In 2015, I gave a talk at the Autism One conference entitled “Wireless: A Key Piece of the Autism Puzzle and What You Can Do About it.” Two other talks were also given at that conference which discussed the health effects of wireless and EMF (electromagnetic fields) and how they contribute to autism. The challenge was that the hotel the conference was held at had a very strong industrial-strength Wi-Fi. This was a big concern, as I was planning to return for the 2016 Autism One conference. Was there some way to reduce exposure for parents and extremely sensitive children?

I have been focusing on reducing sensory noise, toxins, and wireless in my home and office space for over a decade, and my office was just featured on a CNN program that explored the health effects of environmental toxins. Working with some professionals from Healthy Building Sciences, LessEMF.com, and Alan Maher Designs, we came up with a plan to create a low EMF zone. My company, Clear Light Ventures, sponsored a room we named the “Clear Space.” We incorporated as many healthy factors as we could into the room, but the primary goal was reducing high levels of wireless radiation.

We used a quick assembly event tent frame and covered it with two layers of an EMF shielding fabric called StatiCot. We then used four layers of another EMF shielding material called Swiss Shield Daylite for a skylight and for the doorway. We grounded the metal frame and conductive shielding fabric with three Alan Maher Technical Grounds to give the fabric and frame a way to discharge electrical energy. This configuration allowed us to reduce the average level of wireless radiation from over 3,000 uW/m2 to 0 uW/m2. It was a great team effort, but the real measure of success would be to see how many people, especially the autistic children, felt the difference.

Over the next five days of the conference, hundreds of people went into the Clear Space tent. I was surprised that almost everyone (about 97%) felt the difference. We started to ask people to write brief comments about their experience of being in the tent. Here are a few of those comments:

“I felt very calm and peaceful in the tent. It was like I stepped out of my world to a place I needed to be.”

“I feel much more relaxed!”

“I spent 10 minutes in the tent and felt much more clear in my head and calmed.”

Calm was the most common word used to describe the experience. Some of the autistic children who came into the tent immediately started to calm down and “stim” less. Two brothers came in and calmed down right away. One sat in a chair and looked stunned by the experience, and the other laid on the floor and went to sleep. Many of the parents at the conference brought their children into the tent to calm them down.

You don’t need to create a completely wireless and EMF-free zone to start feeling the calming effects of reducing wireless exposure. You can start to get some of the benefits for free by turning off sources of wireless exposure around your body, especially exposures in your bedroom that impact your sleep.

For more details, see the video "Autism One Wireless-Free Tent Experiences."