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On a Thursday afternoon I work with a gentleman with a severe learning difficulty who is both deaf and blind.
He has been this way from birth. He has no speech and only understands a few signs that he has developed over the years. He can walk and makes his needs known by tantrum, trial and error. He also can display some very challenging behaviours.
There are many questions that go through my mind when considering his world and how he perceives reality.
What is his understanding of his own identity?
What is his perception of time and the world in general?
What does his inner voice sound like without language?
He does laugh and cry and show emotions, so what does he value?
When he sleeps does he dream and what does he see and hear?
There are many more questions than answers in relation to this chap, I do have my own thoughts on the matter but I am interested your comments.
On a Thursday afternoon I work with a gentleman with a severe learning difficulty who is both deaf and blind.
He has been this way from birth. He has no speech and only understands a few signs that he has developed over the years. He can walk and makes his needs known by tantrum, trial and error. He also can display some very challenging behaviours.
There are many questions that go through my mind when considering his world and how he perceives reality.
What is his understanding of his own identity?
What is his perception of time and the world in general?
What does his inner voice sound like without language?
He does laugh and cry and show emotions, so what does he value?
When he sleeps does he dream and what does he see and hear?
There are many more questions than answers in relation to this chap, I do have my own thoughts on the matter but I am interested your comments.
Interesting questions, Martin. I can’t even venture to guess. fMRI studies will eventually give us clues allowing us to make educated assumptions about some of these questions based on correlations. I have to think that much of their function is based on pure sensory perception (physical and emotional stimulus-response) mechanisms focused primarily in the moment. What that’s like to the degree of their capacities is difficult for me to understand.
Premutation alleles of the fragile X mental retardation 1 gene (FMR1) are associated with the risk of developing fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS), a late-onset neurodegenerative disorder that involves neuropsychiatric problems and executive and memory deficits. Although abnormal elevation of FMR1 mRNA has been proposed to underlie these deficits, it remains unknown which brain regions are affected by the disease process of FXTAS and genetic molecular mechanisms associated with the FMR1 premutation. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify deficient neural substrates responsible for altered executive and memory functions in some FMR1 premutation individuals.
I’ll never forget my first volunteering venture when I was 14 years old. The assignment was to teach mildly mentally handicapped children to swim at the local Air Force base swimming pool over the course of the summer. All the volunteers were assigned trainees as expected but I was partnered with a 30+ year old severely handicapped mongoloid gentleman who didn’t respond. While everyone else was making progress, laughing, communicating and having fun with their young charges, I was having the most difficult time trying to even get through and elicit any type of response from this gentleman. I was getting rather persistent with trying to get him to “pay attention” and mimic my arm movements in a swimming motion until he got angry and took a swing at me, but missed. From that point on I didn’t try to push him.
I discovered that he liked to sink underwater Indian style (cross-legged and arms overlapped in front of his chest) and just sit at the bottom of the pool blowing bubbles until he had to rise to the top for air. I just started copying him, doing the same thing at the same time in front of him. I couldn’t even tell if he knew I was even there. I would still try talking to him and showing him the over-arm swimming motions but only limitedly and briefly. Of course, I felt like a total failure. All the others had learned to swim.
To my surprise and satisfaction, his elderly father was very impressed and thankful because by the end of the course, he made the over-arm swimming motions in the pool, shook my hand and was able to repeat my name, the most, his father said, anyone usually accomplished with him. I think questions such as yours must have crossed my mind too at the time, perhaps condensed into one or two because I wasn’t smart enough to specify: what is going on and what is it like?
I discovered that he liked to sink underwater Indian style (cross-legged and arms overlapped in front of his chest) and just sit at the bottom of the pool blowing bubbles until he had to rise to the top for air. I just started copying him, doing the same thing at the same time in front of him. I couldn’t even tell if he knew I was even there. I would still try talking to him and showing him the over-arm swimming motions but only limitedly and briefly. Of course, I felt like a total failure. All the others had learned to swim.
To my surprise and satisfaction, his elderly father was very impressed and thankful because by the end of the course, he made the over-arm swimming motions in the pool, shook my hand and was able to repeat my name, the most, his father said, anyone usually accomplished with him. I think questions such as yours must have crossed my mind too at the time, perhaps condensed into one or two because I wasn’t smart enough to specify: what is going on and what is it like?
Very good Ans, you may not have realised at the time, but what you were doing is called “Intensive Interaction Technique” , it is in fact exactly what we do to begin a rapport with most people who are autistic and won’t communicate, in simple terms your speaking their language by mimicking their actions and noises.
About my questions, I think my gentleman has no understanding of time, he correlates a day in his life more with tasks, “once I have done this I do that”, if you mess with the order of his day he gets upset, but if you slow tasks down or speed them up depending upon “our” time schedule he has no problem.
The question of his inner voice and identity have me stumped, he can’t fit into the models we have for our own PI or even how we tend to converse with ourselves mentally.
I just started copying him, doing the same thing at the same time in front of him ...
Very cool, man! ... very cool!
MARTIN UK - 02 February 2012 12:11 PM
Very good Ans, you may not have realised at the time, but what you were doing is called “Intensive Interaction Technique” , it is in fact exactly what we do to begin a rapport with most people who are autistic and won’t communicate, in simple terms your speaking their language by mimicking their actions and noises.
Dunno if there’s a corresponding term attached to it (other than imitation, obviously), but imitating mannerisms and habits to a subtle degree works very effectively on standard issue people too. Gotta be subtle though. Make it too obvious and it’ll backfire on you, real fast.
I just started copying him, doing the same thing at the same time in front of him ...
Very cool, man! ... very cool!
MARTIN UK - 02 February 2012 12:11 PM
Very good Ans, you may not have realised at the time, but what you were doing is called “Intensive Interaction Technique” , it is in fact exactly what we do to begin a rapport with most people who are autistic and won’t communicate, in simple terms your speaking their language by mimicking their actions and noises.
Dunno if there’s a corresponding term attached to it (other than imitation, obviously), but imitating mannerisms and habits to a subtle degree works very effectively on standard issue people too. Gotta be subtle though. Make it too obvious and it’ll backfire on you, real fast.
Yup, your right Skep, we also do it to babies all the time, we gurgle and blink and smile etc, it’s a natural response that encourages very basic communication.
It is sometimes called “mirroring” too.
I researched Helen Keller extensively when writing my MA thesis on language acquisition. ALthough she lost her sight and hearing at age two when she had already begun to grasp the basics of communication, by the time she was 7 she had almost completely lost her ability to make lingusitic sense out of human behaviour. She claims, in her book about that experience, that she had no sense of self and that life was an utterly confusing, bewildering, and incomprehensible series of events. She does recall that one “job” she had was gathering eggs in the evening and when the signal of cupping two hands together was given, she knew that it meant “egg gathering” and off she would go. She also recalls that the calmness of being held by her mother or doing a known task like picking eggs were the only moments when the confusion and madness subsided and she felt something like what she later refer to as being human.
It was the acquisition of language that finally brought her life into focus and she could finally make sense out of what had previously been incomprehensible to her. It’s important to point out that human behaviour is so immersed in “unnatural” activities based on manners, habits, and expectations, that for a non-linguistic creature nothing makes sense (i.e., sitting around a table to eat, using certain tools, dressing up in a particular way, behaving couteously in the presence of others, etc.). We take these thing for granted, but these are all based on conventions and communicative agreements that non-linguistic beings have no way to understand.
I researched Helen Keller extensively when writing my MA thesis on language acquisition. ALthough she lost her sight and hearing at age two when she had already begun to grasp the basics of communication, by the time she was 7 she had almost completely lost her ability to make lingusitic sense out of human behaviour. She claims, in her book about that experience, that she had no sense of self and that life was an utterly confusing, bewildering, and incomprehensible series of events. She does recall that one “job” she had was gathering eggs in the evening and when the signal of cupping two hands together was given, she knew that it meant “egg gathering” and off she would go. She also recalls that the calmness of being held by her mother or doing a known task like picking eggs were the only moments when the confusion and madness subsided and she felt something like what she later refer to as being human.
It was the acquisition of language that finally brought her life into focus and she could finally make sense out of what had previously been incomprehensible to her. It’s important to point out that human behaviour is so immersed in “unnatural” activities based on manners, habits, and expectations, that for a non-linguistic creature nothing makes sense (i.e., sitting around a table to eat, using certain tools, dressing up in a particular way, behaving couteously in the presence of others, etc.). We take these thing for granted, but these are all based on conventions and communicative agreements that non-linguistic beings have no way to understand.
This seems familiar from what I can tell, the confusion that seems to come from omitting one of these signals or missing a task, sends this chap into a wild fury, consolation in routine appears to be lifes purpose and by the sounds of it his own identity must be near to non existent.
Thanks CanZen.
Wow, no visual nor auditory cues. Tactile and propreoception only. Studies of sensory-deprivation suggest one’s sense of self or PI, at least in otherwise normal people re sensory functioning, gets real shaky quite fast, often with a lot agitation. Really hard to imagine what this man’s sense of self, or others, would be.
Wow, no visual nor auditory cues. Tactile and propreoception only. Studies of sensory-deprivation suggest one’s sense of self or PI, at least in otherwise normal people re sensory functioning, gets real shaky quite fast, often with a lot agitation. Really hard to imagine what this man’s sense of self, or others, would be.
I know Dennis it’s hard to comprehend.
What I have noticed is that when I have him in my care, he often will laugh as I introduce myself to him, it must be a feeling of confirmation for him, I do this by putting his hand on my hair at the back where it it spiky, he would then leans forward and smell me, now just the touch seems to be enough.
This is the cue to him I believe that it is the day where he does these things…If I ever have him on a different day, which can sometimes happen, I must do the tasks we do on a Thursday, I learned this at my own cost, a swift kick in the shins. So to him I am not Martin, I am the smell touch and tasks of Thursday with all its trimmings.
Wow, no visual nor auditory cues. Tactile and propreoception only. Studies of sensory-deprivation suggest one’s sense of self or PI, at least in otherwise normal people re sensory functioning, gets real shaky quite fast, often with a lot agitation. Really hard to imagine what this man’s sense of self, or others, would be.
I know Dennis it’s hard to comprehend.
What I have noticed is that when I have him in my care, he often will laugh as I introduce myself to him, it must be a feeling of confirmation for him, I do this by putting his hand on my hair at the back where it it spiky, he would then leans forward and smell me, now just the touch seems to be enough.
This is the cue to him I believe that it is the day where he does these things…If I ever have him on a different day, which can sometimes happen, I must do the tasks we do on a Thursday, I learned this at my own cost, a swift kick in the shins. So to him I am not Martin, I am the smell touch and tasks of Thursday with all its trimmings.
Fascinating. Absent any shared language…..Really challenging. If he has tactile, wonder just musing as I sit here if it is possible to link up a Morse code type touch pattern with your presence and/or stimuli he can receive.
Wow, no visual nor auditory cues. Tactile and propreoception only. Studies of sensory-deprivation suggest one’s sense of self or PI, at least in otherwise normal people re sensory functioning, gets real shaky quite fast, often with a lot agitation. Really hard to imagine what this man’s sense of self, or others, would be.
I know Dennis it’s hard to comprehend.
What I have noticed is that when I have him in my care, he often will laugh as I introduce myself to him, it must be a feeling of confirmation for him, I do this by putting his hand on my hair at the back where it it spiky, he would then leans forward and smell me, now just the touch seems to be enough.
This is the cue to him I believe that it is the day where he does these things…If I ever have him on a different day, which can sometimes happen, I must do the tasks we do on a Thursday, I learned this at my own cost, a swift kick in the shins. So to him I am not Martin, I am the smell touch and tasks of Thursday with all its trimmings.
Fascinating. Absent any shared language…..Really challenging. If he has tactile, wonder just musing as I sit here if it is possible to link up a Morse code type touch pattern with your presence and/or stimuli he can receive.
He can understand certain hand over hand gestures, one for the toilet, for drink or walk, but he associates these with the task itself we think, being deaf blind from birth and having a learning difficulty means he has nothing really to relate anything more complex signs or indications to. It seems all too abstract for him to comprehend really.
Besides a very difficult clinical issue, this strikes me as an issue for how, and on what basis, to establish some sort of two-way communication with a sentient person. If impaired. I have zero expertise here, to be clear. There I’d think must be some common-meaning, or shared meaning to some degree, as to what some stimuli associates to. E.g. three finger taps on left wrist associates to some consequent event (food, hugs, hot, cold, whatever he can sense). If he lacks cognitive capacity, these will be limited. As much if not more of a challenge to you than him.
So to him I am not Martin, I am the smell touch and tasks of Thursday with all its trimmings.
That is exactly what Keller described her “previous” life as, completely based on actions or activities. People, as individuals, don’t exist in their world, just the actions associated with the presence of certain persons, just as you describe Martin. Her “sign” for ‘mother’ was the stroking of her right forearm with her left hand, but later on when she learned to speak Keller confessed that she had no idea of a person like a mother, but that stroking her right forearm was really an expression of love or comfort or warmth or softness or some kind of experience of all these feelings combined, that was most powerfully experienced in the arms of her mother. I mean, if you just reach over and stroke your right forearm with your left hand you will know what it means - as a self-enclosed experience.
So to him I am not Martin, I am the smell touch and tasks of Thursday with all its trimmings.
That is exactly what Keller described her “previous” life as, completely based on actions or activities. People, as individuals, don’t exist in their world, just the actions associated with the presence of certain persons, just as you describe Martin. Her “sign” for ‘mother’ was the stroking of her right forearm with her left hand, but later on when she learned to speak Keller confessed that she had no idea of a person like a mother, but that stroking her right forearm was really an expression of love or comfort or warmth or softness or some kind of experience of all these feelings combined, that was most powerfully experienced in the arms of her mother. I mean, if you just reach over and stroke your right forearm with your left hand you will know what it means - as a self-enclosed experience.
It sounds to me like I could really benefit from reading about Helen Keller, it might help me understand my man a bit better, most of the ways I work with him are based on my own deductions which thanks to both you CanZen and Dennis have been more or less confirmed.
I do work with another man who gradually lost his sense of sight and hearing and he can use sign language, read Braille, in fact he gets along really well all things considered. So I think the “from birth” fact is most prominent in the lack of abilities and comprehension, one has nothing to compare or relate to, how would you describe to such a person the Brooklyn Bridge? With great difficulty I would imagine…
This is fascinating Martin, I’m impressed by your even being able to work with this man (something that would drive me up a wall really fast). What some of the comments here suggest is the importance of sequential order in structuring life. I know normal people who are quite reliant on ordering the tasks of the day in a familiar way, who become disturbed when things are varied. For normal people, language provides a way of keeping order and establishing an identity through internal narrative but when you take that away falling back on structured tasks may be the only thing there is available.
This is fascinating Martin, I’m impressed by your even being able to work with this man (something that would drive me up a wall really fast). What some of the comments here suggest is the importance of sequential order in structuring life. I know normal people who are quite reliant on ordering the tasks of the day in a familiar way, who become disturbed when things are varied. For normal people, language provides a way of keeping order and establishing an identity through internal narrative but when you take that away falling back on structured tasks may be the only thing there is available.
Yes Burt, that’s spot on. He is such an interesting guy to work with, to try and understand how he ticks.
Whenever we have an interesting thread on here about Identity or narratives, I always think of him and wonder how it applies. Even Nhojs stuff about Mr Hippo and his friends, just blows my mind when I try to apply it to this chap.
Your right about being patient too, my wife says I am the most patient and unruffled person she knows, all down to working with people like this I reckon.
What is really hard, since it is all based on inference, is to get an idea how he perceives and processes his world, and to try and “tap in” to his system, rather than trying to impose your’s. Remember “Johnny got his gun?” Google it if not.
Serious question, is there a point in keeping people like that alive? We would put down a dog if keeping it alive required so much effort, and I see no reason to believe that this man has more consciousness than a dog. The idea that the lives of humans, even ones who can’t experience the world around them, are “sacred”, whereas the lives of animals aren’t, seems unsupportable and counter-scientific.
Incidentally, it’s not surprising that this Martin fellow is from the UK. In the UK they would keep someone alive even if his existence was one of the uttermost torture. Appearing nice and tolerant and “understanding of the needs of vulnerable people” is more of a priority in that wretched country than reducing suffering.
What is really hard, since it is all based on inference, is to get an idea how he perceives and processes his world, and to try and “tap in” to his system, rather than trying to impose your’s. Remember “Johnny got his gun?” Google it if not.
Nice way of putting it Dennis “tap in” to his system. I read that book last summer and what a treat that was, so brilliant and so definitely ahead of its time.
It does show the deperation of a creature needing to make “sense” of the world, but the difference is that Joe’s world once made literal sense and he still retains the internal language with which to structure his persistent thoughts. But on the topic of “making sense” out of the world, it’s amazing how months or years into the solitude of his entrapment he finally realizes that the world is speaking to him in ways he just wasn’t cognizant of before. Like the sun’s rays passing over that patch of skin on his neck and warming it for long minutes was, in effect, the sun telling Joe where it was and thus informing him of the daily passage of regular time. Amazing sensibility. Of course, imagine that after years of not being able to tell the difference between night and day, and to suddently be made aware of it, and then, say the administration decided to move Joe into another room . . . naturally that would cause him to go insane or at least ballistic internally. To have your sense of reality destroyed by some arbitrary action on someone else’s part. Maybe that’s how those without a language feel when their structured, predictable existence is thrown into confusion by actions out of their control? AHHHH!!
What is really hard, since it is all based on inference, is to get an idea how he perceives and processes his world, and to try and “tap in” to his system, rather than trying to impose your’s. Remember “Johnny got his gun?” Google it if not.
Nice way of putting it Dennis “tap in” to his system. I read that book last summer and what a treat that was, so brilliant and so definitely ahead of its time.
It does show the deperation of a creature needing to make “sense” of the world, but the difference is that Joe’s world once made literal sense and he still retains the internal language with which to structure his persistent thoughts. But on the topic of “making sense” out of the world, it’s amazing how months or years into the solitude of his entrapment he finally realizes that the world is speaking to him in ways he just wasn’t cognizant of before. Like the sun’s rays passing over that patch of skin on his neck and warming it for long minutes was, in effect, the sun telling Joe where it was and thus informing him of the daily passage of regular time. Amazing sensibility. Of course, imagine that after years of not being able to tell the difference between night and day, and to suddently be made aware of it, and then, say the administration decided to move Joe into another room . . . naturally that would cause him to go insane or at least ballistic internally. To have your sense of reality destroyed by some arbitrary action on someone else’s part. Maybe that’s how those without a language feel when their structured, predictable existence is thrown into confusion by actions out of their control? AHHHH!!
On a less dramatic but more common example, people in Nursing Homes in which there’s less obvious changes from day to day, often get “confused” as to day, world events, etc., because of stimuli not changing so much. Our sense of time is linked to changes. I’m retired, and am usually at home; have noted sometimes,losing tarck of what day it is—they’re all the same. Marker of the week is garbage day.
What is really hard, since it is all based on inference, is to get an idea how he perceives and processes his world, and to try and “tap in” to his system, rather than trying to impose your’s. Remember “Johnny got his gun?” Google it if not.
Nice way of putting it Dennis “tap in” to his system. I read that book last summer and what a treat that was, so brilliant and so definitely ahead of its time.
It does show the deperation of a creature needing to make “sense” of the world, but the difference is that Joe’s world once made literal sense and he still retains the internal language with which to structure his persistent thoughts. But on the topic of “making sense” out of the world, it’s amazing how months or years into the solitude of his entrapment he finally realizes that the world is speaking to him in ways he just wasn’t cognizant of before. Like the sun’s rays passing over that patch of skin on his neck and warming it for long minutes was, in effect, the sun telling Joe where it was and thus informing him of the daily passage of regular time. Amazing sensibility. Of course, imagine that after years of not being able to tell the difference between night and day, and to suddently be made aware of it, and then, say the administration decided to move Joe into another room . . . naturally that would cause him to go insane or at least ballistic internally. To have your sense of reality destroyed by some arbitrary action on someone else’s part. Maybe that’s how those without a language feel when their structured, predictable existence is thrown into confusion by actions out of their control? AHHHH!!
It’s exactly what happens when you change anything major, we can only guess at what it feels like to have your world view destroyed. This often happens when families are offered respite care, quite often the person will stop eating and smear shit etc. Real Fun!!
Something occurring to me (ought to have thought of this before) has to do with our orienting instinct: we automatically attempt to orient ourselves in our environment and find out where we are and what we need to do. When that instinct is threatened we react with lots of panic. Think of yourself being disoriented and dumped in a dark room where you can’t see and don’t know where you are or where the furniture is or such. Your client must find great comfort when you show up, knows it’s you, and what is going to take place during the day.
I just read through this thread fo r the first time. Fascinating! Thanks for starting it, Martin. Great responses, too.
I guess we take our abilities for granted most of the time and to try to imagine the sort of world this guy lives in is very difficult. I find it almost impossible. As Burt said, it’s amazing that you can work successfully with this guy on any level. You’re a man of may talents, Martin.
Something occurring to me (ought to have thought of this before) has to do with our orienting instinct: we automatically attempt to orient ourselves in our environment and find out where we are and what we need to do. When that instinct is threatened we react with lots of panic. Think of yourself being disoriented and dumped in a dark room where you can’t see and don’t know where you are or where the furniture is or such. Your client must find great comfort when you show up, knows it’s you, and what is going to take place during the day.
It seems to me severe Alzheimer’s patients are in worse shape, when you show up they don’t even know it’s you, they don’t even know it’s them, they don’t know where they are, just a jumbled set of signals with no meaning shooting through broken neural pathways, complete disorientation. They are often in highly agitated states. Finally, their internal organ systems start to shut down because they aren’t being properly regulated. Like the poem says which more reflects the onset, “Darling, do you remember the man you married? Touch me, remind me who I am.”
Rob:- I just read through this thread fo r the first time. Fascinating! Thanks for starting it, Martin. Great responses, too.
I guess we take our abilities for granted most of the time and to try to imagine the sort of world this guy lives in is very difficult. I find it almost impossible. As Burt said, it’s amazing that you can work successfully with this guy on any level. You’re a man of may talents, Martin.
Like we have said before, this forum has a wealth of knowledge and experience, I just thought I would tap into that and see if it threw any light on how best to help this man. We do have methods of working and we have the does and don’t set out by Clinical Psychologists, but they never bother to discuss the real issues with us plebs.
Thanks Rob, despite the opinion of some, we all have talents here and we learn who is good to ask about what. I still want Nhoj to try and work out what goes on in this blokes mind…
Answerer - 03 February 2012 09:55 PM
burt - 03 February 2012 08:42 PM
Something occurring to me (ought to have thought of this before) has to do with our orienting instinct: we automatically attempt to orient ourselves in our environment and find out where we are and what we need to do. When that instinct is threatened we react with lots of panic. Think of yourself being disoriented and dumped in a dark room where you can’t see and don’t know where you are or where the furniture is or such. Your client must find great comfort when you show up, knows it’s you, and what is going to take place during the day.
It seems to me severe Alzheimer’s patients are in worse shape, when you show up they don’t even know it’s you, they don’t even know it’s them, they don’t know where they are, just a jumbled set of signals with no meaning shooting through broken neural pathways, complete disorientation. They are often in highly agitated states. Finally, their internal organ systems start to shut down because they aren’t being properly regulated. Like the poem says which more reflects the onset, “Darling, do you remember the man you married? Touch me, remind me who I am.”
Your thoughts and ideas are a credit to you all, I have to agree that to interrupt this man and his world view has to be terrifying, I still wonder if he knows that the world is a large place? or if for him it is a small area where different objects are placed for his use and benefit, he has never had the input we have had, so we have to ignore our own perception of reality, which is very difficult I must say!
As for Alzheimers, this has to be one of the most horrid illnesses I have encountered. Early onset alzheimers is quite common among certain client groups and syndromes, those with Down’s are especially susceptible and in their case it usually advances extremely rapidly. I feel for their loved ones too, watching Son or Brother slowly disappear as they have known them, it’s so distressing.
Jay: Serious question, is there a point in keeping people like that alive? We would put down a dog if keeping it alive required so much effort, and I see no reason to believe that this man has more consciousness than a dog. The idea that the lives of humans, even ones who can’t experience the world around them, are “sacred”, whereas the lives of animals aren’t, seems unsupportable and counter-scientific.
Incidentally, it’s not surprising that this Martin fellow is from the UK. In the UK they would keep someone alive even if his existence was one of the uttermost torture. Appearing nice and tolerant and “understanding of the needs of vulnerable people” is more of a priority in that wretched country than reducing suffering.
I had a similar thought to this yesterday, but felt TERRIBLY guilty about it. I brought one of my special needs students for a psychological exam in a Dep’t of Social Services type place and the waiting room was crammed with people having varying degrees of mental disabilities. Some of them struck me as dreadfully unhappy, but maybe that’s because their routines were destroyed. There was one blind man with a huge misshapen head that had a contraption on it to hold it upright. There was a young man who had OCD and he kept trying to perfectly align all the chairs in the waiting room (which looked like a waiting room in a Motor Vehicle Office) and was frustrated when someone sat in one of them. His mom had to restrain him. He couldn’t talk, so he made a barking sound, which scared some of the other patients.
So, I had a similar thought as Jay. Wouldn’t it be better if these people were killed at birth or soon thereafter? Trust me….I didn’t WANT to have this thought. It’s Nazi-ish and disturbing.
I told my New-Age tenant about this and she informed me that highly evolved souls CHOSE to come back as handicapped people in order to teach us all lessons. That was one cool idea and I’d adopt it if I could, but…well, you know. Woo.
However, there is an element of truth in it. The people who love and take care of these people must develop virtue and wisdom beyond the ordinary. Maybe the afflicted do serve humanity by eliciting compassion from people, even casual observers like me. My immediate response was first repugnance, then reflection, then a desire to help. Not only the afflicted, but the people who were responsible for taking care of them. I ended up chatting with the mother of the barking man. After he quieted down, I smiled at her and told her I had a slight OCD problem and understood his passion for alignment. She was a wonderful lady who was very devout and dedicated to taking care of her son. She said that he only gets agitated when he leaves his home
The thing that disturbed me about Jay’s question the most is not the question itself, but the rather malicious and cynical way it was expressed.
