Bear Wild
Well-Known Member
Robert Sapolsky wrote a wonder book on neuroscience called Behave. It is an excellent introduction to neuroscience. I recently found and article he had written the past that was a little more controversial on the origins of schizophrenia and the schizotypal and this is a small section of it.
“What is schizotypal? It's a more subtle version of schizophrenia. This is not somebody who's completely socially crippled; they're just solitary, detached: these are the lighthouse keepers, the projectionists in the movie theaters. These are not people who are thought-disordered to the point of being completely nonfunctional; these are people who just believe in kinda strange stuff. They are into their Star Trek conventions. They're into their astrology, they're into their telepathy and their paranormal beliefs, they're into — and you can see now where I'm heading — very, very literal, concrete interpretations of religious events.”
Shamanism is a religious/spiritual phenomenon attributed to a shaman who can achieve various powers through trance or ecstatic religious experiences. The term was appropriated from the Tungus people of Siberia but that is another story. For this question we need to look at the fact that they claim the enter the spirit world and communicate with the spirits and numinous entities beyond the observable realm in the trance-like states.
Belief and Biology by Robert Sapolsky (April 2003) - Freedom From Religion Foundation
“What is schizotypal? It's a more subtle version of schizophrenia. This is not somebody who's completely socially crippled; they're just solitary, detached: these are the lighthouse keepers, the projectionists in the movie theaters. These are not people who are thought-disordered to the point of being completely nonfunctional; these are people who just believe in kinda strange stuff. They are into their Star Trek conventions. They're into their astrology, they're into their telepathy and their paranormal beliefs, they're into — and you can see now where I'm heading — very, very literal, concrete interpretations of religious events.”
Shamanism is a religious/spiritual phenomenon attributed to a shaman who can achieve various powers through trance or ecstatic religious experiences. The term was appropriated from the Tungus people of Siberia but that is another story. For this question we need to look at the fact that they claim the enter the spirit world and communicate with the spirits and numinous entities beyond the observable realm in the trance-like states.
- So does this mean that Shamans have a metal disorder that is either schizotypal or blending into schizophrenia?
- Are religious people who are not shaman but have mystical ore deeply religious experiences have a potential mental disorder bordering on schizophrenia?
- Was Carl Jung correct that people who develop schizophrenia just not prepared for there ego to dive into the ocean of the unconscious and become lost while those with religious experiences better prepared and do not develop a disorder.
- Or is this just an over rational mind trying to explain away the spiritual because they do not want it to exist.
Belief and Biology by Robert Sapolsky (April 2003) - Freedom From Religion Foundation