Religion and insanity

[Confused Ape]

There were undoubtedly religious aspects to all of this.

I agree. I think the source of delusions can be very complex, though.

But the part that upsets Lee the most is his grandparents.

I found this article by a mental health counsellor. It indicates that it's not just religious people who refuse to believe there's anything wrong with their kids.

Parents Denial Of Their Child’s Mental Health Issues Doesn’t Make It Go Away

Parents can be my biggest allies or worst enemies when it comes to dealing with children and adolescent clients, and their denial of their child’s mental health issues only complicates everything. I see so many kids who can benefit from intense therapy and maybe even medication, but their parents ignore the seriousness of the situation and write it off as defiant behavior, active imagination or they just hope their child will grow out of things such as torturing animals and setting fires. Denial is a defense mechanism and while it’s okay to be skeptical, being in denial is almost always unhealthy in the long run.

And I think there can be some amount of link between delusions and religious beliefs.

I agree that there can be some amount of link but it seems to depend on what the individual concerned latches onto. (The following is something I posted in another topic where the subject of schizophrenia turned up - I've been googling for examples of delusions)

http://www.intropsych.com/ch12_abnormal/...renia.html

In July, 1998, a man named Russell Westen, who had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, entered the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., with a handgun, killing two security guards before he was shot and injured himself. As it turned out, the man had refused to take his medications. He was delusional, claiming that the President was conspiring to kill him. Once he claimed that the satellite dish in his little town in Montana was spying on him for the CIA. His parents said that he believed secret powers were trying to control him through the TV set. The man's symptoms read like a textbook description of paranoid schizophrenia. Not all paranoid schizophrenics are dangerous; most of them are not. However, when they begin to act on their fantasies, like this man did, they can become dangerous.

So not all delusions are based on religion although many are.

The next bit is not from the other topic. David Icke has very odd ideas, some of which come from religion while others come from science fiction.

We're all holograms ruled by reptiles (and the Queen's fuelled by children's blood) — claims David Icke

Looking around at the 5,000 fans who packed Wembley Arena at the weekend for his biggest ever show, I had to wonder whether he was not the only oddball.

They had travelled from all over the world to hear the 60-year-old former BBC sports presenter tell them how they — and the rest of us — are merely holograms living in a virtual reality that has been hacked into by alien beings, who control us with the help of a ruling elite of reptilian humanoids.

I may also do a disservice to his audience, not all of whom buy into every word. But there were gasps, as if a penny had dropped, when he claimed the Queen and Prince Philip, like the Queen Mother before them, are kept healthy with the blood of young children.

And that the Olympic opening ceremony was a giant Satanic ritual to produce the human energy on which our reptilian masters feed.

His conspiracy theory is a mix of New Age beliefs and TV shows and moves such as V and The Matrix.

And it's worth mentioning, if someone told you they were talking to an invisible friend in the sky and he told them to do crazy things, most of us would think he's crazy. Yet religion is filled with stories about prophets getting messages from god telling them to do absurd things and we think that's perfectly normal.

Many people seem to believe what David Icke says. I found this video on YouTube which supposedly shows Richard Dawkins shapeshifting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McNtpCphYvU