wtf?????? said:
The important supportive role of our extraterrestrial "Space Brothers" invisibly surrounding us with their great Fleet of Motherships and of their smaller Scout Craft/Flying Saucers is thoroughly explained, along with recent "Updates" on the coming Earth Changes given by the Galactic Federation and other Higher Spiritual source.
Sorry but whoever is selling this bill of goods is a clinical case themselves or looking to take financial advantage of other ones (or at least the extraordinarily naive ...To pull some examples, Hubbard was a bit of both. Leary was squarely in the first category. Alex Gray in the second. And I could go on with the examples.
other New Age stuff said:
"Some ETs and Ascended Masters are taking advantage of your "spiritual amnesia" and are not telling you the Truth regarding your spiritual powers. You are an INFINITE BEING OF LIGHT and do not need to be "saved". Your are so Powerful and Spiritually Strong that the only thing that can stop you from ascending is yourself."
This is dangerous stuff, Scientology type dangerous.
I'm not going to refute any New Age stuff point by point because I don't think it's a very worthwhile exercise. The whole frame of mind is completely alien to me and most of it is
prima facie nonsense. But if meditative practice helps, that's OK I guess, although
there are dangers ... but inviting in other spiritual entities, that is a very dangerous practice and can land people in very dangerous circumstances.
Ninae said:
That medication is keeping you down in consciousness. What is perceived as "manic" is simply elevated levels of joy and consciousness which becomes troublesome or hard to contain in this world and I don't think you should let yourself be medicated for it.
This is antipsychiatry nonsense and it actively ruins people's lives. Stop it. There is a critique to be made of psychiatry but claiming that psychopathological states are good things and, by implication or directly, encouraging people to stop seeking and accepting treatment , is dangerous and wrong. This stuff literally kills and causes people to return to states of extreme suffering.
The manic states that correlate with your spiritual ideas may to you sound like they are not pathological, but they certainly were for me, at one point I was very close to being frankly psychotic, I believed I was an avatar of some kind. I was out of my fucking mind and scared the hell out of my friends and in retrospect myself. But setting aside the spiritual for a moment, in my latter example of my manic thinking that lacked the spiritual overtones, can you honestly say there was anything healthy there? I did all sorts of nonsense that could've landed me dead, in jail, or in the hospital. Yes, drugs, guns, large sums of money, gambling, women, all sorts of other nonsense. In b4 some says sounds like fun. It wasn't. Bad, bad, bad scenes.
But don't tell me you're taking Lamictal? Come on, it just makes you braindead and is a form of chemical lobotomy. They practically force-fed it to me when I was in benzo-rehab, but that is only to their advantage, or keeps their patients calm, and not to your advantage (unless you're insane or seriously ill).
Off meds, I would consider myself seriously ill.
I'm taking Lamictal and a few other things (if you're curious, Klonipin, Wellbutrin, Viibryd.) They help. Without them I was approaching suicidality and could not get out of bed without panic attacks (or hard liquor) and in attempt to cope I was slowly drinking myself to death. So, the alternative. The pills. I feel some mild cognitive side effects. They're worth it. Everything is a trade off. But "down in my consciousness?" What does that even mean? I think being horribly depressed and anxious all the time is pretty
down in consciousness. And "chemical lobotomy," the cliché description of Thorazine, is an extreme exaggeration with regards to Lamictal. And also, I didn't "let anyone put me on it," I sought psychiatric help and actually I am on the specific medications I chose to be on in collaboration with my private psychiatrist.
And not only do I take meds, but for a living I'm on the other side of that equation. Like the old
Hair Club for Men commercial ...
I'm also a client. Now as far as coercion goes, I've never been a psychiatric inpatient and I know from direct observation that it is a miserable thing to be, but at times it is the only alternative. Sometimes also the only approach in dealing with the seriously and dangerously mentally ill (and this is my client pool) is a coercive one. I see violence and coercion every day at work, but you know what? These people or at least a substantial portion of them wind up getting better, at least for a time. It is my calling and among the most gratifying experiences in my life. As for antipsychiatry I've read me Szasz, Laing, and all the rest, and there is a valid epistemological critique of psychiatry's foundations, but at the end of the day, we (biomedical/biopsychosocial model) are really the only ones getting any substantive results in healing these people, who suffer terribly.
I can believe you lost touch with the spiritual life after that. And, no, I'm not taking psychedelics or part of any organised group. I prefer doing mystical work on my own.
Actually, no, I'm Catholic. I just gave up the drug/New Age stuff.
