An Autistic Child Remembers

Autism is not very well understood. Autistic children (and adults) seem withdrawn from the world and oblivious to their surroundings. A few can speak slightly but many have never uttered a single word in their entire lives. Yet surprisingly many seem to be able to communicate by typing words on a keyboard. Their spelling is not always good and their sentences are short and clipped, but at least they are able to communicate their wants and needs in a limited way.

Adriana Rocha is such a child. She had spoken only four or five words in her life. So what her parents did not expect when they got her a keyboard and worked at teaching her to use it was that she would begin typing out the details of her previous incarnations. In fact it took a while for her mother to realize that this is what she was doing. Her mother kept trying to relate the things she typed her to her present life.

But then Ardiana made it perfectly clear by typing to her mother that she was talking about when she had died "in history." She had been, she said, a Turkish sailor who died at the age of 85 in a fire. Her mom was in a state of shock! Adriana went on to say that she had choosen to be autistic because she was mad at herself. What to do with a piece of information like that?

Mom and Adriana went on to write a book, A Child of Eternity by Adriana Rocha and Kristi Jorde. I'm only about halfway through the book but what a fascinating read! Yet another spontaneous childhood memory, but from an entirely unexpected direction.

That is really interesting-Keep us posted on if she says anything else on past lives.

How old is Ariana?

She was 9 when the book was begun and 12 by the end of the book. She would be 20 or 21 now.

I've done more research on the method of facilitated communication used and many authorities have serious doubts about it. The facilitator, in this case her mother, holds her hand steady and she presses the keys with her index finger. Many psychologists believe that it is the facilitator's unconscious mind that is directing the child to hit the keys, perhaps like the way a ouija board might work.

There are serious doubts about the validity of the technique and double blind tests have revealed that the autistic child can be given information but cannot recall it or type it unless the facilitator also knows the answer. In other words, if the facilitator doesn't know the answer then the child will not be able to answer, but if the facilitator does know the answer then the child will magically answer even if the child was never given the information. This casts serious doubts on whether the communication is actually coming from the child or whether it is really coming from the facilitator who is holding her hand while she types.

That controversy aside, later in the book she began to deliver what sounded more like a mishmash of concepts picked up from TV evangelists and, after mom started hanging out with "new age" types, vague and non-specific "new age" ramblings.

The child (or mother, as many psychologists suspect) also made dire predictions for catastrophic earth changes. The book was written in the early 1990's and the predicted catastrophes did not materilaize in 1999 as predicted.

After completing the book I suspect it's just more misleading misinformation of the type that is all too common in this field. I'm quite disappointed by the whole thing and I withdraw my recommendation of the book.

Fizi, I gotta comment - you sound a lot like me. I get all hyped up at first and then when I learn a bit more, sometimes I'm disapointed. I tried to find out the truth about the Bridie Murphy incident, but there has been so much conflicting information written about it that it almost looks like one of those Jonbenet Ramsey kind of deals.
Love your 'new age types' comment. You're talking about the people with Kaliedoscope eyes and I know they mean well (well, most of them) but they sure cloud up the water.

Joe

For what it's worth on the Bridey Murphy case, I read the case, then read a convincing debunking of the case and then read an even more convincing debunking of the debunking. It seems that none of the "facts" presented in the debunking has been able to verified independantly. How is it that a rival newspaper, angry over loosing out on the serialization rights to the original Bridey Murphy, was able to assign a reporter to "find" all these facts in a week that subsequent investigators have not been able verify in years of patient research? It's left me convinced that the Bridey Murphy case was authentic.

The case was never debunked. It's credibility was smeared by false accusations for reasons having everything to do with business competition and nothing to do with any search for real truth.

Thanks to Steve S. who put me on the track of rechecking the Bridey Murphy debunking a couple of years ago.

Autism is not very well understood. Autistic children (and adults) seem withdrawn from the world and oblivious to their surroundings. A few can speak slightly but many have never uttered a single word in their entire lives. Yet surprisingly many seem to be able to communicate by typing words on a keyboard. Their spelling is not always good and their sentences are short and clipped, but at least they are able to communicate their wants and needs in a limited way.
Adriana Rocha is such a child. She had spoken only four or five words in her life. So what her parents did not expect when they got her a keyboard and worked at teaching her to use it was that she would begin typing out the details of her previous incarnations. In fact it took a while for her mother to realize that this is what she was doing. Her mother kept trying to relate the things she typed her to her present life.

But then Ardiana made it perfectly clear by typing to her mother that she was talking about when she had died "in history." She had been, she said, a Turkish sailor who died at the age of 85 in a fire. Her mom was in a state of shock! Adriana went on to say that she had choosen to be autistic because she was mad at herself. What to do with a piece of information like that?

Mom and Adriana went on to write a book, A Child of Eternity by Adriana Rocha and Kristi Jorde. I'm only about halfway through the book but what a fascinating read! Yet another spontaneous childhood memory, but from an entirely unexpected direction.

Click to expand...

This is probably one of the most fascinating accounts about reincarnation I have heard. Thank you for posting it. I will read that book.

I am going to join this thread. First of
all, I am autistic myself. I have a good
job and a nice home. I live normally. I
do however, have autistic tendencies. (I
was not diagnosed until age 30.)

I DON'T KNOW if "karma" is responsible for
my Asperger's Syndrome. ("Asperger's Syn-
drome" is basically another term for high-
functioning autism.) I do not believe that
I chose to be autistic in heaven. Perhaps
the world is better because some brains
work differently. (Albert Einstein and
President Thomas Jefferson may have been
autistic.)

I have had paranormal experiences. I inter-
pret them as God's way of saying that he
exists. I must be an okay person; otherwise
I wouldn't have those experiences.

I can not prove empirically that I didn't
decide to have Asperger's Syndrome. I can't
prove that "karma" didn't cause my disabili-
ties. I more-or-less believe in reincarna-
tion, at least as a rare event. BUT please
be careful about the worst aspects of it;
blaming "karma" or God for disabilities or
extreme poverty.

Respectfully,

Andrewx

PS: PLEASE do not feel sorry for me. I
really believe that there are plenty
of people who have autistic tendencies
and are never diagnosed. I know a
self-made multi-millionaire who I
suspect has autistic tendencies.

[This message has been edited by andrewx (edited 01-22-2003).]

[This message has been edited by andrewx (edited 01-23-2003).]

Just to make it clear what my last post was
about, I was commenting on Adriana Rocha's
belief that she decided to be autistic in
heaven. I can not PROVE that didn't happen.
But beliefs like that have to be dealt with using a lot of caution.


Respectfully,

Andrewx

[This message has been edited by andrewx (edited 01-23-2003).]

[This message has been edited by andrewx (edited 01-23-2003).]

...My cousin has Asperger's Syndrome and he is a normal little boy expect he has trouble sometimes communicating what he wants and doesnt like to be touched unless he wants it. Did I fail to mention he is hyper active. From my experiences with cousin I found that autisim is a hard thing to live with. When I see the pain on his little face when he cant think of just the right words to saywhat he wants it makes my heart want to break. So to other those researcher I give you a pat on the back.
Amanda

Thank you, Manduh, for replying to my postings. I wish
to say that there IS hope for people with Asperger's
Syndrome. It took work, but my life is quite decent these
days. My speech is almost normal. (Volume control is a
problem.) I wish your cousin good luck.

Respectfully,

Andrewx

When I was little, I was misdiagnosed with aspergers syndrome. They wanted to put me on drugs for it, but luckily my parents got a better doctor that said I didn't have it. I had to switch schools because the school I was in wouldn't let me stay unless I was put on drugs. I don't remember much of it since I was in kindergarten when it happened, but that's what my parents tell me happened.

Thank you, rg203, for replying to my postings. I think it is terrible
that you were once kicked out of a school because your parents
did not want you to use psychiatric drugs. That decision is a
personal or parental decision, depending on your age. I wish you
luck.

Respectfully,

Andrewx

Autism and Asperger's

I know three people with Asperger's Syndrome who all have much better-than-normal past-life recall. I suspect Asperger's makes it easier to "tune in" past-life memories in some way.

One of the people is myself, another is one of my roommates, and the third is a boy I used to babysit who used to tell me about flying his Zero.

I like the way my brain works, by the way, except for my difficulty recognizing faces and my tendency to get lost. (My roomie and I both have spatial agnosia...you should see us try to drive somewhere together!)

I don't think I chose to have Asperger's, any more than I chose to be short or skinny. It's just part of the numbers that came up in the genetic lottery, as far as I can tell.

CB4

ClueByFour, I have to agree with your assessment of why people have Asperger's Syndrome. I can't prove it, but I doubt that I ever "chose" to have it. I agree with you that it is probably genetic.

Respectfully,

Andrewx

Originally posted by andrewx
ClueByFour, I have to agree with your assessment of why people have Asperger's Syndrome. I can't prove it, but I doubt that I ever "chose" to have it. I agree with you that it is probably genetic.

Respectfully,

Andrewx

Click to expand...

Hi Andrewx and all My opinion on this is that someone had choosen this illness..(I mean nothing in bad,ok?) ..and someone not and it is genetic done. I'm not thinkink about people with any form of Autism like about craziers ..it isn't more different from central society(what some peoples called "normality") than be an asiat or be born without leg or only unhealthy eyes or "wrong" speech...But it is harder to live with,always is more difficult be other than most of people.But we are ALL children of same Earth with same home in this universe ,so why make separations,it doesn't make sense to me.. I wish you all happy life with a lot of light and love....and loving peoples who can support you.I'm not sure if I make a sense in anything,I hope you'll undertand...

Making the Decision to Be

I would just like to comment on Little Adrianna making the comment that she chose to be Autistic, I believe she did make that decision. Long before she was born into this life. As I believe we all made the decision to have the trials and tribulations that we all face every day. Sylvia Browne explains these things quite nicely in her books. Check them out.

Spiritchaser and Sylvia Browne

Thanks for bringing Sylvia up in context with choices made prior to incarnating. I know not everyone is a Sylvia fan, but she has given me the only analogy I can relate to about making the choice to take on trials and tribulations in our human lives.

I heard her say once that we feel so wonderful on the other side - it's almost like we're drunk when we 'sign up' for the hard stuff. Our attitude is: Hey, sounds great! Think of all I'll accomplish! Sure I'll do it!--Then we face the reality, and we wonder: How could I ever agree to this? How can this suffering be my choice?

Her analogy is the only one that has ever made sense to me. I've had some brief visits to the other side and know how "up" and wonderful you feel. Anything is possible....but it may not be the best time to 'sign up' for the tough stuff -

re autism..................

Hi

Have read with interest this thread. Just my thoughts but my middle child has special needs including some autistic traits. I do wonder if she chose this life to teach others some life lessons rather than herself. She is only 6 but so far we as an extended family and everyone who meets her learn so much from her. I wouldn't be suprised if she was an old soul!!

I recall reading a book by Brian Wiess,Many Lives many Masters in which he mentioned his son who died as a young baby as an old soul who had chosen that particular life to teach his parents and it just blew me away!

Just my thoughts

Uk Mom

You're right on!

Yes, I think we 'sign up' together. We learn from each other, in whatever role we play. What a wonderful attitude you have! Your little girl is lucky!

I am raising my 8 year old grandson . He has been with me most of his life (as has his 6 year old ADHD sister) . My grandson was diagnosed as having high functioning Autism . He is very bright , sensitive , interesting & right to the point about things . He has such a clear understanding about God , Jesus , & afterlife . We aren't churchgoers & i've rarely discussed religion , but he knows . I clearly remember talking to my mom when I was 6 , about reicarnation . I'm 42 years old . In those days they talked about the moon , Vietnom & LSD . My parents were fairly conservative . Dad was military , so like I said reincarnation wouldn't have been a subject I would mimic . Unfortunately I don't really recall details . I do like Sylvia Browne . She says when your children have dreams , you should gently show interest as to the details of the dreams . So I have done that . What's really interesting is that recently my grandson & I both had a dream about a small monkey , I don't know what the connection is .
I hope I didn't get off subject too much . Kathleen

Hi Kathleen61 and welcome to the forum! Sorry I didn't greet you earlier...your grandson sounds interesting indeed. Do you care to share some of the things he's said about God, Jesus and the afterlife? Often young kids will say things that are much wiser than many adults.

Aimee

Good to meet you Aimee . One thing about alot of Autistics (I also work at an institution for adults that are DD , many of which are Autistic) is most of the time they speak very matter of fact like . As is the subject is so well known that the facts are simple facts . Right before Christmas I took he & his sister to a outdoor reenactment of the birth & death of Jesus . Prior to that he had been very glum for about a week . He said he had lost his Christmas spirit & didn't know why . I was nervous , as they are prone to becoming over stimulated by too much activity or noise . I sat right up front so that they wouldn't be distracted by other people . It was so cold ! They were both totally mesmerised . It was a VERY lively & musical show . Normally I wouldn't have taken them to such a public place (overstim) but their 2 cousins (my other grandchildren) were in it . Afterwards they wanted to go for ice cream (can you imagine!) & Christopher loudly announced "I know now why I was so upset & lost my Christmas spirit . It was because I knew about Jesus' death . Now I understand & I have my spirit back " . Even though I had only VERY breifly explained about Jesus , I really felt he had known & did now understand . There have been other little things , too

My family kind of thinks i'm off based about reincarnation . My son said he has never read anything in the bible about reincarnation . But on another post I read that St. John the baptist was Elijah reincarnated . I'm not well versed on the bible at all , so I can't intelligently argue with him . Which would be pointless anyway . I just tell him I won't argue & I go with my own beliefs . Kathy

Hi Kathy and thank you for sharing. Your grandson seems to be more in touch with spiritual matters than a lot of adults. It must be very interesting to listen to him at times.

As far as others not believing in reincarnation, I have that too, but as you said, there's not really much point in arguing with people who don't believe in it. After we die we'll know what happens next anyway! Until then, I go with beliefs that seem to make the most sense to me, based on my experiences. Others have different experiences, different beliefs.

Aimee

I agree with you Aimee . I , as well respect , but don't always understand other religions (without a better description) . My dad was very well read & had a photographic memory . I could go to him & ask him what he knew about Judism , American indians , etc... Most of my life my dad was what he called Agnostic , sceptical , but not athiast . Anyway , he was so interesting & imformative . I always took what made sense to me & filed it in my head & discarded what I didn't feel was right to me . I guess that's why I don't attend a church , but consider myself very spiritual . I always thought it was great that my dad would read about these things with interest & respect , even though , in many cases he didn't agree with thier beliefs , at all .
My grandson & his sister are both very interesting & creative . As much as I love my other 2 grandchildren , I don't click with them in the same way . I don't believe it is just because the 1st two live with me , either . I believe that the two that live with me & I were close in another life . My grandaughter that lives with me has very vivid dreams , which we always discuss . Of course most of the time they are just a 6 year old girls dreams , that are funny . My grandson isn't as apt to volunteer his info as quickly . He is more likely to join in when i'm talking about something , such as my dream about the monkey & him saying he had a dream that he owned a small monkey , too . We each described it & it was the same . It's not like monkeys are a common subject in our day to day conversation either . That's what was odd , too . I could understand if we had just read a book together . Also I should say , he is one of the most sincere kids I know (except when it comes to his sister , lol) . Sorry this is so long winded & off the origonal threads subject at times . Kathy

Adriana's story is amazing! Has anyone else read it? Or does anyone have a few thoughts to share?


Ailish

What an informative and enlightening thread. The theory that extremely difficult lives and/or traumatic deaths might be pre-planned is a comforting thought, but who knows. life itself is a series of difficulties and triumphs, so maybe it's sinply a matter of degrees.

John

This thread caught my eye because 1. it appears as if a couple of my friends have autistic children and 2. within the past year I have realized that I may be high functioning autistic or Asperger's.

While I agree that Adriana very well might have consciously chosen to be autistic, that does not necessarily mean that all autistics did. Nor do I believe that everything is consciously chosen by an individual pre-womb.

I don't know if it's genetic. I've been teaching for years and we're seeing a lot more of it now. A lot of people think it's the immunizations but some contend that the immunizations might simply be something which "kicks" the autism into gear.

I stumbled upon this book without having read this thread, and was directed to it after posting a note about it. I'm still only about half-way through and will reserve my final assessment until I'm finished. But I wanted to comment on a couple points made here. First of all I don't know whether the facilitator in this method could be the one who is really doing the communicating. Obviously it would be a matter of the mother sincerely fooling herself, not intentional fraud, and it's clear how it could come about. But one should be careful in interpreting the studies. One tends to find what one is looking for in such studies, and researchers tend to interpret according to their prior assumptions. Researchers are depressingly human (depressingly, that is, for the sake of scientific inquiry). I would have to read the study first-hand--what their bias was, what they chose to see and what they chose to ignore, how many trials, how large a sample size, and whether there are any alternative explanations--including non-normal explanations. It is clear from the book, for example, that the autistic child might choose not to cooperate in a testing situation, or with strangers acting as facilitators. As for the finding that the child could not express anything the facilitator did not know, in this book, it appears that the child began talking about all sorts of things the mother, acting as facilitator, not only did not know, but did not want to accept initially. This could be appearance only. The exact chronology here is precisely what is lacking in so many layman's accounts of past-life memory. We need to know *precisely* what the mother knew, and when she knew it, vs. when her child began expressing it, and one has to try to piece this information together in a haphazard fashion from the typical story narrative. I know that the mother was introduced to Brian Weiss's work; but I would have to go back to the book and try to determine whether this occurred *before* her daughter began talking about past lives, or *after*.

I will say that the child's explanation for her autism, her behavior, and the psychic reading she had long before she started giving these explanations, all fit together. They fit together in the same way that I saw past-life memories fit with overall personality in Dr. Woolger's workshop. This kind of organic pattern, when one sees it repeatedly, is at least an indication that it may be real, if not strong enough to be proof in itself. The clues come in gradually during the course of the book: there was a fire, there was extreme anger at the time of death in the past life, both at herself and at others; she did not want to be born, and had the strong thought, presumably, of rejecting life itself and everyone and everything; she tried to starve herself in the womb somehow; and when born, she did not want to be here and did not want to participate in life at all. She continued to be angry at everyone and everything. The starvation added certain classic neurological symptoms of autism, including, perhaps, oversensitivity. So it is a mixture of psychological and physical. It has a great deal to do, apparently, with the final thought at the moment of death, which we know from reincarnation studies is a strong determinant of the tenor of the next life. If one dies in great trauma with the very strong thought, "I hate everyone and myself, I do not ever want to participate in life again or ever be born again," then this will carry into the next life. Karma will require that one be born again, but this strong thought will dominate one's next life. One will be in the world, but not able to participate in it, even if one now wants to.

So whether this wisdom is coming from the mother--which I doubt, given (pardon my characterization, but I'm trying to argue a point) how clueless she seems in the narrative--or from the child--or from some other source, like the Higher Self of the mother, or her subconscious mind--the whole pattern seems right to me, as does the explanation so far.

I would also point out that the child explained one thing to the mother that she clearly would not have wanted to accept, at least consciously--and that is that much of the daughter's anti-social behavior was intentional and voluntary. If this information was coming from the mother's subconscious, one would think that she would suddenly do an emotional about-face in her patient attitude, but she did not. She appears to have assimilated it gracefully, or relatively gracefully. In short, if this information were being suppressed psychologically into the mother's subconscious because it was too discordant with her conscious beliefs, then when it emerged from her subconscious in the facilitating, she would have had a strong reaction--"You mean you've been doing all this biting and spitting up and breaking things on purpose? I'm fed up with this!!" But that isn't what the book describes at all. Her reaction, if it is being accurately reported, is much more like someone who was told something she didn't know, not even subconsciously. So if this is true, then it is probably true for the other information, including the past-life information.

I want to make one other comment that we have to get past this dichotomy of thinking that something is "psychological" or it is "genetic"--as though being "genetic" means it is entirely physical in cause. Genetics is influenced by the mind. Dr. Stevenson's birthmark research has shown this clearly. There is no such thing as genetics without the mind. The two work in tandem. Karma controls genetics--and karma is driven by mental impressions that survive in the mental body from physical lifetime to physical lifetime. Genetics is the tool by which karma creates the new body, and karma is half mind-stuff. So this idea of dismissing everything paranormal by showing it has a genetic component, is based on erroneous assumptions about how life operates.

Steve S.

Quite so Ssake. To say that something is 'genetic' explains nothing on a deep level. People reincarnate in families and some various ailments run in families. Genetics is part of the picture, and a very interesting and important part of the picture, but it is not the end of the matter, case closed, as some people would like to pretend. It certainly does not rule out any intervention by the 'spirit' in any physical characteristic, whether it is green eyes or pigeon toes, birth marks or robust good health.

We are beings made up of a mind, a body and a spirit. We are often very quick to see the body as a separate 'thing' and not part of our 'true' selves - preferring to identify strongly with only our mind or only our soul. Alternatively, some people reduce our 'selves' to our body only - explaining the perception of the existence of a soul as merely a by-product of chemical processes in the brain - also a very silly notion in my view.

Autism is a word used to cover quite a broad range of socially 'disfunctional' behaviour (lack of speech, lack of empathy, tendency to rage, etc), similar to the word schizophrenia used to describe quite a wide range of behaviours (fantasies, hallucinations and a certain confusion about 'reality'). Autism is often, but not always, associated with high intelligence and sometimes a lack of 'social skills' (lack of interest in other people and their feelings, monomania about something of intense interest to them eg. trains or similar). Many people have a 'touch' of it but some have more apparent symptoms to the point where they cause big problems in managing daily life.

Most of the members of my family are 'a bit odd' as it was once called. Most of them are reasonably functional, all of them are highly intelligent but I think we all have just a touch of what might be described as 'autism'. My father did not speak until he was 3 and was much given to extreme enthusiasms for various things from time to time although I never saw him lose his temper. I certainly get along very well with people who have a 'touch of' this type of personality because I feel very 'sympatico' with them and we can chat away for hours while 'normal' people are quite mystified at a/ how I do this b/why I enjoy it.

I have had many interesting conversations with these extremely 'geeky' types about trains (or other obscure interests) about which they are very knowledgable and extremely enthusiastic, but none about reincarnation.

Personally I doubt there is any special connection between autism and recalling past lives. I believe all sorts of physical ailments or advantages may be decided by the 'spirit', not just that particular one. I don't like 'one size fits all' rules, especially not ones established on the basis of one example.

Autism is in fact a complicated condition about which the cause or causes are currently being debated. But it should be of interest to look at the statistics of the incidence of Autism. Within the last couple of decades, Autism has gone from an incidence of 1 in 10,000 births to the current 1 in 166 births.

It is unlikely that this increase in incidence is due to genetics alone. This dramatic increase is contrary to what is known about how transmission of hereditary traits occurs. If autism is related to past life trauma, then there would be abundant examples of recent mass traumas generating anger and hatred that could explain the substantial increase in autism over the past decades.

I am aware of treatments of autistic children which correct environmental conditions which may have precipitated the occurrence of autism, e.g., treatments to remove mercury and other heavy metals from the autistic child. There are many documented cases of children severely afflicted by autism who with appropriate treatments including chelation, correction of intestinal dysbiosis, elimination of various food substances including gluten and/or casein, and implementation of vitamin and mineral supplementation in doses determined by blood and urine tests, who have been cured of this condition.

Your friend, Wicker