Schizophrenia or Psychic Ability?

[scott]

By: Sarah Vanderworker

There has been much debate about the difference (if there is one) about mental disorders and psychic ability. Here, I would like to tell you a bit about each, and perhaps together we can see if there are similarities or not. Let us first learn a bit about schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia, is a severe mental illness characterized by a variety of symptoms, including loss of contact with reality, bizarre behavior, disorganized thinking and speech, decreased emotional expressiveness, and social withdrawal.

Usually only some of these symptoms occur in any one person. The term schizophrenia comes from Greek words meaning “split mind.” However, contrary to common belief, schizophrenia does not refer to a person with a split personality or multiple personality.

Perhaps more than any other mental illness, schizophrenia has a debilitating effect on the lives of the people who suffer from it. A person with schizophrenia may have difficulty telling the difference between real and unreal experiences, logical and illogical thoughts, or appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Schizophrenia seriously impairs a person’s ability to work, go to school, enjoy relationships with others, or take care of oneself. In addition, people with schizophrenia frequently require hospitalization because they pose a danger to themselves. About 10 percent of people with schizophrenia commit suicide, and many others attempt suicide. Once people develop schizophrenia, they usually suffer from the illness for the rest of their lives. Although there is no cure, treatment can help many people with schizophrenia lead productive lives.

Schizophrenia usually develops in late adolescence or early adulthood, between the ages of 15 and 30. Much less commonly, schizophrenia develops later in life. The illness may begin abruptly, but it usually develops slowly over months or years. Mental health professionals diagnose schizophrenia based on an interview with the patient in which they determine whether the person has experienced specific symptoms of the illness.

Symptoms and functioning in people with schizophrenia tend to vary over time, sometimes worsening and other times improving. For many patients the symptoms gradually become less severe as they grow older. About 25 percent of people with schizophrenia become symptom-free later in their lives.

A variety of symptoms characterize schizophrenia. The most prominent include symptoms of psychosis—such as delusions and hallucinations—as well as bizarre behavior, strange movements, and disorganized thinking and speech. Many people with schizophrenia do not recognize that their mental functioning is disturbed.

People with schizophrenia may also experience hallucinations (false sensory perceptions). People with hallucinations see, hear, smell, feel, or taste things that are not really there. Auditory hallucinations, such as hearing voices when no one else is around, are especially common in schizophrenia. These hallucinations may include two or more voices conversing with each other, voices that continually comment on the person’s life, or voices that command the person to do something.

Schizophrenia appears to result not from a single cause, but from a variety of factors. Most scientists believe that schizophrenia is a biological disease caused by genetic factors, an imbalance of chemicals in the brain, structural brain abnormalities, or abnormalities in the prenatal environment. In addition, stressful life events may contribute to the development of schizophrenia in those who are predisposed to the illness.

Several other psychiatric disorders are closely related to schizophrenia. In schizoaffective disorder, a person shows symptoms of schizophrenia combined with either mania or severe depression. Schizophreniform disorder refers to an illness in which a person experiences schizophrenic symptoms for more than one month but fewer than six months. In schizotypal personality disorder, a person engages in odd thinking, speech, and behavior, but usually does not lose contact with reality. Sometimes mental health professionals refer to these disorders together as schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

Now let's learn a bit about psychic ability. There are two major abilities that I would like to discuss, clairavoyance and clairaudince.

Clairvoyance is defined as a form of extra-sensory perception that it is claimed allows a person to perceive distant objects, persons, or events, including "seeing" through opaque objects and the detection of types of energy not normally perceptible to humans (i.e. radio waves). Typically, such perception is reported in visual terms, but may also include auditory impressions (sometimes called clairaudience) or kinesthetic impressions.

The term clairvoyance is often used broadly to refer to all forms of ESP where a person receives information through means other than those explainable by current science. Perhaps more often, it is used more narrowly to refer to reception of present-time information not from another person, there being other terms to refer to other forms: telepathy referring to reception of information from another person (i.e. presumably mind-to-mind); and precognition referring to gaining information about places and events in the future. The term clairsentience is often used in reference to psi phenomena falling under this broader context.

Results of some parapsychological studies, such as the remote viewing studies, suggest that clairvoyance does exist (though that interpretation is disputed strongly by critics), and that it does not in general require another person to send the information being received, i.e. it can to some extent be distinguished from telepathy. However there are as yet no satisfactory experiments designed that cleanly separate the various manifestations of ESP. Some parapsychologists have proposed that our different functional labels (clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition) all refer to one basic underlying mechanism, although there is not yet any satisfactory theory for what that mechanism would be.

Clairvoyance as a term has its origins from the French word claire, which means "clear", and voyance, "seeing". It literally means 'clear seeing' in French.

The word Clairaudience means 'Clear Hearing'. The psychic ability to hear voices and other auditory phenomena not present to ordinary hearing. Such voices may be subconsciously generated and externalised in auditory perception, or they may be objective but pitched on such an auditory scale or vibration as to be inaudible to most people.

Clairaudients have been known throughout the ages since biblical times. The enigmatic Joan of Arc began her mission in response to voices heard by her alone; while the voices that Williarn Cowper, the eighteenth century poet, heard in his later years, affected his life and influenced his poetry. Clairaudience can be either spontaneous or experimentally induced, and in parapsychology the ability is regarded as part of extrasensory perception. Books have been produced that are apparently received and dictated entirely by clairaudience.

The word, Clairaudience is French and is used to denote the faculty of supranormal hearing, that is, the perception of sounds, voices and music not audible to normal hearing. The phenomenon occurs in mystical and trance-like experiences - shamans, prophets, priests, saints and mystics throughout history have been guided by clairaudient voices, usually interpreted as the voice of God, angels,spirit guides or some other spiritual or divine essence. The ancient Greeks believed that Daimons (Demons), intermediate beings between human beings and the gods, whispered advice in the ears of men.

The Bible contains many episodes where God sends messengers to prophets and kings, and throughout history certain famous men and women, are recorded as seeing visions and hearing voices of angels. Messages from the dead, perceived using the faculty of clairaudience, were a prominent feature of spiritualist seances.

Now where does that information lead us too? A lot of confusion perhaps? It is obviously known that the human mind is an amazing thing. Is it possible that what we consider to be a mental disorder is really psychic ability, or is psychic ability a mental disorder? This is a difficult decision, and one that we may not know the answer to for years to come. So for right now we do know that mental disorders to exist. We also know that people belive in psychic ability. So which is it? Perhaps they are the same thing, but certain people handle it differntly causing some to be more unsettled by their gift/illness more than others, causing it to be perceived as a mental disorder? Could that be the difference wether one accepts it as a gift or not? Perhaps we can only understand it fully, if we ourselves experience it.

[scott]

ty u2

[scott]

Deb,

you are very wise. I understand and yet I don't if that makes any sense. All I know is I always try to be truthful with myself. I have a concious like no one I have ever met. The guilt of a lie or cheat is unbareable on my inner being until I come clean. Therefore, I tend not to risk it and stay honest with myself as to others. I can honestly say if anything I sleep very well at night.

I feel like I am learning from you and look forward to our chats. Be safe

scott