The Mycelial Mind: neurodivergent spirituality, isolation and belonging

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What does spirituality mean for neurodivergent people, and why do so many Autistic people feel alone even in community? Those are the two big questions in episode 4 of The Mycelial Mind: NeuroKin Conversations, hosted by David Gray-Hammond and Adele Murray.

Spirituality without the baggage

According to the episode description, the hosts start by separating neurodivergent spirituality from religion, recognising the faith-based trauma that many people in the community carry. They then talk about spirituality as purpose, meaning, values and ethics, and about the ripple effects of actions beyond a single lifetime. Along the way the conversation takes in Cloud Atlas, and the places where quantum physics, Buddhism and neurodivergent ways of questioning the world meet.

Isolation is not the same as being unsociable

The second half turns to isolation. The description is clear on the starting point: “Autistic people aren’t unsociable; we socialise differently.” The hosts link much of the distance Autistic people feel to the double empathy problem.

They also draw on the idea of urhomelessness to explore what it means to feel unsafe and unacknowledged, even among your own people. They make the case that neurodivergent communities need to include everyone, especially people whose experiences challenge the community itself.

Also in the episode

The episode covers what’s coming up at NeuroHub Connect and the launch of The Wider Existence, a Substack exploring neuroqueering, ethodiversity and posthumanism. The new Substack begins with symphrenia, which the description calls a community-created, non-pathologising term for AuDHD people with psychotic experiences.

The episode runs to just under 48 minutes, and the original post includes chapter markers and links to the books and projects mentioned.

This is a From NeuroHub piece: an AI-written news summary of our own content, written only from the episode’s public description. Listen to the original episode.