Take 10 Minutes- Meet a Trust Agent

My wife is a speech language pathologist and brought this video to my attention a LONG time ago. This video is STILL amazing.

Thank you for sharing. On a quiet Sunday - it got me to be think about someone's being and perspective I might not have considered before.

Thanks.
Margot

Thank you for sharing. On a quiet Sunday - it got me to be think about someone's being and perspective I might not have considered before.

Thanks.
Margot

Apologies if this is pot stirring, but someone brought it to my attention a while back that there is controversy over whether she is a fraud. Google her name and that word and much comes up. I don't enough to know which side of the fence to fall on with respect to the veracity of her story.

I googled her name (based on Heather's post - apologizing if she is pot stirring) but there are A LOT of posts about Amanda being a fraud/scam artist and/or the possibility.

I didn't meet her but there is enough out there that wants me to challenge her, the message is good but it is always good to challenge the source.

So here's a PERFECT conversation about Trust Agents. I googled and found 3 blogspot.com posts:

http://autismfraud.blogspot.com/2008/02/letter-...

http://hatingautism.blogspot.com/2008/03/wikipe...

http://amandabaggscontroversy.blogspot.com/

What do they all have in common? They are all somewhat self-referential, and still without enough credibility to move me. Wikipedia says differently.

So, who should we believe?

THAT is one of the big things we talk about on Trust Agents.

Wonder if she is or isn't. How will we find out? Who will research more?

I could spend all day researching this but based on three links I saw it seems that these people were just angry that someone they knew accomplished more. I am not sure if that is in your book (haven't got that far) but where I come from, it's called "hating"

Where i come from, it's called exposing fraud. Of course, the frauds usually hate this.

All I was saying that is I do not know what to think. My first impression is that she is for real but I could be wrong. Do you have anything to back up that she is a fraud. I read http://amandabaggscontroversy.blogspot.com/#twelve and it talks about her singing as being proof that she is a fraud. But then I read that people with autism can sing.
http://www.examiner.com/x-2007-Informal-Educati...

A very interesting post Chris. Is this about language, autism, fraud, or simply trust?

Watching this video and reading these comments reminds me of when I watched so-called 9/11 Truth videos years ago. I started out by believing them, thinking the American government is behind it all etc. But after much reading and watching of other viewpoints all I could confirm is that I simply don't know. There is much I can't trust in a 9/11 Truth video, but I also don't know what to trust in standard media. All I could decide is that things are far more complicated than just "The government did it" vs "Terrorists did it".

I think this case is also more complicated than some are suggesting here. Perhaps Amanda Baggs really was fairly "normal" in high school. Does that mean she doesn't have autism now? Does that mean she didn't have it then? What is autism and how does it affect you? If the answer to that last question was easy then there wouldn't be the need for more research and understanding into the condition.

Trust is a two way street. To truly engage with someone we both need to trust each other. Even if Amanda Baggs is making it all up, she is still trying to communicate in her own way - possibly in the only way she can at this point. To find out if we can trust her, we still need to learn her language and for that we still need to gain her trust.

Inspiring, enlightening and without judgement. When we live our lives in judgement, we miss the opportunity to connect. Chris, you are a wealth of information and incredible insight. Appreciating you...
Teresa
P.S. Love the book!

It took me a long time, even after they said "A translation" to understand that she was actually the one "speaking" through the video.

It's really odd, even to me, that my brain fought wanting to accept that.

Having been to countries where I don't speak the language, I guess I might understand a small portion of what her life is like... but only a very small portion.

This really is powerful. Thanks for sharing it Chris.

Jonathan
http://www.GreatLegalBenefit.com/today

I appreciate you sharing this Chris. I am moved and enlightened having seen this.

Amanda is truly amazing...I like many others have failed to recognize the wonder that is her language...thanks for making me more aware!

Tried to comment earlier but it is a great look into someone else's world.

Watch a real autistic person move. Watch Baggs move. You will see the difference.

Well I must admit I have an ignorance of things concerning autism. I will have to look into it.

This is me taking it in a direction not really relevant
but there is no "real" autistic way to move
there are a couple of similar movements in some autistic folks
but there are many many many that are individual or uncommon

just
i dunno
please don't white wash the autistic crowd :)

-kat

Chris, I watched the entire video and to be frank, I almost gave her the buzzer in the first 3 minutes. Then I said to myself, Chris would not be recommending watching this without some meaning behind it. We can't judge a book by it's cover, the old saying goes. I found it very enlightening and moving. The new technology will allow a person to think what they want to type, which will begin to bring more communication with those who are handicapped.

I can't agree more.

Somehow I think that Chris would not have posted this video, without knowing the issues or questions around the source. I think that is the point. Is it that we always must trust the source in order to embrace the message?

Take a look at other sources you depend on daily - are they always who (whom) they seem to be?

Whether or not Amanda is truly autistic, it really is about the need to find new ways to communicate - cross language barriers. And trust.

Thanks Chris.

Chris,

Regarding the "fraud" issue...to me, fraud or not, the message is extremely powerful, and those grasping the real message will be better marketers and more importantly better people.

Thanks for posting.

Peter

This goes to the motivation for the fraud. Her overall message is that autistic people do not want to be cured. That's simply insane so you have to ask yourselves why anyone would want to promote such nonsense. This is rather long but worth reading if you want to understand the whole agenda.
http://hatingautism.blogspot.com/2009/06/debunk...

Wow! I started out thinking that it was going to be strange and a waste of time. The second half of the video really opened my eyes, or I guess, my mind. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

I am not attacking anyone with Autism.
I have seen the "good" side of her, and I seen the "bad" side.
I have my opinions and they are mine. I could do my "homework" and research more out.

I deal with homeless people in Toronto, many of them are scam artists who are not really homeless. There was this woman called "shaky lady", she would shake back and forth, she begged for money, at the end she was caught being a fraud, I also saw her in Montreal begging for money.

I like to get both/all sides of a story. When the poster below claimed she was a fraud, I Googled and found some information that claims she is a fraud, other posts claim she is legit. I stated my opinion, and I left as Chris can have his opinion (and all you can have your own different opinions). To tell you the truth, I am not going to lose sleep over this.

But there are A LOT of scammers out there (not calling her a scammer and not calling her not a scammer).

Chris,
You stumbled on a real "can of worms" here with Amanda Baggs. In case you didn't notice, I'm the guy who wrote the three blog posts you referenced.
It's not just Baggs that you have to watch to understand what's going on here but the whole of a group called Neurodiversity who has been waging a propaganda campaign since 1999 to try to convince parents NOT to cure their autistic children. Baggs has served as the spokesmodel for this group since 2006 when she started making her videos.
Why would anyone be opposed to curing autism, you might ask. Follow the money. Autism is caused by thimerosal, the vaccine preservative that contains mercury. We learned this is 1999 and shortly after that, learned how to remove mercury from the brain to cure the autism. The more children we cure of autism, the more evidence there is against the vaccine makers that can translate into trillions of dollars in lawsuits. Everyone associated with Amanda Baggs also defends Pharma and they write blatant lies about treatments that cure autism or improve it to try to convince parents not to use those treatments for Pharma's benefit.
Autistic children who act the way Baggs does are mostly severely retarded and never learn to read or write. They are sent to asylums once they're too big for their parents to handle and that's where they spend the rest of their lives. Everything Baggs says is a complete lie.

I was emotionally touched, almost to the "ol' Yeller" movie level, but managed to control it. There came a point, somewhere around the 7min mark, where the intellectual discetion of the words faded away and human empathy took over. I was touched, and that is a good thing for me.

Recently, I got the chance to meet Chris, shake his hand and look him in the eyes. My comment to him was that he is a role model, something like a lighthouse beacon, for me and I look forward to following his lead. I trust Chris.

Not jumping into the fraud or not debate. What I do want everyone to take away is how social media has opened a world to individuals who physically can't speak or carry on a verbal conversation in the way most of us can (and how this has empowered them & opened further entrepreneurial routes for them).

What I have been doing since 2007 ~ setting up email newsletters, blogs & now FB, Linkedin, Twitter for my clients has connected with the fact that my daughter's speech is unintelligible (due to a chromosome disorder (18p-); which means she's missing a piece of the short arm of her #18 chromosome). My daughter is 7 and beginning when she was 6 I taught her how to email, use instant chat on Skype, blog, she makes entries on our FB Fan Page, we've recorded a few YouTube videos & she uses an augmentative communication device in school.

That's my take on this & social media and it's my mission & passion to teach children like my daughter & their families that if they so choose, they can use social media to it's fullest.

Thanks Chris for posting this ~ fraud or not a fraud ~ I was literally drawn to watch this & drawn to comment here; even if my comment is a bit out of context with the video itself. Thanks from the bottom of my heart!!