How often does the holy spirit talk to you?

[Joods]

My bad... back to topic...

[Thackerie]

We seem to be drifting away from the original question.

No wonder, what with Judy Lynn sneaking marijuana in here!

Just kidding, Judi. I'm a fan, too.

[LiveAboard Sailor]

"I only am sure that the Holy Spirit has spoken to me at least once, at most twice. The time when I am almost certain the Holy Spirit spoke to me was when He told me to get my mom's boots for her. I know that it was the Holy Spirit because, unlike a regular thought, I felt a "quickening". My body felt paralyzed of some sort, and the "thought" just shot right at me at full speed. 

Speaking of existential problems when the Holy Spirit chooses to intervene. Getting one's lazy ass out of the couch to fetch mom's boots. That's what I call a life and death situation.

Animals also sense warning..... How are you different to animals...that you obtain a 'higher warning' ?

[Smaug]

Speaking seriously, I'd think twice before dealing with a person of whom I know that they're talking or listening to a "Holy Spirit". I try to avoid such people. Because while they may not actually have schizophrenia they're still not very reliable. I don't want to deal with a person who makes decisions on blatantly irrational basis. Not to say that non-religious people are always rational but dealing with those who openly admit takling to imaginary entities is downright scary.

[Faith No More]

However, keep in mind that if one is referring to cannabis, then the assumption that it is a drug must be removed from the argument, because it is not a drug. Cannabis is a plant and a flower. It grows naturally, therefore its classification can not be lumped in the "drug" category. I, for one, focus more, my attention span improves and I'm a lot wittier. Couple that with the Adderall XR I take for ADHD and I don't get the munchies. It has relieved the migraine headaches I often get and it helps with the pain of the herniated discs in my back. It's a total win-win.

All seriousness aside though, yes, I do feel a lot better after I have used cannabis. I'm looking forward to it being legalized here in PA.

The definition of "drug" has nothing to do with a substance's qualities beyond its physiological effects when ingested. The fact that marijuana is a plant merely makes it a natural drug, as opposed to a synthetic one.

[Minimalist]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14...75605.html

An Arizona mother has been arrested after she allegedly tried to drown her 3-year-old son in a puddle, claiming Jesus Christ advised her to do it.

Yep. That fucking jesus. Just because he can walk on water he thinks everyone can.

What an asshole.

[Smaug]

There are zealous believers who are literaly insane. I'm going to talk about the correlation between religious anxiety and mental health but rather point out an interesling situation when such a zealot spouts or does such a thing that does not contradict the canon (in it's most retrograde aspects) but is too much even for the moderates. On the one hand, moderates understand that there's something wrong with this person and can't agree outright because that will make them look bad in the eyes of general public and on the other hand they feel or clearly understand that an outright disargeement is going to pose a threat to their beliefs and to the dogma. In such cases the moderates and the church officials try to weasel their way out of the situation in different ways but their actions tend to look more or less awkward.

[Angrboda]

And so says the vast majority of schizophrenics. They are also absolutely certain about their experiences...their descriptions sound identical to yours...As outsiders, how do we go about telling the difference between your above described experience, and those of schizophrenics?

Mystical experiences do not have the same content as the the products of mental illness. While each experience is unique, they are generally marked by feelings of unity with the divine and transcendence of ego awareness. The opposite is true of hallucinations and delusions which produced a heightened feeling of alienation between self and others. The objects seen and heard by the mentally ill are described as having an independent existence from the person having the experience.

Even if mystical experiences are purely mental constructs, they still should not be grouped with mental illnesses. Hallucinatory, delusional, and drug experiences are debilitating and interfere with a person's ability to function normally in society. The same cannot be said for mystical experiences that often result in people finding themselves better adjusted afterwards.

This is not necessarily true. I have had delusions most of my life, and they seemed the most natural thing to me. Depression and other negative symptoms often accompany schizophrenia, so you have something of a chicken and egg problem. But many people have hallucinations in the absence of mental illness and the effects are quite variable.

Beyond that, the mere fact that you have pleasant results with your mystical experience does not indicate anything about the origin of the experience. You seem to be implying that because the effects were positive, it wasn't illusory. The brain is capable of producing both good and bad trips. In particular, that feeling of oneness and unity is characteristic of DMT trips as well as certain types of epileptic seizures. The brain is quite capable of producing both good trips and bad trips.

As a person with lifelong delusions, I can tell you that the one overriding sensation to accompany these delusions is simply a feeling of certainty that they are 'true'. The brain can produce that feeling of certainty in cases where you are certain and things are 'true', but it can also produce that feeling of certainty in situations where you are wrong. Robert Burton in his book On Being Certain gives the example of returning to town for a class reunion, and pulling up in front of an old pal's house. You're certain you've got the right house, but upon inquiring at the door you find you're totally wrong. No feelings of unnaturalness occurs; just a recognition that the facts don't match your experience.

I have had times when I would go through periods of several weeks in which religious themes took on heightened importance. I converted to Buddhism several times under the influence of such spells. But returning to normalcy made it clear to me that it was just a spell. I suppose perhaps you might suggest that the spell was indicative of deeper truths that I was temporarily made aware of. Having experienced delusions and manic episodes throughout my life, I didn't feel any difference between those spells and other mental health episodes, despite the fact that you imply that I should be able to differentiate brain caused spells from mystical episodes. My brain was simply tickling the mystic feelings.

I might add that now that I'm on medication, the delusional beliefs are still there, they just come to mind less frequently and less intensely.

[KevinM1]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14...75605.html

An Arizona mother has been arrested after she allegedly tried to drown her 3-year-old son in a puddle, claiming Jesus Christ advised her to do it.

Yep. That fucking jesus. Just because he can walk on water he thinks everyone can.

What an asshole.

But, see, that's not a true mystical experience because she tried to kill her kid. If god instead said, "Hey lady, go buy your kid some ice cream" then that would've been a legit mystical experience. /logic

[Minimalist]

I wonder how the fuckheads tell the difference?