is schizophrenia a pre-mystical state ?

Abstract

Schizophrenia is the last frontier of science. The
etiology and treatment of schizophrenia is the holy grail of
modern psychiatry. It calls for a comprehensive theory of man.
The association between insanity and mystical states has a long
history. The biographies of saints from different traditions
indicate that they went through a phase of psychosis, from which
they emerged more than "normal". Shamans in different cultures
use hallucinogens in their training to become healers.

Psychedelics given to normal volunteers produced a brief
mystical experience in which they experienced a loss of
ego-boundaries without becoming psychotic. Schizophrenics come to
the very edge, but are unable to transcend their ego. Their
resistance to ego-disintegration may be the cause of their
symptoms. It is empowering to conceptualize schizophrenia as a
pre-mystical state(PMS). Entheogens may have therapeutic
potential in schizophrenia if used under controlled
settings.

Key Words: SCHIZOPHRENIA, SHAMANISM,
ENTHEOGENS, MYSTICS, and PSYCHOSIS.

Introduction

The cause of schizophrenia is not known. In
fact the etiology and treatment of schizophrenia is the holy
grail of modern psychiatry. The onset of schizophrenia is often
associated with profound alternations of subjective experience
that may modify the patient"s world-view in the ontological sense
and motivate a quest for metaphysical meaning that cannot be
adequately addressed in the medical model terms(1). Guided by
phenomenological considerations, it has been recently proposed
that alterations of self-awareness constitute the phenotypic core
of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders(2).

The modern concept of Schizophrenia is less than a
century old (1911 – E.Bleuler)(3). The dopamine hypothesis
of Schizophrenia, the current dominant paradigm, looks
increasingly untenable. Currently available anti-psychotic drugs
treat the positive symptoms of the disorder without much impact
on the cognitive and negative symptoms, which are more enduring.
Infact the cognitive deficits may be the core defect in
Schizophrenia. Moreover the term Schizophrenia, with the
associated stigma attached to it, has not furthered our
understanding of the disorder. Currently available treatments
have a high non-compliance rate, probably related to its lack of
efficacy and poor side effect profile. It can be as high has 50%.
It is interesting to note that substance abuse in Schizophrenia
can be as high as 50% in some samples, with some schizophrenics
reporting alleviation of symptoms.

The symptoms of Schizophrenia can be conceptualized
psycho- dynamically as due to loss of ego-boundaries. Thus the
patient is unable to distinguish between self and object, inside
and outside and illusion and reality. Loss of ego or ego-death
followed by rebirth is precisely what Mystics and Shamans
describe in their writings. It seems there is a paradox here.
Whereas Mystics and Shamans are able to transcend to a new level
of integration, the schizophrenics are not able to. In Laing"s
metaphor: whereas the mystics learn to swim, the schizophrenics
drown. The variables here could be: careful preparation, the
context and a highly supportive setting. The altered state of
consciousness (ASC) induced by non-drug methods in mystics and by
hallucinogens in shamans produces mystical states. The cognitive
change (vision) due to the mystical state may be therapeutic in
that it affords the psychotic a new grip on "reality" albeit at a
higher level.

Shamanism

A shaman is a religious or ritual specialist, man or
woman, believed capable of communicating directly with spirit
powers, often while in ecstatic states. The name originated among
tribal groups of Siberia, where a Shamanistic religion dominates,
but Shamanic features are prevalent in so many geographically
widespread pre-literate societies that,

for anthropologists, the term Shamanism has come to
refer to a general religious phenomenon. A Shaman is sometimes
called a medicine man among American Indian groups, a witch
doctor among various African people and a Tantric or Mantravadi
in India.

A Shaman is said to be chosen by the spirits selected
from among persons of an introverted and intuitive nature, who
are given to day-dreaming and visionary experiences. Sometimes a
Shaman is marked for the vocation by repeated illnesses or mental
disturbance – what a modern psychiatrist would label as a
psychotic episode.

The person believed chosen for this calling must undergo
an initiatory ordeal, which includes an ecstatic temporary loss
of consciousness that symbolizes death and resurrection. He is
taken away to a solitary place by elder Shamans and instructed in
the myths, rituals and songs of the community. He is taught to
identify and use herbs, which include hallucinogenic plants. As a
person who has gone through an inner journey of transformation
and came back to this world, he can guide patients struggling
with a similar crisis.