Some people spend their lives learning how to belong. Others spend their lives wondering if they ever truly can.

For decades, Mark McFillen carried that question like a weight—navigating a world that never quite felt designed for him. A world that demanded masks. A world that rewarded conformity and punished difference. And like so many others who experience the same reality, he learned how to blend in—adapting, adjusting, shrinking into spaces that never quite fit. But a question lingered. What if belonging wasn’t the goal? 

What if the very thing that set him apart—his way of thinking, his neurodivergence, his refusal to play by the unspoken rules—wasn’t a flaw to fix, but a strength to embrace?

That realization didn’t come easily. It came through battle. Through breaking points. Through the quiet, lonely moments where the world felt too heavy to carry. It came through the fire of experience, through the choice to reject limitation, not himself.

And that choice—the choice to stand in his own light, unapologetically and completely—set everything into motion.

Mark didn’t just want to live authentically. He wanted to find others like him—the ones who have spent their lives navigating misunderstanding, the ones who know what it means to mask, the ones waiting for proof that they are not alone.

That’s why he created Beyond the Mask: AI as a Bridge to Understanding Neurodivergent Minds—a trilogy designed not just to explore the brilliance of neurodivergence, but to call out to others who are ready to embrace their own.

This isn’t a standard research paper. It’s not a passive analysis. It’s a movement.

A movement toward recognition. Toward connection. Toward a future where difference isn’t erased, but celebrated.

Mark has come a long way—his journey has taken him from decades of isolation to standing on the front lines of change, shaping frameworks, designing new ways of thinking, pushing back against the systems that have long misunderstood minds like his.

Now, he’s in Los Angeles, standing at the edge of something bigger than himself. This trilogy is the signal flare—the invitation for others to step forward, to drop the masks, to build something stronger, together.

For those who have felt unseen, unheard, unrecognized—this is our moment.

Beyond the Mask. I C U.