It is hard to imagine how painful and heartbreaking it must be to suspect that your child may be autistic. Seeing signs that indicate your child is somehow not fully "there" must feel like the ultimate rejection even if you know it's not your child's fault. Many parents must wonder where their child is-psychologically speaking, just as many wonder where grandparents suffering from senility and Alzheimer's are. Wherever their children or parents and grandparents are, many tend to think they aren't as happy as those of us who are present and focused in the "here" and now world. The process of realizing something is wrong must cut like a knife for those who are experiencing this disconnect with their loved ones. Unfortunately, 1 percent of the population of children in the U.S. ages 3-17 have autism and though that may not seem like a large number, to those families suffering with children diagnosed with the disorder, it feel must feel like the end of the precious dreams once held so dearly.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke writes that "Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders, characterized by social impairments, communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior." A milder form of Autism is known as Asperger syndrome. Several famous people known to have Asperger Syndrome are Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, Michael Edward Palin, an English comedian known more commonly for his role in the Monty Python series and Adam Young, an American musician and founder of Owl City. So, for those who have children diagnosed with this lesser form, this knowledge that Bill Gates or Adam Young who have achieved so much must be a sign of relief that their children too can still live full lives.

The Experience of Autism

Research shows that males are four times more likely to have ASD than females, and 1 out of 88 children will be diagnosed with ADS. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, "Children with an ASD may fail to respond to their names and often avoid eye contact with other people. They have difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling because they can't understand social cues, such as tone of voice or facial expressions, and don't watch other people's faces for clues about appropriate behavior. They lack empathy."

From Within, Without, is a YouTube video associated with Amy Lansky, author of Active Consciousness, and chronicles a story of a mother trying to find a cure for her son's autism. Like any mother, she initially went to conventional doctors only to be crushed with the disappointment that what was prescribed did nothing to bring her son back from the abyss that was his reality. He had seemed so normal in the beginning, but by the age of two, was diagnosed with autism. The changes in him began to show up slowly, and then there was no mistaking or pretending that he was like every other child. Their precious son didn't give her or her husband eye contact and didn't even respond to his own name! One day after endless days of doing frantic research for a cure, the mother read about a doctor in Los Angeles. Dr. Lucas De Schepper was his name and he was a homeopath using homeopathy to treat autism. Dr. Lucas De Schepper is a medical doctor, licensed acupuncturist and homeopath, an author of 15 books, and a respected teacher and lecturer worldwide. Yet this prestigious physician took the time to speak to this mother about her son, her hopes and her anxiety about her son's life. A week later the mother and her mother-in-law were on a plane visiting Dr. Schepper. The doctor prescribed a homeopathic treatment for her son that produced small changes even with after the first administering of the medicine prescribed. Many people reading this may feel suspect, it is too good to be true, many will think. But what you have to ask yourselves is this, why is it so easy to believe in bad things happening, but not as easy to believe in the good? But the story gets better, because her son got better. In fact, he came "back", fully and completely!

The film follows their story over the next year and is beyond inspirational as her son, who never spoke a word was then able to articulate his thoughts and feelings. How wondrous it is that he seemingly learned how to speak and it was only that his ability to communicate was locked within? How is it that there is a branch of medical treatment out there that can return the body and mind to its normal equilibrium and people not know about it? Are we a society of complainers? Perhaps we focus less on the cures and more on what ails us.  Do we ask and pray for miracles, and then when they show up we laugh at them and call them ridiculous without even taking a hard and serious look?

Amy Lansky herself had a child who was diagnosed with autism and she like the mother mentioned previously believed that there had to be a cure. She sought out to find it. "I began searching desperately for a solution. For instance, I began to experiment with food elimination strategies, an approach now viewed as essential within the autism community." Amy, like the mother mentioned above learned about some the astonishing affects of homeopathy which is a medical system developed in the 1800s and is based on "a seemingly incongruous therapeutic principle- that a disease can be cured by a substance that causes the disease's symptoms in healthy people." Amy, like the mother on the YouTube documentary was brave enough to give the road less traveled a try. She was willing to step outside of the norm and believe that just because the medical field did not have a cure did not mean that one didn't exist! Amy and her husband found a homeopath, "...and Max's road to recovery soon began. Within less than a week after beginning the recommended treatment, we began to notice subtle changes in his speech and social cognition... The improvements in Max's condition were slow but steady, and after a few months were quiet apparent." Max was diagnosed with autism in 1994, and by the spring of 1996 his symptoms had subsided enough that Amy and her husband were certain he would grow up and have all that was needed to live a wonderful life.

Embracing Hope

Here are two inspirational stories but compared to the children who are never released from their inner prisons, the successful stories are miniscule in comparison. With every disease, in every instance of pain and suffering, there are stories of those who overcame the odds. What makes these mothers different from the thousands who after going to the doctors and being given a prescription that does little, decided that they've come to the end of the road? The answer to this question may not be easily known, but it is something to think about. "A disease can be cured by a substance that causes the disease's symptoms in healthy people", is the definition of homeopathy and bears a striking similarity to the Aramaic definition of "sin". A book by Neil Douglas-Klotz' book called The Hidden Gospel, says that in the Aramaic language, the word sin can mean that which misses its mark or falls into error, but interesting enough Neil Klotz goes further to say that the "root of the word can also mean "to dig out... to patch or mend something." He explains that the meaning implies that the "seeds of restoration are to be found in what is broken" just like the definition of homeopathy is the cure being found in what causes a disease. If the ancient Hebrews got it right, then hope is to be found in the midst of what troubles us, because even more than being hopeful, there is in the midst of our tribulations, its own healing.