Gaia: Gay Mystics - Conversations - shamanism, mysticism and mental illness...

Re: shamanism, mysticism and mental illness...

http://lagniappe.gaia.com — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 13:03:35 GMT

I'll have a read of that link....probably should before I post. Oh well. I've always considered myself a spiritual person since i was a young boy - and probably because my my either seriously or jokingly believed she was a reincarnated Hawaiian princess (who's to really know) that I had interests in Hawaiian shamans... I remember working so hard as a 9 year old on a hawaiian 'witch doctor' costume...my journey of design led me from the USA where I'm from to New Zealand where I've learned a bit about maori spirituality and some similarities with Huna shamanism.. .As a Quaker who believes toally in the Inner Light - connection - direct link to Christ/God/Divine energy - and had some minor 'quaking' in the past physically - it wasn't until an emotional release in a major group therapy situation where I began to experience full - on Kundalini experiences. Being more lucid than ever before in my life I "KNEW" that I was not psychotic - despite the medical staff believing this to be so. It led to a major research into shamanic and kundalini experiences - which is MORE accurate as to my epxeriences than the psychotic label....the doctors tried me on anti-psycotics and while some of the blissful, kriya movesments didn't stop - what the medication did was make me depressed and tired and lethargic - hindering the complete clarity of sight, reading, engageing in the world.

Re: shamanism, mysticism and mental illness...

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 07:54:20 GMT

i have a friend who is 'schizo-affective' and he definitely has a shamanic bent to him. a spirit about him. the family dog usually hates men and connected to him immediately without even barking. let him pet her.

another friend who is bipolar and on 5 meds she did the same with. he connected to her and her to him.

there are interesting things about both of them that seem like something else is going on than what the western system would say.

-d

Re: shamanism, mysticism and mental illness...

http://ct.gaia.com — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:15:31 GMT

This makes perfect sense to me. Even though cultural/societal forces tend to keep us all regulated within the "norm", what if the real truth was not the status quo?

Although not bipolar, I have traditionally been an out of the box type person. Fortunately, I've been able to package this in a way that the rest of society could understand and therefore, I've gotten by without being "diagnosed" or institutionalized or (usually) thought of as crazy.

I've also been thinking about some theories surrounding people with schizophrenia....if you apply a quantum phyics model to their behaviors/symptoms, what would that sound like to you?

shamanism, mysticism and mental illness...

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:14:54 GMT

here is a link that may be of interest to others... may post further info and have further discussions on the subject and others are welcome to discuss as well.

http://www.bipolarplanet.com/~void/2005/07/09/talking-to-dog/