Does This Make You Wonder?

Not that I'm trying to be funny but this is one of my favorites and I do promise this is my last foray into religious mentality. I was going to add this to my growing list of psychoses in Parapsychology but I think it belongs here. Could this have befallen Christ or any number of famous religious figures?

It isn't new by the looks of things. Were the prophets, messiahs, scribes, etc, all afflicted? Is there a possibility that much of current religion owes its existence to the mentally ill?

Wiki

 

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Well, it's my opinion that belief in supernatural things is a psychosis anyway. (or at least a survival/evolution factor)

So why not?

 

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"The afflicted tourist begins to deliver a sermon, demanding that humanity become calmer, purer, and less materialistic.

So this is mentally ill while it's perfectly healthy to dedicate your life to celebrity fascination and the acquisition of wealth?

 

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This is what's known as Cherry Picking.

 

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M*W: Kinda reminds me of the miracles at Lourdes or the sightings at Fatima and the power of suggestion.

 

How..? :bugeye:

Those are the symptoms of true Jerusalem Syndrome according to the psychologist of that site...

 

On the contrary, imitating great personalities is a classic case of materialism (since it has its root in envy, etc)

 

Actually I don't think it was

I am trying to remember what the argument implicit in his question would be called. Haven't hit it yet.

It is, essentially, beside the point. Though I laughed when I read it. IOW state of mind's post does not function as a critique of the Jeruselum syndrome as it is used here, but it does function as a meta-critique.

EDIT: and now I have read stateofmind's response and I think he may have a point. IOW the assumption is that the tourists were in a normal state of mind before their experience. How materialistic have we determined one should be to be sane?

 

Perhaps it is in how you worded your comment.

The way I read it was as if to say, "How can preaching calmer, purer and less materialistic lifestyles be called mental illness or afliction when people dedicate their lives to materialism and chaotic drama?"

That most certainly is how it reads.

The reason it is Cherry Picking is because you zoomed in on that one quote while ignoring what makes the symptoms a mental illness in order to refute that it could be illness considering the wisdom in preaching such things in light of materialistic lifestyles.
See Doreens quoted definition of "Cherry Picking" above.

Perhaps you had not intended it that way and if you meant something totally different- please clarify.

With just that one post to go on, it reads just how I just described it.

 

Neverfly,
ah, I see, you meant Cherry picking within the single study. OK.

Though I do think even the whole syndrome, especially in the way it plays out in tourists - where it is temporary AND they know who they are, etc. - makes stateofmind's question a fair one, even if he stacked the deck with what he chose to quote.

 

Who was Denis imitating?

It only took one and look what he started.

 

Ah yes, normalcy. That concept that is so horrendously difficult to define, yet people generally like to present themselves as knowing full well the distinction between normal and non-normal, and most of all, that they themselves are, of course, normal.


As for the tourists - What sane, normal person would go to Jerusalem for mere tourist purposes to begin with ...

 

He didn't start anything that wasn't already there in those people who went along with him.


There are plenty of examples where one or a handful of people does something - but the majority does not follow. Such as recycling, frugal use of water, electricity etc.

 

Oh come on.
What do you suppose is driving the "sense of divinity"?

(On a side note, there have probably been about at least a dozen prominent - and unsuccessful - incarnations of kalki in the past 25 years)

 

Well there is a lot of history there -- as confused as it may be....

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nope, it doesn't make me wonder, people with that syndrome exist today but aren't running around as prophets, nor are they recognized as prophets.

better luck next time.

 

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M*W: I think that people who go to these religious sites are spiritually empty and looking for something to fill that gap. I have been to Lourdes and several other religious sites, but I didn't fall in that trap (even when I was a christian). If I went to Jerusalem, I doubt I would end up with the Jerusalem syndrome, but that's just me.

There's got to be some unfulfilled need in the psyche to be caught up in this type of syndrome.

 

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M*W: Although I've never been to Jerusalem, I have Jewish friends who have and Jewish friends who go every year. Both have said that it's a stinking nasty, horrible place to go and, aside from the usual bombings, it's not exactly a tourist wonder. There are all kinds of cults, christian and otherwise, who have ended up there, and one literally has to fight them off, because they won't leave you alone, making the actual touring of the sites unpleasant. I won't be going anytime soon. No Jerusalem syndrome for me.

 

My point is that the people who went to Jerusalem or some other traditional place of religious pilgrimage, and then manifested the "Jerusalem Syndrome", most likely were not indifferent, religiously neutral tourists.

I am quite sure they went there with some more or less clear religious motive already, so that when they manifested the "Jerusalem Syndrome", I suspect this wasn't something that befell them right there, but was a continuation of something that started already back at their home.

 

Actually, I think you are the perfect candidate for a "Jerusalem Syndrome".
All your fierceness and conflicts - they are just waiting to erupt.

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