Meet ISHTAR, of Zebra Crossings Project
Welcome to the story behind the project. Discover the lived experience and vision that inspired the creation of the Zebra Crossings Project for individuals navigating Ehlers-Danlos syndromes and neurodiversity across Canada and beyond.
Turning lived experience into passionate advocacy
Navigating life at the intersection of Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) and neurodivergence comes with unique hurdles, medical dismissals, and profound discoveries. As the founder of the Zebra Crossings Project, ISHTAR created this resource as just one stripe on the zebra crossing so that those who find it don't walk the diagnostic and daily living path without info.
Ishtar is hoping to join The Patient Revolution, should they come out of this flare well enough. They know they are living on borrowed time and died clinically once already in 2002, oddly enough discovering that when not conscious here, they are not human. The Council sent them back here to finish the mission of finding answers and closure for their human bloodline, the last alive of their immediate family and all else but cousins and to reveal a better way to live on this planet
Ishtar's personal directive is revealing the truth about this universe and where it came from, to assist people in understanding the Creators without religion as necessity, and who and what the consciousness is that is all around them. The Creators always intended that human avatars live responsibly empowered lives.
Chronic illness has progressed in this 61-year-old, pictured here in their 50s, to the point wherein planning for archival of their digital works and family photos has begun. This site will be gone at some point. The Blogger and Youtubes will remain until Google drops the accounts. A link to their Permanent archive account will become available should they complete it on time so that it will be available there after their passing. This flare was a close call and they are not yet out of the woods. They might continue a few more years and might not.
EDS is part of their very human story, combined with CMT 1A and a host of complications.
What Ishtar Does
Ishtar is a polymath in the 97th Percentile and is Neurodivergent as someone that is Autastic and as someone on the 2SLGBTQ1A+ spectrum. They coined the term Conceptual Systems Matrix Architect for the systems way theirs and other polymath minds work.They see what works in a system and what does not. Due to Dysautonomia and neck injury, the latter related to a hypermobile neck and being dropped in an elevator in their power wheelchair in 2015, their brain doesn't function as it used to (fog). Artist, Musician, Author and more, an entire global government structure — minus tyranny and fully inclusive in peace — was downloaded into their brain very fast in 2012.
Diagnosed with CMT 1A and a host of other conditions, it wasn't until 2018 that they found out about EDS and knew it made sense, only to be dismissed by a Vancouver, BC rheumatologist for the wrong reasons. Rather than using 2017 guidelines properly, what Ishtar used to be able to do as a bendy person was dismissed, the doctor simply not wanting to diagnose someone who wasn't still bendy. Gaslighting and dismissal by medical professionals is careless and can be dangerous. Ishtar's case is case in point.
Looking further into EDS in 2026, after years of gaslighting themselves, Zebra Crossings was born. The idea was to put a comprehensive medical record together for doctors using Claude and to make a version available to the public to reveal just how complex EDS can be. It will be available should they survive this flare AND be able to function well enough afterward. Those interested are advised to subscribe to zebracrossingsproject.blogspot.com for updates of any kind. T-shirts featuring the zebra graphics on this page are available in the shop.
Hoop Jumping Teal Zebra
"When you are told you are a rare zebra in a medical world of horses, finding your tribe changes everything. I am are here to help you thrive."
ISHTAR, founder of Zebra Crossings Project