Autistic Rhizome
@Autistic Realms
A growing and evolving network of Autistic communities with no hierarchy or dependence on anothers existence.
Each person forms an integral part and is connected by a flow of energy that not only runs through and between individuals and communities but enables new connections to form. It is a place of safety, support and deep understanding.
The Autistic rhizome creates new energy through the sharing and evolution of ideas which permeates and ripples through into wider society.
On discord, there is a growing network of communities. I have lovingly dubbed this collective The Autistic Rhizome. They are an interconnected network of knowledge exchange, and mutual aid and support that have displaced the hierarchical nature of advocate/follower relationships.
Neuro-anarchy and the rise of the Autistic Rhizome – DGH Neurodivergent Consultancy
Rhizome: as conceptualised in the work of Deleuze and Guatarri. A network with no single point of origin. No part of the network depends upon the existence of another. I have introduced the idea of this in the context of community here.
Neuro-anarchy and the rise of the Autistic Rhizome – DGH Neurodivergent Consultancy
On discord, there is a growing network of communities. I have lovingly dubbed this collective The Autistic Rhizome. They are an interconnected network of knowledge exchange, and mutual aid and support that have displaced the hierarchical nature of advocate/follower relationships.
We are equal in these spaces.
This doesn’t mean that all knowledge shared is useful in advancing the neurodiversity movement. Like any knowledge, some is good, some is bad, most is somewhere in the middle.
This growing network consists of communities that do not depend on each other to exist, but are still enriched by their interconnection. There is no starting or end point. There is no advancing through communities based on levels of knowledge. They just simply exist, and people come and go as they please.
Neuro-anarchy and the rise of the Autistic Rhizome – DGH Neurodivergent Consultancy
In order to explore the nature of our ever growing and developing Autistic culture, we need to be looking to the Autistic rhizome, detached from a non-existent central point, exploring new theory, and building on what exists. We need to surprise the world with each new thought, not repackage the same thought over and over.
Autistic Culture and the Advent of Decentralised Communities – Stimpunks Foundation
Deleuze and Guattari described this kind of thinking as ‘Rhyzomatic.’
A rhyzome isn’t like a tree, it doesn’t have subordinate parts emerging from a core trunk. A rhizome is a root system of pure connections.
How the things connect is how they are defined. By the same logic, how they are disconnected is how they are defined.
Deleuze differed from the poststructuralists like Derrida and Foucault in that he was a Monist. All of it is connected, all of it is one, and the connections and lack of connections between the things, are what define them as things. This is an Ontology of Difference.
Spider-Verse, Identity Politics, Leftist Infighting, and the Oppression Olympics – YouTube
A punk bass line. With all the space for ingenuity and contributions.
Spider-Verse, Identity Politics, Leftist Infighting, and the Oppression Olympics – YouTube
Safety, Validation, and Connection
StimPunks has a great, up-to-date glossary that reflects the breadth and richness of this global neurodivergent community. It captures a reflection of the autistic, neurodivergent and disabled culture and language used within these communities. It is a beautiful display of acceptance, belonging and connecting(NATP). An example of this is their page Five Neurodivergent Love Locutions (Stimpunks, 2022), where they expanded on Myth’s (@neurowonderful) original Twitter/ X post:
“The five neurodivergent love languages: info-dumping, parallel play, support swapping, Please Crush My Soul Back Into My Body, and “I found this cool rock/button/leaf/etc and thought you would like it” (Myth, 2021).
These examples show the different ways many autistic people create a sense of belonging by sharing stories and developing friendships online, as these spaces are often not available or accessible elsewhere. It is through these online spaces that I have grown to feel more accepted and continue to un-learn and re-learn more authentic ways of being with the support of other neurodivergent people who ‘get it’.
Autistic Community: Connections & Becoming
When people feel validated, and they can validate the experience of others, a sense of safety is created between people, and stronger connections form to strengthen the rhizome network. People are in a better place to unravel, de-mask, and dearmour themselves from the restraints of trying to live up to neuronormative ideas. Safe spaces enable radical inclusive ways for people to be themselves, so they can explore their own ways of being without stigma and be without fear of prejudice. Perhaps only through enduring living in the liminal can we truly embrace or feel the potential of Walker’s (2021) neuroqueer theory and neuroqueering potential. After years of isolation and existing in survival mode on the edges of the liminal, they are connecting with others who resonate with you sense and meaning to what may previously have felt like a very disconnected, chaotic existence.
Quantum Neuro-Holographic Thoughts from a Liminal Space | by MoreRealms | Medium
Connecting with others and following your intuition and your internal vibes or gut feelings in safe spaces enables people to explore emerging thoughts, to be open to explore the ‘perhaps’, the ‘may be’, the ‘could be’ and possibilities that could happen if we truly embraced the neurodiversity paradigm and neuroqueer theory. It enables our community rhizomes to expand into spaces full of radical, inclusive neuroqueer possibilities. Opening up discussions and sharing lived experiences helps to bridge the deep double empathy gap. I feel we need to embrace the potential of the quantum effects of communities coming together, enabling us to create new planes and plateaus to live together as our authentic selves and continue to neuroqueer ourselves and the spaces we are in, holographically.
Quantum Neuro-Holographic Thoughts from a Liminal Space | by MoreRealms | Medium
Rabbit Warrens
There is a natural human need to feel understood and connected; connections build relationships and support good mental health. For some people, those connections and relationships may not look different from the more conventional norms the majority of society holds but are equally valuable. For people who feel marginalised either by neurodivergence, disability or by being in another minority group, there is often no space already carved out for support and building connections in local communities. This can cause feelings of isolation and disconnection. Yet, the need to find people that understand and can connect within the same folds, with similar interests and values, can lead people to create their communities.
It feels like a rabbit warren of underground tunnels and caves where people meet, mainly through online social media platforms. The continuous physical growth of these spaces where people are connecting is slowly creating ripples and heading into real family spaces and showing a genuine need for change in our education system as more and more children are showing how the current frameworks are just not meeting needs and resulting in school attendance difficulties and mental health concerns.
Caverns, Pleats and Folds. The potential to neuroqueer is inside… | by MoreRealms | Medium
💗Stimpunks helps make me feel better just by being there, scrolling through the rabbit warren of pages and hyperlinks and opening up new paths and spaces to explore! A world I can get happily lost inside for many hours. Stimpunks provides a sense of connection and belonging, a community space that truly ‘gets it’ at a deep level. Super work! Thank you, Helen x 💗
Helen Edgar of Autistic Realms
