Help
Sign In
amanda baggs
October 2009 
Insights about Autism - In My Language ~ Amanda Baggs
Posted on Sep 26th, 2008
by 
Joy Bringer
Joy Bringer
Meet Amanda Braggs. An astounding person who has surprised, inspired and amazed me in sooo many ways and has opened my mind and heart to comprehend better what it is to be autistic and brought so many insights as how we could be communicating and interacting so much better altogether. I think you will be amazed too! (Thanks to Darin/Doolang for starting all this)
In My Language
Learn more about Amanda and her incredible interests and intelligence directly from her blog - http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/
In Amanda's own words:
" I am a non-speaking physically disabled and autistic woman who’s lived in institutions, whose income comes from a disability check, and whose services are funded by the state. I am and have been exactly the sort of person who is meant when these awful concepts are used. I and the people I know and love are people, not burdens and ballast and wastes of space and money. All these ideas do is dehumanize us, and in contrasting these words with my real life I hope to show how wrong they are when applied to anyone.
This blog is about assorted ideas, but most will have something to do with human rights, autistic liberation, disability rights, and so forth."
This is Amanda's public youtube channel Silentmiaow, which mostly contains videos made about autistic liberation and disability rights, for the autistic self-advocacy website autistics.org. It also contains a few more personal videos of her. Videos are captioned (ever since she learned how to do it) because, aside from considerations about making things as accessible as possible, several of her blog readers are deaf or hard of hearing.
Amanda also co-created a video with Dave Spicer - A Way of Describing Autism, where they compare the different forms of autism with great analogies with stones and their shapes, forms and qualities.
"Dave Spicer's analogy of autistic people to different kinds of unusual rocks. (He wrote the words, I did the video. Used his words with his written permission."
Also see Amanda's Happy Dance and her own comment on it:
"This video is a response to "Exuberance" by ShinyMetalBrain. The happy dance I always want to do when I'm in a really good mood. And how I couldn't be trained out of it by a guy determined to pathologize it. And yes this was filmed while IN that flappy/bouncy sort of mood.
One of Amanda's favorite quotes and now among mine too:
You keep finding all the reasons to close the door
You keep minding that we’re too many to ignore
We may seem in the gutter from up there where you are
Maybe you don’t know we still see the same stars
— Donna Williams, from the song “Beautiful Behavioural Mutations” on the album Mutation
Thank YOU Amanda! You inspire and change us in and out by amazing example. We would love to see you present your ideas widely and even at conferences like TED.com so that larger influential audiences and people with the a desire and ability to make change can be deeply impacted and moved to action by your ideas and being!
Access: Public
Oh Darina, Darina, Darina =)
Thank You so much for blogging this and pointing it out to me.
My daughter “sang” along with Amanda. They speak the same language! :-D
I KNEW there were brilliant beings. Sooo inspiring and wonderful…sooooo hopeful and important to realize how Judged these precious souls are. She is right. WE don't understand the Whole of it!
Thank You soooo much me love! Will definitely be following her! Muah!!!~~~<3
Thank you!!! We do not have a real voice. We function differently which MUST equate to wrong, bad, and needing to be made into robots. The things we can hear, see, smell, and feel!!!!
This is very inspirational. Thank you for sharing this. To move beyond labels into honoring the hearts & souls of all people is so important.
Ariela, Ariela, Ariela,
Children never cease to surprise and teach us in the most amazing ways. I am so happy to have caused that connection and 'singing'! And how specious - special AND precious these children, girls and women ALL are. We can only wonder and be amazed at their natural way of expressing and sharing themselves in the beautiful and open way they do and learn from them. I am in awe and truly inspired by all this unfolding and synchronicities happening.Thank YOU for sharing the Rainman blog series in your blog that sparked this one.
Thank YOU BOTH Elisa and Kathy for your wonderful comments. Yes honoring each other, bodies, minds and souls and connecting heart to heart beyond labels and judgement is the way to go and BE indeed. And our senses esp, when used in synaesthetic and innovative way the way Amanda does, will only takes us further and deeper in this new exploration and better way of connecting, interacting and communicating! What times ahead of us!
Hi Joy Bringer, I'm Alluvja and came here through Ariela's blog. Thank you SO much for posting this clip of Amanda, I just looked at at and am touched beyond words.
So here I am, considered a reasonable intelligent person with a pretty good articulation in languages, even in English a language not my native tongue, and what do i feel when I first looked at the video, even before hearing her text ? I listened to her sounds and thought O my God that is just like me , these sounds, this singing, like a vibrational communication and expression inside with the essence of your being. I love words, I love poetry but I also believe they are already somewhat a limitation of the primal feeling and expression of Self. Somehow pure sound to me lies closer to the Being. I am literally touched beyond words because Amanda has just shown me something I resonate with and she is teaching me that it is not crazy, just a different language…
Thank You Amanda, I will defenitely go and read more of your blogs, thank you Joy Bringer for introducing this wonderful Being.
Love,
Alluvja
Dearest Darina and friends gathered here,
I'd like to share with you someone I absolutely adore, who touched me to my core. (hey it rhymes, lol)…. I have his book, “Kiss of God -The Wisdom of a Silent Child”…may I introduce to you Marshall Stewart Ball.
His website: http://www.marshallball.com/
I am so inspired by him (and his parents!)…his letters and poetry to people like the Beloved Princess Diana and Mother Teresa. Just so pure and simplistic and innately beautiful.
I am in deepest grattitude for the advent of the Internet and technology which enables these Specious Beings the ability to communicate the Awesome Wisdom they hold. Finally, FINALLY they can be heard. (yes, things have to be translated into this, our limited language so that we can understand, lol, but it's a start). We REALLY can NO LONGER judge them as lesser, as non-persons, as dumb, challenged or stupid!!! (umm…not that I ever have :-D)
All of them, All of Us…have Gifts to impart.
“To judge another is to judge God.” ~Marshall Stewart Ball
Thanks Ariela! Marshall is amazing. Aren't we all at times? He learned to write through an alphabet board and the dedicated patience of his friends and family who worked with him to help him learn how to use it. It's a matter of finding a means for expression, of finding a channel for the soul to flow through…Marshal wrote this poem in 3rd Grade:
I Have a Dream
for my community…
I have a dream for my community that
all righteous fine people will see
that quarreling is not a just way
to solve problems.
for my country…
My dream is that quiet will arrive
in the government for a little while
and the people can govern.
for the world…
The dream I have for the world
is that all the children will be happy
and all the people will be kind to them.
3rd Grade School project
Marshall Ball
I have another story from this uncharted interior realm we are only just beginning to explore. This time from Dan Ellsey who has cerebral palsy, and yet is able to compose and perform beautiful music through the help of technology adapted specifically to his abilities, his personal mode of expression which happens to be facial gestures.
Here is a selection of music composed by Dan Ellsey:
http://www.media.mit.edu/hyperins/projects/sounds/tewksbury-dan.mp3
Here's an article about him in the Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/articles/2007/10/29/the_power_of_music/
It took many people working together to develop this potential of expression for Dan and now others. The first bit of the video discusses all the technology and development which allowed this amazing feat to happen and opened up to view a world which at first glance few of us would have even thought existed. The end of the video is the performance which culminates in a standing ovation.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/246
One of the main components was this software which allows people to use colors and lines and drawings to create music.
http://www.hyperscore.com/
I wonder what new ways we will come up with to express ourselves in the future and how much that will bring us together….
Thank YOU Alluvja, Ariela & DarLinG for each of your messages is such a pure truth & Joy to read and share. Amanda, Marshall and Dan are each so amazing and Specious as in special AND precious in the way they experience and express the world within and without and we can only feel blessed to be able to understand, resonate and even respond in our usual and unusual ways, for we ca only open and learn from them what it is to connect in these new and beautiful ways that they are showing us with such skills and grace.
I had to post this message/poem which I found on Amanda's blog where it was submitted by its author Shannon Barnes. I will not even try to comment for it says it all…
WHAT AUTISM IS
By: Shannon Barnes
Autsim is the reason i do not process or use information the same as others do.
Autism is the reason my sensory systems are very sensitive and cross-wired…..this being, my hearing, touch, vision, taste, and smell.
Autism is the rason why i have trouble relating to people, making friends, ect.
Autism is why i have trouble communicating smooth and easy without the aide of a computer.
Autism is why i can say words, but not always communicate
Autism is what makes me able to fling myself on the floor kicking and screaming, having a class A tantrum even when i am 36 years old.
Autism is why taking in simple daily life things can cause me to stress out and overload.
Autism is how i am so good at and enjoy doing repetitive tasks and behaviors.
Autism is what makes me stimulate, relax, focus, and pleasure from rocking, flapping, making vocal sounds, rubbing, bouncing, and repeating or listening to things over and over.
Autism is why i am really good at certain things but not others.
Autism is what makes me like a young child with child interests, manners, and expressions. but at the same time i possess great knowledge, special gifts, skills and wisdom.
Autism is the reason i have special gifts that most normals dont have.
Autism is why i can’t make eye contact, or remember who people are, or even control my own facial expressions and movements.
Autism is why i still need a constant security object…always an unusual object that i am attached to and need with me at all times.
Autism is why i naturally put my fingers and other objects in my mouth for various reasons from sensory input to comfort needs.
Autism is why i explore the world and things around me in unique ways compared to most people.
Autism is why i take in feelings of others, and how i express my feelings and emotions different then the normals do.
Autism is what causes me to scream and cry when i have had ”’too much””
Autism is why i find most physical contact overwhelming and some even painful….but a very light, gentle touch or rub, i find extreme pleasure and calmness in.
Autism is the reason the things i like to do, eat, see, how i talk and act….all might seem different or even weird to you.
Autism is many things, it is very complex
Autism makes me stand out to some, autism makes me different from the rest.
Autism is not normal ? but it is to me , and whos to say what is and isnt normal.
Autism is me, it is special and unique
Autism is awsome.
I am unique and awsome.
“…and whos to say what is and isnt normal”
exaaaaaaaaaaaaaactly!!!