Book/Movie Recommendations Related to the Link Between 'Insanity' and Spirituality?

[Alex-The-Iceman]

Originally Posted by Westleigh

I'm not sure the OP was trying to say there was a link between insanity and spirituality so much as he was saying that many people having spiritual experiences, especially powerful ones, are highly likely to be labelled insane by those who do not comprehend the spiritual aspect, and he is interested in researching instances where this might have occurred.

This is EXACTLY what I was trying to say here; thanks for getting that across in a much more eloquent/well-worded manner than I had originally posted haha. If anyone has ANY examples (interviews, movies, books, names of specific people, video clips, pictures, ANYTHING) that demonstrate this I would be very very happy!

[psychoslice]

99% of the world believe that they are normal, these same people also believe that they are the mind body organism with their name attached, now is this normal ?.

Originally Posted by psychoslice

99% of the world believe that they are normal, these same people also believe that they are the mind body organism with their name attached, now is this normal ?.

And many who do realise theyre not their body organism, manage to adapt to life with that realisation.

People aren't diagnosed with a mental illness (in the UK) because they recognise themselves as spirit...or chanel messages or see visions. They are diagnosed with mental illness because of the way their human mind reacts to this or any other triggers in life.

People are diagnosed through two avenues:

The first is when they have gone to their doctor to ask for that doctors help. They won't have been diagnosed unless they have personally made that choice to ask for medical help.

The second is if somebody's behaviour is felt to be a threat to themselves or others. In these circumstances the person is sectioned and assessed regularly. This might be people who attempt suicide and continue to feel suicidal. It might be people who's illness has caused them to become violent or threatening to others. It might be people who have reached a state of mentality where they are not feeding themselves or taking care of their basic hygeine.

The glamorisation of the link between spirituality and mental illness has the potential to encourage people (especially teenagers) to exhibit behaviour associated with mental illness in order to prove themselves more spiritual than the next person.

The mental illness I see most frequently in spiritual circles is megalomania. Im not a psychiatrist...but having seen this at close quarters, it seems to me like the ego fighting back

[psychoslice]

Originally Posted by xxheatherxx

And many who do realise theyre not their body organism, manage to adapt to life with that realisation.

People aren't diagnosed with a mental illness (in the UK) because they recognise themselves as spirit...or chanel messages or see visions. They are diagnosed with mental illness because of the way their human mind reacts to this or any other triggers in life.

People are diagnosed through two avenues:

The first is when they have gone to their doctor to ask for that doctors help. They won't have been diagnosed unless they have personally made that choice to ask for medical help.

The second is if somebody's behaviour is felt to be a threat to themselves or others. In these circumstances the person is sectioned and assessed regularly. This might be people who attempt suicide and continue to feel suicidal. It might be people who's illness has caused them to become violent or threatening to others. It might be people who have reached a state of mentality where they are not feeding themselves or taking care of their basic hygeine.

The glamorisation of the link between spirituality and mental illness has the potential to encourage people (especially teenagers) to exhibit behaviour associated with mental illness in order to prove themselves more spiritual than the next person.

The mental illness I see most frequently in spiritual circles is megalomania. Im not a psychiatrist...but having seen this at close quarters, it seems to me like the ego fighting back

Wow that was interesting Heather, the UK sounds like a good place to be if you have what is called mental illness. Megalomania, you see it everywhere now, everyone trying to be famous, with youtube and all.

This is not a pop music analogy, But being a little ga ga can have some distinct advantages, though I prefer to call my particular brand of weirdness, eccentricity.

With that in mind, I do see why some spiritual people, eg David Koresh and the Reverend Jim Jones might be considered insane.

The Film documenting Jim Jones story is called Trajedy in Guyana and was made in 1980.

Originally Posted by psychoslice

Wow that was interesting Heather, the UK sounds like a good place to be if you have what is called mental illness. Megalomania, you see it everywhere now, everyone trying to be famous, with youtube and all.

Where are you from slice? and what is the medical system like there?

Meglamania as an illness (in my experience) can put the individual and/or other people in danger - its much more proactive than someone sharing a video on youtube.

i don't remember exactly but i think someone was trying to show a link between a shamans brain and a schizophrenics brain, that there was very little difference

[psychoslice]

Originally Posted by xxheatherxx

Where are you from slice? and what is the medical system like there?

Meglamania as an illness (in my experience) can put the individual and/or other people in danger - its much more proactive than someone sharing a video on youtube.

Yea the system here is pretty good, but they do try to put you on medication strait away, say the wrong things and you can end up in the psychic ward, I use to tell my psych only half of what went on in my head lol.
i just used youtube as a general example, there are different degrees of Meglamania, there's the hilter's and there's the politicians, there are also the , gangs that believe they have the power.

Alex

I skimmed through quick, so im sorry if im repeating it. Id reccomend jacobs ladder. I cant explain to much with out spoiling it. Its about a post nam soldier. Very interesting.

Even better, which you probably know is The Wall by pink floyd ( album and movie). It has some spirituality, but more deals with someone gong down into psycosis. The album darkside of the moon, by pink flyd deals with "madness and random life oddities" (loose quote).

[Deusdrum]

read 'Valis' by Philip K ****. He was a sci-fi author (his books have been made into movies, Bladerunner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly)

Valis (acronym for Vast Active Living Intelligence System) is largely autobiographical. He kept what he called an 'exegesis' or something, a journal that apparently takes up 2 entire full sized filing cabinets about his thoughts/experiences with his psychological-metaphysical state. It is referred to in the book. You can also find information online about him and his experiences if you dig around.

He ended up in a mental institute in Vancouver for awhile, and is a good example of what you are asking for.

Also recommend reading Carl Jung in general, as pertains to this question. He was one of the first, and greatest (imo) people to walk that line between Psychology/Psychiatry and metaphysics/Spirituality.

I'm curious, why are you interested in this particular question? If you care to share, or even know, that is. An area of interest to me as well.

Someone on the forums a long time ago put it in a good way, 'the mystic swims in the same waters that the schizophrenic drowns in' or something to that effect.