[Aleader-dev] Re: quick overview of autism & witness state

[Joshua N Pritikin]

On Thu, Sep 18, 2003 at 08:54:22AM -0400, Alan Wherry wrote:
> Finally, what I read on the PDF was fascinating but very different from 
> what I'd expected to read. I was expecting some written text on the 
> witness state and autism.

Oh!  That is a simple misunderstanding.

Rather than write a long email to respond to your question,
I prefer to keep our discussion interactive.  That way I won't
risk exceeding your level of interest.  Here is a quick sketch,
better organized than the previous attempt.  Let me know if you
wish to discuss any particular point further.

+ Of course you know that Shri Mataji talks about "witness state"
in connection with "3rd person perspective".

+ I have written a discussion of "3rd person perspective",
looking at the different ways attention configures between
the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person perspectives.  (You might
find this interesting.  Let me know if you are curious.)

+ One important configuration of attention is called
"mind-reading" or "theory of mind" by autism researchers.
This style of attention is what allows you to enjoy the
emotions while watching a film.  In reality, film does not
contain any emotions -- there is only picture & sound.
It is your mind-reading ability which produces the emotions
while watching a film.

+ People affected by autism have a very poor mindreading
ability.  This has been experimentally verified.

+ One treatment for autism: Teach people how to read emotions,
framing the task in a typical computer game format appealing
to children. See <http://www.human-emotions.com>.

>From here, my efforts branch into two opposite directions:

1. I have developed a software package which is extremely
similar to human-emotions.com, except that I have integrated
everything I learned from meditation.  For a demo, see:

  <http://savannah.nongnu.org/download/aleader/htdocs/empathy.html>

My software is called "Aleader".  Superficially, Aleader differs
by presenting pairs of people instead of single faces.  However,
there are also important structural differences.  I am working
on publishing an article in an academic research journal such as
"Cognition & Emotion" or "Cognitive Science" exploring some of
these issues.

Also, I anticipate that Aleader will be found to treat autism
more effectively than the "facial expression only" style of
teaching.  If this is empirically proven then scientists
will take an interest in the theoretical foundation of Aleader,
which leads back to meditation and Sahaja Yoga.

2. I plan to present essentially the same results, but
re-organized for people with a spiritual background.

+ Shri Mataji talks about "witness state" many times.  This
suggests that Shri Mataji finds yogis to be slightly
autistic.  I am not suggesting than yogis are _clinically_
autistic; we are only relatively autistic as compared to
Shri Mataji's fully understanding personality.

+ Aleader is especially effective for treating autism.

+ Yogis can benefit themselves by training with Aleader,
thereby working toward fulfilling Shri Mataji's request
that we try for a witness state.

This is the book which I was talking about writing.  I fully
understand if you don't have time to work with me now.  I do
hope we stay in touch though.

Best wishes.

-- 
A new cognitive theory of emotion, http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/aleader