The Autism Epidemic: What does it teach us? Jagannath Chatterjee (HFA) (Dedicated to Hon'ble President Ms Pratibha Patil, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Panabaka Lakshmi, Anu Garg, Renuka Chaudhury, Ambika Soni, and other women in power and positions of authority who are mothers, have children, and yet prefer to shut their eyes to this national and international catastrophe. Mothers who understand everything and yet dare not utter a word against the system that has spawned this condition, a condition that has hurt children like never before in the history of medicine, nay in the entire history of civillisation.) There is an epidemic and yet no one seems to know. It affects young children. It comes on suddenly, at around 18 months to three years of age. The doctors are unsure about how to diagnose it. Very few of them have any idea about it. No one really knows what causes it. Is it a mystery ailment? Is it contagious? Is it genetic? Do vaccines cause it? Do toxins in the atmosphere cause it? Do industrial chemicals and paints all around us cause it? Does the poisoning of the groundwater, pesticides or simply lack of parental care cause it? Who is really interested to find out? One in 37 children are affected in India. That is one huge figure. Dr Mercola of the USA says it is 1 in 10 worldwide. Mind-boggling. The parents are furious. The doctors seem more busy refuting charges than try to find the cause and provide a solution. There seems to be no cure. It is free for all as far as treatment goes. What makes things more complex is that no two autistic children provide the same set of symptoms. Is there a vaccine in the offing? Well, you had better not utter the words "vaccine" and "autism" together. It causes a lot of hearts to flutter. Why? You need to be an autistic yourself or the parent of an autistic child to find the real answer to that question. What is autism? The Autism Society website says, "Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills. Both children and adults with autism typically show difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication, social interactions, and leisure or play activities." Quite a mouthful, isn't it? The autism epidemic has spawned a worldwide debate. This debate has taught us a lot many things. The first and foremost lesson we have learnt is that health, or for that matter everything else, is too precious a thing to be left to the experts. With the advent of modern medicine came a very special medical jargon, like Sanskrit of yester years that Brahmins used to retain their hold over religion. Technical language unwittingly perhaps helped keep the nitty-gritty's of the subject away from the common man. The scientists decided our fate and we had to submit tamely without question, without being informed about the consequences. As vaccine industry spokesperson Paul Offit famously declared in the now immortal statement, "It was a disaster to let the public know about Thiomersal (in vaccines)". Great. The parents should not know that their children are being injected mercury ostensibly to "keep them healthy". Autism has taught us to question why. It has forced us to study the concept of vaccines. To our utter dismay we found out that vaccines are more for profit than for protection. Deeper studies reveal vaccines do not protect against any disease. They never did! It has always been a craftily designed apparition to make the public imagine that medical intervention can prevent disease. It has been done to ensure that money that ought to have gone to common sense measures like hygiene, sanitation, clean water and nutrition goes to the medical research institutions. Vaccines instead create diseases, a host of them. They are today suspected of having converted acute curable illnesses into chronic "manageable" ones. Managed by the constant administration of costly medications and numerous "timely" visits to the doctors. We loose both our health and money and feed an infrastructure that works overtime to keep us sick. It is not only the public they fool. The doctors and caregivers too are pawns in their hands, militarily trained to follow instructions, kept in the dark about the contents of medications and vaccines, uninformed about medical controversies, hypnotised into believing that diseases can not be cured, brain washed to lash out against anything or anyone that dares challenge this faulty paradigm. Autism has exposed the dangers of reductionism. Doctors have been trained to concentrate on diseases of individual parts. Autism is a nightmare for them. Hey, how can these people suffer in the whole? The brain, the nervous system, the lungs, the intestines, the neuro-muscular system, the emotions, thought patterns, everything seems to be affected and all at once! There is also a considerable breakdown of the immune system.. The poor doctor, he does not know where to start. He prefers to keep quiet and imagine that this condition does not exist. He prefers to accept the theory that this term is used to describe unmanageable children whose parents have been far too tolerant of their antics. Autism has encouraged parents to look for alternatives. The main system is a total failure as far as autism is concerned, they have figured out. Psychiatric drugs and sedatives make things worse. The underlying holistic nature of the alternative medical approaches now seems to make sense. Autism has brought to the fore the role of toxics in inducing disease. Not only the vaccinated children, who show full fledged symptoms that fall under the spectrum of Autism, the children exposed to pesticides, industrial chemicals, household chemicals, toxic toys too develop peculiar problems. Infantile jaundice, infantile diabetes, infantile cancers, cardiac disorders, glandular disorders, you see them all in children today. The mothers' milk and the placental fluid, designed by nature to be inherently pure and nutritious, are today polluted beyond measure. Autism has broken the barriers between people. No longer able to tackle this difficult disease alone, the parents are coming together, forming associations, studying hard, sharing experiences, discussing treatment modalities and discovering strengths and capabilities within themselves they never knew existed. This epidemic has forced them out of their shells and opened their eyes to the difficulties faced by children all over the world. Women who never imagined coming of the influence of their husbands are today forcing US Presidential aspirants to take a stand on the vaccines-cause-autism issue. Autism has helped honest and ethical doctors. Rendered frustrated and helpless by the suppressive force that corrupt medicine is today, they have broken free, and despite persecution have taken it upon themselves to expose the extreme and needless toxicity that is today's "health care". Hat's off to these wonderful people who give us the hope that all is not over with the world, yet. Autism has given us a whole new world of brave children, who have overcome insurmountable difficulties. Children whose struggle has made us realise the silly nature of our adult anxieties. Trivial things that keep us occupied without caring for the well being of the world that nurtures us. They have taught us to be patient, to be well behaved, to care for others, to consider the entire world as one family. They have given us the power to come together and fight. Autism has shown us the way back to a simple, caring and sharing life. It has infused life into an otherwise sadistic system that threatened to take us for granted. Today's autistics are the Gandhiji's, Rajaji's and Netaji's of tomorrow who will lead us into a future of peace and well being, a future without hatred and war, a future without politics and selfishness, a future where cooperation and not competition will be the norm, peace not profiteering will be the new slogan. Our pranams be at their feet. JAI HIND!
"The greatest threat of childhood diseases lies in the dangerous and ineffectual efforts made to prevent them through mass immunization.....There is no convincing scientific evidence that mass inoculations can be credited with eliminating any childhood disease."--Dr Robert Mendelsohn, M.D. | 
