I have a 10 yr old severly autistic son,without boring with all the details,i feel I should explain what I mean by severely Autistic.
he has no self generated speech,meaning he cant access any vocabulary in his head to make a sentence or say a word to ask for what he needs or wants,however he is echolalic,meaning he can repeat things spoken to him word for word and repeat many sentences from Thomas the Tank engine(hence my lil logo thing by my name)sadly however,he does not understand what these repeated sentences mean.Echolalic meaning parroting.
Physically he is 100%,and fitter stronger and far more able then his "normal" peers.
I know it is not uncommon for children to be in touch with spirit,many imaginary friends are not quite so imaginary as parents would wish.
The thing with my boy,is he does not require sleep he averages 2 hours a night.But despite being in his room,and awake for all those hours,he is regularly entertained,and I do mean that literally.
He sings to himself,and plays with his trains,but very often he is in hysterics of laughter.The only laughter similar I have seen or heard  is in audiences of the comedian Billy Connoly,its the kind where you hold your sides for fear of bursting.
also I often hear pauses and then shrieks of laughter,like you would get with any small child who you were approaching to tickle,I am sure anyone who has been around kids knows the kind I mean.Also during the day,he spends a lot of his time off in another world.gazing into nothing(as far as most people are concerned)and smiling or interacting with something??
Another common thing is "flapping" using a small bit of paper or supple twig to flap in front of his eyes,to create a strobing effect,again this seems to facilitate him not quite being with us.
Autism is a severe disability,but I wondered if any of you have experience of them personally and notice how they seem to have a link,with something more.
I really wish he could talk and describe quite what he see's.

Hey Starstream,

I cannot comment on Autism and a connection to the afterlife sorry, I know others hear will be able to.

But putting that as side from what you have described, the laughter etc I would agree with you in saying that maybe he can see what we cannot as children do and sounds like he is having a laugh with them thats for sure!

Ryan

Ive never been directly involved with someone with autisim, but i have worked with people who have had brain damage, either from birth of from an accident. When some parts of the brain are damaged/not functioning to there full potential, i have found the mind increase's the ability of other area's compensate.

I also found, they need alot less sleep - the ones i worked with though, were violent so usually that ment ripping there bedroom to shreds. I also found they age very slowly... i know one guy there, who was 66 and he did'nt have 1 grey hair.

I can easily believe, your son could have a greater perception of the paranormal - espeically being born with autisim, his brain would have had the time to mould/increase different areas of the brain, which most people wont use. I watched a program before about taxi drivers, and parts of the hypocampis which control direction were greatly increased due to them using it alot everyday.

Perhaps, your son is just tuned into the different realms, and spirits are playing with him, or perhaps he can replay events which happened during the day, and find them funny....

human mind is a werid thing.

Yes,they do tend not to age (perhaps as they don't focus on the stressful aspects of life,money,bills etc) and Jake can turn his attention to less positive things than helpless giggles,his bedroom is very sparse to stop him digging plaster out of walls,destroying  his mattress and many other varied ways of wiling away the hours.I gave him an argos book,to look at one night, the room resembled a hamster cage the next morning,600+ pages each shredded into at least 10 small pieces.

But the ability to develop different areas of the brain is a fascinating thought.
I know there is more and more research into autism looming,as it seems to be on the increase. It would be interesting to look at scans of the brain's of autistics  as opposed to "normal" people.

mY SON JOHN IS AUTISTIC ,HE IS TWENTY NOW AND JOHN CAN TALK OKAY AND HE OFTEN TELLS ME HE SEES HIS GRANDAD WHO DIED 5 YRS AGO AND HIS GRANDAD TALKS TO HIM ,YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BELIEVE AN AUTISTIC CHILD BECAUSE THEY DONT LIE THEY HAVENT GOT THE IMAGINATION TO LIE ,AUTISTIC CHILDREN TELL THINGS AS THEY REALLY ARE . DEANNA

deanna.... deanna.... deanna.....

You dont have a son!!!!!! your 16 years of age [or less], and btw autistic children, often have greater imaginations then normal people, due to them being partly isolated.

deanna.... deanna.... deanna.....

You dont have a son!!!!!! your 16 years of age [or less], and btw autistic children, often have greater imaginations then normal people, due to them being partly isolated.
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Actually, Spit... how would we know that the (severely!) autistic ones have greater imaginations, considering that we can't really communicate with
them?
It would seem more likely, that they are "locked into" repetitive behavior patterns (not overly imaginative behavior, that...)

B-man