Is belief by faith a common form of psychosis?

Question

Psychosis is often illustrated by the following: "A psychotic individual builds castles in the sky and then he moves into them."

One who suffers psycotic episodes is prone to emotionally driven confusion between reality and fantasy - he is often plagued by hallusonation of images, voices, aromas and the like.

Is it far fetched to draw a parallel between psychotic illness and a "normal" individual's belief in unseen, unknown and immagined beings and worlds, i.e., is belief in such things as those which are claimed as "real" by individuals of faith not similar to the beliefs of the psychitic who "builds castles in the sky.... and then moves into them"?

wolfebla…

Your input is excellent, however, I think you may be missing my point entirely.

I'm asking you to identify (or not) that there is a parallel between the two which makes them similar and not that one is precicely the other.

And there is no need to take such a defensive posture on the part of Christians; I have not singled out any belief-based groups. It is only by your own paranoid and assumptive accusation, "You guys just never tire of Christian-bashing... " that Christianity has been raised into question.
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Answer 1

No, it is not
YA DON"T SEE THE WIND, BUT
'CHA KNOW IT"S THERE,
HERE, EVERYWHERE.
unknown u say; HE is not unknown.
Imagined..... no, a book of rememberance was written down for our benefit,instruction, an example for us to follow.
And if & when you ever get to feel,see, live,
HIS Love in action for U, in ur life,
U will then know, HE Loves U.
He didn't turn HIS attention away from U,
it was U that turned ur attention away from HIM.

Answer 2

You guys just never tire of Christian-bashing, do you?

In order to qualify as psychotic, a person must be unable to distinguish between objective reality (i.e., shared and verifiable experiences/observations) and hallucinatory phenomenon. In other words, a true psychotic believes that the voices only he can hear are coming from an external source.

There is also a debilitating component to the mental illness. A person suffering from psychosis is frequently unable to keep a job, may have a history of arrest or criminal involvement, and has impaired social skills to the point of being unable to interact consistently with others.

I would hazard a guess that there are very few Christians who can't distinguish reality from fantasy and who are socially dysfunctional. Those that I know hold down jobs and live normal lives. They certainly aren't not criminals, but law-abiding citizens with families and friends.

So I'm afraid your cutesy little theory just doesn't hold up in light of the functional definition of psychotic.

Answer 3

i agree with Wolfeblayde. However, to explicitly answer your question, perhaps W should have said, no, it is not far-fetched to draw such a parallel, but it is misleading because there are significant differences.

Everyone has to decide for themself how they are going to judge reality and their own experience. we all have had experiences of not knowing if we were dreaming or not, eg, and we have learned to 'cope', that is, to distinguish between reality and non-reality.

To answer your first question, no, belief by faith is not a common form of psychosis. It is natural for humans to believe in God; not to believe is the psychosis. Don't be distracted by the 'castles in the sky' - it's a figure of speech.

Answer 4

The Buddha said that truth is like a gem held out in an open hand for all to see, not closed in a fist to be believed in by faith.

Answer 5

there is not any element in status against something that has no substance which incorporates a false impression or incorrect theory. human beings look to have self assurance that the three million gods of the Hindu faith are separate beings and fake gods. there is One God and His manifestations are countless. There are no longer any limits on God. it is named by ability of one call while It manifests as compassion and by ability of yet another while It manifests as abundance and yet yet another while expressed as information etc. it is incredibly like a similar guy or woman may be an uncle and brother and father and husband, nevertheless in basic terms one being yet distinctive human beings relate to differing factors of his being and so call him by ability of distinctive names; expensive, Mr., Sir, Dad, reliable chum, and however his first call may be. And he continues to be one and a similar.

Answer 6

I asked a similiar question before...It's funny how if you believe in non-religious things you're considered crazy. Like if I was to say my dead friend comes and talks to me and I feel a presense amongst me...they'd put me on medication. I think people are hypocritical to things that they feel best suit them. ...As a matter of fact I don't think it, it's a fact. I'd also like to know why God only talked to our ancestors...isn't it as equally important to us now to have some evidence that our beliefs are justified?

Answer 7

It is probably the most common form of mental illness there is.

Answer 8

it's okay to have you head in the clouds... if your feet are still within reach ofd the ground.

but there are plenty of self-proclaimed "religious" people (who aren't really religious, IMHO) who have clearly lost it (if they ever had it).

Answer 9

Oh, I see. Is this where the answers go?

Answer 10

No.