Posted by Pasti on Apr 23, 2002 at 01:54
(64.10.124.193)
Re: God on the Brain (Mike Kremer)
Was Joan of Arc really psychotic?She was a poor peasant girl, who had great powers of persuasion. For a woman at that time to be given the leadership of the French army. Lead her army into battle and defeated the English, was no mean feat. She became a national heroine (and still is) and was certainly the reason that Charles VI became King of France.Unfortunately she was betrayed (for money?) and handed over to the British (who still held parts of France) who hated her. They tortured her, put her to the rack and burnt her alive in 1431.She was just nineteen years old! Guess anyone would become psychotic after that treatment."
Joan's of Arc psychosis is indeed a debatable issue, and you can see it in several different ways.
Judging with the "mind" we have now,and given the extent and obsession of her actions and self-belief in her own purpose,I guess someone might consider her phychotic.I do not concur to this ideea, and that for a very simple reason.She couldn't have done what she did only by herself.
It is very likely that she was exploited by the different "power circles"(read clergy) at the time (which wouldn't have been very difficult since as you say she was only a peasant girl), who advertised her in the country, and once she achieved her purpose, or once she became too dangerous for one reason or another, she was eliminated.And I don't mean that in the "conspiracy theory" way, but in the way politics was done in the 15th century.The historic "truth" that we know is necessarily a partial one.
Moreover,doesn't her story remind you of a very similar story that happened about 15 centuries before Joan D'Arc,with the only difference that the central figure was a male? Think about this aspect.
"Interesting, with a certain amount of truth.....
but wrong mold.The mold that gave hundreds the visions of Christ and other religious experiences, was of course Ergotamine, a black mould that only grows upon damp rye, from which the bread was made.It's one of the most powerful natural haluciogenic drugs around. It has a very powerful effect upon the human mind ie Visions (but not on animals)(i have no time at the moment...but search for ERGOT+RYE...I bet you will be surprised at the info that comes up) Or ask Amaranth Rose, bet she has heard about it."
I guess you dwelled too much in the example I gave.It had nothing to do with mold,or hallucinogenic mushrooms for that matter.But you are right,there are several religious rites/circles that use this sort of incentives to provide "shortcuts along the path of faith" for their believers.
Moreover,incantations repeated over and over and over can also produce this type of beatitude effects (try repeating a phrase over and over, concentrating only on it, and you can see for yourself that you become at least dizzy).
I only tried(unsuccessfully it seems)to give an example of the silly studies and correlations that some people make in what they call studies on various issues, only to serve a certain purpose,and with no actual value.You can try and make statistics and correlations between any two issues, but that does not mean that it also signifies something (in the general case at least).
You could for example correlate the fertility period of geese with the frequency of a pulsar, or with the precession of Mercury's perihelion, and it is very likely this correlation will not be exactly zero.But it means nothing.
Re: God on the Brain DA Morgan 23/4 02:06
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