Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness, and it turns out that most of us have many of the symptoms describing it.
Meaning of the Word Schizophrenia
The word schizophrenia combines the Greek words skhizein ("split") and phren ("mind”). Some people confuse this with multiple personality disorder—now called DID, or dissociative identity disorder—but the diagnosis of schizophrenia as used in mental health circles does not mean a split of the personality from itself.
Schizophrenia means:
- a split of the self from reality.
- faulty perception of real events and people.
- a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior.
- inappropriate feelings, judgments, and actions.
- withdrawal from reality.
- withdrawal from personal relationships into fantasy and delusion.
- a sense of mental fragmentation.
Schizophrenia is a severe mental health disorder, which usually requires a lifetime of heavy medications that are reserved only for that illness.
Schizophrenia = Emptiness and Fear
Ironically, the symptoms of schizophrenia are VERY similar to the symptoms of people who are afflicted with everyday emptiness and fear—which are so common that they are scarcely noticed.
Let’s look at the list above and see how close it is to the one below that describes most of us, much of the time. When we are empty and afraid, we experience:
- a split of the self from reality. We are TAUGHT from birth that we are less than completely lovable—by way of words, tone, facial expressions, and more on the occasions when we make mistakes and cause inconvenience to others. We are TAUGHT that we are defective, and that we must earn love. These are ALL LIES that separate us from the reality that we ARE unconditionally lovable, and that our mistakes are just part of the process of learning, and that we are one enormous celestial miracle.
- faulty perception of real events and people. This false idea of ourselves—which was given to us—distorts our perception of EVERYTHING. We see people, events, and relationships through a smoked and twisted glass.
- a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior. Living in emptiness and fear, our feelings are distorted from the beginning, after which our emotions and behaviors follow.
- inappropriate feelings, judgments, and actions. We feel worthless, which is not consistent—it’s inappropriate—with the laws that govern the universe. With these feelings, how could we accurately judge anything, or choose behaviors that are healthy?
- withdrawal from reality. What we are taught is simply NOT TRUE, and at a young age we had no choice but to believe the lies. So, from early infancy we withdraw more and more from reality.
- withdrawal from personal relationships into fantasy and delusion. With our faulty beliefs, judgments, feelings, and behaviors, we steadily separate from the possibility of healthy relationships. We live in a world of lies, fantasy, confusion, and delusion.
- a sense of mental fragmentation. We absolutely cannot make sense of all the craziness that is created by the constant conflict between reality—a world of order and truth and love—and the world we were taught, and which we continue to live. Our heads—even our souls—explode into pieces we often cannot re-combine.
Such is the power of emptiness and fear.
Are We Doomed?
Is our daily schizophrenia untreatable? Are we doomed to wander in a state of separation forever? Nah.
We were TAUGHT principles that separated us from a universe of truth and unconditional love, and then everything we thought or did, along with every relationship we had, was completely distorted by the lies we were taught.
And there, in that one word—lies—is the solution. We were taught lies.
Now we need only be taught the truth about ourselves, and to be loved unconditionally, and to learn to be loving and responsible, and then we are guaranteed to be happy. We are certain to be one with the indescribable beauty of the universe. There is no eternal schizophrenia.
Save Your Children from Generalized Schizophrenia
Once we have learned that we CAN be consistently happy with love and with the truth, we have the opportunity to save our children from the generalized schizophrenia of the world.
We can teach them while they are young—at a time when they learn more easily and with greater depth. We can teach them to live in harmony with eternal principles that will enable them to achieve happy lives.
Summary
From early infancy we were taught—however unintentionally—that we were not unconditionally lovable, which put us at odds with the eternal and delightful fabric of the universe.
In this state of separation from reality, our judgments, feelings, and behaviors were distorted and miserable.
We can learn to feel loved, and to be loving, and to be responsible, and thus we can be eternally happy, always in harmony with the universe, and separated from nothing but darkness and pain.
