Observations placeholder
Ramachandran, Dr V S - Nadia
Identifier
001671
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
People with autism often acquire almost superhuman abilities in areas other than those which no longer function and in particular in areas we may associate with direct spiritual input – the areas of art and music for example or mathematics
A description of the experience
Phantoms in the Brain – Dr V. S. Ramachandran [Professor and Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition, University of California and visiting fellow All Souls College, Oxford]
Nadia, whose IQ measured between 60 and 70, was an artistic genius. At age six, she showed all the signs of severe autism – ritualistic behaviour, inability to relate to others and limited language. She could barely put two words together. Yet from an early age, Nadia could draw lifelike pictures of people around her, of horses and even complex visual scenes unlike the 'tadpolelike' drawings of other children her age. Her sketches were so animated that they seemed to leap out of the canvas and were good enough to hang in any Madison Avenue gallery