Today I listened to a Karen Hagar podcast with guest Suzy Miller:

http://suzymiller.com/

If you’d like to listen to it too, you can hear it here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fogcitypsychic/2013/04/24/out-of-the-fog-spiritual-gifts-of-autism-with-suzy-miller

(I prefer to listen to all of this via itunes, where you can subscribe to podcasts and have them automatically download. You don’t need an iphone/ipad/imac for this to work, just a computer and you can download itunes for free.)

Suzy’s website will give you the details on who she is, in addition to being yet another member of society who views children diagnosed with Autism as being gifted rather than disabled.

I wanted to post this here quickly, because one of my clients from the KAAAW! Weekend spoke about this, and I’m sorry I can’t remember which one it was! But you’re a reader, and possibly you already know about Suzy Miller.

This idea first came to me after reading Temple Grandin’s books about animals:

http://templegrandin.com/

Temple is a classically trained scientist and has stated emphatically that she doesn’t believe in animal telepathic communication; as a woman with autism, has sensed / observed the cues that many pets rely upon to know when their owner is coming home.

She pointed out that animals, like her, can certainly hear the unique hum of the owner’s vehicle, 10 stories below. They recognize the pattern of their human’s footsteps, they hear the elevator door open. At this point, the dog would rush to the door to greet the human they knew was coming.

Temple concluded that pets do not have telepathic connections with their owners, they merely observe their environment in a more complete way. While I obviously do believe telepathic communication is possible and happens all the time, I was fascinated by the idea that certain *types* of people would have a more “animal” experience of the world.

I intuitively made a connection: since autistic kids experience the world in a more complete sensory picture, perhaps they’re immersed in the telepathic aspect of the animal experience too.

Now, here is Suzy, stating emphatically that kids with autism absolutely *DO* communicate telepathically, and the fascinating stories of her work with her colleagues and these special kids make me want to jump for joy!

Her stories reminded me of a little non-verbal toddler I saw last summer. I don’t know if this girl was considered autistic or not, but I immediately noticed her. She had a glow.

She looked at my dog, Happy, and started to approach with the intention of petting him. Happy immediately barked in his “stay away” warning. Happy is a hyper-sensitive dog, and doesn’t enjoy being petted.

This little girl stopped in her tracks, scrunched up her face and aimed the center of her forehead at Happy with this look of intense concentration. I heard the conversation as though over a loud speaker:

Why do you bark at me, I just want to be friends?

You are big, fast and you scare me. Please stay away.

The girl’s face relaxed and I could see her mulling over this concept that she scared my dog, and that my dog thought of her as big – in her toddler world, everyone was bigger than her, but that was no reason to be frightened. She was trying to figure it out.

The exchange was so intense, that the girl’s father noticed and was trying to get her to snap out of it by poking her with his toe, calling her name, snapping his fingers and tapping her head. If he understood he was interrupting a conversation, it would’ve been considered rude.

Since that experience, I’ve given ALL non-verbal kids credit for telepathic communication, and this is when I started talking to babies. Most kids will respond to communication telepathically, and I’ve found that suddenly babies and young toddlers are smiling at me. I never had much of a knack with children before now.

“Are you helping Mom with the grocery shopping? Did Mom get you some food to eat later?”

(child replies with picture of glass jar with apple on it)

“Did you get apples?”

(I send the child the taste of apples – child smiles, and sends me another picture, yellow/orange squash?)

“Did you get squash to eat later? Or Yams?”

(I send the child those flavours, she laughs!)

I’ve tried this technique with older, non-verbal adults who through injury, illness or disease have lost the ability to speak. So far, none of them received the messages I sent out, and I think that’s because they just don’t recognize it. Kids recognize it immediately.

I used to think that everyone should know sign language, because so many of us are deaf, or become deaf in life, even if it’s just to old age. If everyone’s grandkids could communicate with sign language, a lot of grandparents would feel more included in their family’s lives. Besides, sign language is handy to communicate when you don’t want to wake a baby, or if you’re across a crowded, loud room from each other.

But now I think that telepathic communication is something we should all know, because then we can bridge the gap not only between generations and “disabilities”, but across species and eventually, across galaxies.

Suzy Miller is among the first to answer the call to learn FROM our differently-abled kids, rather than insist they integrate into our pre-existing culture.

You go, girl!