HGA coming through mental-illness?
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93 All.
I have a friend who after a long Crystal Meth addiction started to hear a voice for which he received psychiatric treatment. Initially he had paranoid delusions, thinking it was someone using a technology to "infiltrate his thoughts" and he battled with this voice for years. According to him medication does not work and the "voice" claims to be the "Spirit of God" or something akin to that.
What I find interesting however is that he seems to have no education in mysticism or Eastern religion, having been brought up Christian, and yet has mentioned that the "voice" has revealed to him what I would consider to be "mystical revelations"...for example he talks about "movement" being akin to "sound", he has spoken about how the "voice" revealed to him that he would be and is already reincarnated and he even mentioned a dream where the voice took him to the "abyss" to show him "death".
Anyway...so I'm wondering whether my good friend is simply hearing the voice of his HGA or whether he is simply delusional. I know it has been said many times that there is a fine line between madness and genius, however I can find nothing to indicate that he cannot operate "normally" in society. Other than a voice in his head, this seems to be the only symptom...and I find this quite tragic in terms of psychiatry and our modern "scientific" attitude towards these things.
Moreover I don't know if there is something that I might suggest to help him...since I'm no expert on psychology I wouldn't want to make the incorrect recommendations and have him "flip out", yet nor do I like what modern medicine is doing to him. Admittedly he does seem to be "okay" with his predicament, having decided that the voice is actually "God" for the most part and that he will never escape.
Funnily enough, or perhaps tragically, he mentioned that he has told his shrink that the voice is a "Spirit" and his shrinks reply was "They all say that"!
What are your thoughts Fraters and Sorors?
93 93/93
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It's true: They all say that.
It's a complicated issue. Probably the two most relevant facts are:
(1) Various kinds of (often highly personified) spiritual visitations and communications are among the most common symptoms of psychosis.
(2) The HGA can find, and does find, highly diverse ways of communicating to the psyche.
While your friend is ill, the first point is far more important than the second point.
OTOH I recommend the writings of my fellow Virgo-Aquarian, R.D. Laing, especially is important book, The Politics of Experience, for a discussion of the value of severe mental illness in overall mental health.
Your understanding can be increased by looking into this, but I think it very important that the focus, for your friend, be on his psychiatric healing.
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Street drugs are very dangerous- you never know what's in there. It can be contaminated with pesticides or other chemicals. Not to say it happens in all cases, but it is known that this is intentional in at least some cases.
It's very sad, but there was a story today of a woman in TX who decapitated her 3 week old.
People want to give her the death penalty- she's obviously psychotic. But this sort of thing, fomenting public shock, outrage, anxiety is a tactic published in various manuals on psycholgical warfare. I'll leave it to you to judge; I only point out the possibilities.
One other thing, I think there is another secret arcanum to "the Blood is the Life" (this is based on my own investigations). Any one who has suffered from long term anxiety/depression/panic attacks know that there is something going on in the chemistry of the blood and/or brain. Cognitive Behavioural Theory states that one's thoughts are the cause of mood (over simplified, of course). Therefor, if one wants Samadhi, to feel undending bliss, then certain thoughts will lead to chemical changes that cause this state. I am talking about deep subconscious thoughts, hence the need for ritual. As Jim stated in another post today about using a physical gesture to reinforce the transition into and out of astral traveling, so ritual reinforces ones subconscious thoughts. The inverse is also true. If someone or some group of people wanted to prevent someone from attaining Samahdi, one way is to keep the target always anxious, nervous, worried, stressed etc.
Now take a look around you, society is systematically isolating and stressing the individual. To what end? -
I find that the mind manifests voices, tho more it distrusts its own conclusions, or the more in general skeptical it is of any ideal being truth.
The brain being a system which first seeks to develop patterns of direct reflex actions that deal with the environment. These have no thought, no words in the mind, the hand recoils from a hot stove with no intention to do so, no plan, no voice dictating which way to move it, and no philosophical debate on the merits of moving vs not moving the hand. Well all these aspects that are not included in the base reflex, do occur in the rational mind. Recoil from a hot stove in built in as the best move, it always worked our ancestors and in our life it at least usually worked for the best. But lets say most times we recoil the hand, we smash our hand into a wall. Well not the recoil instinct may not be the best move, but a slow deliberate movement to a safe location in better. Thus another part of our mind learns to build an inhibiting reflex to the jerk away motion and creates a routine to scan for safe location and to move slowly, watch out for shelves and knives, etc This new routine is often gives a voice in out head, and the source of that voice is called ME or I.
Just as the repeated smashing of ones hand into a shelf caused the distrust of ones reflex to pull away fast, so to can drug states cause distrust of the senses which are altered by the drugs. This distrust can create new routines and sub-routines where the mind examines its own thoughts and its own actions, creating a other voices and other selves which may be accepted as ones own mind or rejected as some alien influence over the mind.
When it is distrust of ones normal faculties that create such voices we tend to reject them, we see the faulty faculties as demons trying to trick us into mistakes and the new faculties as angels guiding us to correct actions. (the interplay of this personified self-conscious drama can become very complex) This howling of spirits in the mind, each a lesser faculty and each in disharmony and distrust of the other (state of manyhood) I assume in why the spirits of Solomon are called Goetia (howling).
However, the HGA is not the same, it is not born out of distrust of ones normal faculties, but rather careful and disciplined creation or development of a new higher faculty. The HGA is the harmonizing factor of these various faculties which when in distrust and disharmony create all kinds of gnashing, voices, neurosis, indecision, anxiety, even physical health problems, self defeating behaviors and social issues, to name a few. The HGA appears when all this conscious noise is finally put to rest, as a silent center, a calm eye in the midst of the hurricane, Ones true self that sits quietly behind the storm, while all these goetic fragments of ego wail and cry out, all claiming self hood absolute self hood, and right to guide the ship of the mind and the body as a vessel in the world. HGA is behind it all, quite, unassuming, and waits its turn, and when all are exhausted, subtly and calmly re-organizes each faculty it its proper role in a well functioning mind and body.
You will know the voice of the TRUE HGA by its silence.
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Wow...very interesting. thanks for all the replies.
Yes, what bothered me the most was that he seems to resent the "voice" and the "voice" seems to be judgmental about his actions and this seems far too "neurotic" from what I idealistically imagine the HGA to be...as someone described the HGA as an "eye of the storm". So yes, what Jim says makes sense about the HGA coming through (because of some of what I consider to be mystical revelations), but perhaps in a twisted manner through the neuroses.
My friend reckons its too late for him though....he says the voice has been there for years and has claimed that it is now there to stay...and over the years the medication has simply not helped at all. Hes' sort of given into it really....sad I think.
Anyway...thanks for the insights.
93 93/93
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@Jim Eshelman said
"The HGA can find, and does find, highly diverse ways of communicating to the psyche."
As a child, I was raised as a Christian, and I often wondered how Abraham knew it was God who had told him to sacrifice his child, or how Noah knew it was God who had told him to build the ark. Now, lo these many years later, my religion has changed but the questions remain the same. If a voice were to speak to me, how would I know it was the HGA and not just a few abused neurons exacting their revenge?
The apostle Paul says one should test such spirits, but does not explain how. Crowley explains that a reliable spirit (whether the HGA or not) can provide convincing qabalistic proofs. This seems dubious to me. Is this really the only way? (Is this why Moses asked the burning bush to give him a name? Did he run home and ponder the alphanumeric symbolism of Ehieh Asher Ehieh to determine if it had really been the Almighty?)
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As for Abraham, it was in practice at his time that the higher class of priests of his people would demand that "the first born of every womb" be sacrificed to the temple. The term was the "angel of the Lord" came to demand this sacrifice, the problem being that Abraham and his wife were too old to have any more son's. But as according to the Laws of Moses the Angel (messenger) of the lord (physical human ruler of the temple) came with news from that the lord decided to accept Abraham's sheep in place of his son. This was not unique in Abraham's situation, its a written law in the Torah. That the messenger showed up at the last minute was the unusual part. The story really has at no point Abraham hearing a voice in his head, its all the interaction between the autocratic elites who run the temple and Abraham the peasant or slave class who must obey the messengers of the lord.
I am sure their are naturalist explanations for the other ones as well, but we do not know all the customs and poetic metaphors that are common in those days.
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@modernPrimitive said
"93 All.
Moreover I don't know if there is something that I might suggest to help him...since I'm no expert on psychology I wouldn't want to make the incorrect recommendations and have him "flip out", yet nor do I like what modern medicine is doing to him. Admittedly he does seem to be "okay" with his predicament, having decided that the voice is actually "God" for the most part and that he will never escape.
93 93/93"Sorry your friend is having these problems. Meth is pretty nasty, I wouldn't recommend it as a shammanistic entheogen or even party drug. I'm not a psychiatrist but choosing between the emergence of a mystical phenomenon vs. side effects of permenant 'hardware damage'. I'd go with the latter.
Voices and emotions and thoughts, which appear to be external and offer knowledge and manifestations beyond our own sphere are abound in the Arts. But under the right circumstances of ritual, meditation, etc. Just walking about in normal business hearing voices like that, is not the same. I believe one of the reasons Crowley focus on training the will (aside from the obvious) is that encountering these entities makes you easy prey to possession and 'chaos eddies' which manifest in ways counter to the magician's will. Sometimes a magician will be receptive to a 'calling of a familiar', but is not a voice but a pull toward a frequency bordering on the trance required. Its up to the magician if he/she wants to invoke or not.
If so, is where the will comes in. Never allow these entities to intimidate you, talk profanely, assume an inappropriate form, or make threats. Without training the will, the trance state will often weaken the operator and allow control to the entity. The proper will should persist in any trance state. In these cases the magician issues commands to control the spirit, although some do not require this kind of control, and would consider it rude to apply it. For errant intelligences on the breeze, it is good to first ask for a name and/or sigil. This can help identify it in the hierarchy, and gets a 'phone number' to dial again if you like the spirit.
Where I am going with this re: your friend, is to get him to take control of the 'conversation'. When he addresses the voice, it is done with utmost authority and force of will. He should say it aloud, shout it if he must, such as "You will be silent from this point onward unless you are asked to speak!". He may add additional such statements validating his authority over it. If he were a magus, he could also assume a godform, send those vibrations through the ether, or call on familiars for help, or perform a regular regime of banishing rituals. The key is to get your friend to know...most importantly believe, he is in control and master of the universe - not the voice.
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Wow Student. That's an interesting take on it....and precisely where I was going with the topic.
That's precisely what I was thinking....you know could say the LBRP or the Star Ruby help my friend. He claims that whenever he "goes against the will of the voice" that his punishment is continual chatter. In other words the "voice" won't shut up...so he's totally under the domination of the voice and he's very much a "victim" of his situation.
So I was thinking that daily banishing could eventually help his problem but my fear is that the voice is so attached that it will punish him through it's torturous methods of continual chatter....and of course they say that occult practices are not particularly good for the mentally ill. But then there is the phenomenon of exorcism which apparently seems to cure certain ills.
I really don't know what advice to give him. How do I get the idea across to him that HE is in control of a voice that has been "controlling" him for more than 10 years? Somehow I feel that psychologists generally don't know enough about the occult but I think vice versa and I really don't want to play with someone's mind....I just want to help.
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He needs cognitive therapy.
The voice thing is basically a form of OCD.
The obsession is what the voice tells him to do.The OCD person normally is not obsessed with washing his hands, but the hand washing is a way to make the obsessive thought go away. Be it obsession that he is dirty or sick, or even an obsession that he might accidentally kill his parents, the hand washing is an attempt to make the obsession go away, to fight it. Only since he associated the compulsion with the obsession, the act makes the obsession worse and worse until it eventually burns out.
in any effect his obsessions "talk to him in his mind" and "fighting" the voices makes it worse. So needs to learn a method of reducing anxiety so the obsession goes away, rather than fighting with it and making himself more anxious. The voices are basically an expression of anxiety, fear and worry.
The meth has set his amygdala too high, so that he is always in a high-anxiety state.