Does anyone else think after modern day studies on abornmal psychology that prophets were just schizonphrenic?

Question

I know Ill spark a war asking this...but its been bugging me, with modern day tests and research on abnormal psychological disorders, wouldnt it be possible that prophets (from any religion) claiming to have heard from a higher power, could have just suffered from an undiagnosed case of delusional schizophrenia?

Answer 1

This is a good question which I will answer from several approaches.

Yes, I do think that it is quite likely that some, but not all, of the prophets might have exhibited behaviors that would have landed them with psychiatric diagnoses.

That said, there are several considerations.

First, modern thinking has discounted religious and shamanic experience. Just because we do not have a test or way of measuring religious expression does not necessarily mean that the behavior is necessarily pathological.

Thus the experience of hearing voices from beyond might fall into several categories: hearing a prophetic message from God. hearing voices of departed spirits as in psychic experiences, and hearing voices as a result of psychiatric delusions. We only have a medicalized approach to cover a range of experiences.

From another perspective, Julian Jaynes has written an interesting book that traces the rise of consciousness to the breakdown of the bicameral mind. He theorizes that in early times people thought they were hearing the voices of God because they did not hear the thoughts as arising from their own consciousness. He sees evidence in this phenomenon in classical writing as well as from medical sources.

A third consideration is that contemporary society has a low tolerance for behaviors that depart from what is considered normal. In earlier times, what was considered mentally ill or even physical deformity was often regarded as a special gift. So while a person may have had what we would now consider psychotic episodes, in other periods of history that person may have been regarded as prophetic. The ancient world had a long history of prophecy, in societies other than and dating before the coming of Israel, who produced the major prophets that we know of today. There were many other prophets in other societies who apparently did not achieve the prominence of these, so apparently people were able to discern which prophets were rendering messages of considerable import and which ones may have been delivering messages that were more aberrant.

Nowadays we have a lot more people around and a high incidence of what we call mental illness. But this is not to say that all these folks are indeed crazy. Some of them might have messages worth considering, or they might be helped at some point if we had better ways of helping people process religious and psychic experiences that do not arise of psychiatric causes.

Answer 2

I've considered this as well. I'm not ruling anything out but... in this modern day and age if we heard someone claim to be speaking with God, we would reccomend a psychiatrist, or perhaps even commit them to a mental instution. So why, when, in these modern times, which in many ways is much more corrupt and evil, do we not have any of these prophets? So basically the options are, there were no prophets, there are still prophets today, but we are locking them up in mental institutions, or for some strange and unexplainable reasons prophets stopped appearing after a certain point in history.

Answer 3

A third consideration is that contemporary society has a low tolerance for behaviors that depart from what is considered normal. In earlier times, what was considered mentally ill or even physical deformity was often regarded as a special gift. So while a person may have had what we would now consider psychotic episodes, in other periods of history that person may have been regarded as prophetic. The ancient world had a long history of prophecy, in societies other than and dating before the coming of Israel, who produced the major prophets that we know of today. There were many other prophets in other societies who apparently did not achieve the prominence of these, so apparently people were able to discern which prophets were rendering messages of considerable import and which ones may have been delivering messages that were more aberrant.

Answer 4

yes it is very possible. Perhaps you found out the key to religions back in the past when people were simple and didn't know what to think of someone who heard "voices". Interesting and makes you think though huh? If that is true though, how come things turned out as good as they did? Did the people only believe the schizophrenic that had good "voices"? How come everytime you see a schizophrenic person on the street, they don't come up with a perfect religion in which thousand upon thousands of people can base their lives on in hopes to live a good, respectable, prosperous life? The fact is that some of them probably were....others could have actually been spoken to by God, and some just made it up because they liked people to follow them, the power it came with it, and wanted to make a structure in which they could base their life on. ..... Hope you learned something ;)

Answer 5

Yeah, that's who I would want to go for for quality answers - a psychologist! Psychologists are tops these days - they are America's beloved all-knowing gurus with all the answers. Never mind the fact that psychology (the counseling aspect) is the one psuedo-science where there is virtually no agreement on many fundamental beliefs of their trade.

I'm sure if you look hard enough, you will find some wacko with a degree to back up whatever belief you want to espouse.

Happy searching.

Answer 6

No.
Have you ever conversed with a schizo?
The paranoid delusions are typified by negative voices, and visuals.
If as you suggest, the prophets were schizos, there is no way they would have been able to prophesy year after year, as this mental illness is tragically debilitating.
Next time you present an armchair quarterback analysis, I suggest you think it through more thoroughly.

Answer 7

I am sure some were, but the most likely explanation is that they wrote in riddles to preclude retribution. Everthing must be taken in context. Another explanation is lack of food and use of stimulants.OMG, the prophets on a trip!

Answer 8

Real enlightenment experiences (experience of god, ultimate reality, whatever) never preach but do want to share the path to get to that experience. If a person designated as a prophet said he heard voices or commands from god, then it's probably the prophet's own ego voice convincing him of his specialness.

Answer 9

Yep, quite possible. It's also possible that the explanation is even more simple: that they were liars. Or that they were delusional, without any underlying illness. Or that their followers later embellished their claims, making them into something that they never claimed to be.

Answer 10

It's not what I believe, But then I never met one myself but anything is possible but then again modern day studies are not always correct with their results.