(update: yes there are many)

HOW ARE OUR LIFESTYLES AFFECTING US

Given this situation, young children who are affected the most, are speaking less, moving less, playing less. This is giving rise to many issues like speech delay, poor muscle tone, coordination and many sensori-motor disturbances. It’s hard to imagine the repercussions this is going to have in the future.

Just as cardiac problems, hypertension, BP, infertility, cancer and diabetes are called lifestyle diseases among the adult population, children are also exhibiting various lifestyle related symptoms like hyperactivity, low muscle tone, sensory processing disorders, autism like features, speech delay, aggression and so on.

There are 4-5 children with issues in a class of 20 children at a playschool I visit. Since it was too time consuming to talk about the same causes and effects to each parent individually, we decided to address the parents of the whole school regarding these modern challenges faced by today’s children, and in turn, parents and teachers. The talk was surprisingly very well received by the parents who were being swept by the wave of technology and lifestyle. But when this was brought to their awareness, it was like an awakening.

Most of us adults are sleep walking through life, flowing with the current and doing what everybody is doing. As humans, we have individual egos that help us to think independently for ourselves unlike animals that are governed by a group ego and herd mentality. ‘Normal’ is no longer most healthy.

We need to think for ourselves and consciously question our choices, especially when it comes to our children. Is this the best that I can give my child? At every step, we need to question ourselves about the choices we are making. Is this what is good? Will this calm my child or excite him? Do I satiate him immediately or do I deal with the tantrum? Do I spend time with him or do I hand him the I pad?

HOW LIFESTYLES ARE CHANGING

Technology is only one part if the lifestyle changes we are witnessing. The world we live in and how we are living is changing in many different ways. Now let us look at what are the lifestyle aspects that are impacting the true potential of the future generation.

What are we doing differently from the previous generation that is giving rise to issues that they did not face?

• Increase in the number of vaccinations and antibiotic As we are developing resistance, we need to look for stronger doses! The body is no longer allowed to fight infections on its own. We are reducing natural immunity by resorting to unnatural prevention.
• The missing family physician that used to listen more, diagnose simply by checking the pulse, and not immediately order a battery of tests. Counseling was part of his job profile. Today there is no time for that. There is no time to lose. We need to get better immediately even if we have to suppress the symptoms- child or grown up.
• A surge of packaged, instant, refined, fast and processed food in the market. As far from real food as it is possible.
• Increased use of GMO in agriculture.
• A sudden flooding of technology into our lives which is becoming increasingly indispensible. Children and adults are equally glued to gadgets, no matter where they are. Some schools have started using gadgets too. Movement and physical activity is reducing.
• Early start in school and academics: Children are packed off to schools even before they are two (a mistake I admit to making with my elder one and am not proud of it). Children take about 6 years to get ready for school in terms of developing the necessary skills like sitting, focussing, pencil grip and so on. I realised the hard way that feeding young children information too early is detrimental to their physical health and well being. Early start leads to fatigue and burn out. Learning is a lifelong process. Even the elderly people learn. What children under six need to do is play, run, get messy and explore.
• Lack of regularity in eating and sleeping times and in the rhythms of the day. Even children under 5 are not getting their sleep needs met. It is now normal for children to go to bed anywhere between 10.30 to 12. I have seen children who can’t sleep before 1 am!! Children need to eat early and sleep early.
• Pollution: all kinds of pollution. Air, water, food, noise, wifi radiation, electro-magnetic waves, you name it.
• Excesses: there is excess of stimulation- noise, visuals, entertainment, material abundance, food, flavors, sugar, excess of everything. We don’t know where to draw a line and say this is enough. Over-stimulation makes children Hyperactive. Once the stimulants are removed, children calm down. They will not need shadow teachers or go for therapies if healthy practices are adopted right from the word go. we do not need to be entertained all the time. Sometimes it is important to do nothing!
• Consumerism: businesses go to any extent to make people want to buy their product. It doesn’t matter how the product may affect the gullible people- their body image, their self esteem, their self worth. As long as the product sells, everything is OK.
• Media boom: Media is everywhere…it constantly keeps telling us who we are, how to think, what to eat, what to wear and gives us information that they want us to have. We are at their mercy completely and we have created these ourselves.
• Role reversal: Children being only children and the recipients of the abundant resources, they are no doubt the centre of our existence. However unfortunately, the children have been given the control and parents listen to children instead of it being the other way around. Experts say “be their friend” and this has been completely misunderstood. Children need parents who will set the limits for them and handle them with firmness instead of becoming putty at their hands. There is a simple reason for this. We are adults, hopefully with the experience and they are children with apparently no experience to take decisions and make judgments. We have taken up the role and responsibility of being parents and we are not here to relinquish control to the little ones who don’t have the experience to weigh what is good for them and what is not. It is difficult for us to see them cry. We need to learn that sometimes a ‘no’ expresses much more love and concern than a ‘yes’. This is especially true in parenting. Having said that it needs to be balanced with a good measure of love and presence to make it work!!

THE AWAKENING

We need not wait until things go to such a head that we cannot reverse it anymore. I’m not sure how much of it can be reversed even today, but as free thinking independent individuals, we still have our capacity to think for ourselves and make conscious choices wherever it is possible.

People are doing that…and they may be judged for it, but that does not stop anyone from breaking the mould, seeking an alternate way of life. They are awakening in their own unique ways.

People are seeking out alternative medical practices, alternative schools, home births, water births, saying no to vaccinations, going in for veganism and organic food, taking to farming, minimalism, slow food movements, supporting sustainable and humane businesses, breaking gender stereotypes, going for yoga, meditation and other spiritual practices and so on and so forth. People are finding their own individual path and have started believing in natural and holistic lifestyles.

People are truly awakening and are refusing to follow so called ‘normal’ currents.

WHAT CHILDREN NEED

Children need to grow up in calm, simple, uncluttered homes with less toys, with good healthy routines, minimum entertainment, lots of physical activity and maximum time out in nature. They need parents who are warm, loving, playful, in the here and now, who believe that less is more and slow is good and are conscious, ecologically aware and most importantly, trusting. Children who grow up in such homes have better stamina, better resistance to diseases, recover faster from illnesses, are much more calm, grounded, balanced and happy, there is more resilience and are able to bounce back sooner from situations.

Even a child with autism who is brought up in the above-mentioned manner may experience reduced aggression, hyperactivity, sensory issues and will be able to realize his true potential using the gifts that autism brings with it.

Our lifestyle has changed, but the archetypal human nature remains the same across time and space. We are still a product of nature. We are still made of the same elements that makes the rest of the natural world. The more we are in harmony with nature and its rhythms, the more we are in good health- physical, emotional and spiritual health.

Human evolution is not over yet. We are still evolving. The human being is now peaking in terms of intelligence. There’s much more to be achieved intellectually. But what lies beyond human intellect? What direction is our next step in evolution going to take?

It will be interesting to see….until then, let us arise, awake, ask questions and think as the conscious beings that we are! We may still not be perfect and yet to do things the way they need to be done but what is more important is that we are aware and conscious of our actions.

This can be our practical, everyday, living and individualized spirituality.

NIRUPAMA RAO

(Psychologist, Parent Counsellor),

Co Author: Parenting-The Art and Science of Nurturing ( with Dr Shekhar Seshadri, NIMHANS)

Contact: 9987653780, raonino@gmail.com

THE AUTISM STORY

Autism has always existed but we are feeling its presence more today than we ever did before. Autism has impacted not just its immediate family but it is changing the way the world does and looks at things…

It is making the humanity think about its choices. About the role each and everyone of us plays in bringing about the new wave of differently-abled children who are here to give us important messages. The obvious ones being about the impact of vaccines, GMO, electronic radiation, processed foods and so on; and on the other hand subtler, deeper and profound messages about the importance of going back home to Mother Nature, embracing the principle of unconditional love, about Neurodiversity, about becoming an inclusive society, about raising our own vibration to come up to theirs, about going beyond what is known and towards the immeasurable expansion of our very souls and actually feel the ONENESS- a state in which these children always exist!!

The rise in the incidence of Autism and the rise in spiritual and eco-consciousness is going hand in hand….. THE AUTISM STORY is a fairy tale-like account- my perspective of the probable connection between the two. AUTISM has a message for all of us….once that message reaches the critical mass, nature will change its course… Hope you read this little illustrated booklet….this book will either sow or nourish the seed of human collective consciousness.

You can find it in the link below. Friends overseas can inbox me and I will arrange to have copies shipped across!!

http://www.amazon.in/Autism-Story-First-2016/dp/9380733003/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1487861471&sr=8-2&keywords=nirupama+rao+books

Below are a few glimpses into the book!! Please do read it and and do leave a comment on the amazon page!! Friends who have already read it, kindly do drop a comment!!

“Man was becoming invincible. He was intelligent. He was becoming a powerful creator himself. He created electricity that turned the days and nights upside down. He created advances in medicine that turned life and death upside down. He created machines that shrunk space and time.
With technology advancing, they did not even need a God!! Man had never experienced such abundance ever before. What man didn’t know was that he was being watched.”

“Up in that spiritual realm that these souls inhabited, they did not have physical
bodies. They were neither male nor female but were both. They were entities of energy that floated around sans gravity that belonged only to the earthly realm.
They communicated with each other in the thought plane. Spoken language
did not exist there. They were all made up of high vibrational energy and
were connected to each other with a grid, a network so that when something
affected one, they would all feel the impact. It was a beautiful world of eternal sunshine, colours unseen on earth, peace, joy and happy coexistence.”

ECO and EGO

I’d like to borrow the image below to share my thoughts. For me the picture on the left represents autism. The picture on the right represents neurotypical.

Autism, no ego. NT, has ego (in this context, self or individuality).

Autism, exists in unity with all creation. NT experiences duality.

Autism is oneness- no boundaries. NT experiences separation.

Autism is affected by what happens to the ECO- the universe, to the earth, to the plants, animals and other people around them. Hence the sensitivities. NT exploits the earth to feed the EGO- the self.

EGO (the lower ego) is the cause of all the war, strife, poverty, terrorism and all the troubles in the world.

When we exploit the earth, we are not only hurting our new, sensitive children but also ourselves. The children feel it and we don’t. At least not immediately. Because the reality is that although we feel separate, we are not. We are as part of the ECO as the children are. But we don’t feel as such. So when we hurt anything outside of us, we are hurting ourselves.

It’s like the hand thinking that the leg is separate from it and hurts it for some reason. The leg hurts but the whole being feels the pain.

We only realize this on hindsight.

So the fact is that the picture on the right is our NT reality too and the one on the right is our illusion.

When we understand how we are all connected to the ECO, we learn to nurture the ECO and not the EGO. If we can get into the world of our children with autism, we can feel we’re part of the ECO. No duality, no separation, just oneness.

When we heal and nurture the earth, we heal and nurture our children and in turn ourselves.

Let’s heal the earth and be one with each other. That is the message of Autism for me.

Can we consciously dissolve our EGO to become a part of the ECO?

Enter a caption

THE AUTISM CREATION STORY

Thank you for visiting this page.

The words that you will read below are not my words. They are words that are just coming through me. I have not special telepathic powers. I have no direct cognition of their thoughts passing through me. However I do have a strong sense of the truth behind autism with whom I have spent half my life and I feel it is my duty and responsibility to convey my truth to the world without holding back. I feel my only job is to be a channel and a voice for these wonderful magical souls with autism.

Only then can I do justice to this incarnation of mine on earth at this time. I am happy that more and more people are recognizing this truth today.

Imagination is the starting point for manifesting our destiny. Hence I’m using a format of imagination to narrate the story of Autism as I experience it. Fact or fiction, I leave that to you!!

(Please note the word Man has been used in the place of humanity. It does not denote gender)

AUTISM CREATION STORY

Once upon a time, long long ago, God was…..

He just was… pure undivided consciousness. It was God un-manifest. He then wanted to be manifest. He set the process rolling with the sound OM. He created the stars, the planets and the galaxies.
Then he created life…the plant life, the animal life. He created the soul!!
He then wanted to complete the circle of creation. He created man…man, who through various struggles through various lives, would realise that the entire creation including the mineral, plants, animals and man himself were but a manifestation of the God himself and would finally merge back into God un-manifest. The circle would now be complete.
But god did not want to be the only creator. He gave man the power to co-create. He gave him the power of free will! He also gave him individuality….the power that would at once help man to be unique and that would also help him to feel one with the universe!! The power to separate and the power to unite!
At first, man was one with God, having been born of God Himself. He was one with all of creation and one with Nature. He would learn all he needed to know from the sky and from the earth.
Then one day man was borne out of man himself, and not of God any more…as epochs passed, the distance between God and man widened.
The advanced souls that were watching the goings on were beginning to get worried. “Father, they’re moving away from you!” they said. “Don’t worry” said God “when they connect with Mother Earth, they will remember their father, and Mother Earth will ensure that they do!” said God with a snicker.
God was quite happy that many souls were still finding their way back to Him. Then man created religion and mankind moved further away from God.
Then as the years passed, came kingdoms, and then industries and then technology.
By now, man completely forgot where he came from. He relied only and completely on science for all answers. He forgot to listen to that little voice in his heart…the direct hot line to God. He forgot to listen to Mother Nature’s cues.
He was stuck in the time warp of birth and death, having got caught in the sense pleasures that life on earth offered. Pleasure at any cost became the Mantra.
The co-existence, the inter-dependence, the symbiosis and the give and take between man and nature began to take a back seat. It was now all take, take, take, on the part of man. He forgot to nurture and nourish the Mother Gaia, the earth whose resources he was plundering.
Man was becoming invincible. He was intelligent. He was becoming a powerful creator himself. He created electricity that turned the days and nights upside down. He created advances in medicine that turned life and death upside down. He created machines that shrunk space and time.
With technology advancing, they did not even need a God!! Man had never experienced such abundance ever before. What man didn’t know was that he was being watched. He was being watched by the hierarchies- the old advanced souls that had moved beyond the cycle of life and death.
They could see man’s arrogance growing. Yet again. This was not new to the human civilizations. There were advanced civilizations before that swelled with so much pride and arrogance that they inevitably had to implode into decadence.
But the present bunch were different. They were at that epoch that had started moving humanity, inching them closer to their divine reality. There were groups of human beings that were ready to awaken. This was a strange time where spirituality and materialism were both peaking simultaneously. The old souls saw that with a little help, the balance could tip in the favour of divinity in the human being. The human race needed to raise its vibration to that critical mass where the entire race could then be moved to a higher epoch, a higher dimension. A major catastrophe of mass self-destruction and annihilation as had happened in the past could actually be prevented!!!
A group- a large group of souls in various levels of advancement, got together. They had a plan. They knew what the other was thinking.
Up in that spiritual realm that these souls inhabited, they did not have physical bodies. They were neither male nor female but were both. They were entities of energy that floated around sans gravity that belonged only to the earthly realm. They communicated with each other in the thought plane. Spoken language did not exist there. They were all made up of high vibrational energy and were connected to each other with a grid, a network so that when something affected one, they would all feel the impact. It was a beautiful world of eternal sunshine, colours unseen on earth, peace, joy and happy coexistence.
These groups of souls were preparing themselves to sacrifice all this to save mankind from tipping towards destruction and to move closer to an existence of a higher vibrational level, unlike the dark, heavy density of physical existence on earth.
They sought an audience with God, the creator and told Him of their plan to save mankind. They told Him of their plan to remind mankind of their true divinity. They will help humanity reconnect with Mother Nature so that they will remember Him again. They will fill their hearts with the pure vibration of unconditional love.
God reminded them that it was quite risky to go back to earth as even highly advanced souls have gotten sucked back in to the rigmarole of earthly pleasures.
This set the old souls thinking. There was a solution to this. There was a constitution which was chosen by some souls to resolve their past karmas, while at the same time it helped them to prevent accruing new karma. This was a constitution that ensured that they were immune to materialism and Ego. This would be the perfect vehicle for their mission as it would help them to stay strongly in touch with their divine selves by not incarnating too deeply into their earthly bodies. This constitution manifested in what was known as AUTISM. They could also be seen as Hyperactivity or sensory processing issues.
“We will leave a part of us with you oh Lord, so you can safe guard it. So that we don’t get lost!” they said.
God was quite intrigued with this plan. This could actually work!! But God was deeply worried about the pain that these souls would face as a result of not being fully in their bodies, for the earth was not what it used to be a few decades back! It was unclean, impure, and full of pollution, carbon foot prints, radiation and dangerous chemicals. It was a difficult and challenging time for souls who chose this constitution. It would cause immense pain and discomfort!
“Even better!” cried the old souls!! Mankind is wreaking havoc as they are not directly impacted by the destruction they are causing. But when they see that we, the New Children that are being born to them at this time are deeply impacted and hurt by their unconscious lifestyles, inhuman attitudes and materialism, they will sit up at take notice!! No one is affected by anything unless it happens to them or their loved ones!
We will choose human groups- parents, teachers, therapists, healers, light workers, earth crusaders that we feel are more ready vibrationally- those who have the capacity to see the truth of who we really are!!! Through them, we will go about our campaign of connecting the lost souls back to you Father God through Mother Earth- Gaia.
They will learn to grow pure food,
they will learn about the life rhythms,
they will relearn to peacefully coexist,
they will learn to purify their environment,
they will learn to love unconditionally,
they will learn to be their authentic selves,
they will learn to overcome their slavery to gadgets and technology, to be fully present for us,
they will learn to live in joy and peace, notwithstanding the challenges life throws at them as they have learnt acceptance, acceptance that everyone travels a different path,
they will learn to raise their vibration so that they can reach out to us, their dear little children who they will learn, are high vibrational, energetic beings,
they will learn that we all make one whole together- we are one, we are not really separate although we are unique!!
These will be the gifts that we will give them.
These gifts will bring them closer to you, their source.
No mother can see her child suffer oh Lord! She will seek, search, advocate and educate the community to understand, accept and adapt! She will call out to others who are ready to listen! WE, together with our mothers and the light workers will call out, in one voice to humanity.
Trust us Lord! Give us a chance, help us! Support us!”
Then God spoke “My dear children, it is time. It is time to awaken humanity to the next level of consciousness. They are this close! You will be the New Humans who will help make this shift happen! We will all work together to make this happen, I am with you. Your guardians and angels will always be there to help you and protect you. Mother earth will play her part in cleansing and purging. This may seem a little hard to digest, but it is necessary. I shower you all with my blessings for the great sacrifice you are all making to help humanity. I wish you all success!
So be it!!”
And so it was that large groups of children were being born…so sensitive that many factors could trigger their autism. But that was just a way to come into this existence. It was so alarming that it awakened large groups of people to think in their own way about what was happening and why it was happening.
These new children retained some of the privileges that they enjoyed back in their heavenly home….high vibrational energy bodies, telepathic communication, knowledge and wisdom, and energetic connections between each other to name a few. Their gifts and abilities stunned the humans who had never seen anything like that before!! Many of them had unimaginable memory, IQ and savant skills which were beyond normal human capacities. They started communicating- non-verbally about profound truths about love and God. Books were written and published.
Workshops and healing sessions were being conducted. People started talking about neurodiversity. Systems had to be changed to make it friendlier to different types of learners. Organic farming started becoming more popular. Alternative healing and educational methods were now in demand. People started losing their faith in conventional medical practices. Healthy practices and choices were now adopted for all, just the same. Lifestyles changed. Use of gadgets were limited, people started connecting more with Mother Nature.
Thus started the mammoth process and project of raising the vibration of the entire humanity.

People started to realize that these children were not disabled as they had mistakenly assumed, but were souls who were here to purify planet earth!

HEALING AUTISM THROUGH SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING

This article is a work in progress. It has been so since the past 4-5 years that I have written it and will continue to be so as long as I keep learning and evolving. Expansion of awareness and consciousness is happening at breakneck speed today. So if I think I’ll have to edit it before I publish it, this article will never see the light of day.

So here it is! Healing autism as I experience it….

HEALING AUTISM THROUGH SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING
“We are not human beings in search of spirituality, we are spiritual beings in search of humanity”- Unknown
INTRODUCTION
My journey with Autism has been amazing and it gets more and more amazing as the days pass by…I wonder how much more I am going to learn through this amazing phenomenon of our times called ‘Autism’. When I started in ’94, the incidence of autism was one in 5000 births. Today it is one in 80 births. Staggering!

Autism cannot be treated or cured. For it is not an illness. It is a way of being. But yes, there are many issues and difficulties that are faced by children and adults with autism due to their special physical Constitution which can be healed. Once they are healed of these discomforts, they will still be autistic but more happily and magnificently so!! They can then shine in all their brilliance and can shine their light upon the world.

Until a few years ago, autism was for me, as it still is for many, a neuro-developmental condition with a genetic etiology. It is a biological condition. Yes- it probably is, but only at a physical level. Some may ask,”only physical? Is there more? I would say, “Yes, the physical aspect is just the tip of the iceberg. What is beyond the physical is all the rest of it.” This is not my quotation. This is what is said in the Vedas, The Gita, and the teachings of all the seers that have blessed this earth with their grace and presence.
The minute we are ready to acknowledge that there is more to reality than what can be perceived by our five senses, our spiritual growth begins. How would one explain the sixth sense, the intuition, telepathy, near death experiences, gut feelings, past life remembrances and all the rest of it? These are not scientific facts that can be proven in a laboratory. These are truths that need to be experienced. There’s no other way one can learn about the true reality. No matter how many lectures we attend or books we read, this knowledge becomes truly ours when we experience it. It may not come as sudden enlightenment, but it can come as little bursts of realization. For me, it has come through autism. For, I believe, that is the real purpose of this phenomenon of our modern era- to elevate humanity to a higher level.

THE ORIGIN AND HUMAN INCARNATION
This entire universe is made up of vibrations. What we think of as the source, the ultimate truth or what some of us like to call ’God’ is of the highest, lightest vibration. It is the vibration of love. It is all pervading. After that is the high vibrating pure souls with autism and also the intellectually challenged who are full of love and bliss. Followed by this are human beings who are in the realm of total unconditional love, compassion and oneness. After this comes the realm of nature, encompassing the amimal and plant world. The animals are again high vibrational beings that can bring great healing to the world as do so many plants and trees who are the perfect creations of God. Physical matter is of the lowest vibration in the natural world the densest, yet still posessing many high frequencies like the healing crystals. Right at the bottom are again us human beings who are vulnerable to negative energies in the form of negative thought patterns and feelings like fear, anger, doubt, anxiety, worry, stress, jealousy, envy, insecurity, etc. The human beings possess the entire range of vibrations. From the very dense and low vibration, to the very high. Because we are made up of everything that makes up nature! The essence of the mineral world, the life forces of the plant world and the soul forces of the animal world and we are the only creations of nature to experience the essence of the spirit. The same person can experience high and low vibrations based on his/her thought patterns. When we become aware and conscious, we have the capacity to raise our vibration to come as close to that of the autism vibration as we possibly can and experience the oneness which they are a part of.
Before we step into human existence, we are part of this high vibrational world that makes up everything. But the minute we are conceived, we are turned into matter. For a while into our new life as a human child, we are still a part of this high vibrational world where there is no concept of time and space. The ‘here and now’ is the only reality for our children. Until slowly, the process of separation begins- separation from the spirit, the source. This is where the ‘ego’ comes in. The concept of ‘I’ which is lacking in the animal world. This is what it is, that sets us apart from the animals.
This process of separation begins at about the age of three (which is decreasing these days) and continues till it separates completely at about the age of nine when children often experience an existential crisis of who they are and why they are here. Different children experience this in different ways, and if parents pay close enough attention, they can be sensitive to the emotional state of their children at this time. My daughter started voraciously reading about the life and teachings of ‘The Buddha’ at nine and became a complete vegetarian for the next three years! This was entirely her journey without any parental influence.

AUTISM- A VEDIC PERSPECTIVE
Coming back to autism, I have been working with children with autism since the year 1994, and have seen, as have many others that these children are gifted. They can perceive what most of us can’t. They are highly sensitive to the extent that is hard to imagine, and can hear what is a small sound for us, magnified a hundred times over. The same applies to all the physical senses, different for different children. But the part that is most distressing for these highly sensitive and vulnerable children is that, they are also able to perceive the thoughts and the emotions of the others around them! This is the worst suffering that anybody can go through, more so if what they sense is not positive.
This is because; these children are vibrating at a very high level- Much higher than the average human being. Yes, children with hyperactivity, learning disabilities, etc are also highly sensitive high vibrational beings, but are comparatively a little more grounded than the children on the autism spectrum.
To speak in the Vedic language, for a human being to take an incarnation on the earth, it is not sufficient if his physical body alone is here. We are made up of many aspects other than the physical; we also possess a mind, a soul and a spirit (ego/I). All of these need to incarnate along with the physical body. How that takes place, the order and the sequence is a subject on its own, but the point is that we are not just a physical body.
According to our Indian Vedic wisdom this process of separation after physical birth and the merging back again with the spirit after physical death is a cyclic process that continues many times over. Ancient scriptures talked about Advaita and Dvaita philosophy . Advaita is a state of connectedness or unity with the spirit and Dvaita is a state of ‘dualism’ or separation from the spirit. In our children with autism, physical incarnation happens but the spirit or the ego incarnation does not take place when and how it should. They are in a permanent state of Advaita. They are never separeated from ‘All That Is’. This makes them very highly connected high energy spiritual beings who are hyper sensitive and almost clairvoyant. They are aware and know everything that is going on around them. We may be saying something but thinking something else. They can see the discrepancy and this bothers them. It would bother us if we could hear what others are thinking about us wouldn’t it?
Just like there are various levels of evolution of the human beings, there are souls with autism at various levels of evolution. Some of them are advanced souls who are aware of who they are and about their own divinity. They have learnt to communicate divine messages to the world. They have recognized their true purpose on earth, while there are others who may not have found their purpose yet, much like the neurotypical people. However, both of the above may have severe challenging behavioral, sensory and metabolic issues.
Some autistic children and adults are savants. They already possess the knowledge and wisdom that it would take us lifetimes to acquire. Initially before the parents and these children themselves are aware of their truth and purpose, they display or demonstrate their knowledge and wisdom only in occasional bursts depending on the vibration in the environment !! Owing to their non-verbal nature, they are sadly misunderstood to be intellectually challenged. But when parents get a glimpse of their gifts, like precocious reading, memory and arithmetic skills it speaks of visible, tangible gifts on one side and their incapability to do simple and basic tasks like reading and writing, playing, socializing, etc., on the other. They are often confused and perturbed about who this child really is and what they are really capable of. They are not sure if that little peek into their true being was real or was it our imagination as doting parents!

Caution: It is not the intention of this article to create unrealistic expectations for parents from their children. Not all of them are able to, or choose to express their gifts. At the same time, some of these gifts are not visible to our ordinary consciousness. No matter how the child is presenting to us, we need to trust and know the person beyond the label of autism.

I have met children who could write with support even if they seem to have never learnt to write the alphabet. They wrote about profound philosophical matters. They look at a sum and write the answer directly without going through any steps! They also sometimes surprised the parents by reading their minds!!

I have learnt through the Anthroposophic understanding that
their intellect is intact but it is their physical body that is compromised. In addition to the intellect, we humans are endowed with two more faculties namely, the capacity of feeling and volition – will or the capacity to act. This volition is deeply connected with our physicality and hence also compromised. In conventional understanding, “low muscle tone”.  This is the reason that they are unable to use their “will” or muscle power, to express who they really are.

Their fingers can’t write, their lips can’t move….how do they express themselves and what they feel? The mind is unable to use the body to express itself. The mind-body connect is not adequate enough.

HEALING AUTISM- HOW CAN WE HELP?
This is where we come in as therapists and caregivers. We need to understand the individual through a different lens. We need to understand that they work with a different operating system. They are just differently wired. Different but not less. They definitely have a more sensitive physicality. More sensitive digestion and sensory systems. Yet it’s not the child that needs fixing but the environment.

We need to understand and accept that they cannot be like other neurotypical people. Parents find peace when they stop trying to make them “normal” and expect them to fit into typical systems.

We now need to change our thinking and our systems so that we can accommodate them. Accept them with their differences. For this we need to understand who they are and what they need. We need to expand our awareness.
There is a lot happening all around the world where people are beginning to see the true purpose of autism.

Anthroposophy is based on the premise that human beings ( a combination of spiritual and physical components) have repeated earthlives. In other words, our spirit (individuality or Selfhood or “I” ) reincarnates again and again in different physical bodies until we have achieved “nirvana” or ultimate spiritual development.

When we take birth, our spirit literally “incarnates” into the physical body. It tries to fit in, like a hand in a glove! This incarnation process happens in phases as the child grows and develops.

We human beings incarnate and excarnate (- meaning the opposite of incarnation where the spirit goes out of the body) every day when we go to sleep and wake up and also in times of stress, trauma, fear, excitement, etc.

In the case of autism, the spirit of the child is not fully incarnated in the body. They need help to come into their own bodies. They need our help to “ground” their spirit into the physical body. This grounding will help them to be less sensitive, to be more present in their bodies, in their surroundings, to make eye-contact. Once we help the body to be in equilibrium, to integrate, then it is more ready to take on what the mind tells it to do. The will increases as the spirit engages deeply with the body. As this happens, some of the children start writing, speaking, reading, engaging socially, and responding.
Almost all the symptoms of autism can be beautifully explained with this holistic spiritual science based understanding. This perspective also gives us the true direction of the therapy that they really need.

These children respond beautifully to an approach where they can be who they are; where there is music, art, movement and where nature is part of the learning process and where there is no hurry and desperation.

UNDERSTANDING AUTISM SYMPTOMS
Let us look at a few examples of the symptoms and related therapy:
Toe walking and self-stimulatory behavior: The earth gives our physical body gravity. But the spirit gives us levity. It is this levity or buoyancy which gives us our uprightness, distinguishing us from four legged animals.

One can see that when one’s ‘spirits’ are low, one tends to slouch…we often hear people say that one is in ‘high spirits’ or ‘low spirits’. As the spirit body of these children is not fully incarnated, it literally carries the child up with it and the child tends to toe walk.

AUTISM IN THE LIGHT OF THE DIVINE

I recently heard the interview of Anita moorjani who was in a coma for 30 hours and had a vivid NDE. She was suffering from last stage cancer and was in intense pain- until she went into a coma and had an NDE (near death experience). In the NDE she found herself in a beautiful realm where she felt no pain….she only experienced unconditional love and oneness with all creation. Time was not linear and she experienced past present and future all at once. The minute she focused on someone, she knew what they were thinking and feeling!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tjLouLHH-_I
As I listened to her more and more, I started comparing her out of body state with that of the children with autism. Children on the autism spectrum are also in an out of body state as their soul is not fully embodied or incarnated into the body. Hence they are partially in the earthly realm and partially in the unified consciousness or, spiritual world. (Read works of Lyrica Mia, Suzy Miller, Weston Schmier, Mary Ann Harrington and so many others to see what I’m talking about and what Rudolf Steiner said about incomplete incarnation a hundred years back)

But unlike NDE there is a thread of consciousness connecting person’s with autism to their body. Anita experienced bliss in her state of total astral disconnect with the body. But the children on the spectrum, unfortunately, due to the partial or improper connection, feel the pain of their improper integration resulting in poor metabolism, sensory overload and processing problems which is normally handled by the fully integrated ‘ego’ or ‘I’ or self/spirit. However, the other world or realm that children on the spectrum inhabit at the same time, all the time, is the same world that Anita and others who had an NDE visited- temporarily…the world of angelic light beings, the world where there is no individual ‘I’, the world of telepathy and empathy, the world where time is not linear and the world without gravity.

People who have NDE often report that they never wanted to come back….as the other world is really a blissful place where there is only unconditional love, only oneness exists and there’s no judgment. The higher beings have to convince them to go back as its not yet time…they’re not done with the earth yet.
This is the parallel world that children with autism inhabit while at the same time living on the earth due to the incomplete incarnation of the soul.

Why does this happen?
There could be two possibilities …one being the aspect of karma and destiny….of the parents and of the children. Its a choice- a pact they’ve made with each other to progress in the evolution of their souls but forgot about it once they were born. They choose a vulnerable constitution that is easily affected by the impurities in the world today.

Or it could be the conscious decision of the highly evolved soul to be born this way… to raise the vibration of other ordinary souls to a higher level by being in this state of pure and positive vibration. A state of oneness with the source.

All this may sound very hunky dory but one cannot even imagine the pain of living in two such worlds simultaneously. And more than that, the pain of not being understood and accepted.

To escape this pain of being in this painful alien earth world, some persons with autism engage in behaviours that will keep them in their world of angelic beings…these are self stimulatory behaviours like spinning and flapping that takes them out of their painful bodily experiences.
This is exactly what the sufis do when they dance the dervish….twirl their bodies to be out of body and feel oneness with the source.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3gG8YAUqVIs
Children with autism however are always in a state of oneness with the source and this is a problem if they have to live in our society. Many children want to ‘belong’; want to be more embodied but can’t feel their own bodies unless they touch themselves so intensely that it manifests as what we call ‘self stimulating/injurious behavior’ like head banging, hitting or pinching oneself, etc.

Hence the various therapies that bring their consciousness and awareness into their bodies, like occupational therapy and sensory integration, movement activities, special diets and lifestyles to purify their physical being, etc. have come into being. Unfortunately this covers only the physical aspect.

Many parents suffer with their children when they see the aggression, anxiety and all the difficult manifestations of autism. This is why we have so many organisations trying to ‘cure’ or ‘defeat’ autism.

However when the parents, therapists and care givers start viewing autism as a way of being and no longer as a condition that needs to be cured, something begins to shift….in the child as well as in the parent. When the parent starts accepting the child as he is and starts connecting deeply with the child knowing that there is something in the child beyond physical- an Ego (higher Ego) connection is established between the parent and child and this assists in the process of incarnation or descension of the child’s spirit into the physical realm. As this happens, the painful aspects fade away, giving way to a happy, healthy life filled with wellness and purpose. The gifts begin to emerge from behind the veil. I have seen so many parents and children leading happy fulfilled lives with autism in it!!

But for descension to happen another process needs to happen simultaneously.  Ascension. Ascension of the parent, therapist or anyone who is close to the child and would like to connect better with the child.

This is the reason we hear so much about unconditional love.

Love is healing.

When we come in to the frequency of love, we raise our frequency to meet the child where she is….in the divine world!

I recently came upon the life and work of Mehar baba who is said to be the Avatar of our times. He was an Avatar, a God realized Master who stopped speaking and did not speak for 44 years. Why did he stop speaking? He said that it was because enough has been said already and that now is the time to put into practice what has been said so far!
(Is this also the reason why these divine souls who are manifesting as autistic, choosing not to speak verbally and as their existence is an energetic one?)
He did not speak for 44 years, but communicated his divine messages at first through a letter board ( which is now used in a revolutionary method called RPM that is giving a voice to many nonverbal autistics (http://www.halo-soma.org/main.php…)) and then later gave that up as well to use only gestures which were understood and interpreted by his close ones.
Now one of the most important missions of Mehar baba was that he used to seek out those whom he called the ‘Masts’- those exalted beings who were God-intoxicated….so one with the source that they were not in their body. (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=co3Ft271-rs )
They had no interest in or awareness of their physicality. Mehar baba said these were evolved souls passing through the space between two of the highest relams, who met God but lost the body awareness as they were stuck or lost. Mehar baba used to seek them out and serve them, bathe them, feed them and work to bring them into their bodies so they can bless the world with their mere presence.

This is exactly what Anthroposophic Curative educators (http://www.en.khsdornach.org/) are trained to do. Attempt to bring the incompletely incarnated souls as much into their bodies as possible so they can meet their true destiny. But this they are trained to do with an attitude of reverence for their true divine nature. And then again, it upto the child and his soul purpose how much they want to inccarnate….they need to be connected to the spiritual world in order to fulfil their divine purpose on earth, while some choose to get eventually integrated into society as they have different lessons to teach and a different purpose.

The main pillar of Curative Education is Inner Work of the Educator.  The educator needs to raise him/herself spiritually to the level of the person (in need of soul care) so that they can be guided intuitively as to the true needs of the child which may be different from the agenda of the educator.

Many professionals and parents are now working with the similar philosophy where the primary focus is on the energy work of the parent or care giver!!

This knowledge or perspective changes the way we approach our work as care givers when we change the way we perceive them…as divine beings rather than disabled children.

What we do may remain the same…but how we do it will undergo a 360° change.
We will then work with reverence, with devotion and serve them in the same way that the priest serves the deity in a temple although the deity promises nothing in return.

What I’ve shared is totally my personal experience and my understanding. However it is heartening to see that more people with autism are finding their voice and expressing the truth of their being and purpose. They have found a way to get across to the world through their parents and carers who are open and ready to receive their divine messages through FC, RPM, telepathy and various other modes, hence validating my understanding.

Thank you for reading,

Nirupama Rao

THE HORSE BOY

fEBRUARY 6, 2011

 I just read ‘The Horse Boy’ given to me by Sangeetha and realised something. The father Rupert Isaacson decides to take his son to Mongolia to seek the help of the shamans to help his son with Autism and it works for him. However, it doesn’t mean that other parents also should try going to Mongolia. But what it means according to me is that every parent looks for his or her own path in trying to help the child. This search is a spiritual quest for every parent which is highly individual guided by the karma of the parent and the child. The very quest itself is the end as it depends on the attitude and intention with which the parent makes this journey…is it with love, joy, being in the present moment or enjoying being with the child, with faith, with conviction?. The outcome or the end result becomes less important than the journey itself…for the real outcome of positive intentions may or may not be limited to this lifetime, but lasts for eternity