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Jorgfe
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Username: Jorgfe

Post Number: 849
Registered: 11-2005
Posted on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 - 1:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

During a manic episode one is not able to think straight. One's capacity for logical thought is severely diminished. One's access to the normal rules of civilized behavior is impeded. One loses contact with reality. It is called psychosis. But one's head is not empty. There is definitely something going on in there, something going on very fast. I call it mania's "magic glasses."

Mania, or depression, is like wearing a pair of magic glasses over your eyes. Everything you see, everything you perceive, everything from the real world outside must pass through these magic glasses to reach your inner self. In mania the magic glasses make everything appear much brighter than it really is. In depression they make everything appear much darker. Nothing can get through to you without being affected by the magic glasses. There is no escape.

The magic glasses are inside your head, firmly entrenched between external reality and how you perceive and interpret that reality. In addition to the magic glasses, your mind is also running a fantasy of some sort. You may believe yourself to have god-like qualities, to be superhuman, to be special in some way, certainly to be someone other than you really are. The magic glasses filter reality according to the fantasy you are running. External events will be interpreted to conform to the internal fantasy you are living in. You will respond to these events, not as they are, but as you interpret them to be through the magic glasses.

For example, in depression, the simple fact that the rent needs paying will convince you that you are about to be evicted from your home and will end up destitute in the streets. In mania, believing yourself to be extremely wealthy because of all of the money your newfound abilities will earn, you may ruin yourself financially from unbridled spending. Anything someone says to you has to pass through the magic glasses and is interpreted as part of your internal fantasy. Even what you see on the television passes through the magic glasses and can become evidence to support your belief in your fantasy.

In mania, what one says and what one does is based upon a deranged mind that has little capacity for logical thought and is overwhelmed by a fantasy that one is acting out. No external argument can dislodge this fantasy. External facts cannot disprove it. Medication is the only recourse. It is not unlike a dream state. As in a dream, there may be some tenuous connection to actual events, but it is grossly distorted. If things are said, if things are done, they proceed from this distorted vision. They bear little or no relation to one's normal self or true feelings.


The truth is the road to freedom.

Gilbert Jorgensen

It has been 162 Years, 11 Months, and 4 Days since October 22, 1844
Colleentinker
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Username: Colleentinker

Post Number: 6881
Registered: 12-2003


Posted on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 - 2:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Interesting, Gilbert.

I've been working on my Bible study for women's Bible study--and this Monday we're looking at the letter to the church in Thyatira. God's complaint against Thyatira was that they "tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols" (Rev. 2:20).

As an Adventist, the identity of Jezebel always seemed obscure and somehow related to Babylon and making alliances with false religion (read that Sunday-keeping...). Today for the first time I realized that, according to John MacArthur and the footnotes in the NIV Study Bible, "Jezebel" was a real woman in the church of Thyatira. She was a self-proclaimed prophetess, and she taught the church to incorporate pagan practices into their lives. She taught syncretism.

God said that He had given her time to repent, but she had refused, so He would lay her on a bed of sickness and those who were practicing her perversions would also suffer unless they repented.

Granted, Thyatira was a true church (as opposed to Adventism which grew out of Ariansim), and some within it were not compromised. But suddenly, today, I saw the issue of the prophetess leading people astray in Thyatira with new understanding.

Isn't it interesting that Adventism didn't teach this obvious understanding?

Colleen
Patriar
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Username: Patriar

Post Number: 445
Registered: 3-2005
Posted on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 - 3:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow, Colleen. That timing is absolutely divinely inspired.

Seriously, though. I sat here stunned that you just posted that information. That is NEW information to me and I needed it.

Thank you! Maybe someday I can explain...

Patria
Flyinglady
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Username: Flyinglady

Post Number: 4339
Registered: 3-2004


Posted on Wednesday, September 26, 2007 - 4:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Thanks Colleen. You are so right that the SDA church does not teach the identity of Jezebel. So she was a real woman who was wreaking real havoc in the Thyratira church. Interesting.
Diana

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