A Shining Light in a World of Darkness!

Years ago, Andreas Heinecke was assigned to escort a colleague who had become blind from an accident. His experience and insight from this encounter, forever changed his view of people with disabilities. Andreas devised the ‘Dialogue in the Dark’ concept which is all about challenging people’s preconceptions of those who are blind and disabled. In this exclusive interview, Andreas discusses how the idea for "Dialogue in the Dark" was born, and how this work is the precise vocation that suits his quest that started for him at the young age of thirteen.

i3 interviewer (MC)
Andreas Heinecke (AH)
Date of Interview: January 2009

MC: How did ‘Dialogue in the dark’ come about? How did you come up with the idea?

AH: There are always two questions that come up. One is how I came up with the idea and the other is how I can stay ‘alive’ in a dark room? To answer the first question, I have one short story and one long story. The short story starts in 1928 when my mother and father were born. My mother was from a Jewish background and my father had a Nazi education. You can imagine what happened when the war came. Naturally, the life of my mother turned completely. My father’s family supported the Nazi regime. When I turned 13, I became aware of this very strange situation and from that day on, I tried to understand what the ‘track’ from exclusion to extermination is. I did my Ph.D. on Eastern Jewish history while trying to understand how these things could happen, not only in terms of Jews and Germans but why these things happen all the time. Some people are excluded for specific reasons.

MC: Did your mother survive the WWII?

AH: Yes. I was born in 1955, not in the forties or something. Upon graduation, I worked for a radio station and one day I was asked if I could imagine up a training scheme for a blind applicant who had lost his sight in an accident. I was working in Lepzig, he (my manager) asked me if I could train the blind guy to work here. I thought that it must be horrible to be blind; I had no idea what it meant and had no connection with people in that situation. (I assumed) he must have been in a miserable situation. And I thought, if I was in that situation, I may have decided to (commit) suicide or whatever. Of course I would not have, but this is how a person thinks! The person had lost his sight in a car accident.

I met Mathais. He was handsome - SURPRISE! Second surprise - he was clever! Third surprise - he was fun! And he could live a completely independent life, and was absolutely okay with his situation.

After knowing Mathais better and reflecting on my initial thoughts and concepts of how he "should" be, I felt really ashamed. Even if I, as an educated man, am so sure that he is in a miserable situation, and that he can’t live by himself; how would others (- who may not have received a liberal education and been trained to think critically -) judge the differences in disabled people?

This was the beginning, I began to think of how to create a space / platform / environment where blind or silent people could meet to have this personal encounter.

I strongly believe in a concept introduced by Martin Buber (http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-buber.htm), an Austrian born–Jewish philosopher who said the only way to learn is through encounters. This is how I learned and I think all of us learn like this. Experiential learning is a vibrant and deep exchange with others. It is easy; some people thought it was too complex a theory. That was in 1988 and I was 33, so from age 13 to 33, I had been looking for the answer to my thoughts. I am now 53.

“The only way to learn is by encounters” – Martin Buber (February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965)

My life was fragmented in various periods but eventually it all became clear that THIS, is what I should do.

MC : So you knew what you were looking for?

AH: I knew I was looking for something and trying to find my place in the world. And then after I decided not to make a career as a teacher, I decided to do my Ph.D. It was a lonely business, it was clear I would never be a researcher. But I got my Ph.D. when I was around 33 years old. I had to work and write my Ph.D. in parallel with the media work.

The blind person situation then occurred. It was definitely what I thought I could do. To help people understand other people.

MC: What is your life mission?

AH: Yes, this was the beginning. We think we can judge that he is not in a good position. We don’t have the empathy even to imagine those in a very serious situation. People are confronted with problems all the time and people think “Oh poor you, poor you. It must be cruel and horrible”. (For) the blind people I know, it is not a problem. It is an issue but you still have to manage. One person said ‘To be blind is one thing but to keep order, that is a problem”. All this compassion and PITY, and questions such as ‘Would you like to see?’ are all wrong concepts which I want to change.

MC: How does this tie back to your mother? Nazi Germany, the Jewish, and the disabled?

AH: The Nazis had their first trials with disabled people. The first gas chamber trials were carried out with mentally disabled or retarded people; people whom were perceived to have "no value", ( and "nothing to contribute", thus are a "drain on society's resources").

For me, this concept of extermination begins with a mental separation. It is reflective of the European Jews to be killed for no reason than they are "different"; people killed for having a slightly different belief. To not accept differences; disabled people are not accepted due to small differences (which we may incorrectly assume are big differences).

MC: From experiencing the two hours in the dark, today, having experienced the DID experience, I also came to a deeper understanding of misconceptions. First is that I very quickly stopped panicking about being completely in the dark, I adapted so fast to it in this experience, that I can truthfully say that I don’t think of being blind as a disability anymore. Dealing with it is not that hard.

AH: It is a miracle of being human. You have lots of capacities to deal with different situations. You grow, and if you are in a hard situation, you grow and survive. You see from people who were in camps survived due to their adaptation skills. Being blind is a challenge. If you go through this learning process then it is okay to be blind. It is not a problem anymore.

MC: Are there fundamental differences between people? For example, from being blind, and being from differences in religion?

AH: There are some distinctions between the two. Disability is something you cannot change, but with differences between religious beliefs, one can convert, stop or start "believing".

MC: What about the humanity of the person. It's often said that people grow as a result of "suffering". If you encounter some hardships in life, then some people become more human. Do you feel this is true?

AH: I think it is an enriching experience to know people who are 'different', who are not in my peer group. To understand that even I can be independent without my eye sight, it has been an extremely enriching situation.

For more about Dialogue on the Dark, please click on link: http://www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com/

End of Interview.

Please click here to read: Interview with Christina Chua, co-founder of a charity for disabled children - CEO Foundation, published on 14 May 2009 The Dialogue in the Dark Hong Kong Exhibition! “An Experience to see the Unseen!” Dialogue in the Dark – Empowering understanding and empathy! BrendaL-20 on "Sometimes You Need the Darkness to Help You See the Light" The SOCIAL VALUE of living with our "CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD"

Dialogue in the dark official website Dialogue in the dark Youtube channel