“The best and most beautiful things cannot be seen or heard, they must be felt with the heart.” –Helen Keller

I have worked with many children and adults diagnosed with severe non-verbal autism. I was taught that merging consciousness renders language deficiencies based on linear thinking obsolete. Subconscious knowledge appears, as a mutual flow of ideas that come to the fore. Unconditional love, trust, and the expectation of competence open this channel. A sense of balance is established. We are in communion. By linking souls, our individual perceptual realities become entangled. I speculate that Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller had a similar bond.

Helen had typical sensory experiences up to 18 months. At that moment, she was hit by a fever. Her age of onset is similar to parent reports that her autistic son was developing normally and suddenly regressed. Due to her illness and loss of hearing and vision, Helen’s typical sensory processes were disrupted.

Helen was missing until Annie Sullivan arrived. I see a correlation between Helen’s journey and her relationship with Annie Sullivan with some of the children I’ve worked with. This kind of catalytic relationship is both humbling and inspiring.

Many of the students I worked with demonstrated atypical senses such as telepathy. Helen and Annie’s relationship was noted to have extrasensory elements, according to Dennett’s (1998) article titled “Helen Keller: Did the Deaf-Blind Genius Possess Ways of Feeling Beyond Normal?” I speculate that Annie and Helen merged consciousness. Perhaps synchronizing brain waves and sensory systems was the initial “key” that unlocked Helen’s understanding. I suspect that I linked consciousness with children with severe autism. I suspect that Helen and Annie also merged consciousness. Perhaps this fusion helped Helen experience information through Annie’s sensory system? Lawrence Hutton stated, “Miss Sullivan told us that without conscious movement, without intentional or perceptible ‘finger talking,’ she could make the boy follow his own thoughts, do what she wanted him to do, go where she wanted him to go. , perform any of the acts of ‘mind reading’ exhibited by professional psychologists on stage, or in an amateur manner”.

Many children have selected the word or image I have sent them using a form of telepathy. I have also had students write letter by letter and word by word based solely on my conscious thought. I have also had students with limited verbal ability say the words I sent them telepathically.

According to Dennett, Sullivan stated: “The development of Helen Keller suggests to me that the loss of one or more faculties can, through discipline, bring the handicapped person to deeper levels of willpower than are required of the disabled. normally equipped human beings. I Have no doubt that most people live in a very restricted sphere of their potential capacities. They make use of only a small portion of their possible powers and resources of their minds. It is as if all of their physical furnishings, they should use only a fraction of each sense.”

I agree with Annie. Typical people, no matter how extreme their cultural differences, have a shared perceptual reality based on information received through their senses. It is natural to develop a different perceptual reality when one has atypical sensory experiences. This would surely have an altering effect on perceptual reality and the ability to interact with the world.

The article mentions Mark Twain’s fascinating encounter with Helen and Annie: “Annie asked, ‘Why is Mr. Clemens distinguished?’ Helen replied, her speech garbled, ‘By her humor.’ Mark Twain spoke modestly, saying, ‘And by her wisdom.’ Helen said the same words instantly, ‘and by her wisdom.'” Twain says, “I guess it was a mental telegram because there was no way she knew what she had said.” I have experienced instant knowing with my students. Fleeting anticipatory thoughts often resulted in immediate responses.

The article quotes Helen: “I have always held a strong belief that there are powers in many animals that can be developed beyond the physical senses, and it is gratifying to note that orthodox scientists are beginning to look for causes other than mechanical ones.” . to explain telepathy… Surely if creatures without the faculty of reason can perform such wonders, Man endowed with spiritual and intellectual powers can achieve phenomena that cannot be explained by mechanism but by laws still waiting to be discovered.”

People with severe autism have shown me that they have developed their senses beyond the ordinary. They are more in touch with subconscious knowing and the spiritual side of life. Their souls have not fully integrated with their bodies. This lack of integration leaves the soul in a unique position, unlike those who have fully integrated, resulting in a greater connection with the subconscious or spiritual self. This lack of grounding leaves the body unsure of how to navigate in the physical world. As if in a dream state, the individual has difficulty controlling or categorizing thought. Knowledge itself, however, is vast and covers the innate understanding of universal truths lost by the most integrated individual.

The artist and sculptor Gutzon Borglum, mentioned in the article, wrote of his meeting with Helen Keller: “I will never forget that hour with Helen Keller… I learned from her that the soul, as well as the body, has eyes.” I realized the same thing when I worked with some children and adults with severe autism. Some even seemed to be directing their bodies from outside of themselves.

According to the article, Helen seemed to have a profound out-of-body experience. Helen said, “I had been sitting quietly in the library for half an hour. I turned to my teacher and said, ‘Something so strange has happened! I’ve been away all this time and haven’t left the room.’ you mean, Helena?” she asked, surprised. ‘Why,’ I exclaimed, ‘I have been to Athens.’ No sooner had the words left my mouth than an amazing and brilliant realization seemed to seize my mind and ignite it. I perceived the reality of my soul and its absolute independence from all conditions of place and body. It was clear to me that it was because I was a spirit that he had “seen” and felt so vividly in a place thousands of miles away. Space was nothing to the spirit! In that new awareness shone the presence of God, Himself a Spirit everywhere at once , the Creator dwelling in all the universe simultaneously.”

My response to that final quote based on my experiences is AMEN! My students, who are really my teachers, have been patiently guiding me towards that awareness.

It appears that Helen eventually became completely independent of Annie, functioning in this world without relinquishing her gifts of telepathy, thought exchange, remote viewing, or spiritual connection. I hope that one day people with low-functioning nonverbal autism will do the same.

Reference:

Dennett, PE (1998) Helen Keller: Did the blind and deaf genius possess ways of feeling beyond the normal? Atlantis Rising 17,