Guest Blog: More from Nick

 

Dear friends, meet Nick.  Here is his mother's introduction:
 "My son Nick is a thirty year- old Aut artist. We reside in southern Wisconsin, USA. Five years ago Nick was able to communicate with us using FC and is now also using RPM, changing all of our lives forever for the better. He is a synesthete and a compassionate being; he wants others to see him as a whole person and see the gifts of autism, not a disability. He does this through his writings and his art and we have successfully combined both in the form of posters with his quotes on them. My favorite is, "Being able to type is almost like being re-born."
Nick has been drawing since childhood and began painting in earnest over the last few years. His work has run the gamut from caricatures to portraits, city and landscapes to his current favorite- abstracts. The spheres and squares are deeply spiritual works for him, representing the expanding potential of new realms."

By way of explanation, we meet on a weekly basis for about 45 minutes each session.  I provide the physical support he needs to get his thoughts out using Facilitated Communication (my "tiny finger" as he describes it) and Laura and I ask questions for clarification as he types. He orally reads everything he types and can speak enough to give us a hearty YES when he likes what we say or ask. This is a transcript from a recent session:

Hi nick, November 6, 2017  (this part is always typed independently)

Nick: Very big news.

Char: Good news?

N: Very knowing people just love my people to be your people.

Laura: Is somebody joining up with somebody?

N: Believe in my intelligence and your love will very much show. Very much I need your time and your times.

C: Help us understand that.

N: Very much you help me get my thoughts out.

C: Tell us some more.

N: Believe in my intelligence and we can change the world.

L: What will a changed world look like?

N: very many new people are starting to see that people like me are here for the whole world.

C: True. More people are starting to see, but what does that mean?

N: (Laughs wickedly!) very soon I might be moving into the new dimension.

L: How is that going to be different? Will you be different?

N: By now you know that {Name/another FC user} is moving there too.

C: I just wish I knew how to help him. He’s been saying that for awhile.

L: Help us understand how to help you- both of you.

N: Very much I very much love this great dimension.

C: How does this work? You have to explain since you’re the teacher here.

N: Because people are in the third dimension we can not help them.

C: You and {Name} cannot help them?

Nick runs for the bathroom, returns and picks up right where he left off.

L: So you are moving from 3 to 5D?

N: Best is your help to move how I have moved.

L: How have you moved? You are the main example to us.

N: Beautiful outer beings helped me.

L: Please say more about ‘outer beings.’

N: gear up for about hearing that new earth is here.

L: How does that work? Do you help us to rise up so we can help others up to the new earth or new House, as you’ve been saying?

N: Best is if we free ourselves from all fear.

L: To be free of fear is to become full of trust?

N: very true mom.

C: We are all better off if we can see things more positively.  Is there more we need to do to keep going forward?

N: (“Yeah!”) Be very loving.

C: What do we do about bad news?

N: Bad news is just a new way to cause more fear.

L: I felt/heard every word of that before you typed it!

C: Me too. Can we share this?

N: (“Yeah!”)  very many people can be changed if you trust my words.

C: You have built a world following; they will be glad to hear your words. Is there more I can do? Do you want to do a guest blog again?

N: (“Yes!”)

L: He’s been waiting for you to volunteer!

C: You have more to say that you want out there?

N: Be very much in the dimension of love.

C: Help us understand this better in order to be clearer, share better.

N: because I am in the new dimension the world is already very loving.

L: If we give up our fear and can trust, we can go to the new dimension too?

N: (“Yes.”)Now our life is in the old dimensions but soon you will be part of the fifth dimension.

C: So we skip the 4^th. Does that mean that we have to leave some people behind?

N: Because not every body is ready not everyone will move.

L: Those who are fearful or the ones causing it, they are staying?

N: Now understand that all fear is helping people to say that new thinking is dangerous.

L: The ‘new thinking’ would be more loving without fear?

N: (“Yes! Yes! Yes!!”)

C: Who helped you?

N: Very many outer people help us so we can help you.

C: Are other people ready to hear? And who are these others? This is very profound and helpful information. I do think more people are in tune or ready today than ever before.

L: This fits with the notion that a very bad leader will force the rest of us to join together. Tune in or get in tune- to intuit truth. There’s some fun word play happening here.

N: Believe in gearing up because understanding is moving very fast.

C: So you feel optimistic? I’m glad you sound hopeful now when you’d been so worried before.

N: Can I just not ever stop typing with you.

C: I want to keep doing FC with you as long as my tiny finger holds out.

L: Do you want to tell  any more since the clock is ticking down- about a dream or your art or anything else?

N: Mom had a dream that I could get my thoughts out by talking.

C: Do you dream you can talk?

N:  Be sure that I can talk in my dreaming.

L: My dream was actually about the complexity of the Universe with colors and shifting lines and tones and energy. I wonder if you could paint that on that giant canvas.

N: Best for me to paint my own visions.

C: The world needs your visions and those of people like Jeremy who paints auras, and souls and  Alma, the amazing 12 year-old musician in the news last night.

L: We can start to bring out more wonder and banish fear.

N: Best to share those stories.

The end.

Earlier posts from/about Nick:

The Answer is Love

Attitudes Famously Hurt

 

Try a Different Way

Some kids are harder to reach than others.  And many of the old tricks we've learned  might not work.  Sometimes you just have to throw the rules of the game out the window and try a different way.

L is one of those, although he is no longer a kid.  He's an adult now, somewhere in his early 20's, like so many of the young people who are my teachers these days.  I have made many, many mistakes over the years, but thanks to some very special earlier teachers, I think I got it right this time.

I meet with L about once a week for an hour, with the purpose of helping him find a voice through typing.  We struggle almost every time - he can't (or won't) sit; he chews on just about anything; he resists most of my attempts to interest him in the iPad; and many times he just lies on the floor and falls asleep. He has no spoken language, and has had virtually no academic instruction during his years of special education.

But in those moments before sleep, while his eyes might be closed and an arm flung over his head, I know he is aware of my presence and I know he is listening as I read to him from one of the many, many stories of people just like him who have learned to type (using either Facilitated Communication or Rapid Prompting Method) and then dared to tell their story.

I also know that when he is feeling safe and able to focus, he has typed some rather amazing thoughts.  I wait patiently each time we meet for things to be just right, so I can learn more from him and about him.

On this particular day, L was unusually interested in a plastic bin of magnetic alphabet letters, so we started with that, both of us happily seated at a table in a quiet, comfortable room with few other distractions.   He carefully fingered each letter he picked up, turning it around in his hand (NOT putting it in his mouth!) and then setting it down.  I quietly spelled out a greeting using his name and pointed it out to him - no visible sign of interest on his part.  I talked a little about Louis Braille and the importance of touch to those who are blind.  Again, no sign of interest, and no sign of a pattern to his investigation of the letters.
                                                                     

Until I woke up and saw a very distinct line-up: ABCD sat there on the edge of the table just waiting for the next in line.  But I was immediately puzzled by his hesitation because there were several "E"s close by.  I was just about to say something when he changed from calm to his more usual state of agitation and he started flinging letters across the room.  When the table had been cleared and all letters were resting on the floor, L got up and headed to the floor himself; but he sat rather than lying down, so I calmly took the plastic bin and sat down next to him. I suggested we work together to pick them up and started the process myself by tossing a couple letters into the container.  With an ever-so-brief glance in my direction, L immediately started throwing letters to the opposite corner of the room, and wasn't satisfied until they were all in a new area of the floor.  At about this point, he added in some floor-pounding and loud yelling just for emphasis to be sure I was paying attention.  I was!

This time I waited until he was settled among the letters in their new location and sat myself down on a chair in close proximity, but without the plastic bin.  I waited a while and then stated in a calm, clear voice that I really didn't care if he ever picked up the letters.  In open defiance of  what just about every professional or parent I have ever known would suggest to me at that point ("There must be consequences;"  "He must pick up those letters before the session ends;" etc), I told L that what I really wanted was for him to help me understand why the letters are important to him and what the message is in the act of throwing them.    I made the assumption that something was making him mad and there might be something he wants people in his life to know.  Reaching for the iPad, I typed a sentence starter: I GET SO MAD BECAUSE. . . .   I used the voice output on the device to speak these words several times, and I waited.

It seemed to take forever, but was probably less than five minutes until he got up from the floor and sat on a chair.  I moved close to him, held out the iPad and extended my hand to provide support whenever he was ready.  He rested his hand in mine and finished the sentence . . . people think i dont know anything.

We finished our session on the iPad, with him eagerly giving me permission to share the story.  He left the room quietly with his staff worker for the day, and I picked up the letters with a smile in my heart.  Just minutes later, L entered the office area where I was sharing the story with two of his other workers and I let him know what we are discussing.  L's huge grin confirmed the message to all of us.

Yes, L knows much more than we might have ever guessed, and so do many, many other non-speaking individuals who have been underestimated and misunderstood all their lives.     Try a different way and you might begin to see what they've been trying so desperately to tell us all this time.