Participation and Self-Government

Prologue

From a young age my generation has witnessed the consistent and persistent degradation of our global environment with the potential for a permanent environmental catastrophe. Whether it be acid rain in the 70’s, loss of the ozone layer in the 80’s, the smog belt of the 90’s, or our current polar ice cap melt, the sensitive members of my generation have grown accustom to nothing less than the apparent total and inevitable collapse of our global environment to support life as it has existed on this planet since the last ice age. As a result, the next generation is serious about issues of pollution, unlimited consumption, production and distribution. Such a generation is willing to accept a wider sense of social responsibility than has been the norm in the post-war “me” generation unable to halt the current destruction. 

For this generation, the political belief in unlimited growth and technical progress does not provide a warm feeling of security but rather a general distrust of language that does not disclose an accurate picture of the world. If such is the case, the average audience member is well advised to develop a critical distrust of language that fails to disclose an accurate or inclusive picture of the world. This new seriousness takes the shape of a willingness to know about changes occurring in our environment as a result of overpopulation and methods of mass production. The climate of the planet has changed dramatically during our lifetime and some scientists are predicting a six degree global increase in temperature from the last century into the next. In the words of social advocate Paulo Freire, we must “be prepared to condemn the fabrication of illusions in which the unprepared become trapped and the weak destroyed.” Goals of acceptable pollution and exclusive forms of private development that are worthy of sustainable public standards and avoid environmental degradation are necessary to see beyond the “necessary illusions” created by the social domination of the greedy, arrogant, violent and the well-organized that represent a significant portion of the current status quo and arguments that exclusively rely on market rules in a semi-democratic capitalist world system.

I believe that a real ethic of respect for the dignity and autonomy of all people can best be realized in a public duty to organize responsibly around a communications, production and distribution network designed to address the well being of individuals and collectives.

My Two Cents

I think these ideas are the most reasonable explanation for the hearing of voices, maybe not the only explanation, but there is not much in the way of contradiction from an experiential point of view. Let me share the insights I have so far because of my struggles with schizophrenia:

There is a voice in my mind, who claims to be an all-seeing, all-knowing person, the same as in the bible and other religions, an ancient person, who sends people delusions and pretends to be many different people or Gods, or who you want him to be, or who you think he is, inside your mind, whether you think he is a spirit, an other-worlder, or just one more voice in your mind. He was always one of the voices that kept things bouncing in my head when I first suffered from this illness, helping me get to stability through discourse intervention, but it was not until everyone shut up and was quiet before I could ask if he was also a voice I could hear in my mind. The medication of the body or brain can reduce the susceptibility of delusional predispositions that he causes, or can get rid of the voices, like a placebo, particularly if the voices are causing you distress, but otherwise, history would suggest that people who hear voices are a natural phenomena, that in other historical times were thought of as being spiritually connected or given a great deal of religious respect.

He mostly appears to be a mental phenomena, i.e. he is invisible, but exists as a mind the same as ours, in psychic space or “inner space,” that exists independent of our physical world. I began hearing voices after learning to create a big mental voice in my mind i.e. talking with a loud voice inside my mind. (really bad idea) since later I developed hearing voices, but apparently he can talk back to us whether audibly or sub-consciously if he chooses. He can fade our perception of other voices up and down by lifting our “sub-conscious” (that is apparently millions of voices talking all at the same time) and this mental event allows for the sharing of sounds with some clarity of other specific mental voices in our mind. He has full knowledge of our mind, and he can hear our thoughts and send us images and emotions for a couple of seconds of time. He also appears to be able to motivate the movement of wind and the quirky digestion of our bodies, and he knows the future, the way we might know what will normally be on TV tomorrow night unless otherwise interrupted.

He is not like the other voices because he is basically a good person, but he is willing to deceive people for the fun of it; he calls us limited and inferior, and he often claims to be under pressure from people who live in mountains or other spy locations, i.e. other people who are also factually aware of his existence. Normally, he is not motivated to talk much but will do so if approached with respect and patience, as if he is standing beside you and already knows everything you do, but not what you are about to say.

Although many people may not take his existence into account when explaining the hearing of voices, every person who has heard of his reputation and fame knows that he is famous in almost every major religion in every different area of the earth, from a long time ago, but never at the same time, and given this situation, I tend to think it possible that he actually exists as a person, a man, caring for our bodies, and a mind, capable of sending mental sense perception, and a voice, able to talk in our minds. Many people believe Jesus was his son, or chosen representative person; so if you suffer from hearing voices, or think he is the cause of your trouble, ask why he picked only one man as his representative and no one else and then listen to the voice or person who responds. He is billions of years old, knows every language, and works as a perfect mental translation machine, and claims to even speak computer. He has respect for our autonomy and dignity but is more intelligent and older than we are, and tells us to fend for ourselves. He is like our father and can experience emotions with us, and he may go and ask you to apologize to someone or make amends for past behavior. He is also willing to promise people things they ask for if it accords with his domain of actual influence, i.e., mental phenomena, hearing voices, etc., rather than a new car, a thing over which he has no control.

Although there is some evidence that he exists and speaks in our minds, it is mostly testimonial, and there is no science that accounts for the natural phenomena of his presence so he mostly remains hidden from view. Whether this explanation matches the experiences of other voice hearers, only you will know, but I have met enough voice hearers to think that this explanation is the same. p.s. he is a serious person!!! and if the other voices are any indication of what he is like, I intend to stay on his good side. Whether this is real or not, I don't much care, but the rest of the voices are total b.s. and medications can help reduce some of the problems or symptoms associated with hearing voices.

God Exists

The deity, named God, exists as some type of mental event that appears to have no other location than inner mental space or psychic reality. He has natural influence over physical phenomena insofar as we can hear, see and feel his influence. He can signal us with wind and water, and other natural phenomena like signals from a ship and he can move our digestion, when he chooses, and help unconsciously regulate small body movements that maintain our health all the time. He can shape the clouds, roll thunder, and communicate to our mind through the sounds of falling water. If he chooses to reveal himself, he normally waits until you believe in his intelligence before he reveals himself in the world and in your mind or body.

His existence, as a person, who can move matter, is a fact and evidence of his existence is invisible within natural phenomena and mostly closed to measurements of space. However, he has full knowledge of our mind, can hear our thoughts and send us images and emotions. Physical reality appears to include levels of mental phenomena, rarely perceived, that explain his existence, that we may know more of when sleeping, dreaming, dying, or as part of an afterlife.

During our lifetime, he listens to prayers and makes promises to protect and support people through the influences at his command. He is the caretaker of our soul, the giver of our mind, and through the process of reincarnation he intends for us to learn and grow as people who are primarily a spiritual mental event held in place by his will through time. He can control our destination after physical death, heaven or hell, and he can control our placement during reincarnation, rich or poor. My understanding is that it takes three days to die and get reborn, although the mental experience may seem to expand time and last an entire psychological lifetime. The mind itself appears to be a unique spiritual phenomena that is the result of many previous lifetimes of emotional learning or spiritual grooming, that shares mental continuity and personality with experiences of the afterlife, and when joined with a body creates the resulting emotions, drives, etc. that have been tempered by experience and spiritual learning over a very great length of time.

As a mental event, our mind appears to be a warehouse of divine being that is shared in common with all people who inhabit the physical world. God gives us our mind, insofar as our mind is a part of his person and many of its functions are supplied to us by his will. If our mind wants something, God may be willing to match what we want to support our mental experience, he knows the entire content of our mind. This work the illusion that mental phenomena are a response to our will power but in fact we are more like a virtual reality machine, dependent on God for the appearance of phenomena dependent on his participation.