Comments on: Horses, Shamans, and a Journey in Mongolia

By: Metta

Metta — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:33:01 +0000

Both the book and the movie are out now, and it might be more fair to judge either of them by their own merits and not based on a VERY inaccurate article.

How inaccurate? Hmm…how about for starters that the child was NOT whipped? The whip was rubbed over his back and stomach, and then the ground was whipped, making the driving off of spirits symbolic. Apparently, Mongolian shamans think it’s wrong to whip a child, too. The story, incidentally, gets several other details wrong, but that’s the most offensive of the inaccuracies by far.

I’m aware that most people who know little or nothing of shamanism dismiss it as ignorant at best and fraudulent at worst; I know this because I’ve been a shamanic practitioner for many years. That was my interest in the book and movie, and I found it very balanced and reasonable in how it depicted shamanism. I don’t pretend to expertise on autism, but I’d be interested in someone’s view of how balanced the depiction of that is — just not based on a badly-written, horribly-edited third-party source.

By: Dr Mitzi Waltz

Dr Mitzi Waltz — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:44:44 +0000

Though this isn’t a new post, I just came across it and thought I could add something regarding autism in Greece.
Our programme at the University of Birmingham has been training Greek practitioners for over a decade, and anyone who knows their autism research will be familiar with Demetri Haracopos. So I’m afraid the author simply ran into an uninformed editor.
The situation for children in Greece is still not particularly good. Many families do keep their children at home, as school places are hard to get and often poor; the outcome of this is just as it was in the US and UK in the 1960s, that adults end up in institutions when parents are too old and frail to cope. We have been told that some adults end up in monestaries, either as monks (a life that would certainly suit some) or as visitors–a funny form of respite care but it may be culturally appropriate.
As for autism in Mongolia and shamanism, again, there are probably some aspects of the child’s improvement that came from hippotherapy and a change of pace–new and interesting things spur the imagination and encourage any child to try new behaviours (even though in children with autism those new behaviours may be ones we don’t particularly like, as any parent who has gone on vacation with an autistic child can attest to). There does appear to be some science to it. In fact, one of my Greek students just did an MEd dissertation on the topic–very interesting!
By the way, the press has (as usual) presented this as cure story, when it appears that it’s not the case. There’s a reasonable and even-handed article at http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/24/autism.horse.mongolia/index.html that’s far more interesting. Quote from the father: “In our case, it was horses in Mongolia and these shamans. It could just as easily have been bicycles and, you know, steam trains. And if it had been, we’d have done a steam train journey. We’d have done whatever Rowan seemed to be showing us he wanted to do, because that was where he was intrinsically motivated.” Sensible enough. He also notes that his son is not “cured”, just gaining some useful abilities.
Having not seen the film or read the book, I can’t really say what “whipping” and “force-feeding” entailed–sounds unconscionable on the face of it but the reality might be different. The only reality that would actually matter, of course, is how the child himself felt about these experiences.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:18:10 +0000

I can’t help but wonder if the parents’ constant approval and hovering actually didn’t help Rowan, and that being in the company of people who weren’t preoccupied with him every second of the day might have been stimulating. Certainly letting him pooh in his pants couldn’t have been the best plan. I’m all for whatever helps this boy and others, but these parents sound sort of fishy at best and completely exploitative and clueless at worst.

By: sara sanders

sara sanders — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:11:32 +0000

am i the only one who feels Mr Issacson has “sold” his his son and his story for a bit of literary recognition. this isn’t a healing adventure, this is a desperate man trying to get his book published. this kid is being used as a specimen in his parents petri dish of fascination with shamans….

By: Mongolia » Blog Archive » >>_For the succeeding mile and a half, our attention will be called

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 02:31:03 +0000

[...] Horses, Shamans, and a Journey in MongoliaIf you thought from reading the title that this blog has become, for one post, a travelogue, I am afraid that you thought wrong: This is a post about a two-fold “miracle cure” for autism, via horseback riding and shamans. … [...]

By: Mongolia » Blog Archive » Horses, Shamans, and a Journey in Mongolia

Mongolia » Blog Archive » Horses, Shamans, and a Journey in Mongolia — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 01:10:00 +0000

By: The Symptoms of Pseudoscience

The Symptoms of Pseudoscience — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:22:39 +0000

[...] of what causes autism (a milk molecule?) and of how to treat autism (horseback riding and shamans) often seem to mushroom overnight and bloggers like those at Left Brain/Right Brain, at Mike [...]

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:10:22 +0000

“And Rowan from the video reminds me in many ways of Charlie, just as he is at home.”

So, I take it that all of the galavanting around in effect had no lasting effect? I have to agree with KCsMommy… poor boy, subjected to his fathers whimsical misadventure.

By: gettingthere

gettingthere — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 11:04:14 +0000

I have indeed heard very positive stories about what horses, dogs, cats and a variety of other animals can do for children with autism, alzheimer’s patients, the depressed or simply lonely. I’ve even met one “high-functioning’ teenager who found his vocation through horses.

I personally love cats and dogs and always had a couple when I was a child. However, animals and water have never really worked well with my son; he teases the fomer and fears the latter, except when it flows out of taps or happens to be in the bath tub. When he was 5, he spent 10 minutes on a gentle, mild-mannered poney pulling its ears, mane and tail, such that we were asked never to bring him back again. The swimming campaign was equally disastrous.

Fortunately, finding activities that caught his interest and helped him didn’t involve travel to distant lands, shamans and baths in sacred waters. But that’s only my boy’s story.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 03:48:48 +0000

Charlie was very fond of the fleece-footed “gang of 4″ and transferred his affection to the Wiggles for a while! I would like to get him on a horse; I think he’d relish the movement and the height and the whole experience — we got him sailing, why not on a horse?

He would love swimming with dolphins simply because of being able to be in the water!