I have been doing more studies on Autism and Aspergers disorder and here is my latest interesting findings.
There is a link to people with autism and religion. Basically most of us probably consider ourselves spiritual in nature but don't adhere to the rules of religious institutions.
On Psychology Today's Website a therapist with Aspergers Disorder comments about a Study done by Catherine Caldwell-Harris - a psychology professor at Boston University. She concludes that people with autism reject organized religions and usually follow their own spiritual path based on their needs.
"According to her study, autistic people today are much more likely to reject organized religion in favor of their own independently constructed belief system, just as we are more likely to be agnostics or atheists. You can read the study here:
http://csjarchive.cogsci.rpi.edu/proceedings/2011/papers/0782/paper0782.pdf " (John Elder Robison)
After reading the study myself I find this interesting because my Spiritual beliefs are pagan in nature. I generally believe in a little bit of everything from each religion.
In order to fully understand what I believe I will outline major basic points.
1) The Christian God- I DO Not Believe in the Christian God of the Bible, especially the god of the Old Testament. I believe they are two different Gods warring for control over humans. Why do I think that? The old Testiment god is wrathful, vengeful, and if you don't obey him he will destroy the world, While the New Testiment teaches that god is merciful and loving. How can you be merciful and loving when your hell bent on condemning everyone for disobeying when you are somewhat responsible for it by free will? I feel the personality for the Old Testiment is completely different than the personality of god in the New Testiment.
If you really loved your creations, you will weep with them when they loose loved ones, you will help them achieve the best creation possible, you will sacrifice and love unconditionally even if you think what they are doing is wrong. With that said, I DO NOT believe The new christian god cares weather you are GLBT and live other lifestyles. if he really created you the way he wanted you to be, then that means he created GLBT, Open relationships and various other workings with the Power of The Mind. He created creativity, compassion, free will and most importantly LOVE.
If you Love someone Romantically that is not a sin weather or not it is GLBT love or not. Everyone needs a companion and sometimes the best relationships are with the same sex.
So what do I believe? I do Believe there is a Primal Source, I will not call it GOD, because the word God implies you are Christian and adhere to the traditional Oppressive patriarchal system. I believe the primal source is neither male nor female but is what it wants to be when it suits its needs. With that said the Primal Source is interchangeable and do not want men or women dominating each other but making each other equals and respecting each other as such as well as respecting the differences in Human bodies. We are All Humans and I think we should Act like Human beings instead of using the male/female gender role as an excuse to oppress one another.
However, it cannot run the universe Alone
2) Other gods. I believe the primal source created the Gods. Yes More than One! the gods of the other pantheons existed and probably still exist. I am still unsure as to if each pantheon is a different set of gods or if they are all the same gods just posing as different gods and communicating differently with different means to humans. Reason why I believe that is because when it comes to paganism you invoke the god or goddess in your rituals, you can feel its power. I once almost accidentally called down the moon by myself in my own room. Usually a high priestess is only able to do that but when I did the moons energy patterns felt differently than other gods and goddesses I've invoked in the past. The energies are different and feels different. So in my pagan practices I am leaning towards that each set of gods is different from the next pantheon. Usually other gods are there to assist you with whatever prayer/spell you are doing. Each energy pattern sends out a certain vibe to the primal source and it works with its helpers to help you achieve goals. Its basically sending out energy to the universe to manipulate what you want to do with whatever area in life you need help in.
3) Which leads me to Angels and other Spirit Beings such as ghosts and things of that nature. I believe in ghosts, and angels, demons, and other forces. There is Good and Evil but we need both to survive. How do you know what good is if there is no evil? how do you know what evil is if there is no good? The Key is to balance the two which the perfect symbol for balancing light and dark is the Ying Yang. They are all here for a reason. I also believe things like dragons and various other mythical races all existed on earth at one point in time. Either they moved to a different dimension for safety or they died out. I have no idea which but they were here, otherwise how would we come up with these myths? There had to be other species like dragons and fairies and one point for us to see. The words had to come from somewhere?
4) Magic. I Believe in Magic. Not the kind that you see on TV though. I Believe Magic is in the form of energy. Prayer for example is sending energy out into the universes, spells are similar except its about channeling energy, visualizing and concentrating on intent and its more organized and stronger force than just regular payer. I also believe in celebrating the cycles of nature and the 5 pagan elements produce balance.
So that is the basic structure of my belief system and the reason why it is so detailed is because I wanted to emphasize the findings in the study. This is just one Aspies personal belief system. What is yours?
