Shannon Nicoletta Manns

The Soul's Mentor
understanding the spiritual cause and cure of ADHD

The United States uses 90% of the world's supply of Ritalin, a stimulant
that affects the central nervous system the way amphetamines do.
Use and production of Ritalin is up by 700% since 1991. Seventy five percent
of the drug goes to children.
Nearly 5 million children and adults are diagnosed with Attention Deficit
Disorder (ADD).
Some experts say 10% of our kids have it.
If all took Ritalin, 1 in 6 boys ages 5-12 would use the drug.
(USA Today, Fall 1998, Lawrence H. Diller, author of Running on Ritalin)

Americans believe drug abuse - more than crime or the breakdown of home
life - is the biggest danger facing children, according to a survey of 1,501
adults conducted by Harvard's School of Public Health and the University of
Maryland Survey Research Center. (USA Today, Summer 1998)

Recently I was eating lunch with a student here at the College of
Metaphysics while my son Hezekiah and his friend Briana were playing five
feet away. Hezekiah, who is almost four years old, was moving his super
balls from a basket into a box in order to transport them upstairs. Every
once in a while he would call Briana's name, compelling her to look and
eventually inviting her participation.

After watching him for some time Bill said, "He never stops."

"Rarely," I replied, "he's quite something. So quick, so bright, so vital
and vibrant."
I went on to tell Bill that if I was twenty years younger, without my
metaphysical background, Hezekiah would probably join the increasing legions
of bright but unruly kids being drugged by well-intentioned parents,
teachers, and physicians within the next two years.

I would be like a growing number of mothers. I would have a profession that
demanded my attention and that a good part of my identity depended upon. I
would have stopped breast feeding by the second month, if tried it at all,
partly so I could return to my job. My son would have been cared for, and in
large part raised by someone else, whether a relative, friend, or employee
paid out of the money I made while working elsewhere.

I would have believed I was doing the right thing. Providing the best for my
child.
I would not know what to do to calm him. I would often find myself too tired
to respond well to cries for attention, misinterpreting the plea for love
and discipline as something else and thus failing to fulfill my child's
needs. And my own.

At some point, as early as three, the caregiver might show concern for my
son's disruptiveness, disobedience, or mere absent-mindedness. If I delayed
I might find my child refused care or even schooling. I would seek a
doctor's advice.

Being a good physician, he would tell me that once we start there is no
stopping and two to three doses everyday are required. The drug does not
heal. Ritalin is thought to increase chemicals in the brain and to simulate
the inhibitory receptors producing the result of a stimulant drug's acting
to increase inhibition. Nobody knows the long term affects but while drugged
my child would be able to focus on what is at hand and learn.

Eventually I'd give in. Believing I was doing, if not the best for my child,
at least what I had to do. His constant energy supply would be chemically
altered through daily doses of socially acceptable and even fashionable
drugs.

I would lose my son.

More importantly, he would lose himself.

Yes, he wouldn't be such a problem for others anymore. Not so demanding. Nor
so bright and inventive.

This is not just a hypothetical projection of what could have been in my
life, it is the story of increasing numbers of parents I am meeting and
counseling. Too often we, as a society, look for an easy way out. Pills are
seen as an easy way out, just look at the shelves of every pharmacy section
in your local market. It is a symptom of denial, stemming from a lack of
self discipline. On the whole, Americans don't know how to discipline
themselves toward positive, productive thinking that leads to health so they
don't teach this wisdom to their children.

The greater problem we will face ten, twenty, forty years from now. Only
then will we realize, individually and collectively, what we have caused by
putting millions of human beings at age 4 or 6 or 8 on a type of "speed".
The mental, emotional, and physical effects upon that child as he or she
enters puberty or when he is 16 or 29 or 42 or 60 will be known only as time
progresses.

This is just the physical perspective. The real problem is once we get there
it will be too late to change several generations of drug abuse, intentional
drug addiction. We may never know the losses to individuals or society. We
must change.

Attitudinal changes are the hardest. Yet when children are involved mothers
and fathers can and have often moved mountains.

When I identify the significant changes in my thinking that have produced
the conditions in my life that have led me to be a parent, a role by the way
that I did not visualize for myself from the time of puberty until I was 41
years old, I hope there is insight that can help others.

First realizing I am more than a body. Coming to terms with the difference
between and separation of mind and body freed me to put the physical world
in a more proper perspective. In time what had been important in my mind -
steady relationships, financial security, being needed and valued - was
replaced by a more deep-thinking, spiritually-centered, service-motivated
consciousness. This led to the current conditions in my life, including a
wonderful husband who is my life partner and our visionary lifestyle that
enables my husband, son and I to live and work together. It also brings some
wonderful people into our son's life. Many teachers, each with different
areas of expertise to offer.

Second, taking my next step in understanding myself as a soul. The idea of a
soul is something I was taught as a child, but it was lost in a turbulent
adolescent because it was belief based rather than knowing based. Maturing
my idea of soul, bringing it to the here and now rather than leaving it
before and after birth, caused major shifts in how I see myself and others.
This became very meaningful when I was pregnant. My husband and I
communicated with the soul who became our son Hezekiah before he entered
this life. By learning his soul needs we could prepare ourselves to respond
to them.

Now, as he is growing, we can encourage his talents and teach the skills
that will prepare him to meet his destiny. It frees me to learn and teach in
ways foreign to how I was taught as a child. I can respond to Hezekiah's
intense Michelangelo-scale illustrations of Moses and the Burning Bush which
persisted every morning for three months then give way to a month of
scientific invention including waterfalls made from suspending a ladle on a
facet spout and tongs used as arm extenders to put superballs in places
otherwise beyond his reach.

Third, learning that thought is cause and developing the will power to apply
the knowledge. Concentration exercises were essential in this process, and
are an important part of what my husband and I are teaching our son. The
capacity to focus attention at will directed my creative energies and laid
the foundation for reasoning skills to flourish. I have taught hundreds of
adults the basics of how to use mind effectively - undivided attention,
remembering, imagination, listening - and it is such a joy to be able to
teach them to such a new soul. And quite a challenge for someone accustomed
to the civilities of adulthood.

Advanced development in intuition is an enormous asset. Being able to
connect with Hezekiah is essential in him knowing we love him and in
teaching meaning behind actions. I have found my own creativity stretched
and so in the midst of a "crying jag" I can connect with Hezekiah's soul,
"crying" with him which quickly provokes giggles thus breaking the
nonproductive train of thought so a more productive one can be introduced.

Fourth is acting upon a desire to aid others. Together my husband and I have
almost fifty years of teaching experience. We teach metaphysics,
understanding the universal laws and truths that govern creation and how to
live in harmony with them. We both know it is the most fulfilling life
anyone can hope to have.

I have met many people in my life who function under the mistaken belief
that it is easier to teach children than adults. If that is so, we would not
be drugging our brightest children in order to "control" them. We would be
teaching them to become the geniuses they are meant to be.

Teaching requires a high level of giving. A sacrificing of self for the
welfare of another. I think it is time to redefine what it means to bring a
child into the world. It is time to consider that we are vessels for souls
to enter, evolved souls who want to serve even before the body knows how to.

Hezekiah is such a soul. He is not attention deficit anymore than probably
99% of those diagnosed as such. There may be moments when his mom is
attention deficit, from being tired or preoccupied thus her mind and body
are not in the same place. Hezekiah knows it, every time. And he lets me
know it too, which is becoming a great enrichment in my life for I am able
to practice being here now in ways I totally missed before.

There's nothing wrong with Hezekiah's attention. Rather his attention is
free, vital, lightning quick, and so very easy to arrest when the mind
meeting his is focused and wizened. I am dedicated to being such a focused,
wise mind, for to me I am much more than my child's parent, I am a soul's
mentor. That is the greatest any of us can ever hope to be.

Soul's Mentor by Dr. Barbara Condron is reprinted with permission from
Wholistic Health & Healing Guide, Vol. 6, No. 2, copyright 1998 School of
Metaphysics