Near Death Experiences and the Bible

 

Twenty-three years ago I had a near death experience (NDE), and it occurred just months after I lost my only child. It wasn’t the typical experience you read about with a tunnel, light, and seeing heaven or hell, it was far subtler than that, and I woke completely changed. My death was caused by a surgical mistake, and although I had to be revived a couple times on the operating table during a life saving surgery, that wasn’t when I died. My death came several days later when I was still bleeding internally, but no one had discovered it yet. I remember waking and looking over at the blood pressure machine and watched the numbers steadily drop lower and lower. It dawned on me that I was dying as I’d seen the same the night my father died, but I didn’t feel any fear. It was simply a realization of my impending demise that I easily accepted. 

 

I woke sometime after midnight to a beautiful and kind redheaded nurse bathing me, changing my gown and sheets, and being incredibly gentle and sweet to me. This happened on Good Friday and as the sun rose the bleeding was discovered and I had a couple rushed emergency procedures, was given several bags of blood, and finally began to recover. I never saw the nurse again, and I did ask about her, but the woman I described didn’t match anyone on the nursing staff.

 

Recovery took several bed-ridden months left with open wounds, bags, drains, more surgery, and nurses coming to the house twice a day to change my bandages. Back on my feet again everything was different, even my things looked a little odd and different, and stepping back into my old life was impossible. Something profound had happened to me and I didn’t have the knowledge or language to fully express it. As I didn’t have the typical and popular experience I had no real foundation to build from, all I knew for sure was that I was different and somehow I knew something I wasn’t supposed to know, but didn’t know what it was.

 

The years afterward were challenging, I was dealing with chronic pain and changes in my body while also trying to accept the loss of my son. It seemed most around me expected me to just snap back in gear and set aside my grief, loss, and spiritual and physical changes and continue on as before my life was altered. Apparently, to them, enough time had passed and there was no excuse for not stepping back into my old life. But I couldn’t return to my old life, the person who lived that life was dead and gone, and I was left vulnerable, exposed, and radically changed.

 

I figured it was Christ calling me so I committed myself to Him and gave away all my belongings in my desire to follow Him. I began speaking with religious people with hopes of guidance in my strange situation, but found that they looked at me suspiciously, shamefully, and quickly dismissed my experience with one Bible verse. “Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27) The people I spoke with seemed to have only one agenda, bodies in a building, butts in the pews, and money in the tray, but it was more than that. It was as though there was an underlying fear or jealousy or anger, and it seemed so separate from my newfound faith, so small and worldly and dirty in comparison with the profound change inside me.

 

Unfortunately at the time I didn’t choose to read the Bible cover to cover to understand it for myself, and was soon drawn into many new age and occultish type ideas as I tried to understand what I knew, but couldn’t remember. I began exploring the world, researching and investigating whatever called my attention with the goal to understand what happened to me, and got lost for a while in many dark rabbit holes. Before this change I had always been a little haunted, but afterwards these occurrences increased dramatically due to opening the doors to the occult in my desire to understand. And I experienced depression, alcoholism, UFO sightings and alien-type abduction events, sudden short lived bouts of psychic abilities and visions, ghostly sightings and EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon) in my home, an incubus draining me in my sleep, and suicide attempts from pure hopelessness and exhaustion. Needless to say, it was rough, and I grew no closer to the forgotten knowledge that had been pressed on me, but with the absolute grace of God I survived, again and again.

 

Worldly events would strike a deep chord in me, and I would be reminded of the change and the unknown knowledge. I would feel both great fear and awe that whatever I had been shown in my NDE was happening, but I had no idea where it was leading. The years passed, the chord inside me rang like a bell with many different events, as though they were simply reminders and road marks along the way, and they left me in tears, but also with a great sense of awe and excitement.

 

And finally I sat down to read the Bible and found that being woken from death is not at all unbiblical as I had been told, and led to believe. From the Old Testament to the New Testament people have been shaken from the grip of death. So I have to wonder if those religious people who instill shame and quickly dismiss the idea have even read their Bibles at all.  

 

From God answering Elijah’s prayers in 1 Kings 17:17-24 and waking the son of the widow Zarephath from death, to the son of a Shunammite woman being raised by Elisha in 2 Kings 4:32-37, to the unnamed man coming back to life after touching Elisha’s bones in 2 Kings 13:20-21, there are many examples of people being brought back from death. Eutychus falling asleep listening to Paul’s long-winded sermon, falling out a third story window to his death, and Paul reviving him and finishing his sermon (Acts 20:7-12), people have been brought back to life many times in scripture. And let us not forget Lazarus, and the others raised by Jesus, or the tombs opening at Jesus’ resurrection and the saints coming to life again and appearing to people in the Holy City (Mathew 27:50-53). Or in Revelation 20:5 where it states, “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished…”

 

The Bible doesn’t follow the lives of those who were raised and given a second chance, but I’m sure they had opinions and feelings about it and their experiences were interesting. So clearly being pulled out of death isn’t unbiblical, or an impossibility, or a shameful lie, or a horrible sin, or a trick of the devil. But perhaps it only happens to a few, and perhaps I am one of the few. I regret not immediately sinking down into the Bible and reading it cover to cover, and feel I’ve wasted some time, some energy, and some innocence peeking under the rocks in the abyss seeking something that isn’t hidden in the darkness, but perhaps the journey was important in a way I don’t yet understand. 

 

The Bible mentions many times the importance of wisdom and knowledge, and how they are more valuable than any jewel, and implores us to seek. It also states that those who do seek and gather wisdom may be a little melancholy with the results of the search, but it’s important to do anyway. “For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” Ecclesiastes 1:18 KJV

 

 

So as always, keep seeking.

 

 

 

The Pecking Order

 

I keep chickens, and the pecking order is a real thing. For me it’s hard to watch, but I’ve learned over the years to let nature be nature as much as possible, although sometimes I have to intervene. There is definitely a hierarchy in a flock of chickens, be the flock small or large. The leader is usually the biggest, the strongest, and the healthiest, and the line works down to the smallest, weakest, or the odd bird that is different in some way. Those differences could be of personality, but often it is because they look different, or are a different breed. The bottom of the pecking order gets picked on a lot, pecked by the other birds, run off from the food and water, and they have to grow rather creative to get their needs met. After all these years I can identify the bottom of the pecking order with a glance as they appear a little disheveled from their feathers being plucked out, a little smaller as they don’t get as much food as the others, and they are separated from the flock and forced to range and forage alone. 

 

When I first became aware of this fowl order I was a little dismayed. “Why can’t we all get along?” And I’m softhearted and wanted to rescue the bottom chicken, and occasionally I have to bring one in and give it special treatment to bring it back to health, but that’s a slippery slope if I plan to reintroduce it to the flock. Once the bird is brought back to health and set back into the flock the order is immediately reestablished, and the bottom has to literally fight its way into its new position. Sometimes it manages to work its way up the ranks, but usually it’s back to being ostracized after a good butt kicking by the leader and a few others.

 

People aren’t much different than chickens in this sense. Having worked in offices with a majority of women the pecking order is quite apparent, although it rarely gets physical. The hierarchy in an office is ruled much the same as a flock, the leader is usually the one with the most seniority, position, and control over the group, and the bottom is usually a newer member or someone different who doesn’t automatically fit into the group. The bottom of the human pecking order doesn’t get pecked and kept from food and water, but does get ostracized, gossiped about, and excluded. Fortunately for me most of my jobs were solo endeavors where I wasn’t with the group full time, and my jobs were outside of the office, or separate from the group, and usually something that I did alone. But the politics of the pecking order still reached out to put me into my place and clarify that I didn’t fit with the group.

 

I’ve been blessed with not caring too much if I fit in, and usually I didn’t have a lot of respect for the top of the order for various reasons. Perhaps it was early childhood training and being excluded from a young age, but frankly I’ve never really cared to fit into a group. I’ve also never been motivated by the jealousy that would require me to fight like a chicken to achieve a higher position, I simply didn’t care, and had other things on my mind. My attitude was often infuriating to the top tier because in their minds fitting into the hierarchy of office politics was important, but to me a job was just a means to survive in the world, and other than receiving a paycheck not much else about it mattered. I did my job, and did it well, and kept to myself, much like the odd bird that ranges and forages alone.

 

The hierarchy of the pecking order is also quite present in dysfunctional families where everyone bends over backwards to keep the leader, the most dysfunctional one, happy and content. And perhaps this is where my early childhood training taught me not to care too much if I fit in or not. As a child I knew what I didn’t want to be, I didn’t want to grow up and be bitter, I didn’t want to be angry all the time, and I didn’t want to hurt and put down others, so I would never be the leader. My place at the bottom of the pecking order was something I was used to by the time I entered the working world. As a child I had to figure things out for myself, no one was gently guiding me or teaching me how to do anything, from house cleaning and cooking to keeping up with school work to getting along with others all the way down to personal hygiene I had to figure everything out alone. These early skills of learning to figure things out made me a valuable employee in many of my solo jobs, but a pretty lousy member of the office pecking order.

 

In the Bible there are many comparisons to nature, from sheep and shepherds to fig trees and crops (wheat and tares) to the various birds and animals mentioned throughout the stories, and I think it’s important to understand these things to help broaden our understanding of what the Bible is teaching us. We are above the animals, meant to care for them and be good stewards to them, and to do that we must understand their natures, and see how in our own natural state we aren’t much different than them. Most people desire a leader, but seem to only look to man instead of putting their eyes on and hearts to our higher power, God. If we follow the rules that have been laid out for us there is no real need for the pecking order, if we obey and seek wisdom God will lead us away from the pack, the flock, the politics toward His truth and His peace.

 

The pecking order is brutal and cruel, but God pulls his chosen ones away from that low and uninspired thinking into the much broader view of the spiritual world. The leaders from the human pecking orders won’t have much when judgment comes, but those at the bottom, odd, strange, different and peculiar have a much greater reward as this world dissolves away and a new earth and a new heaven is born. I’m grateful for my place at the bottom of this world’s pecking order, because my leader is not from this world, and does not want His children to fit into it or conform to it. 

 

 

As always, keep seeking. 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Psychopaths and Monsters

 (Author note: Another from the archives. I'm not sure if this has been published, unfortunately my archives are a complete mess and requires a lot of guess work. In my files it's simply titled Psychopaths, and I can't find a corresponding or closely worded title on any of my published lists. It was written in 2007 or 2008, and I removed some old links to dated political information.) 

 

 

 

I spend a lot of time reading opinions and attempting to unravel the mysteries of all the barriers we place between us. I recognize that folks are different and that is the beauty part of the beast, but we have been taught that down deep we all share similarities. The dictionary defines the soul as “The animating and vital principle in humans, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity” and the spirit as “The vital principle or animating force within living beings”. I once asked some religious people for the difference between the spirit and the soul and none could provide an answer, but for me, I define the soul as that spark of light inside and our spirit determines whether or not the spark becomes a flame. 

 

From the time of our birth we are told we are all alike, the differences between us are only visual. Medicine and science also confirm this idea, although we are men and women, young and old, and come from a variety of cultures and religions, basically we are the same, but I have wondered if we really are all the same. Do we all have souls? Do some possess neither the spark nor the flame? I think that the difference between us is deep below the surface, unseen, and it has nothing to do with race, culture, religion, or gender, and has everything to do with either having that spark or not having it.  

 

Some have suggested that those in power, relentless executives and politicians making the rules for us all to live by are psychopaths, which Dr Robert Hare, creator of the psychopathy checklist, describes as "social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret." http://www.hare.org/  Often when we think of psychopaths we think of brutal criminals sitting in jail or receiving the death penalty for their unimaginable behaviors. And statistically we understand a lot of folks jailed for their criminal actions tend to come from poverty and abuse-ridden homes, but what happens to those young psychopaths born into grace and wealth?

 

John Lennon once said, “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.” And I think he was correct, we live in a psychopathic world and we are being trained to become a psychopathic population. I think the mistake many make when thinking about psychopaths is we envision that they are sinister, murderous, and television has done a fine job of teaching us that they usually get caught. But the truth is psychopaths are charming, cold-blooded, superficial, and I am beginning to understand lacking both the spark and the flame. They are the movers, shakers, and climbers of the world, carelessly seeking their own agenda, while around them those with simple goals, conscience, and who feel compassion and empathy for their fellow man fall and flail and flounder. 

 

They hold power over us because we believe we are all the same, we believe we all possess the same emotions, so it is hard to imagine a view without those connections. I am coming to the conclusion that we do not all have the spark of light and for many who still do in these days of old, it is sputtering. This darkness is not a new thing on this earth, history and legends have always attempted to explain the lack and left us clues in scary stories of monsters, devils, aliens, zombies, and vampires. But what has been lost in translation is that on the surface those monsters look just like us, the calculating beast resides deep below what we are able to see. And because our lack of knowledge has made us blind, we follow the boogey men and our spark begins to sputter and die.

 

The psychopaths and monsters have taken over and they have convinced us that their way, full of lies and deceit, is the truth. And we believe because we cannot imagine that some folks are completely empty inside. They keep us distracted with work, sex, and fancy gadgets, and sooth us with convenient drugs. We quickly learn if we work very hard we can find God and our mansion, which can only be bought with lots of money.  We spend hours watching their magical and hypnotic box as they instruct us in the way we should go. We hand over our children earlier and earlier with each passing generation and then wonder why our children begin to grow to see us as the enemy. We, who carry the spark inside of us, are being conquered, divided, deceived, and extinguished at an unbelievable rate.

 

It seems we have come to believe that if it is not on television, then it is not the truth, as if those attempting to deceive us are going to tell us the truth. The television, and then the Internet, has been the evil-doers greatest success in molding a human, tearing down the moral fiber, dumbing down the population, and creating a sense of apathy, fear, division, and sedation among the people. Do we really believe that they, the ones without spark or flame, are going to inform us that our flame is in the process of being extinguished? How can we understand we are living in deception, yet accept that deception as truth?

 

With all the chaos occurring in our world, I wonder how many understand that underneath the chaos a spiritual battle is being waged. In these modern times, it is easy to believe that what is occurring is just a product of advanced civilization, a sign of the times of living in a terrorist era or a technological age, but the battle being fought under the surface is as old as time. A wise man once said that the path is a narrow one and as I look about the world and see how easily we have accepted the training to surrender our spark and accept this psychopathic way of being as normal, I understand that man spoke truth.   

 

As always, keep seeking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

(Author note: I'm back in the archives and will be in there for a while as the 20th anniversary of Turtle's Voice grows nearer. This article was published in The American Chronicle on 1/16/08 under the title of The War on Thought and Individualism. I've removed the links because there are all dead now, lots of things have disappeared off the Internet in the last couple decades. This article is a little dated as hardly anyone relies on newspapers for information these days, but it's definitely worth sharing again.)  

 

 

 

What is truth?  Is it only what appears on the cable news networks, the national evening news or in the mainstream newspapers?  Does truth only become truth when it is checked and approved and then put before the masses?  What if that approved truth doesn’t answer all the questions or perhaps even raises new ones, is it still the truth?  And what about those people with the lingering doubts over the official story, are they insane or just troublemakers?

 

President Bush, in a speech before the United Nations on November 11^th, 2001, said, “Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty.”  I didn’t hear this speech when it was made and at the time I fully believed what the television had shown me, but had I heard his words I would have sought out information on the conspiracy theories he mentioned because I’m a curious person.  Perhaps being curious isn’t very popular today, perhaps curiosity is a threat. People tend to label and categorize, I suppose it makes us feel secure and a lot of people believe that conspiracy theorists are crazy, ill informed or even potentially dangerous, but what if they just like things to make sense? 

 

I think one of my greatest downfalls in this life is that I expect things to make sense, I like to understand the rhyme and reason of things and to do that, I have to look at all possible explanations, not just one.  And I figure, mixed up in all those ideas and propaganda, the truth can be found.  But I fear that a day will come when curiosity is no longer tolerated, and thinking outside of the approved box will no longer be permitted. 

 

In 2004 issue of Psychology Today, Kathleen McGowan has written an article entitled “Conspiracy Theories Explained” and the subtitle states, “Random events are deeply meaningful to paranoid schizophrenics. Is something happening in their brains?”  The article begins, “Paranoid schizophrenics are prone to delusions, tales in which random events become deeply meaningful. Some believe in complex conspiracies; others think they are Jesus Christ.”  And then it continues to explain the research of Shitij Kapur, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and vice president of research at the Canadian Center for Addiction and Mental Health, in relation to the role of dopamine in addiction and schizophrenia.  The body of the article does not mention conspiracy theories again, but the implication is pretty clear, people who question the official line are paranoid schizophrenics. 

 

The definition of conspiracy is an agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act and conspiracies are as old as mankind.  On the lighter side of conspiracy we have practical jokes and high school pranks, on the darker side we have events like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. And in it’s most accepted form we see it in business as one corporation plots to overtake another, but we don’t call that conspiracy, that is considered ‘just business’. 

 

It’s interesting to me how we often hear of the little guy being arrested for suspicion of committing conspiracy, but somehow we believe that when large groups of powerful people unite there can be no conspiracy.  Even presidential candidate and former first lady, Hillary Clinton, claimed the idea of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” to defend her husband Bill during the Whitewater scandal, so am I to assume that she is a paranoid schizophrenic? 

 

Am I to assume that anyone who believes that conspiracies exist may be insane?  Would that include Woodrow Wilson, who stated, “A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.”  Or James Madison, who said, "History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance".  Or Winston Churchill, who stated his believe that, “Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.”  Even the Bible points out that those in power will conspire in Eph. 6:12,  “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].”

 

Conspiracies do exist, but not all conspiracy theories are truth, although many make for quite an entertaining read, true or not.  So what are we left to think when our leaders, both past and present, have spoken of conspiracy as an actual issue in society and government, but the psychiatric community sees it as delusional thinking?  Could it be that the psychiatric community is far more concerned about social control, easily counted bean drawers, and power than it is about mental health and truth?  Could the hand holding between the pharmaceutical companies and the psychiatric communities be a conspiracy to keep Americans compliant, consuming, and easily controlled?  Is the drugging of over 8 million American children with minimally tested psychotropic drugs considered ‘just business’?

 

Many speak of the war against terrorism and the war on drugs, but perhaps the only real battlefield exists here at home, the war waged against thought and individualism and the weapons of choice are psychiatry, propaganda, and pharmaceuticals.  The American Psychiatric Association is busily adding new entries into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR), these additions aren’t developed through research or discovery of known pathology, but simply by member vote and some of the newest mental disorders include Social Phobia, Mathematics Disorder, Disorder of Written Expression and Reading Disorder.  At the rate the APA is going, soon no one in America will be considered sane and I am beginning to wonder if one day mental illness treatment will be mandatory, much like the vaccines for childhood illnesses are mandatory today.

 

The simple fact of the matter is that people think and perceive things differently due to a myriad of reasons, including upbringing, culture, and experience, and that used to be the beauty of being an American, but now it seems that the APA, in hand with other organizations, want to weed out those who are different and medicate them.  Is it because those differences imply mental illness?  Or could it be that those differences create money in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies, a solid customer base for the psychiatric communities, and a compliant citizenship for the rulers of the American government? 

 

 

As always, keep seeking.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dark and Brutal Beginnings of Psychiatry

 

(Author’s note – I’m going through my archives and hope to share what I think are some of my interesting old articles. This one was originally published in The American Chronicle on 1/22/08 under the title of Psychiatry, Tom Cruise and Scientology. I’ll include the old links and hopefully not all are dead, and some are still active.)

 

 

 

 

 

Tom Cruise sure has been in the news a lot of late, between jumping on Oprah’s couch, attacking psychiatry, and Brooke Shields’ use of anti-depressants, and now with the odd leaked Scientology videos, he seems to be generating a lot of attention.  And I’ve noticed in the reporting of each incident we are being led to believe that Tom Cruise is insane or brainwashed or worse.  So I began wondering, why?  The media certainly wants us to see Tom Cruise, he’s everywhere, it’s hard to escape, but they also want us to believe that he has fallen on the wrong side of the crazy wall, why?  Could it be what he’s saying?  Could it be his attack on psychiatry?

 

I’m not a fan of Mr. Cruise and I haven’t been to the theater in years, but when I heard his views on psychiatry, I sensed he was telling the truth.  But the media has created a thinking in our nation that if you are against psychiatry and the accompanying pharmaceuticals, you must be one of those crazy Scientologists.  I don’t care if Tom Cruise is a Scientologist, this is America and we are supposed to be free to believe in whatever belief system we choose. I choose not to align myself with any organized religion, but I do understand there is merit in the idea that psychiatry is a suspect science.

 

The manual used to define mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and each new entry into this manual is done by member vote, versus research and discovery of known pathology.  According to psychiatrist Ron Leifer, “So the DSM is basically an arbitrary classification of thoughts, moods and behavior decided upon by a committee of psychiatrists who are picked by the American Psychiatric Association.” 

 

Psychiatrist Colin Andrew Ross states, “It’s bogus that you can even accurately identify who has the behavior of schizophrenia.  It’s bogus that you can tag it to genes.  It’s bogus that you can detect those genes through any kind of test.  So the whole is basically bogus.”  And clinical psychologist Ty Colbert paints a disturbing picture with his words, “So we can theoretically find a way to drug every set of symptoms that’s different from what we think should be normal.  So we could have hundreds of different situations in the future and which we are attempting to drug.  So you just extrapolate that over a couple generations and it could be the fall of our civilization.”  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8705742804699284911&q=psychiatry&total=1725&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2

 

Dr. Jeffrey A Schaler, a psychologist and professor in the Department of Justice, Law and Society at American University’s School of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., in a acceptance speech for the Thomas Szasz Award, states,  “What do we know that is true, that the cult of psychiatry keeps telling us is false?  First, the idea that there is a known brain lesion causing mental illness.  The truth is we cannot tell who is mentally ill and who is not by looking at pictures of their brains or analyzing their blood.”  Dr. Schaler goes on to refer to the DSM as a great work of fiction, clarifying that each disorder in the DSM is invented, whereas diseases listed in a pathology textbook are discovered. 

 

Dr. Schaler continues, “Mental illness refers to something a person does, real disease refers to something a person has.  Consider this yet another way – It takes one person to have a disease, it takes two people to have a mental illness.  If you are alone on an island you could develop a real disease like cancer or heart disease, but you cannot develop a mental illness such as hyperactivity or schizophrenia.  This is because mental illness is always diagnosed on some sort of social conflict, when people do something that others find objectionable, they can be diagnosed as mentally ill.  If the person doing the diagnosing is more powerful that the person diagnosed, then there’s trouble.  In this sense, the diagnosis of mental illness is always a weapon.”   http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4857231661511715395&q=dr.+schaler&total=11&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

 

These are powerful statements by educated people in the field of psychology and psychiatry, yet the media has sold us on the idea that if we are depressed it is a chemical imbalance and the medications are simply balancing our deficit.  But the truth is there is no test to prove that anyone suffers from a chemical imbalance. In a video entitled “Psychiatry – No Science, No Cures” Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York, states, “The actual truth about chemical imbalance is that it’s an actual lie.  Nobody has yet measured, demonstrated or created a test to show that somebody has a chemical imbalance in their brain, period.”

 

And psychiatrist Dr. Grace Jackson, states, “There is no rational science behind what they think is the cause of these symptoms.  The medications that are being given to people are, without exception, introducing chemicals that are altering the brain in ways which can be very damaging.  And I’ll go a step further and say that in the absence of proven chemical imbalance, for which the medications are “rebalancing” or fixing, the medications are in fact, toxic.”  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8058160857846500132&q=psychiatry&total=1725&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

 

I recognize that this is a controversial subject, with millions of adults and children on these behavior-altering medications, and I wonder how many understand that these drugs are not curing diseases, they are only altering our behavior and perhaps, even, our brains.  Maybe we are a culture that just likes our drugs or maybe we like to have an excuse of why we don’t perform as well as we perceive others as doing or maybe it’s just easier to numb what is bothering us inside, instead of attempting to fix it.  But the simple truth remains; we are not getting the facts on the medications we are using to fix our behavior. 

 

Gwen Olsen, a former pharmaceutical drug sales rep. and author of the book, “Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher – God’s Call to Loving Arms”, spent fifteen years selling specialty pharmaceuticals to psychiatrists, among others.  She left the field after she felt a moral obligation to inform the public of the policies of selling drugs, which she felt was a danger to the “American people, at large”.   She states that there was “consistent minimization of side effects” and that it became “less and less popular to give full disclosure about our drugs, as time went on in my profession, and we were more responsible for marketing information being given to the doctors, than actual good medical information.” 

 

After seeing how the lack of full disclosure concerning prescription drugs was harming and in some cases, killing patients, Ms. Olsen decided that there was something wrong in the way drugs were being approved and marketed.  “I heard on more than one occasion people refer to ‘our friends’ in the FDA or ‘our people’ in the FDA.”  Ms. Olsen states that while selling psychiatric drugs in mental institutions she began to understand that many of the behavioral manifestations of mentally ill, were actually side effects of the drugs she was selling.  And Ms. Olsen was instructed to discredit people who were not in favor of psychiatric drugs by her district manager, who informed her, “Any time anybody isn’t for psychiatric drugs, if you just label them a Scientologist, that will discredit them, because everybody knows they are crazy.”  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8005785861839485871&q=gwen+olsen&total=23&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

 

The corporate media has sold us the idea that the only people who are against psychiatric drugs are Scientologists and they are, in fact, crazy.  But what of the experts, the scientists, the psychiatrists and psychologists speaking out against psychiatric drugs, are they also crazy?  The television tells us that a chemical imbalance has been proven, but the scientists insist this is not proven, that it is a theory at best, or a lie at worst, and no scientific test has ever been developed to make this chemical imbalance a reality.  Yet, we believe our televisions and we take the drugs and we give the drugs to our children, seemingly unconcerned about the potential effects of those drugs on developing brains. 

 

The history of psychiatry is full of wayward experiments on patients.  The Father of American Psychiatry is Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813); he was also a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  Dr. Rush believed that too much blood in the system caused psychiatric and physiological disorders; this idea was strengthened when he decided that bloodletting cured him of yellow fever.  He also created the Tranquilizing Chair, which was said to address the fact that “madness” was an arterial disease, an inflammation of the brain and through being confined in the chair, which looked much like an electric chair, it controlled the flow of blood to the brain.  He also believed that another way to ease madness was to repeatedly dunk patients in ice-cold water. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/features/brush.html

 

Dr. Henry Cotton (1876-1933), medical director at New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, Trenton, felt that mental illness was caused by hidden infection in various body parts and the way to cure the mental illness was to remove the offending organs.  He began with teeth and tonsils and if no noticeable change occurred in the patient, he would precede to remove the stomach, spleen, cervix or colon.  Needless to say, like Dr. Rush, Dr. Cotton’s patients did not do well.  http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/archive_new/PAW04-05/14-0511/features1.html

 

Psychologist John B. Watson (1878-1958) believed that psychology should address “the prediction and control of observable behavior.”  He was such a believer in experimental psychology that he performed a series of experiments on his 11-month old son, Albert.  Watson is quoted as having said, “Give me the baby, and I’ll make it climb and use it’s hands in constructing a building of stone or wood… I’ll make it a thief, a gunman or a dope fiend.  The possibilities of shaping in any direction are almost endless.” 

 

Interestingly enough, Watson was best known for his parenting advice in which he stressed the idea of never showing affection to children.  “…Remember when you are tempted to pet your child, that mother’s love is a dangerous instrument.  An instrument that may inflict a never-healing wound, a wound which may make infancy unhappy, adolescence a nightmare, an instrument which may wreck your son or daughter’s vocational future and their chances for marital happiness.”  In 1954 Watson’s son Albert committed suicide, and in 1957 the APA awarded Watson a gold medal for his contributions to psychology.  http://www.mental-health-abuse.org/harmingYouth12.html

 

And a couple of the legitimate psychiatric diagnoses from years gone by include drapetomania, a mental disorder existing in slaves who ran away to freedom.  And hysteria, a very popular diagnosis in the Victorian era as a condition only women suffered, especially those who rebelled against male domination or who tended to “cause trouble.” 

 

Some believe the psychiatric communities are working to end the pursuit of individualism and creativity and site the lives and deaths of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Ernest Hemingway, Francis Farmer, and Judy Garland.  Others believe it is about social control, eugenics, and racism.  But unfortunately most believe their television and the marketing of the idea that we are all suffering under one banner of mental illness or another and luckily for us, there is a pill for that.  

 

I think all religions hold pieces of truth and perhaps the piece the Scientologists hold is the fact that psychiatry is a destructive, non-scientific practice with invented diseases, more of a tool to control the masses, than cure them.  History shows that torturous experiments were done in the name of psychiatry and ridiculous assumptions were called fact and those practices have not changed.  The only difference now is that the experiments are occurring with millions of people used as lab rats and the encouragement to claim our diagnosis and take the pharmaceuticals can be found throughout print and television media.

 

The fact of the matter is psychiatry has made mistakes before, fatal mistakes.  Sixty years ago there were six or seven mental disorders, now, according to the DSM, there are well over three hundred.  Are we, as a society, growing crazier as each year passes?  Who is in charge of defining what is abnormal or mentally disordered, versus, simply different?  As the long arms of psychiatry invade all facets of our lives, including our schools, social services, military, legislations, and churches, perhaps this is a question we all should be asking.  

 

 

 

As always, keep seeking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The World is a Stage

 

Be grateful for who you are and what you have, and also be grateful for who you aren’t and what you don’t have. Remember we were created and formed by God, He has a purpose for our lives, and He loves and thinks of us. Of course the world tries to turn us away from that knowledge, that hope, the moment we’re born, and pounds away at us relentlessly through our most vulnerable years. From toxic injections with our first breaths to enforced conformity with the world’s norms throughout our years of schooling, and by the time we reach adulthood and can make decisions for ourselves, most of our Godly connections have been severed.

 

The devil is in charge down here and the last thing he wants is a society of God-centered people who want to use our God-given talents. Some of us put our thoughts of a loving God away not wanting to be the brunt of the joke, while others strive quietly to find the connection. Some use drugs and alcohol to lower the man installed blockages, and some spend their days going to church knowing that if they are diligent they’ll find the connection again. At one point in time the ether around us sang with heavenly choirs, the wind full of inspiration, but now the air is deadened and cluttered with uncomfortable and harmful noise that the ears can’t hear, but the body, mind, and spirit feel. The devil is the prince of the power of the air, and he likes the ether cluttered and noisy and polluted with no angel song to lift and light our sputtering spirits.

 

Rejoice that you’re still here, still alive, and still feel the connection even if it’s just a thread, even if you don’t feel it every day, but only sometimes. Rejoice to know that the devil’s time is short and that’s why the noise is so loud right now. He wants to take as many as he can with him when he’s thrown back in the pit, and all his minions are busy with distractions and attacks on those who still carry the spark. Be careful of what you allow in your sight and mind, and be careful of the rabbit holes that are calling you to explore right now. There is a season for everything, and I believe we’re in the season of quiet and calm spiritual preparation. Be kind to yourselves, unbury your talents, and guard the spark within. Don’t let the ugliness of this fallen world be all that you can see, imagine heavenly things, imagine the great beauty this world works to defile. 

 

Over the years I’ve been to the bottom of many rabbit holes, and the main thing I’ve learned is that the hows and whys, the identity of the crisis actors, and the depths of the illusions don’t really matter in the end. I suppose seeing the illusions can be important for discernment, but in the end we can’t change the worldly script no matter how much we learn, or how much we can prove, or how much we share and insist others see what we are seeing. In the end the script is pushed, and the questioners pushed aside. It doesn’t matter how it happened, or if it happened, what matters is the idea and the energy has been released, and knowingly or not, it touches each of us.

 

The world is a stage, and sometimes I feel that the same agendas have been playing over and again like a broken record for generations, but it’s their stage, not ours. The shocking events are meant to change and guide us, lead us to a predetermined conclusion that usually just equates to us losing bits of our soul and faith. Now is not the time to climb down into the dark and lightless rabbit holes with notes and microscopes and determination, now is the time to look up to the heavens and sink down into the Word.

 

Some may say I’m jaded and cynical, but after staring into the abyss for over twenty years I can say that none of what happens in there really matters, all that matters is our personal connection to God, and our salvation. The world’s chaos will increase, the pollution of our dirty technology will thicken, and the voices of the angry masses will only increase, and now is the time to clean up our prayer closets, and protect that inner peace, that inner spark, the inner knowledge that the world still hasn’t stolen away. Focus on what is good, what is light, and what will help us make it through the doors of the beloved city. This world will continue to rent and tear itself into pieces, and the spiritual attacks of all we hold dear will only get stronger and more psychotic. Truth is beauty, energy, and reason, deception is ugly, exhausting, and confusing, and the people will continue to choose their sides, often motivated only by ignorance of God’s grace and anger.

 

We must continue to rise above the noise, to remember the knowledge we held at birth, and to hold on to the simple, yet profound, gifts of God’s love and attention. Do not get mired down in the muck of what the world calls right, stand strong in God’s righteousness, beauty, and truth. Don’t let the filth of this dark world soil you any further, and don’t let it take up all your thoughts and hold your mind hostage. The world’s stage is the devil’s stage, at least for now, but a new earth and a new heaven is coming, and we must have the oil in our lamps to be able to see it.

 

Keep seeking God

 

 

 

 

A Dark Week Brings Light

 

Millions found Jesus last week, all over the world; millions turned their faces to God and cried out in pain. It wasn’t just the brutal murders we saw of the innocent, it was something deeper, something visceral that cried out in pain at what our world has become, and the evil and darkness that was exposed. It wasn’t just the death of two young people, it was the response of the broadcast media ignoring or blaming the victims, it was the celebration of their friends, co-workers, teachers, doctors, and other professionals that reveled in the death of a young Christian man, as well as the defamation and character assassination that followed the real assassination. The average Joes and the “normies” woke up to the darkness around them and were repulsed. 

 

The thing about demons and monsters is that they are different than us, and the differences are deeper than appearance or culture or the color of skin, the difference is inside where evil hides, and it has been exposed. The demons inside man celebrated and laughed and giggled and danced and reveled in our pain, they made snide comments, they defended their position by saying the deaths were deserved, he shouldn’t have said those words, she shouldn’t have been on that train at that time of day. They were joyous in our despair, arrogant in the lies they spew, and showed the world all they lack inside, not just compassion and empathy, but common decency, goodness, light, and love.

 

But something changed, something mighty shifted, finally the average Joes and the “normies” said No! Just no, never again will I lower my head as evil runs free; never again will I keep my mouth shut in the face of such darkness. The people hit their limit as their souls cried out for something good and pure to pull them from the muck of our present society. And then they began to respond and show their shock and revulsion; they began to long for justice, for purity, for righteousness, for the light and salvation promised by God.

 

I sat back in awe as I saw it happen, wondering if the change was finally occurring, if Jesus was close to returning, and the answer I received was yes! Jesus is waking the masses, He’s touching their souls, He’s raising their eyes to the Lord, He’s pulling His sheep out of the pit of debauchery and the cult of death that has been running things for so long. And then in shock and righteous anger, the people began fighting back, not with fists or swords or anger, but with the power of what is right and just and true, and they discovered they aren’t as few as the world had been insisting, they are many, millions as a matter of fact, millions and millions.

 

I knew the world was changing, and changing rapidly, I didn’t know it would take the deaths of innocent and kind people. And I was amazed as the masses began to take up their weapons, their weapons being truth and goodness, pain and the fear of God, and the determination not to be like those celebrating or ignoring the deaths of simple people just trying to spread the word or escape a war. And the tool they used was the same tool the revelers used, the Internet and their voice.

 

Hundreds (if not thousands soon) have been fired from their taxpayer-funded jobs, from their jobs as authority figures over our children, from their jobs as gatekeepers of our health, from their jobs in the military, police forces, and in the media. The people, shocked, in pain, and aghast at what they were witnessing began exposing the darkness to all, to employers and churches, to clinics and hospitals, to government entities, to the world, and demanded change. They stated unequivocally that those people have no power over them anymore, and never again will they bow down and stay silent in the face of lies and deception and abject evil.

 

I don’t know what will happen next, but I suspect that the shocks, the exposure of darkness, will continue, faster and faster, and more people will lift their eyes to the heavens and pray for Jesus to return. I never thought I would see what I’ve seen in the last week, and for me it has been horrible, soul piercing, and littered with nightmares, but the light of God has burned into the consciousness of millions, and I know Charlie would be overjoyed to see it.

 

Remember the fruits of the Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control, and keep seeking.