Furious Seasons

August 07, 2007

Bipolar Disorder Or Meeting The Sacred?

A Canadian living in Brazil named Sean passed along a YouTube video of his yesterday. He's done a series of videos explaining his belief that his bipolar disorder, which he was diagnosed with in 1996, was in fact a spiritual awakening of sorts. Or as he puts it on his new blog:

"My 'crisis', which I had over 10 years ago, was, by far, the most important and beneficial experience of my entire life. It was a true awakening of monumental proportions. Why? Because I was lucky enough to block out all of that bullshit and follow the apparently insane voice which was inside of me. I rejected the opinions and analysis of everyone - the psychiatrists, my parents, the police. I know the sacred when I meet it.
"This blog and all of the attached videos and links are dedicated to all of those people who have been stigmatized as being mentally ill, when in fact, the opposite was happening to you.

"You were not going crazy, you were just waking up!"

The first of his videos is below. The other four in the series may be found here. I haven't had time to watch all of his videos yet, but I am deeply sympathetic to the view that alleged mental illnesses may, in fact, be a spiritual awakening of sorts. In Sean's case, he wound up in a psych hospital while he was in the midst of going through a Landmark Forum course. I'll keep my thoughts on Landmark to myself as, like the Church of Scientology, they get rather touchy and all legalistic when anyone says anything about them.

Here's Sean.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at August 7, 2007 12:03 AM

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Comments

These videos really spoke to me. My manic episodes were radically spiritual and I believe I was forced to stop a natural process as Sean's process seemed to be. I'm setting that straight now.

Posted by: Giana at August 7, 2007 07:38 AM

Hey I know this is totaly off track here and unrelated to your post but....

would you be interested in doing some investigative reporting on why some states require specificaly (with threats of imprisionment for not disclosing) that you disclose if you have a MI and/or taking any psyche meds for it. The they send that info off to someone in the capital to get the okay or no-go on your DL.

Personaly I think this is a from of discrimination (and yes I know they do it to epileptics to). What they should be asking is : do you have ANY illness/impairment or are you on ANY medications that may impair your ability to drive and/or make you unsafe on the road.... if you do please attach a letter from your doctor explaining the extent of this impairment.

I mean there are sooo many illnesses that could rate above MI as putting people in a bad state for driving.... I just don't get WHY they feel they need to single out MI. Maybe there is a good reason, a good intention behind this, but I'd like to know what the reasoning is. If there is any sense to it or if it is just ignorant stereotyping on the part of lawmakers.

And think about this, does this info go into your DMV file? can a cop pull it up and see you have an MI? Couldn't that be a very bad thing depending on the cop?

This came up on a forum I use (NJ is the state they said they live in and is requiring this info to get a DL) . Some people seem to think it's not a big deal, but I honestly think it stinks of discrimination and could cause some serious problems for people depending on how the info is used and who gets access to it.

It's just something I think it would be good to know more about, and I know you are good at getting to the bottom of things so I thought I'd mention it here.

Anyone want to share if thier state requires they disclose thier MI in order to get a drivers license??

Posted by: katie at August 7, 2007 11:35 AM

hmmm, acid in the soft drinks maybe?

Posted by: anonymous mom at August 7, 2007 12:24 PM

im sorry to hear about how you were treated by the docs...
although you must see that landmark itself is also not interested in you as a person, they all about the almighty control, and they are as bad as organized religion. its brain washing.

your manic episode was brought about by meditation and relaxation of the mind.
you may not have had another episode yet and well i hope that you dont. but i hope you can leave your mind open to the fact that you are bipolar. meds or not- get help.
you did have a "sacred" experience if it was that for you. but you seem to me Sean that you need to connect spiritually with yourself.
i hope that you will do so.

peace

Posted by: whitecat at August 14, 2007 11:12 AM