religious experiences experienced by saints and prophets.
It would be heresy in any religion to suggest that the figures in the
books and the teachings would, were they born today, would be labeled as
mentally ill and medicated to remove their delusion. But that's the
psychiatric truth.
It's a convenient truth for religions today. To most established
religions the idea that the mentally ill may be experiencing the same
things as their icons would be the sort of thing that would cause an
outcry. The unusual experiences human beings had in the many different
cultures around the world can be explained as communication with the
divine had they happen a millennium or more ago. This is true of old
religions such as Judaism and Hinduism as well as newer ones like Islam.
They interpreted and labeled the people and the experiences very
differently to the quasi-scientific modern replacement for religion:
psychiatry and mental health.
Spiritual and religious interpretations of psychosis still exist in
developing countries and microcultures in the developed world. These are
often ignored by psychiatrists.
It is a fundamental assumption of psychiatry that there is no god, no
other forces and no other explanation for the god delusion other than a
brain malfunction.
What if the mad are right?
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