spiritual exeriences and mental illness

[Old Soul]

My brother took lithium for years and then became a born again Christian and stopped lithium and he's ok now. Although he wants to save everybody(he, he). He's saved by Jesus, he says. He said when he had his conversion, when Jesus came into his heart, it was similar to the manic state, without the ungroundedness of it, w/o delussions of granduer, like a humble balanced version of being mainc.

Yeah I believe in Jesus too, but I don't see Jesus the way the church does, in fact from a manic perspective point of view, because that is what I have too, I really believe if Jesus were alive today making the same claims today that he did back then, physciatry would diagnose him as manic depressive, my conversion in faith was very very traumatic, very manicy

Here is a little poem I wrote one day in one of my manic states, ( a little humor)

"My physcosis friend"

The doctors say he became my physcosis
one dark and desperate day
Unpacked his luggage in my brain
where he resides to this day
And of all the medication
running through my blood stream
He says he prefers the effects
from a healthy dose of Thorozine
He loves telling me of his visions
In a very excitable voice
But he says I'm not crazy
Because I let him in my choice
The doctors want to believe me
but they say they have no visons
in their heads
But the truth is
they can't efford to
because there aren't any more physciatric beds :-))


I'm glad you and your bro' are well!! I've been med free for 5 yrs, and still keeping a fairly level head .....

[Old Soul]

It helped me personally, actually, because I am one of those people who have giftedness in some areas and learning disabilities in others, and have never seen this addressed.

I never did well in school, not just because of the trauma growing up, but because I know I don't learn the way most people do.... I am a very visual person, and alot of times I litterally get little cartoon pics from verbal conversations, when I read books, I see the whole thing unfold very easily , like a movie before the movie is even made and sometime I take laughing fits at inapropriate times ( it is embarrasing actually), but I can't help.... I really do think it is a gift from God to help me deal with my inadequecies.....

I am very hyper sensitive, and take things in quite deeply , to me it is not just a sunny or wonderful day/ it is " SUNNY GLORIOUS DAY"..... takes all kind of people.....
like flowers in a garden it looks so much more beautiful when there are various kinds of flowers

[KLmasina]

Originally Posted by Old Soul

what exactly is that? I've never heard of this before sounds interesting



totally agree!!

Kundalini rising is a yogic term that refers to the energy at the base of the spine releasing up through the seven chakras and exiting through the crown of the head.

Kundalini is one of the many representations of Kali, the Divine Mother.

The purpose of yoga is to raise the kundalini... although in the west, yoga is mainly practised as only the asanas, or postures.

The spiritual rebirth changed far more than my feelings... it's so hard to describe it all. My perception of energy increased ten-fold. My ego desires melted away. I couldn't force myself to work just for money anymore... it had to be in alignment with my Authentic Self...

There is an awareness of consciousness beyond mind, body and emotions.

These statements are only a drop of how things changed, and like any birth, it was painful.

A wonderful book on kundalini awakening is Gift of Spirit, by Gina Allan.

Hope this answers some of your questions, but piques even more questions...

Much joy,
Kara-Leah

[Atma]

Originally Posted by Megan

Old Soul, thank you for that excellent article!

It helped me personally, actually, because I am one of those people who have giftedness in some areas and learning disabilities in others, and have never seen this addressed.

I hope parents will be extremely cautious about allowing their children to be put on psyche meds. These medications can make some people worse in the long term, sometimes drastically, dangerously worse.

I realize that that is a controversial statement at present, but I think we will be hearing a lot more about this issue in coming years. I'll post some links about that later.

Edit: I realize just how controversial Peter Breggin is also, but here is a link to his HuffPo blog:

Dr. Peter Breggin - Politics on The Huffington Post

The spiritual dynamic in giftedness and mental illness is simply not factored in by modern psychiatry, nor can it be, given a materialist worldview.

Unfortunately,I completley disagree.Mental ilnesses are a brain disease and are and should be treated as an organic disorder.If out of balance,brain needs chemicals the same as body needs insuline or some other substance.
This does not mean that man is just a bundle of chemicals,on the contrary, but while in physical body,he is heavily influenced by material laws (which are also divine just vibrating differently).It is also a fact that doctors often do all sorts of mistakes,but modern drugs,especially new antipsychotics, literally saved many lives.Quality of recovery just 10-15 years ago was something completley different then now.There are also non-chemical disorders,but it's another story.

[Billy]

Originally Posted by Shamou

That is exactly what "they" all say... those flying mice are real...

.

These Flying mice Shamou, tell me what exactly do they look like?

[agnostic]

Psychiatry offers a model of what your experience "is" just as spiritual doctrines do. Since the problem lies in the area of metaphysics, judge by results. What do you want? And which models have helped others get it. And: can you trust them?

[Liara Covert]

Agnostic makes a good point. Psychiatric perceptions are an example of a perspective of a particular group of professionals. They aim to explain the unexplainable, their way. You decide whose views make sense to you.

Note that Thomas Edison was expelled from elementary school because teachers, counsellors and psychiatrists of his time agreed he was stupid. It turned out he revealed what many people today recognize as a different kind of intelligence than the status quo of his era.

People tend to judge what they don't understand and make associations with what they think they know. Whether an assessment appears positive or negative and in who's interest is for you to determine, in your way and time.

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by agnostic

Psychiatry offers a model of what your experience "is" just as spiritual doctrines do. Since the problem lies in the area of metaphysics, judge by results. What do you want? And which models have helped others get it. And: can you trust them?

That is very interesting agnostic... I do wish that you would elaborate on that...

I believe that psychiatry deals mostly on shared and not shared realities... whereas the realm of spirituality has to do with blind faith... shared of not...

So, I would like to know how you associate these two very distinct fields of thoughts...

.

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by Liara Covert

You decide whose views make sense to you.

Granted, it is our right and our privilege to decide what we chose to believe... but don't you think that we should give credence to science and to the scientific methods over the opinions eclectic doctrines...???

.

[Megan]

It was the great Stephen Hawking who informed us, at one time (since recanted), that we were likely going to go back to our mother's wombs in the Big Crunch.

My preference is to think for myself, factoring in, to the best of my ability, the broad spectrum of current scientific thinking along with spiritual ideas that resonate with me.

But to each his own.

[Atma]

Originally Posted by Shamou

I believe that psychiatry deals mostly on shared and not shared realities... whereas the realm of spirituality has to do with blind faith... shared of not...
So, I would like to know how you associate these two very distinct fields of thoughts...

Well,if you are viewing the world from (in my opinion) truer perspective- that material universe(s) are just condensed physical energy which is condensed consciousness/thought of God (Field,as scientists would say),then everything in the world is spiritual (because it's a manifestation of Spirit).
Why 10 dimensions? - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Theory of everything - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Science,religion and philosophy are not excluding each other but,on the contrary are complementing each other if they are correctly orientated, as progressive members of all three branches are.

Psychiatry (which is science) is here to fix problems that religion does not cover-chemical imbalances in the brain (it's most important role).
There are "miraculous" healings,but there is an esoteric explanation for them, and not everybody's karma (cause and effect law) allows it.

[Liara Covert]

Some people firmly believe that any form of spiritual experience must have roots in mental illness. Other people believe that mental illness is an illusion. Megan makes a thought-provoking point: "to each his own." We each create our own understanding of the world or agree to adopt someone else's.

[Maguru]

I believe mental illness is the process of expanding the consciousness. When understood and experienced from this perception, transformation of consciousness and self can take place.

[Atma]

Originally Posted by Liara Covert

Some people firmly believe that any form of spiritual experience must have roots in mental illness. Other people believe that mental illness is an illusion.

Yes,Freud was similar,he said:"Religious instinct is an infantil instinct that should be psychoanalised out of existance."(and he was giving away cocain like candy).
On the other hand,you had Jung,who loved Gnosticism,wrote about Kundalini, and wrote a psychological commentary to the Tibetan book of the dead.

As for mental ilnesses,they are too real,obviously you did not visit asylums.
There are also other causes of derangements,but they are rare and not acceptable to orthodox psychiatrists and psychoanalists like Freud.

[dktang]

From my experience, they'll say something is wrong with you if you don't agree with being socially conditioned. I don't bother talking about this stuff with my friends because it leads me to being labeled a liberal or even conspiracy theorist.

Just understand that freedom and liberty should be achieved through consciousness because the external world will always be ruled by perception.