The Autism Spectrum

Hi,

I do not have children, but when I do, I want to delay a lot of the vaccinations and opt out of some (i.e. chicken pox). I also will never take, or have my children take, the flu vaccination (and the swine flu is ridiculous!). A lot of these vaccinations are not necessary to begin with. So many of my friends' kids, and my niece and nephew have autism.

I am starting to think that maybe there could be other contributing causes besides the vaccinations to autism (www.mercola.com -he speaks about maybe there being a link with all of the wireless radiation in our environment), but I still feel like there is a huge link with vaccinations and autism, and also that the public should take the care and education of the health of their families upon themselves. Do not blindly trust anyone (doctors, media, etc.) to make your health decisions for you. You need to investigate and figure out what the best course of action is for your family. With so much medical and drug company fraternizing, (not to mention that the media is mostly sponsored/owned by either drug companies or major stock holders of drug companies) you shouldn't blindly trust your doctor. Also, doctors are increasingly becoming more naive and ignorant about how the body works. They go by their medical education which is mostly teaching them which drugs to prescribe. They also go by a lot of medical studies which are sponsored by the drug companies.

Even if these vaccinations do not contain thimerasol, Can we talk about the lead and arsenic found in them?

I'm no expert on this subject, so please do not take my advice without doing some research on your own. Just please do not naively agree with any "professional". You are just as capable and responsible in the care of your health as they are.

Dr Oberman you stress the importance of the source of knowledge in your comments. One of those sources involved in this debate beyond the celebrities who make such easy targets, is Dr. Bernadine Healy. Dr. Healy has twice stated publicly that the epidemiological studies such as those referenced by Dr. Fombonne are not specific enough to address issues concerning vulnerable population subsets, children who might have a particular biological vulnerability to thimerosal or other vaccine ingredients. She has stated that the science is not closed on these issues. Dr. Healy also pointed out that flu vaccines, have continued to contain thimerosal, including vaccines given to pregnant women and that the mercury based thimerosal crosses the placenta.

For the above reasons Dr Healy has recommended that further lab experiments need to be done and that comparison or observational studies of existing unvaccinated and vaccinated studies should be done. Both she and Dr Julie Gerberding have both stated that should comparison studies could and should be done. Their comments have been joined by Dr. Jon Poling,a neurologist and professor, who also advocated on behalf of his daughter successfully in the vaccine court. In that case the government settled on the basis that there was evidence that "autism like symptoms' (autism disorders are defined by symptoms not by biological markers) resulted from vaccine aggravation of a pre-existing mitochondrial disorder. The government also settled on the Banks case.

Are Dr Healy, Dr Gerberding and Dr Poling trustworthy sources of knowledge in your opinion? For the record I do not believe that it has been proven that vaccines cause autism but I am very doubtful that it can be said that the epidemiological studies, many of which are conflict tainted, have decided the issues conclusively.

Dear Mr. Doherty,

I highly reccommend that you read "Autism's False Profits" by Paul Offitt. Even if you believe that there is still a question of whether vaccines have a role in autism, I think it is important to understand both sides. I am not aware of the research by Dr. Gerberding or Dr. Poling, but will certainly look into their work. I am aware of Dr. Healy's work, but disagree with her on her take of epidemiololgical studies. I believe it is exactly the correct type of study to look at this issue and is quite sensitive to any evidence for increased risk. Part of the confusion, in my opinion stems from the basis of the scientific method. In science you set up a study to test what is called the null hypothesis. Which is always that there is no difference between groups. Then you can either reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis. It is somewhat analagous to the court of law where someone can be guilty or not guilty, but never found "innocent". Similarly, science can only say that there is no evidence that vaccines cause autism, they can never say vaccines do not cause autism (just like you could never say that the person is "innocent" only that there was not enough evidence to find them guilty).

With regard to the flu vaccine, you are correct the standard flu vaccine does contain thimerosal, but you can get thimerosal free vaccines (according to my best friend who happens to be a PR representative who is in charge of the flu vaccine account). In terms of the concern about pregnant women, I will refer you to this website http://www.cdc.gov/FLU/ABOUT/QA/thimerosal.htm
which states "A study of influenza vaccination examining over 2,000 pregnant women demonstrated no adverse fetal effects associated with influenza vaccine. Case reports and limited studies indicate that pregnancy can increase the risk for serious medical complications of influenza. One study found that out of every 10,000 women in their third trimester of pregnancy during an average flu season, 25 will be hospitalized for flu related complications."

Thank you for your comment.

Dr Oberman thank you I appreciate your explanation of why you disagree with Dr. Healy but you didn't really answer the question I asked which was whether Dr. Healy, Dr. Gerberding and Dr Jon Poling are trustworthy sources of knowledge.

Dr. Healy, as I am sure you know, is a Harvard and Johns Hopkins educated physician and cardiologist and a former head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).She has been a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins, professor and dean of the College of Medicine and Public Health at the Ohio State University, and served as president of the American Red Cross.

Dr. Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H.is an American infectious disease expert and the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Before becoming CDC Director and ATSDR Administrator, Gerberding was Acting Deputy Director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), where she played a major role in leading CDC's response to the anthrax bioterrorism events of 2001. In an interview with Kent Heckenlively she stated in the context of vaccine autism issues that comparison studies of existing vaccinated and unvaccinated populations could and should be done.

Dr. Jon Poling MD PhD is a neurologistCertified in MRI/CT interpretation, American Society of Neuroimaging 2006-present
# Diplomate, American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine 2004-present
# Board Certified, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology 2002-present
# Georgia License #050051 2001-present
# Maryland License #D00560401 (inactive status) 2000-2001

Dr Poling is currently employed as Medical Director, Athens Regional Medical Center Apheresis Unit 2002-present.

He was successful in advancing his daughters vaccine autism claim which the government settled and he has called for research on environmental factors generally and vaccine autism issues specifically.

Again I appreciate that you disagree with Dr Healy on scientific method but surely you would agree that she, Dr Gerberding and Dr Poling are trustworthy sources?

And I assume you know that in addition to his many accomplishments Dr Offit is a multimillionaire as a result of his vaccine patents? is that an objective source in your view?

I hope you don't mind this further reply to your answer and I thank you for your time and attention.

The difference between Jenny Mccarthy and an Autistic child is Mccarthy can hide her bipolar disorder an Autistic can't hide their disorder. Sincerely,David

I think it's interesting that you say you don't support the Jenny McCarthy body count web site, but you think it's interesting. This is basically the same as supporting it - you are directing your readers to it. Dr. Offit, who you mention repeatedly, tries to influence parents to vaccinate as much as Jenny influences parents not to. Would you also find a web site listing deaths from vaccine injuires as a Paul Offit body count? I doubt it.

The CDC itself says that "last year in the United States, the number of reported adverse events associated with vaccination was greater than the number of reported cases of vaccine-preventable disease." If less people are vaccinating, shouldn't the opposite be true?

I appreciate your piece, but you advise others in your comments that while Bernadine Healy and others are intelligent, they are not experts in the field. Yet, we are to take comfort in the writings of a vaccine patenter and your best friend in big pharma marketing? Meanwhile, Paul Offit is sitting in his new six million dollar beach house while millions of families are struggling to pay for their vaccine-injured kids' therapy and supplements. Forgive me if I don't think the verdict is in...

Sorry to go off-topic, but I was wondering what is known/speculated about Aspergers/autism and sleep?
Are there any differences between an autistic brain and a normal brain when it comes to being awake and being asleep?
Does sleep make any difference to brain plasticity?

The following “big picture” is essential to this entire discussion.

The NUMEROUS vaccines are biologically active, and yet they are unnatural and foreign to the body. So when the body THEN reacts as if it is infected with disease (via immune responses/antibodies), is it not diseased/ill/damaged/infected to some extent? All of these NUMEROUS and altered/unnatural immune responses/vaccinations will eventually compromise our immune function. The answer is common sense and simple, and there is no way around this.

Also consider: The vaccines (viruses and bacteria) are altered and unnatural; AND the disease/infection process is fundamentally different as well (via injection). This is all very significant, in keeping with everything else that can be/has been said.Understanding that autism meets the definition of a disintegration and contraction of being and experience is very helpful in understanding, preventing, and treating this disorder. The increasing numbers of vaccines and the rising rates of disorders involving mind/emotion/body are of very serious concern.

The NUMEROUS vaccines are biologically active, and yet they are unnatural and foreign to the body. So when the body THEN reacts as if it is infected with disease (via immune responses/antibodies), is it not diseased/ill/damaged/infected to some extent? Also consider, all of these NUMEROUS and altered/unnatural immune responses/vaccinations will eventually compromise our immune function. Life is fragile, as it is delicately and precisely regulated and balanced. Artificially reconfigured/replaced sensory experience (including pollution, toxins, processed foods, television, vaccines, etc., etc.) is making us increasingly unconscious and reactive in various and unpredictable ways. We are becoming more inanimate.

The reconfiguration, replacement, and loss of sensory experience (and feeling) includes toxins, vaccines, lack of exercise, processed foods, television, etc., etc. This is making us increasingly unconscious and reactive in various and unpredictable ways; and this involves sensory processing disorders as well.

Autism is a disintegration, contraction, and detachment of being and experience (including consciousness). This also meets the definition/description of anxiety, depression, cancer, obesity, sleep disorders, and the experience of television. The NUMEROUS vaccines are biologically active, and yet they are unnatural and foreign to the body. So when the body THEN reacts as if it is infected with disease (via immune responses/antibodies), is it not diseased/ill/damaged/infected to some extent? Moreover, all of these NUMEROUS and altered/unnatural immune responses/vaccinations will eventually compromise our immune function, and worse. We are becoming more inanimate. The natural and integrated extensiveness of being and experience go hand in hand, as the disintegration, contraction, and detachment of being and experience go hand in hand as well. Author Frank Martin DiMeglio

The great revelation of art (including music) is that the world requires and involves man; although science has been slow to recognize this; for the danger of technology is that it is creating a world of experience that is toxic and foreign to the self where man is neither truly involved nor required. By pervasively and fundamentally changing our various sensory experiences (including the range of feeling thereof), the self’s ability to represent and form a consistent, comprehensive, and relatively extensive approximation of sense is being compromised; whereby sense and feeling [increasingly] cannot be properly experienced, utilized, and understood as the expression and extension of the self’s desire; and it is not only our loss of language that we face. (Consciousness and language involve the ability to represent, form, and experience comprehensive approximations of experience in general; and this includes art and music as well.) The reconfiguration (i.e., disintegration, alteration, reduction, and/or replacement) of sensory experience in general (including range of feeling) is progressively involving a disintegration and contraction of being and experience (including thought). This is evident in (and includes) sleep disorders, depression, anxiety, autism, obesity, and the experience of television. (Clearly, obesity involves a disintegration, contraction, and detachment of being/experience; and it is associated with increased risk of death from all causes.)

Moreover, there is no true difference between what is foreign/unnatural and toxic. Artificially reconfigured sensory experience (including pollution, processed foods, television, etc.) makes the self increasingly unconscious (and reactive) in unpredictable ways. The disintegration, alteration, reduction, and replacement of sensory experience and feeling involve the loss of the instincts; as the self is disconnected and detached from what is natural and truly sustaining. The disintegration and contraction (and this includes detachment) of being and experience go hand in hand. Being and experience are becoming excessively (and increasingly) unconscious and less animate. Finally, in reference to sleep disorders, it is important that dreams involve a fundamental integration and spreading of being and experience at the mid-range of feeling between thought and sense, in conjunction with the natural extensiveness and interactivity of being and experience.

In both depression and anxiety, the emotional disintegration and contraction of being and experience involves increased feeling at the emotional center of the self. In anxiety, this is consistent with excessive concern, the reduction in the desirability of experience, emotional imbalance (or variability), bodily aches and pains (i.e., emotional disintegration), the mind “going blank”, panic attacks (involving a sort of generalized paralysis and loss of experience), etc. Comparatively (and similarly), in depression, there is a contraction, detachment, disintegration, and loss of being and experience that also involves a loss of emotion. The loss of desire in both depression and anxiety involves a significant reduction in the comprehensiveness and consistency of both intention and concern as they relate to experience in general; and this has the dream-like effect of reducing thought, emotion, and memory, including the desirability and totality of experience as well.

Hi Lindsay. You are very welcome. You said previously:
"I have heard anecdotally that people with ASD get less sleep, and perhaps that could also explain the increased, but not stable connectivity that we are seeing in the ASD brain."
Sleep (and dreams) add to the integrated extensiveness of being, experience, and thought, thereby improving attention and memory.
Indeed, dreams make thought more like sensory experience in general, thereby improving both memory and understanding.

The increased connectivity is understood as reducing what would otherwise be the balanced/stable and integrated extensiveness of their thought and experience.

Hello again Lindsay. Understanding that autism is a disintegration, contraction, and detachment of being and experience (including consciousness) is very important in the prevention and treatment of this disorder. The Amish, for the most part, do not get autism; and they do not [generally] vaccinate or watch TV either.

The overeating during television occurs in keeping with the fact that TV is an extended, interactive, and unnatural form of dream vision AS waking vision. Bodily feeling/sensation is therefore reduced during TV (as is the case during dream experience), so the feeling of fullness is reduced/lacking. Dr. Joyce Starr agrees with this as well. (Television is an unnatural creation of generalized thought; accordingly, TV may be held to be a generalized hallucination.) The experience of sound and vision in/as TV is even more like thought than in the case of the vision and sound in the dream.

Emotion is manifest as sensory experience and feeling.

TV involves emotional detachment, disintegration, contraction, and loss; and this certainly relates to (or involves) depression and anxiety as well. Importantly, TV also reduces memory and thought; and this is also consistent with/similar to dream experience. Hence, the overeating while watching television relates to the reduction in thought and memory as well. Frank Martin DiMeglio (author/expert)

Television is only possible because this disintegration, reconfiguration, contraction (i.e., compression), and extension of visual sensory experience occurs during dreams. Accordingly, both television viewing and dreams may be said to include (or involve) reduced ability to think, anxiety, and increased distractibility. Television thus compels attention, as it is compelled in the dream; but it is an unnatural and hallucinatory experience. Hence, television is addictive. Similar to the visual experience while dreaming, television compels attention to the relative exclusion of other experience. Television reduces consciousness and results in a flattening of the visual experience as a result of combining waking visual experience with relatively unconscious visual experience. Television involves the experience of what is less animate, for it involves a significant reduction in (or loss of) visual experience. This disintegration of the visual experience (as in the dream) also results in an emotional disintegration (i.e., anxiety). That television may be so described (and even possible) is hard to imagine; but this is consistent with the fact that it took so very many different minds (and thoughts) of genius in order to make the relatively unconscious visual experience of the dream conscious. Since the thinking that is involved in making the experience of television possible is so enormously difficult, it becomes difficult to think while partaking of that experience. Television may be seen as an accelerated form or experience of art, thereby making someone less wary (or less anxious) initially, but less creative and more anxious (as time passes) as the advance of the self becomes unsustainable. The experience (or effects) of television demonstrates the interactive nature of being and experience; for, in the dream, there is also a reduction in the totality (or extensiveness) of experience.

Thought involves a relative reduction in the range and extensiveness of feeling. In keeping with this, dreams make thought more like sensory experience in general. Accordingly, both thought and also the range and extensiveness of feeling are proportionately reduced in the dream. (This reduction in the range and extensiveness of feeling during dreams is consistent with the fact that the experience of smell very rarely occurs therein.) Since there is a proportionate reduction of both thought and feeling during dreams, the experience of the body is generally (or significantly) lacking; for thought is fundamentally rendered more like sensory experience in general. Thoughts and emotions are differentiated feelings. By involving the mid-range of feeling between thought and sense, dreams make thought more like sensory experience in general. The reduction in the range and extensiveness of feeling during dreams is why there is less memory and thought therein.

Dream vision is generally closer (or flattened), thereby resulting in a loss/reduction of peripheral vision as well. Comparatively, television further flattens vision; and it also involves a reduction in peripheral vision.

In the dream, vision and thought are semi-detached from touch (and feeling). One may or may not be able to touch what is seen in the dream. In the visual experience that is television, the visual images may not be (and are not) touched at all. In the case of waking vision, one can [generally] touch what one sees.

It is not only in the dream that the vision of each individual person is necessarily different. That is obvious. Importantly, the experience of television is uniquely that of the individual.

Television may be understood as a creation of generalized thought. The ability of thought to describe or reconfigure sense is ultimately dependent upon the extent to which thought is similar to sense.

Television makes thought even more like vision than in the dream, thereby reducing thought and vision. Thoughts are relatively shifting and variable. Likewise, dream vision is relatively shifting and variable. In the case (and form) of television, the visual images become more shifting and variable than that of the dream; and this is in keeping with attention being compelled and sustained in conjunction with these images being even more like (or consistent with) thought. People tend to believe what they see (and hear) during television.

Ordinary (and natural) vision is removed and replaced in the case of television. Unlike art, which can be the interactive creation of any one person, television is impossible for any one person to possibly create or otherwise experience.

Television is an hallucination. Hallucinations are already known to be connected with/associated with/”caused by” all sorts of very serious mental/physical/emotional conditions or disorders. It is undeniable that this is a very important and serious matter.

Hi Lindsay. Here is yet more information as to why the effects of the vaccines (or the reactions by the body thereto) would not necessarily be predictable or uniform.

Visually, the universal experience of the body is one of visual transparency (i.e., invisibility). Accordingly, when our bodies are visually distinguishable (or visible), then each of our visible experiences of the body (and of everything else for that matter) must necessarily be different (or unique); and individuals are then visually distinguishable as well. Since all of our bodies are visually transparent (or invisible), each of our bodies (considered individually) must necessarily be different when visible. Since the experience of the body is both visible and invisible, the visible experience of the body is necessarily changing (or inconstant), unique, and finite. The disintegration of the visual experience when an object is close to the eyes is demonstrative of the relationship between visibility and invisibility. The visible appearance of the body (including that of experience in general) is relatively unique, finite, and limited. (This conclusion is also in keeping with the fact that thought and vision are necessarily different.) The thoughtful understanding of the visible is properly understood as variable and finite in relation to the totality of experience, including that of the body.

Thoughts and emotions are differentiated feelings. Our thoughts, emotions, and feelings are largely (or often) indiscernible to others in keeping with the fact that the body is transparent (or invisible inside the eye).

The following translates into a toxic/diseased/damaged body, consistent with a disintegration, contraction, and detachment of being and experience (including consciousness and emotion):

The NUMEROUS vaccines are biologically active, and yet they are unnatural and foreign to the body. So when the body THEN reacts as if it is infected with disease (via immune responses/antibodies), is it not diseased/ill/damaged/infected to some extent? All of these NUMEROUS and altered/unnatural immune responses/vaccinations will eventually compromise our immune function. The answer is common sense and simple, and there is no way around this.

NOTE: Emotion is manifest (and differentiated) as sensory experience and feeling.

The fact that autism is a disintegration, contraction, and detachment of being, experience, and consciousness is consistent with toxicity/damage/disorder.

The NUMEROUS vaccines are biologically active, and yet they are unnatural and foreign to the body. So when the body THEN reacts as if it is infected with disease (via antibodies/immune responses), is it not diseased/ill/damaged/infected to some extent? All of these NUMEROUS and altered/unnatural immune responses/vaccinations will eventually compromise our immune function.

Autism also involves a disintegration, contraction, and detachment of memory, feeling, thought, and emotion. Importantly, autism may be usefully understood as involving BIOLOGICAL toxicity/disorder/damage that relates to, involves, or pertains to thought, feeling, and emotion.

The seriousness of my contention/the fact that autism is a disintegration, contraction, and detachment of being, experience, and consciousness is still being generally ignored.

Autism is also a disintegration, contraction, and detachment of the instincts as well. The instincts allow for the increase, advancement, extension, and differentiation of desire. Consciousness advances desire and consists of advanced instinct. The instincts involve the projection, integration, connection, and extension of feeling, energy, desire, emotion, and thought. (Desire consists of both intention and concern, thereby including interest as well.)

The disintegration, alteration, contraction/reduction/loss, and replacement of sensory experience, our instincts, and feeling threaten to disconnect and detach the self from what is natural and truly sustaining. Moreover, there is no true difference between what is foreign/unnatural and toxic. Toxins and artificially reconfigured sensory experience (including pollution, vaccines, processed foods, television, etc.) make the self increasingly unconscious (and reactive) in various and unpredictable ways. We are becoming more inanimate.

The body is invisible and visible.
The vaccines are biologically active as disorder/damage/poisoning/toxicity to the self/bodily system. Are thoughts, feelings, and emotions visible?

Autism is a disintegration, contraction, and detachment of being, experience, consciousness, emotion, feeling, and thought. The vaccines are making us progressively unconscious and reactive in various and unpredictable ways.

I am on the other end of the Spectrum, having AS. I can tell you that I am certainly not detached in any way, shape or form! I have emotions, can connect to the world around me, and to others. The way I go about it is different, and sometimes difficult, but that does not make me detached!

My emotions do not show themselves naturally, either in my vocal tone, body language, or facial expressions. That does not mean that I do not have them. And believe me I am connected to them!! I have to think about how to display the emotions I am feeling inside to the outside world, instead of this occuring naturally.

I can and do seperate my emotion from logic. And I will act on logic rather than emotion, because this is simply the better course. I see acting on pure emotion as irrational and something that could be dangerous. This does not mean I am detached from my emotions or the situaction. It means my actions are not dictated by them, but by my logic.

This may make me appear detached from the outside world. And to be sure, I sometimes will leave my features blank on purpose so that my emotions are not readable. But this does not make me detached.

I am not detached from the world around me. I feel they are detached from me! I reach out, they forever judge me on a criteria that is not fair and does not take into consideration my unique kind of disability. Just because I will never fit into the nuerotypical mode does not mean that I am disconected from them, or the world around me.

Remember folks, things are not always what they appear, and appearences can be quite decieving.