AUTISM AND SPIRITUALITY

There are two kinds of knowledge. Science is material knowledge, about the world and the universe. Wisdom is sacred knowledge, about who we truly are, and about how to be and behave for the best. Learning – and teaching each other – how to grow in wisdom, I want to suggest, is a vital aspect of all vocational endeavours. There is more to exemplary medical and nursing practice, for example, than simply gaining scientific knowledge and accomplishment. When, many years ago, I was training to become a psychiatrist, a wise man (who happened to be a Buddhist monk) gave me some good advice. A few of my patients were causing me concern because their illnesses had not responded to prolonged and extensive treatment. They were simply given accommodation within the mental hospital, where they stayed indefinitely for their own protection and for the safety of others. I found the plight of one man particularly distressing. Often tearful and crying for help, he seemed to be in almost perpetual torment. When I spoke of him, the monk helped me see that the pain I first had to deal with was my own. He explained that the reason for my discomfort was that I cared. Compassion is innate, he said. It may be dulled. We can try to ignore it, but we have no powers to switch it off altogether. Compassion means 'suffering with' people; so it must hurt if it is to be genuine. Questioning what could be done in this situation, I was told that, instead of thinking we must always help by giving something, a remedy of some kind, it is better on occasion to think of taking something too, in the sense of letting the person inform you about yourself… About your compassion and the accompanying distress, and about your need to learn how better to manage it. In other words, the wise man said, "You must let your patients, and those you encounter who suffer, from time to time be your teachers". And that is what Olga Bogdashina is also saying to us in this remarkable book. In order to write it, fully cognisant of all the relevant literature on autism, she has similarly let her patients (and her own autistic child) be her principal teachers. Her message is that autistic people experience the world in a way that serves well to remind us of the importance of an often disregarded spiritual dimension in our lives. She writes, "Spirituality plays a significant role in the lives of many autistic individuals and their families. . . (It) can be a powerful element that will help autistic individuals and their families to overcome their difficulties and find meaning in their lives". Part of her explanation is that, "What can be detected by some autistic people would not necessarily be noticed by the majority. . . Some autistic individuals' senses are very acute". While admitting that not every person with autism displays this degree of hyper-awareness, Bogdashina reports, "What makes autistic individuals more open to spiritual experiences is their sensitivities: sensory, emotional, cognitive and spiritual – all caused by fundamental differences in their neurobiological development". We are told that, most of the time, so-called 'normal' people know only what comes into their reduced awareness (which is further consecrated as genuinely real by concepts and language). In autism, contrariwise, there are no sieves or filters to stop the flooding of information, which then seems to accumulate in a kind of 'preconscious system'. Taking in information with the conscious ego-self 'absent' from the process, and storing it in a pre-conscious reservoir, they sometimes surprise not only those around them, but themselves too, by expressing knowledge they never thought they had. It has the quality of 'unknown knowing', and so is comparable to fruits of the contemplative methodology of many mystical traditions, and the practice in particular of meditation, aimed at the acquisition of wisdom. Comparing people on the autistic spectrum with children (and even animals), Olga Bogdashina tells us, "(They) often perceive spiritual experiences only because they haven't yet been conditioned not to"; helpfully adding, "The person with autism may simply not be fully cognizant of her very special gift, and may assume everyone communicates this way". Pioneers like William James, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Carl Jung, Aldous Huxley and Evelyn Underhill; and more recent authorities like James Fowler, David Fontana, John Swinton and Victor Schermer; have all pointed towards a new paradigm for psychology that insists on the inclusion of a spiritual dimension if it is to make sense. Organizations like the Spirituality and Psychiatry 'Special Interest Group' of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and the British Association for the Study of Spirituality (BASS), have been taking this paradigm forward, beginning not simply to make it work, but to render it increasingly indispensible. A renewed emphasis is involved on the basic human capacity for what may be called 'spiritual awareness', a faculty common in childhood that does not depend on any type of religious instruction, practices or beliefs. This bold new paradigm depends rather on a kind of holistic vision, one that comprehensively unmasks the illusion of so-called 'objectivity' on which the earlier, scientific paradigm has been constructed. Objectivity works well for investigating the physical and biological dimensions, but has only partial value where psychology and the social sciences are concerned. It now becomes necessary for people to engage themselves fully – therefore subjectively too – in the processes of discovery. Those who see this, and choose to explore further, soon discover the need to do the experiment for themselves, to examine their own personal spirituality and recognize it as involving a kind of journey – sometimes difficult – towards greater maturity and wisdom, opening themselves up, perhaps painfully, to the innate wealth of their compassion. As dormant powers of spiritual awareness are awakened and kindled, part of that journey will involve the discovery of something greater than ourselves that touches us deeply within, becoming a trusted and valued source of guidance, inner strength, courage and hope, especially in times of adversity. For people on this journey (and ultimately, of course, this means everyone), autistic people, in contrast to being seen as disabled and burdensome, can be seen rather as offering unique, rare and special learning experiences, not only about themselves and how best to get along with them, but also about ourselves, about aspects of our truer, deeper natures that we may well – individually and collectively – have been neglecting. Page by page, chapter by chapter, Olga Bogdashina shows us what precious fellow travellers on life's often difficult and perplexing but ultimately rewarding journey people with autism may be. We are truly wise to take them as our teachers. There are two kinds of knowledge, science and wisdom. This book offers an exemplary synthesis of them both. Giving thanks to the author, I recommend engaging with her gift to us in these pages without delay and as fully as you know how.