Autism Consulting Service   

Social Interaction is a 2-Way Street

One of the criteria for autism in the DSM-IV is an impairment in social interaction. Throughout the years that I been studying autism I recognized many reasons why this impairment might take place. As with everything else I thought I knew, this understanding has shifted drastically in the last few years.

 

If you recognize autism as a heightened response to sensory stimulation you see many different reasons why typical autistic behaviour may be labeled as an impairment in social interaction. The individual is forced to focus on protection from sensory overload in all or least most social situations they are placed in. They may not want to be touched because physical contact such as a hug is "like a tidal wave of stimulation" (Temple Grandin) or "feels like fire running through my body" (a young boy I worked with). Donna Williams describes it this way "the imprint of your hand on my arms stays there for hours”. Avoidance of physical contact was noted in the first published research paper on autism in 1943. Kanner described children who do not hold out their arms to be picked up as an example of the social impairment. When you understand the heightened level of tactile response you realize that this response is not an impairment but a means of protection. However, it leads in time to an impairment for two reasons. First it limits the positive interaction between parent and child which in turn limits the relationship developed. Secondly it limits the amount of oxytocin, the social hormone that develops in our bodies through physical touch with others.

 

I could go on for pages describing how the heightened level of sensitivity to sensory input impairs social interaction. In fact, I already have done so in AHWC. It’s a logical explanation for what is happening for the person with autism. However, it does not clearly explain what is happening from the other side of the interaction. I have always been puzzled by the wall that I see between those who appear to be normal and those on the spectrum. The typical person is not as open and free in their interactions as they are with other typical people. It's like they have to make an effort to include the person on the spectrum in their interactions. Over time, I hypothesized that a reaction to the heightened sense of anxiety may explain why those who do not have autism appear to put up a wall because they sense the anxiety from the individual on the spectrum without understanding what there was to be anxious about. This indeed may be part of the process, but as usual on this journey, I found the picture to be much bigger.

 

I am not a visual person but I do hang around with a lot of people who are. This means that their main focus in learning is visual. Mine is kinesthetic. This does not make them any better than me or vice versa. It only explains how we are different. Each of us is unique and it is important to use our individual strengths instead of concentrating on those we are lacking. My best friend is a visual learner who noticed something different about the people I had cleared of autsm. Their “jangle” (her term for what she sees) was gone. I recently met two other people who see the same thing, so it is not an uncommon ability. It’s just one I don’t have. It's not the difference between us here that it is important, it's that there is a physical difference in those who are cleared through our protocol. We have given this difference a name: "jangle".

 

The second factor we noted in regards to the “jangle” was that it was gone after the viruses were cleared from the body, and before the miasm and chromosome work was completed. This means that the “jangle” is directly connected to the presence of the viruses in the body. In quantum physics we learn that everything has a specific energetic frequency that it oscillates at. It is this frequency that we are measuring when we determine which viruses are present in the body. Every living thing also has a specific energetic frequency that will kill it. It is these frequencies that we send in to clear the viruses from the body. I believe that the “jangle” that my friends are seeing is the oscillation of the viruses in the body: a foreign presence that is not supposed to be there.

 

The third factor that we have noticed is that there is a major shift in the interaction of other people with someone on the spectrum once the viruses are cleared from the body. The major shift in communication and social interaction on the part of the individual we are clearing does not take place until all of the miasm and chromosome work has been completed. People do not appear to recognize that the change in interaction is coming from them, not from the person on the spectrum. I am getting quite a pile of letters from teachers informing the parents that there has been a major shift in how their child is interacting in the classroom before the autism protocol is complete. They suggest that they keep on doing whatever it is they are doing because it is working. I smile when I read these letters because I am very aware that the child has not made the major shift, at this point, although their anxiety level has been lowered. The change in interaction is actually coming from the teachers and other students. They no longer have to make an effort to interact with the child. It happens easily, effortlessly. I believe that we all are very aware of the oscillation of viruses in the body at an unconscious level and that we put a wall between us and the individual on the spectrum in order to protect ourselves from these viruses. This is all happening at an unconscious level for even those who can actually see the “jangle” do not know at a verbal level what they are reacting to. Once the viruses are gone the wall crumbles and those who are not on the spectrum begin to react with those on the spectrum in the same way that they interact with everyone else.

 

This means that all of the social skills training that we are doing with people on the autism spectrum is quite meaningless in the long run. You can teach all the skills you want but you will not change this unconscious reaction to the viruses. It is only through their removal that we can give those on the spectrum the freedom to be treated and accepted like everyone else in the world.