[KernJetenue]

Great! I love your new avatar, by the way! And I've been trying to practise the essence of your signature ever since you put it up. It's great wisdom.

Anyway ...

I just wanted to say something about my experience as a shaman with autism.

It is that in labelling we can sometimes marginalise these children in a negative way. I think what this book highlights is that fact, and how when this negative marginalisation is removed, the child can be appreciated for specialness and unique qualities that he has.

In our society, because the race to make big bucks is so fast, anything that doesn't easily and neatly slot into that well-oiled machine is pushed out to the margins and alienated. It just doesn't fit in anywhere, so we think.

However, one of my shaman teachers once told me about an African tribe that he stayed with, where a boy who we would call autistic was actually looked up to and included in all the meetings of the Elders. The reason for this was his special skills with numbers (anyone who has seen the Dustin Hoffman movie Rainman will know what I mean). So a way had been found to integrate him into the tribe and to show him that he was a valued member of it. Because of this, there were no behavioural difficulties and he blended in.