Delusion is the neurological norm.

Autistics perceive the world as unprocessed and raw, do not filter as much noise that non-autistics only perceive as background noise for example. The more we go to the other extreme, the more it is perceived as filtered and distorted it seems.

There’s a theory that there are two brain networks, i.e the task positive (consciously, analytically processing) network and the default mode (more subconsciously, instinctively processing) network, whereas the TPN is overly active in autistics, the DMN is overly active in schizophrenics.

The TPN is what may light up in the average non-autistic when they’re trying to process a more complicated, attention-demanding math test, and this is how an autistic might perceive an entire day, constantly analyzing and evaluating, not processing with the DMN, which is more related to thinking, or rather making intuitive assumptions about the emotions of others, ”social stuff”.

For certain evolutionary benefits, you could argue the DMN was favored over the TPN, which is why psychotic behavior is the neurological norm nowadays.

For example, a vital, core difference between autistics and non-autistics is how they respond to sensory stimuli, autistics take in as much information as possible, which can result in sensory overload, meltdowns, whereas neurotypicals automatically filter and blend out unpleasant stimuli like noises, textures, lights, they filter out background noise/information more easily.

Imagine for instance a caveman having to slay another caveman in order to ensure survival, if he doesn’t slay the other caveman and take his resources, he’ll starve. Understanding that the other caveman is a sentient, suffering-capable organism just like you might elicit feelings of empathy and guilt, so in this situation, there’s a benefit to developing a delusion, a coping mechanism, such as telling yourself the other organism is an inanimate object that cannot feel (e.g. it’s just an object) to get the job done efficiently and ensure survival, sometimes it can be beneficial for your survival to delude yourself.

So what I am saying here is that I think a capacity to blend out and filter painful stimuli has a primitive benefit (i.e being less impaired by sensory input and having comfortable psychological coping mechanisms), and this is exactly how normative humans seem to function, they do not perceive reality raw, with appreciation for all its little details to the point of being overwhelmed, they have the function of blissful ignorance, run on various psychological coping mechanisms to keep them persevering through life and parasitize others, enabled by false beliefs about reality.

Such delusions are extremely convenient, they make one a better parasite. Delusions can be a mechanism of self-preservation so to speak, when reality makes you uncomfortable, most brains automatically distort and filter the information, come up with false beliefs to keep them going optimistically, delusionally, naively, this does not work as easily in an autistic brain.

As is often noted in descriptions about symptoms, autistics tend to for example have a higher sense of justice and better long term memory, this is to no surprise, as the main function of a non-autistic brain is to automatically filter and ignore painful stimuli, and therefore also ignore contradiction and logical inconsistency, something that can make one feel uncomfortable. It’s something the autistic is less equipped to do, contradiction, inconsistency, disorderliness induces pain in the autistic, and little details that seem insignificant to neurotypicals might be remembered for a much longer time.

In general, it’s easy to see how many social behaviors, resulting out of DMN processing that are attributed to neurotypicals have been more evolutionarily beneficial, such as social mimicry, observing and keeping in touch with the feelings of your tribe, automatically mimicking the other chimpanzees may yield a survival benefit.

Example: If a caveman comes running away from a wild animal, back to his cave, signalling in body language there’s a danger, it’s beneficial to process social stimulus with the DMN, rather than to be an autist processing with the TPN, currently hyperfocused on analyzing let’s say a stone in great detail, and thus not noticing that all the other cavemen are running away, and then being the first one to get eaten by the wild animal because you weren’t in touch with the social world, this would be another example how intuition was favored over raw intellect and humans will believe the consensus of their primitive tribe over truth.

So overall, a brain network and processing mode that does not necessarily help you to arrive at correct philosophical and scientific conclusions about objective reality was largely favored by evolution. It’s whatever ensures survival of the subject, not whatever ensures that the subject is understanding of reality.

At the core, autistic and schizophrenic, psychotic thought patterns seem to often be opposed to each other, which isn’t to say that an autistic could never experience increased DMN activation/psychosis/hallucinations, as some will bring up that some autistics are simultaneously diagnosed with schizophrenia as a counterargument to this theory, but this seems more lika a language issue to me, or not to mention also a result of misdiagnosis as again, neurotypicals are psychotic themselves, so they’re bad at identifying differences between a more severe psychotic or an autistic.

Of course, if higher TPN activity/in depth processing is descriptive of autism, and higher DMN activity/distorting of information is largely descriptive of schizophrenia, then if someone who generally processes much more with the TPN is currently processing much more with the DMN during a psychotic episode, you could say that technically they are psychotic in this moment, not processing autistically anymore, for the moment they’re having this psychotic episode.

But this doesn’t mean that generally they don’t process much more with the TPN, and by autist I’m largely referring to those with increased TPN activity, I’m not saying that an autistic’s perception cannot be momentarily altered by taking drugs or some other intense event. Perhaps the right way would be to imagine it as with mood swings, they can manifest in the same individual, doesn’t mean the states are the same just because they happen at different times – being manically happy is not the same thing as being depressed but it can happen in the same person, autism isn’t the same as schizophrenia but might happen in the same person, some individuals oscillate between different mental states more so than others.

But at the core, these perceptions seem rather different, in general, the autistic perceives reality intensely and in detail, which then prompts them to learn how to use logic, order, systems in order to make sense of their surroundings/feel safe (a higher systemizing quotient), whereas psychotics automatically filter and distort reality, not every situation is experienced as new and unbiased, they copy certain biases from their cultural surroundings and interpret them into everything they see instead, even if it’s false, e.g. one black person stole from me once, so black color=dangerous, non-autistics make these types of subconscious associations all the time, attributing intent and emotion to what others are saying or even non-conscious phenomena (e.g. the storm is god’s wrath).

This explains a lot of the autistic social behaviors such as a focus on routine, most descriptions of autism symptoms are just that, they state symptoms, but don’t explain where this behavior originates from. I think it makes perfect sense, when everything is experienced intensely and in detail, you’ll be more relieved by keeping strict routines to regain a sense of order that is constantly being ruined by living in a world of psychotics, a world of disorder and contradictory demands.

The intense world theory and autism-psychosis hypothesis are the only explanations that I’ve seen so far that give an explanation for the motivation for those behaviors, rather than just stating a generic symptom list, it makes sense that when one perceives everything in an intense and overwhelming fashion, you’ll feel prompted to learn to order things.

And on the other hand, when this psychotic capacity to automatically filter and distort reality that neurotypicals have gets completely out of hand, that is essentially what we call schizophrenia, someone who is always taking a ”socially skilled approach” to any task, i.e I assume my tv is also a social animal, the tv is talking to me, the cloud looks like it has an angry face, it must be conspiring against me! Everything is thought of as having a mind and intent.

All on a spectrum of course from total autism to total schizophrenia. So if we just imagine the extremes, the struggles seem to be very much the opposites, one individual is tormented by perceiving reality/sensory input very intensely in every sense, the other individual is tormented by not being connected enough to reality and hearing things that are not there, hallucinations.

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• The reason why this theory would be hard to acknowledge is easy to see.

Everyone is experiencing autism or schizophrenia to differing degrees, so obviously if the vast majority of humans are mildly psychotic, many of them are likely not going to be open to the idea that they are psychotic, they will have difficulties distinguishing between their unrealistic beliefs, and an autist’s more realistic beliefs, and a more severe psychotic’s unrealistic beliefs.

The autistic goes to the psychiatrist and is asked ”do you hear voices?” – so thinking literally/logically, hearing it as it is said, the autistic answers ”yes (they are hearing the voice of the psychiatrist)”, so they seem schizophrenic and delusional superficially, when it was merely the result of having taken what the other person said literally.

The autistic may have better, more enhanced hearing than the average non-autistic who blends out sensory input more, so they might label the autistic as schizophrenic for supposedly hearing things that are not there, when in reality the autistic’s hearing skills are simply enhanced.

In a society where neurotypicals all delusionally believed that the earth is flat simply due to the fact that they mindlessly imitated another neurotypical mindlessly imitating from another neurotypical that the earth is supposedly flat (social mimicry), an autist might be put into the category of being delusional, rather than completely sane for believing that the earth is round.

• Autistic: The earth is round, science says.

• Abnormal schizophrenic: The earth is a triangle, the demon in my ear says.

• Normal schizophrenic: The earth is flat, you’re both insane because you don’t believe in the majority consensus, a claim’s truth value is always dependent on how many normal schizophrenics at once are believing in it!

The closer we get to the right side (psychosis), the more likely the person will be to probably fail to understand that they are the one who is psychotic, and because neurotypicals themselves are psychotic, they often times mistake an autist’s rationality for psychosis, just like a more severe psychotic person would mistake a neurotypical’s rationality for psychosis, it’s called anosognosia, they might not see they are delusional in the moment they’re having their psychotic episode.

Poor insight is a cardinal symptom of schizophrenia that, while not universally and uniformly expressed in all patients, is among the most common of its manifestations. Available neurobiological and neurocognitive evidence linking the phenomenon to core pathophysiology of schizophrenia justifies extension of the anosognosia construct to schizophrenia-related insight deficits.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4140620/

But ultimately, this is exactly what is happening in reality, neurotypicals in their psychosis think of autistics as deficient for ”taking things too literally”, i.e using basic logic, treating things as they are said, drawing conclusions from what is said in a consistent manner, even an intellectually disabled autistic might be better at this than a normally intelligent schizophrenic.

Take for example statements such a schizophrenic could make about god, about god watching down on us and/or simultaneously being in our hearts, it doesn’t even matter if the autistic in question is intellectually disabled, if you process such information literally and systematically, you’re either going to 1. believe what they said in a very literal manner and think god is located in your real non-metaphorical heart or 2. wonder what said psychotic lunatic meant to describe, it sounds incoherent.

You’re expected to be delusional just like they are, incapable of noticing contradictions, and if you’re not, they’re going to think you’re insane, for in objective reality being the exact opposite of what constitutes insane, which they don’t comprehend, as they of course also illogically falsely believe sanity and health to be dictated by majority consensus, which is about as idiotic as saying that someone who has no AIDS in a society where everyone has AIDS is unhealthy because everyone has AIDS, and normalcy equals health, so no AIDS=illness.

They are intuitive, not analytical, and the more increase this intuition thing, the closer we get to what even they officially recognize as schizophrenia, someone thinking of everything in social terms, attributing minds and intentions to objective, scientifically explicable phenomena, all these behaviors have good evolutionary explanations for them, but that ultimately still doesn’t change the fact that it’s still delusional.