I would like to share a story of a friend of mine : )

Yeah, I don't have his notes with me right now but when he was about 22 years old, he was feeling stress from having dropped out of college (Bible school) and working away from family and friends. He got angry with his bosses and quit. One day it all seemed to culminate, the good and the bad seemed to be at war with each other in his mind and he was unable to sleep for three days straight. There were voices and he could see in writing what the voices were saying. He looked in the mirror and the figure in the mirror became very angry and suddenly began to arguing with him. He became engulfed in flames that would not go out. He began to see only tunnel vision because of the flames and so he put his head down so the blood would rush to his head but that did not do any good. Slowly the flames retreated but they were always present. This went on for days. He couldn't eat but his roommate insisted that he eat something so he ate some bites of food. After three days, he slept a very fitful sleep for like an hour or so. He thought the world was coming to an end and was afraid to go outside. Eventually he got the courage to go outside. Nothing happened so he kept walking hallucinating as he went. There were things like spiders in his mind and there was sort of a control panel that he was seeing. There were also several personalities that he would converse with. Leading up to this event, he had been doing various "signs and wonders" including various prophetic signs which had aggravated his immediate boss. The "miracles" continued but he was beginning to wonder whether it was such a good thing or not. At times, there were very loud noises like explosions. Eventually, his roommate consulted with some people at the church what they should do so they did what all "good people" do. They tricked him. First they asked him some questions and at the time, he was saying all kinds of irrational things. So they said that they were going to take him to somewhere nice. He was hurting for some affection so he gladly agreed but when they arrived at the "nice place" it was a hospital and they said that he had to go in to see the doctor. He was very angry but he complied. The doctor asked him some questions and looked into his dilating pupils as he told the doctor all kinds of crazy stories. The church people gave him an ultimatum after that, either be treated by the doctor or go home. My friend said that is not a choice (because going home was the only reasonable choice). It took something like five full years for him to recover completely from that experience and he did it all on his own. He didn't even know what it was until he found himself in England in the house of a friend some years later watching a documentary about szs and he could hardly believe what he was seeing and he recognized that is what had happened to him. By that time he had made considerable progress but he still kept it all a secret to this day.

My friend also had several personalities that he would converse with. The main ones were "Moses" and "Paul". There were also some other personalities with biblical names. I thought it interesting that January Schofield's imaginary friends were days of the week and such with numbers. I can't help but thinking that if she was named something like Becky instead of January, the names would have been different. The good thing is that at least people affected by sz can relate to each other.

My friend insists that it is not without a reason that his sz went away. It wasn't until he stopped believing in it that it went away. He sort of like said, God forgive me if I am doing something wrong but I am going to try not believing in it because every time I do, it goes away. He continued this practice and it kept going away. After five years, he was able to achieve considerably more confidence (that it would not return as before).

I didn't mean to imply that God had anything to do with it as such but it is one's belief in relation to reality. God likely has more to do with it that we realize but the issue is more of the difference between truth and error. With truth and reality being "God" while error and illusion is the evil.

Daleri,

   Spiritual realm, and the divine connection I was talking, about are one and the same.  Think about it, Jesus Christ himself was in the desert for 40 days and 40 night with no food, no water, and barely any sleep.  Isn't this exactly what happens to us during our schiz. episode?  We don't eat, sleep, or drink.  Now Jesus spoke directly to God, and he and spoke with the devil.  My point is why would Jesus himself deliberately put himself through a kind of forced schiz. episode?  The answer I think, is that He had to strip away the body's earthly necessities (food, water, sleep), in order to make that connection.  In heaven, or hell, we don't need the things that our bodies depended on here on earth.  I think during our worst schiz. moment, we are being shown both sides of the coin.  I've always said, "God, when you come back and ya' need someone to kick a little evil butt, I'm your girl."  But how would I know the difference, if I didn't see and hear BOTH!  And now I know. Oh yea, how is it that every single person who's gone completely schiz., have the SAME experiences.  We all have one thing in common, God, or good and evil.  We're not crazy, we're just seeing and hearing what others cannot.  

Yeah, I never really looked at it like that. You do have a point but we are not necessarily better off by "virtue" of the experience because we *all* still have to confess the truth which is to acknowledge that Yeshua (Jesus/God) came in the flesh, together with the rest of the story. We still have to say and do all of the right things. None of us are exempt from "entering in through the door".

Ya' know Daleri, I don't think it's about being "better off", it's about knowing the truth, and then accepting it.

I should also add that it is one thing to have power and control in the Spirit and it is another thing to be controlled by the spirit realm. With szs it is often more the later than the former and that is where the problem is. People affected by sz do see evil, for example, but they don't have to.

Dave,

 

The people that guided you along the way, that was God's way of helping you.  Always listen and pay attention to those people you come into contact with in your life, you just might learn a few things you never knew.