The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest To Heal His Son (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
Science understands little of how our minds work. Autism is a malfunction of the mental system about which there is no clear knowledge of cause, treatment, or outcome. There are no experts in the field and most evidence is anecdotal. Among those who have studied the syndrome there are conflicting opinions on all counts leaving the parents of children so affected to fend for themselves leading to a pragmatic, if it works lets keep doing it, approach. Dealing with a growing energetic six-year-old who refuses to be toilet trained, throws screaming, flailing tantrums for hours, and cannot communicate his/her needs, fears, desires is beyond exhausting. It obviously takes over one’s life. Little wonder 80% of parents’ marriages end in divorce. One facet of the syndrome is an affinity for animals which is mutual in this case a bond being forged between boy and a particular horse. We’ve read of horse whisperers but here we have a boy who communicates with animals on a non-verbal level. His parents travel to the ends of the Earth to ride horses and find Shaman whose own people have largely ignored whose prayers and rituals work an uncanny healing. There is no cure for this condition but anything that can ameliorate the stress and help parents and child cope is welcome. Reading the book will take you along for the ride. This is an earthshaking book. The author, Rupert Isaacson has done a real service to parents of "diagnosed" children of any age by showing how beliefs and leaps of faith can change outcomes. By the time you read my review, the story of a father taking his autistic son to Mongolia to ride horses and visit shamans has been well covered by other reviewers. The genius of this book is in showing that there is a world of holistic help out there for those who seek it. You don't have to travel to Mongolia; there are shamans in every country of the world who have kept up with ancient practices.For several years I have been occupied in writing my own memoir about my son, except in this case the diagnosis was "schizophrenia." Once I realized, as the author of this book did, that our family was on own our own in finding real help for schizophrenia, that's when it began to get interesting and rewarding, if you have an open mind and are willing to suspend disbelief.The huge contribution of The Horse Boy is in showing how relevant shamanic healing is and how quickly it can work compared to taking a conventional medical route. In fact, the conventional medicine route has failed schizophrenia, and it seems to have done the same for autism. Autism and schizophrenia, to my way of thinking, are not medical conditions, although they masquerade as medical conditions. Major Western religions and western "science" has convinced us to reject shaman practices as the naive beliefs systems of primitive peoples. My experience with shamanic practices with my own son have convinced me that Hermann Hesse was absolutely right, that science is in the stone age compared to ancient wisdom.Isaacson has meticulously documented the changes that his son experienced almost immediately following each shamanic ceremony. When my own son underwent an assemblage point shift, using quartz crystal wands and heated gemstone lamps, I saw a lasting change in him within five minutes of getting up off the table. When my husband, my son and I undertook a shamanic therapy based on Zulu practices called Family Constellation Therapy, we were told to just walk away from it, not discuss what we had observed, and the magic would happen. The magic happened for my son several months later. He emerged from his almost non-verbal shell into a social young man.The author did so many things right. He looked past the autism diagnosis and marvelled at the magic associated with the condition. He was uneasy with the day program his son attended, which he felt only reinforced his son's autistic tendencies. I felt the same way about the day program my twenty year old son attended. I wish more people would think about what these programs are reinforcing beyond patient behaviour. There is a vast mental health industry out there that needs constant feeding.It's better to believe in magic. Magic has a lot to offer these conditions that drugs and day programs cannot. One of my big criticisms about the "official" lack of progress in schizophrenia is that we have been led down the garden path when it comes to the role of the family background in producing these conditions. This is where the drug companies really score big. It's not parenting, it's faulty brain chemistry, they console us, all the while prescribing drugs (far too many) which are supposed to allow our relative to "function." Shamans doesn't believe in that sort of drug company nonsense. They go straight to the source, and yes, it's usually found in our complex family backgrounds. Believing in family curses is what shamanism is all about. The Old Testament of the Bible is awash in curses,but the modern church steers us to the cheerier aspects of our religion, embarrassed about the quaint way the ancients saw the world. As the Horse Boy attests to, a death in the family, especially one that is tragic and young, has a ripple effect down the generations. Karmic debts have a way of accumulating. Restless ancestors have a way of interfering in the present. The good news is that you can clear this. The bad news is that many people are frightened of the focus on the family and prefer to believe that their relative has a damaged brain.A fabulous book that deserves an even wider audience.
What do You think about The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest To Heal His Son (2009)?
A heartfelt, beautiful story. I felt the spiritual shaman connection. Definitely worth a read.
—donnayaros
Amazing tale of a parent's commitment to their kid. I get it.
—macattack
