Decoding Rapture Hype and Rewriting Autism Myths for Real-World Hope

Viral rapture dates, prophecy pressure, and a world on edge—let’s take a breath. We open by cutting through sensational predictions with grounded wisdom and a working definition of “rapture” as awakening rather than escape. From there we pivot into the heart of the episode: a deep, hopeful conversation with Harvard-trained educator and author Jonathan Alderson on why so many autism “certainties” are wrong, how they took hold, and what families can do right now that actually helps.

Jonathan shares how years in the therapy room contradicted conference claims—like the myth that autistic children lack imagination. He unpacks the damaging “five-year window” belief and replaces it with modern neuroplasticity research, including evidence of a second wave of brain growth during adolescence. We explore his Integrative Multi-Treatment Intervention, a personalized roadmap that blends speech and occupational therapies with biomedical considerations like digestion, methylation, sleep, and energy—because every child’s profile is unique. He also introduces ThriveGuide.co, an accessible platform that transforms a detailed child profile into five tailored next steps, plus a free Weekly AIM email to sustain mindset, motivation, and practical progress.

Our Q&A gets candid about Tylenol rumors and MTHFR variants, drawing a clear line between theoretical pathways and proven causation. The takeaway is simple and powerful: trust qualified medical care and peer-reviewed evidence, not viral claims. We also walk through early signs of ASD, real-world education paths beyond one-size-fits-all approaches, and the kind of parental mindset that turns possibility into growth.

We close with reflection on an unusual concentration of military leadership meetings and a reminder to choose prudence over panic. There’s space, too, to honor community courage after a tragic church attack—and to answer a listener’s question about GMO foods with practical, body-aware nutrition advice.

If you’re weary of fear-driven narratives—about faith, health, or your child’s future—you’ll find clear science, compassionate perspective, and real tools here. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs hope and direction, and leave a review to help more families find their next best step.

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening, Hot Topic: The Rapture
• 3:20 History, Hype, and Scripture Context
• 6:45 Fear, Story, and Practical Spirituality
• 10:25 Reframing Rapture as Enlightenment
• 13:10 Audience Invite and Guest Setup
• 15:25 Introducing Jonathan Alderson
• 19:10 Tech Delay, Autism Lived Realities
• 22:40 Parents as Advocates and Community Support
• 27:40 Autism as Communication Difference
• 30:20 Guest Joins: Origins of the Myths
• 35:10 Evidence vs. Assumptions in Research
• 39:20 The “Five-Year Window” Myth and Hope
• 44:40 Mindset Training for Parents
• 48:10 Neuroplasticity and Rehabilitation Insights
• 53:30 Practical Tools: Book and ThriveGuide
• 56:20 Q&A: Neuroplasticity and the Brain
• 1:01:20 Q&A: Tylenol, Genes, and Caution
• 1:07:20 Q&A: Signs of ASD and Education Paths
• 1:13:20 Show Gratitude and Resources Recap
• 1:16:40 News Segment: High-Risk Military Meeting
• 1:23:20 Community Tragedy, Courage, and Reflection
• 1:28:40 Q&A: GMO Food and Personal Nutrition

Transcript

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to Wake Up with Dr. Douglas James Cottrell, your source of helpful information and advice to live your life in a mindful way in this increasingly chaotic world. For over four decades Dr. Douglas has been teaching people have to develop their intuition and live their lives in a conscious way. His news and views of the world tomorrow today are always informative and revealing. And now here's your host, Dr. Douglas James Cottrell.

Douglas: 0:30

I'm your host, Dr. Douglas James Cottrell, and joining me as always is my good friend and co-producer Jack Bialik. And tonight we have special co-host Larry Cruz. Welcome to the show, Larry. It's great to have you here tonight. I trust you've had a great week.

Larry: 0:48

Yes, I have, and I hope you have too.

Douglas: 0:50

So far, so good, but it seems to be one of those magic Mondays where everything is just going one step forward and two steps back. So we'll start off with something that's really hot. It's in the news, it's on TikTok, it's all over the world. It's been broadcast by some uh some serious people about uh that amazing thing that's called the rapture. Uh a South African pastor, Joshua Malekla, has publicly claimed that he received a vision from Jesus the Christ indicating that the rapture will occur on this, September the 23rd or the 24th, 2025. That's just a few days ago. However, these dates coincide with Rosh Hashanah, uh feast of trumpets, uh, in the Jewish calendar. No, I'm not too familiar with that, but uh for somebody to come out and speak worldwide, Larry, that they have uh uh a divine communication about the rapture. Wow, that's pretty, you know, brazen. Uh and and the guy, you know, you could say he's either crazy or that Jesus spoke to him. The prophet he's gone on social media all over TikTok under the hashtag hashtag rapture talk. Uh, I'm just gonna give that a shout out. Now remember, I'm not associated with these fellows, so I don't really know or endorse them. Okay, so if you're gonna check it out, please do, because this is a very important time, Larry. I mean, you know, the rapture is something that uh people have been uh told that is coming. It's it started off in the 1800s, and uh, you know, our theologians and the professionals, uh, many Christian leaders uh caution against date setting. I do too, but you know, I'm still here. Okay, so you're still there, and everybody listening to our voice were still here. You know, my my friends, the rapture in a fundamental way was supposed to be the time when all the good souls, the believers, especially the Christian believers, would be called to heaven and they would rise up, all the souls that were alive and the good Christians that were deceased, and they would go up into the clouds to be with Christ in heavens above. Well, I'm not sure if that's exactly uh what happened or is supposed to happen, but we're gonna find out. You can look for biblical uh scripture, for example, Matthew chapter 24, verse 36 warns that no one knows the day or the hour, and that'll give a different slant on what the rapture is all about. Some commentary is also re-examining the traditional rapture paradigm. Questions are being raised about how much of what is popular belief comes from the 18th, 19th, and 20th century theology. Popular Christian fiction or culture interprets rather than uh rather than it's an interpretation rather rather than an early Christian teaching. Before that time, before the 1800s, there wasn't much about this at all. So, reflecting the human cost of such beliefs, uh some former believers describe the psychological and emotional damage of living under constant prophecy pressure. Now, there's a term I haven't heard before. Maybe the our producer Jack will write that one down. Under constant prophecy pressure. I want you, I'm a minister. I've been in this spiritual business all my life, apparently, as we all are, but for the last 50 years, I have gone uh on sojourns, I've made pilgrimages, I've gone and sought everywhere to find what is the truth, what is the orthodox believing of the one true God. And so I've come to well, I've come to many roads, I've come to many temples and churches, I've met many spiritual beings and people who are uh earnest, I mean sincere. After all, this life in the world is temporary, and the one next in the great uh post-existence, which by the way is the same as the pre-existence, you know, we came from heaven and now we're going back to the same place. It's got to be something that everybody's looking forward to in understanding all of their life, but there's a lot of pressure, and people are afraid, and we don't want them to be afraid. It's more like, you know, telling a story, and the story essence becomes the meaning, and the meaning becomes the law, and then people are afraid to break the law, but they don't understand the story. So as we look at this in this point of time, it's a matter of saying the rapture, the fervor over it, uh is something that, you know, you gotta take this with a little common sense. You know, don't neglect paying your bills, don't sell your house, don't get down on your hands and knees every moment and pray and pray and pray that you're going to be one of the people ascending to the heavens above. All in good time. All in good time. I think this whole idea of the rapture refers to the enlightenment, it refers to the Christ consciousness, it refers to the people being uplifted and coming to a point of spiritual understanding and illumination. And in that sense, that's a real thing. And as such, this time, the time we're in now, a time of chaos, is a time that we should all pay attention. Deceit and chaos and corruption are everywhere. But isn't that a time when light and illumination would come into the world? So as we move through the show, I'd like you to consider uh as we get to the question and answer part in the next segment or in the last segment of the show that you consider, you know, uh chiming in and letting us know what you think of this time that is now becoming popular uh as the rapture, you know, so we can have you uh, you know, chime in with what you believe. We have a special guest tonight who likewise has been exploring myths all of his life. He's uh a well-known uh author. He is someone who has uh been a friend of mine for years. He's uh Harvard trained, he's a Master of Education degree from Harvard University. He's devoted his entire life to understanding and serving people in a very special way on the autism spectrum. I want to welcome to tonight Jonathan Alderson, as I said, a scholar, a practitioner, and change maker in the world of autism and human potential. Jonathan is also the author of Changing the Myths. Sorry, I have a copy here, it's exploring the myths of autism, sometimes called Challenging the Myths of Autism, which I have here in my script. Jonathan will correct me as to which one is correct. And I want you to know this is a fantastic book. If you have someone in your family or you have a friend or neighbor that has some difficulties with autism, this is the man to see. He is the or one of the experts in understanding autism and providing ways and means to deal with it practically throughout the life of the child in particular. And I want to say he's he's has done this from an amazing perspective. He's being hoisted to the top of his profession. He has uh sparked international and national discussions of exploring the misconceptions about autism, and he is inviting us to uh look in a deeper, empathetic way for all the possibilities. Tonight we're going to explore some of the dimensions of autism through Jonathan's knowledge and how society, faith, the soul, and science interact in the life of those on the spectrum. We'll ask not just what autism is, but who is the person is? Who is that mysterious person behind the mask of autism? Why myths persists and how we can learn to see through this hidden mist. Welcome to the show, Jonathan. I saw you there on the side of our just a moment ago. Uh let us uh let the uh wizard of ours have uh Jonathan pop up here and we'll start our interview. Okay, this is called The Stretch. I'll I'll remark again about how the uh exploring the myths of autism is an amazing book. Uh we're having a little technical difficulties, I assume, and so we'll get to that in a moment. Okay, so we'll we'll wait for our uh for our production uh problem to be solved here and for Jonathan to get back on. I saw him here just a moment ago. Here he is. No, yes, maybe possibly.

Larry: 10:17

Okay, Larry, do you know anybody in your family who has autism? No, I do not. But I do have friends that have children. How are they dealing with it? Uh well um it's a lot of patience. But they're at times they struggle, and at times it's their understanding. It's it's a variety of emotions for this family I'm thinking about particularly.

Douglas: 10:52

Well, any any person, any family that has a specially challenged uh uh child, um everybody should pay attention uh to the parents whose life becomes instantly converted from a normal lifetime to now becoming an advocate for the child. You see, when you have a handicapped child, I'm not supposed to say that, supposed to say challenge child, but that's much of my generation, uh everybody is against you. What? Did he really say that? Yes. It seems like the world is against you. You have to be an advocate to get care for your special child. You have to uh deal with the caregivers, some are nice and some are not. You have to deal with the caregiver managers who are always got one eye on the dollars if you have insurance or government assistance, and the other eye on uh time uh of their employees that are servicing the families in need. So as it comes to a point of, oh my gosh, I'm in a whole world I never expected, you become an advocate because sometimes people don't want to give you the services because they just don't want to spend the money. And you meet people who are unbelievably, you know, callous. On the other hand, you meet people who are amazing, they're angels in disguise, they are there to help and do the best they possibly can for your child. And these people are the ones that deserve a lot of credit. So having uh someone in in your family or someone in your neighborhood when you see a special child, go out of your way, not just to help the child, but help the family. And one thing you should never, ever, ever say, my friends, is walk up to them, perfect strangers though you might be, and say, What happened? Because you see, the parents get asked that a gazillion times, and it hurts every single time. And why should they go through this story to tell you a perfect stranger on the street? So be polite and participate. Help these parents, help these children by participating with practical ways and means. Giving money is one way, of course, but maybe the parents need somebody to babysit the child, or maybe they need their lawn cut, or maybe they need somebody to run for groceries. It's an important thing for us as spiritual believers, practicing practical spirituality, practical Christianity, and or whatever religion you're in, to be a practical spiritual person means when you see something needs to be done, help. And whenever you find somebody who's down on their luck, somebody living on the street, when somebody crosses your path, that's an opportunity for you to express and demonstrate your spirituality and just how a good Samaritan you are. But again, people living with autism, it's very difficult. And Jonathan is a uh master because he has found the keys, he's found a way. That's why his book uh is Exploring the Myths of Autism is such a profound title. Because when you hear the word autism, you really don't know what it means, but you sort of give up and you say, Oh, the child has autism, and you dismiss it. Well, Jonathan has found a way or ways on how to communicate with children, how to get past the mask, how to get into the inner being, their personality. And I could tell you stories, but we're hoping that our technical glitches here get solved and Jonathan can join the show, as he is much more authoritative and understanding of what he has discovered. You see, autism isn't something like that sit set in stone. Autism is a way children think. It's a personality that we can't understand. It's like they're inside, locked up in a body, and for some reason they don't communicate or think like we do. But they do think and they do live their lives. They're just a little different in the way that they are reacting with the world around them. In the more severe cases, they seem to be locked away in a shell in their body, but they're there, they're alive and they're well. And Jonathan, again, has found a way to turn that key and get into the child and get the child practicing simple skills of living at first, and then to go on with finding out how to get past or around that corner, over that hill, past that block, and get the child pronouncing words, doing things, increasing their vocabulary, and living their life to the fullest. We're going to take a short break in a moment, and we hope we can get Jonathan back on the show. Uh, I guess we're having a teeny tiny bit of uh difficulty. I've seen him pop up in the sidebar here a couple of times, Larry. So um, but have you do you have have you seen children or have you ever in your act interaction with autistic children yourself, other than the people down the street?

Speaker 06: 16:42

Uh no, no, I have not. Have you ever wondered what it is? Yeah.

Larry: 16:48

I have. And it's just it's just a question, but I've never seen a full interaction or anything like that.

Douglas: 16:59

Yeah. Well, that's usually the case it is, Larry. Not to put you on the spot, but that was exactly what I was uh going at. Is that we don't take the time. We say, oh, the child has autism. What does that mean? Well, if Jonathan would be here tonight on the air, which we hope we can get him on, just a minute, grab the computer, get Oz behind the curtain there to give the computer a shake and get this platform working. We'll hopefully get him on. So let's take a short break and we'll be right back after this.

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Douglas: 18:34

And we're sorry that you're having some difficulty uh getting on. We'll try to call you.

Jack: 18:40

We've got uh Jonathan on the phone, Douglas.

Douglas: 18:42

Oh, there we go. We've got him now. Okay, well Jonathan low tech. Wet in doubt, use the use the telephone.

Speaker 08: 18:54

Yeah.

Douglas: 18:55

Welcome to the show, Jonathan. Uh we're sorry that we've had some technical glitches here tonight, but um I was just I've done the introduction and I was talking to uh my co-host Larry tonight about some of the myths uh of autism. And so as you join the show, uh please tell us a little bit about how you came to be such an authority in autism, and uh about your your amazing book, Exploring the Myths of Autism.

Jonathan: 19:27

Oh, hi Douglas, hi Larry. Thank you for the invitation to uh have this conversation with you. Uh and I'm I'm sorry for the uh technical uh uh glitches, but here we are. Like you said, the old-fashioned phone calls never let you down. Um I I I guess I missed the first part of um your conversation that you've been talking about the myths of autism. Was there one that you were sort of talking about the most or something that uh I could jump in on?

Douglas: 20:00

Yeah, we were talking uh just to uh bring the uh audience up to speed about autism. Uh Larry uh is a young man with a family, and uh I asked him uh about autism and and his experiences with it. And it was like everyone else, it's sort of like uh an awareness of autism, but not really um any in-depth uh knowledge of it. And of course, as I said before, um one becomes a parent of a special child, and you automatically become an advocate, uh trying to get services and benefit to that child. So that's kind of where we are. And uh and I I remarked about how some of the amazing accomplishments you have made, not in detail, but how you took it upon yourself to look at a sort of a holistic way of looking at autism, which is something was novel, and that you've risen to uh great heights in your profession because you've been able to explore the myths, but get by the mask of what autism is, to get into the mind of children with autism and have them be live productive lives.

Jonathan: 21:12

Well, thank you, Douglas, for for uh setting that up for sure. And you you mentioned uh the myths of autism, and you're right, I wrote a book, but let me just go back a little bit, uh let me just share with your listeners how that came about because I think it it tells an interesting story of what parents think actually. Um so many years ago, I uh I I live in Canada. Um, but at the time when I became interested in helping children, uh in particular, I just finished an undergraduate degree, um, and also published some research on brain development. And I was interested at the time in how do children uh learn. But in particular, I I published a paper on something called superlearning back in the day in the 1970s, um, uh that super learning was uh first sort of talked about. And it was basically figuring out how could we accelerate learning, both in how much you could learn and how long you could retain it. But in any case, that's kind of what where I started looking at the brain. I became interested in autism when I went down to Massachusetts to a center there, the uh um the Sunrise program. Uh at the time it was called, now it's called the Autism Center for America. And while I was there, uh I had the chance to join the training program where I worked directly one-on-one with autistic children from around the world, all over the world, from Australia, from Mexico, from the Middle East. I traveled to Saudi Arabia, I went to England, Ireland, Spain, Holland, all around, across, all across the States and Canada. And that afforded me the ability to see a whole range of autism, because of course these children are incredibly diverse, they range from open to high functioning, verbal, non-verbal, highly intelligent, struggling with intelligence, et cetera, et cetera. But what happened, Douglas and Larry, is as I was working directly with the children, I was also, I would always have been interested in research and science. And so I was going to a lot of conferences. I was very fortunate to be in the area about a couple hours from Boston, where you know there's MIT and Harvard and Boston University, but also from New York. I was a couple hours from New York, so lots of conferences there in New Jersey. And what would happen is I would go to these conferences and I'd hear these scientists and doctors and researchers, they would say things about autistic children that were diametrically opposed to what I was seeing a lot. And the research are respectable uh respectable, and someone who's well respected and regarded, was talking about the fact that he said that autistic children don't have imagination, that they can't do imaginative and pretend like they heard about the tensor role. I was thinking, is he talking about the same kids that I work with? Because I worked with a couple of hundred at that point, and they all seemed to be incredibly creative and imaginative and impacted so much so that oftentimes they were sort of in their own thoughts, if you will, with sort of their own dreams and images. Um and so I went back and started reading and looking up some of the citations that this doctor gave. And in fact, there was a literature about the lack of imagination of people. Well, in any case, I started writing down on all the recipe cards and the cards that you know your grandma used to use to write down the red recipe. I got a package of those, and I did it so that anytime I saw and witnessed why I was a child, an example that contradicted these statements that these researchers think, I'd write it down like real life. And I had also been collecting the research around the myth. And that's when I decided, you know, someone needs to write a book about uh what is these services live versus what these researchers are promoting. And so I wrote the book challenging the myths. So I want to I'll just I don't want to carry on too much uh here, but but I will say that what was so interesting, each chapter what I did, so there's seven myths that I talked about. And in each chapter, I start first of all with giving the history of how did the myth come about. Because of course, you your listeners must be wondering, well, Jonathan. I mean, how could all these researchers be so ultimately doctors? I mean, aren't they seeing the same page you are? Well, it's so fascinating. You know, how each myth came about was oftentimes a conversation one researcher had with another or a published paper that wasn't checked and did well. And these myths literally kind of creeped into our literature. Fascinating, fascinating. And they need to be changed. That's why you we gotta challenge them because they're incredibly limited, right? Parents read this stuff and they buy into it. Teachers read it, they buy into it, and it really taints the way we see these wonderful people.

Douglas: 26:50

Well, uh the traditional you know, view was uh drawn from medical, psychological, and educational perspectives, uh, again, passed on from one to another, difficulties with social communication interaction, uh restricted repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, you know, a wide range of symptoms uh that were severely uh affixed to individuals who were nonverbal. And so, as you say, people were just passing along what what was given. It wasn't the real truth. But as uh I've mentioned earlier um before you were on, that uh parents are the real uh people who need guidance and help because they see the child and you know they uh the child is is they're the best, the child is their best patient, they understand the child and they can see these signs of intelligence and and uh activities. And I never heard you tell me that before, that you did this wide uh um uh note-taking, if I can call it that, of these behavioral improvements in children, because there's always always intelligence there, and you had the wherewithal to take it down. And and I guess you had evidence where other people had theory. So, you know, that was amazing. Uh, but to be patient and to and to be so caring and kind to do that. The next step is when uh you wrote this book and put it forward, I'm sure it must have perked up a lot of years, and maybe you had some resistance about a suitable way of looking uh at autism through your eyes and through the experiences you've had, but you had the evidence. And I guess you must have had some really wonderful ways and means to help the parents uh unlock the the children from this prison. I'm gonna call it a prison of autism, maybe this uh frame of mind. Can you tell us something about how you got from collecting this information to writing a book and helping people? I know you help people all over the world. You're very you're world renowned and for your success with autism children. Give us an idea of how you made that stuff, that jump.

Jonathan: 29:04

Great. Thank you, Douglas. Well, let me uh I'll leave the bridge with just this one little anecdote, okay? Um while I was researching uh the book, um one of the myths that I look at I call the myth of uh the five-year myth of the week of the five-year window. And this is actually an idea that many, many parents would, especially children, just disappear. And it's the idea that we really have this window between you know, zero age up to five years old, when the brain is super fertile, lots of lots of dendrites that can just lots of nerve endings that can learn, lots of stuff. And the idea is that after five years old, that these dendrites, there's not as many of them that. And there's a process actually in the brain, and this is all true and scientific. There's a process called pruning that the brain does. It's exactly it's called pruning because it's like you went out to your tree or a bush and you just cut off a bunch of branches that were in the way or dead or not being used. So your brain prunes itself from unused uh circuits, if you will.

Douglas: 30:23

Wow.

Jonathan: 30:23

So the idea here is uh parents are told, hey, listen, you really got about five years to help your autistic child learn how to talk or draw a circle or count or even learn how to put on their running shoes. And then after that, it really learning slows down. And this idea, and again, it is true that pruning happens, but this idea is actually the science is what led to governments around the world to fund early intervention. And that's where all of our funding goes between children who are, you know, infants right up to sort of three or four years old. And this is good. This is very, very good. But here's what's not good, Douglas. And that is the idea that somehow after the age of five, that it's all downhill from here.

Douglas: 31:16

Right, right.

Jonathan: 31:17

I don't know about you, but I'll tell you, I've learned almost everything that I know in life after the age of five.

Douglas: 31:24

I would agree with that. And you keep on learning every day. Yeah.

Jonathan: 31:28

Of course, right? But I'll tell you, so, and I'm I'm just doing the jump here to to talk about my approach. So, but while I was researching this book and I tell this story in challenging the myths of autism, I came across uh sort of a mom blog and a chat chat uh uh group. And so I was just reading some of the posts. And on this one evening that I was researching, I read this post that made me cry. I had tears. And I read it, and it was a mom who was reaching out to this other mom support group, and she was saying, Tonight is my son's fifth birthday, and I'm my autistic son's fifth birthday, and I'm sitting at home, and I'm and she said, and I'm angry at myself, and I'm depressed, and I feel that I've let him down because he still doesn't talk, and I've tried everything I can, but it's his fifth birthday, and I've let him down. And can you imagine? So, this is a mom who is bought into the idea that she only had five years to help him, and then it's done. And she was feeling so sad and depressed, and I wanted to just jump through that chat group and and you know, sort of grab her and look at her in the eyes and say, listen, there's lots of hope, there's lots of time, there's lots of things that you can do. Don't give up and don't buy this myth. And I tell this story and what happened in the book. So one of the very first strategies, if you want to call it a strategy, Douglas, that I um approach helping a family with is to look at actually what you could call their attitude about autism. And when I say attitude, I mean what are the beliefs that they hold? What are their how do they imagine it? How do they think about it? What belief, do they believe the child is gonna learn after five? Do they believe the child is creative and imaginative and can do pretend play? Or do they believe that they only have five years and will probably never do pretend play? So we actually do an inventory of their the the parents' attitude, how they feel. And one of the things I help them with is to adopt a whole new perspective that is hopeful and optimistic and not false, not a false hope. I'm not selling false hope, but that's actually based on science and real children that have worked with. So reframing your attitude, just like an athlete, if you were, right? Athletes that are in the Olympics, they actually have psychologists, sports psychologists who will train, they're training their bodies to maybe run a fast race, but they also have a sports psychologist who trains their thinking to also win the race. And so that's the first place I start is to train the parents thinking so that they can have hope and have a lot of success moving forward.

Douglas: 34:26

Well, you know, there must be a whole learning curve for the traditional therapist who basically shut down as well and saying, Well, they're only five, or that's as much as we can do. Um I I had that experience in my own family where someone said, Well, the child is 18 and the government assistant quits. And you go, Yeah, but this the child still needs to go to school and needs things. You say, Well, not much we can do. They normally don't live much longer. And that's that was uh somebody actually said that cruel statement in my presence.

Speaker 06: 35:00

Pardon me.

Jonathan: 35:06

Yeah, I'm sorry, Give her the Douglas, that you went went through that and that I'm sorry adapted to that. In some ways, cruel thing to say to a parent. You know, there's a balance. Professionals want to not give false hope, and professionals want to have real conversations. But I think that there's so much what I call mythology and limiting ideas and beliefs that uh aren't um don't really stand up the reality that um there's there's a lot of work to be done. You know, there's a lot I I haven't met a professional yet, Douglas, in 30 years of working, that doesn't have, you know, some good intention to help the family and help the children. They're coming from a good place. I don't want to sound negative towards my colleagues. They're doing good things. That professor who is standing up on the stage and talking about autistic children don't have imaginations, can't you pretend play? He wasn't there trying to put them down. He just had misinformation. You know, so so what one of my ambitions is is to re-educate or educate my colleagues and parents with a different view. And I'm sorry that you were, you know, went through back in the day some of those limiting and negative beliefs.

Douglas: 36:26

Well, you have hands-on experience, Jonathan. You're right there on the floor dealing with the children, looking them in the eye, and you've been very um astute at finding ways and means to you know get into the mind of that child. I I thought that was fascinating how you said about the synopsis and the other uh the pruning that takes place in the brain. I never quite thought of it that way, but I know that if you you know the old saying, if you don't use it, you'll lose it, you know, weightlifters and whatnot. So that makes perfect sense. Uh there was uh back in the day there was uh uh practice called patterning, which was to take a child and go through the motions, even though the child was incapable of it on its own accord, go through the motions of crawling or swimming, and so the child would re-earn uh the steps and regain uh the mobility uh in its own life, and it would walk, it would uh the child would walk again and crawl, and and uh the brain would be stimulated. So that's a little bit of a side issue, but it was along the same lines of retraining the brain. I think they do that people when people have strokes and things like that. They have this patterning process. So this idea of you know the brain rusting away after five years, there's not much going on. I find that extremely well. I'm not gonna use any any derogatory words, but it's kind of like uh just just you know, you know what it is, it's the people standing up on a stage, they don't really deal with the people on the floor, they don't really children, they have no hands-on experience like yourself.

Jonathan: 38:06

So I think the ideal is to to blend both of those, and and I remember patterning, and I think you know, it was again there's some researchers and people with a good heart that are saying, Well, we need to train the brain, and that's true. And so the idea work in practice, you know, patterning was often done against children's will. Uh, I remember seeing a video of a child who was being patterned to crawl because the child couldn't do a cross-crawl movement. So if you you think about the little baby, how they crawl across the floor floor, and your left knee goes first, and then your right hand goes next, and then your right knee and then your left hand, and ultimately it's cross- it's called cross-crawling. And some children don't seem to be able to do this, and so you might pattern a child by literally having two to four adults, one on each limb, to help the child do this, which can be lovely and nice and and caring, but not if the child doesn't want it. This video, you know, kid who couldn't wait to get out of there and stand up and didn't want to do this at all. By the way, the child could walk, that you just hadn't gone through the cross-crawl stage of learning, and and these therapists believe that you must absolutely go through the cross-crawl phase, whether you skipped it or whatever. So I think in practice, uh it's not um, you know, always done well. But just as a for your listeners, as a little little uh brain can be a little fun thing. You know, when I was researching, just going back for a second to the brooding and the five-year window, one of the things I share in the book, in this chapter, is this research that had come out fairly recently at the time when I wrote the book, but uh um a research at the National Institute of Mental Health in the States, the NIH, people might have heard of that. Um, a doctor by the name Dr. Jay Gebes, and he actually game-changing sort of binary research, he was able to identify Doug that there's a second wave of dendritic growth, of brain growth. There's a second wave right around adolescence. He he identified at between 10 and 13 years of age, and then there's a second pruning, actually. And this was this this was like we found this you know in in the in the 2000s. So this is pretty new research. Uh, and and we didn't know this before. So we knew that the there's a lot of dendrites when you're born and they kind of get pruned. What we didn't know is there's this another sort of burst of growth, and uh, and then a second rooming, just in early adolescence. So I wrote in the book I said, you know, based on that, governments should fund early intervention, and then they should fund uh early teen intervention. Yeah. Science that supports your brain's ripe at both of those times. But that's the kind of really interesting stuff that if you look at science and you look at what's really going on in the ground, you can come up with some great policies and help a lot of kids.

Douglas: 41:08

Well, you know, the most important thing uh for parents is when you know get to those stages of potty training, uh, you know, communication, I'm hungry, uh, the simple things in life. You know, I'm sick, I don't feel well. And I I think I remember you talking once uh about how you've come up with some remedies and and also how difficult it is to get teachers and the extended helpers to actually go along and uh keep the what can we call it, the pattern going with the child's uh I guess the child's way of thinking or acting in life.

Jonathan: 41:45

Well, uh you asked a little bit earlier, Doug, about uh my approach that that I've evolved over the last 20 years, and it's what I call integrative multi-treatment approach or integrative multitreatment intervention, IMTI. And as it says right in the title, it's multi-treatment. So just briefly for your listeners who may know a little bit about autism, some of you listening will will know a lot about this, but in the field of autism, if you look at uh an individual with autism, there's many different things that they might be challenged where they're struggling with. Could be communication, could be a gross motor movement. You're talking about coordination earlier in the cross-crawl. It could be um sensory integration, how they experience their senses. Maybe they might um feel that uh a cotton shirt that most of us are comfortable in it might feel scratchy to their skin. So that's there could be a whole range from language to movement to sensory and many, many other things. And therefore, when you're attempting to help a child and educate a child and help a child thrive and develop with autism, you really have to draw from many different types of approaches and strategies. Okay, you have to sort of pull from a a wide range of things. But what happens is our field has specialists that are sort of in their silos. You have the the behaviorists, they're in their sort of column, if you will, and you have speech therapists and they're doing their thing, and you have occupational therapists and they're doing their thing, and we need that specialty. But what a parent faces is so what's gonna work for my individual child? How do I know what kind of recipe, if you will, it's a weird word to use, but a treatment map that's gonna work for my child? How do I know which one of these things? Because every child is completely unique. So what I started over 20 years ago was trying to develop a method where we could look at a child's individual profile. This child may have wonderful motor coordination, so they don't need sort of occupation therapy, but they might be really, really challenged with language, so let's get them that. So looking at an individual child's profile and creating a treatment map, creating a roadmap, helping the child the parents decide what should we do and what shouldn't we do, and in what order and in what timing. So that's integrated multi-treatments approach, doing it for years. It includes biomedical, and that's what you were just talking about a minute ago when you said remedies, Douglas. We also look at the child's physical health, so we look at their digestion, we look at their methylation, so that's getting rid of toxins, we look at um their mitochondria, so we look at their energy, we look at their sleep patterns, all of the biomedical, and that becomes part of their profile that we try and address and help them with.

Jack: 44:46

Hey, Jonathan, Jonathan, we have a question from Carrie on YouTube, and um the question is how does neuroplasty affect the brain of a child with autism?

Jonathan: 45:01

Well, yeah, sure. Just for everyone, thank you for the the question, Carrie. So neuroplasticity is really a concept that the brain is able to learn. Literally, that's what it means. It means that the brain can learn and it can learn new things. So that we're neuroplastic. That means that we're not set in stone, you know. Although some of my friends when I was a kid would call me a rock head sometimes when I did the wrong thing. The fact is, my head isn't a rock, that it's plastic, that it can learn, it can grow through neurology. So and that's true for all of us, and and it's also true for autistic individuals. So autistic individuals are able to learn that they have a neuroplasticity as well. That's really the the the short answer there. And I think, Carrie, you know, what I would add just I'll uh I'll add again, talking about the myths, is uh it's actually good news. Neuroplasticity, the idea, the theories, and the science behind neuroplasticity is good news for parents because it gives them hope to say, wow, you know what? Uh the brain can change and grow. Let me just give you though, Carrie, um one little insight which I think is is in interesting, which is um where where neuroplasticity and the science behind it really developed strongly was in the area of stroke research. Okay, so so adults primarily uh who would have a stroke and they would you know maybe lose some functioning because some part of their brain had a stroke. Uh and what researchers were able to show is that specialist cells are called glial cells. So there's specialist language cells and there's specialist motor cells, that means movement cells that control our movement, and there's specialist um vision cells, for example. These are called glial cells in the brain. And this is fascinating. Listen to this, this is so interesting. Researchers showed that glial cells can migrate from one part of the brain to another. So if one part of your brain was injured, let's say for language, that the if there were some glial cells, specialist language cells left that they can literally and they literally travel, they migrate to a healthy part of the brain where they can regrow and colonize. And if you had enough input, that means therapy, rehabilitation, that you could potentially regain some language and there's some famous uh stories. And again, I I write about this in my book. I tell some stories of this, but this is a great example of the neuroplasticity of the brain that we're not set in stone, that it can evolve and grow. The brain is fascinating, absolutely fascinating in its ability to rehabilitate. In some cases, sadly, it it doesn't do that so well. But the point of the story is keep trying with rehabilitation, keep going, because the brain does have an ability to some degree to to regrow and learn.

Douglas: 48:11

You know, Jonathan, that is something I did not know. Uh, but that makes perfect sense. Uh the brain I guess that's uh for anybody that has damage in the brain, this process would continue as well.

Jonathan: 48:25

Well, yeah, it it it it does it does require science is saying that it requires that that input, um, meaning uh uh an occupational therapist or a speech therapist, uh physical therapist, to be there encouraging that individual to say, you know, try and lift your leg or try and stick your tongue out or try and touch your nose, you know. So encouraging them, the the the patient to to to do and move beyond their limitations. And with that encouragement, um, in some cases, the you know, and a person's will, of course, is always the will of the individual, uh, that the brain could begin to find the connections it needs to literally grow the circuits.

Douglas: 49:14

This is amazing, absolutely amazing. Where can people get your book, Jonathan?

Jonathan: 49:21

Uh Doug, the uh my book, Challenging the Myths of Autism, is really available anywhere that you get your books. So uh, you know, Amazon is, I think, uh the company that started as a bookstore and is now something a lot more, but you can get at Amazon in Canada, uh, indigo stores, you know, I mean Kings will know the indigo bookchain. Um, in the States, Barnes and Noble can order it and get it. You often have to order it. Um, and uh if for those of you who have sort of Kobo readers or e-readers, uh my book is available um in those ways, and you can get a hard copy uh or you can get the digital copy.

Douglas: 50:02

Okay. Well, let's take a short break. Just uh how can people get a hold of you, Jonathan? You have a website and what's your company name or are are you looking for people to help still as a therapist yourself or your company?

Jonathan: 50:16

Yeah, Douglas, uh thanks. I'll just be very brief. I mean, we've talked a lot about about challenging the myths of autism the book, but um I've actually wrapped uh uh up and just sort of taken a bit of a sabbatical from working directly with individual families to create an online platform so that I could reach many, many, many more families, thousands, I'm hoping, to help kids. It's called Thrive Guide, like to Thrive T-H-R-I-Z-E, and then one word guide to guide you through Thriving.co. So ThriveGuide.co. And that is a platform that parents and educators who are you know uh raising autistic ch children can go. And uh I'll just say in a sentence here, basically they enter a profile, they answer a question so that we get a sense of the child, a pretty deep sense. And then I've been working for the last two years on an algorithm that creates a treatment map, exactly what I was explaining to you. I've been doing for years, which is taking a child's individual profile and being able to point the parents in the direction to say, here's the five best next steps that you can take. Uh, I think it's a no-brainer. I think any parent or teacher raising a child uh and and helping them with autism would go there to thriveby.co and and want to um get this these insights uh that are put together from autism specialists including myself that are really highly individualized. Just incredible, incredible tool.

Douglas: 51:52

I think that's amazing, Jonathan. You give people hope. I mean, when the door seems to be slamming closed, especially with the treatment, but when you're five years old, your life is over, to now uh, you know, these advances, uh I'm gonna have to ask you about is AI helping it at all, but these advances that uh are taking children from having you know being stigmatized and and uh therefore abandoned to the point where you have developed a company that can ask questions and profile children uh and and give the parents hope. I mean, there's nothing, absolutely nothing, that's uh more hopeful than having parents who would rather give up their life and give their life to their child if it if uh if a cure or a remedy could be given to them. I mean, that's how desperate children uh to parents come for their children. And what I've listening today, and I hope the audience is uh uh uh appreciating just the effort that you've made, the huge Herculean effort. But very clever, very wise in your approach, and and no wonder you've had great success in the way you have. I'm gonna ask the producer if we have any more questions before we go to a break. And uh if we do in the chat, um uh Oz, do you have any uh questions for Jonathan?

Jack: 53:14

Yeah, oh yeah, people want have a lot of questions.

Douglas: 53:17

Uh in that case, let's take a break and we'll come back and ask those questions.

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Jack: 54:34

All right. Uh Jonathan, we got another question for you. You probably knew this one was coming. It's from uh viewer on YouTube. Um uh N-O-Y-K. His question is Is the the latest flap about Tylenol a real cause or just a diversionary tactic?

Jonathan: 55:02

Hmm. Uh sure. I'm I'm I'm happy to give some opinions on that. With these caveats, uh, I am not a medical doctor, I'm not a scientific researcher in a lab, and I'm certainly not a specialist on uh the connection between Tylenol and autism. So, with that said, to cover me, um happy to give uh just a couple of ideas. Um so so just really quickly, uh there is zero good scientific research that has been done that would show that Tylenol, taking Tylenol as a mom, causes autism. There is zero. I've read the literature, I've read the research, of course, I'm looking at it as much as I can. Uh so there's no research that shows that if you were to talk with RFK, who is obviously Donald Trump's uh health guy, looking at this and asking to show you papers that actually connect, and he wouldn't be able to produce any. So that's what I'll just say right up front. Now, listeners will say, Well, how the heck what they said it, and how the heck would he say that if there wasn't evidence? And let me go into part two here. Part two is that um researchers have been looking at the effects of acetamin, which is the the medication in Tylenol for years and any effects that it might have on developing fs. And by the way, the drug company who puts out Tylenol has been doing this as well as the NIH and National Institute of Health and other uh agencies, right, for safety. Um, and so uh what they have shown is that acetamin can be toxic in some ways to the human body, and I'm using toxic in quotes because you have to unpack what that means. Certainly not suggesting that it would lead to autism or something, but can be toxic to to t in in some ways. Uh so I'll sort of leave it there on that. But for those listeners and the listener asked the question who are interested in exploring more, I'll point them in one direction, and that is if if you start reading about effects of acetum NFN on the human body and how it's metabolized, that means or how is it digested and used chemically in the body, and you'll come across a uh sort of a part on the human gene called NPHFR. I'll say it again, NPHFR. This is just a part of the human gene genome that we all have, although some of us might have it and it might be s some sort of change because our genetic code can change from parents to child and so on and so forth for all sorts of different reasons. There's deletions, there's SNPs, there's variants. But MTHFR is responsible for methylation. Okay? And I won't get much more scientific than this, but methylation is a way that our body um uh gets rid of toxins. It's a way that we absorb nutrients in methylation, there's a lot of things in the body, it's very important. And acetaminivin is uh interacts with the methylation cycle. And why this is important and interesting is because methylation and and the MTHFR is a place on the human genome that uh some uh individuals with autism uh don't have functioning well. Okay, so that brings us right to the last sort of idea, which is it may be possible that some individuals, some fetuses or some others who um have a certain genetic makeup may not uh metabolize acetyl menophen as well as others, or they may may become a toxic load, and that might have an effect in some way, shape, or form on their bodies of the fetus. However, however, there is zero science and research that would show that yet, and this is all theoretical what I'm s telling you tonight. It's science, but it's the th the steps connecting them are are theoretical. And so the bottom line is um tylenol or fetominifid does have a place in reducing fevers and reducing um inflammation uh in some cases. And so if a mother needs to take it and has been advised by a doctor to take it to do that, uh in many cases that would be safer to reduce inflammation and um and fever and this kind of stuff than it would be to to avoid it. So uh I'll say that. You know, one thing that was a little bit crazy and Uh Donald Trump is the speaker not before or against that, but just you know he said the mothers don't think Talono and then he said and don't give it to your kids and yet the whole theory that RFK is putting out is that it somehow causes autism when mothers take it when the fetus is in. So in other words, how would that relate to once you're born that you know what does a fetum benefit do? So it's just that there's a lot of crazy ideas that they were putting out, really.

Jack: 1:00:29

Yeah. Hey, well, one thing I want to make the uh viewers know is that I believe you're a Canadian citizen. Is that correct?

Speaker 08: 1:00:37

You mentioned you mentioned that already, Jack. Oh, did you? Okay. Yeah, well, maybe remind them. Yeah. Yeah, good point.

Jonathan: 1:00:44

That's right. I'm not uh yeah, if it's important, I'm not uh I don't have a vote in the American system. So I'm not for or against in that sense in just talking uh objectively at science.

Douglas: 1:00:57

Yeah, that was that was a good point, Jack, actually. Uh so the the the point is that there's so much misinformation about health. Uh, you know, Jonathan, the the idea that uh the people that suffer the most are the are the most vulnerable people in society. And I can't fathom my mind where the idea of Tylenol would have such an ill effect other than there might be some other reason that were but it will come out in the future. But I think you eloquently put forward about uh from a position as you as you said, um, that you know still people shouldn't be afraid, right? I mean, this doesn't make sense at this point in time based on the scientific studies.

Jonathan: 1:01:44

Right. I I I think you you you want to work with a medical doctor who's following your body, your physiology, your needs, and who's specialist if you're pregnant, is specialist in pregnancy and giving a healthy birth. I think you always want to read your own research, and the research and you know the if it can be randomized, controlled, double blind, and so on and so forth, and published in a reputable journal. So I think you know that this is this is how you want to approach health, the idea of everything in moderation and some and so forth, but the idea of uh that criminal causes autism um is is not one that's been accepted at this time, even though it's being counted. Um I think that the re the the listener on YouTube the question said are is it just a diversion tactic or I don't know about that. I can't comment on the the reasons for Donald Trump and RFK to say what they're saying, but um, you know, uh who knows why they're doing it. But I think the important thing is Douglas, you're saying is um this should not be scaring uh parents.

Douglas: 1:02:57

Yeah, life is scary enough, you know. So Oz, do we have a couple more questions before Jonathan goes?

Jack: 1:03:05

Yep, we got uh a couple, two more. They're about ASD. I'm not sure what ASD I hope you know. Um, but the two questions are what do parents need to be aware of? Uh what signs do parents need to be aware of for ASD? And what's the best education system for those with ASD? And those are both from Carrie.

Jonathan: 1:03:30

Right. Okay. Uh uh Gary has some great questions. Carrie, um, just really briefly, so for again, for all the listeners, ASD is the acronym for autism spectrum disorder. So uh when I first began in the field for whatever it's worth, it used to be called autism disorder, just A B. And a number of years later, the psychologists and psychiatrists really all agreed, you know what, there's a spectrum, there's a wide range, right, of neurodiversity that would be all encompassing. Um, and so they they retitled it autism spectrum disorder. That's all that means. In terms of um signs uh that you'd be looking for, um, thanks for the question. Uh, I would direct you to one of a hundred websites where you could get that information um in a real clinical way, but you might start um with your local uh autism chapter or chat GPT will tell you it does change. The the sort of diagnostic criteria just change about every five years or so in some little ways. But basically, the the two or three sort of categories that you're looking for, Carrie, that would sort of raise a red flag. Um, one is around social communication. So individuals who are diagnosed with autism or autistic, uh, some of them can communicate very well, some of them don't communicate at all vocally or verbally in the ways that we know, but might be able to communicate in other ways through typing um and and nonverbal communication, pointing and this kind of stuff. Uh I've worked with children who have all sorts of ways to communicate behind this vocalizing. But one of the common challenges between all of them is that social communication is a challenge. And I'll just give you a quick example. I'm working with a little boy right now here in Ontario, in Canada, seven years old. And um he doesn't always understand that you might have different thoughts that he has in his head. That you might think, well, how is that possible? But it's called theory of mind. There's a whole theory out there called TON, theory of mind. Um it's been written about quite broadly by a professor at Cambridge University in England, um, Simon Barry Cohen. In any case, uh, I'll keep it short. I think that basically um autistic individuals sometimes don't understand you have different thoughts. And so that leads to a different kind of uh challenge of communication. The second uh uh category just briefly here is repetitious and ritualized behaviors. Douglas uh mentioned that in the intro earlier, that they might do repetitive behaviors like lining up uh toys all in a row over and over and over. They may need to hit a light switch a certain number of times. So repetitious ritualized behaviors really is a hallmark of um artistic uh individuals. I remember working with a little girl who if her mother went a different way to to take her to school and she took a different road, this child would absolutely completely melt down. I could scream, I could break a glass. Um, and sometimes the mother didn't have a choice because there might be road construction and so she'd have to injure her five or ten minutes. So, you know, a child who is really, really dysregulated emotionally and was very upset that her mother turned left instead of right. Um, that's a behold into a repetitive ritual that the child had to do. And then thirdly, um, I would think you know, recently uh doctors and psychologists have said that one of the symptoms that is fairly common is the sensory integration, which is autism struggle with sensory integration. Sorry, this is the last little bit, Carrie said what is the sensory intervention. I'll just answer it very briefly in the context of what I said earlier about my appropriate integrated multiple treatment intervention. So Carrie, I think one of the issues in the field of autism is that both professionals and parents are trying to find the treatment. And I would suggest that there isn't an individual single gold standard number one treatment that should be done for all children with autism. Why? Because they're all different and unique. Right. Uh I think similar to teaching children math, there's not one way that every individual on the entire planet should be taught you. Some kids learn by moving bricks and and sort of manually holding bits and pieces that you add and subtract, and other kids need to visually see a picture, and some kids sing a song about a different and subtract, and then other kids do with a pencil and paper. So is there one treatment? No, there's a there is the a leading treatment that's supposed to go common called applied behavioral analysis ABA. That's really the one that's sponsored the most by governments around the world and school boards. Um again, my area is it's good for some, but not for all kids. And it depends on when in their development and what they need and so on and so forth. So my my my tip for parents listening tonight is get to know your individual child's needs and really, really believe that there's a treatment map or roadmap that will suit your individual child. You don't have to do what everybody else is doing.

Douglas: 1:09:29

Makes sense. Makes good sense. Excellent.

Jack: 1:09:33

Well, just two uh last things. I think they're just uh uh one from Carrie. She says your organization will be so helpful for many families as well as practitioners in the school system and the educational field. And uh another comment from Shelly Smith on Facebook. She says, enjoying this, very informative. So just a little feedback for everyone.

Jonathan: 1:10:00

Hey, thank you. Thank you very much.

Douglas: 1:10:02

Yeah. So thank you for very much for being on the show tonight, uh, Jonathan. Uh again, people can get the name of your the title of your book and where people can get it. I I think you said it's available everywhere, which it ought to be. So uh a little bit about your title and um I guess yeah. Well, go ahead.

Jonathan: 1:10:25

The book Challenging the Myths of Autism. My uh the author's name is my name, Jonathan Alderson is my last name. A-L-D-E-R-S-O-N. And again, you could get that really, really anywhere these days. Um and then for the parents listening and educators, if you're interested in finding out what my recommendations would be for your unique child, then you would go to ThriveGuide.co and uh you can log in there, create an account. It's totally affordable. In fact, we wanted to make it so that it was less than the cost of one speech therapy session. So we think it's a great value, and you can go in there and you'll get immediately five recommendations at Massachusetts profile, um, and and lots of other resources. By the way, Douglas, I'll just add this one thing um prepared because it's free. Um, I do have a weekly um email and you can get that at driveguard.co you can sign up for it's absolutely free. And it's we're not selling anything, you're not uh marketed to, but you get it. It's called the weekly aim, which stands for attitude, intention, and motivation. And it's just a little uh audio, sometimes there's a video for five, six minutes. It'll give you a parenting tip, it'll give you an education tip, a mindfulness tip, and uh they're they're great funds. You can go and sign up for that if you like to.

Douglas: 1:11:57

Well, that's fantastic. Uh always being observers, Jonathan. You know, uh you're an amazing you're an amazing person, you're an amazing healer, and uh it's it's amazing that the world has you at this point in time. That's all I can say.

Jonathan: 1:12:13

I won't you know I want to words, thank you, Douglas. I feel the same about the way that you've helped people as well. But uh thank you very much for having me on the program and giving me this chance to share some good news, and I do hope that it's helped at least uh one or two parents out there this evening.

Douglas: 1:12:30

I am sure it has, you know, I am sure it has. I want to extend my deepest thanks to you for joining us tonight on the show. Your insights, your heart, and your dedication to shifting the way we see autism have truly made this a remarkable conversation. As a Harvard educated educator, author of Again, Challenging the Minds of Autism, sorry, challenging the myths of autism, there goes my dyslexia, and a true advocate for dignity and potential, you've helped illuminate why so many in the world are longing to understand, not just about autism, but about humanity. You've reminded us tonight that every diagnosis is important, but it's the soul and behind every diagnosis, the challenge and the calling. We want to thank you for your wisdom and your warmth tonight and the wonderful work you're doing in the world. I'm sure you've helped many tonight. And as this uh show will be on uh YouTube forever, uh, may many, many people be further aided in the future. Thank you very much, Jonathan. You've touched uh our hearts tonight, opened the minds of our audience. And I want to uh ask everyone, be sure to follow Jonathan's work and share this conversation with someone you might bump into or know who truly needs to hear the wisdom of what Jonathan has come up with. Thank you again, Jonathan. It's a pleasure to help you on this show. We'll have you on again sometime in the future. We Godspeed, may peace and prosperity and much success be with you always.

Announcer: 1:14:08

Thank you, Douglas. Thank you.

Douglas: 1:14:11

You're very welcome. We're gonna take a short break, my friends, and we'll be back with the wind up of the show right after this. The last segment of the show, my friends, is in the news. And uh uh Larry, uh, we we find that tomorrow there's a big, big meeting with all the heads of the military in the good old Washington US of A. Um, I'm kind of scary. Uh I feel a little apprehensive about this. What do you think about that?

Larry: 1:14:47

I'm sure this has happened before. Um, what you're feeling, and also I do recall there was also a big meeting during 9-11 and maybe other major events. Uh aren't they usually messy? Like having a bunch of military officials all in one place? Are they coordinated or not?

Douglas: 1:15:05

It's very risky. It's very risky. I mean, uh the the short-sightedness of uh military planners to have all the um top brass, if you will, in the U.S. military all gathered in one place uh at one time, which has been forecast, which has been, you know, announced. Uh I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of stoic military leaders there tomorrow gonna roll their eyeballs when they uh uh arrive, obeying orders. You know, yes, sir, no, sir, three bags full, sir. They're gonna be there. One star, two star, three-star, four-star, five-star generals are gonna be there. And the huge entourage, they'll have their uh security details with them. Uh this I've heard one report tonight, this is gonna cost millions and millions of dollars. Now, for those people who are wondering, but this is first uh Secretary Hassas has called this, which I don't think it's ever been done before in American history. And now the president is going to join uh this meeting for whatever purposes it's supposed to be. Um I think there's a little uh shadowy uh shadow cast over this, but uh whatever's gonna happen, and I'm not gonna be there. I'm not a military man, and I'm not uh, you know, I'm a Canadian myself, so I I don't I'm not taking sides for everybody to understand that. The point is that I'm I'm apprehensive about it because this is something that's uh it's dangerous, it's not wise, in my intuitive, humble opinion. And that uh, you know, uh the secretary has called this, and now with the president having the tenacity, or should I say not the tenacity, I should say the the reputation that when he starts a talk, he does get a little long-winded from time to time. So uh a meeting that could be otherwise done in secret over military uh communication channels is now going to be in the uh open, and there's gonna be a lot of people put at risk. Now, I'm I don't feel really bad about it, but I did have a dream, and I'm reminding people I had a vision in which there were a lot of military people uh that suffered from a bomb blast. And I'm not trying to scare anybody and I'm not trying to put a spin on this, but I'm just saying that uh tomorrow would be um be a perfect opportunity for some mischief to happen, especially in today's uh today's world. You know, the Pentagon calls uh this rare meeting, and uh the usual meeting would involve approximately 800 generals and admirals who were based throughout the United States and stations overseas. Well, tomorrow uh the defense secretary has uh has ordered the uh military leaders uh to address hundreds of military leaders on Tuesday. And I I just think this is you know something that we ought to pay really close attention to. And so if we do that, and and we also pray a little bit that you know things are gonna go well, it's in the news, it's something that's unusual, it's going to have consequences, and I'm feeling a little apprehensive about it. That's what we're talking about tonight. If you have any comments, uh, you know, we have a few minutes left in the show. If you'd like to make a comment about what you think about tomorrow's uh uh unique, uh rare uh uh meeting with all the top brass in one place, now's your time to uh call us up. It's gonna happen in Virginia, I understand. And uh the generals are maybe maybe there's gonna be some things said that are gonna be quite surprising, you know. Uh again, I'm I'm not trying to be cryptic or mysterious. I'm just trying to say, have you got any opinion out there? What's your what's your thoughts out there, my friends? Oz, do we have any uh any in the chat? Larry, do you see anybody in the chat having comments? Not yet. Okay. Uh back in the day when the Blog Talk radio show, we used to have reports of black op uh helicopters going over top of people's houses, and that used to scare the heck out of people. Uh, we had reports on uh what do they call them, above unidentified objects flying around now. They used to be called UFOs before. So uh I would be curious, just on a whim now, that if there aren't going to be mysterious reports of such flying objects going through the air that aren't actually grounded in uh in the world, they're going to be like maybe off-world uh vehicles. I'm just throwing that out as a teaser, my friend. I'm not trying to be foolish, maybe I'm a little tired tonight. But uh let's play close, let's pay close attention to what's going on tomorrow because you know the administration's only been in office for nine months, ten months now, and uh amazing things have happened. So uh it's in the news tomorrow. Uh pay close attention to it. And also I I want to, you know, say what happened to the uh Church of Latter-day Saints in Michigan breaks my heart. I am so sorry uh that this has happened once again, but I also want to uh remind everybody that there was amazing courage going on in that church. There were half a dozen people killed or thereabouts, and I understand there would have been more, except that the parishioners were throwing themselves in front of the children and protecting them. That is the greatest sacrifice any Christian-minded person could be, uh, could do, rather. So uh I throw that out at the end of the show here and say how uh wonderful it was, uh, this horrific event, the courage and the love that were shown by these people is just absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. So may God bless them one and all. So if we have any if we don't have any other comments in the uh in the chat, we'll uh uh we'll we'll ask the odds if there's anything else that's new.

Jack: 1:21:22

Yeah, we do. We have one more question for you. Okay. Um this is from this two shall pass on YouTube. Does GMO food have an effect on the human body? Okay, let's clarify what kind of food that would be. Uh genetically what is that altered? Genetically modified for. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, genetically modified food.

Douglas: 1:21:59

There we go. Um my thought is that you know, uh the human body is absolutely amazing. Uh whatever you put in your tummy, stomach, there's a lot of acid inside of that tummy, and it breaks down everything that goes into it, and then the body selects to what it's going to assimilate and what it's going to reject. And so if things aren't good, they're going to be rejected. And so these modified foods probably, if their free food value is zero or low, then it's going to be rejected. I don't think there's any harm in as much as that the uh genetic makeup of the food has been altered. In other words, it's poisonous or it's derogatory or it's disruptive. I don't think that happens when it's modified. It's just the cell structure of what I'm looking at in my mind right now, the cell structure is different. It's made to be bigger or something that's uh maybe more difficult to digest. And so the worst case you would have on this is a little bit of digestion difficulty. And of course, it's up to everybody to select what food they eat. People who eat only organic, people are vegan, they're vegetarian, you know, they're meat eaters, and their genetic makeup uh demands that kind of food. There are people who require to have good health to eat meat, and they're perfectly comfortable with that. And there are people who, through their uh society or their heritage, are vegetarians, true and true, and they are very healthy. The mistake that people make is crossing over, intellectually deciding what their body needs for uh nutrition or nourishment, and that doesn't work. And you see a lot of people on special uh healthy diets, but they're not well. It's because their genetic makeup, their heritage, if you will, says that yes, they ought to have fish, they ought to have some different kind of protein than what they're taking right now, as opposed to power, powder or some other source. And some people cannot digest dairy products, and some people uh can take dairy products if the lactose is taken at them. So there are people are lactose intolerant. So everybody's different. Uh a long time ago, I met a man, uh I'm gonna call him his he was a doctor, his name was Ray, and he was doing experiments on giving people mono meals. That means every meal, one food, one type of food, onions for breakfast, apples for lunch, whatever. But I remember the I remember the onions for breakfast. He found that worked well for people. I'm not going to get into that, but anyway, that was back in the in the mid-70s. He was talking about that. And then the book came out, Eat Right for Your Blood Type. And I have nothing to do with that, but I'll give it a shout-out. And that made more sense that your blood type would dictate the type of diet you would have, whether it's a Mediterranean diet or whether it's a meat diet or a vegetarian diet, etc. Um, I I prefer myself a Mediterranean diet, seems to be well-round, which has lots of uh vegetables and fish. That seems to do fit me the best. But I didn't find out until I was an old man in my 60s that uh I used to love chocolate milk. The chocolate milk I was eating was giving me mucus and colds all the time. I even went to a doctor and got shots for it to my I was allergic to something. Nobody knew what it was. Well, it turns out uh lactose is not a good thing for me. So by experiment and by keeping track of your own health, you know if you eat certain kind of foods that makes you go to the washroom really quick. That's good to have in your mind if you're having difficulty that way, eat those foods. You don't need to take laxatives. Or the other way around. If uh you're weak and you don't understand why, then look at where did you come from? Did you come from the mountains in Europe, or did you come from Africa, or did you come from South America? You know, somebody once told me was an engineer that back in the day when polio was breaking out in the US and Canada, that people south of the border didn't have any polio cases. It was because of the hot peppers, the chili peppers that they were eating was killing off the virus, back uh the polio virus in their gut. Well, fast forward to today, we have an understanding of uh leaky gut syndrome. That was pretty popular just a couple of years ago, and still it's it's relevant and it's uh something to take into consideration. If you're having digestive problems, maybe you're having leaky gut syndrome. So getting back to the point, uh I I think that it's a choice of what kind of food you are going to put in your mouth. Because what you put in your mouth, what you put through the gate, if you will, to your mouth, determines your your health. It's not how much you eat, it's what you eat. And if you keep that rule of thumb, then you can you'll find out. You know, when you eat something and you start having gas or burping, or you know, you're having difficulty in digestion, don't eat that food. That's the problem. And again, going back to Dr. Ray, not his real name, but part of his name, uh you can by isolating and eating one food at a time, find out what is the best food for you and what food is not. And you can do that right away by eating something and say, oh, my tummy's I'm bloated, I'm I'm uh whatever, whatever. You know, we get the point, my friends. So back to the point is that is I don't think that this genetically modified uh uh food is bad. It might not be as good as organic grown food. Okay, and somewhere in the middle is the rest of the food that we eat when when people use uh farmers use uh fertilizers and pesticides. You know, organic food doesn't look pretty sometimes. It's got little pits in it, it's got the little, you know, the worms have taken a bite out of it here and there, but it is genuinely organic, but it has the vitality of being natural. I mean, after all, as we were hunters and gatherers back in the day, we used to go around and pick the fruit off the trees. Watch out for Adam and Eve, but that's beside the point that we would eat those fruit that fruit and it would be wherever we were. You know, if we went into a field and there were blueberries, our ancestors used to stuff themselves with blueberries until the blueberry patch was exhausted and they'd move on down the road. And that's when they might find beans, or they would find pineapples on a tree or something like that. So, in a way, mono meals is the natural way to eat. But I can't see myself going to a fancy restaurant and saying, Can I have a plate of olives, please? You know, or I I only want those brown beans, okay? Unless, of course, I met my friend uh uh Raul's Chalios restaurant in uh in Fort Worth, best authentic mess Mexican food I've ever had in my life, Chalios in in Fort Worth. Give him a free shout out there. Uh so you find out what's what your body operates under, what what you digest and and how you get uh you feel stronger. Uh you know, when you Eat food and you go to sleep or you feel weak, that means you've either had the wrong combination or the wrong food. So watch out. I mean when I travel, um I don't eat uh any kind of shellfish at all. Uh anything that grows on anything that's a bottom crawler is something you should avoid in the oceans. Anything that doesn't have gills or fins, uh uh scales and fins, don't eat it. If if it's a fish, it has scales and fins. I think that's the rule of thumb by getting something mixed up. So anyway, that's that's an interesting question. It's a good one. Uh, but is there a danger in eating uh genetically modified food? I don't think so. Is it good for you? That's questionable. Should you eat it? That's your decision. But I don't think it's gonna harm everyone. And if you're an advocate about eating the right diet or whatever, it's everybody has their free will and free choice, so encourage people uh w to eat better. In the simple way I've just brought up with these things that are popping in my mind intuitively as I'm talking. I hope that answers the question. Do we have another one, Jack? I think that uh sums it up for this evening, Douglas. Okay, again, a wonderful show. Thank you, Larry. Uh last word. Thank you, everyone, and thank you, Douglas. My pleasure. Uh, you know, everybody's here. Uh we're happy that you are here. We ask you to subscribe and like our show and let people know we're here because we're trying to put forward a uh a show that's unique and that answers the questions you want to know. And you know, and so as we uh we hope we uh go to a close on the show tonight, remember uh you're welcome here anytime. We'd love to hear from you from time to time. Uh we have a website called the soulreport.ca that we're developing, and we have a new feature that we're attempting to bring forward, which is going to be that you can call into the show. And as you do that, um, like Jonathan was on the phone tonight, we hope to be able to talk to you. We're looking for our friend Carol from Chicago, who used to be on our radio show all the time. So, uh, again, my friends, we look forward to hearing from you. And we want to thank you for being on the show tonight, one and all. So, as we say goodnight, may God bless you. May you have peace and prosperity. Remember, it's harvest time coming up. This is the time to reap the benefits of all the work you've done this year. May God bless you and keep you. I'm your host, Dr. Douglas James Cottrell. My co-host is Larry Cruz, and the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, our producer is Jack Baelick. We'll see you right here next week, but we might have a different time. We're thinking of going to a later show, and uh, we'll let you know. So stay tuned, subscribe to the show, and we'll keep you in touch with our changes as we move forward and develop our show further. Good night, everybody.

Announcer: 1:33:10

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