Posted by habbyshabit on August 20, 2003, at 16:45:47
In reply to spiritual experience OR hallucinatory delusion ? » habbyshabit, posted by lil' jimi on August 20, 2003, at 15:47:23
Jim, you know I adore you. I also am in this state of mind that wants to argue that it's not spiritual experience OR hallucinatory delusion but both at the same time. It's called a divine revelation when it's a culturally accepted and seemingly insightful, useful in the 'real' world phenomenon and a delusion when no one else can relate to it. At any rate it is very real to the one experienceing it, just ask my husband.
This isn't the place to dissect my husband's experience in that it's the faith board, about religion and spirituality - not about psychological disfunction.
I brought him up as I was writing because I realized living with his experience is what lead me down this slippery slope into questioning faith and the nature of the psycho-neurologic basis of spiritual experience.
I read a very scholarly article that convincingly painted jesus as a manic depressive!
What is this thing called faith and how does our brain conspire with our minds to give us just the spiritual experience that matches our religious beliefs. In my days of moving into Buddhism - I had a beautiful experience of feeling like the female body of Buddha. If I had been equally enamored with Christianity instead, might it not have been interpreted as the female body of Christ? You see - which comes first - the belief or the spiritual experience.
My spiritual experiences still color my view of the world. So do my husbands experiences. And believe me, he is very functional in the everyday world. I'm very confused, I agree. But your arguments are chicken/egg theories to me, based on the cultural concensus of the day and the milieu you find yourself in. Talk Dakini's to a Islamic fundamentalist and they'll think your as nutty as I think my husband's ideas are. ( I think - I know very little about Islamic fundamentalism, what with all those virgins and everything )
My thoughts are not those of a scholar. I am talking off the top of my head and out of the pain in my heart.
I'd love to go back to believing. I guess I'll eventually have to leave this board, having become irrelevent to the nature of the discussions here. Boy that's a drag. But I love you guys for taking up this conversation with me.
Still working it out,
Hab
poster:habbyshabit
thread:251864
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20030530/msgs/252540.html