One major problem is the cultural context in which they lay. For example, in today’s Okinawa, where Western psychology is not the norm, some people who would be labeled as experiencing psychoses are labeled as having kami daarii (Literally, attacked by spirits.) Those with kami daarii either seek out a shaman to be cured, or believe they are called to be a shaman. Hence, the culture changes the diagnosis of each, making the division difficult. Yet it should be pointed out that even Okinawa’s Shaman delineate those needing a cure from those needing spiritual development.
To assist us in our severance, we do well here to ask, how were each seen in the past? Because words are used to represent objects and ideas, it can be useful to trace the origin of a word to its beginnings to understand how they were conceptualized long ago. So, let us now do this with spiritual, and insane.
The word “spiritual” comes from the Latin word, spiritualis. Although in its most strict sense, it refers to the breath, it was understood to represent the unseen worlds and invisible forces that controlled people, places, and things. The word “sane” comes from the Old English sain and sane and refers to the practice of placing the “sign” of the cross on people, places, and things to cast out demons. This word is the root in Saint and also the word from which we derive the term insane: or in other words demon filled.
Prior to the 1800s the common wisdom was that both spirituality and madness came from the same place: The Spirits. People who were Spiritual: Saints, were viewed as being able to exercise control over the unseen forces that acted on this world, while those who were insane were under the control of evil forces. At that time, spiritual people acted as our modern day psychiatrists and psychologists.
Here, the division of control between people who were classified as spiritual or insane is important to note. Those who were “in control” of the forces were spiritual, while those “under control” of the forces were insane. In the 1800s these ideas were challenged, and by the turn of the 20th century, such people as Sigmund Freud and William James concluded that spiritual and psychotic perceptions come from the same place. Today’s current investigators of the brain arrive at the same conclusion. It appears that the brain generates both psychotic and spiritual experiences; however, it is still not clear how or why it does either. Yet, the early division between the mentally healthy and the mentally ill remains the same: those who have control over brain processes are healthy, and those under the brain’s control are considered ill.
Having control, and being controlled, directly relate to one’s ability to perceive, process, and respond to the world, others, and oneself in a constructive, as opposed to destructive, manner. And so it is that functionality is the most credible diviner between the two. The road of psychopathy leads to disintegration and dysfunction, where spiritualpathy leads to integration and higher functionality.
Many of those known as saints in various religions and throughout time, who have seen visions, heard voices, and talked with and touched the celestial presence, displayed themselves as highly functional people in the face of tortuous circumstances. They overcame both persecutor and persecution while supplying aid, comfort, direction, and hope to others. Their lives are often studied by both the spiritual and atheistic as models for self-improvement, while those labeled as Psychotic seldom serve as such a model.
Yet, not all of those who are considered spiritual are filled with inner harmony and peace. Some are tormented with profound darkness, inexplicable despair, and relentless doubts concerning the very existence of their God. We tend to associate these qualities with those who are mentally ill. But what makes these individuals of great interest here is how they maintain functionality under internal conditions that would severely cripple others. On their outsides flows the spring of normality, empathy, and helpfulness while their inner world harbors oceans of hell. It is not, then, surprising that studies have found that people labeled as psychotic will turn to religious practices to help manage their condition and increase their functionality.
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