DJ Svoboda defies the stereotypes that people with autism lack empathy or imagination for he has an abundance of both. The proof of that is his invention of Imagifriends, a dream of creating a more diversity friendly world and a means of reaching out to the world through his creativity and Imagifriends website. He’s another of the people listed on http://www.auties.org . Here’s our interview:

DONNA:
I really like your surname DJ. Svoboda is a wonderful word in Une’s mouth. It’s like a character name I’d expect in Star Wars.

DJ:

Where’s the name from? DJ stands for Daniel John, Daniel after my Dad and John after my Grandfather who passed away before I was born. They are also two biblical names.

DONNA:
DJ, how old are you and what is your communication background?I am 24 years old. I really don’t have a communications background. I just love people and love to share what Jesus has done in my life and share the message of the Imagifriends.

DONNA:
What do you think about your diagnosis?
Do you see yourself first as DJ the person, or DJ the autistic ?

DJ:
Being Autistic helps make me who I am. I’m just glad that I can use my experiences and my art to help others. I was made this way for a purpose and I do the best I can each day to be the best person I can be with the Lord’s help.

DONNA:
I don’t follow Jesus because I see him as an historical figure in a particular historical time – 2000 years ago – in a particular historical place – the Middle East – whose death at that time was deified…ie made into a godhead figure… which is something humans do with heroes in religions associated with cultures around the world. It really comes down to whether one believes in that deification, and I see that as a sociological phenomena, not a literal and factual certainty. But I do totally relate to people’s need for God, or a ‘higher self’ or ‘force’ or ‘nature’ to turn to. I also appreciate values and ethics and some basic moral principals. I don’t believe I was made this was for a purpose. I believe I’m a roll of the dice with genetic inheritances related to who bred with who and effected by both life experiences and a degree of choices or avoidance of active choices. But I definitely relate to people’s need for spiritual belief.

DONNA:
What do you think makes your art particularly ‘autistic’ in nature?
Do you think we can tell eccentric from autistic when looking at the work of an autistic artist?

DJ:
I always begin a Imagifriend by drawing the eyes. All the coloring lines go the same direction. All my drawings are very bright and colorful. Each Autistic person who loves to do art is a great artist in his or her own way. They see their art with their own eyes, heart, and mind.

DONNA:
Beautifully put.

DONNA:
I love your world, Imagifriends.
I like how you used your own hardships to do something really constructive through art with all that.
Describe Imagifriends for me.

DJ:

The Imagifriends are a big happy family who love, care for, and help each other. They all live in Imagiville where everyone is OK just the way they are. Everyone is treated with respect. No one is mean in Imagiville. The Imagifriends are very bright colorful creatures each with their own particular job or duty in Imagiville.

DONNA:
I do feel which each journey in working out what job or duty fits us best at any given phase of our life. Glad Imagifriends helps people also think about this structure which I feel is really important in order to not drift so much we feel rootless then get lost in our own internal mental-emotional chaos.

DONNA:
Do you have a supportive family or are your Imagifriends a stronger more supportive family than what you have in the so called ‘real world’?

DJ:

I have a very supportive loving family who help me very much. I also have a very strong loving church family who love me and help Mom care for me. I am very blessed.

DONNA:
Yes, that is very lucky. Equally, I didn’t have these things but I felt blessed by the knocks and the incredible faith in autonomy, individuality and solitude these things gave me. From these I have given much. I equally gained a gift from the harshness of my background which was to be able to feel the deepest appreciation for the tiniest pieces of warmth and understanding present from the community. I that gift I feel truly blessed. I’m sure we each find our blessings differently and I’m glad you have found yours.

DONNA:
I used to have ‘characters’ who were not in the so called ‘real world’ even though they were very much part of MY real world.
One was my mirror reflection but because I’m face blind I thought she was another person until I understood reflection in my 20s.
The other was something of a ‘higher self’ or ‘intellectual self’ and was my ‘protector’.
I felt so in company with them that it was hard for me to develop as an ‘alone sense of self’ so the ‘real world’ felt very ‘external’, my internal world was far more important.
I think internal worlds are important and can be healthy or unhealthy ones, they can feed the soul or cripple it.
They can be taken to extremes but a lack of an inner world is equally unhealthy. Imagifriends is about building an inner world, don’t you agree?

DJ:

The Imagifriends are in the Inner World but I want them to be used to help others realize that people with Autism or other disabilities can be a productive part of society and need to be treated with kindness and respect. That’s the real message of Imagiville. People should help one another whether they are handicapped or not.

DONNA:
TOTALLY and I love your word ‘productive’. One of the most amazing skills people over look is the capacity to ‘be’. Much of society is geared to ‘appear’ and those who have a high ability to ‘be’ really are life’s silent teachers by example.

Imagifriends seems very idealistic…for example everything is good and kind in the world of Imagifriends.
This was not so with my own characters.
My own characters helped me deal with things like abuse, homelessness and exploitation.
My inner world was very different to the external one, very different things mattered, the relationships were very different.
But my world was quite a realistic one.
Christianity is very much about wishing away all of the ‘bad’
but I’m a Taoist, I find that I’m stronger by facing the bad head on and finding whatever growth and strengths I can gain from those journeys.
Do you think that a fantasy world which is all kindness, caring, acceptance and love can give us false hopes and make us depressed when the external world, inevitably usually won’t measure up?

DJ:
First of all, Christanity is not about wishing away all of the bad, it is knowing that when we go through the bad that Jesus is right there going through it with us and will make sure we make it.

DONNA:
I had my own time speaking to God. These were the hardest of times a child can imagine. God didn’t deal with the monsters and what they did around me and to me, but perhaps in another sense, God did, because out of that came both severe post traumatic stress, but deep commitment to and love of humanity and a great trust of autonomy (sometimes too much value of and love of autonomy means Reactive Attachment Disorder is worse so that ain’t all good) which has taught me theirs something of ‘God’ in us all, a higher self, a deep strength, and in dialogue with it, in taming it and it accepting us with all our flaws and incapacities and all our beauty as self, that this other part of us can guide us beyond the greatest of darknesses.

DJ:
The message of Imagiville is to help teach others that people with disabilities have feelings too and just want to be treated kindly. I am not using the Imagifriends to say that the world is going to be perfect because I know that’s impossible. I am just trying to help others with disabilities know they are important and can accomplish their goals and dreams too.

DONNA:
An important message. But I also believe we sometimes have to ‘shift the goal posts’ to kick the goal. I have adjusted my goals and dreams so they are attainable give who and what I am. Some people build dreams and goals that aren’t attainable and humility and flexibility can be great friends to us in adjusting our dreams and goals so we CAN reach them and live them without too much daily struggle, whatever those may be.

I think self esteem and the belief in one’s equality among others is essential.
I can see you do too.
And many things about autism shouldn’t be discriminated against, they should be understood and if possible accommodated within a diversity-friendly society.
But equally, some autistic people have major impulse control problems and may have issues they really do need to work on and change for their own health and happiness and that of those they live with. Do you think Imagifriends may accidentally lead some people with autism to blame all their challenges on the non-acceptance of others and divert themselves from doing sometimes important work on their own impulse control issues?

DJ:
Again, the message of The Imagifriends is acceptance, kindness, and respect. Of course, people with Autism or any other disability should have the opportunity to get the help and support they need. That is why I give a portion of all I make from the art to various Autism organizations for research and treatment. I just want the Imagifriends encourage others and help the public be aware of how people with disabilities feel when they are mistreated.

DONNA:
I think there are some people with autism who have significant health issues which do need treatment and that research can mean we work out which people can be best helped in which ways. But some types of help involve adapting the environment and community to be more autism friendly, more diversity friendly, and I’m not sure research does much for that and sometimes diplomatic lobbying, arts and writing help express that, help people understand that. I also know that many families and people with autism have few or no services and sometimes research organisations give nothing toward services which means the every day lives of older children and adults with autism aren’t helped at all by all the money given for treatment and research. Those without strong supportive families or church communities can end up living in terrible conditions or with elderly parents who worry themselves to death over what will happen to their adult children with little or no money in humane, dignified, informed, healthy autism-friendly support services for these people.

Can Imagifriends not only reassure people with autism that they are equal and worthy human beings among all others, but also assist them on working on their own developmental challenges?

DJ:
Imagifriends help others know that they are OK just the way they are. That everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and respect and most of all, That we can all make this world a better place if we just accept one another for who they are and try to help and encourage each other. We should try and be the best we can be everyday and treat one another like we want to be treated.

DONNA:
Oh yes 😉
But also sometimes we all do things where acceptance doesn’t help us. For example we might become addicted to behaviours which harm ourselves or others, those don’t need acceptance but they do need understanding, diplomacy and a plan to help us better manage our own problematic behavioural extremes so they can work for us, not against us.

DONNA:
I love that you want to help others with autism. As a fellow autistic person, I understand your passion.
The old stereotypes of autism said it was impossible for us to feel empathy or care deeply for the welfare of others.
I know many people with autism who don’t care at all about others and I’ve met others who are true empathy and they live and breath caring for others and humanity.
What do you think of that stereotype?

DJ:
I am just happy that others with Autism do care about other and want to help others. I am very happy to be one of those people. In regards to the stereotype that people with Autism don’t care for others, I hope through my art, that stereotype will be proven WRONG!!!

DONNA:
Me too 😉

You have mentioned your own troubles and hardships.
What have been the most non-autism-friendly times of your life?

DJ:
Spending time with friends and family. Also drawing and using my art to bring joy and happiness to others and to glorify the Lord. I enjoy the smiles on Peoples’s faces when I deliver an art order to them. I belive the Lord made me the way I for a reason and blessed me with with this artistic talent. I want to use it and my experiences to bring glory to the Lord and to help others with Autism.

DONNA:
Yes, I understand the joy of bringing happiness. I think many of us have a ‘Santa streak’. Sadly, that joy of bringing joy has become eaten up by give me give me consumerism but there are signs society is turning its back on this ‘gluttony’ and getting a sense of it in a more global perspective. People are also awakening to their own creativity and maybe Imagifriends expresses part of that movement.

DONNA:
Do you think that when an autistic person has deep empathy for others that this is part of the personality of individual people with autism?
Or do you think that hardships like those you’ve been through, and certainly those I’ve been through, sometimes build extremely strong sense of empathy for others?

DJ:
I know the experiences I have been through have helped shape the person I have become. If I had not been treated in a mean way or made fun of I wouldn’t know what it feels like. I wouldn’t have come up with the idea of The Imagifriends of Imagiville.I would not have the conviction to help others. Too sum it all up, We ARE Special The Way God Made Us.

DONNA:
I don’t think everything about me is special just the way it is. But I do think that I can work with my own destructive or self defeating forces (I believe we all have them) and tame them, even make them productive parts of our lives alongside the other aspects of ourselves.

Some people turn their own adversity into self pity and bitterness.
I love your drive to do something so constructive out of your own adversity.
Have you also been torn between using it constructively and this same self pity and bitterness?

DJ:

I am not bitter because I know that God loves me and made me the way I am. The hard times were difficult but you have to learn from them and go on. If you let them get the best of you , you will become defeated. I made the decision to turn the negative into postive and continue to grow and try to help others learn from what I have been through.

DONNA:
Yes, being an example of being constructive, positive, productive can be part of teaching by example.

If people want to know more about Imagifriends where can they find out more?

DJ:
They can go to my website: http://www.myimagiville.com/imagitemp/

or they can watch a TV interview by going to Google and typing in Imagifriends and scrolling down to the story,”Cary Man With Autism….”.

DONNA:
DJ its been wonderful interviewing you. Thanks for the opportunity.
Anything else you wish to say?

DJ:
If anyone is interested in ordering any Imagifriends, Imaginames,(that is where I turn the letters of your name into Imagifriends and connect them), they can go to the website:

http://www.myimagiville.com/imagitemp/

DONNA:
That sounds such a fab idea.

DJ:
For Imagifriends coloring books, you can e-mail me here:

djjw9221@earthlink.net

or call us @ 919-326-6154.

Thank you so much for your time and I have enjoyed answering your questions. Have a great blessed day everyday.
DJ Svoboda

PS I have also written a book and I would so much like to get it published. Do you know how I might do this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

DONNA:
Yes, many people do try the major autism related book publishers, such as Jessica Kingsley Publishers who publish my books and those by many on the autism spectrum. But you can also self publish a book, cost free, at http://www.cafepress.com . They don’t charge for this and set you up your own online sales facility to sell it as print on demand and webpage to advertise it. The printed copies cost $4 each to you but whatever you charge over the $4 per book becomes the author’s profit for the book, which is amazing. So an affordable book might sell for $10 each, and you’d make $6 per sale. With a usual publisher you’d make only 10% of the wholesaler’s price, so around 50 cents per book sold. So self publishing has some real benefits. The rest is PR and getting your book known.

You can also get a free blog at http://www.wordpress.com with which you could promote your book as well as use it as a website for imagifriends.

Hope that helps.

Warmly,

Donna Williams
author, artist, composer, screenwriter
http://www.donnwilliams.net
http://www.auties.org