One of the comments on my Hereditary Witches post prompted me to ask this question. Do you believe psychic ability and mental illness has a link? Can one be caused by the other? I am really not sure, so I look at my own family to help me answer my question.
My mother is the first person in my family I've known to have a mental illness. Before I was born she was very suicidal. She has a 3 inch thick (Not even joking here) folder full of her hospital visits and what the doctors diagnosed for her. There are too many diagnosis to remember, but the one I do remember is schizophrenia.
Despite the doctors diagnosis, I doubt my mother is schizophrenic. I've never known her to hallucinate or have delusions. She does go through periods of depression, so I've no doubt some kind of mental disorder is at play here. Regardless of what she has, I know my mother isn't a medium. She has an abnormally high level of focus, and I believe she's lucid dreamed before, but that's about it as far as ESP.
My husband is the second person in my life with a mental illness (Bipolar disorder). And I do know he is a very good psychic. When he was healthy he had such an extremely rare gift for reading people. In his case however, when his mental illness got worse his ability to read people declined as did his spiritual connection. That is because he no longer has the focus required to listen to the spirits. He's often told me he still hears murmurs, but its like someone talking with their hand covering their mouth. They are there, you just can't understand.
So I have two examples. One I know is a psychic but loses his gift, the other no gift but a long list of mental disease. So that leads me to believe that it depends on the individual. I do think mental illness can be linked with psychic ability. That's not to say that psychic ability is a sham and only caused by delusions. Perhaps because the person has something different in their brain its easier to accept a connection with the spirit world. For others maybe it makes it harder.
What do you think? Are there any examples you can think of that show a connection?
My mother is the first person in my family I've known to have a mental illness. Before I was born she was very suicidal. She has a 3 inch thick (Not even joking here) folder full of her hospital visits and what the doctors diagnosed for her. There are too many diagnosis to remember, but the one I do remember is schizophrenia.
Despite the doctors diagnosis, I doubt my mother is schizophrenic. I've never known her to hallucinate or have delusions. She does go through periods of depression, so I've no doubt some kind of mental disorder is at play here. Regardless of what she has, I know my mother isn't a medium. She has an abnormally high level of focus, and I believe she's lucid dreamed before, but that's about it as far as ESP.
My husband is the second person in my life with a mental illness (Bipolar disorder). And I do know he is a very good psychic. When he was healthy he had such an extremely rare gift for reading people. In his case however, when his mental illness got worse his ability to read people declined as did his spiritual connection. That is because he no longer has the focus required to listen to the spirits. He's often told me he still hears murmurs, but its like someone talking with their hand covering their mouth. They are there, you just can't understand.
So I have two examples. One I know is a psychic but loses his gift, the other no gift but a long list of mental disease. So that leads me to believe that it depends on the individual. I do think mental illness can be linked with psychic ability. That's not to say that psychic ability is a sham and only caused by delusions. Perhaps because the person has something different in their brain its easier to accept a connection with the spirit world. For others maybe it makes it harder.
What do you think? Are there any examples you can think of that show a connection?
