Hello. My name is Rebecca Vitsmun. I’m an autistic author from Lafayette, Louisiana living with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), co-morbid conditions, and Congenital Stationary Night Blindness (CSNB from a mutation at the SLC24a1).
I was a “colicky” baby (cried nonstop and no one could understand why); eventually, my body gave up on being understood and did something else with its time.
I developed a significant impairment in interoception that eventually led to me unknowingly having a broken bone in the middle of my head for 35 years that was surgically repaired November 2, 2023. That impairment ended January 8th, 2025 via a recognition experience with a Jewish person.
I tested at a 5th grade level in Kindergarten and was placed into the Gifted program. After getting into an argument about personification with my 1st grade Gifted teacher (she wanted me to write as if I was a vegetable, but if I was a vegetable, I couldn’t write), I was transferred and placed in a 3rd grade Gifted program at 6 years old. In Vacation Bible School at age 7, I was the youngest to receive an award for memorizing a page of Bible verses; the next youngest was an 8th grader.
Son of my Hall of Famer grandfather and a Daughter of the American Revolution, my father was a PGA Professional golfer, and my mother, daughter of ESL French Creole/Spanish (Lachney/Vallejos) parents, a Louisiana Creole, was a K-3 teacher. I went to 14 schools by 10th grade as we moved to support my father’s career and many districts required I spend a week or two at a local school based on our temporary housing before moving to a golf course and being transferred to a Gifted program. I’m imprinted with the racial and class disparities of 1990’s Louisiana and Mississippi, as each Gifted school was majority White and well-funded, while the local schools were majority Black with decades-old books, run down buildings, and disengaged teachers. My mother said you could do more as a teacher working in a local school than you ever could at a well-funded one and she lived that way.
In high school, I lettered in math, two mental health professionals later labeled me a “savant” in physics, I received a Sandy Nininger Medal (the highest honor of Key Club International), was in 11 clubs and an officer of 6, co-hosted and was crew for Shut Up and Watch, a television show on Acadiana Open Channel, and was voted “Most Likely to be a Nun” by my Catholic Christian Development graduating class.
I graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with Honors curriculum in 2005 with a Bachelor of General of Studies (B.G.S.) in Arts and Humanities. I chose this path to create a degree in Humanities coursework; the focus of my studies was comparative religion under Ian Kinsella. I was nominated and inducted into Phi Beta Delta, an Honor Society for International Scholars, by John “Jack” Ferstel for distinguishing myself academically in English. I started math in Calculus III and Differential Equations, have minors in English and Math, and was the videographer for the improv troupe Cult of the Stage Monkey.
In 2015, I was the recipient of the Humanist Visionary Award through Foundation Beyond Belief for envisioning the first national humanist disaster recovery volunteer program, Humanist Disaster Recovery Teams, as well as the Atheist Impact Award recipient in 2016 through Atheist Community of Austin for developing and running that program (later run by GO Humanity and renamed Disaster Resiliency, then Disaster Resilience Collective). I was a regular co-host and writer for the live radio program Ask an Atheist with Sam Mulvey from 2014 – 2016, with appearances until it’s final episode in 2022.
I’m the Secretary of the Board for LymeTV, lobby with Center for Lyme Action, volunteer through many local organizations, and earned my Washington State Emergency Worker card through FEMA. I’ve spoken on national platforms since 2013 with my most recent being American Humanist Association’s 84th Annual Conference in 2024.
While I am a humanist, embracing people of all religious and cultural backgrounds, I’m most well-known for “outing” myself as an atheist to Wolf Blitzer after a tornado destroyed my home in Moore, OK in 2013. This exchange has been covered in many works, including Wendy Thomas Russell citing me as an example of a paradigm shift on the first page of “Relax, It’s Just God.” Comedian Doug Stanhope raised money for my family that we used to leave Oklahoma. A t-shirt with my quote sold in 20 countries. In 2024, I revealed I used physics to escape the tornado.
My humanistic atheism is agnostic, meaning I don’t claim to know. While I recognize there are things that are unimaginable in the context of being beyond human comprehension, I have no way to personify the unimaginable. Personification is, by definition, imagination. I can’t get around that; I’d be lying.
I have friends and family who are believers and they’re wonderful and have kindness in their hearts.
The line for me is having hate in your heart, though I hope those carrying wounds like that heal.
I believe truth and boundaries are important for healing. I believe accountability is necessary for growth. I worry about the internal pain I believe would come from remaining in the stage of grief called denial for a prolonged period. I dream of a world where “prisons” are mental health hospitals, and the patients are treated with the care they need and did not receive as children. I dream of a world where Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is taught in high schools.
I was the author and artistic designer for Eliza Dee’s Universes, creating it between February 1, 2022 (first draft) and July 25, 2022 (final art and text submission to Hypatia Press). I hired illustrator Victoria Mikki, because I believed her art style could align with the pictures that were in my head of a child who experiences autistic hyperphantasia. She’s a brilliant artist and I’m forever grateful to her for bringing my vision to life. I created the supplemental material for this book on February 29, 2024. On July 12, 2024, I put out the science education promo for the book, “Where science ends, imagination begins.“
My autistic special interests are psychology, health, law, and parenting, and previously weather, math, film, religion, and disasterology. Due to my experience of autistic hyperphantasia, I have access to significant amounts of memory.
I have a history of strange stories. Example: I had a humanizing experience with a man who was carjacking me at gunpoint. I’ll try to compile a list at some point.
In 2019, I created this list of human needs that I use to help myself and others with communication after spending 3 years hyper-focused on feelings and needs (through my psychology interest) and self-care sheets to improve my daily routines.
I live in a geodesic dome in Tacoma, WA with Nathan Finch, Bria Bailey, six kids (2 bio), two cats, and a leopard gecko.
I’m a stay-at-home mom.