Sz Hallucinations Differ by Ethnicity

That sz has a common component in the dysfunction of the right anterior insula is no surprise to those who are familiar with brain mapping. What intrigues the hell out of me is that Asian sz pts tend to hallucinate visually while Caucasians tend to hallucinate aurally. Because that may suggest cultural conditioning layered on top of genetic physiology.

I say that because other studies I have read demonstrate that while Asians tended to be far more oriented to conscious awareness of their perception and less verbal-thought-oriented before Western culture invaded their homelands in the second half of the 20th century, Caucasians have tended to be far more “in their minds” and verbal-thought-oriented for most of the 20th century.

Are you following me here? If you are, you may see why it is that sz pts in the West tend to hallucinate verbally as opposed to (or more than) visually: We think too â– â– â– â– â– â– â–  much.

Because we were taught to do so that we would follow instructions? Freud thought so a century ago and explained it in several books, including Civilization and its Discontents. Contemporaries like Veblen, Durkheim and Cooley also wrote about it in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

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I wonder if its so much the ethnicity, or the cultural surroundings of the person… I’ve also read that the delusions and hallucinations tend to follow the things that are important in that culture - for example in the western world it might be money, power, CIA/FBI surveillance, or UFOs - whereas in aboriginal cultures it might be issues with animals talking, people wanting to hurt them with spears, etc.

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Yes, I have heard this too. Even between the UK and the US, it differs from FBI/CIA to MI6/MI5.

That’s something I’ve found interesting, too. Normally, my delusions are somatic (I can heal sickness with my mind, I can predict illness and injury in others based on my own health) or about communicating with animals, but when I was convinced that the NSA was monitoring me, it was all over the news at the time. I don’t think it would have occurred to me without all that external input.

For hallucinations, mine are more in the class of visual disturbances. And when I do have aural hallucinations, they’re generally music, generally wordless.

I’m just a common auditory hallucinatory. Nothing special about me. It’s in my genes.

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That was my point, even if I expressed it inadequately.

Did you read the original post?

yes, is it auditory or visual? I think I’m getting it. sorry if I appear dumb. I don’t have visual. It’s all voices.

I would have visual and auditory hallucinations. Sometimes I would hallucinate haunting music, but not very often. I started having auditory hallucinations 24/7, sometimes claiming to be God. As far as visual, I would often see shadows or bright lights, sometimes in the shape of people moving around. I thought I was seeing angels, beings of light, and demons, the dark shadows. Rarely I would hallucinate in color, like seeing a faint blue line in front of me or red eyes staring at me when I was going to sleep.

That’s the point. It’s powerful evidence for the argument that sz is NOT entirely genetic and that it is NOT only treatable with meds (which only suppress symptoms in a very cluncky way).

If one comes to understand the purpose – as well as the content – of the voices, one becomes capable of freeing oneself from their influence. I did it. So have thousands of others.

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So my voices are artificially made with their own design and have no bearing on my chemistry?

I’m not sure I buy that. The progression of schizophrenia takes it’s own course and I don’t think I could have averted it.

Well, see how that works for you. All I know is I climbed out of the snake pit by having an open mind after decades of having a closed one.

You are hitting rather low to say I have a closed mind. If anything, I invite all ideas to the table. Maybe you should too.

All you want from the me your sz mind was conditioned to think others are is the same sort of attention you were trained to want from the parent who frustrated you. Please. Focus your attention on someone who likes to play Games. I am only here to present information. I have no interest in arguing with closed minds.

Ok, I’m not arguing with you, you see what you see. I know you have books and arguments to back you, but I know that my hallucinations were manifest through a natural course of schizophrenia taking hold, plus extreme pain that did no good. If you want to argue with me on other points of my closed mind, maybe PM me, or start a new thread.

I was raised atheist, I grew up in a buddhist culture, and I developed a multi-religion belief system during psychosis. Never was indoctrinated to believe in anything during my lifetime, my hallucinations are/were black shadows that I percieved as demons that led me to believe there was something more, and that I can attribute to my chinese heritage, but I’m a deeply atheist person. No religious beliefs when I’m sane, not nihilism either, but close. I can identify patterns of the multi-cultured environment I grew up with, but I can’t attribute my belief that I was the reincarnation of Isis and my obsession with egyptian mithology to my social conditionings.

I believe the soil that grows the religious belief is itself the delusion.
Do you agree?

There are lots of contradictions here, I’m not sure how to respond. If you are truly atheist, I would suggest finding meaning in external parts of our culture that don’t include examining the conscience and redemption. My fears are that I’ve abandoned that early phase of self doubt, and created a self that is totally immersed in gaining self righteousness, but I guess it’s a compensation.

That is pretty much what I have seen in scores of neurotic, borderline and psychotic pts. One becomes conditioned, habituated, socialized and normalized to the “subtle common sense” (see C. Wright Mills in The Power Elite) of their culture, sub-culture(s) and family of origin.

@Sarad has also studied this phenomenon from European perspectives with which I am less familiar at her university. She may want to weigh in on this.

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That’s the thing, I don’t need to find meaning, or redemption.
The examining conscience part okay, guilty here.

Exactly. From a Taoist viewpoint, meaning is just a mental invention, and redemption a projection. One need only live with what is.

Works for me. 24/7/365.

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