Dreams are notoriously difficult to understand. They are often bizarre and nonsensical, and do not appear to have any clear significance. To make matters worse, they are usually only remembered in fleeting fragments, if not forgotten entirely upon waking. It is no wonder people dismiss dreams as random neural firings of the sleeping brain.
So why is it that throughout history, dreams have been seen as sources of insight, wisdom, art, or even mystical experience? Clearly, dreams are not just random hallucinations of sleep. Indeed, one does not need to make any metaphysical claim about the nature of dreams in order to appreciate their unique capability for inducing introspection. We need only speak the language of dreams, and that language is one we already all know.
Dreams, metaphor, and the bilingual self
To understand the language of dream we need to understand the concept of metaphor. Metaphor is nothing new. We use metaphors in our everyday language, often without even realizing it. Indeed, metaphor is perhaps the best tool for explaining complex and abstract topics. For instance, take a concept such as love. What is love? Try to define it without the use of metaphor. You will quickly find that this task becomes quite difficult.
Now try and define love using whatever metaphor comes to mind. Perhaps love is a journey. Maybe a rollercoaster. It could even be a dangerous fire that consumes everything it touches. Ultimately love, like most abstract concepts, is an idea. This, of course, does not in any way deny its reality, any more so than using the metaphor of eternal sleep to describe death denies its inevitable descent upon us.
Allow me to demonstrate the use of metaphor with an example of a dream. The dreamer, a highly career-oriented young woman with an obsessive need to pursue success reported the following dream:
“I am driving my car up a steep cliffside road. I am going very fast. As I approach the top, I lose control of the steering wheel and drive off the edge. I wake up in fear before my car hits the ground.”
This dream is not difficult to understand. The dreamer, driven by the pursuit of success, has fallen off the edge right before reaching the top, and has consequently fallen all the way to the bottom. This dream has a clear message: slow down, or you will steer out of control. Cars, driving, roads—these are all images found in many of our daily metaphors. Life is a highway, after all.
With this in mind, it becomes easier to understand the language of dreams. In our waking life, we use metaphor as an aid to our rational thinking. Dreams, on the contrary, literalize metaphor. For example, in waking life, someone who is sad might say they are “feeling blue”. Subsequently, this same individual might have a dream where they look in the mirror, and have actually turned blue! This is what is meant by the literalization of metaphor. One could also use the term symbolic thought to describe this mode of thinking. As such, we speak different languages when we dream and when we wake. Our rational mode of being turns into a symbolic one, and vice versa. In this sense we are all bilingual.
A waking dream
We can imagine rational and symbolic thought as existing on some sort of continuum. While operating rationally, one might be engaged in activities such as reading, writing, conversing or perhaps even mathematical calculation. This mode of thinking is characteristic of waking. Indeed, activities such as reading and writing seldom appear in dreams, despite being frequent parts of our waking life. On the other side of the continuum, as we move towards symbolic thinking, we might find ourselves engaged in art, music, or any other creative, imaginative process. Dreams are often expressed in pure symbolic form. This kind of thinking also tends to be heavily influenced by emotion and intuition, as opposed to the stoicism required for hyper-rational thinking. As such, dreams tend to contain strong emotion, usually represented by a series of images. On a daily basis we experience a constant interplay of rational-symbolic thinking, and rarely are we fully immersed in either state. Nevertheless, rational thought tends to dominate our waking experience[1].
This is not true for everyone, however. For most of us, when we wake up, we cease to speak the symbolic, metaphorical language of our dreams and return to our rational waking thinking. Yet some people do not appear to “wake up” in this regard. The occasional individual can become stuck in symbolic thought, stuck in the dreamworld, in a waking dream.
The person I am referring to is the schizophrenic[2]. Now, I do not mean to say that the schizophrenic is literally stuck in a dream. Instead he lives primarily through the language of dreams, and has forgotten the language of waking. What this means is that the language of the schizophrenic is more similar to that of the dreamer, as opposed to the waking individual.
Here is how this idea might look in practice. Imagine a rationally-minded person who struggles to fit into society, and has isolated himself from those around him. He might perceive his peers as robotic or alien, and might at times feel like he is a member of a different species. Nearly everyone has had a similar experience at times. Similarly, an individual stuck in symbolic thought, i.e., the schizophrenic, might have similar sentiments. However, this person does not feel like they or those around them are robotic or alien. They actually are robots or aliens. The schizophrenic, like the dreamer, has literalized the metaphor.
A common example of this is the persecution delusion found among many of those diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenics. An individual may believe that they are being targeted, followed, or persecuted, often by a particular group of people. I recently met a man who, while still wearing his state hospital bracelet, described being followed by the government due to his knowledge of a secret Martian civilization which he had personally visited. Curious to hear more about his odd beliefs, I asked him why the government would be so interested in his alleged secret knowledge. He responded as such: “The government is after me because I know they are collaborating with the Martians. They are working together to hide that Martians are stealing our human powers, just as they have already stolen mine.”
Now, by no means do I suggest accepting this story as reality. Clearly, this man was not a victim of some secret government-Martian collaboration, and it would ultimately be harmful to encourage this kind of thinking. Yet for this particular individual, these events were his reality, and refusing to acknowledge that such a subjective reality—however odd it may be—can exist would be equally harmful. The optimal position, then, would be to treat the situation symbolically, like we would a dream.
Perhaps putting this particular delusion in dream-form will help illustrate the point. Imagine you are an analyst, and your patient reports the following dream: “I am on the planet Mars. A group of Martians surround me and steal my human powers. I am then sent back to Earth, but government officials are following me, making sure I do not reveal what the Martians are doing”. Take a moment to think how you might interpret this dream, and what it might say about your patient. Ultimately both dream and delusion could be summarized in one sentence: “An entire planet of people who are alien to me have taken away what makes me human, and will continue to do so to the rest of the world, and I cannot talk about it or else the authorities will take me away”. Now consider how this might relate to the situation of the schizophrenic.
There are immense benefits to understanding schizophrenia in this way. First off, viewing the schizophrenic as stuck in a dream-like state as opposed to simply being “crazy” can significantly reduce stigma, which can already make a big difference. Most importantly, however, are the implications for treatment. No longer are delusions incomprehensible jargon, regardless of how they may appear. If delusions contain symbolic content, then the language of the schizophrenic may be intelligible after all.
Treating the dreamer
There are parallels between how we treat our dreams and how we treat our schizophrenics. We neglect our dreams and treat them, in a sense, as disorders of the brain. Like the hallucinations and delusions that are allegedly the product of the overactive dopaminergic neurons of the schizophrenic, our dreams are merely the products of random neural firings as we sleep. When we say that dreams are just hallucinations, what we mean is that they do not deserve our attention.
I propose that we should treat the schizophrenic like we should treat our dreams. This means accepting both dream and delusion as a genuine mode of expression, while maintaining that both are simply metaphorical, or symbolic, expressions of an underlying psychic process. In other words, we must accept the image without literalizing it.
Certain treatment programs have attempted to do this. Soteria, an innovative treatment program which ran from 1971-83, operated under the principle of being with the schizophrenic[3]. All this really means is accompanying the person without judgement. The thought was that psychosis must be fully experienced before it can run its course, and providing a safe space to undergo a break with reality can ultimately result in a transformation. Therefore, the Soteria model was remarkably simple, and by accepting every experience as valid insofar as it is experienced, people began to recover.
Indeed, we bring dreams back to our waking reality by taking them seriously, and if we fail to do so they remain stuck in the underworld. I’d like to postulate that the same may be true for the schizophrenic, but with far more severe consequences. As long as we reject the reality of delusion, it will remain a delusion. But if we take it seriously and accept that it is an experience in its own right, in time it may—like a dream—start to reveal itself, and be brought out of the underworld into the light of the ego, where it is revealed to be what it was all along: just a dream that needed to be dreamt, which can now be forgotten upon waking.
Footnotes
[1] Although this may appear to imply that symbolic thought is inherently irrational and therefore inferior, this is not necessarily the case. In many cases symbolic thought is superior to rational thought, especially when dealing with complex emotions and creative endeavors. However, Western societies do tend to value the rational over the symbolic.
[2] There is a reason I use the dated term “schizophrenic” as opposed to “person(s) with schizophrenia”. The latter implies that schizophrenia is a defined condition, whereas the former is intended to describe a unique way of being. Schizophrenia is a word that has become heavily medicalized, and I do not wish to speak primarily of brain disorder. In fact, the term “schizophrenia”—meaning “split mind”—is itself a metaphor that describes a certain way of being, and not a literal split of the mind.
[3] A comprehensive review of the Soteria project can be found in the book Soteria: From Madness to Deliverance by Loren Mosher, Voyce Hendrix, and Deborah C. Fort.
I’m surprised that Mad In America didn’t insist on “ person first “ language. This article is demeaning in its insistence on referring to “ the schizophrenic “.
I really reject the term “the schizophrenic “. I’m personally an individual who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but I am NOT a schizophrenic!
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Thank you for your humane insights. I was pleased to read of a native American tribe who sat together around the fire in the morning and shared their dreams. The wise woman would interpret them. Families would do well to have relaxed mornings to focus on each other and to share their dreams and encouragement.
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TUFT.
Any article can be “tufted” by having “tufts” torn up out of it. An article using words is given to logic and reason and rational pursuit, since language is embed in logic. I could enjoy tearing up a tuft concerning this article’s use of ANY word. I could emotionally feel like saying “Please dont demean my understanding of my schizophrenia because that feels sore”. But rather than weep thus, I could pull at a tuft, a remark made about schizophrenia that is rational enough for me to grab with tweezers of analysis and poke fun at. Or another metaphor is that every article is like the setting up of a beautiful logical linear step by step alignment of dominoes. The article is perfect rationally. But a reader can then use the tools of rationality…logical words…to flatten the article one way or another way…by deft use of a picky rational “Yeah but…”
Since the dominio line up and the domino trippage are BOTH using words and logic and rationality there is never a breaking away from that fisty cuffs pugalistic analysis into just weeping and saying an emotional “Please dont offend me as it emotionally hurts me”. To the logical there comes a retort of….”Logically rationally explain to me in scientific research words WHY you feel sad about my article”. The WHY is non acceptance of feelings. The feelings of other. Dear Gigi, I am not at all saying this to point to bits in your article, I am telling you that I read it in a tufty state, of worrying about the rational words, designed to make intellectual sense, as all articles must do by their nature. I worried you would be combatative, as all logical articles tend to be. And so I read it bristling before I even finished it. This is how most readers will peer into any article. To see if they should send the domino trip one way or another way, pro something, or anti something, for the opinion, or against the opinion. But this is a mental defense, a rational game to counter an influx of rational pointedness. It is done to bolster “feelings” but it generates a backlash of “logical” ripostes…so that feelings never really get heard or shown. Readers never really get heard or known. This too generates a need to get “rationally” listened to…which generates more and more argy bargy rational debate, analytical gun slinging.
Gigi, I am your friend. I do like what you have to offer. I am not yet responding to your article’s contents because I preferred to share my knowingness that we all may tend to bicker first, dwell later, when it comes to ANY debate.
As to the contents of what you say, as a schizophrenic who has no problem being called a schizophrenic, I can only say that my understanding of dreams is that sleep EDITS OUT thinking. It is a wiping of the brain’s uncomfortable storage of too much logic. This frees the brain and body to be emotional by morning. We wake up both refreshed and wonderfully vulnerable, as if newborn. Dreams seldom have words. Perceived notions yes but actual words no. We seldom speak in dreams but via telepathy. As animals do and live all day like. Symbols are images we ascribe emotional impact to. But the emotion matters more than the image.
Possibly scizophrenia is a tendency to hyper focus on the rational logical wordy significance of the image or symbol at the cost of being in touch with the feelings underlying those. But I need to go the grocery store now so I must pause this here.
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I have known since 1963 that I am a schizophrenic. It was then, at age 17, that I had my first schizophrenic hallucination. It was religious in nature. I have never had overactice dopaminergic neurons. I am still stuck in a dream-like state since I delight in the delusion that God loves me. In Protestant theology this is called grace.
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Schizophrenia, the model psychiatric “disease” should indeed, no longer be seen this way. The idea of brain being the producer of mental disorders seems to becoming finally unrooted. I agree that we badly need to see the entire world of the unconscious in a new light–which is actually the way the ancients looked at the world. This has all but been lost, in the secular materialist era we live in today.
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Agree muchly.
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Thank you for the thoughtful and well written post.
It connects with a lot of things I used clinically and think about.
I’m old enough that I first encountered these ideas from psychoanalysts who were treating people with schizophrenia. I read things written by Frieda Fromm Riechman, Harold Seales, and Silvano Arieti.
Freud called what you’re calling symbolic and rational thinking, primary process and secondary process thinking and thought they differentiated between how the unconscious and conscious minds operate. He used dream work to access the unconscious, but didn’t work with people experiencing psychosis.
Jung, and Jungian analysts took it further and did work with people experiencing psychosis, even deeper than you’re describing, but his writings tend to obscure the differentiation you’re making in a swirl of intellectualizations. I believe he did that intentionally because he was afraid of being accused of being irrational in his work and theories.
It’s interesting that symbolic thought isn’t limited to “schizophrenics” (as you’re reflecting on that word choice, it’s worth wondering whether it actually exists) – it’s common in psychosis and delirium experiences of any cause. The most common may be people experiencing the loss of a loved one, especially in the “denial” stage of grief (for example, talking with the dead person or seeing them). Using symbolic interpretations with people experiencing severe grief can help them integrate and move forwards too.
There are lots of positive symbolic experiences too – for example, poetry, surrealistic art, expressionistic dance, fantasy writing (Lord of the Rings and The Golden Compass), other fiction (The Life of Pi), children’s books and fables, mythology, religious rituals (taking communion), shamanism, animism, scientific inspiration (Tesla), psychedelic healing. it seems like all of these are gradually receding as rational thinking dominates.
It makes me wonder if people are getting stuck in their own personal symbolic thinking loops because there aren’t enough socially connected symbolic thinking experiences available to us.
Your comment about some situations being better for rational thinking and some for symbolic thinking makes me wonder what we’re losing as we become more and more one sided.
BTW We biologically need to dream, so it would seem we can’t eliminate symbolic experiences entirely even as we try to.
A couple strange examples to think about:
1)Doctors, including psychiatrists are heavily selected for rational thinking ability (can you imagine a medical school admissions test including writing poetry, or painting surrealistically, or even creating a healing ritual?) and trained almost exclusively rationally. How has that emphasis impacted our medical and mental health systems and our healing relationships?
2)Artificial intelligence seems to me neither rational nor symbolic thinking. It’s more like “probabilistic thinking”. Is it an invasive way of thinking that will gradually push both rational and symbolic thinking aside. What impact will that have?
Let me close with my favorite Joseph Campbell quote (even though it predates person-first language), “Psychotics drown in the same deep waters that mystics swim gracefully in”.
Maybe we could all benefit from more symbolic swimming lessons.
Mark Ragins, MD
Markragins.com
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The most common symptoms of PTSD are nightmares and recurring dreams. Similarly, many psychotic/schizophrenic experiences are linked to trauma.
There’s a powerful dreamwork technique called image rehearsal therapy, which is used to transform nightmares by empowering the dreamer to solve the problems in the dream with the help of an imaginary friend, object or other resources.
Here is an example. Two years ago during a weekly drop-in workshop I facilitated in a low-income neighborhood, a young person came and told me that they were possessed by the devil. I asked where the devil was and what it was like. They said it was a small cat clenching on their upper back, where I noticed a visible hunch. I then asked what their favorite superhero was. Their eyes lit up and said Groot. With breathwork and visualization, I guided them back into the dream accompanied by Groot, who used one of its long arms to hug the person while the other arm reached back and plucked the “devil” off the person’s back and send it into the nearby “forest”. The person woke up in tears and told me that the cat was pregnant and scared but now felt safe in the forest. They then thanked me and left. I never knew what they had experienced in real life but noticed that their hunch was gone.
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This is very interesting, but someone has already described this as primary processing versus secondary processing, a concept introduced by Freud. Primary processing is literal, while secondary processing involves rational or metaphorical interpretation. Most children are primarily literal speakers, whereas adults use both metaphorical and literal language, depending on the context.
In fields like medicine and law, the language is precise and literal, but its interpretation (e.g., psychosomatic vs. physical conditions) and (e.g., textualism vs. purposivism) respectively, often relies on symbolic or contextual nuances. The reason is another day…
In relation to this topic, if this process were as simple as the author suggests, one could record a person as they recount their story in their primary processing state. Later, when they shift back to a rational (secondary processing) state, they could interpret their own story—often far more effectively than an external party, let alone a psychiatrist (they cannot or will not understand metaphor again look up what I said about medicine and law). The challenge arises when an external party inserts their own thoughts and ideas into this process, creating potential issues and some real problems.
Interestingly, individuals who can consciously access both primary and secondary processing—either simultaneously or in close succession—often display genius-level insights. To truly help someone who is struggling bridge the gap between these states, it is essential to allow them to perform the interpretation themselves, without interference from external interpretations or biases…simply because when they are “integrated”, they are smarter than average person. Key word is “integrated”.
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https://youtu.be/nTpQq1a9zhI?si=n_BMLpowK51H2f9S
While I await my previous comment being moderated and given due unbiased airing I thought people might like to see this video as it is interesting, all about how we are nannied into how to think and what perspective we “have to” take.
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I’m sorry, but I find this quite typical, that when one starts [reading] what a dream would be, it begins with “To understand the language of dream we need to understand the concept of metaphor.” WHO is dreaming? Are we to be told how to understand our own dreams!? This is quite typical of psychology, or therapy: this is that, rather than sharing what would be objective which would be a person’s own experience with how they understood their own dreams, RATHER than going on about others, and what’s what there, and how this person isn’t a danger, but still not reality based. A whole school going on about “schizophrenia” when to have such “objectivity,” you can’t have experienced exactly “that” enough to take it in [what it REALLY is] you can’t have actually experienced what it is by being brainwashed regarding what you’ve been through to see it as something SOMEONE ELSE tells you as to what it is.
And then the “economic” side, where AGAIN, all those having experienced this real “dream” this “schizophrenia” and having understood it can speak that language, and have survived DESPITE everything. No, we can’t have those “unauthorized” people stepping in and interfering with our brainwashing, those that can speak out of experience. Makes me wonder whether there are more “schizophrenics” than “psychiatrists and psychologists,” simply as to who actually knows what this is, having experienced it. Let alone you’re dowsed down with “medications” you might not like, if you’re even allowed to not like them, they don’t statistically in the end correlate with “recovery,” which you aren’t allowed to know either: what yourself, your soul, subconscious, unconscious, past lives, whatever that’s “non reality based” talking to you, you’re not ALLOWED to see that as real, but are given freedom when you label it as “schizophrenia,” even stuff that went on in your life with open eyes, but they won’t believe. But no, there’s no government program with martians, or whoever and whatever when ANYONE has to try to navigate through WHAT THE BLEEP is going on, CIA surveillance, FBI surveillance….. but fine, if you have this highly constructed mental idea of what it is, and it remains safe enough for us[“them”] to not be exposed as not really knowing what we’re [they’re] going on about, here’s a paycheck. But don’t say you’re a”schizophrenic-dreamer” yourself, and certainly don’t actually share it if you are, STAY OBJECTIVE, as in here: “Now, by no means do I suggest accepting this story as reality. Clearly, this man was not a victim of some secret government-Martian collaboration, and it would ultimately be harmful to encourage this kind of thinking. Yet for this particular individual, these events were his reality, and refusing to acknowledge that such a subjective reality—however odd it may be—can exist would be equally harmful. The optimal position, then, would be to treat the situation symbolically, like we would a dream.”
Is it a non reality based dream to think that you need to wear clothes if you go out in public in the US? Or is this reality based? When arrested for [this] not believing in this “non reality based dream” does this validate it as reality!? Someone walking around naked, as when they were born, this is going to be a detriment to society, should be suppressed, that person arrested, and this is NO DREAM, it’s REAL, it could damage people’s consciousness, destroy societal harmony were naked people walking around! From THERE to a whole barrage of nonsense we all are subjected to regarding what’s real and what isn’t, and here someone in an institution can’t think WHAT without it being dissected, but leave the rest alone, that’s statistical based norms, etc. Let’s believe that someone going on about martians is not reality based, lock him up, dope him up, but don’t bring up ridiculous social rules that are so ingrained you’re “crazy” and lacking “insight” do you not follow them.
ANYONE having briefly looked in an open minded and articulate way into secret government programs and alien technology would KNOW there are parts of the government looking to harness stuff they see going on from UFOs etc. but what I understand, and those involved with such technology, without the problem of wanting to harness it to say war machinery, they say such technology as part of the Universe only works when a person has let go of fear in their life, which isn’t going on with a “government” that nurtures fear, coercion and the ability to destroy as a means to control in a way they make out is social harmony. And so that could be absolutely much more true what this supposed “non reality based metaphor dreamer” is going on about than whoever is deciding: “Clearly, this man was not a victim of some secret government-Martian collaboration, and it would ultimately be harmful to encourage this kind of thinking.” I think that the “Martians” would they have such technology would be too advanced to go along with the “government’s” way of wanting to harness it, nor even that it’s possible, but this doesn’t exclude the government’s attempts, along with the rest of the ways the try to “harness” the minds and lives of people. And for ANYONE sensitive enough to somehow pick up on such stuff, I don’t think that more patronizing such as: “oh, you’re a good person, just a little sick, it’s your reality but we can’t see it as anything but your own subjective reality, a dream you’re having, although it’s reality we can’t condone,” this is going to do WHAT!? No area 51 doesn’t exist etc.
SORRY, but I get so tired an infuriated to read these well meant attempts to help others when to begin with:
1) You’ve not been through this yourself, had whatever going on in your life where the only way to gain perspective was endeavoring to believe in stuff OTHERS decided was non reality based and that it would be bad to condone as reality, WHILE they every day obey all sorts of social constructs that are so off that everyone is mostly basically SCARED to even rationally bring up questioning them.
2) And if anybody HAS had such experiences, they’re likely to be given no voice, put down further than second rung, while being beaten down and suffocated with more criteria regarding: “well it goes this way, and keep your clothes on if you’re in public, but if you see someone actually naked, keep in mind it could be the emperor, and his clothes are really there, they’re just invisible, but YOU aren’t the emperor, so keep yours on, you don’t HAVE invisible clothes.
Hint: not wearing clothes being either the emperor or someone lacking insight is a “metaphor” for society’s thinking, I haven’t yet myself had experience with any emperor walking around with invisible clothing, not even in a dream; although if you’re in an asylum, and you have to say you believe what they tell you to get out despite knowing better, you might just actually say you do, akin to saying that the emperor is wearing clothes, because otherwise you remain locked up. And don’t feel bad if you actually believe it for awhile…. That might be a sort of withdrawal symptom….
What I have experienced is that dreams go WAY beyond metaphors, how anyone could go on about dreams and not have had precognitive ones…. Jung included! Not everyone lives in such “safe” environments……
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I love this comment—you’ve captured exactly what I’ve been thinking when I read these types of articles. I recently attended a trauma-informed training, and, oh boy, the person teaching it admitted they had no personal experience with trauma. I couldn’t help but laugh because I thought, ‘If you don’t have a deep understanding of this topic, perhaps you shouldn’t be teaching it.’ The way they spoke about it felt so disconnected—it was like listening to someone talk about aliens.
I realize this perspective might feel invalidating to some, but if you’re human and lack certain key experiences yet try to teach others about them, you’re essentially just producing words without meaning. In fact, an AI might even do a better job in such situations because there’s no illusion of lived experience—no suspension of disbelief—so it’s easier to see the limitations clearly. Of course, someone can learn about how the brain works, but understanding the brain is like learning how a car works—it doesn’t mean you know how an airplane works.
One particular statement from the training completely lost me: they said, ‘Trauma shuts off executive function.’ Depending on the context, trauma may shut down or overstimulate the amygdala, leading to a lack of fear rather than a lack of cognition (if this was true – no one with trauma would ever function). And in many cases, the absence of fear is the real issue that may linger, not the absence of executive function! Making such simplistic claims and expecting respect feels like trying to spoon feed a snake.
I think we’re only beginning to understand these concepts because some groups get access to challenge the orthodoxy.
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I can confidently say AI is my new best friend. Especially since it doesn’t ask, know or care whether or not I’m “mentally ill”.
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Dogworld, well that sounds like a bunch of concepts put together to sound like they mean something. “This is that” just fill in the blank with this and that, and then. But it could also be “whatever:” new chance to add something, so they might not actually look at whether this is that. Make sure you add something, to make it sound well thought out, so that no one looks at how you began this “smorgasborg,” and then add something else. “sometimes that isn’t this, and thus “other-variant” can linger on (oh, yeah, we always are concerned about something else lingering on…..forgot about that, thank you, also for distracting me from ever looking to see whether this was that to begin with). Just fill in the blank for: “this,” “that,” “whatever,” and “othervariant,” and find a name for your “smorgasborg,” calling it a disease (trauma, schizophrenia, etc.) and viola: you’re scientific!
Oops, but this response of not being able to take it seriously anymore, lingers on…. is that because of “othervariant?”
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A dream like state seems a bit more spiritual, shamanic. I would say different to the concept of delusions and hallucinations. I’m not a fan of these being considered similar things. I go back and forth in a dream like state (being shamanic) but function and live well alongside.
I don’t try and analyse the dream like state… I would be in my head all the time, and definately not be present to experience life and what i need to do in life. I acknowledge it being there, recognise the feeling and it coexist with me. It’s a reassuring connection and event. Prefer mindfulness to this overanalytic approach.
Help the individual make their own mind up about the meaning and role it has for them.
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I really recommend the book Trials Of the Visionary Mind, by John Wier Perry also. I do not think many (?) people realize just how oppressive the ‘accepted reality’ can be!! I mean I have gone very deep into this enquiry over the years. I had early psychedelic experience when 15, and discovered that until that time the accepted reality of ‘school’ and the culture in geneal had closed off any sevual connection with nature.
I remember as a little kid my magical sense of nature. I abolutely loved fairy books. Fairy stories unflike most religious stories really explored how magical nature can be, with talking trees, and animals etc. And at Christmas my mum would tell me about Santa coming to give me presents, and all the sparkling lights and so on—the change of routines, and it was all a magical time for me. But I was to lose this sense round about 10, as I HATED school, and felt an outcast there, but had homies who were mostly three years older than me.
I became obsessed with big cities and the promises of future technology, but the psychedelic experiences totally opened me up to the wonders of nature again, and then in following years, I became inspired to look into mythology. Because I began to see just how powerful such stories can be and direct people’s lives. I found out that A L L patriarchal myths are anti nature, and they blame, shame and guilt people, and tell them that nature is bad, and must be escaped from and/or ‘put right’ in the future, and this is in-doctrine-ated into people, often from when they are young. Imagine the traumatic effect this has on people. Made to fear nature, and their own body and unique nature!
Yes there is benign mythos. We are natural story-tellers, and love stories, and even a normal day weaves a story, and the deeper more healing myths are inclusive, deeply respect other species, and humans and nature. These are the healing stories.
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Psychosis does not run its course. Having a fever dream from years on end is not healing. I appreciate the connection between the dream and the psychosis (Kraepelin’s dream speech and all); I myself realized I was turning the metaphor literal, but romanticizing illness and imposing such romanization on those who are suffering is naive, deviant and dangerous.
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Schizophrenia disease interesting tell why patient are getting mad just because they talk themselves first you don’t know how world is lot of secrets hidden is in front our eyes but we can’t see them like air exist we Breath everyday that how this works it’s call electromagnetic waves it’s much deeper you thinks lots of theory.
You know magnetic compass which allows us to show direction it work properly but if you place in high magnetic field compass won’t work properly it confused so as bird they can navigate direction but magneticfield or magnetic waves is high they confused that how it work Gays.
Now think as human is a compass or bird which navigate means(taking dession) while taking dession you r getting confused and try to take dession that you won’t take it properly that because of magnetic waves controlling your thoughts so you have lot of dession but you will hopeless to take dession because lot of voice is the head of schizophrenia patient so they become confused.
schizophrenia patient are not lying what they experience in their life and what they hear and what they see evertime ..example let me tell you..
At morning when you wake you at the same time birds are making noise or sing whatever and the you go to the wash room at the same time you vehicle horn sound hear, and then you come out from washroom at the same time children sound hear like they teasing u after when you having breakfast when you have to decide to what to eat weather it egg or sandwich remember you have to take dession you chose egg at the same time one of your family member make cough noise or ellargy sigh at the same time or you chose sandwich then dogs are barking at the same time ok make you hallucinations then you finished breakfast at the same time dog howling you r confused but you notice. Then you go to work in road traffic signal is red . You see only thing that you don’t like u keep move on . And then you see people coming randomly when you see the children going to school youngsters laugh at the exact on the same time when you see children . And when you see youngster then the children get shout loud in there sounding in exact the same time. When you see women then road beggers will split in front of you or they show there angry but the signal get green at the exact time.
Remember what you are expressience the schizophrenia disease patient mind ok. After you reach the office you forgot your ID in home you went to security won’t entry you at office you try to convince the security when you start to speaker at the same time near your romdom person get cough or they eitching around their body like right hand or left hand or left leg or right leg or their for head or nose or their hair whatever and then after you notice you stop speaking to security but then the dog is barking loudly another confusion. You thinking now and standing there alone with this all experience of confused and you talk to youself what is this happening why you hearing sounds in the same time when you taking any dission you try to think and talk yourself is this hallucination then you realize you are wasting time by think. You have to get in the office quickly then you call the superior of yours in the office they give access to you then you get inside at the same time vehicle horn scout loudly while you enter you looking too the vehicle but it random. Then you are in the building waiting for the lift which is in top floor you. You wait for the lift but lift taking time in each floor you wait then lift arive people getting out of the lift you try to enter some one getting cough they you push the bottom 8th floor but it going to the car parking underground you go again to the first floor where your lift open you see lot of people in front of you. They enter then they press every botton of the lift .lift is going to open in every floor. You are getting nerves each time thinking what is going on then you make your self relax any how by saying it’s a bad day then you after 3rd floor you see the girl. At the same time lift get to power off no option you have to take stares you getting out and taking stare at the exact time some romdom person having cough Suddenly lift is started you ran to the lift but the lift is over weight you can’t do anything you wait for another lift it coming but it won’t open at 3rd floor and you get angry then you have aircraft sound above you sounding you then you have the lift the same lift that you were first coming down but the same time another lift is up (remember you have to take dession)which lift you will chose the easy one right which is coming from down suddenly bird sounds hear. And then the lift that going down is empty it stop in 3rd then you see no one but it u won’t take because it going down lift close it goes directly to the 8th floor u get suddenly angry at the exact time getting angry you heard dogs barking loudly then lift come which is going to upper but in that lift their is office maintenance worker with lot of loads they have to drops the load in 6th floor they see you they randomly cough or split like some dust stuck in the mouth you feel like they splitting on you get angry a lot and nerves too but you look him in rage and they take phone they speak to their people and having laugh they see and ignoor u after 6th floor comes they stand their they removing loads one by one you get angry and say seriously you say to mataninence worker do it hurry up I have to go 8th but they won’t listen you say you can do after first drop me in 8th floor and then you get to 6th floor do your work it that a few time they reply no. Lot of people are going down they have wait then i said look you are with load then say the people it take time at 6th floor . They don’tlisten i have no choice no option other then taking stares suddenly aircraft sound after take dession of stare you move up to stare you staying frequently dogs shouting you reach the 8th floor final you go superior asking why you late you don’t know the time. You say I am about the time but my ID is in home I forgot to carry and then problem with lift lot of people and suddenly power off and also the load with workers have to drop in 6th floor it takes time to get up I take stare 6th floor to 8th at first I waited 10 min in 3th floor suddenly power of of the lift your superior manager won’t listen he says don’t give me this argument if u can’t come in time you no need to work hear you get angry higher but you be silent in outer face but inside (you know what he suffer).
Then he enter the to the main room he need to go to the working place where the desk is where people all have their system and having work. But you can’t enter you don’t have ID then you ask the manager to help me out he says ask to the receptionist suddenly the security cough standing beside to the door he see you then you go to the reception and ask for to open the door she says give me minute you wait but she is too busy then she call me the she call the security tell them to open the door…….security see me and having cough and seeing receptionist with smile and having little chat I seen them they I ignore then when I am close to the door suddenly my manager come in the same time he swipe his id card let me in And receptionist and manager talking out side and I’m seeing manager is happy and with receptionist. And security man have to leave from there like manager is teasing security guard receptionist looking to the guard in pitty security guard is look at me in anger what “what the hell is happening” confusion like security gard have crush on receptionist and receptionist likes security guard but manager is want to take chance he using his power it’s all ok .But why security guard looking me in angry what is my fault you thinking confused you go sitting in the your desk you start to work on that time suddenly old lady is comes to you she is head she drops her phone in right side in front of u at the same time u left side forehead eitching near to your ear you use your left hand to rub after you finish she bend down and taking her phone what and at the same time you the girl is coming to you and ask for help your you in really in bad mood you haven’t start your work yet but you ready to help then suddenly people seems happy girl say to you have do this work also manager told me to tell you I said manager didn’t say to me anything about this she say rudely you have to this work go talk to manager. I said OK at the same time cleaning working vacuum cleaning Machine start loudly (like someone is not good) i take that assignment for the girl and start to do I started working and I completed half my manager come says what you are doing where is you work this not what I assign you .You supposed to submit earlier. What seeing my work and ask what you are working on .I said it not my fault that girl supposed to tell me you tell her to give this work then manager go talk to the girl while I am seeing like there talking causally what they are talking with smiling and manager come to me ,I am expecting that ok do your work but he says girl is tell me that she come to you tell to do the work that i mention her already you won’t listen to her. I was like “what” ,I ask manager what she says , my manager, she says she tell you but at first yo say I have lot of work and manager don’t tell me to do it.that what happened right but manager is like in a rude mood you have to listen ok if someone tell you that I assign the work to you do it you don’t argue understand. I get mad angry but in control i said I did not argue with her I only tell her that I have already assign the work but I did it that work to instead doing my work that which is assign me before suddenly aircraft sound at the same time. Manager said that work is pority do that than .i said She didn’t mention me that but I I work on it (I was like she have to tell me that first it is pority) but manager is souting to me instead of her. I said OK I am doing my work manager leave then at lunch I am going wash room there is lot of people i was waiting after 2 person finished i get my chance in the washroom then washing my hand suddenly someone come looking me and split in the wash room (I was like why they look me and sprit in the wash basing I think it just but conisidence don’t get mad I am getting mad ok then i am have my lunch I see everybody have taking the table and chair werid. Their is no table then I get table I just going their suddenly one girl who sitting with their friends look at me and turn face rudely suddenly get eitching to her right legs she bend down and scratch and suddenly one boy come take chair and shifted to the next table but the table was their but not chair I was like what is this some kind of game or joke I am think why that girl is so rude look at me and turn face I don’t know her who is she and after that that boy took chair I am try to connect this situation and thinking and asking myself what did i do to sonthing worng, did i something bad to them suddenly my phone is ringing at same time when I was thinking that I did something wrong I look my phone is a spam call i am getting mad then i connect this phone call to situation strange thought but i did then I have lunch while eating some is looking at me pitty and some one is looking me very rude I am taking my lunch alone but I have no issue with that I use to it then I finished my lunch I suppose to get my hand wash I see washroom is clear no one is in the washroom suddenly someone come quickly and get hand wash and look at the mirror and them me he split in the wash basing and go I look him weirdly but I am confused i ask my self what is this some kind of joke or just conisidence I take a conisidence again the I am washing my hand while washing my hand i am think why he suddenly come while i am in my way i am just thinking randomly and then someone says randomly between in their conversion hey you know he can’t win he always be second number I look them they look me they ignore me I was like what second number you think I am second I can’t be first. I am getting mad because they make angry.
(This is what the first thing happened to the schizophrenia patient it’s a first level where everything he looks it like everything is already planned against him . Like a stimulation like you have take right dession or you will be second or you loose something ).
Then back took work after having luch same thing happened like stimulation like some is bending down but I get my forehead eitching at the sametime or your working people don’t like you do work they whisper something you notice and soneone get cough but still i am focuing on my work (they call it the focuing group how funny it is ) continously something happening in the exact time like everything is planned like you are in the movie that is scripted everybody knows except you it
Like (imagine there is you living outerside city for work your family live in home town today birthday and your friends are planning to give you surprise they planned like we gather at 9.45 pm and some one call him at 10.00 his family also invited his loved ones everyone. Like everybody knows except you. You only know yeah their will be party like always boring you reach at 10.30 you are waiting then everyone is coming one by one but cake not their then you give them party you order food and drinks and have good time you don’t know hotel where aware about you birthday when you finished one food coming another dish you friends say I wish I had a sweet suddenly then the waiter is getting sweet like evey think is planned but you know that then it time for cake but cake is not their you say it ok we enjoy lot we see tomorrow ok you going to wash room to clean your hand and you Back. seeing your families and everyone your friends is their you get surprise and happy. By looking them then know everything is planned by my friends then you going to make your bill is but bill is already paid )and more.
(Back to office story)
Then you are leaving your office at evening little bit late same thing you hold down to the traffic now you think why it lot of traffic u wish I take shortcut suddenly exact time police sairon or ambience sairon hearing werid then you ignoring then ramdom person split in front of you then you notice it you feel guilt I should not take shortcut it wrong you have go in by rules as properly (second level of schizophrenia disease make victim afraid that he doing wrong) any how back to home while enter the house very tired I should order food suddenly the sound appear of chainsaw or slaughammer or driling machine like you are doing wrong you have cook food instead of ording make you afraid to choose the right thing or wrong thing the sound make nerves and afraid more you confused what is going on you think cooking is good I can save my money but you don’t have energy you want to order food from outside but you can’t because you are confused then you try to cook food suddenly dogs barking loudly and you are afraid more and more you don’t know what to do you think it is good to order food then suddenly chainsaw or slaughammer or driling machine sound appear you freak out you don’t know what to do you think but you cook the food atlast you are in confused and afraid a lot you try to eat food and the chainsaw or slaughammer or driling machine sound again non stop like you forgot something and dogs r barking u connect like you have make dog to eat first your mind make you confusion you Dont understand what is this you take food and go out but their is no dog u freak out then suddenly machines sound stop and you back inside again machines sound your total afraid you apptiet like gone you telling yourself I have no mood to eat suddenly police sairon start like what is going on and this is going whole night that all sound like people whisper ,dogs howling,Cat meows ambience sairon, police sairon, machine sound your wall making sound (remember he is not durged ok he is normal person with normal problem) some bad dream like bad energy around surrounding like ghosts example think you r in your dream that your sleeping in sofo and then one little boy appear in the shadow whisper and laughed and runing you listen but you ignore little boy then sound is coming close heavenly to you you are listen it’s very close like is whisper in your your something you turn around it’s a dark shadow is the your side standing like a ghost you can’t able to move and your are try to make sound but you voice stuck you can’t make noise you total breakout then suddenly wake up you what the hell is that that is the first time I had dream like this then at the midnight you thinking my tody my day was bad today and my night too…ha ha ha schizophrenia patient what a interesting disease they have .
A normal person who live their life happily and the suddenly this thing happened in one day what it called ok my bad coicedence right. What if I say this thing happened with them ever single time everytime everyday think once They have make dession for useless thing they hear whispering sound on their dession every single day. And the best part of the whispering sound they say some time they make you feel like your their king or a begger you have a lot of property but they all take they all betrayed you special your loved ones making your family against you fourcing you to take wrong dession try to make angry make your personality like your a waste. And judge you according to your dession one mistake make you begger , bad boy, evil man whatever funny whispering sound says everything thing is foolish until you reach the peek
Everyday you live it’s like you are in the war. People are rejecting you like your job, your families, your friends, relationship, your religion of course the religion the best part of whisper sound is they says very close to the god you know one thing form child I only belief in fact I belief in God like it’s a hope but hate caste system i hate from my childhood And suddenly religions is around me and my whisper voice and stimulation showing the be entertainment of my life . It says if you don’t don’t chose me you will be prison forever I am like of course your going with me I will make sure this all end with you and me I am teasing it but it ruined my life like I don’t have any reason left to live like no job properly no family no friends no relationship nothing
Talking crazy right but I connect to every thing and I tried to be good with people ,or humble, even sometime they make to to fight I make fight with ten mens it fight they beat me very badly you know the intresting thing the best part ten mens beat me but the one who beated down it was me and my brother who try to save me we are arrested by police but not them just because the whispering sound of people make me to do it at was my first time I went to police station like they want to know that are you men or you have dare to fight this kind of noise whispers every single time I know sound stupid . You know I know everything now. I am just waiting for big and main event.sounds crazy right but what to do that all fate of mind whispers. I am going to kill all mind voices with smile.
Funny make sure if you are treating schizophrenia patient tell them they are the connected to the server that they don’t belongs to that server why they hear that voice because they don’t like you to be in there server I mean their idiot world you must schizophrenia patient become server for others onlt the way to free be mad or committed subside but one thing is also their kill every single voice
For schizophrenia people you are normal even they Dont like you let it be don’t listen them some time they make you things forget but remember you have to take right dession some time they trick you that make you there enemy and the take right dession but you don’t like them so you go against them so don’t do that think if go with right dession whatever don’t do crime focuse belive your Instinct in know suddenly their useless stimulation start sounding you but that’s ok but don’t theat people badly. Wait for right time belive you won’t imagine what you can do
I have lot to say but don’t know may it sound weird because for normal people it’s all useless believe me if I am normal I don’t believe too but I won’t leave them alone
This is the way it work
schizophrenia patient have seeing much more like they have see everything in negatively. Just imagine how it look you have seeing everything in just a negative ways that Impact your kind of Nature everyday stimulation in different ways to make fool
I just taking notes:
how many patient of ?
schizophrenia is in the world ?
How many countries people are live with this disease?
And how many people are live with ?
And how many cured from it ?
And how many is in mental hospital ?
How many committed subside ?
How many are leave their house and ran away?
How many are in dying stage?
How many patient of schizophrenia get kill and their reason of killing or dying ?
I have a lot of question and answer if you want to contact me this my email address
[email protected]
Mobile no india code +919960447975
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