Psychologist Says that God Speaking to You Doesn’t Mean You’re Crazy
Some think that hearing God means that you’ve experienced a miracle. Others think that it means you need to see a doctor immediately. An Psychological Anthropologist, writing for CNN, says that it could be one or the other, neither or both. The intriguing piece discusses the history of such revelations among those who speak regularly to God. It’s an interesting article, one that we thought might be worth a read.
Editor’s Note: Tanya Marie (“T.M.”) Luhrmann is a psychological anthropologist and the Watkins University professor in the department of anthropology at Stanford University in Stanford, California. She is the author of “When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God.”
By T.M. Luhrmann, Special to CNN
(CNN)—In the Bible, God spoke directly to Abraham. He spoke directly to Moses. He spoke directly to Job. But to your neighbor down the street?
Most people reading the ancient scriptures understand these accounts of hearing God’s voice as miracles that really did happen but no longer take place today, or maybe as folkloric flourishes to ancient stories. Even Christians who believe that miracles can be an everyday affair can hesitate when someone tells them they heard God speak audibly. There’s an old joke: When you talk to God, we call it prayer, but when God talks to you, we call it schizophrenia.
Except that usually it’s not.
Hearing a voice when alone, or seeing something no one else can see, is pretty common. At least one in 10 people will say they’ve had such an experience if you ask them bluntly. About four in 10 say they have unusual perceptual experiences between sleep and awareness if you interview them about their sleeping habits.
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And if you ask them in a way that allows them to admit they made a mistake, the rate climbs even higher. By contrast, schizophrenia, the most debilitating of all mental disorders, is pretty rare. Only about one in 100 people can be diagnosed with thedisorder.
Moreover, the patterns are quite distinct. People with schizophrenia who hear voices hear them frequently. They often hear them throughout the day, sometimes like a rain of sound, or a relentless hammer. They hear not only sentences, but paragraphs: words upon words upon words. What the voices say is horrid—insults, sneers and contemptuous jibes. “Dirty. You’re dirty.” “Stupid s**t.” “You should’ve gone under the bus, not into it.”
27 Responses to Psychologist Says that God Speaking to You Doesn’t Mean You’re Crazy
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When you pray to a “god”, you a more than likely brainwashed. When you hear the voice of a “god”, you probably have done the exact thing that Dr. Sacks did.
When is ‘god’ gonna start ‘talking’ to caucasoids, and tell them to stop their racism, foolishness, killng of Black men, women and children here in racist amerikkka?
When is ‘god’ gonna start ‘talking’ to caucasoids, and tell them to stop starting wars, killing innocent non-white children in Afghan, Iraq, and Libya, blowing up kids and buildings under the guise of xtianity and demon-cracy?
When is this ‘god’ gonna start ‘talking’ to caucasoids to tell them to get the fvck outta Afrika, and stop usurping, killing, maiming, spreading aids, and other dis-eases for this continent’s raw materials, oil, gold and silver?
AIN’T NO DA*MN ‘god’ AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’S GONNA TAKE TO WAKE YOU NEGROID’S MINDS UP TO THIS FABLE!!!
By the way…you negroids are CRAZY beLIEving in this bullshyt!
People who hear God scare me. Suppose God tells them to blow up an abortion clinic?
Then that’s not God,murder is a sin and he will not use his daughter or son to carry out an act that he despise. That is bias and blasphemy in it self. To say something as such shows you do not know god or of his ways.
Y’all better realize that ‘god’ is the devil!!!
When you negroids ‘hear his/her voice’, no wonder ALL of this wickedness and evil is going on around the world, today, because that “voice” is the “voice” of the devil!!!
KEEP BElieVING IN THAT XTIANITY MESS because that ‘devil-god’ has messed up your minds!!!
Ukuthula!
U need to have a life instead of always posting here with your garbage.
I have a beautiful healthy life, and I stay healthy and clean because I throw away ‘garbage’ like you!
I’M CLEANING OUT THE “GARBAGE” TODAY 1/1/13!
HAPPY ‘GARBAGE’ DAY!!!
God does not speak to anyone other than thru his word the bible these things are associated wih Demons nothing else
ZULU???
Feed a people paintchips and hip hop.you may hear GOD.
Clearly, there are a lot of sleeping folk…. Looking in the outside for joy, truth, love, and harmony will definitely keep you in opposition of yourSelf. The Word IS God God IS the creator. Have you created anything lately? Any thoughts, ideas, beings, words, bonds, life…OR how those posts?
Be aware of your thoughts, your intentions—your creations.
God speaks to those who have an ear to hear… Personally it baffles me how someone can look into the night sky, see all the stars, galaxies and planets and not see and hear God. However the Bible does say many will deny God…
Amen, and Amen.
GOD BLESS YOUR WONDERING SOULS,
God spoke to me twice in my lifetime, and I know I am not crazy.
wuts intresting bout all this iz there wuz a studee that back in those dayz the people were illiterate . if you hear then you may visualize in your sleep wuts in their mind. god bless 4 you.
GOD is everywhere? i would like 2 know what kind of strange people have been trying to ruin my relationship with a quiet and peaceful life. Did any scriptures mention to cook clean and try to stay sane rearing your children while unleashing footnotes,quotes,
and in season loonies in and around the toilet paper and your
behind.