People on the Autism Spectrum Live in the Moment<http://conceptsavant.com/2011/01/31/people-on-the-autism-spectrum-live-in-the-moment/> January 31, 2011 | Author Mark Ty-Wharton<http://conceptsavant.com/author/Mark%20Ty-Wharton/>
After reading the top ten terrific traits of autistic people<http://www.autismsupportnetwork.com/news/top-10-terrific-traits-autistic-people-92003432>, as an person diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum who hates generalisations, I feel I can do the subject justice by passing a more specific comment on each of the ten points. *Lisa Jo Rudy writes:* If you’re sick of hearing about all the “deficits” challenging people on the autism spectrum, join the club. But for every down side to autism, there seems to be a positive — an unusual trait that rarely appears among the “typical” community, but shines out among autistic folk. These plusses are well worth celebrating. So today, I want to look at trait number two. *2. People on the Autism Spectrum Live in the Moment* How often do typical people fail to notice what’s in front of their eyes because they’re distracted by social cues or random chit chat? People on the autism spectrum truely attend to the sensory input that surrounds them. Many have achieved the ideal of mindfulness. So what the article is essentially saying: People on the autistic spectrum are truly ‘living in the now’. We are living in a more honest paradigm, the paradigm people like Eckhart Tolle believe to be essential to the evolution of the human race. We are in the moment, aligned with the spiritual consciousness these teachers are telling others they should strive for. On face value, another interesting observation and while it sounds like a load of mumbo jumbo, I am actually going to agree with this one to a greater extent than the previous trait. Why? Because I have direct experience of a level of consciousness which for a lifetime I have been told is weird. I don’t think we are buddhas, because the way I see it, autistic people still experience a conceptual and perception biased world. Let’s face it, this is my field of expertise and without projecting outcomes into future moments IQ driven ideas would be meaningless. However the perception bias in autism is very different and coloured by much narrower fields of interest. To someone involved in a sociological game, objects have a meaning relevant to the survival of a self interested in looking good in and around society. The conceptual meaning of something can totally override that things practicality. A person on the autistic spectrum is more apt to look at things literally and logically. Perhaps investigate the truth about say ‘global warming’ rather than listen to hearsay. To balance the argument, I personally spent the best part of my life overwhelmed by distractive social cues. Not the cues themselves, the mind trying to grasp them and use the right ones for the setting meant I missed a lot of sensory input I would otherwise have been aware of had I been less programmed socially. The real skill being missed by the article, a skill which should have been number one in my opinion? FOCUS Given leave of social distractions, I have the ability to FOCUS on what is in front of my eyes with complete clarity. When I have a special interest in a subject, nothing will stop me from attaining mindfulness. Achieving this same level of mindfulness in other areas takes contemplation. For you, like me, the power of now lies between this thought and the next. It has taken a lifetime of thinking to learn there is nothing to get. Anurajyati, Mark Ty-Wharton [image: Get 50% off your first 3 months at audible.com!]<http://www.dpbolvw.net/mr72qgpmgo37D969DB3547A948B> [image: Holland & Barrett]<http://www.tkqlhce.com/ll121biroiq59FB8BFD576AEA99B> motivating the genius of you... http://conceptsavant.com twitter @mark_tywharton <http://twitter.com/mark_tywharton> subscribe via Google <http://groups.google.com/group/concept_hub> or RSS<http://feeds.feedburner.com/marktywharton> [image: Share]<http://www.addtoany.com/add_to/a2a?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fconceptsavant.com%2F2011%2F01%2F31%2Fpeople-on-the-autism-spectrum-live-in-the-moment%2F&type=page&linkname=People%20on%20the%20Autism%20Spectrum%20Live%20in%20the%20Moment&linknote=>
