By Karen Barna
“Anne Hutchinson’s greatest crime, was the source of her power.” ~Eve LaPlante, American Jezebel
Possession and Ecstasy as a Sexual Manifestation
Possession and ecstasy as religious rite, like baptism, confirmation, or marriage, is what psychologists believe is a psychological hallucination bought on by intense feelings of love for one’s god, and was usually perceived, or at least interpreted as, a precursor to ordainment in the orders of faith. Some people have called it an “orgasm” bought on by God himself; “a god orgasm” if you will. In my study of human psychology and sexuality I have come to understand that this phenomenon manifested in the various faiths known as “possession and ecstasy” is the manifestation of religious sexuality in union with god. I had experienced something similar to a “god orgasm” except I only experienced a partial reduced external awareness, as the sensation I was experiencing made me focus on the expanded interior awareness of the mind and soul which was brought about by the profound sense of spirit (love). This made me feel at the time, that what I was receiving and experiencing was a profound sense of unconditional love (spirit), a very pure uncorrupted proclivity of love. No woman or man has ever left me with more of a profound feeling of complete acceptance of being loved. It is important to comment that I was in active study in the faith of the Jehovah Witnesses at the time of my experience.
Possession and Ecstasy and The Act of Falling in Love
Religious ecstasy is a type of altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by visions and emotional (and sometimes physical) euphoria. There is no other scientific proof of it being anything else than a hallucination or delusion brought about by intense feelings of love for one’s god.
Strangely, a similar state of altered consciousness is seen in the human experience of first falling in love. This altered state is brought about by an influx chemical reactions to the brain chemistry. This makes it difficult for one to objectively evaluate their “love” in terms of flaws and defects possessed. Historically it has been described as when one individual fall under the “spell” of another.
The Difference Between Love and Psychotic Delusions
Yet another state of altered consciousness is seen in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is not brought on by intense feelings of love resulting from one’s sexuality. Rather, PTSD stems from intense feelings of fear, fear of losing one’s own life. PTSD is a mental disorder that can develop after a person is exposed to trauma. Events that threaten a person’s life like assault and battery, sexual assault, traffic collisions, domestic violence, and warfare. Symptoms may include disturbing thoughts, feelings, or dreams related to the events, mental or physical distress to trauma-related cues, attempts to avoid trauma-related cues, alternation in how a person thinks and feels, and increases in the fight-or-flight response.
I just want to state, that people who have developed their spirituality through faith are evolved individuals. They are spiritually evolved individuals who do not typically go around poking and prodding people with electro-magnetic frequency! They have cultivated the seeds of leadership. For example, parents should be diligently teaching their children by age five the following leaderships skills: Honesty, Justice, Determination, Consideration, and Love. As the child progresses other values come into the picture like Tolerance, Self-Discipline, Charity, and Chastity, to name a few more. When these values are reinforced in the home environment, they become ingrained in the individual and become part of their personality constellation. This is the form the power of leadership takes, and those who fear its manifested presence are maddened by it.
“Denounce it’s hypocrisy! Speak morosely of its silence! It creates great pain to repress the things one cannot say. Liberate yourself from the laws that have made it function. Its perversion belongs to the tyranny of monarchs.”
Many people feel that religion is a mass delusion. Like Karl Marx who commented, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” Like Marx, many people feel that religion drugs mass into submission and thus retains a hold on a person’s freedom to expressed will. Some advanced scholars in psychiatry consider religious followers schizophrenics. Schizophrenia, however, is another form of mental illness whose symptoms manifest in delusions and manifestations. People with this disorder also exhibit changes in behavior and can be accompanied by delusions and hallucinations. Some other illness are schizoaffective disorder, schizophreniform disorder, brief psychotic disorder, Othello syndrome (not classified as a mental illness), shared psychotic disorder, and substance-induced psychotic disorder.
Evidence of Conflicting Information
Religion has been viewed by men science as a Shared Psychotic Disorder. This is an actual mental illness. It is a type of mental illness that occurs when one person in a relationship has a delusion and the other person in the relationship adopts it, too. Thus, they carry out the fantasy. The conflicting evidence is that men of science like doctors, psychiatrists, nurses, psychologist, and addiction counselors will advise individuals suffering from mental illness or disease in general “to get in touch with their higher power.” If the higher power holds potential for further delusions and hallucinations why would a men of science recommend it?
The reason for this is because the promenades, hallways, and vestibules of religious faith hold a curative effect and one which is less likely to produce further illness. Although, it definitely holds this potential.
If religion is such a cause of mental illness than why hasn’t the freedom of religion been abridged? Why do countries still enforce civilians’ civil right to this freedom of expression? Why haven’t we denounced the hypocrisy of this grand delusion suffered by the masses call religious faith?
First, to be called mentally ill is a label that stigmatize one to particular peculiar class, just like the label Jezebel. It degenerates and humiliates the person who wears it’s brand like a scarlet letter. During one of the grandest delusion in the history of the United States, which occurred in 1692 in the village of Salem, the book American Jezebel, is an account of the life of Anne Hutchinson who was driven from the Salem colony for the crime of having better understanding and a better interpretation of scripture then the men of the church’s order of the time. She was feared for her influential and astute perception of the written work of God. Thus, the men feared her power. Her power to take over and rule above them as a influential power figure on the subject of religion. Here we see the power structure of a bureaucratic institution and how paranoia and fear crept into a the quiet lives of a Puritan village. It is the manifest fear witnessed as a delusion of someone else’s otherness. It is the same fear that crept into the United States of America following the 9/11 terrorist attack. Fear that the other will annihilate or “do us in.“ It is a defensive response in the face of fear.
Proclivities' Principle Wisdom 