Schizophrenia.com

The Sheer Percentages of 'believers'

#1

Continued discussion from here

I posted several polls which showed percentages of people both in America and worldwide who believe in certain phenomenon that is considered delusional by psychiatry…

keeping in mind only 1.1% of the population is SZ…

The ones that stand out most are that 77% of Americans believe aliens have visited earth
72% believe in miracles.
43% of Britons claimed experiences with mind reading.
40% of people in India and China believe aliens live among us disguised as humans. 20% of people worldwide believe this…
23% of Russians believe an alien civilization will contact us in the next 50 years.

I also looked at Intervoice’s website and found

hearing voices in itself is not a symptom of an illness, but is apparent in 2 – 4 % of the population, some research gives higher estimates and even more people (about 8%) have so called “peculiar personal convictions”, that are sometimes called “delusions”, and do so without being ill. Many people who hear voices find them helpful or benevolent (Romme & Escher, 1993).In a large study of 15,000 people it was found that there was a prevalence of 2.3% who had heard voices frequently and this contrasts with the 1% prevalence of schizophrenia (Tien, 1991).
Bentall and Slade (1985) found that as many as 15.4% of a population of 150 male students were prepared to endorse the statement ‘In the past I have had the experience of hearing a person’s voice and then found that no one was there’. They add: ‘…no less that 17.5% of the [subjects] were prepared to score the item “I often hear a voice speaking my thoughts aloud” as “Certainly Applies”. This latter item is usually regarded as a first-rank symptom of schizophrenia …’
http://www.intervoiceonline.org/about-voices/essential-facts

So, while many of these beliefs and experiences are considered delusional or hallucination by the psychiatric community and some schizophrenics, it appears many many people throughout the world experience the same things but somehow have a handle on them and are not considered ‘ill.’

here’s another interesting statistic:

15% of voters think the medical industry and the pharmaceutical industry “invent” new diseases to make money

(page 34)

It just seems a whole lot more people believe in these things than we are led to believe, and we are told these things are not normal, but in fact they are quite popular beliefs in the world…

#2

Thats all good and fine.

“Schizophrenia” = the dark ones

Not so much a disease but most certainly an ailment and a serious one at that.

They were talking about that one night. They said they do indeed come here and can appear as human as anyone of us. There i was just walking home and some voice in my head is going “yeah, we can appear human and do in fact visit and sometimes stay awhile.”

Im a moron though so i don’t know what they want with me exactly.

They were so dark though. When they are in you mauling you you can feel how dark they are.

#3

They also say that you can make people believe they have powers by performing illusions.

You take a young inexperienced person and suggest in their mind that they focus on an object, you suggest they focus on it moving. And then you yourself invisibly move it. The person thinks they have powers of the mind.

Same with mind reading.

Always consider a third party in this world because it isn’t just us.

#4

I was thinking the reason only 1% get diagnosed is they don’t understand what is happening to them and for some reason or another cannot cope with it, so they go to doctors who in turn tell them these are delusional thoughts and medication will help.
Even more so when children are forcefully taken to doctors by parents because 'something is wrong with my child."
then an ongoing barrage of psychiatric beliefs are directed at the person who then starts believing something is dreadfully wrong because they heard voices, saw things, or believed in something their immediate family does not believe in.

Yet in contrast we have all these people, millions of people who hear voices and have unusual beliefs and do ok.

Funny, in that Russian survey the 23% of people said they believed alien contact was coming right after a popular archbishop of Russian Orthodox church had stated that angels and demons are mistaken for aliens…and while agree with him, I also have to say angels and demons ARE aliens as they do not originate on this world…

#5

everyone is an alien if you think about it,

we are all different and unique (alien to each other)

but we have common goals and beliefs that we can share which bring us together and make us less ‘alien’ to each other lol

:alien:

oh yeah and then there is @darksith :space_invader: lol

#6

No, i suppose that i could not cope with torture.

I understood full well what was happening, my mind was taken over in horrendous ways and i was threatened and mauled repeatedly.

I understand that some people can have positive experiences but this isn’t one of them and they mean to kill me and have stated clearly they want me to end my life(like the heaven’s gate cult/wink wink).

It ■■■■■■■ sucks and if i ever get the chance to hurt these pieces of ■■■■ im going to.

#7

The type of entities afflicting you will not give positive experiences. One good thing is you recognize what’s going on…the people involved with Heavens gate were completely blinded by the madness the demons were telling Applewhite, the leader, that there was a spacecraft behind Hale-Bopp comet that would take them…

The first step is when you recognize the voices and messages are deceiving spirits, you know not to act on their messages.

#8

Proof that everyone has the experiences to some extent. It’s just the 1% that have it fine tuned.

Also, for a diagnosis of any mental illness, it needs this: ”is a mental or behavioral pattern or anomaly that causes either suffering or an impaired ability to function in ordinary life" -taken from Wikipedia

So suffering and impaired ability to function. I however, don’t think every pdoc follows this rule. Just seems like there are some diagnosis-happy doctors out there.

It would make sense that those of us who are ‘tuned in’ and have these experiences way more than others have problems with everyday life. Hence, diagnosis.

#9

the beliefs those people may hold may be popular but regardless they are still bizarre ideas.

#10

They never delivered a message whatsoever.

They just began hurting me and freaking me out.

See? It doesn’t matter.

They will have me dead.

Sometimes they just hit you.

#11

That is true…my question is WHY the impaired ability to function and suffering?
I’ll use my own example…diagnosed ADHD as a child, with some emotional disturbances. Why? For the ADHD I simply wasnt interested in mundane subjects and could dive into a lot deeper subject, like studying aeronautics and doing hands on technical drafting from age 6 on…these things were not even offered in schools. Today they do have some schools that will teach more advanced subjects to kids. Some people are aware that certain kids need an outlet for creativity and should be offered more challenging material.

Emotional issues? My Mom smothered me and was considered very overprotective…so I pushed away just to try and have some space…even most other close family members saw this and tried to intervene…to no avail. I wasn’t even allowed to do anything with Dad at all, not even be held…and i wanted that contact with my Dad…

Who took me to the doctor because there was something ‘wrong’ with her child? My Mom.

On top of all that I had no one at all to teach me about spirituality… I’ve lived on native reservations where kids take for granted the spiritual aspect of nature and the world and are taught it from an early age. Parents don’t cart their kids off to doctors because they saw a creature in their room, had visions, or heard voices speak to them. Well, some do, but they have been conditioned by modern society to forget their traditions…and many of those natives turn to alcohol…I’ve noticed the truly spiritual ones who hold the ancient traditions tend to be sober…

11 of 11 post :smile:

#12

Bizarre to who? That’s the point. All people hold ideas, and some of those ideas may seem bizarre to others. I and many people find it bizarre that people could be atheists. We find it bizarre that some people believe in Darwinism and that humans came from monkeys. I find it equally bizarre that some people worship idols, or that some people think of nothing but money and materialism.

As for the large percentage of people who believe aliens are on earth disguised as humans…this is not really too far fetched at all if you do some research on the Anunnaki who came from heaven (the skies) to earth…are considered aliens by some and angels by others…and they mated with humans and had children. the descendants of these beings look like any other human with just a few traits pointing to their origins that doesnt make someone appear non human…yet in a sense the descendants have some percentage of blood that is ‘alien…’ If we look at it this way and not little green men or bizarre looking creatures, yes, the belief that aliens are among us looking like humans isn’t all that bizarre a belief.

#13

To each his own my friend.

If it helps for someone to believe in a magic carpet then by all means I have no problem if they believe in it lol

#14

Magic carpet? That’s just crazy.

#15

Maybe it’s not so crazy :wink:
There is factual evidence for this , you can not prove or disprove this as it is a Legend

Excerpts from it:

Known manuscripts of One Thousand and One Nights date back as far as the ninth century. The collection of Arabic folklore is told mainly by the Queen Scheherazade and other characters of her court. Here, the magic textile is introduced in the tale of an Indian prince named Hussain who travels to the area then known as Bisnagar.

Legend has it that the Queen of Sheba gifted King Solomon a green and gold flying carpet studded with precious jewels, as a token of her love. It is said that a flying carpet was woven on an ordinary loom, but its dyes held spectacular powers. Made from a special type of clay with magnetic properties (and since the earth is a magnet) it held the ability to hover several hundreds of feet above the ground.

Other stories say it was God who bestowed Solomon with the magic carpet. The carpet flew swiftly, bringing Solomon from Damascus to Media in just a few hours. The iconic carpet was extremely large, with room for up to 40,000 men. Then one day, God became irritated by Solomon’s pride-fullness. God shook the carpet in the wind, sending all 40,000 men into the air, and presumably to their deaths.

#16

…That is a perfect description.
If this had been used when I was at my pdocs, it would have saved me (and them) so much time and money in the effort to "treat, medicate, and control my behavior which wasn’t a problem for me, but them. All that anger, frustration and disbelief directed at me for not “improving” despite their best efforts, wasn’t the least bit helpful to me. It was my (ex) husband that insisted I needed to “talk to someone” and got me an appt with a pdoc.
Truth surfaced years later that the problems I couldn’t seem to handle had been intentionally created so that I would need a pdoc.

#17

It occurs to me that the word ‘magic’ is just a word prepended to an object to describe an action or event that is not fully understood.

In the example above involving the magic carpet being held aloft by magnets, it only seems like magic until you know how it works. Although, inset magnets won’t make a carpet fly alone. Perhaps a better example would be: ‘magic vehicle’ vs. ‘Airplane’.

So a ‘magic carpet’ would really be a ‘mysterious action performing carpet’.

#18

So it proves the masses are ignorant. Nothing new about that. These are the same people who made Honey Boo Boo a hit and has kept the Kardashians on TV for at least 5 seasons. And the same people who make worshiping monster trucks practically a religion. Am I going to let people like that dictate my beliefs? No. The majority is not always right. They simply happen to be the majority. The majority of Southerners thought slavery was OK. The majority of white men slew 80% of the Native-Americans. Does that mean it was right?

#19

Grandiose delusions and megalomania, as well as idolatry… (I can’t stand that the Kardashians still pop up everywhere…glad I don’t have tv !) What’s weird is I remembered the Cardassians from Star trek as being an enemy alien race, LOL

And hey, even though I’m sure someone made this as a joke (maybe?), it goes to show what some people will throw out there…

http://www.tickld.com/cdn_image_content/111635.jpg

Agreed… and of course it wasn’t right…and if they didn’t kill the natives they banished them or corralled them on reservations…starved them out, or tried to assimilate them to the euro-american culture… etc…

@levelJ1

I haven’t read a whole lot on magic carpets, but something back in the 80s I remember saying they weren’t actual carpets, but either symbolic of astral projection, levitation practiced by eastern peoples, or ancient technologies of flat hovercraft that were interpreted in writings as magic carpets for lack of a better description. It may also have been a teleportation device that someone stood on to be teleported somewhere…
It goes along with other ancient flying craft
http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc161.htm