Spring 2014

Autism and images

Here is a fact that could lead us into some understanding. The statistics show an increase in autism, 1 in every 100 are the odds of a newborn child becoming affected with it. In contrast among Amish population the statistics are still in 1 in 10,000. (The Age of Autism, Olmstead and Blaxill 2010)

The factors that have been discussed as causes of autism include : Vaccinations, environment toxicity, nutrition, genetics, drugs. (Basil Williams D.O. unpublished booklet 2010)

To some extent the differences between the Amish and the non-Amish are non-existent concerning environments, nutrition, genetics. We have met the most health-conscious families among the Amish, yet the majority of them follow the trends of the regular consumer. (Though we must say their home grown garden supplies them with essentials that the regular consumer does not have access to.)

There is a vast difference between the two groups with the lack of medications/vaccines regarding mother and infant, the lack of involvement with electricity and their appliances/media apparatus, and the horse and buggy transportation which does not surpass 30 miles per hour.

Given these basic considerations some questions can be pondered:

-Are there some listed causes of autism that are only consequences? (Lower tolerance threshold, unbalanced senses,….)

-Is the speed of images that our mind/senses are taking in, more important than we thought?

-If vaccinations and image speed were major factors, how can they be related to each other?

-How can one explain the glare in the eyes with autistic people related to the above?

-Is this the same glare that we see when an animal is dying?

-If one glance is distanced and glazed, what group holds the opposite symptom with penetrating extra clear eyes?

-Would one extreme be towards Ahriman and in the other towards Lucifer?

-How can one help to reach an incarnation of the bodies that is leveled in Christ?

The ability of making images in our mind is greatly in danger. We have nowadays an implosion of people that have been born and live without making images as it was, the percentage of borrowed images is increasing exponentially. Storytelling is almost lost, books have many images that supplant our own, and screens are even more aggressive in the supplanting. Everybody remembers how a book lost its beauty once one sees a movie about it.

Making images is the first stage (imagination), second and third are inspiration and intuition. These are the very best tools we have to fulfill our tasks. When we start losing the aspect of creating creatures that God bestowed upon us according to His semblance, what would we become?

Relationships are the first observed to suffer. The ability to relate to each other in depth, to feel as we were the other, is in jeopardy. Already compared to the Amish population or our ancestors one can observe that we are directed into the autistic spectrum.

What can we do to become more loving humans?

Things take time, speed is against us. Time brings a certain stillness of the heart and mind. We know as parents or caregivers how to address the child, we go slower. For the animals it is even more so, waiting long minutes for a cow to come from her pasture field, waiting with a sustained act of the will in our thought. If we want to relate to human beings and other beings we need time and sustained will.

To sensitize us again, to re-train our senses and thought there is much we can do. In our case we decided to withdraw completely for a while from technology, in order to gauge the effects in ourselves and others more objectively. The dream life is one that is affected greatly, as well as the patterns in sleep. Have you experienced sleepiness overcoming you during the day? Do you experience forgetting phone or e-mail conversations more easily? It seems that we are becoming less conscious of our waking times instead of becoming more conscious of our sleep times. What is the correlation between the comets in the planetary system and our own bodies? Could we increase our filtering of the astral in these modern technological times? Could we strengthen the etheric to be able to filter all these images we are met with in modern society? The generations are ever and ever weaker concerning lower bodies, just as the earth is also depleting, but can we do something in the other direction, and what would that look like? For those of us that want to use little technology and keep some of the effects at bay I propose starting with the following examples:

-for every 10 minutes of screen time, do 1 minute of active concentration, like the exercise of observation on a clothespin, etc.

-for every 20 minutes of e-mail communication, spend 5 minutes writing in a paper something meaningful.

-for every phone conversation, do a face to face conversation that is not just casual.

-for every 30 minutes drive in the car, walk for 10 minutes looking around.

-for every household appliance used, do a manual chore like dusting furniture.

-for every farm or industrial machinery used, do some manual labor like hoeing or pounding nails.

We all will have to find our own way to counteract the effects of technology. One way to check ourselves is with meditation. At night when you recall the events of the day in reverse order, are you losing grip on your images or gaining as weeks go by? Are you getting angry at the inconvenience when technology is not working for you, or are you considering it just like a “rainy day” inconvenience, something you are not at all upset about?

Stillness of heart brings observation, and I would like to end up by recalling words from Steiner said in the Study of Man lectures:

“It is in the fact of observation itself that something is changed”

　

Other works in progress:

Anthroposophy vs Antisophy

In Search Of Wisdom

Saint Bridgid Play

In Memory Of

Economics