Talking with the Expansive: An Autistic Connectivity
by Inga Hamilton
The communication lines necessary for multispecies belonging might be difficult for some to identify in shared urban landscapes. There are those of us who hear Tree’s distress calls as he chokes beneath the pavement, or River imploring us to clear her throat, but others may struggle. Here, I share the connections visible to me as an Autistic and how they might help people re-situate themselves daily amid a concrete landscape.
1. Language cleanse:
First, let’s abandon the word ‘nature’ – something colonialists like(d) to measure, enslave and annihilate as an infinite resource. They place(d) ‘nature’ outside of cities, or in separated spaces such as parks, only visited by those with the means. Worse still, ‘nature’ encroaching indoors or inside us was to be sanitised or eradicated. Instead let’s direct a view where we are part of every pulsing, growing and decaying entity in all shared spaces and rename it The Expansive.
These diagrams show the visible connections I experience and offer a way of conveying human interconnectedness in The Expansive’s complex, yet vulnerable system. They might be explored through drawing chalk lines between entities such as humans, lichens and dandelions in a shopping precinct or indoors through the ripples of pebbles dropped in water.
2. Integration:
Some participants might struggle to imagine The Expansive on an all-encompassing scale, so begin with them focusing on the bacteria inside their gut. Ask them to stretch it out to include the visible landscape including sky; then every single multitudinous species; and out to the furthest reaches of this solar system and beyond to the edges of what we don’t know … Boom! Now they are grasping The Expansive and how my Autistic self feels situated.
By transitioning away from the word ‘nature’ to ‘The Expansive’ we embody urban landscapes and entities therein. It might be Spider in the corner of a room or Cloud scudding above our heads. Moss growing on a drainpipe or Mould on a windowsill. Recognising this co-habitation fosters respect and co-guardianship. Communicating directly with these co-inhabitants opens a dialogue of belonging and nurture. To do this we might hold a Listening.
3. Listening:
Guide participants to each choose a different entity then start with a polite invite, such as, “I respectfully welcome Spider to communicate with me. I am listening.” Encourage participants to really LISTEN. Listen with the hearing inside their ears. Listen for images projected inside their head. Listen for a knowing in their solar plexus. Properly LISTEN until every cell of their body is listening.
Do they hear/see/sense anything from Spider? Good. Suggest they answer Spider and have a conversation in any way they can. They might send images, feelings or sounds from anywhere in their body, or talk out loud with Spider. Encourage them to relax and do what feels right for them and Spider.
What they are experiencing is Intuitive Interspecies Communication (IIC) (Barrett et al., 2021). Humans have been communicating with plants, landscapes, animals and more for millennia. But by framing urban entities such Fox, Larva, Pigeon, Moss, or Weather a nuisance, we shut out their voices. Yet if we were Listening within these connections daily, our shared spaces would become more inclusively harmonious.
It’s possible that you, a practitioner of multispecies belonging, haven’t gone as far as communicating with Larva in a fruit. But I can recommend it as an enriching experience. Living as we are, amid the consequences of denial, my Autistic view provides an open line with The Expansive.
Now, I’m away to find a chatty Moss.
References:
Barrett, M. J., Hinz, V., Wijngaarden, V. and Lovrod, M. (2021) ‘Speaking with other animals through intuitive interspecies communication: towards cognitive and interspecies justice’
© Inga Hamilton. Find out more about Inga’s work at www.ingahamilton.com