Mentally handicap and awakening

[Matt23]

I work with people who are severely mentally handicapped.  One of them one day, out of the blue, said "Hey Matt.  I'm playing a character."  I said "Who are you playing?"  He said "Myself" and smiled.  

He's able to talk and have semi-congruent concersations, and even tells witty jokes once in a while.  But he is pretty mentally handicapped; he'll often repeat the same questions and phrases, and sometimes it is hard to get him to respond to a question, is bed riden, and needs to be fed and changed etc.   

Now, I doubt he has that awareness.  But the possibility is still there. This also opens up the conversation of how mental disorders might facilitate being aware of true nature.  

I welcome any thoughts, perspectives or experiences.  

[Bodhitree]

Much as I’d like to believe in the human potential, I do believe it is more likely to be something on the order of the idiot savant, not really an awakening but perhaps having flashes of insight.

[mandyjw]

We live in a culture that shallowly defines ourselves and others by their minds (or our judgement of what we think are their minds). Awakening is going beyond the mind. A lot of sheer genius and talent goes completely unrecognized when people keep insisting that people OWN and have the genius and the talent. It also gets into the realm of channeling, so sometimes people who don't have a strong mental structure defining their world will be more open to spontaneously translating or downloading thought from a source outside themselves. Everyone does this in one degree or another, they just don't recognize it or value it. 

I once had to choose a password and chose the first random thing that came to my mind that was sort of like words put together and years later recognized it to be a strong non-dual pointer.