When Will We Hear the Voices of Those Who Hear Voices?

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From Sacredphrenia: “Imagine an unknown 17-year-old woman claiming she heard voices from God and suddenly being launched into the national spotlight, helping our political leaders navigate our deeply troubled times.

Even during a year as ‘WTF is happening?’ as 2020, it sounds highly implausible. Such a person would more likely be whisked away to a psychiatric institution, diagnosed with ‘schizophrenia,’ and injected with a slew of mind-altering chemicals.

But this is precisely the story of Joan of Arc, the visionary, French, teenage peasant who in 1429 was granted control of the French army and led the country to victory in a critical phase of the Hundred Years’ War with England.

In Saint Joan, a play by George Bernard Shaw, the unbelievable process of this young woman winning over the court of Charles VII is depicted. One by one, she impresses the military and church leaders, convincing them she has been sent by God to drive the English out of France. The forthcoming king admits his jealousy of her ability to receive such divine guidance, asking her, ‘Why don’t the voices come to me? I am king, not you!’

Joan responds, ‘They do come to you, but you do not hear them. You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the Angelus rings, you cross yourself and have done with it. But if you prayed from your heart and listened to the thrilling of the bells in the air after they stopped ringing, you would hear the voices as well as I do.'”

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3 COMMENTS

  1. I must agree, as one who was DSM defamed, and massively drugged, for questioning a dream about being ‘moved by the Holy Spirit.’ One does have to question, how long it will take for the mainstream paternalistic – now freely admitting to be, DSM “bible” “partnering” – religions, to actually realize that the Holy Bible does state it is important to respect women.

    I had to leave my childhood religion, twice. Since it has twice proven to me that all it cares about is the DSM “bible” thumpers’ belief system, which is that covering up child abuse is their life’s goal. And all this systemic child abuse covering up is by their DSM “bible’s” design.

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-child-does-not-have-bipolar-disorder/201402/dsm-5-and-child-neglect-and-abuse-1

    Maybe, respecting the women of your religion, who stand against child abuse, who may be ‘moved by the Holy Spirit,’ may be wiser instead, Lutherans? Especially since your own ELCA insiders have been writing scathing books about who you’ve chosen to become, since 2007?

    https://books.google.com/books?id=xI01AlxH1uAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

    Let’s hope some day the ELCA religion will some day garner insight into the stupidity of “partnering with” and “conspiring with” the DSM “bible” thumper’s systemic, by DSM design, child abuse covering up religion.

    And realize that betraying the ethical Christian American banking families, that made their pastors’ pension funds millions, was a dumb idea. I do hope and pray all are judged fairly by God. And I do still believe God will judge all fairly.

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  2. Hello fellow schizophrenic! Or sacredphrenic, fun name by the way. I think what you are doing is fantastic and of enormous importance. You are true to point out that a schizophrenic person is cursed with having to grapple with schizophrenia but they are blessed to learn so much from other spiritual and esoteric states and even dimensions. Nobody wants to hear about those extraordinary meditative or astral travels we do. They want to do everything else with us but never, ever, ever that part. Our beloved schizophreniac mascot Joan of Arc had her persecutors in her era. That never stops and probably never will. As Christ was destined to be pinned to the cross, to be a held up as a mirror to the uglieness of human indifference and cruelty, I feel schizophrenics are destined to be disliked by every community they innocently wander through. I think it does not matter what a schizophrenic happens to call themself. It would be like parable-uttering Jesus calling himself Ronnie. Or Joan of Arc calling herself Barbara or a beach pebble. The schizophrenic is the proud custodian of being the difference every one else feels nervous of embracing. And that will always be their cardinal crime. ALWAYS.

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    • There is objectively no such thing as a “schizophrenic,” which implies something that can be quantified and categorized. I know you are speaking as a poet and not a clinician; however an unfortunate consequence of the psychiatric mentality is the reification and concretization of poetic, mythical and metaphorical concepts, all of which are subject to being used to justify some aspect of psychiatric ideology and/or intervention. So yeah, psychiatry even fucks with our art.

      Back to the article, as for hearing people’s voices, aren’t those voices supposed to be private? It could go both ways I guess…

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