It has occurred to me on more than one occasion that insanity could be the antidote to culture. Perhaps people with a mental illness are tapping into something that the rest of us don’t and can’t see, not because we’re not capable of it, but because we are too programmed by the belief system of the dominant culture to perceive it. In other words, we are too distracted.
In Varieties of Religious Experience, William James offered his own interpretation on the matter. He believed that people suffering from these states were having a profound spiritual experience whose ultimate goal was to strengthen them in a way that nothing else could.
If this is true, then what we are doing when we intervene with drug therapy is we are taking away the crucible of the soul’s learning and whitewashing the connection to the void; wiping away the anxiety and torment of the moment, but also erasing the possibility for spiritual transformation.
I can’t prove it, and it could be total bullshit. But it has occurred to me on several occasions over the years that it could also be true.
