Many of us have had the experience of our subconscious trying to send us messages. Sometimes we refuse to listen and it has to resort to more forceful measures, even making us physically ill. For example, while in the final throes of my Witness-ism, I found that I would get horribly painful sore throats within seconds of repressing a thought about something that challenged my faith in a way I could not legitimately dispute. It was as though my brain was saying, "You need to think about this, now," and then punishing me for refusing to do so.
I was wondering if anyone has experiences like this. I'm sure this type of thing takes many and varied forms. Let's hear about it!
I'll share one experience that isn't mine, so I can't say conclusively whether it was really an illness caused by the subconscious, but it certainly seems that way. A few years ago I had a CO. We'll call him Fred. He was a really nice guy, soft-spoken and contemplative. He didn't employ the fiery rhetoric that COs usually do. I thought he was a pretty decent character.
One day we hear that Fred has come down with this mystery illness. Nothing appears to be wrong with him except that he can't speak. He's gone to doctors left and right, and no one knows what the problem is. I didn't think much about this at the time, but afterward I was talking about it with a friend, and she was like, "C'mon. A mystery disease that no one has ever heard of, which prevents you from giving talks or going out in service? You're telling me that's not his body trying to tell him something?"
I have to admit, if I were in his shoes and subconsciously I suspected that I might be wrong, and I was afraid to think about it, and I felt trapped in my current circumstances, I think it's entirely reasonable for the subconscious to manufacture this illness. It's only circumstantial evidence, but I can totally relate.
Any other stories?
SNG