Autism is simply an internal human ‘normality’ with the volume turned up. We all have experienced moments when we aren’t quite aware or when we are too aware to handle the world. Or moments when we aren’t quite aware of the company we are in or so overly aware of it that it gets hard to function. We all have had times when we’ve had hardly any awareness of our bodies, even been out of them, or felt so in, weighed down by them, that we become hypercritical, eager to escape, tune out, disappear. We have all had times when we’ve lost the plot, the why, the what or been distracted by the meta-reality inside our heads to the extent that we are suddenly jolted out of a daydream. So too, have we all had moments when we have been so aware that we have taken things in in almost overwhelming, extreme detail. For me, the experience of ‘autism’ is not of any of these things in themselves, but rather the frequency and extremity with which they are experienced and the degree to which these experiences affect how one expresses oneself and relates to one’s inner world and the outer world. It’s a matter of whether you visit these states or whether you’ve lived there.

Source: Autism and Sensing: The Unlost Instinct

Via: Inclusive Education for Autistic Children: Helping Children and Young People to Learn and Flourish in the Classroom