A Special Child
by Cat Parenti
"When Chandra was born 24 years ago, she had a 'genetic problem with autistic
tendencies'. I was told by the medical profession that she was a 'vegetable' to be
institutionalized. I cried my grief to one of my best friends, the late Nick Pappas,
who said, 'Cat, why are you crying? Chandra is a gift to you from the universe.
She is a beautiful mystery whom you have chosen to unravel.'"
"Even though she could not move or grasp things, I saw the intelligence in her
eyes. I chose not to believe the prognosis and searched out holistic modalities to
help her. This caused me to study and lake licenses and certifications in manual
lymph drainage, metabolic analysis, massage, energy medicine, color and
aromatherapy. Chandra dramatically changed my life path. Previously, I was an
importer of handicrafts from Afghanistan and Pakistan."
"I worked with Chandra using holistic modalities five days a week five to six
hours a day for seven years. When she was nine years old she still didn't talk. I
was told of a communication system for her out of Syracuse University called
Facilitated Communication. She used this system with her therapists and personal
assistants but refused to use it with me. When I asked why she replied that I had to
learn to talk mind to mind with her. I laughed and said, 'You'd better train me,'
which she did — in my dreams!"
"Dr. Meg Losey recently wrote a book called The Children of Now. In this
book she talks about the many children who are coming into this world in
non-functioning bodies who are non-verbal as well, but have great and extraordinary
abilities. Chandra is one of these individuals. Dr. Meg is writing a new book called
Conversations with the Children of Now and has asked Chandra to be a part of
it."
The Vision…
"Chandra and I want to establish "The Awakening Center of Chandra". There she
will talk mind to mind with children with all kinds of disabilities, telling their
gifts. These children are a beautiful treasure chest and we must open them up to see
who they really are."
"Throw out medical milestones and models; Chandra did not start using her walker
until she was sixteen years old! Chandra told me that I must teach and train parents
and caregivers of these children all of the holistic modalities I used to help her.
Eventually, we will start a school for them since our current educational system is
not equipped to give them the educational opportunities that they should have."
"Our motto is: 'It is never too late to shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you
will be among the stars.'
Question: How does Chandra communicate?
Through "Facilitated Communication" (FC) or mind to mind.
Question: How was her brilliance discovered?
"After she trained me to speak mind to mind, she told me that she has been guiding
all of my decisions about her since day one. She had even told me her name as I was
nursing her when she was three days old."
Question: What is Chandra's level of education?
"I home schooled her until she was eleven years old. Then I tried to mainstream her
in a local grade school but that didn't work. They refused to user her FC
(Facilitated Communication) because they said it was not a 'recognized communication
system'. When Chandra developed 'behavior problems' we decided to have a team
meeting at my home. Several school officials appeared and I got an outside
interpreter. Each took turns asking Chandra if she would like to be in each of
several teacher's classrooms. (I knew that these classes were for children
classified as mentally retarded.) Chandra responded 'No'. When the officials asked
her what she wanted to do, without hesitation she said, 'I want to go to Arizona
State University and study Heliotropic Sciences.' There was not a sound in the room
for 20 seconds, after which they mumbled something about helping her."
"I pulled her out of this school and put her in a Charter School that used the
Montessori Method. She remained there until the 11th grade and concurrently took
science classes in ASU in the Gifted Children's Program, where she got A's and B+'s
in all her subjects."
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