Schizophrenia and Spirit
Spirits in the Field
Schizophrenia affects about one percent of the global population and is believed to be a chronic disorder however, with understanding, acceptance, awareness, prayer, and strong intention, it is possible for people to take back their minds and their lives. I believe that people can be fully healed from schizophrenia. From a clinical and non-spiritual perspective schizophrenic symptoms are described as delusions, hallucinations, trouble with thinking and concentration, and lack of motivation. Symptoms fall into several categories: disorganized thoughts (trouble focusing or organizing thoughts, and impaired cognition), negative symptoms (difficulty showing emotion, depressed affect, and withdrawal), positive symptoms (hearing or seeing things that other people do not see). I believe that schizophrenia is a spiritual condition and that the voices that people hear are real, although imperceivable to everyone except for the person experiencing it.
Trauma and Consciousness
Spirits, either benign or malicious who do not have a body in the physical plane are able to access schizophrenic people through cracks in there conscious. The severity, duration and frequency of this contact can vary greatly person to person, and episodes can be brought on or made worse by trauma, stressful situations, drugs and alcohol. Trauma causes our spiritual boundaries to become permeable and this causes the individual to become vulnerable to spirits entering into their field and broadcasting through their consciousness. When people are having a traumatic experience it is common for their spirit or parts of their spirit to leave their body, this leaves them open to having other spirits come in and occupy their energetic field.
When someone is experiencing a schizophrenic episode they may be unable to distinguish between shared, consensual reality and their own personal reality, but with time, they can learn to tell the difference between what is coming from the physical plane and what exists only on the spiritual plane, and is therefore perceivable only to them. Learning to distinguish the two will help them be more functional around other people, and they can develop techniques for how to interact with those on the spiritual and physical planes.
The experience of each individual living with schizophrenia varies greatly. Some hear one voice, some hear many, some have benign or helpful voices, some have violent or disturbing voices. Some people are quite functional with their condition and some are completely debilitated by their condition. With prayer, a strong desire for healing, persistence, dedicated self-awareness, self-love, and community support, people living with schizophrenia can live fulfilling, productive lives, and independent lives and even make the voices stop. I believe complete healing is possible. One of the worst parts about having schizophrenia is not the actual condition itself, but the way it is held (or not held) in the cultural context. Being in a society that does not readily recognize the spiritual realm makes people experiencing schizophrenia appear crazy. If there were a sociocultural container to hold their experience in a more holistic, inclusive, and compassionate way, the experience itself would not be so traumatic.
Stressful and traumatic situations make people who are experiencing schizophrenia more vulnerable to these outside energies, as do certain drugs and alcohol. Stress causes people to have weaker energetic boundaries because their spirit (or parts of it) leave the body to protect themselves from experiencing pain (emotional and physical) on the physical plane. Some substances, including alcohol also weaken energetic boundaries allowing other spirits (including the spirits of the substances themselves) to influence the person, but the medicine given to psychotic people acts to block out certain energies. Weak energetic boundaries give other beings, which do not have form on the physical plane, an opening to a schizophrenic person’s mind.
How to Heal
The way to heal this is by calling back lost parts of the spirit (soul retrieval) and by strengthening energetic boundaries. The most important part of a person getting better is their own desire and intention to get better. It has to come from them. I cannot heal someone who does not believe or hold hope for their own healing. However if someone holds a prayer for their own healing in their heart, they do not need anyone to help them heal. We all have the power inside of us to heal completely, with faith and strong determination. Life itself is a miracle, and so is healing.
In order for the lost parts of the soul to return, a person must set an intention of having them return. They must call themself back to themself. I have people do this through vibration. For example, I would say, “Cassaaaaaaaandra…. Come hoooooooome! Please come home. I welcome you home! All of you! I love you! You are perfect and beautiful as you are and you are welcome here! I forgive you! It is safe now! I love you!” Then I chant “hOOOOOOOMMMMMeeee!” over and over. As I chant hOMe, I feel the vibration of the sound in my body. I feel the resonance of the sound in my chest, in my stomach in my ovaries, in any painful or numb parts of my body, I let the vibration of the sound fill my body. I imagine lost or scared pieces of myself returning home to my body and as they arrive, I welcome them. I leave an open invitation for the pieces that do not immediately return. It may take some parts, weeks, months, or years to return. They may return in dreams or in waking life. I will know they have returned as I feel more embodied and powerful in my expression of my essence. The patient must maintain the prayer in their heart (strong intention) for wholeness. This intention is the most important thing. They will be healed by their faith. These parts, upon returning, must be met with self-love, self-acceptance, self-forgiveness.
All humans carry the memory of trauma in their bodies. As spiritual beings having a human experience, being born into this dualistic earth plane is, in and of itself, traumatic. We loose pieces of ourself during these traumatic moments. Especially in fight, flight, and freeze moments. Parts of us can remain frozen in these places. We must call ourselves back from these moments. Love heals all. Self-love is the most important part of this healing. In order to heal ourselves, we must love ourselves: deeply, deeply love ourselves. It sounds simplistic but it is profound. When Jesus said “Love your neighbor as yourself” this is what he meant. This is the key to healing ourselves and healing others. Love heals all. The fully healed person loves themselves fully. Unconditional positive regard, love, and acceptance from a therapist, friend, or family member is often a very important part of the healing process and the more a person internalizes this unconditional love, the more deeply healed they will be. If they can hold the vibration of unconditional love inside of themselves, they will no longer be vulnerable to attacking or harsh energies.
The wound of separation that we experience upon entering into this human experience cannot be filled by a parent or lover. To become whole we must love ourselves. When we become whole through fully loving ourselves, nothing can hurt us. No unkind words, no demons, no circumstances, not even death. When we vibrate at the frequency of love this is what we are, see, feel, give, and receive. All there is, is love. Even mean or cruel things are misdirected love. Love is the fabric of life. We all came from seeds of love (literally). We all have the seed of Buddha Nature and Christ Consciousness within us. Buddha and Christ are symbols of human potential. We all have creative god power within us and we can all live in loving kindness and compassion. Naturally people who are experiencing the spirit plane while being on earth would be in touch with this knowing. It is no coincidence that people experiencing schizophrenic symptoms often see themselves as Christ or as a Pharos or something of the sort.
After the symptoms of schizophrenia are understood, various types of therapy can continue to help people manage the illness and improve their lives. Self awareness and self acceptance can help people with schizophrenic symptoms manage their condition. An aware and accepting attitude by the people around them is also extremely helpful. This can be achieved through a loving awareness meditation practice and through listening to and speaking with the voices with the help of a therapist or peer support group (such as the hearing voices group). People with a schizophrenic condition must also teach themselves how to navigate social situations, cope with stress, identify early warning signs of relapse and prolong periods of remission. They must do this by themselves but therapists, family and peers can also provide support. The schizophrenic person must maintain hope for themselves and have a clear goal for recovery. They must believe in themselves, and therapists must help support their goals by supporting them in self-knowing, self-exploration, and positive self-regard.
For people living with schizophrenia family support is very important to their health and well-being and its important for families to be informed and supported themselves. Families must understand that while the voices may be “crazy making” the people who hear the voices are not crazy. People with schizophrenic symptoms benefit by having a support system of friends, family and professionals that meet them with kindness, dedication, and understanding is important and patients, family members and mental health professionals need to be mindful that many patients have a favorable course of illness, that challenges can often be addressed, and that patients have many personal strengths that can be recognized and supported.
Managing Schizophrenia
People experiencing schizophrenia must use their strong will power to had developed techniques to manage the schizophrenia and take their power back from the spirits. For some, these techniques were cognitive. As described in the following New York Times article “Successfu and Schizophrenic.”
“An educator with a master’s degree said he had learned to face his hallucinations and ask, “What’s the evidence for that? Or is it just a perception problem?” Another participant said, “I hear derogatory voices all the time. ... You just gotta blow them off.”
Part of vigilance about symptoms was “identifying triggers” to “prevent a fuller blown experience of symptoms,” said a participant who works as a coordinator at a nonprofit group…Other techniques that our participants cited included controlling sensory inputs. For some, this meant keeping their living space simple (bare walls, no TV, only quiet music), while for others, it meant distracting music. “I’ll listen to loud music if I don’t want to hear things,” said a participant who is a certified nurse’s assistant. Still others mentioned exercise, a healthy diet, avoiding alcohol and getting enough sleep.”
I believe that we need to reframe our cultural understanding of schizophrenia and other “mental illness” and take more of a collective approach to healing. The truth is that we are all interconnected and we can heal ourselves and each other through love and kindness. Loving our neighbors as ourselves is the first step to healing. I am grateful to CIIS as an institution for allowing me to explore this divergence from the status quo. I believe we are the cutting edge of the hope for the future.
Bibliography
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Aries, A. (2018, June 03). Being in Love with someone whose not real| Delusion series - schizophrenic confessions. Retrieved November, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe1GqlEdMA0
Aries, A. (2018, March 11). I was a Catfish| Story Time. Retrieved November, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV2N34bSbDQ
Parekh, R. (2017, January). What is Schizophrenia? Retrieved November, 2018, from https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/schizophrenia/what-is-schizophrenia
Schizophrenia. (2018, April 30). Retrieved from https://medlineplus.gov/schizophrenia.html
Saks, E. R. (2018, October 19). Opinion | Successful and Schizophrenic. Retrieved November, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/opinion/sunday/schizophrenic-not-stupid.html
Mukherjee, S. (2017, June 19). Madness Runs in the Family. Retrieved November, 2018, from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/28/the-genetics-of-schizophrenia