Disclaimer: This is not a thread claiming that God-believers are all mentally ill.
This thread is about how individuals who are actually mentally ill experience God. When a mentally ill individual hears the voice of God in their heads consoling them or telling them to do something, how do they know if its a series of hallucinations or real experiences? Of course others won't confirm it because it's not meant for them to hear and the scientific method won't be useful since "you shall not test the Lord your God". What would be a reliable reality test then outside social and scientific methods?
How would any person in fact experience God? Why a voice in your head would be God rather than any other explanation is going to be down to how that individual thinks and interprets it. Mental health is a real thing, and should be taken as seriously as any other physical injury or disease. Its existence is as real as is meaningful to define with regards to ourselves. Some people hear voices, and is often just one part of a characteristic constellation of things that constitute a diagnosis of a recognised condition, such as schizophrenia or severe depression. I would be highly sceptical that any God like being would ever decide to present themselves in such a way, and with the detrimental effects that seem to so often come hand in hand with people who hear voices.
It is always sensible to ask oneself, what is more likely, that a transcendent being is communicating with this poor individual to his/her own detriment, without clear purpose or obvious concern for their constitution, whilst staying hidden to the majority of the population? This of course without any objective evidence at all. Or might this person, as a mortal creature of the earth be experiencing a disease with one of the worst kinds of debilitation?
I think we are easily fooled by certain things, and a voice, telling you messages, personally relevant and seemingly alien to your own thoughts is got to be one of the top. We crave explanation and meaning, and its seems to be the sort of thing that lends itself too easily to radical interpretation. I think however, if keeping as best an objective attitude as possible, we would find that it holds no closer connection to anything greater than ourselves than Alzheimers dementia or a stroke does.
Alex