by Nathan Natas 82 Replies latest watchtower medical
I think you're very harsh and rude Nathan.
Everyone's forgotten people with severe schizophrenia that is untreated can hallucinate severely. I knew a schizophrenic chap who had a conversation with an imaginery guy up a telephone pole for over an hour until someone called the police who arrived and took him away.
Nathen is always harsh and shows very little compassion. He's not above calling someone names and being flat out mean and rude. I believe he's a bully. Those are my opinions from someome he was very mean with the name calling to me. Just ignore him. the less you read hid posts the better off you will be and the less hurt he can subject to you. This is comming from someond who had Simon intervene on his rampage on one of my posts.
Back on topic..
Oliver sacks is worth listening to for some input, some hallucinations are due to the brain filling in the blanks due to impairment (e.g loss of sight or hearing) as well as the usual suspects of illness and injury, stress, fatigue, drugs etc etc.
I always remember the account of Shackleton where they have an "extra man" or "the third man factor" on the final stage to the whaling station for rescue, being totally knackered after all their amazing efforts, it's no suprise they hallucinated this encounter, as opposed to it being an angel as some would want it.
I spent a few years trying to lucid dream on an almost daily basis - dealing with hypnagogia is a blast, in its own way it's as fun as actually having a lucid dream... Since you never know what your mind will throw at you to distract you from remaining "aware" or "mentally awake" or whatever you call it (it's actually difficult to explain without sounding like I'm spouting mumbojumbo new age meditation blab).
Anyway, I've been dragged from my bed by one foot, had my face forced into my pillow, heard my name called and screamed out (usually my mum's voice), seen spooky creatures and shadows looming over me and I've "rolled out" of my body a few times... None of it real of course. (Oh, and I nearly saw heaven, or god, or whatever shining down on my bed... But I woke up, typical.)
We all have it. At least once or twice nightly. We just usually don't remember, dream memory is funny stuff.
If I hadn't spent hours reading about it and wanting it before I experienced it, I think I would have handled it badly... After all, seems as real as this does now when it's happening.
(Who was that prophet who heard god call him a few times as he was falling asleep? Hypnagogic voices calling you are almost as common for me as feelling the sensation of falling or vibrating... a dream forming around that "voice of god" would naturally be one where god tells you something... Perhaps more impressive than my "voice of mum" but no less a fabrication of the subconscious)
The brain is a wonderful lump of meat.
*edited because I can't spell
Oh, and I've taken drugs and have mental problems... Neither ever afforded me the hallucinations that my brain naturally creates, as does everyones, daily.
Ignorance is not bliss, it's ignorance.
Good. Glad you see it for what it is, all in the mind, no external supernatural source needed, your own brain can do the job for you.
I had visual hallucinations of my father after he died, very realistic, amazing how the mind resolves feelings like sadness.
It's actually quite common for grieving people to hallucinate seeing or hearing the person who died, Sacks gave a figure for it of about 10% if i remember right...
Another one, once in a dream I was solving an impossibly big math problem (well impossibly big for me). it was a giant number in the millions multiplied by another huge number. But, I was doing the math. I felt myself going crazy then too. I knew while dreaming I couldn't solve the problem, but I was and the strain on my brain was making me go insane. I knew I had to wake up. I woke myself and still in the just wakened state kept solving it. Also terrifying.
Comatose, that happens to be quite regularly. If I can't remember something or think of a solution while awake, I quite often think of it while sleeping and awake with the solution.
Why do you find that terrifying?
I find it quite awesome.
