psychiatry and gnostic initiation

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I have been thinking a lot about the relationship between things like "mental disorder", psychiatry, creativity, The Matrix, Asperger's, gnostic initiation etc. Somewhat disappointingly I have found that most people on this forum seem to have quite different views from me on a lot of things.

I have been thinking of life as a big gnostic initiation path. You walk through life and you are given ordeals and tests that you have to pass in order to advance to the next level. The ones that don't pass a test remain at the same level.

Groupthink and bullying for example appear to me to be one of those things. Will you succumb to peer pressure and remain in the matrix? Or will you walk your own way, the way of the red pill?

I think that psychiatry might be one of these hurdles in the steeplechase that is the gnostic initiation of life.

A big chunk of chaff is separated from the wheat in psychiatry. That chaff will probably become wheat at a later point though.

You have the soma in Brave New World which I think is a great allegory for this, as is the whole book. And of course Neo in The Matrix is another great allegory of the gnostic initiate. The agents are those people who have not yet begun the gnostic initiation. They are the people who believe the psychiatrists, take the SSRIs, and go back to humanity and really try to fit in and have a good life among neurotypicals.

"This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill ? the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill ? you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember, all I'm offering is the truth ? nothing more."

It seems to me that while aspies have in them the seed of the initiate, which is manifest in the problems with fitting in, depression etc. most aspies have not yet woken up to realize who they are. The seed has not yet begun to grow into a plant. They are Neo before he gets the "the matrix has you" message on his screen. When you do get to that point you might be labelled schizophrenic or something else by the agents, I don't know. Then you might try to stamp it out, i.e. going back to the groupthink, taking your "medicine" etc. Or you might water the plant and make it grow, i.e. spiritual work.

These are just hypotheses and philosophizing.

Thoughts on this?

To me it's about judgment: evaluating, categorization, making everything fit its box. Reducing everything into little chunks, so it all becomes easier to chew.
I'm not clear, sorry. I don't know what is a gnostic initiation.

I think the red pill is about stopping judging others for what they are/ have, and instead judging only their actions. Because people are only the messengers of their actions.


Psychiatry is not perfect, but it's not psycho analysis. People want to believe, it's necessary. For most people, the mean to life is to live the mean. I mean the median.
I'm sorry, I'm not good expressing myself. But, what your post made me think is this: people should stop judging others, and start judging their own actions. If they want to believe that a depression, or whatever, is caused by an imbalance of chemicals of some kind, fine, but they shouldn't push their beliefs on those who don't know, or I mean, science is not perfect, and sometimes, beliefs are just wisdom in disguise.

'The Matrix' allegory fits the experience of some trans people, and was partially written by Lana Wachowski who is a trans woman.

Trans people have their "old life" and "new life", so "take the blue pill" may be allegorical for pursuing a "new life". When Morpheus says, 'Welcome to the real world', it may be allegorical for something a confused trans person may feel when coming to terms with who they are.

I see what you said there. Beautifully put. I have been thinking a lot about how EQ, extroversion and ego relate to enlightenment and initiation. I do think that "the path of least resistance" is probably not the path of enlightenment. I think evil and enlightenment are the same thing. Which is why people who suffer are being enlightened.

Very interesting. I have been thinking about how The Matrix can be applied to black people, aspies and many others. This is something I continue to think about. I have also wondered why men in my country are becoming more like women and the women more like men. I think that's very interesting in this context.

Why THANK YOU! For complimenting yourself!

Lol!

Uh, how is that myself? I complimented the way Tomatoes worded it. And he has a nice username as well...

[fumbles with glasses].

OMG!

Two different names!
My bad.

haha that was funny

Just to confirm, based on their IP addresses, tomato and Tomatoes are different members and are posting from different continents. As coincidences go, this one is pretty much out there.

That was funny,I thought it was the same person also till I reread it.I was thinking,wow,look at the ego on this one.