Mental Illness & Evolution?

[postearthling]

Hi, I'm new here. I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in 1996, and after probably 7 or 8 times in the psych ward over the years, was diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder (a blend of Schizophrenia & Bipolar Disorder) in January 2011. I hope you aren't like most people who, after learning this, just blow off anything I say as necessarily null & void; it seems people interested in unexplained-mysteries.com would be more open-minded than that.

I'm interested in this site because I'm hoping to learn about other "mentally ill" people's experiences that seemed more like spiritual / metaphysical encounters, since many of my "hallucinations" and "delusions" have seemed much more like visions / astral projections / metaphorical intuitions / metaphysical tappings of sorts. Basically I'm interested in the possibility that some mental chemical imbalances are forms of mental-spiritual evolution.

Any thoughts about any of this would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Habitat]

You may well have creative tendencies, postearthling, many famous people have been bipolar, so you are in good company. Good luck with bringing it to fruitful expression.

[KillCarneyKlansman]

My friend up the street, has had some wierd experiences that some would call psychotic. He doesn't talk alot about it though, in terms of what he's going through now. He does talk alot about the events that I know in his mind seem real, that he relates to be bi-location (even), and strange coincidental events that seem to defy a good explaination. His mind seems fixated with the millenium, the marriage feast of the lamb (alchemical marriage), nostradamus & 911.

Sometimes I receive visons, pictures in my head at night, or something triggers it that I'm aware of in my environment. For months on end every once in a while I kept seeing, these old small winding english roads, with land parcelled out with hedges, stones & or fences, like it is in Old England or Europe. I kept seeing VW like vans or the euro like vans. I kept seeing these big round like hay bails, not the stacks the round ones they roll up. Maybe a farmer or someone on a hill. This guy in this van was wanting to talk to me, but this hay bail was rolling down the hill at his van. So, anyways I talked to him, and tryed to relate that he's in trouble here, He might have known it, maybe he needed someone to talk to. Maybe this person on the hill was careless, just an observer or intended it? After a few months of this, something very akin to this happened to the former buddhist Cellist of ELO. Lately for some reason I've been seeing Dragonfly's maybe something akin to Helicopters? I just don't know? Sometimes I never find out. Anyways ...

There was an article on our brains shrinking just the other day, you should be able to ferret out the info you need here. It maybe to much info though. But most people are helpful, but a bit edgy sometimes. Wait, I did hear something like this a while ago. Anyways, check the main site and forums something will pop up.

[postearthling]

Apparently I'm in good company with schizophrenics, too. Here's an excerpt from the back cover of Muses, Madmen, and Prophets by Daniel B. Smith: "ome of the greatest thinkers, leaders, and prophets in history heard, listened to, and had dialogues with voices inside their heads. In a fascinating quest for understanding, Smith examines the history of this powerful phenomenon...".

[KillCarneyKlansman]

Well, I'm not schizophrenic, though some people may consider me so, sense I talk to myself sometimes trying to hash out thoughts in my head. I do hear voices in my head, but I know these are the rowdy neighbors. They are a strange lot.

Edited January 21, 2011 by KillCarneyKlansman

[Its Mii]

A lot of shamans and witch doctors were thought to be insane, or schizophrenic. Because they dwelled in two worlds, honestly I believe in Shamans and spiritualist. The powers of the mind are endless. Only you can interpret the messages in your head. Psychic abilities do work like that, it's just a thought that pops into your head. Some of the smartest and most creative people who have passed down great knowledge to us had some kind of mental disorder. I can tell you a few years ago I really thought I was going insane, but it lead me to where I am now, I have become a very spiritual person and I have found peace of mind. So yes, I believe some of those things you experience can be spiritual. Just don't go on a limb and stop taking your medication, that can be very bad. I don't think it's evolution, I think it's gifts that were already given to us. However it would be pretty cool if it was evolution, maybe we would all end up psychic.

[KillCarneyKlansman]

http://www.atotalawareness.com/

The human brain, with its ability to function as a gateway between two universes, think intuitively at many levels, program complex rules, diagnose its own problems and evolve.

http://www.suite101.com/content/depression-and-evolution-a223032

In a 2009 Psychological Review article by Andrews and Thomson, it's suggested that depression is, in fact, an evolutionary adaption for dealing with complex problems. They liken it to an immune response.

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/column.php?id=173727

Neuroscientists believe that autistic savants have access to regions in the brain that function like supercomputers. But where is this supercomputer located…in our wet biomolecular brain?

http://www.unexplainedstuff.com/Mysteries-of-the-Mind/Altered-States-of-Consciousness.html

An altered state of consciousness is a brain state wherein one loses the sense of identity with one's body or with one's normal sense perceptions. A person may enter an altered state of consciousness through such things as sensory deprivation or overload, neurochemical imbalance, fever, or trauma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_(spirituality)

In spirituality, and especially nondual, mystical and eastern meditative traditions, the human being is often conceived as being in the illusion of individual existence, and separated from other aspects of creation. This "sense of doership" or sense of individual existence is that part which believes it is the human being, and believes it must fight for itself in the world, is ultimately unaware and unconscious of its own true nature. The ego is often associated with mind and the sense of time, which compulsively thinks in order to be assured of its future existence, rather than simply knowing its own self and the present.

Eckhart Tolle comments that, to the extent that the ego is present in an individual, that individual is somewhat insane psychologically, in reference to the ego's nature as compulsively hyper-active and compulsively (and pathologically) self-centered. However, since this is the norm, it goes unrecognised as the source of much that could be classified as insane behavior in everyday life.

The previous link is from my post on Joshua's long day, the Day the Sun Stood Still. Velikovsky believes that Man lives in a state of cultural amnesia brought on by past traumatic events. Which may tie-in with future events?!?

http://www.christianityboard.com/topic/12966-more-astonishing-bible-proof-warning-athiests-this-is-adult-sensitive-material/

This last link isn't very relative to your situation, except for Velikovsky quotes. Anyways, I hope these links help.

Edited January 21, 2011 by KillCarneyKlansman

[postearthling]

Well, I'm not schizophrenic, though some people may consider me so, sense I talk to myself sometimes trying to hash out thoughts in my head. I do hear voices in my head, but I know these are the rowdy neighbors. They are a strange lot.

Hahaha. Well so what do you think about the possibility that some mental chemical imbalances are forms of mental-spiritual evolution in some way, shape or form? Because I've had some extremely intense experiences in which I was having incredible visions while every last fiber of my being felt positively immersed in the most profound sense of universal knowledge and wisdom.

[markprice]

Interesting, I think everyone who gets diagnosed should receive a federal grant to pursue some form of creativity in any way they choose.

[postearthling]

Thanks soooo much for all the links, KCK!

[postearthling]

Interesting, I think everyone who gets diagnosed should receive a federal grant to pursue some form of creativity in any way they choose.

YES, I think so too! I think that would be one of the things a perfect society would do. This last summer my husband didn't know what to do with me (since I wasn't taking very good care of myself) except pull me out of my own fascinating little world and put me in a psych ward (again), where they more or less just gave me chemical lobotomies. If there were centers where people like me could go to, to explore, and to create, and to be understood by multi-disciplinary open minds, and to be taken care of, it would be so very cool. But alas, many of us end up dead on the streets. It's an enormous shame.

Edited January 21, 2011 by postearthling

[KillCarneyKlansman]

Hahaha. Well so what do you think about the possibility that some mental chemical imbalances are forms of mental-spiritual evolution in some way, shape or form? Because I've had some extremely intense experiences in which I was having incredible visions while every last fiber of my being felt positively immersed in the most profound sense of universal knowledge and wisdom.

Well I believe that is certainly possible, John had his Apocalypse made you have 1 too?!?

Thanks soooo much for all the links, KCK!

No problematose! Glad to help. Nobody should be discarded, or told there irrelevant. Awesome Pict Also!

[postearthling]

A lot of shamans and witch doctors were thought to be insane, or schizophrenic. Because they dwelled in two worlds, honestly I believe in Shamans and spiritualist. The powers of the mind are endless. Only you can interpret the messages in your head. Psychic abilities do work like that, it's just a thought that pops into your head. Some of the smartest and most creative people who have passed down great knowledge to us had some kind of mental disorder. I can tell you a few years ago I really thought I was going insane, but it lead me to where I am now, I have become a very spiritual person and I have found peace of mind. So yes, I believe some of those things you experience can be spiritual. Just don't go on a limb and stop taking your medication, that can be very bad. I don't think it's evolution, I think it's gifts that were already given to us. However it would be pretty cool if it was evolution, maybe we would all end up psychic.

Yeah, I guess right now I think my mental "illness" is more like a gift than another form of evolution. But I think it could be a form of evolution that could lead to better societies if it were better understood, and if only we "crazies" fit into the "survival of the fittest" category a little better; we don't tend to take very good care of ourselves, or be considered the best choices for mates. Anyway, it's nice to talk to people like you about it -- it seems the psychiatrists I've talked to just write off the idea of mental illness as any kind of special gift as a just another "grandiose delusion". Btw, no worries about my going off my meds -- after all of the intense mental and spiritual experiences I've had this last year, normalcy is what I'll want for quite a while I reckon. I don't need any more visions / astral projections or whatever to entertain me or to believe that there is wayyyyyyyyyy more out there than meets the eye.

Edited January 21, 2011 by postearthling

[postearthling]

Well I believe that is certainly possible, John had his Apocalypse made you have 1 too?!?

Forgive me, I'm not knowledgable enough to get your John-Apocalypse reference. But I have had visions where I was being led through space by some sort of spirit guide, and shown the Earth. It was magnificently beautiful, until the Earth started spewing tons of volcanic stuff into the air, and then exploded and fell apart altogether.

[Jessicat]

Well since evolution is a ruling out process in a natural environment if your mental difference was able to prolong your survival longer than those with a typical mind then yes it would be considered a part of evolution.

Do you think it makes you more likely to make it through certain situations that a normal person couldn't?

[KillCarneyKlansman]

Forgive me, I'm not knowledgable enough to get your John-Apocalypse reference.

I'm just saying, John had a vision, out of body experience, knowledge of stuff not normal to most people.

I hope all your visions, don't end that way. Thats a little to depressing.

I've found If you ask questions of dreams, particularily about out of place things, you can put a more positive enlightened spin on them.

[markprice]

YES, I think so too! I think that would be one of the things a perfect society would do. This last summer my husband didn't know what to do with me (since I wasn't taking very good care of myself) except pull me out of my own fascinating little world and put me in a psych ward (again), where they more or less just gave me chemical lobotomies. If there were centers where people like me could go to, to explore, and to create, and to be understood by multi-disciplinary open minds, and to be taken care of, it would be so very cool. But alas, many of us end up dead on the streets. It's an enormous shame.

Well said. It's really just cheaper for the government to attempt contain the situation than to try to do what it takes to actually help. If they would combine a center as you describe with a natural setting outside, then there would be the optimum conditions required for recovery, not to mention the instant quality of life upgrade. Also, research could be done in that situation keeping track of the many revelations experienced to help people in the future, but all that would cost money which they need for war etc.

[Its Mii]

YES, I think so too! I think that would be one of the things a perfect society would do. This last summer my husband didn't know what to do with me (since I wasn't taking very good care of myself) except pull me out of my own fascinating little world and put me in a psych ward (again), where they more or less just gave me chemical lobotomies. If there were centers where people like me could go to, to explore, and to create, and to be understood by multi-disciplinary open minds, and to be taken care of, it would be so very cool. But alas, many of us end up dead on the streets. It's an enormous shame.

I hope one day I can make a difference for you. I will explore a new form a medicine by understanding, I will provide encouragement and creativity. I don't think anyone should just be locked away, ever! This happened to my best friend, her parents thought it easier to just let the psych ward deal with her, when in reality she needed compassion and she needed to be understood. If we want our world to function properly we have to create outlets for peoples energies and thoughts. The idea Markprice mentioned is great. Having some one doped up and staring at walls is never going to help, we need to communicate and try to understand each other. We need young people to be open minded and really make a difference in the world. All these values we should engrave in our children, teach them to love and respect differences. The world would be very boring if we were all the same.

[postearthling]

Well since evolution is a ruling out process in a natural environment if your mental difference was able to prolong your survival longer than those with a typical mind then yes it would be considered a part of evolution.

Do you think it makes you more likely to make it through certain situations that a normal person couldn't?

Well, it's kind of hard to describe, but I'll try: Spiritually, it really feels like if I just trust my natural mentally "ill" instincts, I'm more likely to reach better otherworldly levels in an overall, universal-type of evolution. But just here on this Earthly level, no -- I get suicidal. At least right now; if mental illness were better understood and treated, and society could see how amazingly creative & whatnot a lot of us are, then yes, that might prolong our survival.

Edited January 21, 2011 by postearthling

[postearthling]

I'm just saying, John had a vision, out of body experience, knowledge of stuff not normal to most people.

I hope all your visions, don't end that way. Thats a little to depressing.

I've found If you ask questions of dreams, particularily about out of place things, you can put a more positive enlightened spin on them.

Well if it's any comfort, I was told it was only a potential future for Earth.

Yeah I wish I could tap into my dreams more, but I have to take sleeping meds, which I think not only affects the purity of my dreams but also causes me to not remember them very well at all. :/

[postearthling]

Well said. It's really just cheaper for the government to attempt contain the situation than to try to do what it takes to actually help. If they would combine a center as you describe with a natural setting outside, then there would be the optimum conditions required for recovery, not to mention the instant quality of life upgrade. Also, research could be done in that situation keeping track of the many revelations experienced to help people in the future, but all that would cost money which they need for war etc.

Yeah, very unfortunately, I think the possibility of really good such centers is wayyyy in the future. Although I guess meanwhile people interested in the concept could do the best they can with the resources they do have, like online "centers" like this one. I didn't come across many people in the psych wards who were as "bad" as me, who had "visions" and seemed able to "channel" from otherworldly sources and whatnot, who seemed to be able to afford basic shelter let alone computers. Nonetheless, it seems better than nothing. Plus, I guess I could try to do some research into psychiatrists & therapists & others (shamanic types) who think such centers might be very interesting. If I find enough of them, maybe one of the first such centers could be opened with private money. One of the problems is that the psychiatric community seems to think that people more open-minded about the possiblity that the mentally ill have special gifts are only making things worse -- making the mentally ill not want to take their meds, making the mentally ill have more "grandiose delusions," etc. I wish a more mutually-respectful multi-disciplinary approach were easier.

Edited January 21, 2011 by postearthling

[postearthling]

I hope one day I can make a difference for you. I will explore a new form a medicine by understanding, I will provide encouragement and creativity. I don't think anyone should just be locked away, ever! This happened to my best friend, her parents thought it easier to just let the psych ward deal with her, when in reality she needed compassion and she needed to be understood. If we want our world to function properly we have to create outlets for peoples energies and thoughts. The idea Markprice mentioned is great. Having some one doped up and staring at walls is never going to help, we need to communicate and try to understand each other. We need young people to be open minded and really make a difference in the world. All these values we should engrave in our children, teach them to love and respect differences. The world would be very boring if we were all the same.

Well you're just plain awesome. And I agree -- the world would be very boring if we were all the same. My experiences in psych wards proved that -- there was so much very cool out-of-the-box thinking involved by many of us to entertain ourselves. (Our other choices of entertainment were mainly just things like coloring kindergarten-type pictures, and basic stretching. Very boring. So we'd make up our own creative games.) Anyway, yes, pleeeease do explore a new form of medicine by understanding, and providing encouragement and creativity. And I hope you'll encourage others to do the same. The more people we have doing these things the better.

[Habitat]

I think most here would be touched by postearthling's candour about her problems. People with these issues are routinely dismissed by the wider society as "loonies", which is a very cruel approach, which few of us can claim to have never been guilty of. I know I cannot. It should be realised that brain chemistry is not a matter of choice, in large measure. However, it ought to be a priority of the education system to warn that dabbling in certain drugs can bring about irreversible, undesirable changes in the brain. Few would realise that certain substances developed by "perverted science" for the CIA and KGB are able to bring on a suicidal depression immediately upon being administered. The fortress of mental equilibrium is easily breached.

[postearthling]

I think most here would be touched by postearthling's candour about her problems. People with these issues are routinely dismissed by the wider society as "loonies", which is a very cruel approach, which few of us can claim to have never been guilty of. I know I cannot. It should be realised that brain chemistry is not a matter of choice, in large measure. However, it ought to be a priority of the education system to warn that dabbling in certain drugs can bring about irreversible, undesirable changes in the brain. Few would realise that certain substances developed by "perverted science" for the CIA and KGB are able to bring on a suicidal depression immediately upon being administered. The fortress of mental equilibrium is easily breached.

Well, it's pretty understandable to dismiss the mentally ill as "loonies" -- many of us can act downright bizarre sometimes -- I certainly have. But from my intense experiences, I tend to believe that chemical differences in the brain are capable of opening portals in the mind to other realms / dimensions -- that chemical "imbalances" can act as "antennas" in that regard. And that these "antennas" are, for various reasons, not always aligned with these portals in ways that enable beings to live in both / all worlds in ways considered acceptable to those places. I think that's why I was interested in the "evolution" part of it. I think it'd be interesting to do research into the better alignment of these chemical differences and these portals, for a better understanding of what all may be out there. I remember a voice out of nowhere telling me that many beings in space call Earthlings "apes," referring to the evolutionary level of understanding of the big scheme of things.

Btw Habitat, thanks for appreciating my candor. I think that telling the absolute truth is the only way we can optimally progress.

Edited January 22, 2011 by postearthling

[Habitat]

Bipolar might be a blessing if it brings creativity that "sells" and enables the "sufferer" to live without the financial stresses that push most of us along conventional, uncreative careers. Otherwise it is potentially very difficult, think Van Gogh. Society seems a long way from lovingly cultivating and harvesting the bounty of those minds that are not fitting medical definitions of mental health.