Describing Broken Minds
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Chapter 6
 “Let me give you a piece of my mind.” George Carlin We must begin this chapter by remarking that people have different ways of perceiving things – even in daily material life. Then when we get into the “astral” worlds which can be opened through drugs and other means, men and women are known to perceive all manner of things – humans and other creatures, phantasmagoric wonders. The inner planes are filled with all manner of beings which may be drawn to us largely through the unconscious predispositions of our minds. So having a sound and sane mind, should be a prerequisite to exploring “inner space.” On the other hand, a tattered or torn mind is almost sure to attract unwholesome ideas, forces, and even beings in uncharted territories. Thomas Edison remarked long ago that, “Ideas come from space.” Edison gathered his own inspirations for his many wonderful inventions by tapping into the “universe of ideas” which surround us all. Carlin got his own ideas from similar sources. In his latter years, George imagined producing a Broadway show to unleash his characters, having collected them for years. “I don’t ask for them, a character just appears and speaks.” The biggest family of those voices were West Siders from his Manhattan youth. “When they all start talking – they invent this magic … material.” While contemplating the production of his unrealized Broadway show, George admitted that, “I’d actually get scared. First of all, that they were going to completely overtake and overwhelm and possess me. And second, that I would never be able to capture them.” Still, “they weren’t one-time people – they’re all still here inside me. And they are bursting at the tether, trying to get out. I’m a thousand different people that I can climb into in an instant and really inhabit.” Carlin gathered his comedic characters and material via mental resources which he appeared to expand through the use of cocaine and other drugs. The results were largely beneficial for himself and funny for his audiences. In similar manners, we all act as mediums as noted previously to move through life, learn, and grow. Our minds are being colored and changed, molded and remolded constantly as we travel through life. Fortunate for most of us, our traumas are mild, our wounds shallow, and our nemeses weak. People, whose luck or karma is not so benign, wear their wounds and shocks sometimes even visibly. Pictures of those injured minds can be “taken” by seers – much as all of us can recognize broken limbs and punctured organs. With that said, it is quite necessary to add that clairvoyant do not “picture” the inner bodies of humans with the precision of a camera or an x-ray machine. Perceiving subtle energies and finer forces is not an “exact science,” if there is such a thing. A seer’s own thoughts and emotions are intimately and inextricably involved with his/her perceptions. Those seers also use subtle perspectives as well as interpretations to come to conclusions. We can only see in the worlds around us those parts of the universe which have been made known within our own beings. That state of perception covers the good and healthy as well as the ill and disturbed parts of existence. Trained clairvoyants with skills related to mind-body are very rare. Furthermore, perfect sight among them probably does not exist – because there are neither perfect seers nor perfect humans amongst us. Even if it were possible to collect talented seers to study human minds and especially disturbed and broken ones, their level of agreement would limit the value of such an experiment. Then, there comes the tendency to try to fit findings – clairvoyant or mundane ones – into the “medical model.” We have been taught to act like detectives when ills arise. Seek a cause, among many possibilities, then decide on one and give it a label, and finally “try” a remedy for that named problem. This is how doctors are expected to act in dealing with all manner of human ills. With obvious problems and injuries, the pattern works oftentimes. But not always, because we see imperfectly even at the physical level of human life. Until we have pure and clear minds, our eyes will give us only partial truths. So we live with half-truths and many, many hit-and-miss remedies. In emergent situations, there is not much choice. But with the vast majority of human ills, time is on our side. So that we can – if we dare – step back and attempt to view things from a higher ideational level. Clear vision and perfect interpretation is not then required. We can do that right now in respect to our spectrum of Dementia or Loss of Consciousness. So, let’s take our expansive list and gradually endeavor to place each ill from Amentia to Dementia into a Big Picture. Amentia.
Dementia is usually viewed as relating to the elderly, infirm and frail. But at the other end of the spectrum, there is a large and seemingly growing number (1 in 100 worldwide, higher in the USA) of humans who are relatively demented from birth. Those are autistic children who have Amentia – Lack rather than Loss of Mind or Consciousness. Medically speaking, Autistic brains are no different than those of “normal” children despite continued efforts to find variations. Unspecified differences are supposedly “comprehensive throughout the cerebral cortex.” But the fact is that autism is really a kind of dementia – the mind is active to a limited degree as one might expect for a soul just taking on a human form for the first time. So with inner vision, we can imagine the Amented as relatively AWOL – Absent Without Leave. They have relatively barren and underdeveloped, pallidly and dully colored, vacuous and barely furnished minds, compared to “normal” humans. Still, the minds of autistic people are receptive and educable – to greater or lesser degrees. No humans in this epoch are born with totally “blank slates.” But those with Amentia have slates which – for reasons beyond the scope of this thesis – have few markings, spare data, and little color. “The day I met Elliot in late 1981, I thought: I’ll be shocked if this child makes it to eighteen. I looked into his beautiful blue eyes and saw a lost soul. He looked as if he had no reservoir of self-preservation, as if he was running on fumes of anxiety and distraction. I’d always felt a bit out of my body, but this little tyke was barely present in his body.” –– from The Carlin Home Companion by Kelly Carlin Fainting.
Fainting or syncope happens when John Doe or Mary Smith experiences acute stress – whether physical or emotional – which overtaxes that person’s seeming strength and fortitude. Then, that one “slips away” for a few moments. We might say that fainting is caused by a minor shock or is, in fact, a “passing” shock to the system. The stresses of weather and one element or another overtakes many who do not prepare themselves adequately for difficult environs of one kind or another. Then, Nature takes over and forces them to rest. We might say that the being rather than the body becomes overwhelmed and the mind is “given a lesson,” however unconsciously and briefly it might be experienced. Regardless of bodily appearances, fainting can be seen resulting from assault made upon mind-emotions. Weakened or sensitive people can be quickly disturbed by “unsettling” news. Even robust men can experience fainting and “pass out” due to “shocking” influences. Passing Out is a descriptive and relatively accurate way to consider the process of fainting. The fainting one – to those with eyes or imagination to see – simply passes out from intimate and intact relation with the physical form. Out or Gone suits the picture quite well. Let the reader consider just for a few moments the similarity between – passing out and passing away
As mentioned before, passing out occurs most commonly – except for our nightly sleeping – as the result of alcohol or drugs. All such intoxicants cause detachment of the mind from the body – however brief or limited the separation. “The mind lifts off.” And the occupant of the body is “gone, man, gone” to one degree or another. Physicians endeavor to explain anesthesia in strictly chemical terms – of drugs said to inhibit or antagonize one kind of neurotransmitter or another. But in fact, all intoxicating, anesthetizing drugs interfere with the mind-body bridge or connection and stifle their collaboration. Anesthesia actually drives the inner body from the physical and – not surprisingly – sometimes the two do not flow back together correctly. Alcohol and drugs used in excess over time can produce a similar dislocation or rift between the bodies. Breaks, fissures, leaks, and other inner defects can also arise through persisting fatigue, overstrain or shock. The mental “structure” may also be simply worn thin through aging. Under “normal” circumstances, the minds of those who faint likely appear little different than the rest of us. We all have our limits — and all of us have probably fainted or been close to fainting on various occasions in life. So it depends on our inner sensitivity as well as the degree of trauma to determine how the mind holds on or absents itself from the body. We must add that when people faint and are presented to medical personnel, tests will be performed. And often some anomaly will be uncovered. In an early chapter, we noted that celebrities have supposedly fainted on occasion from dehydration and on others from over-hydration – not enough water or too much water. But, that is not the whole deal. The obvious question, which is usually not addressed, should be: “How long, how many hours or days has the physical finding been present in the affected person before the fainting episode occurred?” Context is important, very important in so much of life. A person’s story can be quite revealing – if time is taken to listen for it. Stroke.
The elements – extreme heat in particular - are common causes of fainting. Heat prostration or heat stroke is, at least from one angle, a form of syncope or Loss of Consciousness. Heat stroke may not be classed medically along with other strokes for various reasons: because the cause is usually quite obvious, the altered consciousness passes relatively quickly, and the after-effects are usually minimal. All strokes cause the same separation of mind from body to one degree or another as noted in simple fainting. Thus, the spectrum of Loss of Consciousness is expanded with apoplectic strokes which are thought to be caused in the vast majority of cases from inadequate blood supply – ischemia – which is quite undetectable and unprovable medically. Fewer than one in ten strokes are caused by bleeds in or near the brain. And, we must repeat that whatever occurs in the brain has first evolved in the mind. So, bloody strokes are really physical manifestations of inner changes. Mind is ever the builder, or the destroyer, or the tester-teacher. Strokes just don’t happen. They are the outer effects of inner causes. And they often are previewed, as told by Sharon Stone previously, by mini-strokes and other symptoms. Most strokes, other than those called TIAs, are longer lasting and more disturbing “fainting spells.” Instead of a few moments, the faint may last for hours or days – like coma or extended sleep. An inner picture of a typical stroke reveals obstruction, blockage, disturbed natural flows of mental energies – which in health are constantly active. Hemorrhagic stroke begins with overflows of energy which penetrate into physical tissues to produce changes detectable by medical testing. Seizures.
Seizures, convulsions, fits are again like fainting spells – yes, another version of Loss of Consciousness. However, epileptic fits – except for absence attacks – can be dramatic and violent, frothy and salivating, and scary for observers as well as for the affected person. Seizures may include staring, jerking of muscles, rigid and stiffened postures, and even loss of bowel or bladder control. Absence attacks deserve particular mention. Because we all experience brief instants of being drawn away from outer awareness during waking hours. Our minds slip off into other spaces or dimensions long enough for us to realize that we have been away for moments. When other people notice our absence, especially when repeated, they may become concerned. Context of the “attack” and our story are again important. Seizures, as often noted, appear as an act of the inner being seized – grasped – yanked from his/her outer form. That one is taken away violently – shot out of – the common daily hand-in-glove relationship of mind with body. The differentiation of seizures from other kinds of Loss of Consciousness amounts to the force and speed of their effects. In seizures, violent forces in the mind struggle for expression and result ultimately in partial or complete departure from their bodily home. Again, epileptic patients have hyperactive energies at one or more levels of consciousness. Body and brain are unable to contain the forces – usually quite unconscious – seeking expression. Concussion.
As mentioned earlier, medics consider concussion to be the result of trauma to the brain – from being knocked about within the confines of the skull. But, concussion effects can and quite often occur apart from injury to head and brain. Simple blunt force applied to a human being can cause the mind to be suddenly “thrown from the body.” Motor vehicle accidents are probably the most common cause of concussion. Dick Van Dyke’s “face plant” is a descriptive way of considering Concussion. But, there are certainly others – because concussion really involves the whole body-mind constellation. This kind of trauma can be visualized in the following manner of simplistic but graphic analogies: Imagine the body to be pictured as one’s clothing and the mind as the naked form which it covers. Then, there is a concussion-shock which rattles the person depicted. That one’s whole being – not just its garment – is ruffled and disturbed to a greater or lesser degree. Most who witness the incident focus on the obvious changes in the individual’s costume. Such things can be readily assayed and even documented with photographs and other means. But now in this analogy, the more significant effects may have occurred in the form hidden by whatever clothes remain intact. In this instance, the naked form may need its garments straightened to fit its contours – clothes-on-body like hand-in-glove. But more importantly, the inner form surely needs to be “righted” comfortably within its outer garment. Here is another more subtle analogy. See if you can “get it.” Imagine that the body is a glass and the mind is composed of gelatin in it. So in a concussion, a jolt or force violently sloshes the glass to the point that some of the gelatin runs over or slips around and away from the receptacle. In real life mind-body relationships, the “gelatinous” mind normally surrounds and interpenetrates the glass-like body – so this picture is a bit lacking. At the moment of impact, the glass may stand firmly while the Jello cannot be contained and is let loose. The mind no longer coheres to the body – or the body no longer maintains its full and functional attraction for the mind. Then, the work to be done is to coax and collect the gelatin back into the glass – the mind back into right cohesion and flow with the body. One of our tasks – know it or not – in daily experience as well as in traumatic situations is to maintain the intimate fluid relationship between body and mind. For most of us, that chore is time and time again accomplished with quite unconscious ease. Only when overwhelming forces – obvious or hidden – attack us will we give way and the bonds between mind and body be loosed for a time. Such forces violently applied to a human being can be so severe as to produce death. Thus follows the Cause of Death: Blunt Force Trauma. On autopsy, there may be no obvious injury, bleeding, or broken bones, even though a person is permanently separated – thrown – from the body. “Dead, Man, Dead.” In such a case, the silver cord [Ecclesiastes 12:6] breaks permanently releasing the inner being from the form. Shock.
The next step in our progression is to recognize that humans can suffer forms of shock (now labeled TBI and PTSD) as chronic effects from forces similar to those mentioned for concussion. We may readily understand concussion resulting from effects of overwhelming speed and force. Then, we next must ponder the possibility of similar traumatic effects arising from non-physical sources or both physical and non-physical ones colluding to overwhelm mind-body functions. There is no end of sources of shocks and manifold ways in which human minds draw away from the body, split off or spread out, as they endeavor to protect themselves – or merely to run away. The results may appear as tragic to observers for most of us who have limited sight and awareness. Little do we understand how nature responds to offending agents. In fact, shock often produces unconsciousness, whether total or fleeting – sometimes being so momentary that it goes practically unnoticed: somewhat like absence attacks. Regardless, there is a relative dislocation between the physical form and the inner one. There may be a tightening of the aura and secondary paralysis. Confusion and incoherence of the whole system follow. Emotional shock may cause a “clamping” or alternatively a “splaying” of key body centers (chakras). In the first case, the sufferer “has no feeling.” In the second, there is over-reaction and exaggeration of feelings. Charles Leadbeater, a talented clairvoyant of a distant generation, has given us to understand that there are energetic “webs” woven between the bodies. One of their functions is to protect them from being distracted and disturbed by potentially destructive forces. Thus, “any injury to this web is a serious disaster.… It may come either by accident or by continued malpractice. Any great shock to the astral body, such for example as a sudden terrible fright, may rend apart this delicate organism and, as it is commonly expressed, drive the man mad…. Indeed it may follow upon any exceedingly strong emotion of an evil character which produces a kind of explosion in the astral body.” Furthermore, he remarks that, “The malpractices which may more gradually injure this protective web are of two classes — the use of alcohol or narcotic drugs and the deliberate endeavour to throw open the doors which nature has kept closed, by means of such a process as is described in spiritualistic parlance as sitting for development.” (Inner Life) Alcohol and psychoactive drugs interfere with mental function in two ways: “First, the rush of volatilizing matter actually burns away the web, and therefore leaves the door open to all sorts of irregular forces and evil influences. The second result is that these volatile constituents, in flowing through, somehow harden the atom.” (The Chakras) It should be noted again that all manner of people suffer episodes of shock in their lives. Strong constitution, skills of adaptation, family support, nurturing environment, and purposive living can go a long way to respond to those shocks. Life’s lessons can be severe, but not necessarily debilitating. “God
takes us through deep waters;
not to drown us but to cleanse us.” Chronic kinds of shock seem to keep the mind of the injured individual as if that one were always half in and half out of the body – most often unsure of who, what and where things are happening. Not knowing what may be lurking around the corner or on the edge. Constantly on edge might be an appropriate way to look at the state of chronic shock, regardless of current names. Again, we are all subject to shocks throughout our lives. We should also be reminded of how commonly medics and surgeons try to use many kinds of shocks, with quite limited understanding, to treat various and sundry ills, especially of the several demented states we have surveyed. Instead of promoting gradual and natural, flowing means to replenish health, they have and still do resort to shocking therapies: •
Insulin Coma
• Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) • Magnetic Seizure Therapy • Metrazol Shock Treatment • Ketamine Treatment Psychosis. Schizophrenia is well named from the energetic consciousness point of view. Split-mind and dissociation describe these demented schizophrenic states which are debatably the most disturbing and challenging mental ills of all those that humans encounter. These terms give clues to the true nature of these profound psychoses. For the schizophrenic’s whole mind is cleft in twain even as the individual’s force centers split. It seems that psychotic individuals are from one or more angle “shocked” deeply and persistently. So that their forces become cramped and paralyzed or else wide open and defenceless. If these states should alternate, a crisis arises to cause violent action leading to delusions and hallucinations to convulsive fits, and even to physical disabilities. Schizophrenia makes daily living more than challenging. It affects the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of affected individuals. So that they are lost to reality – sometimes of two or more minds – out in space – disconnected. They no longer maintain their natural grip on objective reality. Psychotic individuals do not just slip away – pass out and then return to normalcy. But their minds become confused and fogged (a quite appropriate term). Those minds may suffer to the point of near disintegration. The less damaged ones may “merely” travel into fantastic realms unintelligible to those who live in “normal” consciousness. They also hear and see things and beings – and are often controlled by them as matters of fact but beyond their ability to understand or negotiate. Auditory and visual hallucinations which Brian Wilson and John Nash experienced are commonly part of the package. For those with developed inner senses, such wonders are not merely imagined. But, they are often manifestations of living forces in inner realms with which psychotic individuals are unprepared to confront. Amnesia.
Amnesia commonly occurs as part of other kinds of dementia. On its own, amnesia appears as a selective form of Loss of Consciousness; memory being one of the main attributes of mind. Perception, interpretation, and communication – with memory – compose the “cloud of mind” which governs human activity. It is possible for the mind to be overtaken, consumed, filled with one attribute – or to become bereft of it for a time – brief or prolonged. How those states of mind look from an inner subtle energetic view is beyond our ability to describe. We are all prone to memory losses – of varying shades and colors. Dare we look more deeply than the medical model and the brain for answers, we may well be able to find meaning for shocks, memory loss, tremors and dementia. Nature and Life work towards wholeness constantly. When we seek to see our parts therein, we may be surprised by subtle gifts that the various kinds of dementia can bring us. Parkinsonism.
Parkinson’s disorder occurs insidiously. And, it appears as an “on-again-off-again” condition of the nerves and muscles which makes motion, feelings, and speech problematic for Parkinsonians, according to the medical perspective. From a “minds-eye view,” the illness may be considered something akin to long-term hiccups of the mind-body coupling. There seems to be “a hitch in the get-along” which comes and goes, but persists and tends to progress into longer and more difficult symptoms. Michael J. Fox has remarked that he was never still prior to Parkinson’s and the state of being Still is now even harder for him to attain. He has also said while confronting his mortality that, “You don’t die from Parkinson’s; you die with Parkinson’s.” “Still Standing” or “Standing Still,” may well be appropriate as a goal for a Parkinsonian. “When
you accept your disease as ‘a challenge and a
gift,’
then the even greater miracle is the inner healing that occurs because you have found your path again.” Bernie Siegel The records suggest that the diagnosis of Parkinson’s is often a precursor to that of what is known as Alzheimer’s Dementia. Acute students will note the common path from the former variable dysfunctions to the later global malfunctions in our study. Sleeping Sickness.
Sleeping Sickness, considered as a variant of Parkinsonism, has had its own discussion in this book thanks to Oliver Sacks. It holds an unusual and almost a “special” place in the spectrum of Dementia which we have been studying. Dr. Sacks’s “sleepers” spent years to decades in states of little more than coma. They were alive, but not there. Not in their bodies. But under stimulation of music or medication or personal contact, they could slip back into their bodies and “come back to life.” Sleeping Sickness is relatively rare on the one hand and quite dramatic and imposing on the other. Dr. Sacks’s writings on the Sleeping Sickness helps us to understand dementias as problems arising far beyond the brain. Sacks, the astute neurologist, was steeped in the study of brain and nerves. But he delved much more deeply into the challenges of his Sleeping Sickness patients than all but a few of his colleagues could imagine. Then, he came to the clear conclusion that Sleeping Sickness was a whole person problem. Since Sleeping Sickness most commonly affects groups of people, it may also be a whole persons problem. And those determinations may be key to reuniting Sleepers into Waking bodies. The next step is for us to suggest that all human ills are really whole person problems and opportunities. Body, mind and soul make up the whole human and must be considered to address the different forms of dementia. This is an obvious observation recognized from Plato’s writings millennia ago. Dementia.
It should be fairly obvious by now that the name Dementia is a quite apt term for one whose mind-body function is lost or disrupted for greater or lesser periods of time. Medical scientists endeavor, although ineffectively, to differentiate forms of Dementia into brain problems – as if naming them would help in meeting and treating them. Their efforts continue to fall far short of the true state of things and useful ways to approach such conditions. “A large number of cognitive neuro-scientists are still enamored, though, by brains and bodies. As I said before, their ‘religion’ proclaims that apart from brain, there is no such thing as a human being.” Elmer Green Brain studies are inconclusive and inconsistent in dementia. Yes, Lewy bodies have been found on post-mortem in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. But, they can be found in the brains of many who are not so affected. In any case, they are effects, rather than causes of Dementia. Dementia, being relatively mindless, is often harder on family and friends than on those who are themselves absent from common “reality.” Their minds are actually occupied for large periods of times elsewhere in places only those conversant with the language of the soul can fully understand. The best we can approximate in trying to understand these people is to consider our own states of sleep. Take a moment to again picture these demented conditions as being irregular and often changing, interrupted daytime sleep states. We take Elmer Green as something of an authority because of the intimate study of his wife’s passage through dementia which he detailed in The Ozawkie Book of the Dead: Alzheimer’s Isn’t What You Think It Is – a huge three-volume work. Green came to believe and endeavored to show that Dementia “is not only a health disorder but a phenomenon of the psyche.” Thus, he tried to enter in his study into the language of the psyche. He explained that, “Alzpers (Alzheimer’s patients) are stuck in the bardo, sometimes called the ‘astral plane,’ immobilized between the mortal-soul’s often-gloomy world and the Light of the SOUL toward which they are going.” Green’s challenge was to care for his wife Alyce in the physical world while helping her ever so gently to become more conscious in the bardo (inner world) and to move toward the Light of the SOUL. His efforts were more than taxing for both of them who were then in their 70s-80s years. “In Alyce’s case, I eventually was able to get her attention by reading aloud to her various descriptions of the bardo and the Light of the SOUL, and often, even though she’d been chronically incapable of speaking, of putting even two words together in any meaningful way, as a SOUL she was able to manipulate the etheric-energy structure of her physical body and make it speak with perfect diction and syntax, supposedly without the mediation of the brain and nervous system.” Alyce Green “apparently was able to ‘channel’ HERSELF, without the benefit of a functional [brain] cortex. Surprisingly, when she ‘came out,’ even in the very last year of physical existence, she could speak with perfect grammar, perfect articulation, and perfect understanding of what I referred to when I asked questions. And instead of being inchoate and inarticulate, her voice was the smooth cultured drama-trained voice I had known when we first met!” Most relevant to our thesis, Elmer Green also made note that much of what his wife Alyce experienced likely applies to those “who suffer from any other loss of mind, be it from old age (senile dementia), or from some other kind of brain damage, aneurysm, thrombosis, stroke, head injury, whatever.” In sum: The Demented simply have lost in dramatic fashion the usual mind-body intimate coupling and cooperation – to a greater or lesser degree. The causes are manifold and often cumulative. It seems quite obvious that drugs and alcohol along with surgical procedures which require general anesthesia add to the stress on the body-mind coherence. And along with aging, they tend to make it more difficult for people to “stay in their bodies.” |
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