Let's continue to consider for one minute the possibility that Lekhraj Kirpalani *also* had some kind of mental illness, possibly induced or exacerbated by a number of known influences in his life;
I write, "also" because I am not trying to deny any additional mysteriously spiritualistic, hypnagogic or psychic element to his cult ... I just strongly doubt it is "God" doing it as they claim to believe, it's just considering where there is any chance that,
One could argue that aside from any metaphysically claims they might make, the BKs have essentially learnt how to
For Lekhraj Kirpalani, I'd tend to skip 'epilepsy', although it's certainly been known amongst followers ... and treated as spirit possession (unless, of course, it was "spirit possession").
The last category they use is "Mania", a mood disorder and perhaps it is the area we should be exploring?
The paper goes on to examine connection between the symptoms and brain areas.
Although mental health professions rightly discourage "remote diagnosis", historical diagnoses of other religious figures have been suggested by other, e.g. 'The Role of Psychotic Disorders in Religious History Considered'
One statement that I have to question is ...
That's a difficult one from a religious point of view as we would either have to accept or refute the ecstatic experiences of nearly every historical saint or prophet who did not find their way to a psychiatric ward ... mainly because psychiatric wards did not exist when they did.
I tend to think we just cannot and do not *know* in every such ... however, I suspect there is some ground to accept many such figures were just suffering some kind of imbalance.
- the expensive "initiation" into some kind of siddhi by the saddhu he met in Bengal, after which his life changed,
the traumatic effect of WWII and the collapses of his beloved British ruling class in India and, perhaps,
some kind of mid-life crisis that saw him give up his wife and career to marry a teenage relative, while setting himself up as Krishna to a harem of young women as his gopi worshippers.
I write, "also" because I am not trying to deny any additional mysteriously spiritualistic, hypnagogic or psychic element to his cult ... I just strongly doubt it is "God" doing it as they claim to believe, it's just considering where there is any chance that,
- a) he *also* suffered from some kind of mental illness, and
b) BKism is some kind of ritualised mental illnesses, a religion made out of and made to mask his mental illness, and their collective "folie".
One could argue that aside from any metaphysically claims they might make, the BKs have essentially learnt how to
- a) induce a kind of hyper-religious mania
b) learnt how to manipulate and exploit individuals under said hyper-religious mania ... the "Intoxication Phase" or "Day's of [Spiritual] Childhood", as they euphemistically call it.
I believe that there are other indicators the BKs have dressed up in their typically hagiographic habit; e.g. his tendency to "go beyond" or "go into silence". This is something reported by non-BKs around him ... that even in the middle of company or a conversation, he would "disappear" into silence and disconnect from everyone around him. Perhaps, with this, the "two engines in one body" theory to his vigor related to a hyper-manic tendency? I don't *know* but I could not exclude it. Perhaps the repetitiveness and disordered of his 'stream of consciousness' ramblings the BKs have formalised into "Murli" scriptures suggest another obsessive symptom (e.g. how many times does one *really* need to told "Krishna is not God"? I defy the BKs to hand them unedited to a real philosopher or poet and for them to find them "deep" or inspired).
And lastly, perhaps most of all, the BKs defensiveness of him in the past, and even until this date. Even in the early history, he appears to play a 'backroom' role hiding from public interaction, with Om Radhe standing in for him as his proxy.
Was this for the sake of community "politics", or was it because he was "down" or "out in space"?
If one believes in spiritualism ... is the current mentality of BapDada an expression of him? Again, an open question.
I throw this out as a start for discussion, as not just useful for examing Lekhraj Kirpalani but also referring to the "manias" of neophyte BKs ... encouraged manias which often cause much damage to their familial relationships and careers. Is there something in the BK collective consciousness which triggers such disorders. I am not saying "Lekhraj Kirpalani was mad". He was not, he was clearly highly functional in other areas or at others times ... but did he suffer, from time to time, from traumatic or episodic symptoms which they lacked the insight to recognised and the "Hinduism" of his level accommodated as being "divine"?
From: 'The neurobiological basis of hyper-religiosity'. Author: Daniëlle Bouman of the Cognitive Neuroscience Department Psychology, Tilburg University. Note carefully the last, emphasised line.
Hyper-religiosity is an excessive or extreme form of religiosity. In this paper, hyper-religiosity is considered a psychopathological form of extreme religiosity, which is mainly found in patients with a psychological or psychiatric disorder.
The symptoms vary greatly among patients, with some patients experiencing only one of the symptoms while others experience a multitude of symptoms. The symptoms can also vary in degree of severity. Some symptoms of hyper-religiosity are visual and/or auditory hallucinations of God or other religious figures, feelings of being one with the world around you and/or God, intense emotions of God’s presence, and the conviction that you are chosen by God or another religious figure to carry out a certain task.
What is striking about these symptoms is that the focus is not on central aspects of religion, like taking care of others, but on very specific, exaggerated tasks, emotions or perceptions.
Admiting that "research done on hyper-religiosity is very scarce", the author looks at four categories; obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia, temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), and mania.
Relating to OCD the author includes; scrupulosity or religious obsessions and compulsions. Relating to schizophrenia, they highlight religious delusions and hallucinations including;
- Persecutory delusions,
Grandiose delusions, and
Belittlement delusions.
The manual on such illness (DSM-IV-TR 2000) describes five subtypes of schizophrenia;
- the paranoid type characterized by one or more delusions or frequent auditory hallucinations
the disorganized type has flat affect, chaotic behaviour, and incoherent speech,
the catatonic type is characterized by psychomotor symptoms, and extreme negativism, muteness or echolalia,
the undifferentiated type has symptoms of schizophrenia, but does not match any of the aforementioned types, and
the residual type is a less severe expression of schizophrenia with milder symptoms.
For Lekhraj Kirpalani, I'd tend to skip 'epilepsy', although it's certainly been known amongst followers ... and treated as spirit possession (unless, of course, it was "spirit possession").
The last category they use is "Mania", a mood disorder and perhaps it is the area we should be exploring?
Manic [or bipolar] hyperreligiosity typically generally relates to people thinking they are Jesus, GOD, or a prophet. An unswerving conviction that they have a connection to some mystical source of knowledge, this almost always results from or in ecstasy or elevated mood. It seems like your friend is missing the elevated mood part, but might be suffering from some kind of psychosis.
A manic episode is a mood episode in which episodes of depression and mania alternate ... a period in time with a constant abnormal ... elevated mood [during which], three or more of the following symptoms are present: grandiosity and/or high self-esteem, less need for sleep, more talkative, racing thoughts ... more goal-directed activity ... and/or involvement in pleasurable activities with negative consequences ... not the consequence of drug use or illness.
The paper goes on to examine connection between the symptoms and brain areas.
Although mental health professions rightly discourage "remote diagnosis", historical diagnoses of other religious figures have been suggested by other, e.g. 'The Role of Psychotic Disorders in Religious History Considered'
Abstract
The authors have analyzed the religious figures Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and St. Paul from a behavioral, neurologic, and neuropsychiatric perspective to determine whether new insights can be achieved about the nature of their revelations. Analysis reveals that these individuals had experiences that resemble those now defined as psychotic symptoms, suggesting that their experiences may have been manifestations of primary or mood disorder-associated psychotic disorders.
These findings support the possibility that persons with primary and mood disorder-associated psychotic symptoms have had a monumental influence on the shaping of Western civilization. It is hoped that these findings will translate into increased compassion and understanding for persons living with mental illnes
Patients with religious delusions reported a significantly higher religiosity, more conviction about their delusions and reported that they were more confident about the external origin of their hallucinations (e.g. God, Satan) as opposed to an internal origin. These observations are very similar to hyper-religiosity, since these patients showed higher religiosity in general, more conviction about the religious content of their delusion and often thought their hallucinations originated from God or another religious figure. Since people with religious delusions differ in these characteristics from people with non-religious delusions, it seems that these patients have characteristics of hyper-religiosity.
One statement that I have to question is ...
There are no reported cases of individuals without a psychiatric or neurological disorder that suffer from hyper-religiosity. The question therefore remains if hyper-religiosity is an extreme form of normal religiosity or if it should be considered as an expression of psychopathology that has nothing to do with the regular expressions of religion.
That's a difficult one from a religious point of view as we would either have to accept or refute the ecstatic experiences of nearly every historical saint or prophet who did not find their way to a psychiatric ward ... mainly because psychiatric wards did not exist when they did.
I tend to think we just cannot and do not *know* in every such ... however, I suspect there is some ground to accept many such figures were just suffering some kind of imbalance.