In previous posts, we learned how we incarnate on Earth. This post will take a closer look at some conditions that are considered to be physical and mental disabilities, which are misunderstood by many people even today. What is the spiritual perspective on physical and mental disability?

How have different cultures dealt with disabled people?

Over the centuries, our perceptions and attitudes towards people with disabilities have varied from one culture to another, as reviewed by Deborah Kaplan:

• Sometimes visibly deformed (e.g. 6-fingered baby) or mentally retarded children were killed at birth or abandoned in the wild, neglected, underfed or banished from the tribe.
• They were considered inferior, unfit, shameful, cursed or possessed by evil spirits that had to be exorcised or prayed away in painful rituals.
• By the Renaissance, people that were blind, deaf, mentally retarded or physically disabled were sent to asylums or institutions for life, marginalized from society.
• In the early 20th century, the eugenics movement led to medical experimentation, sterilization and euthanasia of “defective” people, followed by mass extermination of Jews, gypsies, gays, lesbians and other “deviants” during World War II.

Franklin Roosevelt was the first disabled U.S. president, but he tried to hide his paraplegia from the public. After the war, the return of disabled veterans led to rehabilitation, education and vocational training programs. Image: FDR at Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation

People with disabilities did not receive legal protection from discrimination until 1990 in the U.S., but nowadays they’re integrated into homes, schools and workplaces. We’ve come a long way, but they still face many forms of discrimination every day.

How do we define disability?

Kaplan noted that “disability” is a social construct that covers a whole spectrum of conditions.

• What makes one condition a visible disability and another a socially acceptable impairment (e.g. hearing aid, eyeglasses, walker, etc.)?
• What about invisible conditions, such as people with a cochlear implant, a prosthetic limb, or a genetic marker for a disease?
• This line will be blurred by newer devices that will enhance the function of body parts (e.g. artificial limbs, retina, etc.) and prolong our lifespan in the future.
• What about disabled people who lead independent lives, like partially paralyzed artist AleXsandro Palombo, who wants to promote awareness of “ableism.” He said:

“How wonderful would it be if Snow White was a wheelchair user who still managed to care for the seven dwarves and her personality made the prince marry her, not her appearance.”

“Imagine if Cinderella used prosthetic limb and that made it easier for the prince to find her shoe, or if Pocahontas used crutches and Jasmine was an amputee yet all got married and enjoyed a fulfilled life.” (Source)

Is disability fate or some random event?

“Bless every person and condition, and give thanks. For nothing happens by accident in God’s world, and there is no such thing as coincidence. Nor is the world buffeted by random choice, or something you call fate.” – Neale Donald Walsch

As outlined in “How and Why We Incarnate on Earth,” before we come here, we set up a life plan and decide what we wish to experience. We make several contracts with other souls who agree to play certain roles in our life (e.g. parent, sibling, mate, etc.).

For example, you might choose to experience a physical disability, such as blindness and decide if the condition will be congenital (present at birth) or acquired later in life.

• If we are born blind, we don’t know what it’s like to have vision, so we don’t miss it. We may develop our other senses (e.g. hearing, touch) to a more heightened level.
• If we are born with vision, but develop blindness later (e.g. early childhood, midlife or old age), the contrast between having vs. not having that visual sensory input is dramatic. We might adapt by developing hyperacuity in other senses.

What is the purpose of disability?

In some cases, the soul chooses a physical or mental disability to limit the scope of life, to have fewer choices, so they can focus on one or two major issues fully, as reported by Jose Stevens, PhD and others.

• It allows them to reduce distractions, so they’re induced to be more introspective, to contemplate and re-evaluate experiences from other lifetimes.
• It may be a resting lifetime between busy, growth-oriented lifetimes, or one in which to experience childlike simplicity, to feel oneness with creation, to be in awe and wonder with the beauty of a flower or a cloud in the sky, as stated by Christeaan et al.
• In other cases, the purpose is to find inner strength to overcome the “dysfunctional mold” they are put in, to show that physical form does not have to be restrictive.

That’s what Helen Keller said to Peter Jenkins and Toni Ann Winninger (“Talking with Twentieth-Century Women”), who interviewed her soul on the Other Side. Helen was born healthy, but contracted scarlet fever before age 2, which left her deaf and blind.

• She found things by brushing them with her hands and feet, and sensed other things energetically by feeling the vibration (like sonar) sent off by them (e.g. wall).
• By age 7, she had developed her own sign language to communicate with her family.

She broke the mold by being the first deaf-blind person to graduate from college. She wrote 12 books, lectured and toured with a vaudeville act, made a movie and traveled worldwide to raise funds for the blind. Images: Helen Keller with Ann Sullivan (left) & Phiz (right).

What are the issues played out by souls on Earth?

Wendy Kennedy (“The Great Human Potential”) explained we are here to co-create situations, where we can resolve one or more major issues of safety, security, control, manipulation, trust, approval or abandonment by viewing them from another perspective.

• If we’re coming in to play a disabled person, we usually make an agreement with another soul, who will play the role of our caretaker.
• For example, Helen Keller’s governess and companion for 39 years was also visually impaired. Their souls had been together several times before as sisters, inventors, etc.
• The parent of a disabled child may be learning about health issues, patience, tolerance, innocence, forgiveness, protection, sacrifice, resolve, support, adaptability to other people’s needs, etc.
• The disabled person may be learning about trust, approval, partnership, self-mastery, simplification, experimentation, choice, usefulness, stability, release, humor, etc.

Clinical psychologist Doris E. Cohen, PhD (“Repetition”) described the complex dynamics in a family with a disabled child. The parents may be either drawn closer together or pulled apart by a child with severe or chronic physical or mental problems. The entire family is affected.

• Parents that have to attend to the needs of a disabled child (e.g. multiple surgeries) may be giving less attention to the siblings, who end up feeling abandoned or develop their own issues (e.g. lack of approval, anxiety, learning disability, etc.) to play out.
• Parents that lose a child may be overwhelmed with grief, guilt or blame and very often end up divorced, which affects the surviving siblings as well.

What is the spiritual basis for common mental disorders?

According to Guy Needler, mental conditions are very poorly understood. There are lots of individuals that have more than one soul aspect in their physical form. For example:

• Bipolar disorder – Two souls incarnate in one body; one primary, one passive.
• Multiple personality disorder (Dissociative identity disorder) – Several souls (up to 7) incarnate in the same body, but none of them are the primary/dominant one, so all of them play passive, but controlling roles that confuse the person and their family.
• Schizophrenia – In some cases, an individual may be connected to other aspects of themselves, that are in different lives and in different parts of the world and in different parts of the universe. They are experiencing it concurrently without understanding why.
• Autism spectrum disorders – This includes a variety of conditions, but in some cases the child has 5 or 6 intuitive/energetic channels above and beyond what we use. They’re looking for communication or feedback from others that they’re not getting, which may frustrate them. Some come in as savants, e.g. fully operational piano players at age 2.

Needler will explore these and other misunderstood conditions in an upcoming book.

Final Thoughts

Needler said that our experience is more profound when we’re incarnate, because ALL of us are in essence “deaf, dumb and blind” on multiple levels, because of our tenuous connection to our True Energetic Self/Oversoul/Higher Self.

• If you add to that extra sensory or physical challenges, you’ve got an even more profound state of being, which is so unlike what we are in the higher realms.
• If you imagine a person, who has no sense of sight, touch, taste, smell, hearing, and they’ve got to exist, understand and experience life, their level of understanding and experience is going to be more profound than somebody who has those senses.
• It’s a bit like having to drive a car, but at best having somebody to tell you how to drive, where to drive, when to push the breaks, when to turn right, etc.
• That level of experience requires you to trust somebody else, trust those around you to work with you.

The experiential difference between having senses and no senses makes us gain evolutionary content much faster when we have a lifetime with a disability of one kind or another. Ultimately, it helps us all evolve!

Remember the temporary “role” you play on Earth (left) is not the pure, pristine, beautiful sentient being who you really are (right):

“Bless every person and condition, and give thanks. Thus you affirm the perfection of God’s creation – and show your faith in it.” — Neale Donald Walsch

“Each moment in life was co-created for us by the lot of us to allow all of us to express an aspect of Divinity.” — Neale Donald Walsch

Disclaimer: The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. Please consult your health care provider before making any health care decisions about your condition.