I was That Kid (I think every grade-school has one) standing at the far end of the playfield at recess waiting for the Flying Saucer People to come take him home.

All of us are Not From Here; all of us have a vague sense that there is a place where we were totally accepted, totally cherished, and totally Home. We brought that with us into our human incarnation from a condition of Divine Unity/Divine Intimacy in “pre-eternity.”

In some of us, notably those “on-the-spectrum,” that “memory” or impression has stayed closer to the surface, and that can be VERY difficult — not just feeling alienated from this life but in how the mind tries to make sense of something it can’t really make sense of except in symbolic terms, according to the imprinting we have received in life. That symbolism is not necessarily in true alignment with the deeper truth and it can cause great suffering if misinterpreted.

AND all of us can find our way back in this lifetime, while still living a full human life. That’s the function of spiritual practice.

In a sane culture, there would be elders & shamans to take such a soul under their wing and guide and nurture its extraordinary gifts. In this society, we’re flying blind, not understanding how these things work and often either pathologizing the person or uncritically accepting everything the mind generates.

So it is harder, in some ways. We have few exemplars or real mentors. On the other hand, there is more scope (through this culture’s hyper-individuality, to actualize ourselves in unusual ways & oddly-enough, often the same disconnection from those around us that brings so much pain.