Religious and Spiritual Experiences & the Bipolar Disorder
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- Опубликовано: 8 июл 2024
- Eva Ouwehand, M. Theol. Hospital chaplain Altrecht Mental Health Care, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Research on religious and spiritual experiences and bipolar disorder, Groningen University, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.
Audio text:
This video is about religious experience and bipolar disorder
It shows the results of a research project at Groningen University in the Netherlands.
People with bipolar disorder can have experiences they view as religious or spiritual. Such experiences can make a strong impression on them. They usually occur during mania.
During mania, people experience the presence of God for example, or the presence of a divine reality. Sometimes they feel strongly connected or even united with nature, with humanity as a whole, with the universe or with the divine. Others feel they have an important mission in the world, or think they are an influential religious person. Another experience reported, is the feeling of synchronicity. Nothing is perceived as coincidental anymore.
Such experiences often go hand in hand with manic symptoms. The manic ‘drive’ sometimes ensures that people endlessly immerse themselves in such spiritual experiences, desiring to capture their meaning or to change the whole world. During mania, people can be very sensitive to other worlds and spheres. This can be experienced so strongly that they get lost. Positive experiences can take a turn in frightening ones, for example the experience of dissolution of the ego.
During depression the absence of faith or spirituality is a recurring condition. The beautiful spiritual experiences that were enjoyed during mania have now totally disappeared. People feel an absolute emptiness. Trust and hope are absent. Spirituality plays no or only a minor role and some people feel abandoned by God. If trust indeed is present, then more as a recollection than as an actual feeling. When people need hospital treatment, or are getting medication, this can make them feel cut off their religious experiences. This can also happen when somebody gets depressed, after a manic episode.
For many a quest begins. Are my experiences genuinely spiritual? Or are they primarily a consequence of the disorder? It is often not easy to find an answer to that question. It is not possible to talk with everybody about the subject. People sometimes feel reluctant to talk about religious experiences with their therapist, because the experiences might be seen as pathological. And when you are looking for an answer on the internet, many different and often contradictory explanations can be found.
In the research we have done, people had different reactions to their experiences.
Some people want to distance themselves as much as possible from their experiences. They view them as unrealistic and related to the illness. It is also possible that someone’s partner and family want to prevent the diagnosed patient from getting too much involved in spirituality or faith. This can be a reason for keeping at a distance from such experiences or even for abandoning faith or spirituality all together.
A second group views their experiences as a spiritual crisis. Such experiences are an attempt of the soul to cope with trauma or unfinished business from the past. Therefore this group thinks it is important to pay attention to the meaning of the experiences. They are an expression of important issues in life. The experiences are a chance for spiritual growth, in the view of this group.
The largest group in the study, consists of people who regard their experiences as both authentically spiritual ánd related to the disorder. Such experiences are doorways to a higher dimension, but the disease hijacks and distorts them. Or, for other people, they are very special experiences, but difficult to integrate in daily life when recovered.
Communication about religious experience is important. To talk about its meaning with unprejudiced listeners. Contact with peers who recognize your story because they have experienced similar things can be supportive as well
Many people report that finding a balance between too much and too little involvement in spirituality is crucial. Faith and spirituality have to stay grounded. Some people with a long history of bipolar disorder, reported that their involvement in religious experience in the initial phase of the disease was over the top. Through trial and error they had learned to see the experiences in perspective. To many they remain important experiences which reveal something about the nature of reality and men’s destination in the world. 
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I experience Bipolar 1 (formally diagnosed 5 years ago) and when I was in a mania, I felt the veil to the spiritual world was thin. Meaning, I felt and experienced that I could communicate to those on the other side and the other side could communicate with me (for those in my life who've passed on). It was, what my counselor called, a human having an extraordinary human experience or out-of-the-ordinary human experience which helped me to feel accepted and heard in that moment. This video also affirmed this for me and reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend about being closer to the spiritual world when we are in mania.
You're not alone! It's so great to read that someone else is experiencing the same things as me. I have been experiencing the what I perceive to be a connection to 'the other side,' too. You used the word "affirmed." I have been seeking affirmation/validation.. only in hopes that someone could relate.. and tell me that I'm not crazy. Videos like this and comments like yours are SO encouraging. Good luck on your journey to self-discovery.
Mania was one of the greatest gifts of truth and empathy and intelligence that totally enhanced me permanently
I’m so glad someone made a study on this.
How dare them label bipolar and the truth of God as bipolar . What a joke it’s the exact same experience as taking LSD but sober
Well said brother, perfectly said actually
After experiencing it, you can have calm times and be simply be one with the universe.
I am 100 percent sure that god has provided me with complete bliss and it changed my life. I don’t have to wonder if GOD is real. I know for a fact
GOD bless
Wow you hit the nail right on the head. For twenty years I thought my manic episodes we spiritual , I didn't even think that I had a mental disorder.
Once every couple of years I would experience all these supernatural occurrences. So naturally I thought it was God related. I mean my voice would change , I would sing and dance like no other. All these crazy coincidences would happen. I would even drink poison to prove that it was God. This would last close to a year each time then I would crash and be sooo depressed for at least 3 years before I would get the 'spirit' again.
Now I've been diagnosed with bipolar and I'm so confused but it's nice to know that people have been through the same thing
There is a religious experience and then there are delusions. Learn to differentiate between the two.
@@terramarseglia2323 I don't think it's that cut and dry.
You find the spirit through Faith.
There is many Doubts thrown at us in the world and if we take them on, we get further away from Faith.
Trust your intuition enough to do whats right, cast away the doubts with faith that you will endure the process.
When you do you'll be blessed.
When we get blessed, we see that our faith is paid off.
Mania is so profound to grab our attention and teach us that we are blessed through Faith.
You aren't crazy
@@terramarseglia2323 AMEN God bless you and your family in JESUS name AMEN
the ancient Greeks used to consider bipolar disorder as a divine gift from the gods! A divine gift! Wow! That’s WAY different than how we are looked at today. How fascinating. “Mania” and “melancholia” were among the first two diseases ever categorized. Even Socrates and Plato understood that mania was a divine state with various characteristics such as “erotic inspiration” sent from the god of love or “proteptic inspiration” derived from the Muses. They even go on to say that the god Apollo is the source of this divine inspiration! If the greatest minds of all time said that that’s good enough for me ✌️
The Greeks were right.
@@faysmith7248 ruclips.net/user/shortsImCQ-btp9yQ?feature=share
It is a gift to bad I experience it only a few minutes at a time
It's true. Science is not always right
@@iamthefiremanjjnot bipolar then
Why is this sooo common among bipolar mania...what if it IS a spiritual episode, THEY just call u delusional or bipolar ?
I wish, but there is way more other things going on then just spiritual break throughs… Like cheating on your spouse, spending too much money, racing thoughts, insomnia, ect.
Terrific perspective that matches my own experiences with BP1. I had a very strong religious fixation during my manias which were tampered by depression and medication.
Uh oh
Look samadhi you’re not sick
@@AmyRdz I think it is a failed connection to what your referring to as samadhi
@@ServantoftheLord2007 what do you mean??
@@AmyRdz meaning I think at one point we achieved samadhi but lack of discipline in sin messed up the connection and now everything is an attempt to get that back, but it won’t go back.
I believed i was a prophet up until i was medicated.i was really happy during that time now god was speaking to me and showing me things now I question it all
Yup been there a few times. When my heightened spiritual state(or hypomania) crosses over into full blown grandiose mode (im some famous mystic/religious figure) then the nastier delusions appear. Guess simple sleep loss and the inevitable nutrient deficiencies are to blame, and burnout.
Cant help but wonder what a person in this state could achieve if guided through mania and brought down with the right medications/preparations. If the spirituality questing where appropriately tempered. Traditionally, in terms of at least a few thousand years, opiates would most likely have been the most effective brake for mania.
When manic I long for a community, some newly formed religious order, where space can be held for a person undergoing the revelatory state, to listen to the wisdom and truth that emerges from the fountainhead, the human voice connecting the planes like an antenna to heaven.
Then I'll sleep at some point and wonder what happened to the last month or two and where it all went wrong.
Alcohol and weed have traditionally been my downfalls in the 26 years since my first episode. Sullying an energy that could be potentially be tamed, to somehow be put to pofound but humble use instead of ending broken down and alone.
Possible, but takes discipline. Enough years of suffering till you change your ways is a good way out if your lucky. Bipolar and addictions are no joke. Takes skill to handle fire is suppose! Noble work though, life is hard enough without having spiritual lasers beam out your eyes every few years.
The synchronicities are Real. There is definitely something divine about mania. It is not imagined, it is not over excitement or delusion. I have had 3 manic episodes, I was not sure the first 2 times, I am very sure now. There is some type of entanglement, some type of law of attraction thing going on.
Completely agree 💯
I agree from personal experience as well. There is a deep revealing of the nature of reality and God that is simply glossed over as a psychiatric episode
I remember driving while truly manic for the first time, and every little thing seemed to fit together and make perfect sense. Like understanding the minute detail of everything on an external level. I was taking anti-depressants and still smoked weed at the time, so mostly wrote it off. Something undeniable about that experience though.
💯 It’s the best/worst gift ever.
Same here. The third 'episode' is when everything became more clear to me than ever before. The first one was frightening. 'Synchronicities' ARE real. Spirits are guiding us.
In mania, I become obsessed with spirituality. All I want to do is study and read about ALL the religions. I’m very interested in the mystic traditions associated with different religions. I’ve seen spirits, I’ve seen dark entities. When I go into depression, I still hold the belief that the divine is still here, it’s all just part of the cycle. I carry my rituals into depression as well, as meditation and prayer can be done, even when you can’t get out of bed.
When I had my manic episodes I felt as if I knew everything and refused to believe in coincidences (everything had a connection) which was attributable to delusion and their imbalance/tumultuous experiences emphasised by my need to feel god's presence despite not having a very religious background. In my case, religion is like an intangible 4th dimension where aspects of the community, looking for help, feeling inner peace, etc are all interrelated.
So you're saying that in this vast universe nothing is connected? Science has already disproven that time and time again! It sounds to me like you are parroting what you heard someone else say.
Like the presentation pointed out, there is a place of balance. I am a non-religious person who had an intense spiritual experience during my first and only manic episode. Everything did feel connected. And though I think one can draw delusional conclusions about this concept, I am beginning to believe that this is a fundamental truth about the nature of reality. I think we, especially in Western Civilization, like to categorize everything... put everything in it's own box. And though this has practical application, we tend to lose sight of the interconnectedness of our world. This why we think we can deal devastating blows our planets ecology without ramification. What I mean to say is... there is a middle ground. Things are interconnected. Mania, meditation, psychedelics, and religious fervor for some people can induce states of abnormal consciousness that help us see that. But we also have to keep our feet on the ground and not get swept away.
@@couchsurfingsam Yup
We learn balance with lots of falls
I had the same thing like evertthing was connected and there where no coincidences
Another Bipolar here! all my experiences checks with all expressed in this video. to my fellow friends, you are not alone.
Excellent analysis. So balanced and helpful!! Totally agree
Hello I am 32 years old and am continuing to have spiritual experiences as I am recovering from anxiety and depression . I thought it was mania or bi polar but in my heart I just can’t believe it to be true . Hello everyone I have been having consistent feelings of just merging with everything and embodying the state of oneness and love more and more often . I do not meditate, but I keep coming back home to realzize “here I AM” it makes regular life feel pointless unless I am feeling that love and bliss . What can we do as people to abide in that state of being as much as possible ? I have never felt so alive and in love I. My entire life and every time it happens I feel like everything is sacred and that I’m being held and guided always by something so big and indestructible. Please if you can share any guidance I would love to help myself and help others recognize this state of being as soon as possible .
Bliss body for me was a state of euphoria coupled with a complete perfect awareness of everything around me and a sense of non existence and complete oneness with what is along with a feeling of connection to something unexplained. It’s pure joy better than any feeling I had from any drug it was exactly the feeling of ego death you get on LSD that was it for me
I am continuing to realize my infinite nature and don’t want to numb this with pills as it comes and goes for sometimes a few minutes or longer the more I let go and become aware of this moment . If someone can please reach out. I can’t explain this state of pure honesty and love and selflessness .
Here I am
This is without any drugs 100% sober too I’ve used LSD and drugs in the past and it’s the exact same experience as ego death but sober .
I didn’t have these at all when I was younger only now at age 32
What you describe closely matches states of deep meditation.
Hi I’m also 32 and finding myself feeling/thinking exactly the same way.
The spirituality part is almost always talked out of us by some innocent bystander who doesn't know what's going on! If you are an important mission from God, please help yourself to remember that we are all children of God for we are not thousands of years old as as we age remind yourselves that we are one with God souly by the consciousness we have within and if you are on the level of playing field that I am in, I would like to welcome you to mania and what we call our mission to God to NEVER BACK DOWN! GOD BLESS AMEN!
what should i read
I thought I was LITERALLY Jesus’s little brother. Sent here only because “if Christ had to come, I have to come to” my true home was heaven and I was sent here to suffer the same persecution as Christ just without the death and resurrection part. This is just one of the many personalities I develop during mania
I’ve never felt this, my mania is a feeling of overstimulation and anxiety.
I view my experiences as my moments to organize my trauma, I’m hopeful to be able to do so.
you probably have bipolar 1 , bipolar 1 mania is more severe than bipolar 2
Thank you for your balanced contribution, Eva. 🙏✨❤️🌻🕊
Para revisar, cómo la ignorancia nos cataloga como bipolares en episodio maniaco…que belleza!!
💯 it’s the best gift wrapped in the veil of a curse.
TWO TRUTHS CAN EXIST
WE LIVE IN A MENTALLY ILL GAME THAT MAKES US AND BLAMES US FOR COPING WITH THE LACK OF LIGHT, TRUTH ANS LOVE THAT WE ARE ATTUNED TO
Please help me
nice, that anyone can tell bout that and another like u..it can be healthless, so,, good,, to ,be ,,,continue , , ,-)
What a wonderful film! I hope that talking about these topics, such as the presence of God, becomes mainstream in the mental health sector. And I hope that we all contribute to create a better and fairer world. A world in which all children can play.
I fail to see how the presence of God would prevent children from playing. I guess that depends on how you define "God".
I'd like to know if trauma in your life can lead up to being sensitive to the Universe. Can and do Normal Person's have these type of spiritual perceptions where they feel extremely connected to the Universe, synchronicities, and beyond...
I would like to Expand on this thought too 💜⚡️ because I feel very connected to life… I am on here researching and educating myself for a family member who after 15 years is going through an episode and it’s been 3 days so far… 😮💨.
Yes, it can. The answers can be found when viewed from the religious perspective.
🎯
Great video thank you so much!
It would've been interesting, if it was some researches of people involved in tradition. Who was raised in culture that deals with "other" states of consciousness for thousands of years. Because, I suspect that the layer of people who complain about their religious experience to psychoanalysts is not so great (because this practice of communication requires special education among Western culture) as compared to those who would not even think of complaining and even devoted their life's developing such states of mind. These people would be really interesting subject, because they are beyond our discourse, so there is no significant intersection with them.
Turns out all prophets are bipolar. Faint line btw mental illness and spirituality
This is very validating..
I relate with both sides of relgious aspect but i am not so crazy so idk what is wrong with me
I love the content of this video and info but I gotta throw this out there. No body can state as fact that mental disorders especially ones like bi polar are either a peek into a spiritual world or the bi product of a mental disorder. There is no test to take that tells us that we are positive or negative for bi polar disease. Only way too diagnose it is too compare characteristics and or symptoms of normal human behavior to that of a person having abnormal behavioral experience but who sets the standards for normal? It could be argued that the majority of what this video says is only based on the theory’s of human behavior. We do know for a fact that every single human brain is differently wired in ways we can only speculate. On the outside the majority all have similar senses being that of smell, taste, touch, eye sight, hearing. If you have ever blown a dog whistle around dogs you realize that there must be all sorts of things that exist but does not exist because you can’t hear it or see it but it’s there all around you. Long story short I don’t think we can say these manic experiences are anymore a trick of the mind caused by an illness or a brief moment of enlightenment or a collective cosmic consciousness per say.
Anyone can feel a connection with nature, and the higher ways of Nature. But if you're a sick, perverted, delusional sycophant, you're going to gravitate toward a god who is hell bent on revenge. THAT'S where delusions set in. You'll notice that the Catholic Church (and yes I am aware of its foibles but chalk that up to greedy men wanting to control and use others for their own selfish gain and not on the religion itself) really tends to focus on the message of Jesus and his love, whereas your average Pat Robertson or Jack Van Impe wants a God who will destroy all of humankind so they don't have to take responsibility for their shit "Oh the devil is at work here..." BULLSHIT!
@@terramarseglia2323 I hear ya, John of Patmos wrote the book of Revelations in a jail cell after his town was destroyed probably why it came out so dark and delusional. I’ve come from a Christian up bringing but kinda bailed about three years ago when I began to see everything different. The wrong man using the right intentions will destroy anything just like the road too hell is paved with good intentions. Everything from the stars and planets in space down to the atom and sub particles in them, there is a positive a neutral and a negative. Light implies darkness just like good implies bad and the Truth implies a Lie, because of this we will always have too settle for half truths and half lies you can’t have one without the other in this reality that I see.
@@truthandthelight4041 Okie dokie.
@@terramarseglia2323 That’s what I should have said.
This is a great summary of a balanced approach to some very complex issues. To explore these issues in more detail, and how to address them in treatment, I created the online course "Addressing Spiritual Issues Within Treatment for Psychosis and Bipolar recoveryfromschizophrenia.org/addressing-spiritual-issues-within-treatment-for-psychosis-and-bipolar-disorder-an-online-course/
Ron Unger , hi. Thank you for offering this very interesting course. I am diagnosed with BD1 and hold a MA in Counseling. I work part-time. I followed the link and Udemy offered me the course for $40. When I was about to buy it from my account it changed into $159.99. Is there a way I can join for $40? Thank you and blessings.
@@luciamoralescarnicero699 If you use this link you should be able to get it for $40 as long as you sign up before 4/12/2020 - www.udemy.com/course/spiritual-issues-psychosis-and-bipolar/?couponCode=40TILL4-12-20
Drop disorder take up reordering c
This lead me into leading a church I had planted. Where I had the worst episode id ever had my 2nd year of leading this church.
I did not have any diagnosis at the time, and was treated as tho I had demons.
Samadhi is not an illness 😉✨ ignorance and need of control of the depply sick society…the matrix feels treat ✨🥳
It’s the desire to save and fix that which is obviously completely devastated which the doctors and the law enforcement can’t look past their personal understandings of minute experience to understand. I get what your saying.
ruclips.net/user/shortsImCQ-btp9yQ?feature=share
Two things: 1) Know yourself and
2) Bio-feedback.
If some quack thinks I am pathological that is really THEIR fucking problem. I'm not paying them $200 an hour to tell me I'm fucked in the head and that no trauma caused it.
Its been 6 years being diagnosed with mental illness, first it was psychosis, then schizophrenia then now bipolar. I thought I heard Gods voice telling me I was St Michael the archangel and also the devils intentions. It was very spiritual. Hence why I blame sin for the cause of my bipolar and illness. Its sin that kills everything in my opinion, if you don't get right with Jesus you're going to suffer. I had a recent relapse and went back into hospital. I thought I was going to hell with all the supernatural occurances. Right now I think it was another episode which is not real but real in the spirit realm.
I agree. Sin and trauma.
When the 'intense phase' wears off , you are left alone with logic and reason to cover up the mess mania put forth in front of you. You never suspect it in 'the phase', but always after it. Spiritual awakening some do say huh, what if you live in a Muslim hometown as I do, and become subject to 5 times prayer, festival of sacrifice, and believing the arabic Quran and jihadist Mohammed etc. Would you still consider it as a gift from god ('Allah!') or would you consider yourself lucky for getting over it with little scrathes as possible ?
If it was God directing me then where the hell he disappeared! Does he have a prepaid phone, or to visit all the 'spiritually gifted' accross all universes thee is on a strict schedule? Then why do I feel abandoned or even deceived every time!!
First things first, treat it as a bio-chemistry. After then you may cover up your philosophical, theological, existensial or even imaginary queries around it as subsidiaries. But reality is, you have a situation which is permanent and beyond your n-dimensional limits to grasp and control. I don't advise pharma-medical care first hand because I have bad experiences over it (age 40) but Just to warn you Pinocchio. Even this beautiful video is misleading.
Yeah we wouldn't want to change this fucked up world now would we? ;)
People get "depressed" because manic episodes are exhausting man! Ya' need some damned sleep after one! I mean this is really basic physiology. Something I should think a "doctor" would know! Fuck I have a degree in English Literature and I know enough to know that if a child stays up all night, she's going to want to sleep the whole next day. Where do these people go to medical school? Out of a cracker jack box?
Bullshit! Just because you don't understand something doesn't make it a delusion.
Exactly
Omg. So glad I'm not the only one. We're normal guys 😅
@@faysmith7248 we are awake
Not a good video
Nice try satan.
Absolutely 😆
@DJ Surferdude nice try CIA
@@theagnosticdeist3373 you have no idea what you are talking about
I've been having spiritual experiences and I do not think I'm bipolar. BUT, here is the thing. The synchronicities that I have had are insanely unlikely to be by chance alone, if they are. For example, one night I wrote an ex narcissist I was with for 9 years who discarded and ghosted me for many months, as they all do,, that I'm in hell and she needs to come and save me like Robin Williams did in what dreams may come (I was depressed af!!!)
Well, the next day, I picked up my newer gf (some "crazy" girl who told me she was my soulmate), and we went to a mall. She went to the bathroom at a food court, and I opened my email and reread it. Of course there was no responce (I didn't get the hoover for months)... but when my new gf came back to where I was sitting, she said, "hey, this is gonna sound crazy, but I have this feeling I have to go to hell to save you" Now, that girl said crazy things, such as, on our first date she told me she travels out of her body with the help of an angel and she has a spirit guide. But. What in the absolute f- how did she say such a weird thing about hell literally seconds after I reread what I emailed my ex the night before??? Also, in the movie, only a soulmate can save a person from hell...
I asked her later if she ever saw that movie and she had no idea what I was talking about.
....
That is ONE of many many insane things that happened to me.
Also. That girl was from another state, and moved in with her sister about a year before I met her. Around the same time, one of my old hs friends started talking to me and hanging out nonstop because he was suicidal. He found out his wife was cheating on him. He lived 20 min from my new gf. Well weeks after dating this girl, I found out that the sister she was living with had a husband who left her for another woman... and it was my friend's wife!!! Moreover, I met that soulmate girl the DAY my narc ex finally blocked me on everything, at a bar I wasn't at in 4 years, and she said she only goes out to bars once every few months at most. As I walked in the bar, I told my friend I was going there with (who never goes to bars but made me go with him that night because I was so depressed, and also because his brother randomly had a show up there) "that girl looks kinda familiar but I know I never met her, I'm gonna get her number.
How in the hell does stuff like that happen? Is that a mental illness? I don't think stuff like that should ever happen.
That girl also told me her spirit guides leaves her marbles when she is on the right path in life, and the next day, I removed a closet shelf (I installed and remodeled closets), and 3 marbles fell on me! That was the only time I ever found anything on a shelf at work...
Also, one day, she took me to view a house she wanted to rent so we could move in together. Well, she left me, my narc ex came back and discarded me again, and the next girl I dated and got signs with too... she lived 2 houses away from the house we were going to rent... this is all in the Chicago area which is huge. She lived 25 min from my gf who almost had me move 2 doors away from her. I never met her until after our breakup and she was the most intense love connection I ever felt.
Also, a couple weeks after our breakup with soulmate girl, my narc ex hoovered me, I was still trying to get my soulmate ex back. Her name was Mori (weird fing name). Soon after I drove to my narc exes new apartment, and on the way I said, universe, which of thwse girls am I supposed to be with? Give me a sign and make it so specific I know for sure it's real!!! 5 min or less later I wound up behind a van that said "Mori" on the fing side of it!!!! Ive never seen that word on anything before or after. But I see it 5 minutes after I asked that question??? I mean..
Should things like that happen in real life???
Way more things happened than what I posted here even
ruclips.net/user/shortsImCQ-btp9yQ?feature=share
Ok, do you normally type this much? If not you might be manic. Haha
Woah how are you doing now
Me to I’m seeing repeat numbers everywhere to this just started happening to me at 32
Yes. 🥹 You've described my experience perfectly. Thank you for not making 'us' sound completely delusional. It is an incredibly isolating "disorder," so it's really nice to be 'heard' for once.